[God Quest] Take my hand, I'll show you the wild side

No way you can deny, you feel the most alive when you are terrified

Making a trip back here after Flora and he wrapped up his night in the climb, he swung by his parents first toc heck how they and his uncle were settling in. They had chosen here for its city familiarity, but admittedly the culture shock is leaving them feeling displaced. That, and well, losing their whole fucking city. He reassures them as best he can, the offer for Torchline still on the table, but they insist on trying it out for longer. Maybe he should introduce them to Charlie.

Speaking of which, while he's mainly here to see Dygra, he's fairly certain he'd never hear the end of it if he also didn't bring Charlie along, given her impressive devotion to the goddess and the fact this had all been her idea all along. The quest has been messy, a bit painful—but certainly survivable—and he generally had a good time with most of it. At least, most of the things that related directly to the quest. Some things he could have done without, surely. 

"So then what happened after he passed out?" Kaisel asks of Charlie, eyes wide as she recounts her day so far. "Did you just...keep going?" It's a whirlwind, and he expects little else. The hallway they walk down stretches out to the shrine, it's ruby red surface gleaming in the same invitation as before, half cut clean, half jagged and wild still.

Parting from Charlie's side to swing his backpack off his shoulders, he kneels down to pull out his chakram weapon, laying it near the shrine. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I got these for you!" He tosses over a jar of iron supplements, unsure if she actually needs them but figuring it surely can't hurt, and a small, adorable lava worm plushie he saw in some shops earlier today. Half heartfelt, half joke, he smirks before turning his attention wholly back to the task at hand. 

"Hey Dygra," he greets, closing up his backpack and reaching for the sharp edge of his chakram to properly greet the god. His palm splits in red, becoming mildly familiar with the process by now, and he presses the ruby liquid against the red stone as if granting a dead heart a reminder of what it once had. "Your quest was interesting at times, but I'm confident I got it all done. I brought Charlie again because she's the best."

---

Quest received here Cough cough

For: Upgrade this item
Leviathan Chakram | An unbreakable chakram created from the scale of a leviathan by the Voice. With razor-sharp edges, this discus will always return to the hand of whoever throws it, and will always do so without injuring the hands of the thrower.
Type: Dark | Style: Offensive | Level: Upgraded | Cost: Action

1. Complete a thread injuring someone with his chakram, ensuring the weapon is stained with their blood.
[Training] Jigsaw, I got 'em puzzled, got 'em a bit lost cut Danta with the chakram and got his blood all over it

2. Complete a thread using the chakram to injure himself, this time ensuring the weapon is stained with his blood.
Tongue game nerdy, ain't talking no Cyrus cut himself with the chakram and put his blood all over it

3. Complete a thread spending a night in The Climb (in a board of his choice), bathing his weapon in the light of an open fire.
[SE] There's something warm about the winter when you come around camped out in the Climb with his weapon and some fire

4. Complete a training thread with an Ancient - unarmed combat only.
[Training] Paint it black, don't need a midas touch fought Asta unarmed

Kaisel

I'm a daredevil on the highway to hell

Charlie

You know I talk too much
honey, come put your lips on mine & shut me up

Charlie’s laugh spills bright and shameless down the ruby-lit corridor, her heels clicking like punctuation marks against the stone as she glides beside him. "Pfft, of course I kept going!" she laughs, brows arching skyward as if he has asked the most naïve question in the world. Her grin stretches slow and wicked, fangs just barely threatening to show. "I don't have all day!" Her tail flicks behind her in a playful snap. "Besides, the paint was starting to dry."

She sweeps into the shrine space like a black flame, the tight dress clinging in all the right places, blonde curls spilling wild and luxurious around her shoulders, heels sharp enough to double as weapons if she ever got bored. The iron-scented air seems to adore her immediately. When he tosses the jar and the plushie her way, she catches them with exaggerated delight, cradling the lava worm against her chest with theatrical affection before peering at the supplements. "I wish you could have seen your own face," she purrs, bouncing her brows at him, the fanged smile that follows equal parts adoring and mischievous.

