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Character of the Season
Once known as the Butcher of Whitebrim, he's now The Butcher of Dygra, stepping forward as the first created demigod of the Ancients. There is no question that Astaroth casts an intimidating silhouette. Tall, domineering and dangerous, if looks could kill you'd be dead already, but to get up close and personal with the Grounds' resident cannibal tells a much different story. Dripping with charm and clad in only the finest attire, Asta is a gentleman monster, as polite as they come and committed to his role as security for the Dusklight and those who have earned his loyalty. Be careful of that smile, though - those teeth are sharp.
Congratulations, Asta!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
OG Skinning provided by Kaons, with functionality and many custom plugins made by Neowulf!
Cold nips his cheeks into a blush, and he marches up the land to the hot spring with his arms folded against the chill, though it's not enough to keep out the occasional shiver. "I swear these aren't that hot, it just feels like it because everything else is so cold." It's Big Hot Spring just trying to trick everyone.
Huddled up into her as they walk, which makes the strides awkward and jostling at times (worth it), one hand is clutching a small basket of goods. There's a spread for crackers, hot jam, and cream cheese, paired with a nice wine. Then there's a sponge, sliced cucumbers, towels, and the empty vial for collecting the starry water. Today it would become spa springs.
Ahead, steam afts up, more inviting than it's ever been, and Kaisel's pace increases automatically, as though afraid he might miss his opportunity. The basket is placed down, rocking faintly with the speed, and then Kaisel is off, stripping away his shirt so it's just the black board shorts beneath and kicking out of the sandals he'd swapped from his boots earlier on their way here. He leaps into the sparkling water, sailing onto his side, and for a brief moment he lounges purposefully in midair, looking over at Flora with all the smug of known aura, just beforre the water catches up with him and slaps his side red.
Capture starlight (interpretation up to you)
Pain is what you desire So, you wanna be immortal?
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
Whether I'm gonna curse you out or Take you back to my house
Flora is more than happy to be jostled along beside him, tucked against Kai’s side in a jacket most Halovians would probably consider better suited to Deepfrost than Flowerbirth but she refuses to care. Halo has never once rewarded bravery where temperature is concerned, and if her husband wants to complain about Big Hot Spring propaganda while doubling as a portable source of warmth, she’s perfectly content to let him. Laughing, she squeezes his arm beneath hers. "Even if they aren’t, the healing water feels incredible to soak in."
Once the basket is set down and Kai starts pulling off his shirt, however, Flora’s priorities shift with impressive speed. She makes absolutely no effort to undress, instead settling back on one heel to watch him with shameless approval as more skin appears. Her eyes drag over him slowly enough to make her appreciation obvious, her teeth catching against her lower lip before she releases a deep, suffering sigh. Honestly, it’s exhausting being married to someone this hot and somehow still expected to behave like a functional member of society and not jump his bones at each and every available opportunity.
By the time he launches himself toward the spring, Flora is already grinning, though the ridiculous little pose he strikes in midair breaks the expression wide open. His splash earns a burst of bright laughter that follows him beneath the water, and she’s still laughing when he surfaces. "Caaaaan I get a replay?" she asks, already turning slightly as her magic curls eagerly beneath her skin. The moment unfolds again beside them with perfect clarity: Kai suspended above the glittering water, one leg stretched long, body angled with all the effortless smugness of someone who knows exactly how good he looks, framed against the dark sky and its stars just before gravity remembers him.
Flora folds her arms, admiring both versions of her husband with equal delight. "I think that might have been a 9/10."
07-23-2026, 08:06 PM (This post was last modified: 07-23-2026, 08:06 PM by Kaisel.)
KAISEL
So, you wanna start a war? Bang, shots fired
Sinking beneath the warm, glittering waves his entry makes, he has a brief moment where he looks up, and it feels like night has prematurely descended. One hand reaches out experimentally, not driving the water to push himself up so much as angling to touch the little traces of Safrin's cosmic presence, feeling less like he's in water than suspended in space. Smiling a little at the thought, especially because it conjures up images of the last time he and Flora had reached for stars around here, in the slow eddies of passing whales, he cuts through the whirlpool of galaxies and breaks the surface with a fresh spray of water.
