sins of my father

SUNJATA

the flood

feeling alive while you fight for your life
as you swim back to the beaches

It’s a letter sent for his niece, hoping that she might meet him at the Boondocks with the Firecracker. Petronella has joined him, dancing along the edge of the docks to the Castaway Exchange, but the Flood doesn’t delve down that path. Instead, he waits at the other side, the space where it’s been safe for ships to dock, and with it he sits with two burlap bags, full of seeds, trying to go over whether or not his idea might work out.

Frey had said to make it rain, surely if he flies up and drops seeds everywhere, it could be a colorful and beautiful change of scenery for the boondocks, right? Wouldn’t it also count?

He chews on his ruined cheek, mulling it over as Petronella pounces on a flower that’s grown against the edge of the docks, swatting at it with a webbed paw before mewling and trotting her way back to Sunjata’s side, incessant in her need to bother him away from his thoughts that have drifted too deep.

don't be scared of the tide, just prepare for the ride
as you float, you float, you float

I've done nothing wrong
Except for all the atrocities

A request from her uncle, despite nothing life-threatening impending in the letter, left her with multitudes of inquiries and confusion. Nonetheless, Melita adhered to the task, taking to the Firecracker with all her regular aplomb and enthusiasm, racing and billowing amidst the skies with open sails and no fear. More than once she raced against several flocks of gulls, smirking as they tore through the birds’ thermals and sent them scurrying for cover along clouds, until eventually, they wound their way towards the Boondocks in the distance.

When she landed upon the water, it was with a multitude of water spraying, not unlike a log ride, and a wide grin on her features as the droplets plastered in every direction (Fangorn and Sila voiced their discontent, but it was muted at best). She wasn’t surprised to see the Flood already there, and she gave a wave from the deck. “Hey! What’s the occasion?”

the honeybee

Besides that
I'm innocent

SUNJATA

the flood

feeling alive while you fight for your life
as you swim back to the beaches

A dark shadow pulls over him and Petronella and it has a small smile pulling on his face, watching as Melita lands the Firecracker. A wave of his hand has the droplets warping around his companion - only to keep her from getting soaked and feeling the ire of that (she loves the water, but she loves it on her terms). Stepping up to the side of the sky ship, the Flood’s smile is brighter as he peers up at his niece.

“Working on upgrading some magic. One of the tasks is “make it rain” something that isn’t water, so.. Figured for the chaotic fun of it, we could go for a flight and spread seeds out along the Boondocks?” Flashing her a grin as he hoists Petronella up onto the deck before following suit with the bags of seeds in hand. “Whattya think, heuningby?”

don't be scared of the tide, just prepare for the ride
as you float, you float, you float

I've done nothing wrong
Except for all the atrocities

Both brows went upward for half a moment, before the rest of her features settled into a Cheshire grin and honed semblances of amusement. “Absolutely. Come aboard!” She waved her hands towards the remaining seating areas, rearranging so Fangorn was along her shoulder and Sila could fly alongside.

She unfurled the sails again, letting the breeze coast and wind along while they conversed, waiting until just the right instant – where the wind could catch and send them back into the air. “Check out the cannons,” and she patted them fondly, already tethering a multitude of hopes to them.

And then the zephyrs caught, snagging and pushing and pulling, and they were airborne, immediately adrift along the canvas of the Boondocks.

the honeybee

Besides that
I'm innocent

SUNJATA

the flood

feeling alive while you fight for your life
as you swim back to the beaches

Seeing her Cheshire grin as it grows once she’s considered his offer, Sunjata’s grin is equal in terms of eagerness and excitement. Happy to hop aboard with her once he’s ensured Petronella is safely settled on the deck, he watches for a moment as she goes to greet Melita’s two companions. First to Sila with a little mewl and then to Fangorn with a flicker of happiness and mischief when it came to his trailing vines, as she always had.

