blood on my shirt, a rose in my hand

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

Given that the last time Flora had been in the Celestine she'd broken Koa's heart and left a piece of her own amidst the rubble that they'd both walked away from, it was perhaps a bit weird that the first person the queen was going to try and replace those memories with, was Asta. Then again, given that Flora's boyfriend was a telepath who'd immediately be privy to every single detail that came into the queen's mind should she venture here with him, maybe it was so strange after all.

Dressed in a sun-bleached forest green sweater, dark brown leggings and tall boots, Flora and the man at her side looked as though they might have been store mannequins given life such were their Leafchange fashion choices. But then, Asta had a knack for dressing well.

"Sooooooooo, tell me. How are thiiiiings?" With an arm linked companionably through Asta's, the Doubletake gave him a look over her shoulder which very much suggested that by thiiiiings she absolutely meant he and Danta.

i will never go backwards, i will never be seen
in the wake of disaster ...

They absolutely do look like they’ve walked out of the window of a store front – but Astaroth isn’t going to complain one bit. Flora looks lovely as always, warm and comfortable, and in an attempt to appear just as bundled up (because gods, being so high up in the sky during Leafchange was certainly not his idea of a great time), the butcher’s opted for dark slacks, pinstriped to match the vest over a warm dress shirt made with fine cotton fibers, soft to the touch. It’s a deep wine red that matches the interior lining of the double breasted top coat he wears, the back split to allow for room for his tail as well as movement. And for the added bonus, a scarf woven with white, tan, and grey is wound around the butcher’s neck.

Which only serves to add the only change in his appearance – being the silver hoop in one ear and a ruby stud in the other. “Quite well, darling.” His accented voice hums, cane clicking against the ground as he accompanies the Queen of Torchline in a manner not unlike how he often accompanied Danta. A threat to any who might look at her with a less than friendly look.

Keeping his arm intertwined with hers as they follow the path of the Celestine, a place Astaroth had seen in his brief venture to Stormbreak but had never gone within, he sweeps his gaze from the path ahead toward the queen on his arm, sharp teeth in that same characteristically sharp smile. “We now share a room.” He raises a brow playfully – as if it was a huge step (which, for the two Ancients, it actually kind of was). “How are things with you? I have heard tales that you have been a very busy woman.”

Astaroth

will you sink down to me?

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

"Gasp!" Flora's eyes light up as she shoots the Butcher a look over her shoulder, her smile growing wider and brighter by the moment as she envisions a far too domestic tableau of what a shared room might be like for the two ancients. "First of all, congratulations, second of all adorable." Her blue-green eyes trace the butcher's olive skin, and where once she'd been looking for signs about how he felt about her, now she looks for precisely those sorts of tells about Danta. There was no questioning the butcher's feelings about the Maverick surely, but still the queen sought the crinkles around his eyes, his too-sharp smile softening for a moment, a certain sparkle in his deep honey stare.

"And what is that supposed to mean?!" Nudging Asta with her hip and huffing an indignant puff of air from her nose, Flora raises her chin as if the butcher had just offended her delicate sensibilities. "If you mean the fact that I managed to get a lily from Rae planted in the Greatwood and channelled them to cleanse the area and save the Mathair..then yes, I have been busy." Peeping up at Asta over her shoulder, her lips twisted into a smirk she was trying to keep casual, the Doubletake shrugs. "And if you mean the fact that I'm dating someone now, then...also yes." Not bothering to hide her own reaction to speaking about someone she was so helplessly in love with, Flora blushes girlishly at the butcher's side.

Between the way Asta's eyes rather possessively sweep the area before them and how Flora has all too easily melted against his side, it's no wonder that as they stroll through the Celestine a number of passersby mumble what a cute couple they make. Ahh, if they only knew.

i will never go backwards, i will never be seen
in the wake of disaster ...

Oh, and she’ll see the soft twist of his features, even as he tries to keep them buried down. There’s a glimmer of that soft adoration when he hums his “thank you, my dear.” He doesn’t want to dwell on all the tidbit, nitty gritty information regarding his and Danta’s sleeping quarters – but there is an air of love that blossoms in his chest, a flower unfurling as he thinks about how open the Maverick had been to creating the den they slept in, if only because Asta had always felt more comfortable within the confines of one.

