i hate it here

flora

Flora gasps softly, eyes widening with mock scandal as her cheeks flush a deeper, very real shade of pink. "Danta," she scolds, though her voice is far too breathless and amused for it to land as a genuine reprimand. "You’re terrible," she adds, but the mischievous sparkle in her eyes betrays exactly how much the idea appeals to her. Because, well—it does. A lot, actually.

She reaches hastily for the refilled glass, hiding her traitorous smile behind the amber liquid as she imagines the scene he’s just so casually put into her head. A vivid image of both the Maverick and the butcher—together, with her—flashes into her mind, heat instantly coiling low in her stomach. Her pulse raced at the thought of them lavishing her with attention as much as each other, and gods, was it warm in here suddenly?

She quickly shifts gears, grateful for the distraction of death even as her heart rate slowly settles back to something approaching normal. "For some reason I thought that because of Dygra you'd all be spared up here." Quite why that should be Flora didn't know, but the idea of the attack had the heat in her belly quickly cooling. "I don't know how much I can do to help seeing as I was literally murdered for interfering before, but...I mean if you can think of anything?"

Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price
You know that I bought it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// sun comin' up on a dream come around //

Bouncing his eyebrows mischievously as he's scolded, his own cheeks flushed with a mix of anticipatory pleasure and a good deal of alcohol, he can only shrug his shoulders at Flora as if to tell her it was worth a go. "I am a child of Dygra. We are all terrible, if not for a multitude of reasons," he quips, curling his tail around the leg of his barstool as if to keep it from twitching its interest too much.

Grumbling his agreement - he also thought that perhaps his dark lady was too big and spooky to have been a target of any Family shenanigans, evidently they have been very mistaken indeed. "The last thing I want to do is dump you back into danger. You've got enough to deal with, if the things Kiada tells me from the letters is any indication. I was sorry to hear about your sister, by the way." He wrinkles his nose.

"I suppose it's just time I started reaching out to the other leaders or looking for flowers or whatnot. Still, I am tempted to put a big, Family targeting upgrade on the Spire cannon."

Dantalion

// one hundred years from the empire now //

flora

Trying in earnest to force herself to focus on the amber ripples of light her glass was refracting onto the bartop rather than the images her mind was insistently trying to paint behind her eyes, the queen can only shoot the Maverick an almost pained expression. Surely a large sip of her whiskey would help.

Wrinkling her nose in agreement as she sets her drink back down, it takes Flora a moment to remember that Kiada handled all of Danta's correspondence. "Oh...yeah. Thanks." Mention of Seren is enough to have her thoughts swiftly shifting, and it's with cheeks now coloured only by the alcohol that Flora considers. "I know Halo has been getting fucked a ton. Deimos mentioned that when they went to take birds from Stormbreak Dahlia got real upset about it." No doubt Danta had received the same news, but if he was going to try for a Family-upgraded, it might be worth mentioning.

"If you ever want a hotspring date just say the word. Though...I'll need a bit of warning seeing as not all of us can just waltz through your big fire the way you can."

Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price
You know that I bought it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// sun comin' up on a dream come around //

"Mm, I do remember hearing as much. Still, maybe that just means we ought to go hunting for crystals on that big purple island, no?" He grins, before the expression fades; unlike a certain captain (though he doesn't know Jack is specifically that brand of stupid), Danta does not have a deathwish. "You'd think that the gods could just..." He makes a swooping sort of gesture, like a hand plucking void crystals from Starfall without interference from Family members.

At the mention of a hotspring date though, his cold blue eyes light up. "Now that sounds like my sort of contribution to the cause," he agrees. "And don't you worry about my itsy bitsy fire. I've got enough magic to keep you from getting any burns these days." Indeed, if they ever found themselves facing another void wicker woman, Danta likes to think he's got a decent amount of firepower behind him to contribute.

Dantalion

// one hundred years from the empire now //

flora

Pulling a face before realizing that Danta had been kidding, Flora sighs with relief that she won't be attending the Maverick's funeral anytime soon. Or, at least not because he'd decided to venture to Starfall. "Maybe they can? I mean...Seren came back with one when she.." Well. When she came back that last time. "It's what Torchline used the last time." Not because of anything Dahlia had or hadn't done, but simply because it had been easier, which, in retrospect, seemed an absolutely foolish boon to have wasted.

Grinning fiendishly in return, Flora raises her eyebrows in a slight challenge. "Oh? Would your big old fuck off fire out there even transport me then, if you parted the flames for me to step through?" They could always wander around the Greatwood which was admittedly a good deal closer but by no means was it as fun as luxuriating in a magical hotspring and calling it saving the world.

Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price
You know that I bought it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// sun comin' up on a dream come around //

"Well if that's the case, why don't they? Why lumber us poor fool mortals with the job?" Danta huffs. "Of course, I'm only speaking about your gods," he adds with a playful grin. "Dygra has her reasons and it's not my place to question them. Besides, perhaps she'll be interested in telling the Family to go fuck themselves now that the void has started targeting her children."

All in all, it means he's likely to be going to a shrine again sooner rather than later.

But first, apparently, there's a hotsprings to visit.

"My fire will do whatever I tell it to do," he assures her, pausing for dramatic effect (which is actually just so he can take another drink of his whiskey). "But, yes. The portal is within the fire, so if I part it for you to step through, you should be just dandy. We can go tomorrow, if you like. I relish the opportunity to tell Asta we went without him so he gets jealous."

Dantalion

// one hundred years from the empire now //

flora

"Ah yes of course, just my gods." Flora agrees with a playful roll of her eyes, though it takes absolutely no effort on Danta's part to convince the queen that in fact the gods could be doing a lot more to help out than just send them on errands for flowers or fuck ship's captains to make children.

"Hah, see—" Triumphantly Flora lifts her glass, inclining it pointedly toward the Maverick with a raise of her brows. "Sometimes jealousy can be fun." Taking far too large of a swallow given how sweetly the whiskey was already singing through her veins, Flora presses the back of her hand against her lips to stifle the response of her stomach before setting the glass down. "Tomorrow sounds lovely, though maybe not too early." Judging by how smoothly the liquor was still more or less going down, Flora couldn't imagine she was going to be in any state come sunrise.

Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price
You know that I bought it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// sun comin' up on a dream come around //

Nodding sagely and raising his glass in a toast as if glad to hear that Flora is in agreement with the uselessness of her gods, Danta grins and finishes what will turn out to be his last glass of whiskey of the night, judging by how very light his limbs have started to feel and how everything is beginning to seem like the best idea. As for jealousy and how fun it can be, the Maverick concedes with a rich laugh, clinking his empty glass against Flora's and setting it down so he can nibble at a cube of cheese.

"Oh, I never do anything too early, unless you count Asta," he quips with a fiendish grin, stretching his arms above his head. "Now come on - enough politics and being sad about piss poor captains and their dumb decisions. Things are just about to start getting lively in here." Indeed, the slow guitar has been surrendered and a medley of other instruments are about to strike up, and before the Dusklight knows it, Danta will have started an impromptu party. With dancing.

Suffice to say, it will be at least late morning before they head to the hotsprings the following day.

~FIN

Dantalion

// one hundred years from the empire now //