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Character of the Season
Once known as the Butcher of Whitebrim, he's now The Butcher of Dygra, stepping forward as the first created demigod of the Ancients. There is no question that Astaroth casts an intimidating silhouette. Tall, domineering and dangerous, if looks could kill you'd be dead already, but to get up close and personal with the Grounds' resident cannibal tells a much different story. Dripping with charm and clad in only the finest attire, Asta is a gentleman monster, as polite as they come and committed to his role as security for the Dusklight and those who have earned his loyalty. Be careful of that smile, though - those teeth are sharp.
Congratulations, Asta!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
OG Skinning provided by Kaons, with functionality and many custom plugins made by Neowulf!
The Ark does not arrive back in Torchline with any grandiosity or expectation. No, she kisses the docks and drops anchor at sunrise like she was always there, half camouflaged against the bloody morning light, and for those who know her, that will be enough. All but a skeleton crew leave her deck before the port is even properly awake, streaming out into the marketplaces and alleyways alike to spread the news: The Ark is home, and this time she's back for good.
Jack, however, has a different trajectory this morning, and he has the Feverlands to thank for it even all this time later. The healing wine from the Hollowed Grounds had done the job to nudge him back onto Mort's good side, but their time constraints had meant a great deal of fighting off infection and healing up by himself, and after a voyage from the very top of Caido down to the bottom, suffice to say the Captain is about done with it.
"No rain yet," he remarks of the cloudy skies above interspersed with slices of blue. "Gotta be a good sign, right?" Slanting a smile towards The Ark, he reaches to turn up the collar of his Kingmaker coat, pretending it's the chill of the morning instead of the mild fever now baked into his bones. Jack is pale despite the jaunt through the desert, drawn and underweight even for himself, but there's something right burning in his blue eyes as they approach the healing fountain.
The hard part is over, no matter what healers or queens might have to say about it. They've done it. They're home.
fight so dirty but you love so sweet talk so pretty but your heart got teeth
i see nothing better, i'll keep him forever, like a vendetta
If The Ark spends more of the voyage south on deck than she normally would, no one comments on it. She braces herself beneath the rigging and pours steady currents of air into her own sails, keeping the canvas full even when the natural wind falters, until the miles stream away beneath her keel and the water begins to turn turquoise again. There is no need to explain the haste when Jack’s fever has settled into him like cargo they haven’t been able to throw overboard, and Torchline’s healing waters have been waiting at the end of their course. Her crew knows their ship well enough not to question why she is so eager to reach harbour.
Dressed in fitted leather pants, tall boots, and a billowing white shirt that catches the morning breeze almost as greedily as her sails, The Ark glances up at the clouds and lifts one shoulder in an unconcerned shrug. "It can rain all it likes, now that we’re home." The word sends a flush of warmth through the waters of her mind, spreading swift and deep until even the fever she can feel clinging to Jack seems less threatening. Home. She casts him a sideways glance and lets her gaze travel over the pale lines of his face and the leaner shape of him beneath the Kingmaker. He has certainly looked better, but with Torchline behind him and its light catching in his eyes, he looks all the better for having finally been returned to the proper shore.
Her attention shifts to the fountain and the statue of Safrin rising from its centre, and The Ark’s mouth curves as she looks up at the goddess with the amused appraisal of one figurehead regarding another. She lowers her hand into the clear water, letting it close cool and clean around her fingers before she lifts them and flicks several bright drops in Jack’s direction. "How d’you want your medicine, Captain?" she asks, turning her smile coy as the water slips from her fingertips. "Internally, or externally?" He can drink it, naturally, or he can climb into the fountain and let the water take the rest of him.
i see how this is gonna go, touch me and you'll never be alone
Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3
Siren's Wake | After she leaves a space, traces of her presence linger briefly: a faint scent of salt, the sound of distant water, a restless feeling in the chest. People rarely notice it consciously.
"However you wanna give it to me, love." Jack flinches at the drops of water sent his way out of nothing more than instinct, the cool purity of it flecking across his feverish skin and causing a smile to hook at one corner of his mouth. The fountain is empty at this time of morning, the Captain stepping up to perch himself at the lip of it, gazing down into the sparkling waters like he's seeing them for the first time in his life.
Without delay he reaches out to plunge his hands into the cool, clear depths of the fountain, his sleeves soaked and the still lingering wound on his forearm soon submerged as he gathers the water into his cupped palms. The first kiss of it is already enough to soothe something that has been festering in him since the swamp, and he lifts his hands to splash his face with the tension visibly draining out of him.
"They should consider hookin' this up to the canals," he mutters, mostly to himself as he cups a little more water to bring it to his lips. "Save us all the walk."
fight so dirty but you love so sweet talk so pretty but your heart got teeth
i see nothing better, i'll keep him forever, like a vendetta
The Ark flashes Jack a wolfish smile, as though he’s threatening her with a good time rather than offering her free rein. "It’d be my pleasure." She waits until he lowers his cupped hands before stepping in behind him and reaching for the Kingmaker's collar, peeling it back from his shoulders with the clear expectation that he’ll let her help him out of it. The fountain’s waters remain sterile no matter what’s placed in them, and while she’s sure someone might eventually object to Jack bathing in the middle of it, they’ll have to get through her before they can offer up their opinion.
"Mmm," she hums at his suggestion, only to snort softly as she glances toward the channels threading through the city. "Wonder if Flora’s got a suggestion box." She steps out of her boots, though it hardly matters, and swings one leg over the lip of the fountain before the other follows, the clear water closing around her calves. Reaching for the sleeve of Jack's good arm, she gives it a sharp, playful tug, fully intending to bring him in after her rather than let him continue sipping delicately from the edge.
