#↪ gym leader margourette.

[croesow]

Well, she had been about to congratulate Galar on their win, but it seems one half of their team is a little preoccupied at the moment.

...Maybe she could catch them in the morning, when everyone had had a chance to sleep and calm down from the excitement of tonight. Or maybe she’d find Leon on her way back to the room and could ask him to share her congratulations with his teammate.

Either way would be preferable to interrupting... whatever this was.

[croesow-moving]

anyway, now that my appeal is written for @wallace-cup, let me announce that those events were also the sole inspiration behind margourette’s final ballet: a retelling of her iconic role in swanna lake.

rather than fight for the love of a prince who hunts beautiful pokemon for sport, odette chooses to remain in her beautiful swanna form, surrounded by the rest of her maidens. odile, meanwhile, is disgusted by the power-hungry actions of her father and argues with him, eventually tricking him into bringing the same swanna transformation curse down upon his only daughter.

odile flees her father’s home before he has a chance to undo his mistake, and she joins the lake of tears to be with odette and the maidens. joined not only by their shared curse, but by their disdain for the manipulative men in their lives and their wish for freedom above all else, odette and odile decide to spend the rest of their days on the lake. if nothing else, at least they will have each other.

but, “love breaks the curse” and all that, so as they confess their feelings under the setting sun, all swannas are freed from the curse and return to their human forms. the maidens leave, returning to their original homes, but odette and odile use the cover of darkness to escape from their town and find somewhere new. away from bloodsport princes, from jealous fathers and families that see women as things to be married off. 

it’s not a tragedy, as the original was, but rather a story of hope. maybe love isn’t all grand declarations of undying devotion. maybe, sometimes, it’s the quiet admission that you’ll be able to face new, unpleasant circumstances, the inherent fear of the unknown future, so long as you have your loved one by your side.

it’ll never be picked up by any grand ballet studio, nor will it gain any traction on the world stage (especially since molly, playing odette hence the white appeal dress, is far from being a talented ballerina). but margourette wrote it for her and molly. she wrote it for two women who left their homes and found new happiness among their adreffian family, and there’s no piece in the world that could be more meaningful to her than that.

[croesow]

Which part of a team are you?

(tagged by @floralcalavera, thank you v much for the mention !!)

The Moral Compass. Does this mean you're the kindest person in the world? The sweetheart, or the softie? Not in any way. But you are a firm believer in "the line", and you refuse to let anyone cross it. People give you a hard time in the short term, but you don't let that worry you - they're always grateful in the end. You've likely saved a good many people from falling over that edge, only because you've walked it yourself and learned the hard way which side is best to stay on.

[croesow]

Self-Knowledge Quiz

TENDERNESS.

You are not afraid of the sufferings and sorrows of other people, even when they are acted out in unappealing ways. Beneath even defensiveness and self-righteous behaviour, you know that deep down people need nurturing and consolation. One danger is being naïve about people’s dark sides. But at your best you know you can be mean yourself, which helps you to sympathise. You bring strength and forgiveness where other people might panic.

RATIONALITY.

You like clarity and intelligent simplicity and you get frustrated at messy thinking. This can make you seem unreasonably pushy to some, but it is actually a virtue: you are motivated by a horror at pointless effort and a longing for precision and insight into how things and people work. Your ability to synthesise and bring order is essential in producing thinking which is truly helpful.

REVERENCE.

One part of you dreams of giving yourself up – perhaps just for a while – to a hero or mentor. In the right circumstances you can flourish by letting go of your ego. In your inner life, reverence plays out as a willing submission to your own conscience. In the outside world, you might get frustrated searching for something worth believing in – a country, a person, a company – but you will always be open to feeling respect, admiration and wonder.

(tagged by @acalculatedfuture​, thank you v much !!)

[croesow]

margourette’s odette vs. her odile

[croesow]

I know her page isn’t up so I haven’t gotten a chance to mention this recently, but here’s a reminder that margourette is a kalosian ballerina best known for her roles as both odette and odile in swanna lake, with her glaceon reprising the roles in the pokemon version of the show. 

both her and glaceon have physical disabilities, though this rarely gets brought up since it’s not relevant to most IC interactions. glaceon uses one of those dog wheelchairs after an evolution-related amputation of her back legs, and margourette’s left leg wears a prosthetic in the same vein as the marie-t prosthesis by jae-hyun an, though its exact design and en pointe function differ. both dancers have excelled above and beyond the rest of their peers, and are easily among the most famous ballerinas in the world, and the most famous in kalos. their creative career is only outshone by diantha, whose acting portfolio has sold more total tickets than their ballet performances.

margourette has since retired from dancing to focus on her adreffian gym career, but she plans to make one final return to the scene. it will be a rewrite of swanna lake, a wlw love story of odette and odile finding the solace within each other that they couldn’t get while under the control of the men surrounding them (odette’s original prince love interest or odile’s father).

[croesow]

Get Assigned a Quest Role!

(tagged by @neurotoxis, thank you v much!)

The Wise Old Being of Magic. You are that one person everybody flees to for help. Someone needs advice on unrequited love? Here you are. There's a mythical beast terrorising the kingdom? You've got a plan. That magic twink has cursed us all again? You're on it. You're just so damn kind and you always know what to say even if you need to think about it first. You're a being of magic, but your heart might just be the most magical thing in this realm of wonders. Remember that.

The Knight. Okay you're either a wlw or an absolute disaster. Either way, you have a heart of gold and nerves of steel (well, maybe iron, perhaps a little rusted). Point is you're brave and courageous and valiant. And noble! You're always up for an adventure and you love to save people whether its from an evil monarch or from their own brain. Whilst this desire to help is wonderful, you can often forget about yourself. This is a reminder to grease the joints of your armour.

[croesow]

if barbie movies exist in the pokemon universe, margourette’s favourites would be twelve dancing princesses and the princess and the pauper

but, that being said, she absolutely did have a “look barbie, I made it” moment when she was first given the highly coveted role of odette/odile in the swanna lake ballet. the accompanying movie left such a deep imprint on her brain that even now she sees it as barbie’s role that she temporarily adopted

[croesow-moving]

Adreffe’s Appeal for @wallace-cup​ !!

Choreographing the appeal had been difficult for Molly. She wasn’t a dancer by nature, and neither were her pokemon. Where Margourette could spin and glide like she was the tiny doll in one of those music boxes every child seemed to have, Molly stumbled and hesitated and tripped over her own feet. It was frustrating beyond belief, and yet she pushed forward through all of that.

Adreffe was supposed to be a region of learning, of getting out of your comfort zone and trying something new, and what sort of teacher would she be if she couldn’t hold herself to the same struggles her students were expected to undergo?

Still, perhaps it’d be easier to focus if her feelings for Margourette hadn’t been skyrocketing ever since the start of this Cup. There was simply no getting around it - Margourette was beautiful, even after their pavilion showing had ended and she’d been exhausted, her dress covered in Skitty fur and Togekiss feathers and with half-melted chocolate smeared across her baking apron. Her hair, long since having fallen out of its pristine bun, had glittered with all the rainbow lights still filtering through their icy pavilion walls, and her eyes had glittered with the tiniest hint of mischief as she’d flopped down against Molly and sighed dramatically:

                     ❝  So exhausted, amie! You must carry me back to the hotel.  ❞

Though she’d (probably) been joking, Molly had simply lifted her up with a fond smile and carried her bridal style out of the pavilion, lulling her to sleep in the process. She’d hoped at the time that Margourette’s arm, draped so delicately across Molly’s chest to rest upon her shoulder, hadn’t been able to feel the frantic beating of her heart hidden just underneath her sweater dress. She’d prayed to Magearna above that Margourette hadn’t felt the gentle brush of fingertips against her scalp as her hair was freed from its tie and brushed out, nor the feather-light ‘goodnight’ that had been whispered as Molly left for her own room.

She definitely hadn’t had that safety during their practice sessions, though. The music Molly had chosen was almost waltz-like (she really didn’t like to make things easy on her tender heart, did she?), so naturally it meant that the two women had to spend a lot of time pressed pretty closely together as they danced. While that had done wonders for their synchronisation, these flimsy ballet costumes did nothing to hide how fast her heart was going. Margourette had been kind enough not to mention it (outside of the occasional check-in to make sure Molly had enough stamina to get another rehearsal done), but now her crush was so obvious that she was having trouble looking the ballerina in the eye without that telltale blush creeping up her cheeks.

Even as she stood there now, backstage, playing with her puffy white tutu that contrasted amazingly with Margourette’s black one, she found herself staring at the floor rather than admiring how the stage lights made Margourette’s blonde hair glow like a halo.

There was a soft squeeze on Molly’s hand.

                     ❝  Ready to begin? Our audience is waiting.  ❞

                     ❝  Oh- I- uh, yeah! Yeah, let’s go.  ❞

Pokemon List (ik there’s a lot, but bear with me): Togekiss - Dazzling Gleam, Aura Sphere, Air Slash, Fairy Mist Alcremie - Mystical Fire, Sweet Scent, Decorate, Magical Leaf Morelull - Confuse Ray, Sludge Bomb Florges - Wish, Flower Shield, Petal Blizzard, Sunny Day Slurpuff - Thunderbolt, Sticky Web Cubchoo - Rock Tomb, Sheer Cold Glaceon - Sand Attack, Blizzard, Rain Dance, Iron Tail Sealeo - Water Gun, Aurora Beam Smoochum - Sing, Ice Punch

 Music: Merry Go Round of Life from Howl’s Moving Castle

As soon as the women stepped out on stage and took their places in the center, the music started. The starting notes were simple, and so they kept their dance at a simple waltz, never straying far from the dead middle. This gave the pokemon time to form a circle around them, some of them standing more gracefully than others, and start using their moves.

