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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!
For perhaps the first time, at this distance and without even a sideways glance between them, Flora will be able to watch her bombardment of thoughts hit the captain real time. It's a brief thing, the way Jack's eyes seem to look beyond her, before he blinks hard and promptly looks away with a shrug. "Mm, that's not a slight on you, though. Ain't sure I could ever bring myself to love anyone," he says reasonably. "If I could, though, I reckon you'd fit snug between my heartstrings." The captain scoffs, drawing a little cross over his heart as if to cement the words as truth.
Sighing, wishing he'd brought some liquor with him and instead reaching for another cigarette, Jack leans back on one of his hands again to regard Flora. "You didn't mention love at first, though," he points out. "You just said you didn't want to be alone." Which, yes, if you read between the lines, that could well be what Flora was implying.
"Don't." Flora whispers, biting at the inside of her cheek hard enough to send a white spike of pain through the thoughts of I can fix him, no really I can that his words instantly inspire. Maybe for normal people it was fair enough to say that they weren't responsible for the reactions that their words caused, but in Jack's case, Flora thought she was fairly safe in making him take some of the blame. Her daddy issues were illuminated in neon signs that coloured almost every one of her thoughts. Jack was either just being careless or trying to string her along little by little, and either way, the Doubletake wasn't going to take the bait so easily.
"Just having someone with you doesn't mean you aren't alone." Flora counters softly, but firmly. "Just look at you."
Raising a hand as if in apology - because yes, Jack does deserve to take some if not all the blame for that particular line of thinking, and it's only been half intentional on his part - the captain falls quiet and lets one leg dangle from the edge of the steps. Keeping his hands busy in lighting his cigarette, eventually he shrugs his shoulders again, face briefly illuminated further by the way the end of the smoke glows on his inhale.
"Mm, look at me," he agrees dryly, though where once there might have been arrogance, now it's merely a wry sort of acceptance at mistakes made and things that can't be unsaid. "Still, it's not like I could have this conversation with anyone else, so all things considered, I'm less alone than I ever have been." And fucking cheers to that, hey?
"Anyway," he mutters. "Ain't shit I can do about what you know, an' it's clear I can't give you what you want either. So just... do me a favour and tell me when you're plannin' to let everyone else in on it, and I'll take myself off this rock before I have to hear it broadcast."
Flora does look at him, choosing to see a man guarded against the constant chatter of the world around him rather than one who'd intentionally let pieces of himself shatter that he might instead wield them like weapons. What else was love, really, other than sharing the parts of yourself with one person where normally you'd hide them away from the world? Was Flora really coercing Jack into something, if he was the one who'd put her name on his collar and then handed her the leash?
Certainly she'd seen relationships built on far less.
Scoffing, Flora rolls her eyes up toward the starless sky before realizing that Jack's comment hadn't just been sarcasm. Swallowing, the Doubletake turns the collar of her jacket up to ward off the chill as she considers. Once, she might have immediately vowed not to say anything, but she'd learned a good deal from Jack in their time together such that she was no longer inclined to commit future versions of herself to anything. "I can do that." If there came a time she needed—or hells, wanted—to give up the Captain's secret, sure, she'd let him know.
Leaning forward, Flora crawls to Jack's side. In her mind's-eye, the captain raises his arm and tucks her in close to his side, and based on the queen's unflinching gaze, this is a thought she absolutely expects him to pick up on. "Is there anything else you'd want out of this arrangement?" To be King, to have the Ark improved, to see King's End buried in a pile of rubble.
Only decades of keeping his inner expressions to himself prevents Jack from wrinkling his nose incredulously at Flora's train of thought. Probably a good thing, too, when it's a choice between suicide and whatever else she has in mind. Which, as it happens, is a U-turn so abrupt it even takes the captain's swift mind a hot minute to catch up, so much so that he blinks right past the (admittedly ingenious) response that commits to neither course of action when it comes to his secret.
Still, as she shuffles closer to his side, it's only the weighty feel of her blue eyes that has him raising his arm, however reluctantly, to let it land around her, drawing her close against his side even as one leg still swings from the Last Step, feeling the swift nothing beneath. "I'm already king in every way that matters," he says without pomp or arrogance, "and King's End can keep it's shitty docks for now."
