[ME] shootin' a bullseye or tryin' to miss

I'm a force that you will dread, set me on fire, I'm still alive

There's little need to dirty a glass with everything spilling through the bond. It's the same dizzying, giddy, freeing feeling he might get on ice, and this one's a much heavier pour. It doesn't take long to get properly love drunk on her, and the stumbling has already started.

Flora takes just as much time as he expected, which is none at all, before she's on his back. His arms secure her legs against him as he stands up a bit more, shifting her against his back with a quick, upward lurch. Her hair whispers against his neck as she leans in, and he cocks his head back towards her, offering her voice his ear in full. "Strategy," he repeats with a determined whisper, grinning at the easy way she sinks right into battle tactics. Gods help anyone on the receiving end of that sharp mind and eye for planning.

Glancing around them before beginning to speed-walk over the beach, Kaisel considers the options. The water will offer resistance, so to stay fast, I was thinking I need to reduce drag. Much like she's doing now, pressed against him, each part of her bare skin kissing warmth into his back. Minimal clothes. Lean in close. Hang on. He diverts from their tactical approach to the sign ups with a set of twirls, spinning them sharply around with a poorly squeaked impersonation of the creatures, but his eeeEeEEEes don't sound as well aloud as in his head.

Kaisel

Bet you didn't think that I'd come back to life, stronger

Got the dreamer's disease

Swiftly, Fern straightens up into a more prim and proper poise, her gaze sliding from one seaweed chewing boy to the other without any semblance of an expression. She schools herself into something as grave as this moment deserves. "Your commitment to science is commendable," she starts, each large word emphasized with extra annunciation and drawn out with unusual emphasis on certain letters. "You brave, brave researchers." Her lower lip quivers, and the edges of her eyes soften with the risk of a tear. Her throat works more to say those words, each one thick with honor. "Damn your bravery!" she wails, fisting her shirt and leaning forward with a forced sob. One tear rolls free, like a diamond wrung out of coal.

Only when the announcing aaaahhhh of an open mouth meets her does she abruptly drop the act, brows climbing as she tilts her gaze for a proper assessment of each mouth between Carlo and Calan . "Mm," she says, nose wrinkling. "Not nearly as good. It kinda just sparked a little bit here and there in your mouth." A fine study, but with undesirable results, sadly.

"What'd it taste like?" Judging by the scrunched face, nothing she wanted to put in her own mouth.

Fern

This world is gonna pull through, don't give up

You're my lighthouse in the darkness when the storm is comin' in

A helpless grin stretches out at her answer, and he tilts his head more towards her to offer it to her in full. "Just as I thought." Truly it's the best answer he could have been given. "I wonder, how does one stay on an encantado? I thought they were slick." he muses aloud, pondering the straps and other things necessary to make this work. "This might end up being over in the blink of an eye." His own attention drifts back to the line forming up, curious at so many venturing to try it.

It might have lingered there longer if not for what Melita says next. His head turns sharply towards her, "what?" blurting out of his mouth without meaning to. "You don't ever have to apologize for telling me shit," he asserts, startled still by the undue sorry. One of his arms is looped behind her, and that folds around her now, tugging her all the closer to his side. "I wanna be someone you can dump things on," he says lower and slower, considering it more fully and what it all means. "I'm sorry if I didn't feel supportive."

The vulnerability that hums just beneath this aches in him. Not having anyone, he knows that feeling, and gods he hates that she's plagued by it too. "Should we try it again?" he wonders, more than happy to rehash it out.

Iskra

Lookin' in your eyes, there's my whole damn life

flora

When Kaisel tips his head back toward her, Flora snatches the offered angle for a quick kiss against his cheek before pulling away again with a primness that has no business surviving on his back. It’s the sort of retreat that suggests she might be scolded for distracting a very serious strategist from his very serious plans, though the pleased little warmth she sends down the bond gives the game away immediately.

