pawnstorm | [Open] It's getting hot in here

Entry tags:

[Open] It's getting hot in here

Who: Caren and anyone visiting the hot springs!
When: Post dungeon, could be right after fail/success, could be days after
Where: Hot Springs of course
What: There's a hot springs, so now there's a hot springs episode.
Rating: Could be a p-13 and beyond because some people are only wearing towels in this place.

[Win or fail, everyone needed a reason and a way to relax. With the fall of the towers, there was all sorts of good things to come from it. Some would say it was the birds; and others would say it was the hot springs.

The large, large pools of heated water. Sure, they could be used as a way to get all steamed up (or even steam punk) but after all that hard work, everyone deserves a break!

Bring your swimsuits, your towels, your drinks and snacks-who knows, you should be able to find them in the bazaars, or even on Airy. It's time to soak in the heat!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, I want it to happen. Very much so.

[Levi tests, Gilgamesh responds, and does so with utmost eagerness. He has no need to hide his tastes, his preferences; wears them for all the world to see most of the time. His eyes shine with mirth and his lips curl into a smile smooth as could be, nearly innocuous to anyone who didn't know better. He has no need to hide himself, which means he has no need to feel guilt for much of anything. A truly shameless creature.

Gilgamesh doesn't touch. Not quite yet. He'll wait for this game of theirs to proceed a bit further first.]

Are you the sort of man that can keep someone like me down? Do you delight in knocking kings from their thrones, crushing them beneath your heel?

[Of course you do, he thinks, or we wouldn't be having this conversation.]

[ Hah... so he admits it outright. Levi's expression twists into a grimace. Though he has to wonder whether, when Gilgamesh imagines indulging in this cycle, he is thinking of winning or losing. He can't deny that it provokes him, even while simultaneously, he grasps that it's exactly what the man is hoping to do. The contradiction, not wanting to appease him, fuels his irritation. ]

Oi... you bastard. Who said you could project your filthy desires onto me? [ Clearly there's no obliviousness left in him. Should Gilgamesh too far in this vein, he's conflating him with a real sadist, isn't he? Levi doesn't like it, wants to insist on the distinction. ] I said it myself, didn't I? I'll do whatever I have to. If somebody's determined to make a mess, I'll stoop to any level necessary to clean it up.

[ But he's not instigating the mess in the first place. That's the difference. ]

[Once again, Levi exhibits a hidden appeal: that terseness of his tongue, so vulgar, so sharp. Not even Kirei ever addressed him so boldly, with such violence simmering beneath the surface. He cannot deny it excites him. Perhaps, from anyone else, it would've offended, but from Levi's lips it practically sounds like a siren song. How much further could he be pushed into this merciless nature? And to picture his hands, cutting deep, his boot, slamming down... well, maybe there's something about this that's more than a bit filthy.]

I did, of course. The King makes the rules; the King culls the herd. Don't be so arrogant as to assume my duties, mongrel.

[There's no real fire behind the insult, however. Any fool could see that this was a deliberate ploy, words intentionally chosen to prod at the beast within. Levi may not want him to appease, but the longer he lingers, the more he feeds into it all. The longer he stays, the more Gilgamesh believes he can get exactly what he wants.

He can leave. Gilgamesh almost dares him to try. But how could he abandon the very same mess he swore to clean up?]

I'll believe your resolve once I see it for myself. For now, you're all talk, and nothing more.

[ From his perspective, Gilgamesh isn't special. He'll afford him the same courtesy and the same viable threat for his actions as anyone else. This is what allows his boldness to continue to apply to him. That he seems to like it is, well... an unintended side-effect. He hadn't realized it would happen until just before this moment, and perhaps against his better judgment, he does continue to feed into it by insisting to establish the same expectations of Gilgamesh as every other Hero before and after him.

But consciously or no, there is an undeniable part of that lingering that's less Knightly than the rest. The explicit part of it that keeps him attentive. If he feels that, Levi won't mention it. There's nothing he'd dislike more than to acknowledge the flaw in his thinking, the one thing setting his intentions apart from Gilgamesh's own.

His eyebrows raise, calling him on his bluff. ]

Ah? So are you.

