STELLA

STELLA  known as  CONSTELLA DE ARTEMIS  is an osprey hellborn meant to embody the formation  &&.  bonds of stars into constellations .   she was born literally from them ,  never having any real family or fortune ,  let alone parents .   because of this ,  she had no one  &&.  ultimately grew up within an adoption clinic .   it was through her time out in the city that she hesitantly bumped into stolas as youths ,  &&.  thus the romeo  &&.  juilet fantasy love story began .   they arranged to marry as soon as she turned 18 ,  which they did ,  &&.  thus began their happy marriage .   through the tradition of the prince  &&.  his stars ,  she became a goetian through the soul bonding their marriage had been forged with ,  so when octavia was born ,  so was a new star .

for stella to withstand the sight  &&.  mere thought of an affair is like the death of a star ,  impatience grows before anger finally snaps in a collaterally explosive episode ,  destroying herself with everything around it .   she’s traumatized ,  her whole world being taken from her as stolas seemingly abandons her for someone she sees as lesser than a literal embodiment of his prowess .   it hurts her deeply ,  &&.  as a means of cope she  HAS  turned to copious amounts of alcohol  &&.  at times of her darkest hours ,  self harm .   although it’s impossible to die from these sorts of things ,  just know the slow fade out deaths of stars are always an indication of stella’s fizzling self image or mentality .

     His tail is coiled around the bottle of wine and lifts purposefully to her, in offer to refill her glass, his expression stoic as he seems to refuse to look her way.

          ❛  – Wanna top off? ❜

                                ❛      DON’T BOTHER ,      ❜                  bites coldly ,  the rush of nicotine quickly brought to her lips for a longer held in drag .   when that seemingly calms her wrecked nerves ,  she silently lifts her glass to offer out to catering cowpoke ,  neither one looking the other’s way .   she’s still bitter ,  furious with the failure to assassinate her deadweight husband .   no matter she had said ,  though of course she wanted to be free at the fastest convenience .

He’s missed the sharpness of her bite, the sweet, savage affection. It isn’t right that they meet here, when their homes are filled with broken reflections. In one tower, a princess sleeps alone; in another, a prince desecrates his marital bed. Stolas wishes he could find it in his heart to pity or admonish them - the loveless wife and unfaithful husband - but their cruel indifference has brought him here.

It has brought her here.

Stella is warmer against his hands than the wife of his universe. She fits perfectly, hips pressed against his, and reminds him what it is to feel alive and wanted. He breathes in her almost-familiar scent and nuzzles her neck, cooing  against her feathers. He wraps his arm around her hips and pulls her closer still.

“Only a fool would turn down such a gift.” The fool - her prince, her unfaithful wretch, the court jester of his own palace - has lost his most precious gem and Stolas will greedily take her in hand and polish her until she shines like the brightest of stars. They have tonight in this lonely place and together, they will make a paradise of it and of each other: a kingdom of desire and perhaps, even, one of love. He tilts Stella’s head back, gently pressing his fingers to her chin, then the sensitive place upon her throat, a moment away from kissing her. “Make my desert mouth the seat of your throne and rain for me until we are a garden again.” 

                                ❛      OH ,      ❜                  curtly follows his attention given to swaddled neck ,  cowl shivering outward to splay feather hues better as he presses in further against her .   stella barely has time to register his coo before those illustrative lips dance words across  HER  cheek ,  followed by the devilish curl of forearm drawing her near .   crest flusters under dress ,  puffing up crudely against bosom as she fans a hand atop the bust with a brazen display of affectionate timidity .

                 she hasn’t the gall to stop this collision of universal opposites ,  not when she feels his tender touch thread along her nape .   adjacent to his coolness ,  heat flourishes from maw agape that drops beak to sigh in relief ,  the cold embrace of his spacial embassy ghosting her star-fire like the lapses of flares from a solar giant .  free hand finds his lapel ,  instinctively letting fingers dance upon cape button that secures it around his collar .

                 does she speak ?   dare to chide in their solace  &&.  challenge the figure of all supernatural odysseys within the extents of unknown universal expanse ?    eyelashes flutters as his touch tethers to her chin ,  draws her gaze back to his with a greedy lilt of his songbird ,  no matter her predatory nature .   sweet as a canary in his gilded cage ,  forever enamored with his cosmic tune .   smile breaches the confines of her intoxication ,  claws digging slightly against her own chest to better show enticement through vindication .

                                ❛      OF COURSE  it didn’t ,  whenever  does it .      ❜                  the wicked  ( hoping to be )  widow pulls her cloak’s hood tighter against the back of her head ,  praying the shadowy veil will work its wonders to hide her recognition .   these under-table dealings were usually mandated by her alone ,  to be met under low radar slum areas ,  usually after dark .   stella barely let the spitting venom hissing under her tone swallow back when she lets out her breath of anguish .

                                ❛      since you breached contractual obligations within the first  —  of what i’m assuming to be  MANY  —  time constraints ,  i’m deducting  twenty grand  from your final half .   we don’t have  many chances  now ,  striker .    if you’re so dependent on this payout ,  you’d best get the deed  done .      ❜

“Will you hose me down with holy water, if I get too hot?”

                 BEAK CLICKS  //  BREATH CHIRPS  in chuckle as her husband’s alternate speaks so ever sweet against her cowl ,  leaning over shoulder to gently cusp her hips from behind in a tender moment .   vulnerability long since shrouded comes to light ,  an effervescent brightness to her eyes as she side-eyes the scandalous exclamation with a brief nip against his feathered cheek .

The King of Lust’s expression soon follows hers, souring upon her words. Back straightening, the air around them darkened, natural light trading for neon, showing all the more starkly his displeasure, bright green on dark blue. Behind him, his mane waved and whipped like flame, his secondary and tertiary faces glaring in unison with his main. When he next speaks, his voice has turned icy, all joviality leaking from it.

“You would do well to remember your place in the hierarchy, Constella de Artemis. It is not your place to be unamused with me or my questions. If I ask after your health and that of your daughter, know that it comes from a place of honest concern– what purpose would lies serve me? Have you ever known me to lie about things such as this? My purpose here is not solely of my Sin, and you would do well to curb your tongue, if you do not wish to offended a King.”

He leans in, elbows on the table, hands folded under his chin, and the smile returns, just as the darkness and neon retreats. 

“So, I will ask again– how are you, and how is your daughter? Is there anything you might need that I could provide?”

                 FACE REMAINS  //  STOIC EXPRESSION  smoldering its embers as equal fires burn at either table side ,  her hands moving to fold formally as though folding in a poker game .   his words resonate in her own embodiment ,  starlight quivering from core’s animosity ,  from the second he addresses her fully .   now she knows he means business ,  that this is genuine  &&.  not some form of playful footsie like how he’d treat other hell-borns or sinners .

                                ❛      very well ,      ❜                  breathes rigidly .                                 ❛      i amend my statement ,  &&.  formally  apologize  on behalf that this  whole ordeal  has taken so much of my pride  &&.  stripped my mental energy  to the bone .      ❜