Frowning out into the darkness - because of course Flora knows to go for the real key to his heart - Jack shrugs and then relaxes somewhat, turning his head to nose against her curls. "An audience with Safrin can be hard to come by for an Abandoned," he remarks. "And what would you get out of this, pray tell?" In other words, what is the captain strapping himself in for?
Pressing herself against him, Flora lets herself try and understand what it might be like to be with someone in such a transactional way. Before knowing what she did about him, she'd certainly thought that she'd been successful in making him want her, at least in certain respects. In bed, as an ally, as a confidant...Whatever had been disingenuine about it before, was just as disingenuine now, and surely she'd be a fool to let something like a little bit of knowledge ruin an otherwise good thing.
Snorting at that—if it was anyone else she'd have just thought they were blowing smoke up their own ass—Flora shrugs. If he was content with his situation in so far as politics went, that just made it easier for her, now didn't it?
Trying to think nothing of the way he leaned against her, Flora couldn't help but laugh as Safrin's name slipped from his lips: The goddess who'd send the majority of the men in her family running? That's what Jack wanted from her? "Pfff, easy." Unlike Jack, Flora is bragging, and there's not a single corner of her mind that feels bad about it either.
Straightening somewhat if only so that she could look at Jack properly, Flora stilled for a moment before the corner of her lip quirked to the side. "If you take me on a date, a real one, I'll call down Safrin for you." Close enough to smell the tobacco rolling off his lips and the sea clinging to his hair, the Doubletake raises her eyebrows.
"You would be." A fool, he means. "And you were." Successful, at least in part, in making him want her for all the reasons she's already been thinking about it. And at the sudden spark of arrogance that flickers through her thoughts, white hot and fever bright, Jack can't help but laugh approvingly. "Safrin'll be the judge of that, if she shows up," he says, though he doesn't disagree with her outright.
As for what she wants? The response is so unexpected and yet so Flora that Jack finds himself sitting up enough to gaze at her incredulously, brows furrowed and instant outrage locked behind his teeth. "You're serious," he drawls, and were it any other time and place, she'd not so successfully twist his arm. Alas, this is the entire point, is it not?
"Deal," he mutters into the night, before inhaling a deep breath and rearranging his expression into something more roguishly charming. "Or rather, it'd be my pleasure, I should say."
Rolling her eyes as he read her mind, Flora shrugged confidently. "I haven't seen her since Ronin got...promoted? I guess? but given her ties to my family as they are, I think probably she sees it as a win to have me on her side." All the more reason for her to show up, Flora means.
Without blinking, Flora returns Jack's stare, perhaps looking even a bit more smug the longer he regards her. "Yep." It's hard not to smirk as Jack quite obviously schools his face into a more appropriate expression, but gods if it doesn't send a quiet thrill through Flora's body that blossoms quite warmly in the pit of her stomach.
"That's what I like to hear." She purrs, before leaning forward, her intentions as clear in her mind as in her movements. Pressing her lips against his, Flora takes the kiss she wants from Jack's mouth rather than simply waiting for him to give it. He would, she assumed, but given their new understanding, the Doubletake was now much more likely to take whatever control she could get her hands on.
"A good thing she's the only goddess worth seein' then," Jack says - not that he thinks Flora would have less luck calling down the Freys or the Ludos of Caido, but the lady of the stars is certainly number one on his list. "Apart from you of course, love," he adds ruefully, because if they're going to start talking dates and arrangements and what he can do for hers, it's probably not a bad place to start.
Her emotions - smug, victorious, growing increasingly comfortable with this new set of circumstances - settle over Jack like a heavy, gilded mist, and while the kiss she takes from him is freely given, the rest is all the captain. Reaching out to draw her into his lap such that she's got her back to the dark chasm beyond the Last Step, Jack's hands roam greedily across her thighs and hips, as if to taste the feelings the touch inspires.
"I take this doesn't count as the date?" He raises his eyebrows. Can't blame a guy for getting his hopes up.
"Shut up." Flora scolds, playfully nudging the captain's side. It was the sort of line that should have had her groaning at its corniness, and yet something fluttered in the back of her throat, delicate and birdlike, that had her grinned stupidly down into her lap.