She hums along as he lays out the essentials, nodding with an exaggerated gravity at each point: minimal clothes, leaning close, hanging on. Then a theatrical pulse of incredulity—no, jealousy—flickers from her side of the bond, bright and put-on enough to make the joke impossible to miss. Flora’s laugh curls into the crook of his neck, her lips brushing just beneath his ear as she murmurs, "well, good thing you have some experience with that," before punctuating the observation with a small nibble at his earlobe.

The sudden twirls steal the rest of her composure anyway, and Flora clutches more tightly around him, camera held secure against her chest as the beach fires smear into ribbons around them and his questionable encantado noises dissolve beneath her laughter. By the time the world settles itself back into something resembling straight lines, she’s grinning against the side of his neck. "Okay, okay," she says, breathless with amusement. "But have you given any thought to steering?"

I want to be when you fall on me like night
I wanna kill the lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

MELITA

By no means an expert at the dolphins (empanadas), her brows furrowed slightly, lost in thought at the potential. She’d been hoping someone would automatically launch out there and they’d be treated to a genuine show of how it was done (or not). “Luck?” she grinned instead. “Maybe sorta like the rodeo – might last a couple seconds and that’s that.” Though those shifts had been winged or hooved, so…

Any further thought of the upcoming entertainment was flicked sideways as her apology shifted things elsewhere. She hadn’t meant to alter paths and make him feel like he’d erred; so she heaved a massive sigh, because she believed her unfurling of every action and nuance had probably been a confusing and overwhelming swing of the tide. Ordinarily, it might not have even reached her – but these circumstances had landed straight into her lap, on multiple occasions now, and not well-versed in what it meant to hold that much responsibility, she’d dropped a lot of information on the unsuspecting. Her mouth opened, then closed, biting down on another apology wanting to make its way to the surface. “No, I just thought it was a lot all of a sudden, and I didn’t realize it until, y’know,” and after running through it, yeah, she could see where someone wouldn’t want to have all that piled on them, and where it would sound like some manic ass breakdown.

Tucked further into his side, she took one more long breath, waging a little war in her mind before taking the plunge. “Might be more stuff coming too. It always seems to be that way. The fucky nonsense builds,” out of experience – little signs creeping into further issues and when stars aligned and everything was too little too late. Maybe a warning for him as much as it was for her. “God shit. Demigod shit. Caido shit.” Her free hand extended outward into the ether as if expecting something else to descend right then and there. They’d had their little pocket of peace and she wasn’t sure how long it was going to last. Using that as a tether and line, they could anchor in place, but she also didn’t want to drag him under.

His willingness to try in all the nonsense inspired a small grin, and the next exhale was just one of relief. “I talked to Ronin and we have a plan to talk to Safrin, and Sunjata told me to send out some letters to leaders, so I did that.” A better spot than where she’d been at the last interim. Biting her lip, her eyes flicked up to stare into his. “Would you like to hear about the Oerwoud shit instead?”

You're all gonna watch me
Disappear into the sun

I'm a force that you will dread, set me on fire, I'm still alive

Not currently focusing on anything but his upcoming victory and the steps necessary to get there, it's only the flare of jealousy that rushes through the bond and splashes against him that alerts him to where her mind might be. Despite the indication, it's only when her voice sets against his neck, low and weighted with meaning, that he fully picks up the trail of thought. "Ro!" he admonishes at once, as if the gutter isn't well known to him. The punctuation of her teeth to his ear causes him to duck his head away with a delightfully scandalized laugh. "Now's not the time woman!" Which of course, makes it the perfect time for her to fuck around.

The twirls are as much to add flare to his method acting as it is to reset her mind. The subtle tightening of her against him in combination with her laughter does very little in the long run for him, but it does smear a content smile on his face as they come out of it. For a time anyway, because her next strategy point immediately has his features falling back into concentration and doubt. "No..." he admits faintly, and the distraction that lingers in his tone is the attempt at working out what his options could even be. "Don't they just, swim straight?" Even as he asks he realizes the potential downfall of that assumption, these encantados not so reliable as a ship. "Could I just shout, LEFT! d'ya think? I mean, they're trained...right?"

Kaisel

Bet you didn't think that I'd come back to life, stronger

flora

The transition is so seamless that Flora scarcely notices it happening: one moment they’re flirting shamelessly enough to make any passing onlookers reconsider their route down the beach, the next they’re conducting a tactical analysis of magical dolphin handling. From the outside, it probably looks like chaos with good lighting; from inside it, though, it feels like being understood down to the quicksilver shifts of her attention, the ridiculousness and affection and sharp little turns of thought all keeping pace without either of them ever needing to explain the rules.

Pure incredulity pulses down the bond before Flora can stop it, warm and bright and thoroughly unimpressed. "Babe," she says, eyes widening even though he can’t see her expression from where she’s perched on his back. She shifts against him, the movement more skeptical than uncomfortable, and tips her head as though the answer might be waiting somewhere beyond the torchlight. "Aren’t you and Mel the ones who arranged this?" The question lands with all the pointed sweetness of someone very carefully not asking whether he and Melita actually acquired encantados that actually responded to verbal directions.

I want to be when you fall on me like night
I wanna kill the lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

You're my lighthouse in the darkness when the storm is comin' in

The sigh is telling, and at once he takes a mental step back, cautious of tugging her tighter to him in case the pull feels more like restraint than comfort. It seems they're both perfectly suited to accidentally overcorrecting, each worried about pushing the other away but still managing to upset balance by pulling too close in response. He waits for her fish impersonation to end, the opening and closing of her mouth without sound, intent on her still even if he's trying not to run over her nerves with his own.

"It was a lot, I don't disagree," he admits with a slower pace to his tone, not trying to rush to repair something as if soft edges are all either of them can tolerate. Still, no need to get torn up by something unnecessarily, although it takes effort to pick his words carefully when he has been accustomed for so long to the company of his own thoughts and a dog that doesn't listen to what he has to say anyway, regardless of how he says it. "But all the more reason you shouldn't have to carry it alone. I can handle the weight, I just needed to... adjust."

Which perhaps doesn't need to be said at all when she doesn't hold back further, breathing in like she's preparing for a wave, and he catches himself sucking in his own deep breath too, as though crashing through it alongside her is only a given at this point. The more coming suggests maybe he didn't hear it all, or more has happened in the short span of time from feasting to darkness, but the crease that finds his brow now is only thought, not concern. "That sounds about right," he mutters, of the way demigods, gods, Caido, hell life find a way to stack shit until it towers. "We'll face that then too," he says with more confidence than he can ordinarily muster. The effects of spending so much time with her.

Listening to the steps she's taken thus far, he can hear the stiffer edge of certainty in her voice compared to the threat of spiral that'd been there before when listing off every issue. Not resolved yet, and forced to wait with the cover of darkness, but still, steps taken where they could be. "That's good," he commends, thumb brushing against her side. "Maybe we head back to Halo together then, when light returns, after you talk to Safrin, and we'll find Amhram when you drop me off at home?" They hadn't found him at the feast after all, and Iskra is doubtful they'd find the man here.

Considering it all for a moment, he turns his head to press a kiss into her crown of fire, before leaning his over hers in some notion of peace for a time. "Tell me everything."

Iskra

Lookin' in your eyes, there's my whole damn life

MELITA

She could hear Kaisel and Flora shrieking out in the distance, so perhaps the show would be getting on the road. Unaware she was being (rightfully so) blamed for eventual mishaps (again, fair), her attention still went to Iskra, watching and waiting. He shifted too, and they seemed to be stepping around, forwards, backwards, to find where the even playing field was; willing to listen but uncertain how ridiculous the rush or crush of news. She had to remember she wasn’t used to anyone bearing weight for her; she often carried it alone and in such a maddening plunge, pretending it wasn’t there – and he’d borne enough overbearing pinnacles for lifetimes. She didn't want to place the overwhelming bounty over his head like a noose.

