[SE] messy hands

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

"Thanks for flying me over." Stepping off the Firecracker and onto Apopo's volcanic shores, Flora wiped at her forehead where several beads of sweat had already begun to form the second the sea breeze was no longer brushing against her face. Tallsun Longheat had arrived with a vengeance such that the loose-fitting romper Flora had put on that morning felt like a woollen sweater.

"I wonder if we could ever turn that thing into a weapon." She hums, glancing at Apopo through her sunglasses and wrinkling her nose. "I mean, no reason to think it won't ever erupt again, y'know? So why not make it useful." Looking toward the Honeybee with a shrug, Flora pulled a jar out from the bag slung over her shoulder and scooped some of the island's dark soil into it. "Wild that this is actually good for growing things. I'd have thought it was the opposite."

MELITA

Any opportunity to fly like a fucking maniac was all right in Melita’s book – so she simply handwaved the acknowledgment away and landed it without crashing as if it hadn’t taken the whole of her concentration. Apopo had a decent, soft loam anyway, making the ordeal not as painful as it could’ve been.

Grabbing Fangorn (and ignoring his illustrious side-eye), Sila had long since taken off for the sky to hover and watch from above, Melita’s eyes widened at the absolutely amazing idea. “Hoooo shit, we totally should.” Adjusting her gaze to the crater, and recalling the absolute devastation and firepower behind it, she considered portions and pieces that would need to meld together. “Probably ought to have some clause in it not erupting on Torchline though.”

The other properties of the land though unfurled a shrug through her shoulders; her mother would’ve known. “Yeah, supposed to be fertile, I guess.” So while Fangorn dangled his vines within the dark soil, the Honeybee set to scooping some up as well, placing the adornments in Flora’s jar. “What do you need this for?”

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

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

Grinning, absolutely adoring Melita for always being up for the most ridiculous of nonsense so long as it involved some amount of chaos, Flora nods. "Can you imagine what it would be like to have the power of a volcano?" Even just to be able to threaten it would be cool enough; maybe they wouldn't even have to go through with it. After all, who'd want to call that bluff?

"Yeah....probably.." Not melting Torchline in the process was a good shout.

"Oh, I asked Rae for a lily." Flora explains with a sigh as she adds a bit more soil into her jar and screws the lid on. "Silly me for thinking they'd just hand one over." Rolling her eyes, she gives the jar a little shake. "Apparently I need to grow one, hence the soil." Grinning, the Doubletake waggles her eyebrows. "I also need unicorn shirt. Bet you can guess who I asked to get it for me."

MELITA

“Don’t tempt me with a good time,” she whistled with an impish grin to settle amidst her features – already pondering and scheming if she could request and harness the power of a volcano on her own from Ludo. Wouldn’t that settle into the realm of chaotic? Couldn’t be any worse than her other magic –

Well, yeah, it could, but that was kinda half the point.

Coming all the way out here just for some soil seemed to congregate into most godly quests, though her brow arched at the sentiments of Flora asking Rae for a lily. An A for effort, surely, and while the Honeybee could always appreciate the sparks of audacity and esteem, she probably never would have thought to ask one of the Old Gods for the mending flowers. “Too bad. But it’s something.” And would be for the future – whenever it all came done and finished.

Though the notions of unicorn turds had her ceasing from staring at her darkened palms and back up to Flora’s sentiments; the juvenility back into her eyes. “Good for you. He’d know exactly what a piece of shit looks like.” Because he was one – get it? “That all you need?” Gesturing of course to the single jar.

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

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

"Yeah." Flora agrees with a sigh, though she rolls her eyes for good measure. "Honestly though, you'd think given how this is meant to literally save our people they'd be more inclined to help." Then again Rae had never seemed inclined to do much of anything other than observe, but surely at some point the gods could just throw them a bone?

Oh, she gets it. Smirking in return, Flora runs her tongue along her teeth and bounces her eyebrows. "He says he's going to charge me extra for it." Putting the jar into her bag, the queen stands, brushing off her knees and shins. "Which, you know, best of luck." If the price was too high no doubt she could have Deimos send her some of Zuriel's shit and she could just call it a day, leaving Tal stuck with a bag of shit for his troubles.

Placing her hands on her lower back and leaning into the pressure, as Flora stands, her upper lip rises in a sneer as she stares at Starfall. "I'm honestly so sick of all of this." She mutters, glancing toward Melita with a half-hearted shake of her head. "Like, at least when war was coming we all knew more or less what to expect, but I swear just having them sit there and do nothing like that is even worse."

MELITA

Truth be told, Melita’s experience with any of the higher-up echelon of deities was stark and empty. The only things she knew about Rae had been from hearsay and books; and even then, it was skimming over the properties. “Aren’t they more the experimental type?” Honestly, maybe they should’ve been more surprised that the twin divinities had opted to give Flora a quest at all. “Maybe they wanted to see if you’d work for it.” To which she gave an impish grin, before glancing at her sooty hands and dusting them off.

Talyson and his charges made her snort and roll her eyes. “Likes to talk a lot of shit for someone who can’t back it up.” And a bold presumption to make towards the literal Queen of Torchline – with her assembly and family of demigods at the ready.

Her gaze snapped to Starfall in the distance as she snagged at Fangorn, who was now opting to roll in the loam. She wrinkled her nose in its direction, more or less a scowl on her features. “Or that they’re so much more…powerful than us? Feels like we're being mocked.” To Melita, anyways, that was the most frustrating aspect of all.

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

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

"Yeah...but, like, why couldn't the experiment be them being generous for once?" Flora counters with a groan, before bouncily shrugging her shoulders. "Yeah, maybe." Her tone is bland, not wanting to imagine that while she was out here trying to do something good for Torchline, the gods were just amusing themselves to see how high she'd jump in the process.

Grinning at Melita, more than happy to keep the poop-jokes flowing, Flora snickers under her breath. "Well, we'll see what he has to say. If he's an asshole about it maybe I'll just dump the bucket on his head and refuse to pay."

Biting at the inside of her cheek having not considered it in quite those terms before, Flora folds her arms over her chest and tightens her grip. "Yeah..." She agrees softly. "Or maybe it's a bluff. I mean, what if they threw everything they had at my dad and they actually aren't that strong, but they're letting us think they are?"

MELITA

The Honeybee laughed – she couldn’t quite help herself. “I don’t know. I think if I were an all-powerful god, I’d be obnoxious as fuck, so no one would come bother me.” So minus the omniscient part, much like her regular self. While Rae very well might have had other reasons for not giving or granting the lily in general, the speculation caused a Cheshire grin and more giggles.

And shit joking along was even more impressive, especially when combined with threats. She hummed under her breath, a light little tune that probably would’ve been ominous in any other situation, head tilting on her amusements. “That would be delightful. And he would've done a crappy job.”

As for bluffs and Starfall, she lost the entanglements of her snicker, attention deviating back to Starfall in the distance. “It’s hard to take a risk against a sham,” she supposed, nose wrinkling. “We’ll find out more whenever they get back, but…like, how the fuck is anyone supposed to unseat Dahlia? We know she’s strong.” Given what had happened to Remi.

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

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

"If anyone ever asks how you became a demigod for Ludo, I'm just going to quote that back to them." Flora snickers before shooting the Honeybee a sacchirine smile.

"I'll let you know how it goes, but my guess is that he's gonna step in it." Honestly, depending on what mood he found her in the queen might be content to blow her quest if only to see Tal covered in unicorn shit. It wouldn't be hard to have Deimos send her some more, surely, and gods, it'd be worth it.

Twitching her lips back and forth as she gazed out toward Starfall, Flora could only give her head a little shake. "I have literally no idea." Strategically, she supposed if the A Team fucked things up enough it would be a matter of reclaiming various infected regions to bring the Reaper's strength down. While in principle that all sounded well and good, in practice Flora couldn't see it going smoothly at all. "I wonder why the gods don't ever fight with us. I mean, based on what we know of The Family, if Caido gets fucked over, surely the heralds and gods do too?"

MELITA

“Pfff,” she uttered with a vague wave of her hand; probably because no one would have to ask how she’d become Ludo’s demigod. The herald had likely pinpointed her early for likeminded catastrophes and bedlam.

At impending doom hovering over Talyson though, she gave another Cheshire grin, the impishness reaching her eyes with a clearly demonic semblance of glee. “Well, if you ever need backup,” she flickered over her own incantations, becoming invisible a moment, a method she preferred nowadays for the capability of sheer shitfuckery, “you know who to ask.” She reappeared soon after, making finger guns for emphasis.

Starfall was another matter that didn’t send her any glee; save for the thought of blowing it sky-high. “Safrin tried, didn’t she?” Hadn’t that been encased amongst the warnings? “Though that was on her own.” And that they were stronger and more capable than the goddess wasn’t really comforting. “Maybe they can’t?” Like they had some godly code or some shit. Theorizing wasn’t Melita’s strong suit, to be fair, but she glanced back at Flora as if to compare notes or hear disapproval.

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

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

Flora's smile blooms into something wonderfully wicked as she nods. "Y'know, I think I can probably channel you the way I do my dads." How much more dramatic would it be to have Melita simply appear out of thin air to bother Talyson, rather than pop up from behind a couch or dramatically shove open a door? "So, uh, careful how long it takes you to get dressed after a shower, I suppose." Flora adds with a crooked smile, having already seen both Remi and Ronin in various states of undress when she'd channelled them.

But then they're onto the Starfall of it all and Flora's smile witheres. "Yeah, but...I mean surely having a goddess going to fight alongside them would make things easier?" Raising her eyebrows at the insinuation that there was some actual reason for it that reason of course being an OOC one, she can only sigh grumpily before lifting her free hand and flipping the island off with her middle finger.

"Well, I've got what I came for. You need anything?"

MELITA

That had actually never been a thought that had occurred to Melita (big surprise). Her eyes widened a fraction – before narrowing, brows furrowing, trying to decide if she liked the idea of being able to come and go and shoot shit, or not, given the opportunity of random and unsightly interjections. “Huh. Well. If you need me,” she shrugged.

Flora’s withered smile and the Honeybee’s casualness about the whole thing co-existed in rhyme and reason. “Oh sure – but from what I hear, Safrin tends to make some lives much more difficult.” On purpose. The Doubletake knew the stories. But Melita flipped the island off to for fun and amusements and whatever devious notions she could think of, before shaking her head. “Nah. I’m good to go.” And with that, they could hasten off on the Firecracker again, companions all assembled and more portions of quests done and dusted.

[FIN]

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight