[Text]

[desert_queen]

I'm looking for one of my assistants, she's gone missing.

Robin, are you there? We've got work to do.

[You might, however, find yourself in a busy port town with a bustling shopping scene. And in that town, you might just run across a tiny woman with a miniature bananawani hatchling sticking out of a very expensive purse. She's got her cigarette in a beautiful holder, a hoard of shopping bags hanging on her other arm, and she's definitely a little on the irritated side.

She's got a damn king to marry, and an idiot princess to dispose of fast. Or that's what she had to do. Who knows how she's going to manage now? Or more, how this world of worlds is going to manage having her.]


(OOC: Lady Crocodile, no hook, but you might wanna be careful around that hand anyway.)

Comments

[callada]

[Her words sound ever so slightly rehearsed, but there's nothing innately wrong with that. It's a nice sentiment. Even if she doesn't fully believe it - as a woman who seems more interested in luxury may not - she probably isn't wrong. She has a lot of influence and power, and that's the sort of thing political marriages are made of. Besides, King Nefertari seems like a just enough ruler from what he knows, and Alabasta has been remarkably stable. Seems fine.

All discussion of that topic seems lost when she shifts to target him, though she kindly also gives him an out in the same breath. He shrugs, finishes his bite of eggplant and swallows, then smiles, unafraid of meeting her eyes. Looking shifty or ashamed would be a huge mistake. Instead he just looks mildly confused. Quirks an eyebrow. That last bite of food had given him the few seconds he needed to hide any genuine reaction he might otherwise have had. His brother had undoubtedly had dealings with the Crocodile in his world, so it's no major shock this one also knows Doffy.]

Funny you say that, yeah, I get that from time to time. Who's my doppelganger?

[desert_queen]

Your doppleganger? Hardly. [She works on her meal for a minute, and then cuts off another large bite of her steak and puts it on Baby's plate. Better that than have him acting out, he made quick work of that thing. She'll have the waiter bring another when he comes back by again, but this will do for now.]

Cobra isn't the only king vying for my attention. The one you look a little like isn't my type though. [Another drink.] Surely you know of Doflamingo. [He's enough of her type to get her to sit on his lap, tiny and fragile and monstrous, rolling her eyes at his endless words.] He's the one that gave me Baby. [She looks over Rosinante again, though. Eyeing him for a moment.] Maybe I'm wrong. Anyone related to that bastard would make my blood boil.

[callada]

Heard of him, sure, who hasn't? Never thought I looked much like him, though.

[In truth, it's not the first time someone has compared them without realizing they are, in fact, related. He got it from fellow Marines now and then, who were prone to wondering. But both being tall and blonde doesn't make them related, and it helps that Doffy keeps his stupid shades on all the time. He just lets the comparison - and that note of anger in her voice - roll off him with a shrug as he has another bite of his meal.]

He's still king for you, though? I thought he got put behind bars. That Straw Hat kid and that other warlord did him in.

[desert_queen]

So far, he's absolutely in control of Dressrosa. But the mighty fall hard it seems, against the young and determined.

[She tilts her head, eyeing Rosinante for a moment. She keeps hearing about how this Straw Hat kid wrecks her business, and others efforts too. And this is a problem already in her mind. She's a woman in power, she has plans and designs and she's got to learn from mistakes that are being made to actually keep herself on top.

Shit. She needs more of a drink than she can actually have in public.] It seems like this young man is really making a name for himself. Then again, people get careless and let ambition be a master instead of a servant. And that makes room for failure.

[callada]

[Thoughtful words from someone who clearly has masterful ambitions. People who upset the balance of power are frightening. Even when it's for a good reason, like he's been assured is the case with Straw Hat, it's hard to accept that the outcome is as positive as the ideals. Uprooting warlords and emperors and kings leaves those places vulnerable while they work to restore what's left after the fighting is over. It's why he chose the Marines and stayed with them until it wasn't possible. They're not perfect, but their stability helps keep people safe. It's what he wanted to be, when he was younger. Someone big and strong who could protect the weak and helpless. The world is a harsh, scary place for someone who struggles daily just to survive.

Whatever Crocodile wants to do with her soon-to-be-royal status, hopefully she just helps to govern the country. He's distrustful of anyone with the wealth and status she has because usually it meant she had to trample others to get to it, but sometimes it can still be used for good.]

Yeah. Can't say I know much about him, though. Where I'm from, nobody really talked about him. Guess that's about to change, though. He's got a lot of influence and it's spreading. Hopefully he doesn't want anything with Alabasta.

[desert_queen]

[She's a careful, devious woman with goals that are far reaching and complex. However, she's also not so egotistical that she thinks she's immortal or untouchable. And if men like her counterparts and Doflamingo himself can be taken out by this brat? He's definitely something to worry about. Someone who puts men that she considers at her level in Impel Down cannot be underestimated or ignored.