Pulling the water from his face with his palm and smoothing his hair back, steam encases him briefly and then billows off in rapid sheets, the warm water lifted into the chilly air off his body. He grins over at her from his position in the pool as her magic begins to take shape, a bright laugh answering the chance to see himself in action. "Got my good side, I hope," he muses with a tilt of his head and a framing of his jawline with his hand.
Fist pumping at his score, Kaisel whoops out over the tundra with all the victory of a gold medalist achieving his dream. Ripples sprawl out away from him with the motion, water dripping form his arm as it pummels the air and then swiftly drops back to pinch around his nose and cup around his mouth. The effect is a drastic changeup to his voice as he slips into the role of a sport's announcer. "Incredible showing by Kaisel, truly a record breaking day for the man. Now though, the crowd is wondering...will his better half live up to that name and show him up?"
Pain is what you desire So, you wanna be immortal?
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
Whether I'm gonna curse you out or Take you back to my house
If anyone’s going to show Flora up, she’s perfectly happy for it to be her husband. That doesn’t mean she’s going to make it easy for him, though, and the challenge in his voice has her brows lifting as a slow, delighted smile curves across her lips. "Oh, I don’t know.." she drawls, fingers finding the fastening of her jacket. "That was a pretty incredible showing. I’d hate to take away from your big moment."
The jacket slips from her shoulders with deliberate slowness rather than anything remotely practical, revealing the white bikini beneath in careful stages. Gold glints along its edges, threaded through delicate accents of lace that look especially bright against the warmth of her skin, and while Flora normally prefers black with a neckline dramatic enough to qualify as a threat, tonight she’s chosen something far less expected. She watches Kai the entire time, making no secret of the fact that this performance is for him as she eases each layer away, teeth catching lightly against her lower lip whenever the cold threatens to turn her movements hurried.
It doesn’t get the satisfaction; even as goosebumps sweep over her arms and a shiver slips down her spine, Flora takes her time stepping closer to the water, her scars and freckles shifting across tanned skin as she moves. Once she reaches the edge, she holds Kai’s gaze and lifts both arms slowly over her head, stretching until the motion lengthens her torso and draws the gold-trimmed lace snug against the curve of her breasts. She twists just enough to offer him another angle, then lets one hand glide down through her hair as though she has all the warmth and patience in the world.
Only once she’s certain she’s stolen every scrap of his attention does her smile sharpen into something wickedly triumphant. Flora pushes off hard, folds her knees tightly against her chest, and abandons every ounce of cultivated sensuality in favour of the most aggressively committed cannonball she can manage.
He sucks in a breath in preparation to further tempt her into the water, hand easing off his face as he discards the announcer's role, at least for the time being. He doesn't make it to any words though, and soon enough is fighting for a little more air.
There have been moments of hurry, where his fingers have tugged and torn away the things that keep her from his full view or the extent of his touch. He has ever savored when he's got the patience and the opportunity for slow though. She is worth every moment of admiration that the slow slip of cloth affords, and his attention is drawn wholly to the scandal of her shoulders rising now into the cold beneath the drape of her jacket. It shouldn't, yet it feels like the first time her hand ever brushed his all over again, pulse quickening where his copper finds every line of white upon her.
His gaze trails from the top reveal and follows the gilded lace lower, moving with all the smooth slide as his fingers rolling beneath the straps might, testing the tension against her skin. "Mmm," he approves openly, tongue wetting the edges of his lips as his throat works. His eyeline doesn't break from her as he pulls himself against the edge of the pool, arms crossing over the top of it. The cold only serves to amplify the moment, tightening every part of her in the opposite way the Torchline heat ordinarily melts her. He's caught now on the noticeable strain of her nipples beneath what still covers them, affording him some glimpse of their shape and a thought as to how he could warm them with his mouth.
The stretch of her is echoed through his mouth, lower jaw parting as his head lifts to stay with the shift of her. He finds each curve worth the slow cover of his view, and where trails lead through cut muscle or across jagged scar, he walks them with all the affection of something known being revisited with fresh comfort and awe. "I hate to see you so cold," he complains with the low edge of desire while she shakes her hair out, and still in the water, he presses up against the edge of the pool as if the warm pressure is a necessary next step to admiring her.
