sold my soul to the calling

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

It's not at all usual for Ronin to be at the House of Midnight, and especially without his husband in tow. It feels weird, like he's trespassing, or like he's walking in the shoes of the man he'd been when he was younger, and they no longer fit as they did. Regardless, he's here for the brothel's proprietor rather than any of its offerings, and though he does see Sunjata's name in looping script on a board as he ducks inside, when he asks the person on the door if he can be reached, it's absolutely not with that in mind.

As they send someone scurrying off to try and locate the Flood, Ronin is directed to the half-familiar bar, and he settles himself on one of the stools to wait. The whiskey he orders is smoky and reminds him vaguely of Halo, its bite welcome as he swirls it into the ice in the glass. The Knight seems tired, as he usually does these days, but with the sort of bone-deep weariness born of grief and internal conflict rather than anything physically taxing.

RONIN

SUNJATA

the flood

i'm nothing more than a page unwritten
on the pavement, blowing in the wind

Sunjata isn’t that hard to reach, at least. Freshly showered and with the blooming red of a mark pressed against the compass tattoo on his neck, the Flood makes his way downstairs. He is surprised to hear that it’s Ronin that’s called for him, but as he moves through the House of Midnight, he mentally prepares himself to get over the shades he’ll see in Ronin’s face from the infection that had plagued them both.

Dressed down in a dark tank top and dark jeans, hair still damp and curling, the Flood slides into the seat beside Ronin and purposefully doesn’t look at him as the bartender already slides a glass his way. Similar to Ronin’s, it’s a smoky, dark whiskey that comes his way, and with it in hand the Flood finally does dare to glance at his old friend. “It’s not often you come to my neck of the woods.” He says quietly, regarding him once the eyes and teeth have passed, a quiet tiredness in his gaze, apprehension for what he could be here for. “So what’s up?” Might as well rip the bandaid off, right?

you win a lot, and you lose
just a little bit more than you gained in the end

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

Ronin senses Sunjata sink onto the stool beside him and, like his friend, he doesn't turn his head - not yet, not until he knows it's safe. Reaching out, though, he does clink his glass companionably against the Flood's in a toast, waiting until they've both taken another steadying sip of whiskey before his blue eyes flick across towards him. Wincing, glancing away, and then looking back, he lets out a long, tired sigh and scoffs a gentle laugh. "It isn't. You should feel privileged," he tells him with a lopsided smile. 

But of course there's something up - Ronin doesn't try to hide it, not when they both know he's not likely to have come for shits and giggles. Not with the world in the state that it's in. "You heard Vox's latest broadcast?" It sounds more like a statement than a question. "Remi and I were considering trying to join Deimos in the next level of Starfall, but... we couldn't convince Flora to go into Haulani where it's safe. And now with Dahlia more dangerous than ever, we can't risk her making good on her threat."

Which has left everyone at a loss. "You're one of the strongest out of us. And I know it's unfair, but I came to ask if you'd take our place."

RONIN

SUNJATA

the flood

i'm nothing more than a page unwritten
on the pavement, blowing in the wind

Privileged or worried, is more of the question on Sunjata’s mind. One he keeps very muted in the attuned bond as he takes a sip from their toasted glasses, letting the burn do nothing more than just burning these days as he regards Ronin. “Yeah.” He says - because how could they not? Broadcast into their ears the way that it was. There wasn’t a single moment where they could get away from it, even if they tried to.

But then the ball drops, and this is where his scarred brows pinch, where the Flood’s hold on the bond is a little less stalwart. The iron walls held up bend and his jaw works, muscles feathering in his jaw as he exhales a quiet sigh. “I..” Taking a second to collect his thoughts, he looks away from Ronin to the glass in his hand, having hoped to have a breather in between diving back into Starfall. “Don’t have a choice, do I, Ronin?” He rumbles, clamping his jaw down to take a breath and look back at the White Knight.

“Strong, sure, but.. I don’t do as much damage as Deimos or Hadama. The void, as it turns out, is very much inclined to kill me since I’ve been healed, and one of those levels is water and I could very well actually die.” But he’d keep trying, because he doesn’t have any other option.

But then, the thing that’s been on his mind for a little while crops up, his voice low as he says it and forces himself to keep his attention away from Ronin as everything in him starts to deflate. “Do you really think that Dahlia’s going to keep being noble just because you guys are doing what you’re told?”

you win a lot, and you lose
just a little bit more than you gained in the end

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

"I don't think any of us have much choice right now," Ronin says softly, apologetically, reaching out without looking at the Flood to grip his shoulder, squeezing it gently. With his other hand he smoothly knocks back his whiskey and orders another - advising the barman to leave the bottle, in fact. He has a feeling they'll need it, even if they have to race their own metabolism to feel even a little buzzed these days. 