"It’d add a bit of extra weight and slow me down some," The Ark begins with a crooked smile on her lips. "But we could always repurpose one of my lower compartments into a holding tank." Her gaze drops to the water shifting around them as possibilities begin arranging themselves through her mind like routes drawn across a chart. Infection, blood loss, broken bones, whatever fresh horror the sea decided to throw onto her deck; there were plenty of situations that would become considerably less dire with a store of healing water below, rather than just a few bottles or barrels. Lifting her eyes back to Jack, she shrugs. "Might save us all more than a walk."
i see how this is gonna go, touch me and you'll never be alone
Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3
Siren's Wake | After she leaves a space, traces of her presence linger briefly: a faint scent of salt, the sound of distant water, a restless feeling in the chest. People rarely notice it consciously.
"I thought you'd say that," Jack says with a smirk that already comes easier than any expression he'd conjured on their way back south from Hak Etme. He shrugs out of his coat without protest, managing to toe off his boots as well before The Ark is tugging at him to join her in the cool depths of the fountain. Normally he'd have shrugged it off and claimed it unnecessary, but as the fog finally starts to clear from his mind, the reality of where they are begins to take hold, and suddenly nothing feels better than drowning himself in these Safrin-kissed waters.
"If she doesn't, she's got a court and a home address. No reason why someone couldn't shove an anonymous note under the door," he mutters, not bothering to try and stand and letting the fountain claim him to the chest instead. "Mm, we could," he agrees of her suggestion. "Or we could practice that new skill you discovered. Or I could get myself a fancy healing item. No need to weigh you down just yet, mm?"
Winking at her, Jack won't have time to hear her response just yet, the Captain leaning back to let the water swallow him completely now, little more than a stream of bubbles flowing to the surface in his wake.
fight so dirty but you love so sweet talk so pretty but your heart got teeth
i see nothing better, i'll keep him forever, like a vendetta
There hadn’t been time for this in the cold waters of King’s End during Deepfrost, nor in the warmer currents of the Spillway when they’d briefly passed north with Jack’s infection worsening beneath his skin. Gods, though, there are few things sweeter than being in the water with her Captain. Even if this is only a fountain, shallow and public and carved in honour of someone else rather than the open ocean, The Ark delights in it all the same.
"Or tie it to a rock and toss it through a window," she suggests with a mischievous shrug before feigned innocence smooths her expression. "It really is a good idea. She’d probably want to know sooner rather than later." And surely that would justify a bit of broken glass?
The Ark lets herself sink until the water closes over her shoulders, her maroon hair loosening around her in long, drifting ribbons. Her smile widens when Jack leans back and disappears beneath the surface, because there is something deeply satisfying about watching the water claim him completely. It feels right in a way she doesn't think too hard about, as though Torchline itself has reached up to take hold of him and wash away everything the Feverlands tried to leave behind.
So many options, she thinks before dipping her mouth to the surface and takes a cool sip for no reason beyond the simple pleasure of being able to.
i see how this is gonna go, touch me and you'll never be alone
Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3
Siren's Wake | After she leaves a space, traces of her presence linger briefly: a faint scent of salt, the sound of distant water, a restless feeling in the chest. People rarely notice it consciously.
Hearing The Ark's words even from beneath the fountain's surface, Jack doesn't bother to hide his wry smile at the thought of mischief and spite for the sake of it, without anything bloody attached. Still, in the long list of things to do now that they're truly home again, Flora (probably to her horror) falls right near the bottom of Jack's priorities. At present, for instance, he's not thinking much past this, breakfast and walking the port to get up to speed with all he might have missed, and the beauty of it is that there's no rush this time.
When he surfaces the waters have chased the pallid tone from his skin, his dark hair made darker still and slicked back out of his face. His blue eyes are clear and sharp again and the deep breath he inhales is a clean one, and he finds The Ark again without even needing the use of his magic. "I'd say it was worth the wait, but I'd really rather not have a repeat performance of that," he rumbles, reaching out to snag her around the waist beneath the surface, drawing her flush against him.
fight so dirty but you love so sweet talk so pretty but your heart got teeth
i see nothing better, i'll keep him forever, like a vendetta
The Ark watches him break the surface with an attention too sharp to pass for casual. Colour has already returned beneath the water shining on his skin, his eyes have lost their fevered haze, and the breath expanding his chest no longer catches against whatever the Feverlands left festering inside him. Only then do the waters of her mind ease, the restless pull beneath them going quiet now that her Captain looks like himself again.
Her mouth curves when he reaches for her. She lets his arm draw her in, though there is hardly any effort required on his part; she is already flowing into the space against him, answering the pull like a current drawn toward shore. Her arms settle around his neck, and her fingers comb into his soaked hair before closing around a handful of it. The small tug she gives is deliberate, measuring how long it has grown.
"Haircut after breakfast?" The Ark arches a brow at him, amusement warming the thought even as her fingers remain tangled at the nape of his neck. Jack’s name carries far enough through Torchline that he doesn’t need to arrive looking respectable to remind anyone who he is. Still, there is no reason to advertise that he has recently been gnawed on by oversized swamp vermin and nearly carved open by a walking skull equipped with knives.
i see how this is gonna go, touch me and you'll never be alone
Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3
Siren's Wake | After she leaves a space, traces of her presence linger briefly: a faint scent of salt, the sound of distant water, a restless feeling in the chest. People rarely notice it consciously.
