[ME] you created a monster <3

I can't relate to desperation

Charlie glows under Dantalion ’s attention, and if anything, his comment only sharpens the brilliance of it; her head tipping back with a delighted, breathy laugh as one hand drifts instinctively over the curve of her belly, fingers splaying as though she might feel the shape of the joke from the outside. "Oh, I wish," she hums, eyes flashing wide and wicked as they flick between him and Asta, lashes lowering in a slow, indulgent flutter that leans just shy of scandalous. "I’d love a matching set."

The flames at her fingertips grow bolder for a moment, curling and teasing closer to them both. "And since I’m not really in fighting form.." Her voice dips, honeyed and trailing, gaze sliding deliberately to Astaroth as her smile tilts into something sharper, more mischievous, something that knows exactly what it’s asking without ever needing to say it outright. "Perhaps you could..." She lets it hang there, unfinished and heavy with implication, her expression practically daring him to understand, to spill some blood on her behalf.

But the moment shifts as Thalassa approaches, and Charlie pivots with effortless delight, her grin flashing fanged and bright as she accepts the energy of the interruption like it’s simply another gift. "We’ll all make sure of it, won’t we?" she says warmly, though there’s nothing soft about the spark in her eyes, her hand settling once more over her stomach as if to steady the restless, crackling life beneath it. "Based on all the fires I can feel this one trying to start already, I can only imagine they’ll hit the ground running." And yes, she does mean both quite literally.

The words barely finish leaving her mouth before something inside of her shifts. Charlie's head tilts, just slightly, attention snagging downward as though she’s felt something more than seen it. And then she does see it, the small, unmistakable puddle gathering at her feet. For a heartbeat, she simply stares, and then her lips part, red and perfect in a rounded O of pure, electric delight.

"Oh—!" There’s no fear, not even a flicker of it, only a rising, incandescent excitement that floods through her expression, bright enough to rival the fire she arrived in. "I think," she says, breath catching on a laugh that’s already bubbling up, her fingers tightening instinctively over her belly as though she might coax the moment forward faster, "this party is about to have one more guest."

---

Charlie's water broke!

.

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

"Maybe next time," Danta says with a fiendish grin, because if anyone can be blessed by Dygra twice - and the second time with twins - it's Charlie. He follows her gaze over his shoulder towards Astaroth at the suggestion that he go out there and embrace his more violent instincts, his smile twisting into something sly and encouraging. "It would be rude to deny a request from the woman of the hour," he says, as if Asta would only be polite to indulge Charlie's need for fighting.

He glances back in time to see Thalassa's approach, but before he can offer a greeting of his own, Charlie is glancing down and Danta is left blinking at the sudden slipping hazard she's created. "Oh," he echoes, sounding mildly impressed rather than remotely bothered by this new development. "I'll take that as a sign that I throw very good parties."

With a fanged grin, he grabs a spoon to tap it against his glass, before promptly shoving everyone's drinks from a nearby table, along with the decorations. "Charlie has decided to celebrate her baby shower with a baby!" he announces. "Kaisel, I expect you to be here to help deliver it, since you were there at conception." Winking at the soldier and bouncing his eyebrows at Flora for good measure, he pats the table for Charlie to hop up and get comfy.

Dantalion

// one hundred years from the empire now //

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

The sharp song of metal on glass has Kaisel craning his head over his shoulder, attention fully stolen. It’s only a brief moment before that descends into the louder clang of plates and glasswhere striking into pieces on the floor, silverwater clattering with a firmer resilience, and the wild tumble of food and liquid. Kaisel’s mouth has fully popped ajar, never having seen someone so thoroughly ruin their own party.

His gaze slides immediately to Flora, trying to catch her eye to properly disseminate their feelings with one another. It doesn’t take long, a practiced exchange, but a swift flurry of holy shit, did you see that? and I know, the fuck?. Before he can blink at her has Danta lost it?, which can sometimes look like your tits look amazing, an announcement tumbles into the chaos.

”Oh my gods,” Kaisel breathes, his drink immediately abandoned to the ground as both hands Home Alone his face. Before he can shout a proper congrats to Charlie from across the room, about as close as he expected to get right now, Danta summons him. Now he becomes Edvard Munch’s The Scream. His mouth runs dry, surprise and mild shock rooting him for a moment, but then he’s glancing at Flora again, hand sliding intentionally along her midriff. ”Uh—duty calls?”