Hearing that the void is especially deadly to those previously infected is news to the Knight, though, and he glances across at Sunjata without thinking. "I suppose that'd apply to me now too, then?" he guesses, letting out a hard sigh that blows a lock of dark hair up off his forehead. "I don't either," he confesses, on the damage front. "And it's the water that's coming up next. But you won't die." He sounds very certain about that.

"If I have to go down there and get you myself, you'll be coming back from that island. I've not used any of Vi's gifts so far this year. I'll be on the shoreline waiting." And it sickens him even to say it. 

At mention of Dahlia, though, his gaze darkens and drops to the polished countertop. "I don't know," he confesses. "But I do know she'll jump on Flora the second we do anything right now. Unless you can think of a way to get her behind that barrier, Remi and I are birds with our wings clipped. And even if she does go, she puts a lot of other people in danger by doing it." He rubs at his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he mutters. "For what it's worth, I want to go."

RONIN

SUNJATA

the flood

i'm nothing more than a page unwritten
on the pavement, blowing in the wind

He hates it. He’s hated it since he was a child. He’s hated it since he’d had no other choice than to join those other boys in the muddy pits of Korofi, forced to fight and face one another until there was a lone survivor. He’s been forced into things that weren’t his choice his entire life, with little nice promises here and there that he could make his own choices now and again, only for those to be ripped out time and time again.

He’s tense beneath Ronin’s hand, beneath the squeeze to his shoulder, and he follows suit when Ronin downs the rest of the glass, finishing his before he exhales a slow sigh. “No?” He asks, forcing himself to turn slightly in the stool to look at the White Knight, a line set in the scarred jaw that faces him. “You think going to Starfall to get my body back and reviving me wouldn’t be ruining the deal with Dahlia?” Because to him, it sounds pretty likely to be a problem. A big player that’s been fighting Starfall time and time again, revived by Ronin’s hands to do the exact same shit.

He watches as Ronin’s attention flits to the countertop, the uncertainty in the confession. And he doesn’t know what it sparks in him, but it’s dark and ugly, and it takes a lot for the Flood to try and warp his words into something that doesn’t feel as heartbreaking as it is, to utter it out loud. “Everyone’s in danger, Ronin. Everyone.” Not just Flora’s friends, but the people walking around Caido right now, flocking to Dahlia just so the void doesn’t keep bothering them. Flocking to her because they haven’t done enough. Even those that abhor the void but face the struggle of their influence day after day. Rebellious in their own ways.

“I know you’ve been through a lot. But..” Here is where it gets heavier, the hurt that he bases all of this off of, and if Ronin looks, he'll see the way Sunjata anxiously spins his and Nate's wedding ring on his finger. “I made an entire fucking refuge so I could keep Nate safe. But I couldn’t force him to stay when the Voice called. And I lost everything.” His voice drops, as if he doesn’t want the whole of the House of Midnight to ruin their upbeat tempo because he’s currently tapping into his traumas. “If I could do it over again, I’d have made him stay, consequences be damned.”

Safe to say, his suggestion is to shove Flora in there if that was the point of their worry, because at the end of the day, everyone was in danger regardless.

you win a lot, and you lose
just a little bit more than you gained in the end

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

"Oh, I'm certain it would," Ronin says softly. His smile is a barely there thing, grim and all too aware of the consequences of the things he says. "But if it's a choice between leaving you down there forever or having to fight Dahlia off to keep Flora safe, I'd be coming to get you. That's if you aren't hauled out of there beforehand." Because while some questionable decisions seem to be made in the heat of the moment beneath that island, Ronin can't believe that someone would leave Sunjata's body to rot instead of bringing him to safety where he could be revived.

The Flood isn't finished, though, and for the second time is as many days, he finds himself flinching under the words that lash out, because of their truth more than because of how difficult they are to hear. "Yeah, I know." He rubs at his forehead, slamming back the next measure of whiskey as if it's little more than water and setting the empty glass down hard enough to rattle the ice in it. 

His lips part to speak, but out of the corner of his eye he can see the way the other man's fingers fret at the wedding ring he still wears; he can hear the past threading through every word he speaks, and gods, if it didn't feel like a mess before, it fucking does now. "Even if we did that," he says, of forcing Flora behind Haulani's protection, "there's nothing that would keep her from walking right back out again. If Remi and I are supposed to be helping, we can't also be keeping her there."

But the strange, dark simplicity in Sunjata's words is gods damned tempting, and Ronin busies his hands in pouring another drink as if to ward them away. "I came here to ask you. Not to make you," he says softly. "You can say no. No one would blame you for it."

RONIN

SUNJATA

the flood

i'm nothing more than a page unwritten
on the pavement, blowing in the wind

He probably wouldn’t be left to rot in the murky water within Starfall, but those are things Sunjata doesn’t know. Wouldn’t, probably, if the worst did happen. So you’ll have to forgive him, Ronin, if he isn’t really believing it. It would still fuck up the deal with Dahlia, it would still put him primed and ready to take on Starfall again and again, beating his head up against the wall hoping that it would change when things only seemed to get worse.

It’s his turn to pour some whiskey into his glass, downing it in an easy gulp, looking back over to Ronin as he speaks and blinking away the shade of eyes and teeth that reappear on his face for a heartbeat before vanishing under again. “I know I’m just the third dad or whatever, but, maybe we should all talk to her. Your guys’ involvement shouldn’t just be stuck on whether or not Flora does or doesn’t do something.” It’s put bluntly and hoarsely, because he’s tired. “Or, I’ll shove her in there and be the bad guy. Figure out a way to get her to stay if she does.” He mutters, looking back to the glasses when Ronin continues.

And it’s the last portion that has a laugh leave his throat, mangled ever so slightly when he shakes his head. “You don’t get it, Ronin. I don’t get to just say no.” He’s a demigod, he’s one of the strongest as Ronin had put earlier. He was infected for over a year when he could have been doing something. And now that he can? The last thing he wants to do is let them win. The underdog in him would continue to fight until he couldn't anymore. That is his one and only choice. He'd just selfishly hoped there would be more of them, the strongest among the rest, so the burden wasn't as heavy on his shoulders.

you win a lot, and you lose
just a little bit more than you gained in the end

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

Not having expected to get into the mires of their strange dynamic, especially when it comes to Flora, Ronin rubs hard at his eyes and squeezes his hand around his glass of whiskey, trying to be careful not to crack it. "And then what?" he asks, unable to stop the sharpness in his tone as he's forced to drag out the full trail of breadcrumbs that keeping Flora behind the barrier will bring.

"You force her in, you make her stay. And then of Flora's loved ones are targeted - all of them. People like Koa and Sohalia, Danta and Asta, Isla, Everest, you, Hotaru - all of you are in the firing line if that happens. That's the deal she made for Dahlia's blood." He releases the glass as if afraid of it, shaking out his fingers and letting out a raw and shuddering sigh.

"I don't get to yes this time, Sunjata," he hisses out through his teeth. "And it fucking kills me. I don't know a way out of it, other than to hit that island as hard as we can with all we've got. Not unless..." He pauses, as if something quiet and dawning has just occurred to him. Sitting up on his barstool, his brows flinch together with the sudden idea. Why aren't we hitting her directly? he asks through the bond. All of us.

RONIN

SUNJATA

the flood

i'm nothing more than a page unwritten
on the pavement, blowing in the wind

Sunjata always was the type to think impulsively. The kind that worked off of feeling more than careful calculation. It’s partly why his father had despised him so much. He had too much feeling, too weak with his emotions to actually be as iron willed as he needed to be. But here? As Ronin continues and lists out everyone in danger, his nose wrinkles and he peers at Ronin with eyes full of storm clouds. “The deal she made on her own for Dahlia’s blood after I told her that was what was required to make the Refuge safe from the Family?” He’s a touch snappy about it, and while he’s glad Torchline had a safe haven space of their own, it didn’t disregard the fact that Sunjata had found out that information for the Refuge that was already standing for this sole purpose.

But anyway. That’s not the point of this argument. “You’re right. That’s the deal she made. Did her friends know that it would impact them? I’ve had a target on my back since I was healed. Ru has. Melita’s got her own target from what happened in Halo and I brought Zavien back to life. But I’m not stopping fighting them because of it.” He says, trailing off when the lightbulb appears above Ronin’s head.

It’s a lightbulb that was admittedly shared, the two brain cells colliding with enough spark to quite literally spark the scars along his face. The Flood’s attention snaps to Ronin with wide eyes. I think we’d have to be really careful the rest of the Family doesn’t just appear. She can teleport. He’d seen it before, when he was under her spell.

But then, another heartbeat, another flare of light. I have the Knowtbook.. We could check, maybe..?

you win a lot, and you lose
just a little bit more than you gained in the end

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

Already feeling pretty raw and emotional himself, as Sunjata reiterates the terms of Flora's deal and how she'd gotten the information, he can only gesture to the other man exaggeratedly, as if to say ayup. "Nobody knew anything about it," he mutters, as to whether her friends had been aware of it at the time. "I think it was an agreement she made on the fly while she was meeting with Dahlia. Even Remi and I weren't aware she'd gone to do it, not until well after the dust had settled." He shakes his head.

