your blood's as good an ink as any

SUNJATA

i heard you telling lies
i heard you say you weren't born of our blood

His leg is drawn up, his wings spread across the floor, and he rubs at his temple and his nose as he tries to work through his emotions, through everything. Hotaru’s voice reaches him and he remains silent for a moment, working his jaw, before he nods in understanding to her. An ‘I know’ and ‘I understand’, both just as Nate had him do previously.

As for the whole deal in the first place? This is where his hand falls from his face, looking across the distance that separates him and his husband and wife, where they hold one another in the wake of the disaster he’s brought. “I didn’t know she had planned to raise you up.” It’s a quiet comment, one that has him wincing as she continues about soldiers and how far he’s gone.

Eventually he settles on staring at the ceiling, at the smoke coated walls up that high, rubbing at the tattoo on his chest. “I… Assume a big one. She changed me again… Not just the tattoo but inside of me too.” He doesn’t know what it means, but he does know that when his heart beats against his rib cage, there’s a part of him that thinks of Safrin every time.

Nate’s words reach him, too, and he continues to stare at the ceiling, before his eyes close and he exhales a sigh, horns scraping against the wall with the movement. It had been done with good intentions, out of hope, and now all he can feel is the rampaging sorrow that burns in his chest. “It probably is.” He says gently. But she had seemed to willing to try, so understanding of his plight. And that’s what he falls for every time.

i know we're the crooked kind
but you're crooked too, boy, and it shows

I could take all that you love, I could be death from above

Nate's vow is enough to soothe the leviathan roiling in her chest, to bandage the wounds in the soft underbelly where her hardened scales did not reach. It's enough for her to subside, to listen and give her piece as required. The way Nate coils around her and hides behind in tandem has her sitting straighter, protective nature rising in the wake of her emotional numbness. "She has all the cards here. You have no leverage, nothing you can do to try and fix this. You have empty platitudes, excuses that are a mockery of explanation, and the eventuality that you will be forced into war against part of your family." There's no question posed here, only a damning assertion. There's no point in skirting around the issue, not when it's all fully on the table at last.

Or so she had assumed.

The notion that there is something inside him makes her ill. It reminds her of the Moon Goddess, of how she'd taken control of Gaucho and - in the end - kill Hotaru's own parents. Hotaru had still been there at her side, had forgiven her even that in the end. It hurts to know exactly how deep Sunjata's faith runs, because her own had at one point in time too.

Only in that world, the equivalent of The Voice had won.

What does that say about the three of them now? History seems doomed to repeat itself, and Hotaru doesn't know how to stop the cards from crumbling anew.

"Fuck, Sunjata," she whispers, strained. A hand leaves Nate's arm to pinch at the bridge of her nose, trying to hide away for a moment in the darkness of her closed eyes. "You have no idea what that can do. If she can listen in, if she can control you. Turn you against us even against your will. How the fuck are we suppose to feel safe around you now?" Because frankly? Despite knowing as an Abandoned that she's overlooked and meaningless to the Old Gods, Hotaru still doesn't feel safe knowing Safrin may now be invading her actual home. They operate on an entirely different moral level, and Hotaru has never begrudged them that. She was a woman of faith herself for many years. Knows that they as mortals are small blips, barely even actual pawns. Which means Sunjata can be dispatched and tossed aside with no regrets at any moment.

Running a hand through her hair, she tilts her head back against Nate and stares up at the ceiling. "There's not much more to say. There's really...this is all just emotion now. There's nothing we can do." At least...not as a trio. And that kills her. Hotaru knows there is a dark certainty budding in her breast, one she is sure to talk to Deimos about, but for now...they're just talking in circles.

HOTARU

you swallowed my heart and fled, but I want it back now, baby

"I didn't know you planned to bargain my life." Funny how that works, how venom falls from his lips so easily, so automatically, weaving around his husband and his wife arguments. Ignorance is an excuse, something Sunjata no longer has the luxury of hiding behind, not right now.

Changed inside? That brings panic to Nate's face, his hands and arms tightening again, Hotaru the only thing keeping him together in this moment. He doesn't know what he'd do without her, doesn't know what she'd do without him. Nate has tolerated Safrin's presence, has tried and failed to engage with the goddess, all for the sake of his husband, but this has something burning, twisting within him. It plays his paranoia like a violin, suspicion levelled at the attuned now, where Nate dares to peek around Hotaru.

They've fallen so far from what he'd expected for the day, reunions and nice breakfasts and a fucking chance to breathe and recover together all crumbled to ash in his mind. Nate can't help but agree with Hotaru. There's nothing more to be gained from this, beyond deeper wounds, more hurt feelings. "We can go upstairs." A quiet suggestion, meant only for the abandoned's ears. Nate takes a moment to focus himself, searching for anything else he could say, anything that might fix this, and when he comes up empty, he stands, Hotaru still clutched securely in his arms. Some part of him feels like he should get one last word in, like he should say something, but there's nothing. Nothing. With a final, heavy look cast over Sunjata, Nate turns, carrying Hotaru up to their bedroom.

NATE

SUNJATA

i heard you telling lies
i heard you say you weren't born of our blood

Nate’s quip has him flinching gain, internally and externally at the venom that drips from it. It had been done with good intentions, the hope that perhaps that forever they had talked about would never have to end. And yet? He’d gone and stuck his fingers in too far, fucked it up too much, held too much hope in things that he knew better than to do. Could he even care for a child? With his disaster of a life?

Seemed doubtful. But here he was, offering a chance to try because of how deep his love and attachment went.

He rubs at the scar on his face, hearing Hotaru’s words and letting the regret within him shine clear as day. “You can’t.” It comes out as a croak, Sunjata reaching from his face to his neck, rubbing against the tattoos there as if it holds all the answers in him.

Nate rises, takes Hotaru with him, to head upstairs and Sunjata doesn’t move. This is where he’ll be for the foreseeable future – and he eventually ends up shifting into his dog shift, curling up against the wall as if he might be able to block it all out.

He can’t, but he still tries.

- FIN

i know we're the crooked kind
but you're crooked too, boy, and it shows

No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.