Settling in as she gets the ship ready for flight, he looks over when she mentions the cannons and a soft laugh leaves him. “These are awesome. What do they do? Aside from, y'know, cannon shit.” He very nearly chimes, unsure if they do much more than just being a plain cannon - but he knows Melita at the end of the day. She wasn't one that often preferred having the mundane for long if she had other options. Having never been one prone to the idea of sailing, cannons were something he wasn’t that familiar with. But if she was enjoying them and had worked hard for them, the least he could do is be excited for her to have it.

But then the ship is evening out, the edge of the Boondocks visible and beautiful as he goes to hand her a burlap sack too, chuckling lightly as he settles his between himself and the side of the ship, if only so he can snag handfuls of seeds to start dumping them overboard, watching as they fly around like little tiny raindrops into the otherwise sandy, dune-like boarder. “Feel free to throw as many of them out at a time as you want. It’s all like rain at the end of the day. No real rhyme or reason.

don't be scared of the tide, just prepare for the ride
as you float, you float, you float

I've done nothing wrong
Except for all the atrocities

“What ever do you mean,” she snickered, adjusting the sails another moment as they flew headlong, ultimately slowing down a fraction so they’d have time to toss and hurl and rain the seeds down upon the land below. Snorting, she rolled her eyes. “They shoot.” Pausing momentarily, she flickered some of her hair out of her face, then took some seeds to begin spraying them about, watching as they fell into the distant plains. “To be honest, I haven’t tried them out yet. But soon.” She’d been helping Iskra and then meandering from place to place, trying to keep her wits about her until it was time to lay waste to the desert’s void presence.

She glanced at him casually, one brow arching as she dumped a whole lot simultaneously. “What about you? Got more gardening nonsense coming up?”

the honeybee

Besides that
I'm innocent

SUNJATA

the flood

feeling alive while you fight for your life
as you swim back to the beaches

“Hey now, I wasn’t sure if you’d made them shoot like.. I dunno. Fireballs or something.” He says, gesturing to the ship that’s very much named the Firecracker and to her, with her fiery hair and personality to match. She had an affinity for fire, after all. It only seemed to make sense to him they might do something more. Eventually, though, maybe not now. And when she says she hasn’t tried them out yet, he looks over his shoulder at her with a grin. “Got a time in mind?” He asks, in case it was that kind of plan.

As for himself? Well, he huffs and grows a lot less playful and animated as he launches more seeds from his hands, sprinkling them down in a way that distinctly is a make it rain kind of gesture before he’s snagging another handful of seeds. “Yeah. Unfortunately.” His nose wrinkles as he looks at her, pausing to answer, as if figuring out how to word it. “I got tagged in for the next gardening venture. But uh, it’s gonna be a wet one.” A little bit of code he hopes she understands as in water. “Which I’m a bit worried about.” He’s very worried about it, actually.

Because they both know that the only way he could truly die was to drown.

don't be scared of the tide, just prepare for the ride
as you float, you float, you float

I've done nothing wrong
Except for all the atrocities

“Listen, I just got ‘em. Gimme time,” to which she winked, like a promise of more firepower and bloodshed. Adjusting the sails again, she hung onto the ropes for a little longer, adjusting their course, and then tossed more seeds over the bow, amused as they sauntered and floated downward. “Probably in the desert.” Alluding to the fact that she had every intention of bombarding whatever void bulshit existed there.

Just as the Archon was doing, merely in different locations.

She watched his reaction for a moment, before continuing to make it rain on her end, maneuvering her fingers so they’d flicker off like droplets. “You’ve got enough shit to keep yourself together, yeah?” Something like confidence in his abilities, even if he didn’t seem too content; understandable, given the whole immortality circumstances. “Or you don’t have to go.”

the honeybee

Besides that
I'm innocent

SUNJATA

the flood

feeling alive while you fight for your life
as you swim back to the beaches

“Going to work on your own little gardening venture?” Sunjata asks with a knowing smile as Melita readjusts the sails. The desert was still infected, as far as he could remember. And while he’d been so busy with Starfall and the bullshit that was going on there, he likes to think he hadn’t forgotten the places that were still plagued.

