did i take you from the bats in the woods?

// we can't see the end from the start //

Curious to know what Safrin might have to say about it, Asta assumes that Flora would tell him if anything stuck out from the conversation. So he’s happy to let it slide as he sinks into the subject of her fathers and their terrible reaction to her becoming a demigod. He’s quietly glad that he doesn’t have any parents to have those conversations with, but admittedly a bit annoyed that his siblings weren’t around for him to brag and show off about just how far he’d come.

Even the centuries that have passed haven’t smoothed out the blatant idea of vengeance in the Butcher, despite knowing it was far too likely that his worst sister in particular’s bones were a part of the layers of permafrost in Halo.

Anyway, chuckling softly to hear that Flora’s confident she’d be fine, Asta inclines his head with a little toast of agreement. “ I am positive you will be brilliant, darling.” He flashes her a beaming smile – one that doesn’t last as long as he’d like because of the reminder that he now can be channeled.

The hand drops from his face slowly, his engagement ring glinting from the shaved diamond in the cool sunrise that starts to rise and filter through the windows, listening as Flora explains what it was like with a small pit of dread blooming in his gut. “So… There is no option to turn on your caller?” Pursing his lips briefly, he frowns after with an overly dramatic sigh and a roll of his eyes. “Mm that will be an issue.” He rumbles, running his tongue along the edge of his lip in thought. “Perhaps we must start threatening those that call us and do not gift us something good for the channeling?” Mischief floods in his gaze again as he looks back at Flora with all the dark ideas that flit into his mind.

Though it likely means if he went through with it, he’d be less likely to be channeled in the long run. Not that he thinks he’ll complain with that, given Flora’s less than appealing description. “I imagine I will also hate it just as much.”

Astaroth

// but i don't fear the dark //

flora

Flora’s lips twitch at the question, and she shakes her head with a grim sort of amusement, because unfortunately the answer is exactly as irritating as he probably expects. "I’m pretty sure I’ve heard my dads say that if, like, someone channelled one of them to attack the other, they could avoid it," she says, brows lifting as if this is the absolute bare minimum of divine personal boundaries and even that has apparently needed clarifying at some point. "But more or less? You’re pretty point and shoot."

She takes another sip of her mimosa while his suggestion unfurls between them, and the laugh that follows is bright enough to warm the edge of the subject back into something bearable. "I could not agree more," Flora says immediately. "Honestly, maybe we could open up channelling-wishlists at all our favourite stores so people know what to get us." There was nothing worse than being sent an edible arrangement, after all.

Tilting her head, Flora lets the mischief settle into something more curious as she studies Asta over the rim of her glass. "Wellllllllllllll," she says, stretching the word out until it practically lounges across the bar between them. "If you want, I can channel you so you can see how it feels." The offer is bright, but not careless; beneath the tease there is the faintest flicker of understanding, because as much as Flora is absolutely the sort of person to test a new ability for the drama of it, she also knows there is a difference between surprise and ambush, especially when the subject is being yanked out of oneself by a thread someone else is holding. Her fingers tap lightly against the glass, and then her grin returns at an angle.

"Or, it isn’t really channelling anymore, but I have Rescue, which pulls you through just the same, although I can’t make you do anything."

I hope you're wetting your appetite, finding your way into someone's eyes
I hope you're dreaming in black and white, and seeing in colour

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// we can't see the end from the start //

It isn’t time for the dramatics to be over it seems as Flora offers him a very standard answer for what it was like to be channeled, with very little space for wiggle room. At least it makes it easier to know he could potentially avoid doing some damage to those he liked, but for the rest of it? He frowns and sighs. “I have never been a point and shoot kind of man.” But perhaps for the sake of being Dygra’s, he’s inclined to learn how to be more of a weapon (a Butcher) than a hunter.

All overdone dramatics start to filter away with the possibility of wishlists being laid out, because if there was one thing the Butcher adored it was shopping and creating. And he may be okay with it if people channeled him and gave him apt gifts in return for such a sacrifice. “Ooh, yes, that is a beautiful idea.” Already imagining the varying places he might set one up, he mulls on it as mischief enters Flora’s gaze and makes way for curiosity.

It’s enough of a shift that his attention is rapt upon her, a small smile tugging back at the corners of his lips. “Can you?” He asks, though it’s more rhetorical than anything. She already said she could, and what better than to practice it among friends rather than the heat of the moment where he’d be expected to perform and get pulled all over Caido’s face.

He mulls it over some more, the glass spinning in his hand before he lifts it and downs the rest of the drink – a hefty amount that he will be feeling shortly, before he’s standing and shooting her a playful and somewhat shit-eating grin. It’s vacation, after all. He sweeps a bow toward her and straightens up with a low rumble of “well, I suppose you should do your worst, darling.” Smirking, Asta rises back to his full height. “What do I have to do?” He doubts anything, but if she wanted him to step out the back door to the pools so she could call him without vacating the room, he would.

For science and experimenting, obviously.

Astaroth

// but i don't fear the dark //