She sets the gifts carefully near the obsidian slab, because Charlie knows better than to clutter Dygra’s space with irreverence. Then, without hesitation, she drags her finger against the sharpened side of the shrine where crimson wells instantly, bright and glossy against her pale skin. She steps forward, drawing a line that's at first entirely straight and deliberate, the red cutting across the polished stone. Then her wrist loosens and the line fractures and branches. It splits into erratic veins and sharp deviations, jagged chaos creeping outward as though entropy itself is stretching awake beneath her touch. The pattern degrades into violent, beautiful disarray, controlled ruin. Intentional decay.

Her tail sways slowly behind her as she watches it bloom. Only when she’s satisfied does she step back, pressing her bleeding finger to her tongue, eyes glinting as she tips Kaisel a slow, knowing wink.

Dygra

"Confidence becomes you, boy." The heat in the shrine swells immediately, rippling through the air and swirling about Accepted and Ancient, though of course it lingers with Charlie for longer, kissing at her skin and her curls as if to greet her properly. "She is a child of chaos," Dygra's low, sensual voice agrees, as if the best is no more and no less than that. 

But there is the chakram to consider, the glinting, bloody circle rising into the air before Kaisel. It looks, at first, as if it simply hovers there, but on closer inspection, the strange shimmer to the sharp edge proves otherwise. It's spinning, quick and wicked and barely contained, warmth warbling out of it like something alive. 

Just as it seems as though it will wrench free of the hold Dygra has upon it, something crackles throughout the shrine. A brief flash, a lick of fire, and the weapon drops innocuously back to the ground. It is changed now, but not - still sharp, still unbreakable, still unmistakably what Kai had set down, but now the surface is blighted with sharp symbols. There is no rhyme or reason to them - though perhaps if he were an Ancient, he might glean some innate understanding.

"It is done," Dygra says, "...but I am not."

Again the heat in the air intensifies around Charlie, lifting her curls from her shoulders and caressing her face and body. "At times," she tells the priestess, "chaos spills over. Too much to be expressed, even in eruptions or quakes or wildfires. I entrust one of these spills to you, dark one. Care for it in my stead. Teach it our ways. Ensure it burns brightly."

The little priestess will feel it then, albeit only very briefly - a heartbeat, fluttering and strong and much faster than her own, planted deep within her for safekeeping.

---

Kaisel has completed his quest and has received the following:

Leviathan Chakram | An unbreakable chakram created from the scale of a leviathan. With razor-sharp edges and jagged, erratic carvings etched into its surface, this discus will always return to the hand of whoever throws it, and will always do so without injuring the hands of the thrower.
Type: Dark | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered | Cost: Action 

Charlie has also been blessed by Dygra! She is now carrying a demigod child.

Table coding by Sky <3

No way you can deny, you feel the most alive when you are terrified

The bright laugh that leaves him at her quick and shameless assertion is one that the tall archways readily bounce around in lingering echo. ”I mean, really,” Kaisel scoffs on her behalf, biting the humor back down into a messy grin. ”It was rude of him to pass out. Not very considerate if you ask me.” Truthfully, poor man never stood a chance.

It’s on him for reminding her of the event, and he can laugh about it now, but he still rouses a kernel of defense as he shoots her a look over his shoulder. ”You put on too good of a show,” he accuses, the huff built into that bleeding out into fondness. ”Wish you could have seen yourself,” he mutters, about ready to call her Emily Rose. He’s rolling the memory away though as he rises up to the shrine and reaches out with a quite literal lifeline to Dygra.

As before, the god’s presence wells up with a heat that lingers, existing like something that has always been standing in the room with them and just now choosing to lean into notice a bit more. Kaisel inhales deep as the voice pours over the room, the smell of iron stronger than before. He stands a touch taller in response to the words, bolstered by the greeting. His gaze flicks from the shrine to Charlie as her hair shifts in the lingering hands of Dygra, a smile hooking one end of his mouth. ”That she is,” he confirms, like it’s the highest compliment and not just a fact.

The ease of it all tightens though as teh chakram begins to rise. Awe, more than anything else stills him, rooting him to the spot as his attention lifts to the soon rapidly whirling disc, looking for all the world like every little boy’s dream when playing Beyblades. It seems to garner such speed that it begins to cut against the very air, striking up a spark as if snarling against steel, but he knows better. Dygra’s touch is what he witnessed, and it lingers, shiny with a promise fulfilled as the weapon settles back to steady rest. Kaisel approaches it readily, crouching down with a hand extended towards it, reaching to trace one of the new runes there. His fingers curl back in caution at the warmth still rolling off it, surprised more than harmed. He extends through that feeling, the metal not so hot as to burn, but it flushes his skin as he claims it. ”You’re amazing, thanks Dygra,” he breathes, wonder yielding to a garetful excitement as he turns the blade over in his hand.

At the mention that she’s not done, his brows furrow briefly, and he considers placing the tool back down. It becomes clear that Dygra doesn’t mean him though, the air around Charlie beginning to shimmer with heat, making her appear like a fine mirage. ”A spill?” Kaisel says softly, more to himself as he rises, uncertain of what Charlie’s just been granted. No object appears, nothing other than Dygra’s embrace, but there’s an unmistakable weight being handed over, a charge to the air that Kaisel can practically pluck with his hands. He’s happy, he thinks, for whatever gift Charlie’s just been given, because the honor is clear even if the result isn’t.

Kaisel

I'm a daredevil on the highway to hell

Charlie

You know I talk too much
honey, come put your lips on mine & shut me up

Charlie absolutely preens under the heat as her goddess’s warmth curls around her like a lover who knows exactly how she takes her attention, and Charlie tilts her chin up into it with bright, adoring blue eyes that have been faithful for longer than most empires survive. She watches Kaisel’s chakram rise with open delight, pride softening her grin as the weapon spins wicked and alive before settling back to him transformed, and when Dygra’s voice turns—low and intimate and unmistakably directed at her—the priestess stills in a way that is rare for her. The words settle over her like velvet, and when that sudden, furious little heartbeat flutters to life deep inside her, Charlie’s composure shatters into pure, unfiltered astonishment. A delighted gasp escapes her before she can even try to swallow it down, and then she is laughing, eyes wide and luminous, smile breaking free in a way that is far less sultry and far more giddy than normal.

She nods up at the shrine in breathless agreement, not needing to voice a promise she has already carved into her bones, and then darts! to Kaisel, a blur of black dress and bouncing curls. Without so much as a warning she grabs Kaisel’s hand and plants it squarely against her stomach, pressing his palm flat there as though presenting him with the most scandalous secret in the world. The fabric is smooth, her abdomen still perfectly flat, nothing at all for him to feel yet except warmth and her barely-contained energy, but she holds his hand there anyway, eyes sparkling like she’s just won the grand prize at a carnival. "Can you feel it????" she demands, breathless and grinning, fangs flashing with reckless delight.

No way you can deny, you feel the most alive when you are terrified

There is no awareness of Dygra’s fading departure, not when Kaisel’s focus is solely locked on Charlie, confusion buffering the sense of excitement for her. She seems to have an idea, nodding with an eagerness that could make a bobble-head envious, and Kaisel is left very much feeling like he’s out of the loop of an inside joke. Which, normally you’re told, you had to be there, except he was there, he is here.

In a blink she’s before him, which you’d think you’d get used to but his body still startles in place a touch as she rematerializes in front of him, pulse hiking for that brief second of oh fuck. With her guidance, his hand rests across her stomach, fingers spread faintly over the heat that rolls off her. It lasts just long enough for her words to strike, landing like sparks off flint and into tinder, his mind engulfed in the sudden blaze of understanding.

He yanks his hand back so fast a few of the joints pop, acting as if her belly had just been an open flame. ”You’re pregnant!?” he blurts, eyes so wide they might just fall out of his head as his stare darts from her belly to her face and back again like a ping pong match. ”Waitwaitwaitwait,” he chokes out, throat suddenly too tight, the air overwhelmingly hot. He can feel the way all his clothes cling to him, far too stifling, and sweat beads immediately along his forehead as saliva floods his mouth. ”Ooooooooh fuck, I don’t feel so good.” He braces a hand out for her shoulder as the room threatens to spin and topple him over.

Kaisel

I'm a daredevil on the highway to hell

Charlie

You know I talk too much
honey, come put your lips on mine & shut me up

Charlie’s hand instinctively flies to her stomach the second Kaisel recoils, her palm smoothing over the flat plane of it as though shielding something precious and scandalous all at once. "Yep!" she chirps without hesitation, bright and buoyant as a champagne cork popping free, and then she beams up at him with such radiant delight it is almost blinding. "Dygra must have really approved of you," she continues, eyes sparkling as she gestures vaguely toward the shrine behind them. "Since she waited until you turned in your quest to do it."

When he starts to wobble, she is instantly there, wrapping her arms around his middle in a surprisingly sturdy brace, heels digging into the stone as she steadies him with determined cheer. She ducks slightly beneath one of his arms to peer up at him, her curls bouncing and her expression equal parts thrilled and amused. "Hey," she scolds playfully, tightening her hold just enough to keep him upright, "that’s supposed to be my line."

Then she gasps, dramatic and delighted, eyes widening with mock horror. "Or wait—do you have morning sickness too?" Her nose wrinkles as she tilts her head. "Sympathy nausea, I've heard that some partners sometimes get it." She pats his side reassuringly, still cradling him as though he might fully tip over at any second. "Do you want to sit down?"

No way you can deny, you feel the most alive when you are terrified

Ordinarily, Charlie’s relentless cheer is his favorite thing about her. In this moment though, it only serves to starkly contrast the way his plummets, leaving a clammy dread in its usual place. Everything out of her mouth right now hits the gas pedal on that trade, his scale unbalancing so abruptly that she bears more of his weight than he means. Dimly, some part of him is grateful that she’s so well practiced in holding up slouching lumps, a byproduct of her professional brand of worship, and the bonus of her lower center of gravity.

”Don’t,” he begs, never more inclined to prayer than this exact moment. ”I had no part in this, so I cannot be your p a r t n e r.” In crime, absolutely, always, but not in pregnancies. There’s an assurance he tries for but does not feel when he says it too, like he thought perhaps if he put it out into the universe, it’d ring more true than it does in the swirling currents of his body and mind, which are feeling suddenly like he might have been innocent, but far from a bystander. The path to hell, it turns out, is also paved with visits to Dygra’s shrine.

Nodding is all he can manage at her question, the movement shaking the stars threatening to close in on his vision. Willing some amount of motor control through a body that feels completely out of his control otherwise, he wobbles down her side, clinging to her like the world’s saddest stripper on an otherwise spectacular pole. His arm braces behind him awkwardly, and he leans into it and his ass as he settles on the ground. He leans forward over the tuck of his knees to try and bring in air better.

”Is this, normal!?” His voice cracks a bit, and he fights to clear his throat, to even out from the nosedive. ”Does Dygra, often just,” his hands kinda just roll around each other and flop out, which is an interpretive dance for his feelings currently, and he would argue is precisely what Dygra just did here in order to make him the father of Charlie’s baby.

Kaisel

I'm a daredevil on the highway to hell

Charlie

You know I talk too much
honey, come put your lips on mine & shut me up

Charlie blinks at him with exaggerated innocence as he begs, one shoulder lifting in a small, almost apologetic shrug that does absolutely nothing to hide the sparkle in her eyes. "Wellllll," she says lightly, glancing down at the way he’s gone pale and clammy, "your body certainly doesn’t think so." Not if his sympathy morning sickness was anything to go by. Despite the tease, she shifts her footing immediately to better support him, arms tightening around his middle as he starts to slide, her strength far more substantial than her petite frame suggests. She absorbs his weight without complaint, bracing through her heels and lowering with him rather than letting him topple outright, guiding him down in a controlled descent until he ends up slumped against the floor.

She follows him smoothly, sinking to her knees in front of him with practiced ease, the hem of her black dress pooling around her upper thighs as her tail flicks lazily behind her. There’s something adoring in her expression now, though it still dances with mischief, and she reaches forward to press the back of her hand to his forehead as though assessing a fever.

At his flailing interpretive hand motions, she tilts her head thoughtfully, curls sliding over one shoulder, and gives another small shrug. "Yes and no," she answers, as if discussing the weather. "Ancients can get pregnant in all sorts of ways. Sometimes it’s dramatic, sometimes it’s mundane. Half of us barely bother with birth control because if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen."

Then her hand drifts down from his forehead to rest against his knee, fingertips idly tracing little patterns there as she leans in closer, blue eyes gleaming. "But this," she says, lowering her voice with theatrical significance, "I think this is special." Her smile blooms again, bright and unabashed. "Because the baby is going to be a demigod." She tickles her fingers lightly against his knee, delighted. "That’s probably why Dygra waited for you to be here, Kai!"

No way you can deny, you feel the most alive when you are terrified

A wiser man might recall Charlie’s superb acting skills when she’d been ‘possessed’. Kaisel’s inclined to only recall the spill Dygra had mentioned, as if all the warnings mothers give teenage boys worldwide are true, that masturbating too much, too thoughtlessly, too messily, has repercussions. He’d not been spilling anywhere except Flora’s body and occasionally his own hand or sock on the times they’re apart for a bit, but could the god of chaos be out there collecting it all like some toothfairy sexual deviant? She likes offerings born from the body already, and if she is everywhere always, as he first felt upon his initial encounter with her, maybe…no, surely Frey would have some jurisdiction there.

The subtleties of Charlie’s amusement are lost to the struggle of staying conscious. Being on the ground helps, always easier to be closer to the floor when falling apart. ”What do you mean? What do you…mean? What do you MEAN?” in true Jlaw Hot Ones fashion he reacts to her very broad categorization of Ancient pregnancy potentials. Dramatic feels fitting given the scenario. ”You guys don’t have to…you know…” he blinks up at her over the puddle of a dress and legs that leave no curves to the imagination. His hands make another gesture, this time a finger from one hand poking into a hole created by the other.

His skin feels remarkably cool with the absence of her hand, though composure has begun to seep back in after the initial shock, bowing over his legs helping his breath come steadier. Or it was, until her fingers began to trail idle patterns against his skin, just as a partner might, and she leans in like this is a secret just for the two of them. He sits more upright, straightening, hands curling over his knees like shields. The blue band on his wrist catches the light, shining back at him. ”Charlie, I’m with F L O R A.” He drags her name out, each letter long and punctuated, as if Charlie and Dygra both need the reminder.

His eyes try to search hers, reaching for an understanding that won’t harm. ”I’m so excited for you, Charlie. Especially a demigod? Fuck yeah.” The thrill of celebration rises briefly inside him despite all odds. It’s just for her though, because for them, he shakes his head, dropping into his hands and groaning. ”Why did Dygra need me? Oh my godssssss, this is a fucking mess.” The urge to laugh is suddenly so strong, warring with the desire to sob like two wolves inside him fighting. ”I mean, I’ll be here for you.”

Kaisel

I'm a daredevil on the highway to hell

Charlie

You know I talk too much
honey, come put your lips on mine & shut me up

Charlie listens to Kaisel spiral with the patient expression of someone watching a particularly dramatic stage performance, her hand resting lightly on his knee as though she might steady him through sheer proximity. If she has pieced together the very specific and wildly incorrect conclusion he seems to be circling—that his presence, or worse, his extracurricular habits, have somehow cosmically contributed to this—she gives absolutely no sign of it. Instead, she simply studies the elaborate geometry his fingers attempt to demonstrate and offers a casual little shrug. "No," she answers easily, tone bright and unbothered, "not always." Which is entirely true, and she lets that truth sit there without further elaboration, like a cat setting down a mouse and pretending it is finished playing.

When he emphatically spells out Flora’s name as though she might have forgotten, Charlie blinks up at him with wide, guileless blue eyes and then smiles, warm and magnanimous. "I remember," she assures him, lifting one shoulder again in a soft shrug. "It doesn’t bother me."

At his anguished demand for reason, for logic, for some tidy explanation that does not exist, Charlie tips her head thoughtfully. "She’s the goddess of chaos," she reminds him gently. "I’ve served her for centuries and I still don’t know why she does half the things she does." Her smile brightens, almost wicked. "But that’s part of the fun!"

When he groans that he will be there for her, she has to press her lips together for half a second to keep from laughing outright, because the situation is already deliciously tangled and she refuses to ruin the tension too soon. Instead, she nods with solemn sincerity, reaching to squeeze his knee once. "For us," she corrects softly, eyes sparkling as she glances down at her still-flat stomach. Her palm drifts there again, smoothing over the fabric of her dress with unmistakable pride. "I wonder how big I’ll get," she muses brightly, as though contemplating a new wardrobe rather than a demigod, and the grin that follows is pure romcom chaos incarnate.

No way you can deny, you feel the most alive when you are terrified

He already suspected the answer she gives, what with the current state they’re in. Seems dramatic didn’t just mean loud and robust sex, which he’d been hoping for over godly mitosis or whatever the fuck this even is. Still, expecting it is not the same as hearing the confirmation, the no practically like a slap across the cheek, resounding and stinging all at once. ”That’s insane,” he informs her, and he wishes his sex ed class had been more in depth. ”You just,” he claps his hands together, and then pulls them apart, fingers wriggling with ‘magic’ through the air before they perch back on his knees. ”Boom, pregnant?? How do you plan for anything? How do you know who’s even the partner then?” He’d like to insist she doesn’t know it’s him, but he’d literally been here when she received it, Dygra like a godsdamned fertility doctor between them.

Doing his best impersonation of a fish as his mouth gapes open at her response, he’s legitimately speechless for a moment. Charlie has succeeded where so many others have failed. She’s emptied him of words. ”That’s not the point!” he blurts out, pitch gone high again, prepubescent Kaisel tearing through briefly. It’s all, so much. Too much. He huffs, going back to hanging his head and smearing his hands over his face like it could rearrange reality if he tries it for the fifth time or more.

Glancing back up at her explanation, an empty smile flashes out. ”So fun,” he agrees without any heart, the tone scrunching up the edges of his eyes as if in physical pain. The faintest, fake laugh ekes out then, ending in something suspiciously close to a sob.

As she reminds him that it’s us and not just her, his gaze slides over in full, worried sideye. Lips tilt into a thin line and he inhales through his nose. ”Right,” he agrees, paling rapidly, the realization that there’s more than this moment to survive fully landing. It’s not just, oh hey, I accidentally got a girl pregnant somehow by standing in a room with her, it’s also a whole ass child to oversee forever. ”B-both of you.”

Promptly, he passes out on the spot, collapsing backwards with a thud.

Kaisel

I'm a daredevil on the highway to hell

Charlie

You know I talk too much
honey, come put your lips on mine & shut me up

Charlie blinks at him as though he has just asked why the sky gets cloudy sometimes, her expression open and faintly affectionate despite the chaos radiating off him. "We’re Ancients, babe," she says gently, one corner of her mouth lifting. "Planning isn’t really a thing when your goddess is entropy and chaos. You don’t schedule lightning. You just hope you’re not the tallest tree, and if you are? Well, you make do.' She gives him an indulgent little smile as his hands perform increasingly abstract magic gestures in the air, as if he might physically rearrange the mechanics of divine reproduction if he just illustrates it forcefully enough.

His panic climbs higher and higher like a cat scaling curtains, and she watches him with wide, luminous eyes that are both deeply sympathetic and deeply entertained. When he agrees that it’s so fun in a voice that sounds like it’s being actively waterboarded, she hums brightly as though he has just complimented the weather.

Then he commits to both mother and child, and the colour drains from his face so fast Charlie barely has time to brace before he tips backward like a felled tree and hits the shrine floor with a solid thud. She exhales softly, fondness flooding her features as she kneels beside him and brushes a bit of hair out of his face with careful fingers. "Oh, Kaisel,' she murmurs, leaning down to press a delicate kiss to the tip of his nose. Her lips linger there for a breath as she whispers, conspiratorial and pleased, "You’re very gullible."

The grin that follows is wicked and entirely unapologetic. In a fluid shimmer of shifting flesh and heat, her form ripples and expands, black dress and curls dissolving into rock-plated armour and ember-lit seams as she becomes a fyrhund. The shrine floor trembles faintly beneath her weight as she lowers her enormous head, clamps careful teeth into the collar of Kaisel’s shirt, and begins dragging his limp body across the stone with surprising gentleness for something that bleeds lava.

She hauls him toward one of the nearby side rooms with practical efficiency, because the last thing she needs is some overly devout supplicant mistaking his unconscious form for an especially enthusiastic offering. The door nudges open beneath her weight, and she deposits him safely inside before shifting back moments later, smoothing imaginary wrinkles from her dress as though she hasn’t just dragged a full-grown man across sacred flooring.

~FIN