[PQ] a quick rummage

karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?

Just because her love life was in pieces, her Tavern once again needed repairs, and there was a big Fuck You Island of Death right on her doorstop didn't mean that Flora had forgotten about her guild.

Well, she had, but having remembered, she penned a letter straight to Danta telling him of her plans to offer him an expansion in his brothel, if he'd be willing. He hadn't replied, but she knew he hated returning his mail so she wasn't worried about it.

Flouncing into the Dusklight with all the confidence of a woman who'd frequented places like that often enough to feel more than comfortable, she sidled up the bar assuming word of her arrival would reach Danta sooner or later. If it was sooner, all the better. If it was later she'd help herself to a glass of something.

---

PQ to add a lil sneaky cache for Flora's guild in the Dusklight!

1. Florida
2. Rat Boy Summer Danta
3. Astarion-Hannibal

so give me your prayers up on your feet
and i'll give you a show, it helps fill the seats

What a lovely sight to see, the butcher thinks as he makes his rounds. Curving easily around the edge of the bar toward a particular blonde it has been too long since he’s seen, his smile is sharp but warm as his tall stature helps him cut a path through the crowd of the Dusklight to get right up next to the Queen of Torchline, positive that it isn’t him she’s here to see, but another particularly devilish blonde.

The cane clicks against the ground with a dull clack, stopping only to be hooked onto the bar within reach as he leans against it and flashes her that very same warm and too toothy grin. “Flora, my dear, what a pleasant surprise.” He chimes his greeting toward her, inclining his head as any gentleman does, giving her his full undivided attention. “Danta should be out shortly.” Already his dark gaze lifts toward one of the hallways that slipped away to the back rooms, as if expecting the Maverick to simply just appear out of nowhere.

Astaroth

so give me your sins, give me your lies
but whisper your love, and i'll whisper mine

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

Appear out of nowhere Danta does, dressed all in black (for business, you see) and with his fair hair pulled into a messy sort of top knot he absolutely hasn't done himself. "Well, well, well," he croons to Flora, offering her a broad, fanged grin and a spread of his hands as if to say long time no see. "I did wonder when you'd be dropping by." Stepping to the side to lift the counter and welcome her behind the bar (and therefore into the Backrooms), he winks at Asta and gestures for him to come along as well.

"I think you'll find what Her Highness has to say particularly interesting," he tells the other man. "Not to mention, it really should be for our ears only, so if you wouldn't mind making sure it stays that way...?" AKA please shove out anyone who looks like they're eavesdropping, and keep doing a stellar fucking job, my guy.

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?

"Oh hey you." Flora purrs, twisting towards Asta and flashing him a sultry smile. In black leather pants that fit her like a glove and a midnight blue shirt, the queen would have been a picture of sophisticated elegance were it not for the mischievous smile on her lips. "I wondered if I'd be seeing you today." Certainly the taller man had seemed quite cozy with Danta when last she saw him, but that didn't have to mean anything, right?

Right?

"There he is!' Pulling her aqua gaze from Asta and instead turning to Danta, the queen flashed her Maverick a dazzling smile before following in his wake. Raising an eyebrow slightly as Danta seemed to invite the Butcher to their conversation, Flora found herself shrugging about it. Danta wasn't the sort to play fast and loose with secrets, and having someone to guard the door was probably a good idea.

"As you know things have gotten a bit...purple on our shores lately." The queen begins. "Which is why I thought having a little nook all the way up here where no one would think to look would be a good idea."

so give me your prayers up on your feet
and i'll give you a show, it helps fill the seats

“It is rarer to find me elsewhere, these days.” He informs her with a wink, as if it hadn’t mostly been because of LongNight and the fucking snow outside. But that’s neither here nor there as Danta arrives and completely catches his attention as well, that bright smile offered (and an appreciative eye for the outfit that has an air of formality to it).

His cane is collected as he brings up the back of their little trio, dark gaze drifting between the two blondes in front of him as he aims to take up his perch to do exactly as Danta says. “Of course, darling.” He drawls his agreement, positioning himself precisely where he can keep an eye on anyone that may get too close while also within conversational distance to the two of them, indulging himself on listening to Flora’s words and starts to piece things together.

Astaroth

so give me your sins, give me your lies
but whisper your love, and i'll whisper mine

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

"Here I am," Danta agrees, beaming to Flora as they begin to head towards the Backrooms - and he offers a wink in response to her raised eyebrow. "Asta knows every dark and dirty secret I possess - what's one more?" he says with a gentle nudge to the Doubletake; proof enough that the butcher can be trusted with whatever they're about to cook up at the back of the Dusklight.

Nodding at Flora's explanation, the Maverick gestures at the small corridor they find themselves in. "She's beautiful and clever," he drawls. "Well, out here we have my office, Asta's office, stockrooms for the bar and a separate store room, and a backdoor. Any one of them would work, but obviously the offices are likely to be more secure. Pick your poison."

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?

"Is that so? Even in the evenings?" Flora wonders of Asta, with a sly raise of her eyebrows. Of course then Danta has to go and say something about his dark and dirty secrets and the Doubletake wonders if perhaps she isn't barking up the wrong tree. Rather, a taken tree.

Shame. Asta certainly seemed like the sort of man who could scratch at least a few of the itches left by her daddy issues.

"I'd say no to your offices, secure as they might be. If someone needs to come in here and one of you isn't available? Worse, if your offices are being used for something..?" Looking suggestively between the two, Flora lets her head tilt the opposite direction as she fixes Danta with a smirk. "Unless one is used more often than the other?"

so give me your prayers up on your feet
and i'll give you a show, it helps fill the seats

Having been giving a passerby a glare hard enough for them to certainly change their trajectory, Astaroth has little time to answer Flora’s question before Danta’s adding about dark and dirty secrets and there’s the light roll of his eyes, half turning toward the conversation now that the hallway is clear for the moment. “I am here every evening, darling.” He sneaks in, blissfully unaware.

He is an oblivious man, so when it comes to offices being used for something, Astaroth’s head cocks in a fraction of confusion, though the smile on his face stays as always as he spies the suggestive look between the two of them and it sparks even more confusion. “Mine is entirely for paperwork, I assure you. I cannot say the same for Danta’s.” Shooting Danta a look that seems to suggest he’s catching onto what Flora is saying – though completely unaware that she means the two of them and not Danta’s own proclivities.

Astaroth

so give me your sins, give me your lies
but whisper your love, and i'll whisper mine

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

While Flora is as suggestive as she can possibly be and Astaroth, in exchange, matches it with his own obliviousness, Danta is left helplessly trying to cage his laughter. Eventually what the Doubletake actually has to say wins out and he lets out a long, slow sigh and gestures for her to follow him, a catlike smile playing across his lips. "My office has a variety of purposes," he purrs to her, leading them instead to the storeroom that isn't frequented by the staff of the Dusklight.

"This will probably suit what you need," he says, gesturing to the almost too non-descript shelving units, where a nook or a cranny can likely be created or discovered to house the sorts of things that prying eyes shouldn't really notice day-to-day. "What do you think? We can probably have a code or a phrase or something, and if anyone mentions it at the bar, they can come back here and get what they need."

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?

"Is that so?" Not knowing what to make of Asta's comments, and thus finding him all the more alluring, the Doubletake made a mental note of slipping into the Dusklight more often for pleasure rather than just business.

"Oh I just bet it does." Where once Flora's flirtations would absolutely have extended to the Maverick, and honestly in some capacity they still did, for the most part, thanks to his little tryst with her mother, she saw him mostly as some untouchable delicacy. And to think she'd once showed him her boobs.

"No, I think this will work just great." Stepping inside, Flora wipes a layer of dust off of one of the shelves, though rather than frowning at it, she grins. "The best troves are always those that don't seem like they're well hidden. Things behind locks and doors and cages, they practically scream that they're holding something valuable, but a cardboard box at the back of some dusty closet?" Raising a brow, she grins.

"I say instead of cleaning this place up, we just add more clutter. We'll put the cache in the back but we'll make it difficult to get to. Not because of traps, but just out of sheer inconvenience.

What do you say?"

so give me your prayers up on your feet
and i'll give you a show, it helps fill the seats

“It is so.” He chimes as he returns to his duties of guarding the entrance, taking note of someone else that seems to be attempting to take a detour down it toward them. Stepping forward with a sharp toothed grin, he guides them away with a quietly stern warning, returning at precisely the time that Flora makes her suggestion and Astaroth casts one glance back down the hallway.

Humming a note of agreement, “I can certainly obtain some clutter from here.” He says, flashing the two of them a bright and sharp grin, already imagining what kind of things he’s seen sprinkled throughout the Dusklight that doesn’t really have a place where they are but might suit this hidden treasure trove better.

Astaroth

so give me your sins, give me your lies
but whisper your love, and i'll whisper mine

Dantalion

how the fuck am I supposed to know

Bouncing his eyebrows at the Doubletake and leaning against the doorframe as she examines the dusty, boring stockroom, Danta lets a fanged smile spread across his face and nods in agreement. "You'd almost think you'd done this sort of thing before," he drawls, straightening up so he can step into the room after her and check the shelves to make sure there isn't anything of great importance laying around that he's honestly forgotten about.

Finding nothing, it seems like Asta is already on board as well, and so the Maverick gestures to Flora to decide where she wants to put her cache of contraband. "Once we've made it, I've got crates we can stack and a stepladder I've been meaning to put away. We can prop all of that in front of it."

if we're in love or if we're in pain?

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?

"Gosh, it does seem that way, doesn't it?" Flora trills before rolling her eyes affectionately at Dantalion.

"Do either of you have something we can use for the actual cache? Just a box with a lock, preferably. If not I guess we could make something..?" Really, though, given the sorts of things Danta and the Dusklight traded in, she wouldn't be surprised if he had just the sort of thing she was looking for.

"And then if someone wants to help me move things around so we can get back there to begin with? But try not to actually disturb too much of the dust and whatever. We don't want it to look like something new was done back here."

---

Round 2:

1. One person to locate a box with a lock
2. One to help Flora shift things around in order to get to the back of the shelves!

so give me your prayers up on your feet
and i'll give you a show, it helps fill the seats

It suits better with Astaroth choosing to find the box with a lock, given that it helps him keep an eye out, outside of the work that Flora and Danta are intending to do in the back. “Come to think of it… I may have something perfect for that.” Astaroth hums, ensuring that nobody is wandering down this way or will try to, before he makes his way to his office.

Returning with a box, surprisingly dusty (a find from cleaning up his office and the random shit that had been stashed in it prior, he returns with the dust undisturbed as per her last request, holding it out toward her by the base to keep his fingerprints from leaving marks in the lid or around the gold filigree lock. “Might something like this do well for you, darling?” He asks, tail flicking lazily as he bends slightly to hold it up to her, a grin painted onto his face. Dangling from a little keyring on the hand that holds the box is a shiny golden key.

---

Astaroth grabs a box!

Astaroth

so give me your sins, give me your lies
but whisper your love, and i'll whisper mine