Glaceon called out to the ceiling, summoning a gentle Rain Dance to patter across the stage. This water got Cubchoo’s attention, who wiggled in place for a moment as he remembered what he was supposed to be doing, and then released a breath of Sheer Cold. This move wasn’t anywhere near the strength a Cubchoo could let out, mainly toned down for the comfort of the audience, but it was chilly all the same. This colder air froze the wet ground on the stage, forcing Margourette and Molly to move from a waltz into more of an ice skating routine. Margourette took most of the attention here, her ballet training coming in useful for a balancing challenge such as this, and Molly used that as the necessary distraction to nudge the pokemon circle into moving, following her around to the back of the stage.

There, Sealeo’s Water Gun was fired against Smoochum’s Ice Punch, each connection creating a thick pillar of ice. This continued all the way around the left side of the stage, then the right, leaving a total of nine pillars on each side. Their final connection was the biggest one yet, leaving a block of ice about as big as a dining table jutting out from the back of the stage. Apparently content with what she was seeing, Molly left to go rejoin Margourette in her dance at the front of the stage, Florges sealing them off from the pokemon with a Flower Shield. A Fairy Mist courtesy of Togekiss leaked out from behind it, the pink smoke trailing across the stage and down into the audience, and by the sugary smell drifting up from it, it looked as though it had intermingled with Alcremie’s Sweet Scent. The Rain Dance was wearing off now too, the floor now thoroughly coated in a layer of ice.

Molly’s hands found Margourette’s, and before she knew what was happening she was getting tugged into an elaborate dance of twirls and spins, their bodies pressed so close they were little more than a blur of white and black. This definitely hadn’t been part of their rehearsals, and yet Molly couldn’t find it within herself to pull away and get them back on track. Especially not when she was suddenly dipped, the toes of one foot ghosting across the ground, the rest of her weight kept suspended in Margourette’s arms (and how hadn’t she noticed those muscles before?) In a moment of whimsy, she plucked a white rose off of the Flower Shield and slipped it into Margourette’s bun, nuzzling her shoulder as she pulled away. The ballerina breathed out a huff of laughter (what a lovely sound!) and returned the gesture, slipping a black rose into Molly’s brunette curls. They could have stayed like that forever, wrapped in their own little world, but the music was lulling and that meant it was time for their second half.

They straightened up, Margourette slipping off to kneel down one side of the stage and Molly the other, and waited for the shield to drop and give their pokemon back the spotlight. Once it did, eighteen tiny ice Duckletts were revealed sitting on top of the ice pillars they’d made before, as well as a Swanna with her wings outstretched, perched proud in the center slab of ice. If the people in the audience had attended the Adreffian pavilion, they’d no doubt have a pretty good idea of what was going to be happening next.

The pokemon lined up behind their Trainers, already having agreed it’d be easier for the judges if this next part was done one-by-one, rather than all moving at the same time. Togekiss was first to break the line, floating over to the leftmost Ducklett sculpture. She flipped in front of it, looping backwards again and again until she’d built up a neat circle of wind around her, and then she released it in an Air Slash. Rather than slicing through the Ducklett, it was caught underneath it and the icy pedestal it sat on, levitating the duck in a gentle up-down motion and swirling through its shell of a body. The air whistled as it whipped through, a happy accident that gave that particular Ducklett a voice.

The next Ducklett was given the power of the Fighting type, Togekiss glowing neon blue with the stored energy before bumping the ice sculpture with its Aura Sphere, careful to feed the energy inside without accidentally destroying anything. It glowed beside its wind-surfing brethren, the Aura Sphere flitting over every crevice of the icy container but never able to actually break through.

For the third Ducklett, Alcremie was called over with a gentle chirp. Togekiss unleashed a Dazzling Gleam, the move bouncing off of all the ice on stage and shining outwards across the audience in all directions. The Ducklett was left shining bubblegum pink, glittering with Fairy power, and Alcremie completed the look with a Decorate. Strawberries and globs of frosting were held up for the audience to see before being dropped down into the icy shell, the ensemble soon beginning to smell incredible. 