So he busies himself while they talk with raining more seeds down below, watching as the wind catches them to let them fall like little pieces of heavy rain or hail, even. “Ronin said he’d help me if I needed it.” He admits with a soft little sigh, nose wrinkling. “So I guess there’s a backup plan. Don’t have one yet for King’s End, though.. So that might get complicated.” His nose wrinkles as he turns to his niece, offering a smaller smile. “On the plus side, though, the Barrows are free from pests.”

don't be scared of the tide, just prepare for the ride
as you float, you float, you float

I've done nothing wrong
Except for all the atrocities

“Mhm,” she answered, content with her upcoming plans. Something to do while the bigger guns rampaged in Starfall, while giving back to Caido and hopefully guarding against the inevitable, further encroaching of the infestation – though…the next stop would probably have to be the Oerwoud…

She flicked a few more from her palms, watching them ghost and fan downwards, head tilting while she listened to his answer. Melita had intended to give him some variation of an ‘out’, gods knew he’d tried and tried before to no end, but nowadays, everything seemed deadly. Worse. More. But she’d been on the receiving end of Ronin’s help before, so she nodded, taking another breath before she lodged another set of seeds in one gigantic clump. “That’s good, at least. Do you think at some point we might all have to sequester in Torchline?” Like the Refuge had once been – though mostly turned down because of the war.

the honeybee

Besides that
I'm innocent

SUNJATA

the flood

feeling alive while you fight for your life
as you swim back to the beaches

Seeds continue to fall as the bags deplete, spreading them out like perfect little raindrops down below into the boondocks with the hope that when the rains come for the summer storms that they’ll settle in and next year they’ll have quite the colorful bloom of flowers in this portion rather than the sandy ochre and sprinkling of green the earth tended to be here.

He snags another handful and spreads them out as he responds to her question, his nose wrinkling. “Fuckin hope not. I worked hard on King’s End, I don’t wanna just give it up.” There’s an iron stubbornness in his tone, as if the idea was abhorrent enough that Sunjata would rather go down with his ship than to give it up for safety.

A funny ironic notion given the safe haven he’d created here in the war before.

don't be scared of the tide, just prepare for the ride
as you float, you float, you float

I've done nothing wrong
Except for all the atrocities

Melita took that information in with a grain of salt, quietly watching as he answered. It didn’t surprise her that he’d want to stay. It tracked with all his other actions. The Honeybee was simply fortunate that she lived in Flora’s region, though after all the kerfuffle over shit, she was certainly more grateful that she was involved in the usual standard affairs of blistering void monsters than political factions and gains.

Humming under her breath, she streamlined a few pollinator seeds, streamlining them from her fingers so they descended in a row, rather than all at once. When several stuck, she pried them away, loosening the fixtures and watching as they spun around. “Nah, I get that. Just didn’t want it to be like before.” Whichever one of those she meant, she didn’t say, dusting off her hands, then adjusting the sails. “Should we go a little more north, then call it good?”

the honeybee

Besides that
I'm innocent

SUNJATA

the flood

feeling alive while you fight for your life
as you swim back to the beaches

He’d much rather have to not give up the space he’d worked so hard to make a region. And if he could do anything to prevent having to be stuck in Torchline’s own safe haven, well, he would. (And he will, as it turns out). But for now, the Flood focuses on everything else they’ve done to try and push back the void and the Family from digging their fingers in deeper.

And so, with that in mind, the Flood’s attention continues to their dwindling bags of seeds, raining them down below as they coast along the different veins of air that breeze through - some warmer and some colder, bolstering and buoying them along the way. “Yeah, me neither.” He confirms, flashing her a small smile.

And when the question comes, Sunjata nods to her and his smile softens a touch. “Sounds good to me, heuningby.” He hums, getting ready to pour the last little bit from his bag down below, and once everything’s all complete and they touch down again, the Flood will invite her to join him for lunch at his favorite spot within the Castaway Exchange.

- FIN

don't be scared of the tide, just prepare for the ride
as you float, you float, you float