[ Yes, although he's clearly provoked into finding the exchange annoying, the difference that Levi had so exactingly gone out of his way to highlight is what keeps him in check. He won't just shamelessly reach for a fight founded on nothing. He really will leave, if he gets the wrong answer. (In fact, it would be better for his conscience.) ]

"The King" keeps yapping like I should pay him homage when we've already settled our one dispute. Are you really that insistent on being punished?

[Well, it's fair enough that he got his own words thrown back in his face. It's true, he hasn't acted on anything he's said, simply because he wanted to see how far he could drag Levi down before either his temper or his patience gave way. It seems he's teetering towards a decision, but as adept as Gilgamesh was at reading and manipulating others, he has no access to his inner thoughts. He can only guess.

But in his defense, his guesses were usually pretty good.]

Have we?

[Gilgamesh will touch him, now. Sweetly, about the throat, with his hand clasped around. There's no inherent threat in it, given that there's no real strength applied, but the symbolism of grabbing him there cannot be denied. He may be just a Queen, but it didn't take much to snap someone's neck.

He strokes along an artery with his thumb and recalls with fondness the time he could claim a life with but a finger.]

From where I'm standing... it's only just begun.

[ By all accounts, it's a decision he should already know the answer to. Why does he let himself be goaded? He has every ability to see through it, to see that it's wanted... but should it be provoked of him by this standard that what he's doing has meaning, that he's only doing what he can and should to nullify a threat, he can't stop himself. Maybe he was actually trying to justify it.

He feels that he can, feels the answer to that question solidified by the snaky, unwanted touch of Gilgamesh's fingers encircling his throat. Bullheadedly, he doesn't see the contradiction, because it sets him off. It disgusts him, makes him feel unclean.

Regardless, he doesn't need to say anything more. Grabbing the offending arm, he's not nearly so sweet. The force behind it means to free himself, but more importantly, to subdue. He makes to twist the limb behind Gilgamesh's back—and at once, throws a kick to his stomach that cuts powerfully through the water, quickly divesting Levi of his towel. ]

[Gilgamesh knows exactly what he's doing. He can't and won't make excuses for it. This sort of insolence would've invoked rage from Kirei, and so it invokes the same from Levi. How predictable, that all his partners should fall into such a pitfall. Humanity's ideal could not outsmart the one who oversaw them all. Though, unfortunately, Gilgamesh doesn't have very long to gloat over his supposed victory.

The phrase be careful what you ask for, because you might just get it leaps to mind here. Gilgamesh not only gets shoved back, but indeed, subdued. His arm bends without much of a fight and that kick comes before he can do much of anything about it. It's harder than he expects, and it's only now that he's reminded of their differences in strength. A Queen simply could not stand up to a Knight, at least in any physical capacity.

Still, he struggles. He growls. He glances past his shoulder at Levi, and his eyes are a furious and searing red. It would not be a mistake to see him as a monster he's so accustomed to cutting down in this moment. He certainly behaves no better than a beast, pushing back, trying to knock him over once he's recovered his breath. He may be a Queen, but he's feisty. Levi would need to work to put this one down, if it could be done at all.]

[ Indeed, this is the response that he directly provoked. If he'd known it before from types like him, because they spent no short amount of time talking it over, there's no excuse that would absolve Gilgamesh to obliviousness. And even if he knows he's taking it too far, Levi counts on that. Anyone who felt it was in good humor to keep pushing their limits should expect to see the same end. Despite the unfitting location, the motivations involving his looks he felt Gilgamesh striving towards, there's nothing about attraction to it. Not yet.

On the contrary, you could say it's a good, old-fashioned beat down. Meant to scare him away from being so presumptively daring again. In his mind's eye, Levi would like to end it there—but he's not planning ahead. The moment he's touched betrays all assurance of that, one way or another.

Merciless, for as much as Gilgamesh fights back, Levi comes at him twofold. Releasing his grip on his arm, the downward momentum of doing so forcibly, happens side by side with another kick. This one is launched distinctly to step down onto him rather than to bat against him; it all adds up to using gravity on his side to bring the man to lose his footing. And whether or not he succeeds, he'll immediately follow it up, disallow Gilgamesh any time to recover. Punches, faster than his legs above water, harder hitting, come in a barrage. He's not one to be underestimated. ]

(( Come watch me and Aki be sick fucks over here! It'll be great! ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Open] It's getting hot in here

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject