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hello heaven, hello - Sunjata - 04-04-2025
Hopping slightly from stall to stall, Sunjata reaches back with a huff of a laugh to snag Hotaru’s hand – making his way to the largest of the patchwork ships that make up the stalls. “[say]So.. I told you I was going to see Rae, right?[/say]” He starts by saying, cutting off the conversation they’d just had about that particular baker over a couple of ships on their way here (and his horribly delectable cakes). “[say]I did. And it wasn’t at all what I was expecting.[/say]” His lopsided, boyish smile fades slightly with the memory – the seriousness of which they spoke.
He imagines if he were to know them more he’d be able to parse through it – but knowing who he is, Hotaru would get the sense through the Attuned bond that it was vastly different from Frey. “[say]For how many times I try and make sure I’ve got peaches for Frey, they didn’t seem to care about offerings at all.[/say]” Which he supposes makes sense as it leaves his lips – if they were nature and created everything, what could he bring that would please them?
RE: hello heaven, hello - Hotaru - 04-04-2025
Hotaru laughs as he reaches to snag her hand, the free one waving some vague goodbye to the seller whose wares she’d briefly been eyeing as she hop-skips to her fiancé’s side in the wake of his pulling. Her eyes shine with intrigue as he starts, playfully swinging their joined hands. She can plot her platonic courting of the surely-inhuman baker later.
[say]“That different, huh?”[/say] The sense-memory of his feelings from that meeting, and the ones that had been inspired thereafter, bubble on her tongue like confused champagne. [say]“After meeting Mort I wondered if they might all be that way. So much bigger and harder to know than their heralds.”[/say] Maybe they shouldn’t be surprised by that given how all-encompassing their realms are but human minds are small to say the least.
She steps closer into Sunjata’s side to avoid a man with boxes stacked higher than his eyes who rushes past them, gracefully resisting the urge to trip him for the stupidity of doing something so foolish on the busy docks. [say]“What do you even give a god that rules over all creation, or all of the afterlife, or all living…souls?”[/say] She falters, nose wrinkling. [say]“Maybe it’s the Outlander education failing me, but I’m not even sure I’d know where Rae’s domain starts and ends compared to Vi’s.”[/say] Laughing, she uses the closeness to knock her shoulder into his…well, honestly it’s closer to his elbow than his own shoulder. [say]“So you must not be the only one. Clearly they still gave you an audience - and a quest - so it couldn’t have overly disappointed them.”[/say]
RE: hello heaven, hello - Sunjata - 04-04-2025
“[say]Right?[/say]” Sunjata hums the response as she questions how different it was – letting her take in those odd feelings he’d had – nothing bad, just… Confusing. Glancing down to her as she mentions her meeting with Mort, Sunjata’s at least heard very kind gentle things of the god of death – not that he wants to get to know him personally, of course. Mort certainly had a change in Remi since becoming his demigod.
Pulling her in and twisting a little sideways, the Flood watches the man rush past before he tilts his attention back to Ru and the path they’ve picked, letting the brief sunbreak between the clouds warm him up and bring out the freckles on his face. “[say]I dunno. I kinda brought everything I could think of.[/say]” Which in hindsight might have been a mistake. Trying too hard.
Laughing along with her as she mentions the Outlander education – something they certainly had more than an abundance of in comparison to Caido in general, but.. “[say]Yeah, that’s true. But I started it off by saying I was late to it.[/say]” Which he was, they both knew that. From the infection and everything that came after, to the still healing yet yellow bruising on his shoulder that peeks up from under the sleeveless shirt he wears, only barely blending with the dark tattoos atop them. “[say]And they said I was late. And that I would be again. And that was the really confusing part.[/say]” His head tilts as he pauses by one of the stalls, one with a variety of fried, fresh caught fish.
Nodding to the owner of the stall and the fisherman he’s working with as they acknowledge them, the Flood flashes a brighter smile than the topic really allowed for to his citizens before asking for one order of the fried fish – and of course, whatever Hotaru wanted.
RE: hello heaven, hello - Hotaru - 04-04-2025
She might have entertained teaching the man a lesson had the sun not parted and landed on her fiancé’s face, bringing out the blonde in his hair and the cinnamon freckles across his nose. They’d been darkening slowly with the change of the season, but Hotaru would never stop lamenting the fact they would never be so dark and prominent as on Torchline’s shores. He is handsome, alive, and at her side. Foolish merchants and tiny transgressions can’t hold a candle to that, can’t possibly tear her attention away. Maybe that’s why she has to blink and shake her head to dispel the lovestruck expression from her face - and the accompanying fog in her brain - in order to muster up some sort of meaningful reply.
[say]“Trying too hard is sort of your calling card hart koning.”[/say] Affectionately said from between smiling lips that hold a subtle curl of teasing to their edges, she rises on her toes to kiss his jaw. [say]“It’s endearing, don’t worry.”[/say] A virtue Rae of all the old gods may not assign worth to - and not without reason - but one most other deities would covet in their worshippers.
The certainty of the wording - and perhaps some bleed over from Sunjata of how he’d felt hearing it in the moment - makes her stand straighter as her expression defaults into a placid, beautiful smile. A perfect, habitual disguise as she works through her unease. It passes smoothly under the seller’s radar as she places her own order for sashimi in hand-rolled seaweed, feline urges craving raw fish but human hands enforcing a portable treat. They sidle to the side so those behind them can order, allowing them a moment of privacy as they wait for their order. [say]“I don’t like the ominous conviction of that wording. Surely if any of the gods were prophetic all…this wouldn’t have happened?”[/say] Her hand tightens slightly around his, clearly meaning the Family. Much as she’d love to pin the failure on Safrin alone, she doubts the pantheon of old gods wouldn’t have come together to share such news if they’d had an inkling of what was to come. Not that Rae - or Frey - had seemed all that bothered by the invasive species in their midst, so would they have even bothered to share it if they had?
Looking up at him, hair shifting like sunlight through water as it sways behind her, Hotaru smiles bravely through the sudden jolt of concern. [say]“I met one of their demigods a long time ago who was incredibly literal. Maybe we’re overthinking it. Surely you will be late again - to dinner, perhaps.”[/say] Her grin is just shy of too-sharp as she tilts her head in a predatory manner. [say]“Just not dinner with me.”[/say]
RE: hello heaven, hello - Sunjata - 04-04-2025
Unaware that he’s captivated her attention with the brief sun break, Sunjata’s gaze is bright as he swings back toward her, watching her as she affectionately jabs him verbally. A soft snort leaves him, bending at the knee just enough to help her kiss land to his jaw, huffing out a sigh and a roll of his eyes. “[say]Well, I don’t wanna be wrong.[/say]” Comes the soft complaint, even though he knows it’s not needed.
Between being horrible at words, the attuned bond makes up for it – giving the sensation of his intentions even if he can’t verbalize them or parse them how he wants. But he can see her mask slip into place – a beautiful transition that hardly anyone would notice except those closest to her, and he pulses a sensation of love toward her to help with the unease he can feel leaking from her, thankful that the fisherman and the stall owner aren’t attuned as they step aside to wait.
“[say]Yeah..[/say]” He squeezes her hand back, scanning her face as her hair shifts like sunlight and he’s helpless from stopping his lightning scarred hand from lifting and combing through the ends of the gold like molten metal between his fingers, captivated, only brought out by her joke. “[say]Gods no, never with you. I dunno if I could handle the consequences.[/say]” He agrees, pushing his thoughts to the side before he leans down to tilt her head up for a soft and chaste kiss, craving the sweet taste of her kiss, before he's withdrawing to snag their order.
Handing hers to her, he snags a bite of the fish after, continuing their walk away from this particular stall down the rows of the others. [say]I think it might be worth going through the boxes from the House of Midnight we haven’t unpacked yet.. I wanna see if the Knowtbook says anything.[/say] He murmurs through the attuned bond, in case a particularly static Friend is listening.
RE: hello heaven, hello - Hotaru - 04-04-2025
Oh, he’ll feel the slip of the bond and the rush of punchdrunk love that is there and gone like expensive perfume on a passerby as she brings it back under control. [say]“You’re cute,”[/say] she sighs as if fondly dismayed. Maybe she is, because it’s a shame anyone gets to experience that overly-conscientious sweetness but her. [say]“Just proves the endearing thing. I’m sure you can melt even Rae with it eventually.”[/say] Water erodes all given enough time - he’d seen to it with the Valkyrie’s heart. His namesake means so much more than he gives it credit for, the same way he won’t give credit to himself.
Attuned or no, he would know her and the way she wears ease and grace like a shield. Nobody suspects loose shoulders and smiles when they’re looking for something wrong but he knows her too well to miss it. Her disposition is playful lightning when she’s around him, not bottled sunlight as she wears it now. His hands reach for that sunlight and it draws her back to him in the same breath, smile melting back into its proper shape by time he leans down to kiss her. It’s far too brief - it always is, she’s tested that theory extensively - but it settles the off-center feeling in her chest immediately. [say]“I’m glad I’m marrying such a smart man,”[/say] she teases, a subvocal half-shifted purr eking out beneath it in thoughtless display of her pleasure, the same way feathers like to grow in his hair and down his neck.
Wood creaks pleasantly beneath their feet as they wander, warm sun on their shoulders. [say]Maybe it can tell us if there are longer days coming soon. I’m ready for LongHeat already,[/say] she bemoans, keeping her own thoughts airy and aimless. Who knows what the book would say? Certainly not her, so there would be no use in guessing. A sort of double-think she has grown strangely accustomed to doing. Or perhaps she is avoiding the distant, quiet pang that always comes when she thinks of the Knowtbook’s previous owner. [say]Flowerbirth is the perfect time for cleaning, we should do it in the next few days before we risk any rain.[/say] Ru calmly sidesteps the flicker of desire to feel any urgency and instead cranes her head to obnoxiously try and steal a bite of Jata’s fried fish, her own treat still flagrantly accessible in her free hand.
RE: hello heaven, hello - Sunjata - 04-05-2025
Snorting at her sigh, Sunjata can’t help the slight smile that blooms on his face – his affection pouring over into the attuned bond between them. “[say]I won Frey, that’s all that matters, right?[/say]” He says softly, amusement flickering in his face for a brief moment before it delves into something more somber, careful, carefree to the majority but she’d see through it just as he sees through hers.
The kiss is brief, calculatingly so – because he’d be happy to sit here and kiss her for hours if they didn’t have anything else to do. But for now? Now, they have places to be and things to see, and hearing her half shifted purr, Sunjata can’t help but to chuckle a little. “[say]I’m glad that you’re glad.[/say]” He teases, brows wiggling playfully before he snorts and is already snagging her hand to continue down the ships, peering at the stalls they pass by.
It's enough to hear her through the attuned bond, but not enough to not notice immediately as she begins to steal a bite of his fried fish. [say]Yeah, that’s a good idea, huh?[/say] He murmurs through the attuned bond before he lifts the fried fish high above her head in a bratty way. “[say]Oy![/say]” Sunjata says with a bright bubble of laughter, partially shifting to bring a feathered, tri colored wing around her to corral her closer against him to keep her from jumping to reach it, leaning in to press his forehead to hers. “[say]I’ll give you a bite of mine if you give me a bite of yours.[/say]” A good bargain, he thinks.
RE: hello heaven, hello - Hotaru - 04-07-2025
[say]“Precisely,”[/say] she declares, though his kiss distracts her from both the lingering shadows of ominous messages and the simpler things like continuing her sentence. For a moment, at least. Not that the pair of them would disagree on philosophical considerations such as the benefits of aligning with a herald who turns a mindboggling domain into something bite-sized and relatable. Or perhaps mouth-sized would be the appropriate phrase? Frey would surely like it.
[say]“Careful, or we’ll devolve into ‘I’m glad you’re glad I’m glad’ territory,”[/say] she laughs as he takes her hand and pushes onward, her own footfalls nearly double-time to his as their boots fall on the sun warmed wood below. To her, they have a plan in place and no way to verify the anxieties that lurk in the dark, so it’s only economical to cause mischief and bring a smile back to his face.
Though the feathers do make her nose wrinkle and her eyes water as she laughs, fighting back a sneeze. Were her own hands not busy with one of his and food of her own she’d have climbed him to get at the skewered fish just to prove a point. Which he must have anticipated given the soft thunk of his forehead to hers that keeps her contained. [say]“Hmm. But you have a much larger mouth, so you’ll eat more of it. Doesn’t seem fair to me,”[/say] she points out in equal bratty flair, pursing her lips to blow a puff of air across his lips (and maybe up into his nose if she’s lucky).
RE: hello heaven, hello - Sunjata - 04-08-2025
How brows raise playfully, eyes widening in a full dramatic show as he blinks at her. “[say]Oh yeah? Is that so bad, huh?[/say]” He asks, shooting her an adoring grin. “[say]I’m glad that you’re glad that I’m glad that you’re glad.[/say]” He says before breaking into a warm laugh, one that doesn’t vanish as they continue.
Because now she’s trying to steal a bite of his lunch while possessively keeping her own out of her mouth — and his, for that matter, and so he tugs her close with a feathered wing and certainly sees through any retaliation with the way he bends to press his forehead to hers. She responds and before he has a chance to answer, the puff of air does go into his nose and he huffs a breath back at her.
