"What? I've not touching you, it would have been much easier if I could!" Astral laughed. It looked to him like it was just slime slowly spreading out in the room. Nothing was catching on fire, either, but that didn't mean Emile wouldn't. There was a table to the side, but there wasn't much else in the hall section. It would seem Emile would have to try to get the separation walls up out of the way.
Emile was very much wanting to stab Astral to death, and that helped him get through this. Couldn’t stab that annoying prick of a god if he was dead. He had an idea then, not entirely sure if it would work but it was worth a try. He knocked on the walls, listening as he did so. It didn’t seem like the separation walls were super thick. He could work with that. He might burn the shit out of his hand but it’d be fine. He grabbed a different knife, the blade a bit longer and thicker than the other. “Well then let’s try this.” He mumbled to himself before sticking the blade near the lava, exposing it to the searing heat.
The lava stopped flowing, for a moment. Astral frowned, lifting his head up to see what the problem was. He let out a low sigh, ignoring Emile and his attempts to heat his blade up, standing for a moment to find something to deal with the block. He shifted through his tools, eventually just coming back with a metal toothpick. He moved to work on the plug from the inside of the hall. Both the toothpick and Astral's fingers would look massive, of course, as he fiddled around with the hole in an attempt to unblock it.
((Question, ceiling or no ceiling?))
(Aaa ceiling was there until Astral stuck his hand in, now there's none uwu)
((Welp time to yeet out the ceiling then uwu))
(eeee XD)
Emile basically ignored Astral’s hand, more focused on the fact that the ceiling to the room was gone. The walls were too high for him to just jump…..and that’s where the blade would come in handy. He ran back over to the wall, quickly pulling over the table from earlier to the spot he needed it to be at, using it as a small height advantage (which he definitely needs). He grabbed another knife, about the same as the other one and from there, the semi-burning knife still in his other hand, he jumped as high as he could reach, impaling it in the wall. He pulled himself up, his arms shaking with the effort. With his other hand, he reached up as far as her could, impaling the other blade into the wall and pulling himself up again. From there he was mere centimeters from reaching the top of the wall and pulling himself over.
Astral ignored Emile in turn, eventually pulling the metal toothpick away with a cooling glob of lava that had gummed up the bottle Astral kept it in. The god hummed in satisfaction, glancing over to see Emile about to crest the wall.
"Where do you think you're going?" He asked, moving to use the toothpick to push Emile's knife and hands off of the wall. "You're ruining the wallpaper." The toothpick was still almost red hot, of course, the lava on it more than enough to cause some serious damage.
Emile fell from the wall, letting out a loud scream of pain. So um…a significant amount of his left hand was severely burned almost to the point of disfigurement. He had to get back up, he couldn’t die in here. He had to try again. And that’s what he’d do, he still had more knives after all. Always more knives. But his left hand was practically useless right now, and it was hard to fight through the pain.
"Just give it up, Emile, and you'll be out of here like that." Astral moved to have his toothpick hovering over Emile's chest, tempted to just stab him through but knowing it was against their 'contract.' He'd find other ways around that, though.
Lily had been terrified through all of this, wishing it was all just a bad dream. Emile was just another toy to Astral, wasn't he? He couldn't protect her, he couldn't keep her safe-
The proximity of the toothpick to Emile's chest wasn't much, but it was enough. Lily's drawing lit up from the intense heat, trapping the small girl inside Emile's pocket. She let out a loud, painful screech as she caught fire, struggling to escape. It was no use, though. She was too small, the fire too much.
((Crispy child ;-;))
Emile flinched as he heard Lily start to scream. It was…it was too much. He couldn’t do anything to help her. “Fine…do it then.” He said, accepting that this was his fate. He’d given it his best shot.
Astral paused at the screams, then laughed.
"I was wondering if you were ever going to return it." He looked down at Lily stopped screaming, her body falling still. Her soul wasn't so lucky, though. She appeared in Astral's hand, above the hall so Emile could see. She stared up at Astral in fear, sobbing softly. Astral didn't care, his hand tipping so she fell into the lava. It wasn't enough to destroy her, but… it was more than enough to put her in extreme pain. She was still screaming as she sunk into it, the lava pouring from the hole covering her.
"And good choice." Astral lifted the toothpick some before stabbing it into Emile's stomach.
Emile screamed in pain, despite his best efforts not too. At the very least it’d be a relatively quick death. His soul would go back where it belonged. But Lily…he couldn’t bring her with him right now. He’d come back for her. He promised himself he’d at least try to do that.
"You're quite fun," Astral said, the toothpick clean through Emile and stuck in the floor. He let go, turning his attention to the lava to clean up.
"It's just too bad I can't keep you for myself." He used his fingers to pick up the thick lava like it was putty, bringing Lily up with it. He moved to pour it back into the bottle, not caring as Lily fell into it with more screams of pain and terror. He capped the bottle off and put it away before lifting the hall up with Emile with it, setting it back in place and pulling the dividers out so it connected with the rest of the palace again.
"Goodbye, Emile, I do so hope you come to play again."
Emile felt his body shudder, the edges of his vision starting to get dark very quickly as his body began to shut down. “F-fuck you.” He spat out at the god, staring at him with as much hate as he could manage.
"Sorry, that's reserved for Simon," Astral said, meeting Emile's hateful gaze with a devilish smirk of his over. He pulled out the toothpick that had begun to set Emile on fire, looking over it as Emile's blood evaporated under the immense heat of the lava still clinging to the metal.
"I do believe this is where you take your leave, now. Tell your owner I'd love to borrow you sometime~"
((O U C H ASS WTF))
Emile would’ve responded but his body chose that inconvenient moment to shut down completely, his vision going dark. He wouldn’t be aware of much of anything for awhile.
(I'M SORRY I'M TORN BETWEEN BEING IN CHARACTER AND BEING A DECENT FUCKING HUMAN BEING)
Astral hummed as he cleaned up the hall and his toothpick. He picked up Emile's body, simply tossing it in a trash can. He tutted some at the damage to his floor, running a finger over the charred and bloody hole before shrugging. He'd deal with it later. For now, he looked elsewhere on the map, at the three currently curled up together on the bed. Perhaps he should mess with them anyway… He was right there, after all.
((BCMDGKSGJ UNDERSTANDABLE))
It really would be a shame…it’d taken Simon so long to get even relatively close to stable again. He couldn’t handle another bad encounter today. And basically any encounter he had with Astral today was guaranteed to be shitty.
Most of the things Astral could do were deadly, though, and he wanted his child to be safe.
There was something, though. Astral grabbed a single divider, slipping it in front of the door to cut them off from the rest of the palace. Then… very, very carefully, so Simon couldn't notice, he lifted the room out. He let the fountain close, choosing the carry the room and the three small mortals inside to his own bedroom. He'd be keeping his lover close, then, after all.
Simon would be very unhappy once he woke up, but that was a problem for in awhile. For right now, he was still able to believe that things were okay, and that he was safe. Safety was nothing but an illusion here. He’d learn that soon enough.
Astral hummed quietly to himself, thinking. Should he take the divider out? If he did, they'd be able to walk right out onto his bedside table… He found it cute, thinking he could just wake up and see Simon panicking next to his bed. So, he took the divider off, laying it on the table next to the room. Now, all he could do was wait for them to wake up.
And Simon certainly would panic. He’d only been small very briefly that one time. Waking up that way would certainly be a very unpleasant experience for him. And Astral’s presence would only make it worse.
He'd learn to get used to it, though. He had the rest of time to do so, and much of it would be spent in whatever form Astral wanted him to be in. The god moved to lay down, letting out a small laugh that hopefully wouldn't wake Simon up. Oh, he was loving this…