With only the warning glint of her smile, she's gone from sight, and Kaisel is left spinning in the water like a startled seal as she crashes into it. He barely has the time to raise a hand to his forehead to shield some of the spray, even as he squints and turns his head away from the miniature tide that races over to him. "Hardly fair!" he calls over to her with a broad grin, aware fairness has never been given space. "You've always been a 10 baby."
Pain is what you desire So, you wanna be immortal?
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
Whether I'm gonna curse you out or Take you back to my house
Flora’s delight is impossible to hide, not when she can practically feel the weight of Kai’s gaze moving over her, each lingering look warming her in ways the springs haven’t yet had the chance to manage. The cold still raises goosebumps along her arms and pulls another shiver through her, but there’s far too much pleasure threaded through it to blame the air alone. By the time she folds herself into the cannonball, she’s already sparkling with the private triumph of having stolen his full attention.
Heat closes around her in a glittering rush and Flora touches the rocky bottom just long enough to push away from it, rising quickly through the water and surfacing as close to Kai as she can manage. Her arms slide around his neck before either of them has time to drift apart, drawing her flush against him while the water takes away nearly all of her weight. The sensation makes it effortless to fit herself closer, the white and gold of her bikini pressed against his chest as steam curls around them. "What was that?" she wonders brightly, her grin far too mischievous to sell the innocence she tries to give it. "I couldn’t hear you."
She absolutely could, and the bond gives her away even if her expression somehow doesn’t. Joy fizzes through it like champagne, bright and effervescent, carrying all the girlish thrill of being wanted by him as though they’re still discovering one another for the first time. Flora revels in it shamelessly, in the fact that after everything between them, he can still make her feel new and giddy and just a little bit wicked. Her fingers lace coyly together behind his neck before slipping into his hair, holding him there while her body remains weightless but pressed firmly against his.
She darts through the water with all the shape and purpose of a predator, just as quick and twice as agile. His pulse lifts, the response of anything about to be caught, and though he doesn't move away, it's nothing to do with the freezing instinct. He'd fall prey to her any day. Hoped for it, even.
Split apart by a grin, he accepts the arrival of her body against his with a quick encircling of both arms at her lower back, keeping the shape of her against him tight enough to retain the warm press of her chest against his. Any attempt at nonchalance is hopeless once he's got his hands on her, and he's found he's long ago lost his ability to pretend he wants anything less at all times. Enough time had been spent biding his time in her company. "I said," he murmurs low over the shape of his smile as he dips down to let his nose brush against hers. "You are always a ten." He lets the shape of his lips linger near hers as he speaks, the steam passing the kiss between them. "Today, I'd call it an eleven."
He closes the rest of the distance in the same moment he hauls her suddenly higher, chasing the new angle of her as he shifts further back, tilting into the pool's edge with a mild lean that only invites the lounge of her that much further. The kiss is a heady thing as the flush of heat all around them feeds the quick melt of it, his edge lost for a moment as he steals hers, keeping it as long as she'll let him.
"Have you considered just wearing this to the wedding?" he wonders with a tone that's halfway serious as one rolls up her side and tests the straps that his eyes had only managed before now.
Pain is what you desire So, you wanna be immortal?
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
Whether I'm gonna curse you out or Take you back to my house
Flora melts into him without resistance, the familiar shape of his body fitting against hers beneath the water as though the space between them has never served any useful purpose. His voice drops, his nose brushing hers, and another shiver slips through her that has nothing to do with Halo’s cold. Her lips part as his hover close enough that only steam can pass between them, and the breath she draws in carries the barest edge of sound, a moan softened into something warm and fleeting.
She doesn’t get the chance to answer before he hitches her higher, tipping her forward and into his mouth. The movement pulls a small whimper from her, swallowed almost immediately by the kiss as heat rises sharply from her belly, fierce enough to rival the springs around them. Flora keeps her mouth poised hungrily against his, meeting every press and shift with one of her own, while her thighs bracket his hips with sudden, unmistakable greed. Her fingers tighten in his hair as she settles more securely against him, letting the water hold the rest of her weight while she takes whatever he gives her and quietly asks for more.
When he finally parts from her, Flora’s cheeks are properly flushed, her breathing just uneven enough to betray how thoroughly he’s affected her. Her aqua eyes smoulder beneath lowered lashes as she considers the suggestion, rolling one shoulder beneath the path of his hand before leaning in again. This kiss lands far too gently against the corner of his mouth, all soft lips and false innocence. "Because," she murmurs, letting the word brush warmly over his skin, "there isn’t nearly enough fabric here for you to properly tear it off me."