He hurries over the mess to get to the birthing table Danta has just arranged. With the complete horror of someone who doesn’t know what the fuck they’re doing but has been thrust into it anyway, and how fitting there’d be a trial by fire with Ancients, Kaisel over-wide grins at Charlie as he takes one of her hands in his and holds it up. ”Alright girlie, let’s get that baby out of you.”

Kaisel

I'm a daredevil on the highway to hell

and you'll wake up all alone, on an old beat-down dirt country road
and you'll crawl back through fire and snow

All he really needs is the permission from Charlie before he’s scanning the rest of the Dusklight for potential options for a brawl. But before he has a full chance to step out from the bar with a wink shot back at his lover, Charlie – or more accurately, the precious little one in her – chooses to change plans.

Not unfamiliar with the act of childbirth, nor is he unfamiliar with the process of it (a perk of being a part of a relatively small clan in Halo), he immediately moves into motion beside Danta as he preps the table for Charlie and Kaisel approaches to do… emotional support?

The butcher himself, however, chooses a more modern approach as man becomes fyrhund and in a sleek black blur of volcanic rock and lava, the butcher sprints out of the Dusklight toward the Temple to retrieve some help just to make sure that Charlie would be alright throughout it. (Is it a sign that Asta had seen and heard many of the mothers in his clan perish from childbirth? Absolutely it was).

But with the speed of which Asta had left, he returns just as quickly with familiar faces in tow to help ensure everything goes smoothly. And only when he’s bac and they’ve started to head toward her does Asta become himself again, panting with an air of wildness around him as he breezes over to Danta’s side.

Astaroth

'cause there ain't no other place to go

Welcome to my underworld
Where it gets quite dark

Aithne is about to suggest something more fun than 'bragging rights' to bet, but just then, the party takes a far more interesting turn. Charlie's water breaks, and Aithne grins widely at her mentor as she follows Kaisel over to the other Ancient. Unfamiliar with the act of childbirth, the poor girl has no idea just how messy everything is about to get. Instead of fleeing (which might have been the wiser decision), she hovers near Dantalion and Astaroth.

Not anxious in the least - and in fact, purely delighted to be here for this turn of events - she nonetheless looks to her friends and tilts her head to one side, tail flicking with excitement. "Can we do anything?" she asks, curious and willing to jump in, despite the swarm of people already hovering around Charlie in preparation to assist if needed.

At least you know exactly who your friends are
They're the ones with matching scars

Aithne

Thalassa

If Thal thought she was uncomfortable before, she was practically in agony now. While she could generally avoid the awkwardness of Charlie's rounded belly or thoughts of babies in the crowd of the party, the appearance of a bodily fluid she's not familiar with suddenly has her freezing. Give her blood, gore, guts, vomit, excrement, anything but the sign that she's about to be witness to childbirth. 

Nope nope nope nope nope. 

Thal is not interested. 

Trying to act nonchalant despite the paling of her features, she steps out of Charlie and Dantalion's way with a laugh. It sounds amused to her ears, but the nerves run rampant through her veins, immediately uncertain about what to do or how she can escape what's about to happen without exposing herself. She nearly considers following Astaroth just to slip out.

Weaving through the throng of people rushing to the priestess's side, she clutches the drinks in her hands, downing one of them with a deep breath to steady herself. She'll just have to bide her time until it's all over. Hopefully no one will question when she takes a seat at the bar, tail flicking behind her as she watches the chaos unfold from a distance.

I'm in love with my future.
Can't wait to meet her.

you look like my next mistake

Flora’s mouth curves slow and deliberate at Kaisel 's murmur, her teeth catching her lower lip just long enough to make it look like she might reconsider before she doesn’t, her brows lifting in a soft, knowing bounce as her voice dips low enough to stay just between them. "Oh, I know," she hums, eyes dragging over him with a heat that doesn’t bother pretending otherwise. "There’s more where that came from." But then the moment, and its heat, shatters.

Charlie ’s delighted exclamation cuts clean through the room, and Flora’s attention snaps toward it just in time to catch the shift, the gathering, the unmistakable something at the priestess’s feet that makes her own expression flicker from amused to sharply alert in the span of a heartbeat. "Oh—" she echoes under her breath, though hers lacks the same unbridled excitement, her gaze narrowing slightly as she tries to piece together what, exactly, is happening and why it’s happening now.

Dantalion ’s announcement lands like a thrown glass, and Flora blinks at it, once, twice, as if the words need a second pass to make sense, her attention whipping back toward Kaisel just in time to feel his hand slide across her stomach in a way that feels both grounding and entirely misplaced given the circumstances. "Does it?" she asks, the words slipping out before she quite decides on them, her tone caught somewhere between disbelief and reluctant acceptance as her brows lift again, this time less playful and more… what are we doing here? and why is it my husband doing it?

Flora stays where she is for half a second too long, watching Kai go with a look that hovers somewhere between skeptical and faintly incredulous, her lips parting as though she might call him back before she thinks better of it, her gaze flicking instead toward the makeshift table, toward Charlie, toward the rapidly escalating chaos that seems to have swallowed the room whole. "…okay," she mutters to herself, not entirely convinced but apparently willing to see where this goes, her arms folding loosely across her middle as her weight shifts onto one hip, the tilt of her head sharp with interest even as her expression settles into something distinctly unconvinced.

I can't relate to desperation

Charlie doesn’t so much react to the chaos as she thrives in it. The crash of glass, the sharp ring of metal, the absolute audacity of Dantalion sweeping an entire table clear for her has her grin widening, all teeth and delight, as though this was exactly the kind of escalation she’d been hoping for all along. If anything, it feels like the party has finally caught up to her.

"Oh, you absolutely do," she shoots back at him, laughter bright and breathless as heat flickers at her heels, and then she dart!s, a quick flare of fire carrying her neatly up onto the newly-cleared table without so much as a stumble. She settles back with an indulgent ease, as she adjusts herself into something comfortably dramatic by tugging the bottom of her dress up and around her hips. One hand braces behind her, the other still resting possessively over the curve of her belly, her whole body language reading less in labour and more centre stage. "Mm, now this feels more like it," she hums, eyes sparkling as she glances down at the makeshift arrangement, entirely unbothered by the urgency of it all.

Kaisel ’s arrival earns him an immediate, delighted look, her fingers slipping into his without hesitation, but as he lifts her hand and tries for confidence, Charlie’s laughter spills out again, warm and teasing and just a little wicked. "Oh, babe—" she drawls, head tipping as she peers up at him with open amusement, lashes lowering in a slow, knowing sweep. "How are you meant to get the baby out of me from up here?" Her free hand gestures loosely downward, the implication unmistakable even as her tone stays bright and playful, her hips shifting just slightly as though to underline the point without a shred of modesty.

"You're gonna wanna rethink your angle," she adds, grin flashing again, utterly unbothered. With a flash of heat, Charlie's underwear disappears just before she tilts her head backward as a contraction rolls its way through her.

.

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

A nervous laugh swiftly answers Charlie 's uniquely graceful confidence in what should be a wholly awkward and cumbersome experience. That even in this, she finds a way to be so spectacular is so fittingly her that he can't help but descend into a more honest sound of startled delight. "You don't need me," he manages to breathe out, the reassurance more for him than her at this point. This becomes especially true when a host of temple staff come pouring in on the heels of Astaroth .

Still, as things begin to progress, Kaisel's head turns, and he searches pointedly for Flora , flashing her a help me look. He remains at Charlie's side, a hand to squeeze, but he'll leave the important shit to the pros, and the mess that goes with it, in every sense of the word. "Uh, remember to breathe! That's what one of the books said," he recalls suddenly, snapping with his other finger and pointing it at Charlie in the haste of helpfulness. He models with an exaggerated inhale and exhale, appearing like a maniacal spin instructor for a moment.

Kaisel

I'm a daredevil on the highway to hell

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

"I think we're doing plenty as audience members. But if you want to help more, I think she's got a free hand to hold," Danta says to Aithne with a growing, fanged grin as chaos envelops the party in a mix of reticence and reckless enthusiasm. Some people are leaving, some are cheering, others are taking seats (and trying to get the best view). As for the theocrat, he's heading behind the bar so he can collect a chilled bottle of champagne, hoping he might be able to pop it just at the moment Charlie's baby enters the world.

By that time Astaroth has been and gone, Danta beaming across the Dusklight to his lover and beckoning for him to come and keep him company while they wait for Dygra's latest miracle. The medics (and other acolytes) from the Temple will have things wholly in hand, he bets, and so there's nothing for them to do but stick around and enjoy the show.

Dantalion

// one hundred years from the empire now //

you look like my next mistake

Flora doesn’t move to follow Kaisel, nor does she pretend to be useful; instead she simply tilts her head, watching it all unfold with a kind of fascinated disbelief that settles somewhere between amusement and what the hell is actually happening. It isn’t every day, after all, that she finds herself at a baby shower in the Dusklight, watching her secret husband get roped into delivering a baby he’d briefly thought was his, all while the room teeters between celebration and full-blown chaos, and there’s something about the sheer absurdity of it that keeps her rooted exactly where she is.

Her gaze lingers on Kaisel as he fumbles through encouragement, the exaggerated breathing, the wild energy of it, and despite herself her mouth twitches, the corner of it pulling upward as if she might laugh if she lets herself think about it too hard. Instead, she exhales softly through her nose and reaches for the nearest drink, downing it in one smooth motion, the burn sharp and immediate, her throat working once before she lowers the empty glass again, her eyes never quite leaving the scene in front of her.

I can't relate to desperation

Charlie beams at Kaisel ’s attempt at reassurance, her grin bright and feral and entirely too delighted for someone actively in labour, her fingers tightening around his hand in a fond, almost indulgent squeeze, right up until the next contraction hits. It steals the breath from her in a sharp, electric gasp, her body arching slightly as the pressure coils tight and demands attention, and suddenly her grip crushes down on his with shocking, inhuman force, flames erupting instinctively along her skin in a violent, blooming flare that licks up her arms, her legs, her throat like something alive and hungry.

"Oh—ow," she laughs through it, breathless but exhilarated, her head tipping back as the fire crowns her in a halo of chaotic gold and red, her eyes blazing just as brightly. Around her, things move fast with the Temple staff close in, hands sure and practiced, voices a blur of calm instruction that Charlie barely seems to hear, because the pain—is already gone? Snuffed out as quickly as it came, leaving behind nothing but heat, and light, and that same wild, thrumming anticipation that has been building beneath her skin all night.

The flames surge again, higher this time. Brighter. Wilder; they coil around her like a living thing, a cocoon of fire and chaos that pulses once—twice—and then bursts outward in a radiant, blinding flare that forces the room to blink against it. And just like that, it's over. In the sudden, ringing quiet that follows, broken only by the crackle of lingering flame, one of the nurses steps forward, cradling something small and impossible in her arms: a baby wreathed in fire. Not the wild gold and red that had consumed Charlie, but something cooler, stranger; flames of vivid, flickering blue that dance along impossibly soft skin without burning, without harming, casting a soft, otherworldly glow across the room.

Charlie’s head lifts, curls falling back as her gaze locks onto the child, her entire expression shifting in an instant—from chaos, from mischief, from spectacle—to something blindingly adoring. "Oh," she breathes, softer now, but no less full of wonder, her hand loosening in Kaisel’s as she reaches for her daughter. "Well," she adds a heartbeat later, a slow, delighted grin pulling at her lips as her eyes sparkle all over again, "this party is for you after all. Glad you could make it."

.

and you'll wake up all alone, on an old beat-down dirt country road
and you'll crawl back through fire and snow

Hardly needing to be beckoned to go and settle at Danta’s side to watch, there’s the brimming anticipation that lingers under his skin as he watches the chaos unfold. Kaisel’s messy attempts to try and help Charlie through it are amusing in a way that he can’t quite place – because he knows Charlie, knows that childbirth is an entire life changing ordeal, and knows that she’d be able to handle it.

Dygra had chosen her, after all. And this child, being Dygra’s, would have quite the welcoming party and the divine protection he imagines she’d want. But snagging the temple medics had been ingrained, and anything that could help Charlie through this process, he’d do. So he settles in beside Danta, an arm wrapped around his fiancé as he watches the proceedings with a laser focus, until the child has finally made her appearance and his smile is vibrant behind the muzzle. “Congratulations, Charlie.” He says into the quiet.

Astaroth

'cause there ain't no other place to go

Welcome to my underworld
Where it gets quite dark

Aithne watches the chaos unfold with a look of bemused interest, as though all of this is something to be observed with a bowl of popcorn. Kaisel's attempts at helping bring a small, wicked smile to her face; she's certain that Charlie would be just fine without his assistance, but equally sure that her mentor is enjoying the attention that the young man brings. A small part of her feels a bit sorry for Flora, who seems to be completely at a loss. She can't quite relate, but she recognizes how it feels to be out of place in a crowded room, that sensation, at least, a familiar one.

Things progress more quickly than Aithne anticipates. Before she can follow Dantalion's suggestion, a swarm of medics descend, and then the baby is born: a daughter, apparently, and one who has earned a look of complete adoration from the priestess. Aithne slips a bit closer to see the babe, and an immediate grin is sent towards Charlie. "Congratulations," she echoes Astaroth, still hovering as though there is something more she can say or offer to a situation in which she is actually entirely useless.

At least you know exactly who your friends are
They're the ones with matching scars

Aithne