“[say]Thought you liked what my big mouth could do.[/say]” He teases in a low and suggestive drawl, before he sighs and withdraws, looking up at the space he’d hoisted the fish out of her reach. “[say]Two bites, then.[/say]” He looks down at her with a raise of his brow, his grin slowly peeking onto his freckled face.
RE: hello heaven, hello - Hotaru - 04-15-2025
Oh, she tries to cling to the exasperation that is a thinner veneer than the weatherproofing of the boards beneath their feet, but her lips twitch and break into a grin before he can get past the second word. Laughter follows shortly, bubbling up in her throat and infecting her speech as she parrots back, [say]“Not as glad as I am that you’re glad that I’m glad that - wait, how many is that?”[/say] Her laughter is caught and held in a private bubble between them formed by his bright feathers, like the sincerity of their shared joy is a tantalizing hint to the milling civilians around them.
A tawny tail forms and wiggles out of the hem of her blouse to wrap around his waist in return. [say]“I do, but it’s better suited to eating other things. Things that aren’t my food.”[/say] Her eyes flick up to where he still holds the fish out of reach, lips pursing into the threat of a pout. [say]“We’re not married yet so I can’t use the ‘what’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine’ line.”[/say] Sighing as if greatly put upon - though whether it’s about the marriage leverage or impending compromise is unclear - the Valkyrie lifts her free hand to make an x-shape over her heart. [say]“Fine, two bites is a deal. I’ll even let you go first.”[/say] She lifts her sushi cone upward to his mouth, free hand cupped below for the inevitable fallout of lost morsels.
RE: hello heaven, hello - Sunjata - 04-15-2025
Her laughter is a charm, one the Flood clings to as a lifeline as they make their jokes and his wings block them partially from the view of the rest of the world, choosing to pretend that this tiny little slip of time could be absolutely just theirs despite the fact that they were out in public. “[say]Three, I think.[/say]” Sunjata chuckles, though he doesn’t really know. And he’s content to leave it as is, figuring that he can’t just continue on and on for all of eternity – even if he partially wants to try.
No, because now they’re having a playful fight about their respective foods, and she anchors him with a tawny tail as much as he does with his tricolored wings. “[say]Oh noooo, how terrible.[/say]” He purrs playfully to her dramatics, even as his bright steel gaze scans her beautiful face, wrought with all the drama of his actions as she crosses her heart.
Perking up almost immediately and lowering the bites of fish, he inclines himself forward to take a relatively small bite of the sushi mix with a content hum at the taste, withdrawing and leaving a minimal amount of rice that’s fallen out from his cupid lips. “[say]Wasn’t so hard, was it?[/say]” He teases once he’s swallowed, placing the fried fish in front of her so that she can take her two bites.
RE: hello heaven, hello - Hotaru - 04-15-2025
He’s perfectly neat - and conscientious of the size of his bite - like the perfect fiancé (good boy) that he is. Though she still holds eye contact as she licks the rice from her palm that had fallen from his lips, never one to miss an opportunity for flirting.
[say]“I only like hard with you,”[/say] she primly responds, innocent as you please as she leans in to take her own two bites. Regular ones, because she can be good too. Though the natural oils are harder to lick off her lips than the rice of her own chosen meal.
[say]“Though it’s a good time to bring it up - Flora has been nagging at me, asking when we’re getting married.”[/say] They’ve been understandably preoccupied to say the least, and Hotaru thinks it’s somewhat moot considering she literally possesses his heart, but she’ll also admit she wants it nonetheless. She just doesn’t much care for the details and specifics as she once might have. All that matters to her is that she has him, and she already does.
RE: hello heaven, hello - Sunjata - 04-15-2025
At the end of the day, he is still a man, so as he withdraws from his bite and keeps that eye contact as she licks it from her palm and flirts with him. A low hum of a laugh leaves him as his wings tuck her a little closer, swallowing down the bite before he flashes her a playful and roguish twitch of his lips. “[say]I was hoping you’d say that.[/say]” Comes the soft purr, a suggestive tone of whether or not he’d even want to wait until they were back in a more respectable location before he indulged in her.
Ah, but then water is doused all over him as she takes the bites of his food and she mentions Flora’s question and it takes everything in him to not groan loudly and petulantly. “[say]I was thinking sooner, originally, but… That was when we were still infected.[/say]” The frown tugs at his face all lopsided from the scar that bisects it as his wings unfold from around her to tuck in neatly at his back. “[say]So I don’t know if it’d be better to wait..? When there’s no chance of them maybe showing up to crash the event? What do you think?[/say]” He huffs a little and exhales, but the steel of his gaze is bright as he watches her curiously to see her thoughts.