But gods, something actually seems to be coming of the conversation (eeeeeey bookstreet), and as Sunjata's scars light up, Ronin is also trying to stifle the warm light starting to radiate out of his body. She can-- of course she can fucking teleport. Groaning internally - and yes, punctuating it with another shot of whiskey - he nevertheless seems a little more put together as they continue talking. 

You have the what? He hasn't heard the word Knowtbook literally for years, his eyes sharpening as he raises his brows at Sunjata. Wh-- since when? Wait - no, never mind that. If... I mean, if we're smart, if we prepare for everything, we could take her out. Especially if we hit while another group is at Starfall. They'll think we're busy at the island. It would spread their resources thin, and it still posed the problem of who ought to go, but... fuck, it could work.

RONIN

SUNJATA

the flood

i'm nothing more than a page unwritten
on the pavement, blowing in the wind

His nose wrinkles as Ronin explains how no one had known and that it likely was something made up on the fly. And fuck, if that doesn’t ring true like something he’d done. Because he had. Made up on the fly when asking Safrin how to save Nate in the coming war, only to have a child with her in the process of it. Without anyone knowing. Without anyone’s input. And it had ruined things for him, too, at the time. Not that he could blame them.

But he’s wiser now, smarter..ish. Enough to know that just because that deal was made didn’t mean that everyone would have to end up dealing with it eventually, whether Flora was or wasn’t in the safe haven of Haulani. What she could do, however, is tell her friends. Let them choose for themselves.

But Flora isn’t here, and Sunjata huffs a sigh and downs another healthy pouring of whiskey before he relays what he does know, mentally in the hopes that Vox isn’t the Kennedy brain worm at this present moment. Yeah. He says unhelpfully, both to the fact Dahlia can teleport as well as the Knowtbook in his possession.

I’ve been nervous to bring it out in case they caught wind of it. But.. Maybe I can collect what it says about them and pass it off. The only concern is that Deimos and I would be on the island, so… You guys would have to? Unless we send a younger crew out and all four of us give it a shot. He murmurs, jaw working slightly as he considers everything.

And while he doesn't know about what musings Flora has been sending out, the thought occurs briefly with the upcoming events. There's also Pierce's party..

you win a lot, and you lose
just a little bit more than you gained in the end

you've long seen your downfall, spelled out in another's bones

The look Ronin flashes at Sunjata is one that belongs to a much younger man, all petulant reproach wrapped in the urge to smack him in the upper arm as if to chastise him for being an idiot. With Vox around and the information they've already gathered on us, I doubt they'd get much from the Knowtbook that they don't already know, he hazards, but at least gives a gentle nod of understanding. He can appreciate the Flood's caution, especially given that he'd been infected, too, for over a year.

Already Ronin's mind is whirring, though, and the smile he flashes at Sunjata at the prospect of it being he and Remi to head the charge against Dahlia is positively feral. It's personal between us, he says softly. We can do it. I know exactly who might want to join us too. And she just so happens to be cause of their needing to stay out of it in the first place.

As for Pierce's party, the Knight wrinkles his nose as he considers it. His power is nasty. I've been working on hitting with brute strength again rather than magic, but I suppose we could always jump him at the party too. Getting that sword back would be... Well. It would be redemption for Ronin, in a lot of ways.

RONIN

SUNJATA

the flood

i'm nothing more than a page unwritten
on the pavement, blowing in the wind

Maybe not, but.. It’s helpful for us against them, I’m sure. They prolly wouldn’t want us to have any advantage we could get. His nose wrinkles a touch at the thought, before he’s shaking his head, huffing a little breathier, relieved sound. They weren’t out of the woods yet, though, and as he glances back over toward his friend and avoids the flicker that shifts in his face, Sunjata nods a short and curt movement.

Humming a note verbally, like he’s very appreciative of the liquor. It’s personal for me, too, you know. But if it got the job done, well, could he really complain too much? At least he’d still be supplying them with information. And that might help benefit them taking her on.

As for Pierce, while the Flood hadn’t interacted with the member of the Family at all, he nods to the warning Ronin gives. So, bring weapons, got it. He murmurs, squinting a bit before he’s swirling his glass on the polished counter. Maybe we can overwhelm him, if all of us are there to attack. He hums thoughtfully. Get you that sword back.. Go after Dahlia..

you win a lot, and you lose
just a little bit more than you gained in the end