we show off our different scarlet letters
Whatever Flora makes of Asta's little comment is something she keeps to herself, accruing tiny details and letting her mind fit them into their respective places in order to keep up the facade of knowing more than she actually did. She was quite adept at this sort of puzzle work—of piecing things together without knowing what the picture on the box actually was—and so it was with an expression of weary understanding that she nodded as if she too had been forced to tread the terrain of Maea's mind and found it similarly tiresome.
Even though the queen would have been perfectly happy to spend time with Asta in the shadows where the darkness might have lowered certain inhibitions, she also hadn't done her makeup for nothing. "I was hoping you'd do that." She gasped, utterly delighted as the candles sputtered to life, bathing their little corner of the hot springs in an inviting glow.
"Well, you know what they say about those who assume." The queen says, only for her lips to part in a girlish O of surprise and approval as the bag on her arm was removed for her, as if Asta simply couldn't allow her to bear the burden of it anymore. That's how she saw it, anyway. "Gods, Caido could use more men like you around." Flora purred, and no, had she known about the butcher's proclivities her approval wouldn't have changed one bit. She was queen of Torchline after all.
"I had drinks with Dahlia recently, you know." Though Flora says it casually enough, her tone is made silken and dark by the pride she feels at having done something no one else had the balls or foresight to do. And she'd come out on top. "Better to treat someone like that with a silver tongue than a closed fist, mmm? In the beginning, anyways." Shrugging out of her coverup so that she was dressed only in an intricately strappy black bikini and matching heels, the queen nodded toward her bag with a smile. "Wine? I brought a delicious red."
Even though the queen would have been perfectly happy to spend time with Asta in the shadows where the darkness might have lowered certain inhibitions, she also hadn't done her makeup for nothing. "I was hoping you'd do that." She gasped, utterly delighted as the candles sputtered to life, bathing their little corner of the hot springs in an inviting glow.
"Well, you know what they say about those who assume." The queen says, only for her lips to part in a girlish O of surprise and approval as the bag on her arm was removed for her, as if Asta simply couldn't allow her to bear the burden of it anymore. That's how she saw it, anyway. "Gods, Caido could use more men like you around." Flora purred, and no, had she known about the butcher's proclivities her approval wouldn't have changed one bit. She was queen of Torchline after all.
"I had drinks with Dahlia recently, you know." Though Flora says it casually enough, her tone is made silken and dark by the pride she feels at having done something no one else had the balls or foresight to do. And she'd come out on top. "Better to treat someone like that with a silver tongue than a closed fist, mmm? In the beginning, anyways." Shrugging out of her coverup so that she was dressed only in an intricately strappy black bikini and matching heels, the queen nodded toward her bag with a smile. "Wine? I brought a delicious red."