What she wants to do with that status? Increase her power and her military might. Integrating her own forces into the country, and using the set up assassination of a king to ensure the support of a fragile and afraid people who are struggling from the elements and from internal conflict.

But after seeing how things have gone for her counterparts, she's not sure if she can go from point A to point B so easily.] It sounds like I'll be fine, as long as I don't behave so cruelly as my counterparts have. Then again, our goals seem to be very different.

[callada]

Mm. What exactly have the other versions of you done? I must confess, aside from hearing your name, I never paid much attention past that.

[After all, what would some sailor want with following the news so carefully? If he's coming across as just this side of simple, just slightly undereducated without being a complete dunce, then he's hitting his goal. Useful, pleasant to talk to, but not bright or ambitious or informed enough to be a threat. To what exact goal, he doesn't yet know other than just getting paid, but it's an opportunity and he'll take it. Being close to someone with political power could be remarkably interesting.]

[desert_queen]

There's a whole laundry list of poor choices. Murder, subterfuge, kidnapping and the like. Oh, and inciting civil war. That can't really be ignored. [She stops the waiter to get a coffee to enjoy. There's only so much alcohol a lady can get away with drinking in public, her smoking is already seen as a disgusting flaw when judgements come down upon her. She hates that, her few vices have to be carefully concealed to protect herself.

The only thing she envies about her male counterparts is what they can get away with socially.]

I'm different. My reputation has been built up in a different way. Things like that don't suit ladies. And that's why I'm going to become a queen, while they're in and out of Impel Down. [She looks over after a second, visibly amused.] I'm been called the kind lady of the seas. Saint Crocodile. [She laughs, it's been a pain getting that sort of reputation built up, murdering pirates left and right, saving the day, protecting the people and all for the good of a hurt world.

Bah, they're all so stupid to believe it.]

[callada]

[Saint? Ugh. What a shame the title has been ruined forever for him.

Still, all of that sure sounds monstrous enough to be disturbing. That's the sort of thing that gets a person on his bad side quickly. And yet the implication in her words isn't that the acts themselves bother her. No, if anything she's saying she had to act differently because she couldn't have gotten away with those things and had to take a more difficult route. More subtle, more political. But not better for any reason other than that she hadn't been caught and they had.

It's fine. He can keep his cool, he's very good at that. He nods appropriately, smiles politely at her stupid holy epithet as if it pleases him to hear any of this. And truly, if her actions have been good despite her intentions inside, then she can keep doing that all she likes, so long as it stays that way.]

I'm sure your subjects-to-be will appreciate that thoughtfulness. I'm not naive, I know it takes a sort of careful, sometimes shrewd hand to rule a country. But it seems like that's what you have, unlike the heavy-handedness of your alternates.

[desert_queen]

[She watches him as she speaks, taking notes of his reactions, the type of smile. He's so polite, she's well aware he's hiding something, but it's going beyond in her mind the kind of politeness that comes with simply not wanting to upset a new employer. And while she's good at at least figuring out some traits that people have out, and she knows that no one is trustworthy, she won't pretend that she knows enough to figure out what his game is. And that's alright. She's not going to give him anything that could actually hurt her, or that he could actually prove. So it's fine to just use him as eye candy for the time being.

He's stunning though, in his own odd sort of way. It's just a pity he's so boring compared to Doflamingo.] A woman has to be clever to succeed. Foolish ideas only crush the fragile. And sometimes a person has to be underhanded for the greater good. [Although honestly, thinking of herself as fragile is hilarious. She's sand itself, dehydration and draining and monsterous power. And she's sitting here, playing the delicate lady at a restraunt with a man that's she's almost sure is Doffy's brother. This is the kind of nonsense that only belongs in the tabloids.]

[callada]

[To be fair, though, politeness runs through him whether he's up to things or not. If she's paranoid, he can't discern. She has every right to be cautious telling someone she's just met about her goals, even if she's doing her best to keep herself sounding noble. It must be pride, he figures, that pushes her to say so much to an unkempt baggage carrier. Or perhaps she's just desperate for conversation with someone who has no real stake in any of this. Understandable. He's used to being the one to lend an ear when he has nothing to say of his own.

But soon enough his food and drink are finished, and he sits content in his seat and watches that silly pet of hers, and smiles. Strip the situation down to its simplest form and it becomes a pleasant day, a pleasant meal, and very interesting company.]

Well, I hope it all goes smoothly. I'll do my part of the heavy lifting so you can focus on all the politics.

[desert_queen]

[It's all useless chit chat, things to be used to gauge reactions and find hidden meanings through. A cold woman is one that's scorned too, so polite warmth is something important to her act.

Rosinante is clever, with a mind honed from Marine training and personal goals. Most men never even question her, even in her rougher moments. And that's why he's someone to watch, why she still talks just to watch how he responds.] Good man. I like someone who's willing to work hard. [She's entirely wary of putting any information in front of him that's not public level political. But she'll smile and work on her food, enjoying herself until the tab arrives.]