The necklace of her arms around him has always been his favorite sort of jewelry, and he'd wear her lips to match whenever he can. The chance of it now makes everything between them shine, and he doesn't credit a single glimmer to the liquid starlight slipping over their skin. It's entirely because of her.
All the things he'd meant to steal are handed over with an intensity that leaves him the one robbed instead. The quiet little sound she breathes into his mouth, all warmth and want, catches somewhere deep beneath his ribs and fans outward until he can't remember what cold ever felt like. Halo disappears. The spring surrounding them becomes almost laughably lukewarm beside the heat she pours into him, and all he knows is the press of her, the taste of her, the way she always makes him feel as though every part of him has just come alive for the first time.
The space between them remains narrow, but in sharp contrast, all the motion of a moment ago is compressed into the stillness of a lingering look and uneven breath. All the urgency that had chased the kiss gathers itself and folds into their pulse, as if pretending it could fit there, attempting to pass for something small and quiet even as the opposite steadily takes shape against the border of her thighs. Beneath the gentle brush of her lips that she trades for his voice, a smile ripples out, and all the absurd containment races out with it. "Good point," he concedes, voice roughened by what little breath she's left him with. "I do enjoy unwrapping you," he murmurs, thumb already catching beneath one of the gilded straps.
No longer content to merely trace them, one strap surrenders to the decisive tug of his fingers, slipping from her shoulder in a smooth motion that suggests there'd never been much fight in the fabric to begin with. The newly bared skin of her chest greets his palm, a low groan of appreciation easing from his throat at the sight, unable to resist the view each and every time. The heel of his hand glides firmly against her breast, rolling her nipple beneath each curve of his finger, the small spread of space between them a feigned relief from the touch before the next one catches on it. Every caress only seems to awaken another, his other hand sliding up her side and slipping beneath what remains covered, his restraint unraveling with the same ease as her bikini.
Pain is what you desire So, you wanna be immortal?
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
Whether I'm gonna curse you out or Take you back to my house
The strap slips from Flora’s shoulder, and anticipation scatters over her skin like sunlight striking water, bright and impossible to contain. She shivers against Kaisel as his palm follows, teeth catching the inside of her lower lip while she tries to keep the sound building in her throat from travelling beyond the steam around them. It escapes only as a muted hum on the heels of a sigh when the heel of his hand presses firmly against her nipple, quiet enough to preserve the illusion of privacy even if the way her body arches into his touch does nothing of the sort.
Her fingers tighten in his hair as her hips roll suggestively against him, though the movement is smooth enough that she could blame it entirely on the water pressing her more firmly into his lap. The bond makes the lie pointless, though; heat unfurls from her in deepening shades of garnet, still gilded through with gold but growing hazier at the edges, the bright champagne sparkle of her delight darkening into something richer and smokier.
"Besides," Flora murmurs, voice low and leading as she glances down at the hand steadily undoing what little fabric remains clinging to her body, "if I wore this to our wedding, you’d either have to get comfortable with everyone we know seeing me naked—" Given the speed with which he’s already dismantling it, she can’t imagine the garment surviving their vows. Her smile curves, wicked and breathless. "—and it would be rude to tell them all not to look at the bride." Even if that meant watching as he succumbed to his desires, not that Flora thought Kaisel was necessarily inclined for that sort of public spectacle.
Her fingertips slide from the back of his hair to his temples, guiding his face upward as she leans more fully over him. Poised above him with her thighs still bracketing his hips, Flora captures his mouth in a deeper kiss, pressing herself into the shape of his hands while the garnet haze between them thickens, threaded through with molten gold.
As her fingers wind deeper into his hair, something inside him tightens, drawing every thread of his attention taut until he feels no sturdier than a cord looped neatly around her hand. She needs only tug hard enough to pull him apart entirely. The touch tips his head back into it, the start of a sound turning over itself, low in his throat. It's cut short, drawn back with a sharp intake of breath that the movement of her hips against him demands. One hand plummets from its cup of her chest, sinking firmly to the curve of her waist with a grip that's forgotten gentleness for the sake of greed, striving to keep the pressure of her against him.
It takes him a moment to work his jaw around something more comprehensible than the dazzle of colors bleeding into him, each shade of want darkening his own. "Given our parents will be in attendance," he considers with a wry twist to his lips, "we definitely can't have that." A simpler thing to say than all the rest—that the idea of sharing her in any manner even close to this rankles a heart that has grown hopelessly selfish for its match.
Maroon flecks off through their connection as if the edges of his control are peeling away beneath any contact with her. "During the wedding, absolutely not," he agreed with a murmur. "I was planning to be rather rude to you after the wedding though." In a small demonstration of what he means, his fingers pinch the nipple available to him, the harm swiftly followed with a light, slow brush of his thumbpad, the movement entirely apologetic as much as it is coaxing.
Following the guide of her hand without resistance, he only has a moment to glimpse the glint of sunlight in water that is her gaze before he is drawn in the seal of her mouth, and there, as always, he finds his true place at last. Somewhere between laughter and the way she fits into his hands, he's forgotten entirely what the rest of the world is supposed to feel like. Caging her against the eager return of his kiss, the hand at her hip slides down the inner length of one thigh, curling back up and slipping his thumb under the remaining fabric.
Pain is what you desire So, you wanna be immortal?
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
Whether I'm gonna curse you out or Take you back to my house
The roughened sound that catches in Kai’s throat sends heat sparking up from the soles of Flora’s feet, bright and immediate enough that her lips chase after it greedily. She kisses him as though she might catch the sound between them and swallow it whole, her fingers tightening at his temples while the water shifts in warm, glittering folds around their bodies.
Normally, Flora has no desire to make her husband jealous; right now, though, with his grip turning rougher and something possessive sharpening behind every touch, she can’t resist feeding it. "Mmm, and all our friends too," she murmurs huskily against his mouth, her smile brushing his lips. "Just imagine if anyone had a camera. The sorts of pictures they could take." She arches beneath his hands with deliberate slowness, lifting her chest into the small space between them as though offering Kai the image himself: white fabric displaced, golden straps loosened, and far too much bare skin captured for anyone else to keep. The thought sends a crimson flush spreading higher across her cheeks, though whether it comes from embarrassment or delight is impossible to separate.
The sudden pinch of his fingers draws her breath short and whatever sharp sound threatens to follow dissolves beneath the gentler pass of his thumb, the contrast leaving her trembling more than either touch could have managed alone. Garnet pours deeper through the bond, smoky at the edges now, the gold caught inside it glowing like sparks beneath dark glass. When his hand glides along the inside of her thigh, a shaky moan slips into his mouth before she can contain it. Her hips ease away from their insistence against him, not retreating so much as shifting to give his hand greater freedom.
Flora can pretend at control in nearly any situation: she can turn hesitation into confidence, fear into a joke, and uncertainty into something bright enough that no one thinks to look beneath it. A touch from Kaisel, though, in the right place strips every performance clean away, leaving her helplessly sincere in her wanting. Gods, he makes her feel like a teenager again, stealing moments wherever they can find them, desperate for one more kiss from someone she can’t keep her hands off. Never mind that this is supposed to be an evening out with her husband, though she doesn’t see why both can’t be true.
It's an absurd reaction considering she spends all of LongHeat in as little fabric as possible already, yet the further she draws out the idea of her wedding attire being revealing enough for everyone in attendance to take the image of her home like a gift, the more he's inclined to make blindfolds a requirement and pass it off as some new-age experience for everyone. Listen with your heart to the sound of ours or some such bullshit. Bag checks is another mental note he'll add, rooting out any cameras.
For now, he settles for making sharpened faces at her and tighter curls of his hand into her skin, as if through sheer grip alone he could hold her with him only. The band on his wrist is proof enough that they've already promised forever, but she's long since stolen sense from him for the time being.
A smile spreads out with all the shape of a wolf's hunger around the taste of her moan. Instead of feeding him into anything resembling satiation, it only tempts the craving further to the surface. "I didn't quite catch that," he murmurs into the corner of her lips where he tilts his head. "Say that again," he beckons, hand given more access to her in that moment. He sets his thumb to gently brush against her clit, the anticipation flashing a streak of heated color over the bond like a lightning strike briefly illuminating the dark. He gives her no room for actual words as his mouth reclaims hers, a more insistent touch settling against her.
Pain is what you desire So, you wanna be immortal?
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