Togekiss floated backstage, her part in this show finished, but Alcremie continued on. The next Ducklett was greeted to a Mystical Fire, the flames dancing about inside its body but never burning hot enough to melt the exterior. 

That had been a nightmare to correct during their training, so much so that Molly had lost count of how many times they’d considered scrapping this idea entirely, but she couldn’t help but give a proud smile over to Alcremie. The little thing just looked so happy with itself, pointing at the Ducklett as if it, too, couldn’t believe that it had worked.

Molly turned her back towards the crowd just as Florges got up to float over to Alcremie, easily scoping her up and carrying her over to the next pillar. This Ducklett was treated to a combined attack, a mix of Alcremie’s Magical Leaf and Florges’ Petal Blizzard, and the resulting look was a gleaming mess of leaves and flowers, caught in some sort of endless whirlwind. Florges then joined Togekiss backstage, setting Alcremie down with a barely audible splat of ice cream against the floor.

The next Duckletts continued in this fashion, each new typed move hitting a new ice sculpture until seventeen of them stood completed, each one more dramatic than the last as the mythical Swanna’s love for her chicks grew. 

The Ghost duck sang with the eerie notes of Morelull’s Confuse Ray, the whistling harmonising nicely with wind still coursing through the Air Slash duck from before. Morelull’s Sludge Bomb attack had left another Ducklett oozing thick purple liquid, congealing around the base and dripping slowly down the ice.

The Rock and Ground ducks had been completed simultaneously, Glaceon’s Sand Attack clinging to the surface of one while Cubchoo’s Rock Tomb had filled the shell of another. Glaceon was one of the few pokemon still left sat on stage now, its Iron Tail reflecting nicely in all the lights and onto the body of another ice Ducklett, making it appear to have a metal coating.

The Electric duck still crackled with Slurpuff’s Thunderbolt, a violent thing that had shot down from the heavens and illuminated the entire stage for a split second. A candyfloss Sticky Web had ensnared another, stuffing the duck with layers of pink wire that pushed more of that same sugary sweet smell out onto the stage and into the audience.

Not all the Duckletts had had exciting creations (the Water type, for instance, was just slowly getting filled with the ice that was melting off of it), but the music was reaching its final part and they couldn’t afford to waste more time here.

Immediately after the second lull, as the crescendo started, Smoochum started to Sing along to the music, her voice perfectly matching the notes. Sealeo’s Aurora Beam combined with Florges’ Wish (she’d returned to the stage during the creation of the Duckletts) and sent a beam of rainbow light skyward, just as the Swanna had done when she’d wished for her chicks to be given life. The beam hovered against the ceiling, spreading out across it as it desperately sought some sort of answer to the prayers it carried, before Glaceon interrupted the moment with a yowl. It was the only warning she gave before unleashing a brutal Blizzard, feeding off of the Sheer Cold from the start of the performance and really letting the harsh winter seep in. 

Molly and Margourette were dancing again, had been ever since Smoochum’s song had started, but their movements were more laboured than before. The cold was setting in, chilling their joints unpleasantly, eventually forcing them to cuddle together just to avoid the air whipping all around them. Ballet dresses were not the best insulators in the world, and yet the women braced themselves to endure it. They knew what was coming next in this story, and if it went according to plan it’d all be worth it.

They waded through the Blizzard snow until they came to kneel at the base of the Swanna sculpture, sheltering beneath her wings.

Finally, finally, the storm was split apart by Florges’ Sunny Day, lighting up the stage and warming everyone in the room. Smoochum’s song had hit its closing notes, the snow was rapidly melting and sending waves of water down into the audience, but none of that was the center of attention. Instead, as Molly and Margourette stood up once more, their costumes were illuminated by the rainbow light of the Swanna behind them, who was in turn illuminated by all the colours of her chicks surrounding her. Every ice shell had been filled with a different move to create a colour representative of its type, and the rays of the Sunny Day were now hitting them from all different angles, sending the light bouncing across the floor and straight into the figure of their mother.

It was beautiful, made more so by the way it made their contrasting costumes dazzle and shine, but Molly couldn’t tear her eyes away from her dancing partner. Margourette had one hand on her cheek, the other on her waist, and though no words were spoken Molly knew what was going to happen. As the music died out around them, the remaining pokemon leaving to join their teammates backstage, the two women were drawn closer and closer together until their faces were mere centimetres apart.

                     ❝  Margourette, I… I-I’ve always-  ❞

                     ❝  Shh, mon ange. I know. I feel the same.  ❞

And so, with the rainbow light of a mother’s love shining over them both, Molly and Margourette shared their first kiss. Not as friends, or Adreffian colleagues, but as lovers. Two souls devoted as deeply to one another as the Swanna was to her chicks.

Unrehearsed, cliche, but perfect all the same.