If Flora was at all worried that Jack was going to thrust her over the edge, nothing in her mind showed it such that the way one of her hands grasped at the collar of his jacket was done for an entirely different reason. Wrapping her legs around his waist, the Doubletake savoured the warm tang of tobacco on the captain's tongue while also silently cursing King's End for being so fucking cold. The staircase was certainly nothing compared to Torchline's shores, but Flora could have certainly gotten behind being fucked on a pillar for all the see.
"If you think this counts as a date, then I'm going to count drawing a star in the sand as calling down Safrin for you." Flora counters with a crooked smile.
"We both know you don't mean that," Jack counters, wicked fingers slipping beneath the layers of her jacket to seek out the warm and supple curves beneath, to turn her thoughts rose gold and scarlet with his attentions. And whilst he's in agreement - King's End is far too fucking cold even for him to be tempted to fuck Flora against a pillar - she doesn't necessarily have to go without.
"Touche," he mumbles about Safrin, drawing back to glance over his shoulder at the lights winking in the distance that can only be the House of Midnight. Not that he expects her to go for it, given the whole mother, step-dad and whatever other familial ties there might be at play, but he raises his eyebrows questioningly nonetheless.
Sipping in a breath against the chill of Jack's fingers, the bite of cold only has the Doubletake crumpling forward and against the captain all the more. Eventually, she'll ask him what it's like for him to peer into someone's mind when they're aroused, but for the moment she lets her thoughts drift away to what it would be for someone wandering hopelessly lost during LongNight, only to see Flora astride the captain, her body glowing gold in the lantern light.
Exhaling slowly a breath that wanted to leave her lips in a rush, Flora twisted slightly in Jack's lap to peer over his shoulder. There's only a moment of hesitation, and honestly given what her parents did in their divine capacity surely they couldn't fault her for following somewhat in their footsteps, before Flora nods, her lips against Jack's once more.
Take me, she thinks. I want it to feel like it was on the beach. Whether that meant in a room where it simply felt as though there were eyes upon her, or if she wanted Jack to fuck her on one of the couches in the common area, she'd leave it to him to decide.
Following her gaze - and more closesly her train of thought - Jack is already adjusting them to stand by the time Flora's request buzzes through her mind, such that he's caught against her lips almost belatedly. Pausing to write salacious promises against her tongue with his own, to draw her flush against his body and to hold her just a touch possessively, the captain's eyes are near black in the lantern light as he leans to grab it up from the ground, hurrying them back down the steps.
It isn't a great distance back towards the House of Midnight, it's true, but with only Flora's thoughts for miles around until they get close, one can easily imagine how distractible Jack is liable to be until the dancing lights become discernible shapes, and other - admittedly horny and uncouth - thoughts drift into the mix.
And now that they are close enough, the captain is able to set down the lantern and draw the Doubletake back flush against his side, something that is absolutely more for her than it is for him. But it's the same difference at this point, as he leads them into the reception area with no doubt as to who he's with.
Jack's kiss has Flora debating the consequences of frostbite, because fuck if she wants to do anything other than feel his fingers grasping at her skin instead of just her jacket. She lets them part of course, choosing the longevity of her limbs over a quick fuck, and follows the captain quickly down the stairs.
It's too far a distance to run with his hand in hers like they were horny teenagers seeking the sanctuary of someone's basement, but nor was it short enough to simply follow in breathless silence. So, knowing what she now did, the Doubletake took it upon herself to flood the captain's mind with images of the sorts of things one might expect to see in a brothel—aka HoT E3—that he might be as ready as she was once they arrived.
Drawing in a surprised breath as she was pulled to his side, gods but she'd have dropped to her knees right then and there for the gesture alone. #Damaged. Knowing the staff fairly well all things considered, as she breezed inside Flora was greeted by several friendly waves and heyyyy's that would have happily seen her part from the man at her side to join them instead. As she spoke with one of the staff about acquiring a room, Flora's thoughts were ruby-toned vignettes that showed Flora's legs parted as she sat upon the bar with Jack beneath her thighs, of her riding his cock in one of the corner booths as he ordered a whiskey from a server over her shoulder, of the way his mind could fill their room with the sound of the ocean and the feeling of sand.