It was why she nearly went mulish – wondering if she should just keep it all to herself – prepared with warnings, patterns, cycles, the touch of the inevitable. But he said he was willing to adjust, so she nodded, granting a small smile. “I probably needed to too. I don’t uh…often get all this.” The leaders did. The older, experienced demigods did. The powerful and potent. His renewed confidence gave her pause, a slight glimmer of a smirk, but she said naught, let it stay there to solidify.

Especially when he began to offer solutions in the potentials. “Okay. We can try it. I don’t know him well enough either – I think I only talked to him when we all played dodgeball.” She only wrinkled her nose a little, perhaps in disappointment for her efforts in making friends in other demigods or that some of these others had always been a little harder to reach. Sipping at her drink and contemplating, her features softened as he pressed his mouth into her hair, the tell me everything spilling into the fold. Maybe they were both learning the art of patience and listening. “All right, so,” she began, hands animated once more, as if trying to lift the either out of the Oerwoud and into midair, so he’d be able to see, to understand, the tug and the pull. “There was this weird golden light in the Peepholes,” and she hated to think such a distinct place for them was about to get real fuckin’ bizarre, but such was Caido. “Obviously a bunch of us followed it.” Beyond refute and reasoning, par for the course; quirking her brow as if to say he would've done the same.

“At some point, a couple of us just started to fall asleep, and it definitely wasn’t from my wild magic.” Understanding that she’d simply done that in the past, dropping to the ground right in front of him, and countless others, as if she were some narcoleptic cretin. “Then I had the strangest dream. There was a creature, kinda like a deer, and it stared at me – then there was desert sand, and like a wound? And the monster was wearing the face of a friend, and then everything sort of exploded out, and it got swallowed up. And I got left with a bag of sand.” Tucked away in her pocket.

Realizing that made zero sense, she shrugged, eyes glancing upwards to watch his facial expressions. “I guess there was a monster with a shit ton of eyes in Hak Etme, and it had a bag of sand with it too? So I don’t know what any of this means or if it's connected, but,” there it was, just the same.

You're all gonna watch me
Disappear into the sun

You're my lighthouse in the darkness when the storm is comin' in

Each of them has spent so long alone in some version or another, it makes sense that they're colliding in awkward ways, coming together and then spinning apart from the force of the pull at times. He smooths down the concern, trying not to think of possibilities, just the now that's before him.

Contented with their plan, glad to be of some use, even if only as a go between (he also doesn't know Amhran well). "Solid plan," he confirms with a smile, and settles in for story time. She repeats some of the original rush of information dump she'd provided, but he's glad to be given every piece again so he can steadily arrange them now, and he nods along with her as she parcels them out. His face does lift initially at the idea all of them had followed glowing lights, sounding akin to a Will'O'Wisp, but at her returned arch of a brow he relented his face to an understanding grin. Curiosity is overwhelming in the moment, and easy to pretend he'd be otherwise without the temptation before him and only the outcome.

That the Peepholes held something strange is not in and of itself alarming, that is quite the root of its routine, but this does sound different. He is about to open his mouth and remark that she does that, fall asleep, but again she beats him to the chase and he promptly closes his mouth. If she says it wasn't her magic, he believes her, and she mentioned others falling under too.

As she explains her dream, he begins to tug on his beard, the motion thoughtful and calming as he considers it all. "If the deer had desert sand, maybe it belonged in Hak Etme? Or on a beach... I wonder how it got to the Peepholes." He frowns. "The ones who didn't fall asleep, what happened? Did the light... do something? Lead them somewhere?" Then, the bags, which are the greatest oddity. "The bag of sand is...real? But everything else was a dream?" He frowns. "So maybe not a creature at all, but some kind of magic, or summon. A temporary beast, maybe conjured by the sand?" It's becoming more convoluted the more he tries to stretch it out into reason. He shakes his head, trying to clear it. "Is the sand inside the same as the desert sand you saw?"

Iskra

Lookin' in your eyes, there's my whole damn life

no thank you is how it should have gone, I should stay strong

Carlo wastes little time in plucking up his own stringy, glowing piece of seaweed, plopping it into his mouth with dramatic vigour that promptly sours into bitter, salty reality. Both he and Calan will end up wearing matching expressions of distaste, and he's about to point out to his brother that maybe they shouldn't swallow it given what they've recently learned about orange peel, but it's as though his tongue and throat act of their own accord to get rid of the stuff.

