Belleza [Sera]

[Bianca Moreno]

January 5th

When Bianca had taken her family's advice and jumped into becoming a mercenary, this was not what she'd expected to spend her first few days as one doing. After all, the point had been to go out into the wilderness and explore the great unknown, not to prowl the streets in search of little scurrying aquatic pokemon who had decided to launch a raid on her home town. The thing was, even if it wasn't quite the epic heroics written in the pages of story books, Bianca actually felt very happy about doing it. She was helping out her community in a way she hadn't been able to before, and there was something very satisfying about that.

Bianca had spent the last couple of days trying her best to defend her neighbourhood, along with assisting with a couple of quick repair jobs, but now she was making a small foray further into the city, away from her home. Her two starter pokemon were at her side as she walked through town, scouting for raiders. Or rather, one, Bela the sneasel, was at her heels, while the other, Rosa the spritzee, was on her shoulder. Both were keeping their eyes out for anything that looked like an invader, ready to trounce them like they had the previous three they'd come across during the week.

Unfortunately, they didn't see so much as a hint of one of the familiar carapaces. No ominous clicking of claws or women racing through the town screaming bloody murder while being chased by them, either. Nope. The streets were surprisingly empty. Maybe it was poor luck, or maybe the bolder of the little army had already been picked off by other mercenaries and only the stealthy ones were left. Still, there was supposedly some big monster of an armaldo hanging around, too, and she couldn't see that being too stealthy.

Of course, if they stumbled across such a creature, Bianca was going to be the next woman screaming and running for her life, but something like that chasing her would look a lot less ridiculous. After all, armaldo were huge. You couldn't just walk up and kick something like that in the face. You needed backup. And screaming at the top of her lungs was a perfectly reasonable way to summon backup.

Right now, though, Bianca just wanted to see if she could find anything. She was also trying to ignore that little nagging thought in her mind that today was a nice day and this was an absolutely perfect time for an afternoon cat nap. She had important mercenary work to do. She could nap when the city was safe. So there.

Her resolve was weakened somewhat when her and her two pokemon entourage came across one of the large trees in town, one that looked absolutely lovely for napping under. However, it also gave her an absolutely wonderful idea. She approached the tree, came to a stop under it, and stared up at the branches. A broad grin came to her features and she let a giggle escape her. Oh, yes, this was a wonderful idea indeed.

The fact that her pokemon were giving her that 'you're a crazy person' stare was politely ignored entirely as she glanced from Rosa to Bela and gave an excited clap of her hands. "Okay! Who wants to climb a tree?" she said cheerily.

In an instant, the accusation of insanity on Bela's face changed to a look of gleeful mania, and she let out a high-pitched, "Snea!" before unsheathing her claws and running over to launch herself at the tree trunk with a flying leap. Her claws sunk easily into the bark and she rapidly went about scaling the behemoth; she was born to climb trees. Rosa, a bit less enthusiastic, started to flap her little wings and took off to land on one of the lower branches and look down at her trainer as if to say 'am I doing this right?' while Bela continued to scurry up the trunk.

Bianca clapped again. "Bueno!" she cheered at her pokemon. She then eyed a different low branch than the one Rosa was perched on, and started to back up. Her gaze locked on her target, expression suddenly deadly serious, she worked to line herself up perfectly for what she was about to do. Then, she reached back to tighten the knot that held her bandana in place; nothing that Mi-aro had ever thrown at her had parted her with it, but better safe than sorry.

Then, she charged, running toward the branch and leaping in the air to grab it with both hands. Muscles in her arms and shoulders flexed as she pulled herself up onto it, and she let out a little giggle and bright grin. It was as natural as breathing, but she couldn't help the small feeling of triumph all the same, especially since it'd been a bit too long for her liking since she'd climbed something. However, she was on a mission right now, and she kept climbing until she'd reached about half-way up and found a nice, sturdy branch to sit on.

It wasn't long before Bela pulled herself onto the branch as well, and the sneasel settled next to her trainer with a satisfied smile. Rosa fluttered up and perched on Bela's other side, not wanting to be left out. Bianca reached out to give each of them a gentle pat on the head, then gave a content sigh as she stared out at the city. "Some view, huh girls?" she commented to them, "Should be pretty easy to see any of those bugs coming from up here."

It would be pretty easy to spot pretty much anything that could potentially catch her fancy from up here, really. And Bianca, try as she might, really was notoriously easily distracted...

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

Bianca now had a fantastic view of everything below her, but that didn't mean she'd see anything coming. She might hear it, though, and shortly after settling onto her branch, she'd hear a voice- above her?

"Fucking, snaggy, branches," Sera was complaining to herself. Clearly this tree was extra grabby entirely intentionally, and therefore it was its fault for being a dick; no blame fell upon her for failing to think to take off her cape before climbing a tree.

Even then, she supposed it could be worse. It had snagged twice- or was it three times?- on the way up, and this was the first time so far on the way down, and she'd almost made it all the way-...down? Sera suddenly found herself looking down at a woman a few branches below her. She may not have always been the most observant person, but she was pretty sure there weren't any voluptuous young women in this tree when she'd headed up it.. "..."

Right. Well, no sense being rude. "..Sup." A thought brought a little smirk to her lips, which turned into a bit of a grin as she spoke. "You come here often~?"

[background image by Maevrim]

[Bianca Moreno]

The sounds of someone cussing out the tree were indeed a bit hard to miss, and even if Bianca had missed it, which she hadn't, Bela's sharper hearing picked it out particularly well. The sneasel's feathered ear gave a twitch and she stared up into the branches curiously, her red eyes flickering slightly. The others followed suit, and the person looking down at them soon had a sneasel, spritzee, and woman staring right back up at her, Bianca in particular wearing a mildly surprised expression.

This was certainly a new one for her; when she climbed trees, she didn't tend to find cute girls in them. And even though the other woman had a clearer view of Bianca than Bianca did of her with their current position relative to each other--it indeed would be quite the view this stranger had, too, given the plunging neckline of her own attire, but it'd be more fun to pretend to be oblivious to that--the word 'cute' certainly seemed like the right one. Her lips quirked into a smirk of their own at the greeting, coupled with a small chuckle at the quip that followed it.

"Oh, I've been around once or twice," Bianca replied, her own smirk starting to become a grin as well. That statement was somewhere between an extreme understatement and an outright blatant lie, as Bianca had climbed every tree in town enough that jokes about her doing so blindfolded had cropped up. She also may have actually tried that. Once. When she was sixteen and stupid...And another time when she was in her twenties and had had a few too many sips of poiup wine. "I like the view," she added, as she continued to look up at the other woman rather than out at the city.

Bianca glanced at Bela and nudged her slightly, who took the hint and nudged Rosa in turn. The two pokemon shifted further down the branch, giving their trainer the room to slide away from the trunk and give this cute stranger the opportunity to climb down and sit next to her if she so desired. "You?" she inquired casually as she looked back up, smirking again.

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

Sera looked away and closed her eyes, shrugging non-chalantly. "Hmh. I've seen better." Her tone was rather vague, making it unclear whether she'd picked up on the woman's double entendre or was herself still commenting about city view. All the same, after a few moments of this pose held, her eyes slitted open and shifted sideways to focus on her. A small smirk broke out. "I suppose it's not too bad, though." Again, vague. Exactly how Sera liked it.

"Lady Seraphina, by the way. Though I suppose a fellow patron of the tree may call me Sera."

[background image by Maevrim]

[Bianca Moreno]

Bela, who had picked up what her trainer was trying to do immediately--they may not have been companions long, but the sneasel could sense a double entendre a mile away--gave a quiet sympathy wince at the younger, pink-haired woman's initial response. Oh, that was a knife to the ego right there, surely, ambiguous tone or no. Even if taken for its innocent meaning, she was still dismissing a nice view of the city that Bianca admired. To her surprise, though, Bianca didn't so much as have her smirk waver, keeping that confident, mildly amused look that was only reinforced by the follow-up statement.

Then came the introduction, and, outwardly, Bianca's reaction was her smirk becoming a grin. Inwardly, the part of Bianca's brain that was perpetually five years old started shrieking with utter delight at this cutie calling herself Lady Seraphina. Even the humour in the phrase 'fellow patron of the tree' couldn't distract her from the hyperactive child in her brain, and the next course of action seemed obvious. She was in the presence of a lady, and so she would treat her with the proper amount of chivalry.

True, Bianca often fancied herself more the swashbuckling adventurer than the chivalrous gentlewoman--Was gentlewoman even a word? Well, if it wasn't before, it was now, so there--but she still felt she knew how to speak to a lady.

Bianca's next words were smooth as silk, and she infused them with a faint hint of a Spanish accent, just barely enough to be noticeable to a listener. "I'm honoured, milady. It's a pleasure." Her hand found her hair in an old habit of hers, and she idly toyed with a silky, black strand as she continued, "My name is Bianca, but a lady such as yourself may call me whatever you like." She didn't have even a hint of a teasing tone, speaking as if she meant every single archaic word that flowed from her lips, leaving it unclear from the outside as to whether she'd taken it that seriously or if she were simply that good at playing along. Exactly how she liked it.

However, Bianca wasn't going to just forget her very patient companions, and she gestured at the sneasel and spritzee nearby. "And my dear friends here are Bela, and Rosa." She paused very slightly in between the names, allowing each to respond in their own way.

"<Charmed,>" Bela said simply with a wave of a paw.

"<Hello,>" Rosa twittered softly.

Neither felt the need for a particularly flowery introduction, not the least because this was a human. Anything wordy tended to be lost on humans, and they currently had no reason to believe that 'her ladyship' here was any different in that regard. They'd already resigned themselves to acting as something of a peanut gallery during this bizarre bit of human interaction, though they appreciated the fact that Bianca was making an attempt to include them.

[Sera Harmonia]

~ SERAPHINA ~

Oh, Sera was eating this up. This was the kind of treatment she deserved, and she was not tossing it away without good reason. "A pleasure indeed," she replied, though not explicitly saying the pleasure was her own. With a wink, she added, "And you are quite charming yourself, Mistress Bela~"

Her attention returned then to Bianca. "If I might inquire, what does one such as yourself do when not climbing trees~?" Wait, why was Sera in the tree again? ...Anorith horde? What Anorith horde?

[background image by Maevrim]