A Small Great Dionysia

"Thank you," she said, turning away to give him privacy. She briefly stopped by a candle to light Kirei's collar on fire before heading up to the stage with Rider, and handing him a copy of the first play she'd found.

Changed modestly into his toga, he returned to the stage and stopped to look down at his burnt collar, a look on his face that was a mixture of annoyance and amusement.

"I'll thank you not to do that to the rest of my clothes. They're carefully designed for combat." He took the paper from Archer and scanned it curiously.

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it Master," she replied with a bit of a laugh. She may have been tucking into the wine before the two arrived. The plays were small with few characters, so they wouldn't be completely un-doable. "A big part of the great dionysia were the theatre productions. Obviously none of us are professionals, but it wouldn't be a dionysia without a performance. You can both pick which characters you'd like to portray." she had handed out a play called 'Arsenic and Old Lace' first.

Rider flipped through the script. "I used to be in performances all the time! Greek chorus was always common, too, when we weren't doing morality pieces! I'm so excited!"

"This is...probably the furthest from one of those as possible, but I'm working with what they had here in the theatre, and this amused me. " She started the play, doing voices, giggling, and playing off of Astolpho as she goaded Kirei to be more lively. If he refused, she fed him more wine.

Astolpho threw himself entirely into his roles - using voices, managing his own blocking, going full force with his facial expression and body language, melting from one character into the next. He didn't even need that much wine.

Thankfully, Kirei had the experience of twenty-plus years in service to the Church, repeating passion plays and hymns and chants. He read his lines with perfect inflection, if not overly serious and emotionless. In contrast to Archer and Rider fully enjoying themselves, he still never cracked a smile, but at least he wasn't complaining anymore.

After enough wine, eventually Atalanta began to puppet Kirei when he didn't put enough motion into his actions, even going so far as to move his face into the proper expressions.

Kirei resisted for most of the length of the play even as she continued to feed him wine, alternating between annoyance and resignation. Towards the end, he finally began to emote more, having little trouble showing the negative emotions like anger and fear.

When he had to portray happiness, however, he pulled a crooked grimace that made it seem like he was having spikes driven into the soles of his feet.

At this, Atalanta could not help but fall over in laughter, unable to continue her lines. "You cannot be serious!" she shreiked, trying to get Astolpho to take a picture between guffaws.

With enough wine in him, his cheeks flushed slightly in embarrassment. "Stop laughing!" he groaned.

She sat up, getting control of her laughter and put her hand on Kirei's hand in mock seriousness. "I...truly apologize master," she chuckled, her cheeks bright pink with joy and liquor. "It was a beautiful-" she broke into laughter again before she could finish the fake praise.

The shutter on the disposable camera snapped shut, catching Kirei in his joyful rictus. "Come on, Master! Think about something that really makes you happy! It's okay, we're all having fun here!"

"You wanted me to do this. I'm trying!" Kirei argued, having difficulty putting his words in order. "I can't... help it!"

Atalanta ruffled the man's hair, "Awww, I appreciate it I really do~" she said, going so far as to even nuzzle him nose to nose. "At least some kind of emotion is coming out."

Rider wiggled his eyebrows. "Maybe a kiss for our prince will help him feel better!"

"Maybe!" Atalanta agreed before smashing her lips onto the priest's.

Kirei shrunk away from the noze nuzzle, appearing even more irritated. After Rider spoke, he scoffed. "That's not--"

Then Atalanta's lips were against his. He couldn't react for a moment out of sheer surprise. Perhaps if he hadn't been inebriated he could have dodged her.

He wasn't sure what to feel at first. A normal human should have felt some sort of positive emotion, but like any other time he'd experienced physical affection, he didn't feel any sort of joy. If anything, there was a small amount of discomfort for having someone pressed close to him.

That emotional response, however, was tempered by his body's automatic reaction. Obviously, she was attractive. Even if he wasn't emotionally attracted to her, his body knew what to do in these situations. Whatever form his soul took, he still had the body of a human, after all.

Atalanta stifled a laugh, but remained on her master's lap to hide his possible embarassment from Astolpho. She did however take a little pleasure in shifting often to keep Kirei on his toes. She asked Astolpho about some of his past experiences, hoping if he drank enough, he would eventually go to sleep.

Astolpho gave them a knowing, playful grin. "Actually, I think I'm going to turn in early. I remember enough of my human life to see where this is going." He stretched and blew them kisses before skipping - stumbling only slightly - off to bed

"Goodnight my dear~" Atalanta sang, catching and blowing her own kisses. When rider left she turned to Kirei, "you don't have to look so annoyed." she teased.

Kirei looked off to the side, disgruntled by Atalanta's teasing, but not necessarily fighting her movements. "Don't you think we've had enough at this point?"

The huntress chuckled darkly, "You would like that, wouldn't you?" she turned to face him, pinning him against a nearby wall. It was enough pressure to even hurt a bit; just enough to show that she wasn't joking. "We all enjoy a little torture sometimes. Mine may not be as intense as yours but it is very pleasurable watching you scoff and squirm in this situation, I have to say." she gently kissed his neck with lips sticky from wine, continuing to hold his shoulders firmly against the wall.

When Atalanta pinned him against the wall, the jolt of pain gave him a strange twinge of emotion. His discomfort gave way to slight interest. Though he didn't make any moves against her, he looked down at the top of her head.

"Is that so? I have engaged in these activities before, and they failed to fulfill me then. Do you really think you can change that?"

He wasn't sure why he was baiting her. He didn't expect sex to be any more pleasurable than it had been in the past.

She released one of his shoulders to clamp a hand firmly around his jaw. His head made a thud as it also made contact with the wall. "I'm not your sweet little wife. I'm not here to fulfill your desires. I'm here for mine. As far as I'm concerned, you are a means to my end in more than one way." She scraped her fingernails down his cheek, bearing a toothy grin like a lioness about to enjoy a meal. Red welts swelled up in the wake of her 'claws' "For me, this kind of thing has always been a fight. I ran like you did, until someone forced me. Now I will do the forcing. If you don't like it, then use your command seals to stop me." she had moved her hand down as she talked, grasping and squeezing his neck as she ground her hips against his.