that's life, boy, what can ya do?

SUNJATA

the flood

The heat of Longheat is a comfort to the Flood’s bones - having grown up in a world full of multitudes, droughts to floods. He’s always been partial to the heat. It’s why he’d loved Torchline so much when he was there. Why he chose King’s End as a happy middle ground between them. But he’d made this land blessed by Frey, rather than Safrin’s hold over the region he’d previously governed. And it’s to Frey that Sunjata goes now.

Because things are ramping up, the wyrm isn’t dead yet, and it brings an air of frustration coiling in his bones. Unease drags him to the shrine, the basket of peaches set before it as he kneels. Withdrawing and letting his fingertips trail along the underside of the blossoming flowers he and Alys had planted around it, he opts for the Attuned bond if only so that a particular Family member doesn’t hear it.

Bowing his head, he takes a deep breath to settle him despite how he’d told them he was going to try and not bear the entire burden on his shoulders until it was often too heavy to carry. Frey, we have been trying to get rid of Starfall. There’s a wyrm that keeps eluding us.. I was wondering if it's possible to strengthen my healing magic so that I might be able to help those with more effective abilities against it? Settling as the question is projected through the bond, the Flood’s head lifts, watching the wind dance across the shrine, listening to the wind chimes as they clink merrily.

---

Sunjata is asking for a quest to upgrade Let It Rain to Mastered!

Magic: Let it Rain | Can cause rain to fall in a 30 ft radius that heals allies while damaging enemies. May be used two times per thread, with a two post cooldown.
Type: Grey | Rank: Upgraded

Citizenship Ability:

With so many spirits around you, you attract the attention of the gods when visiting a shrine. Roll with advantage when praying at a shrine. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of your shrine post).

Regional Score bonus: +1 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +1 should be included). Residents cannot be cursed at shrines in this region.

did you get out all of that angry passion?
is it still formin'? Has it started to torture you?

Frey

The wind answers first—soft at the edges, but sultry and full, like breath over bare skin. It teases the petals of the blossoms Sunjata’s fingers had just touched, and for a moment, the clink of the wind chimes shifts to something richer. Deeper. As though the melody were humming in anticipation.

Then the shrine exhales.

Heat spills outward, sudden and thick, golden as late-afternoon sun against naked skin. The scent of peaches ripens in the air, heady and sweet, chased by crushed petals, warm sweat, and honeyed musk. And there—rising from the stones, stepping from the spaces between sunlight and shadow—Frey arrives.

They’re nude, of course. Always. But it’s a new kind of languid today, a version meant for this Longheat setting: their skin glowing like it’s soaked in light, bare feet kicking up dust that doesn’t dare cling. Their body shifts with each step, perfectly tuned to the gaze of the man kneeling before them—broad-shouldered, lean-hipped, golden and fluid, a god cast from sunlight and desire.

"My darling Flood," Frey drawls, stepping around the basket of peaches with a smirk of approval. Their fingers graze his chin, lifting his face to meet theirs, their thumb dragging with the care of a lover and the weight of something divine. "Burdened again. You did say you wouldn’t do that, didn’t you?" They click their tongue, more amused than chastising. "Still, I’ll allow it. You came here before you broke. That’s growth, I suppose."

The pleasure in their voice is unmistakable as they lean forward and whisper softly into his ear.

---

Sunjata has been given a quest! He must

1. Have sex during a rainstorm
2. Use the Let it Rain ability to heal someone,
3. Use the Let it Rain ability to harm someone/something
4. "Make it rain" something that isn't water

SUNJATA

the flood

It’s a breath taken, held, and then unleashed. It’s a beautiful golden light of sun against skin, the kind that is the sole reason his freckles shine as starkly as they do right this second. And he takes them in with all the warmth of adoration blooming in his heart for his god. They arrive as perfect as always, the blend a perfect sculpt of everything Sunjata loves – broad shoulders, lean-hips, sunlight, warmth, and acceptance personified.

“Frey,” Sunjata hums in relief, giving into the touch at his chin as they warm him, his steel gaze scanning their face contently. “It’s… Better than I usually do.” He admits, taking the amusement to heart rather than anything else like he might have had someone else chastised him. He leans in eagerly to hear the tasks, settling once they’re all listed out to nuzzle his head into their hand briefly, indulging the touch for as long as he has it.

“Thank you. I’ll see you soon.” He murmurs, looking up at them again and seeing the flashes of Nate within their face that has Sunjata’s smile bordering on sunshine and warm, no longer any pain in regards to visiting his god. “Is there… Anything else I should know or that you want me to do before I go?” Anything not quest related that he can spread for Frey to those around. He usually doesn't linger and ask questions like this, but given that he's still somewhat on edge of the events happening around him, he can't help but to ask regardless. Better to be safe than sorry, right?

did you get out all of that angry passion?
is it still formin'? Has it started to torture you?

Frey

Frey smiles, and it’s the kind that warms every shadow inside the body—the kind that slips beneath scars and skin alike. "It is better," they agree, voice as soft as a moan beneath sheets, as heavy as dusk-laden heat. "Growth looks good on you, darling."

Their hand lingers against his cheek as he leans into it, fingers threading once through his hair, affectionate and indulgent. When he thanks them, when he looks up with that smile that once held grief and now glows like homecoming, Frey lets their gaze soften too—though the fire never leaves it. "You’re welcome, my Flood. And I’ll be waiting."

But then comes the question—the extra thought, the uncertainty. And for that, Frey’s smile takes on a sharper curve. Not cruel, but knowing. Ancient. True. "What should you know?" they echo, stepping back just enough to let the warmth stretch between them like a tether. "You are a demigod of me, Sunjata. Of life. Of nature. Of pleasure."

Their body shifts slightly, skin dappled with golden light through invisible leaves, like a god standing at the centre of all gardens—fertile, wild, unbothered by rule. "And nature," they continue, "doesn’t survive because it is right. It survives because it wants to. Because it reaches for what feeds it, no matter what burns along the way." Frey bends again, their thumb tracing the bow of his lip with reverence. "Take that however you like, my love. But don’t forget—" their voice drops to a purr, "no one has ever praised a rose for its thorns being heroic. "

A final press of their lips to his forehead, sun-warm and honey-slick, and then the shrine is empty again—except for the heat in his chest and the scent of something blooming behind him.

~FIN