[color=#DEC5D6][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/m6hY3dZ.png[/img][/center]
[color=#8D3B72]Time:[/color] Evening
[color=#8D3B72]Location:[/color] Banquet Hall
[color=#8D3B72]Interactions/Mentions:[/color] [@Oso] Cassius [@princess] Charlotte [@Apex Sunburn] Sjan-dehk
[color=#8D3B72]Aesthetic:[/color] [url=https://i.imgur.com/58FOu03.jpeg]Outfit[/url]


[center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1064772112633569330/1100627858638000148/Banner.png[/img][/center]

Kalliope sighed, long and low through her nose, letting her head tip back with a throaty groan.

[color=#8D3B72]“Yeah,”[/color] she muttered, voice curling with something darkly amused. [color=#8D3B72]“We’re both absolutely fucked.”[/color]

Her gaze drifted—not far, just far enough to catch movement from the corner of her eye. Sjan-dehk.

Walking toward Charlotte.

Something sank. Heavy and cold and low in her gut. It wasn’t rage. Not even hurt. Just a quiet tightening, like someone had wrapped an invisible hand around her ribs and given the gentlest squeeze.

It passed. Or she made it pass.

She turned back and caught Cassius looking at her.

That look.

The one that had pressed her to a wall once and made her forget her own name. The one that tasted like trouble and unfinished sentences and that edge of something dangerous disguised as pleasure.

She let her lips part around a slow inhale. Her pupils darkened.

Then a smile. Lethal and lazy, like a wolf pretending to be tame. She leaned in just enough that her words could belong to no one else but him.

[color=#8D3B72]“I suppose I can think of several hard things I could enjoy right now…”[/color] Her voice was velvet and smoke, threaded with something sinfully sweet. She ticked them off, slow and deliberate. [color=#8D3B72]“Hard liquor. Hard candy…”[/color] Her eyes dipped toward his mouth.

A pause.

Then, with a smirk that could ruin kingdoms, she added, barely above a whisper, [color=#8D3B72]”Something that hits the back of my throat just right...”[/color]

Her teeth grazed her bottom lip, but her eyes didn’t waver. She knew exactly what she was doing. And she was daring him to do something about it.

Then she drew back with a wicked little giggle. Her expression? All faux innocence with just a kiss of sin.

[color=#8D3B72]“Or maybe I just need to eat something, who knows?”[/color]

But under it all, buried beneath the spice and smile, was something quieter. A flicker of protectiveness. A mirror of what she saw in Cassius. Pain hidden behind charm. Longing hidden behind jokes.

And maybe… just a little fear that her heart was already somewhere it could be hurt again.

So for now? She'd play. She’d use this man beside her and let him use her in return so they could both run from the one thing that scared them most.

She was fire and flirtation with Cassius, but with Sjan-dehk?

She was already ash.[/color]