He's pushed out of it by the need to focus on her and what they’re here for – and decidedly not for him to wax poetic about his lover that had quite literally only stemmed from the fumbling the butcher had done with Flora. He’s simply glad to be able to spend time with her as he is now, comfortable, content, and the two of them impeccably dressed, mistaken for a couple. “Well, I had heard about the lily, yes. Saving the Mathair, however, has not reached my ears.” Tilting his attention away from where he’s busy scanning the area for any potential threats, the butcher flashes her a shark toothed grin, only to let it break into something far less mischievous and playful. “Oh?” Raising a dark brow, he fully embraces the hint of gossip that were typically shared by old ladies getting too much into other people’s business.

Anyway, he is observant when he wants to be, and despite the stress over the whole boggart ordeal, he had noted a bit of a spark there when it came to the two (and of course, rumors do have a tendency to flit across the winds, even regions apart). Of course, he doesn’t want to ruin the surprise – instead, letting his honey dark gaze flit to hers to let her gush about her partner. “Do not keep me in suspense, darling, I might very well perish from the wait.” Pulling her a touch closer, playfully eager. And if his possessive look with her around his arm means that people continue to leave them alone and make up their own stories, well, Astaroth won’t complain.

He's always been a fan of tea.

Astaroth

will you sink down to me?

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

The space Asta once used to take up in Flora's heart and mind has been reduced to a golden trinket no larger than a penny. Time has scrubbed away the stains of blood and rust that once marred their time together, such that all which remained were sparkling fragments of a charming honeyed gaze and the thrill of the unknown. It made it so that the queen had no reservations at all about hearing more about the butcher and the Maverick's arrangements, and though she hadn't expected Asta to be forthcoming with details, it did delight her to no end to see the strength of his love and affection for the other man peeking through his normally impenetrable mask. "I'm really happy for you two." Deciding it might be too early to ask about wedding plans, the Doubletake manages to keep that question caged behind her teeth, offering the butcher a bright smile instead.

"No? I wonder if I should be offended." Gods knew there were enough negative rumours about the Doubletake floating around (not all of them false, either), that maybe Flora had a right to be vaguely annoyed when tales of the good things she did weren't spread quite as quickly. Ahh, but that's gossip for you. "Mmhmmmmmmmmmm." She confirms, grinning fiendishly up at the butcher. "Channeled Rae and everything. They appeared and not only cleansed the remainder of the Greatwood, but saved the Mathair too." Flora didn't want to imagine what might have happened if she and her ragtag group of idiots had been forced to kill one of Caido's seasonal deities if such a thing was even possible. "Basically, I'm very impressive." She adds, and while her smile isn't nearly as sharp as Asta's is, it's every bit as boldly confident.

"Well, we wouldn't want that, huh? Danta would never let me hear the end of it if I let you die of suspense." Now it's Flora's turn to flush, and while she does try and limit the affection that lights up her face, she isn't nearly as successful or practised as Asta. "His name is Jack. You know, the one we went into the Labyrinth with?" Raising her eyebrows, the queen bites at her bottom lip to try and stop her smile from running away with her. "We've been dating for...I dunno, maybe a season or so now? And...yeah, it's going really great. My dads hate him, or, well, I guess I should say two out of three of them do." What with Sunjata having officially proposed and all. "But that's hardly a surprise."

i will never go backwards, i will never be seen
in the wake of disaster ...

“I am happy too.” As if it wasn’t already evident by the way his voice changes when he speaks of the Maverick, the way he lets a certain softness envelop himself as he reminisces. He often thinks he’s able to keep himself masked up better than this — but love, however mundane he finds the word, has changed that.

Amusement lingers in his gaze as he lets the dark honey sweep from her to the path ahead, a perfectly good body guard that shares his warmth with her as they wander in the chill of Leafchange, listening dutifully enough to let the soft chuckle leave him to hear Flora mention she doesn’t know whether to be offended or not. As she continues, though, he flashes her a shark toothed grin again. “You are infinitely impressive, darling.” Despite not dating her, he’s more than willing to rave about everything she’s accomplished (number one, being the fact she’d convinced Safrin to save him).

His dark gaze focuses on her to see the flush and tells of love, of adoration and all the happy giddiness in between. “Ah, is that so?” He muses, the butcher reflecting on whether he’d been able to sense it back then in his memories— but admittedly, he’d been quite distracted with the fact he and Flora had not been on talking terms and the whole boggart thing. “Hah, well, I do not envy the man for having so many fathers to impress.” He snorts, grin twisting a bit crooked. “I highly doubt I would have succeeded as well.” He tests the water of joking about their time together before he shakes through it.

“Are they simply overreacting?” He doesn’t know Remi and has in fact met Ronin once, but he doesn’t know how they would react when it came to their daughter’s dating prospects. He hadn’t made it that far with her.

Astaroth

will you sink down to me?

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

Though she laughs, Flora bites back the urge to say that Remi and Ronin probably would have liked Asta more than Jack; it felt like the sort of thing that made too much of what she and the butcher had once been, and gods knew how easy it was for Flora to blow things out of proportion. "UHM, I mean...yes and no, I guess?" Crinkling her nose, the queen glances up at Asta before letting her smile slowly fall away. "If they weren't such assholes about it, there are some things I guess I can see them being worried about." She admits, nibbling on the inside corner of her cheek. "He is a bit older than I am, and there's some stuff in his past that...I mean.."

For a moment Flora doesn't even know what it is she means to say. She doubted if Jack regretted anything in his past, doubted if he'd have done it any differently. Saying that it was just how Torchline was made it sound like his behaviour needed some sort of justification when, in Flora's mind, it didn't. Tightening her fingers against Asta's upper arm, the Doubletake's smile slowly reappears. "I think maybe he's a little bit like you in that way. He has a past," for better or worse, "-but that doesn't make him unlovable, or undeserving of being happy, you know?"

As they round a bend in the pathway, no rare animals, womp womp, Flora picks the direction that opens onto the grouping of marble statues amidst a decadent water feature. Parting from Asta's side, Flora reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small glass vial filled with sand and water from Torchline's shores, as well as a few pearls. "It's an Accepted thing." She explains over one shoulder before leaving them on the shrine dedicated to Safrin.

i will never go backwards, i will never be seen
in the wake of disaster ...

If nothing else, the butcher supposes that he has the politeness to make it work – but as Flora continues, some portions remain the same. He is also a bit older and yes, he does also have a past. A past he has not shared with Flora completely, and for the most part he doesn’t intend to. “Ah yes, I do know.” Astaroth hums softly, giving her arm a light squeeze from where she’s placed it entangled with his, pressing it against his side and the smooth fabric of his coat. “I suppose I would consider it overprotective?” In terms of her fathers, at least. That maybe, unlike his own past, there had been a greater good that was focused on.

Rounding the corner, he releases her as she starts to pull away from him – watching with warm dark eyes as she drifts toward the shrine dedicated to Safrin. And while it isn’t his cup of tea (and he takes note of a distinct lacking of a shrine to his goddess and of rare creatures), the butcher shoots Flora a playfully sharp grin. “I was Accepted, once upon a time.” He isn’t sure if she knows that tidbit of his past – that he hadn’t always been Ancient, and if she didn’t, well, now she does.

His tail flicks idly and his posture remains nearly impeccable, drawing him taller than he should otherwise be with the help of the pronged horns on display as he continues. “Though I was not as culturally… mm, experienced? We did not often leave offerings to the gods unless it were to the seasonal deities -- the Eirachi, in particular, for an easier means to hunt.” His tongue clicks as he thinks about those particularly offerings – something that seemed so trivial and nearly barbaric compared to todays offerings and abilities.

Astaroth

will you sink down to me?

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

"Maybe," Flora conceeds with a frown, before stiffening. "Except Remi literally like...ambushed Jack in a supply closet in the Tavern. And then when we came over for dinner, the two of them had it out while Ronin just walked away." Overprotective was one thing, but the queen was still rigid in her belief that both the Knight and Bastion were firmly in douchebag territory. "They can be overprotective, but it's still my life, you know? And if my heart gets broken, well..." Trying not to let her expression falter too much, though the fact that Jack more or less had told her that he was incapable of loving her weighed heavily on her mind, Flora shakes her head. "..I mean, that's still my choice." She concludes defiantly if not a touch sadly.

Glancing sharply over her shoulder and not bothering to hide her surprise—whether Flora had or hadn't known this tidbit about Asta's past was lost in the chaotic way that their relationship had ended—the queen lets her lips comically part. "Wait, really? That's crazy." It wasn't, not when you thought about it, but in the moment Flora couldn't fathom that Asta had ever been anything other than the impeccably dressed predator that stood before her.

"Yeah...I think maybe Safrin cares a little bit more about it than the other gods do, but..." Glancing at the shrine, she shrugs. "She's never let me down yet, so I guess doing this isn't that much of a chore, you know?"

i will never go backwards, i will never be seen
in the wake of disaster ...

As Flora explains, Astaroth’s nose wrinkles slightly to hear all of the things that had happened (once again so quietly grateful that it wasn’t him who had to face it). “Yes,” the butcher agrees with a small smile of his own to hear the slight sadness in her tone.

But, he warms up as he takes in her surprise — his smile widening as he steps toward the shrine if only to get a little bit closer. “I do indeed.” He agrees, because while Dygra didn’t require offerings so much as he had heard Safrin did, Astaroth still went out of his way to worship and give praise to his deity whenever he could. Here, though, the lack of Dygra was unsurprising, if not a reminder that so many had forgotten who they were, Ancients that had once roamed chaotically and fanatically.

Offering his arm to her again should she wish to depart from the shrine, the butcher flashes her a playful and mischievous smile. “In case you were curious, my dear…” He hums like a secret between them, before he flashes Flora a wink and activates his glamour, the sharp tines of horns vanishing into nothing, ruffling his carefully kept hair. His teeth remain mostly the same, aside from the length of his canines — their sharp points matching the rest of his sharpened teeth. His tail vanishes as well, making him appear naught more than just another Accepted with impeccable style.

Astaroth

will you sink down to me?

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

"Was there...uhm..." Knowing that what she was about to ask was perhaps more personal than she had any right to, Flora offers the butcher a crooked smile as a preemptive apology. "..any reason it took you so long to tell Danta how you felt about him...?" Given the few similarities between Asta and Jack—their bloodied past, their rather secretive inclinations, the fact that they were both older—the queen thought perhaps whatever reasons the butcher had for keeping his cards close to his chest even when it came to someone he cared about might give her some insight into Jack.

Then again, perhaps the captain simply was incapable of love, or worse, incapable of loving her.

Happy to tuck herself against his side, Flora murmured a soft mmm?, her eyebrows raising, completely at a loss for what it was she might be curious about in terms of their present conversation. Having never seen one of the ancients utilize their glamour before, it catches her completely off guard. "Wh—" Tugging him to a stop and then stepping in front of him to get the full effect, Flora was shocked at just how different the absence of Asta's horns made him look. Lifting a hand as if to smooth her fingers over the place where his antlers had once been, the queen quickly thinks better of it as she grins. "So are they...gone gone? Or..." Raising her brows, she nods toward his head, wondering if she traced the space above his hair if she'd bump into invisible tines.

i will never go backwards, i will never be seen
in the wake of disaster ...

He isn’t sure what the preemptive apology is for until he hears the follow up question; one that has his smile softening a touch. “There were a few reasons, actually.” He starts to say, meeting her apologetic and crooked smile with one of his own. “Not only was the sensation new for me, so I could not aptly describe it,” here he pauses to ensure his voice remains the same open and easy to talk to tone rather than a small bitterness that the word love still seemed so mundane. “Danta is… not the type to enjoy the idea of being tied to another person so inherently.” She knew him, she’d know what he meant by it, that while Danta would do whatever sexually, it was simply left at that. Romance and feelings were foreign, terrifying concepts. “We had gotten close to admitting it, once, and I think I had overstepped or tried to explain my emotions too soon and once he started to get.. mm, flighty? I retracted from delving any further into it.” And he had been content to keep pretending like that, until Flora laid it all out in front of them and they were forced to acknowledge it.

Up until then, though, he was not going to pursue. He loved the Maverick enough to let his feelings remain just that, if Danta didn’t want to commit to anything or love him back. He was fine with that.

Ah but then he’s showing off his glamour and allowing her to release him to stand in front of him and get a full look — his posture impeccably straight as he clasps his hands behind his back, made shorter and less threatening without the tines of his antlered horns, even if his teeth were still just as sharp. “Gone, gone, darling.” He hums, reaching up with a hand to card through his dark hair, snagging on nothing in the process of combing it back. “This is perhaps as close as I can get to appearing like my old Accepted self.” Dramatically, as always, though, the butcher gives her the full view as he straightens up again, spinning in a slow circle to let her see each and every change to him before he rounds back out to face her with a playful bow; one that has his hair slipping forward now that there aren’t any horns to block it from moving.

Astaroth

will you sink down to me?

your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grand

Adoring him for answering her questions, Flora chews silently on the inside of her cheek as he answers. If it wasn't clear that her probing into his love life had slightly ulterior motives, no doubt her next line of questioning would clue him in. Then again, he had gone on a number of dates with her and not picked up on what was happening, so it was possible this would go over his head as well.

"You couldn't describe it, but...you knew what it was, didn't you?" One Jack had told her that he'd never loved anyone before, and Flora had countered that when you were in love with someone you just knew it.

"Really? I'd have thought he'd love the idea of being tied to you." Winking, the joke an attempt to silently communicate that she absolutely understood the difficulty of trying to manage a relationship with someone so sexually promiscuous as Danta was, Flora winces as Asta mentions having come close once to admitting his feelings only to feel the Maverick pull away. "That's so hard." Having been in that situation once herself, the queen can only give the butcher's arm a gentle squeeze. "If I hadn't said anything that night...would you have just been content to stay silent? To just...love him from afar, I guess?"

As Flora's eyes rove over the butcher, they don't do so with the same hunger he'd have once experienced from her, but her gaze is every bit as enamoured. "You look so..." Tilting her head as he spins, once again she has to resist the urge not to reach out and ruffle her fingers through his hair. It looks all the more inviting for the lack of horns, and yet, the way he looked felt a bit like the sensation of having a word stuck on the tip of your tongue. "...average." She decides after a moment, before covering her face with her hands to try and hide her laughter.

"What I mean, is that nothing beats the way you look normally."

i will never go backwards, i will never be seen
in the wake of disaster ...

He does take into consideration the fact she would be utilizing his answers for her own love life, though it isn’t his place to ask why such questions mattered so much. What he can do, though, is answer them honestly. And he does. “Somewhat.” He admits with a small apologetic smile. “I knew that I was protective of him despite having no reason to be, and that I wanted nothing more than to ensure he was happy.” He rolls a shoulder in a small shrug. It’s a snort that comes from the butcher, next, inclining his head with a huff of a laugh.

It's a laugh that twists a bit more somber as he nods, his honesty coming through tenfold. “Yes.” There’s no hesitation as the word falls from his lips. “If it made him happy to, then yes.” Jealousy aside, it had been something he’d came to terms with when he had stuffed his own feelings down. If he was happy, then that’s what mattered to the butcher.

A huff leaves him, the chuckle soft as he plays into his dramatics when he draws up from the bow and tilts his head. “Oh, you can be honest, Flora darling. I look perfectly mundane.” His tone takes on the playful drama of how it could be the worst thing possible, even as his hand spiders out above his heart and he leans back in the picture-perfect image of being wounded. “I will, however, say that at times it saves my pillows from being shredded in the midst of the night.” So, it had its perks.

He drifts toward her again, though, letting go of his glamour to let the horns spiral out from his skull, the sharp points glinting in the light of fiery obsidian and his canines lengthen in the smile he shoots her way. “Is this better?”

Astaroth

will you sink down to me?