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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."
Yesterday, 08:06 PM (This post was last modified: Yesterday, 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.