Gagging a little and clapping the back of his hand against his mouth, only when he determines that the seaweed is going to stay down does he also proudly present his open mouth for scientific judgement. "I' 'athted thalty," he announces to Fern, his own eyes watering a bit, though it's nothing to do with the overwhelming commitment to scientific research. 

Wiping his mouth once she's made it clear that her inspection is complete, he scrunches his nose down at the shallow water. "Some of the drinks they've got here look like they should glow," he says, thinking of the blue cocktails he's spotted a few Torchers drinking. "Should we try those instead?"

but I'm weak, and what's wrong with that? boy oh boy I love it when I fall for that

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

I'm still comparing your past to my future

"Oooh, now that's an idea," Danta says, beaming up at Astaroth and nodding his head. "We'll need to pitch it to Flora to see if they can arrange a Longheat version." Which, presumably, is exactly the same as the Longnight version, but when the weather is much kinder to their hot-blooded selves. "They can?" He chuckles at that, squinting as if to see if they ought to expect a maelstrom on the horizon. "That'd be really inconvenient in the dark right now, huh."

Chiming his glass against Asta's and thinking nothing of worming his way beneath one of his arms, he tries to make out either Kaisel or Flora in the crowd, eventually spotting the latter on the former's back. "Right now it looks like they're both winning, though there's no fire hoop jumping actually happening." He smirks, tail flicking animatedly at his heels, an arm looping around the Butcher's waist.

"Maybe they also think the water's too cold."

Dantalion

it might be your wound but they're my sutures

'cause dirt on you is dirt on me, and we both know our hands ain't clean

The praise worked exactly as intended. Calan straightened up a little beneath it, chin lifting as though Fern had just pinned a medal to his shirt instead of watching him eat something that tasted like the ocean’s oldest sock. He accepted her solemn assessment with a small, dignified nod, because brave researchers did not make a fuss over minor things like nearly gagging in front of everyone.

"Really gross," he agreed once his mouth was empty, wrinkling his nose and scrunching his whole face at the memory of it. "But if it’s for bio-whatever purposes, what can you do?" The answer, plainly, was endure it with honour and then find a better branch of science before his tongue decided to quit on him.

Carlo ’s suggestion had Calan looking immediately past the waterline toward the food and drink stands, where bright cups moved between hands and blue liquid caught the firelight. His tastebuds, having suffered enough for one evening, perked up at the prospect. He spotted the drinks in question among the grown-ups nearby and nodded toward them with the confidence of someone who had just identified a much more promising research subject. "Sure looks like they’re popular," he said, already taking a step in that direction. Then he glanced back toward Carlo and Fern, lowering his voice just enough to make it feel like a proper expedition. "Shall we?"

if it all goes wrong and we end up on the news, if you go down I'm goin' down too

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

// when it feels like all the world is wearing a frown //

“Yes.” Asta hums with a small twitch of amusement in his face and in the twitch of his tail as he informs Danta about his fun-facts about the encantados. “Mm, well, I would say any kind of light source would be nice. Lightning, as you know, is a favorite.” It hadn’t been before, but there’s something about the way the Sparkbird’s Nest’s lightning and the nights they’d stayed there for the Butcher to heal that had vastly improved his opinion over the element.

But, that’s neither here nor there, and he has the man himself pressed against him under his arm, nestling in easily, glasses clinked together, peering through the glass of the Last Word as he sips from the glass to let the liquor warm him up even further. “It is a bit lackluster without the fire hoop jumping, don’t you think?” He muses, glancing over at Danta with a small twitch of a smirk. “If it is a - what do you call it - Piggy back ride event, it is not like we have not done that before.” Though the last time he can recall that, the Butcher’s certain one of them had thrown the other in water unannounced and it had been more retaliation than playful at the time.

Astaroth

// put a smile on and spread it around //