[Mini Event] my friends, my people, my flock

You've been all the way to broken

lost your sense of where to go

He’s late to the party but the ruckus alone would have summoned him. The jeers and shouting carry across the sands, and Harper hurries closer with a frown. The man on the half-wall is carrying on as if this is a sermon, in a way Harper is used to seeing in his homeland megachurches. It’s inflammatory stuff, and it tears at his heart, which is so torn on the Ascended and The Voice as it is.

But then people are throwing things, attacking, and Harper shoves closer with his staff in hand and urgency in his heart. Nate is suddenly there next to the man, and Harper reaches for him, staff in his white-knuckled hand in case he needs to use it should Nate’s emotions get the best of him. “Nate, woah!” He spreads his other arm wide towards the crowd. “He’s saying shitty things but we can’t just hurt people for speaking their opinions! If he’s inciting violence then he can be tried or tossed in a cell but otherwise you’re just proving his prejudice right!” Hoping to hell that someone listens, because this is starting to feel like a mob and Harper knows he as a person will dive to shield Gideon if that’s what happens.

- - -

Harper tries to grab at Nate’s clothes to talk him down and prepares to use his staff if Nate tries to beat his ass.

Items:
Two-section staff | A bi-sectioned staff created from star-dust and meteorite. When a star on the side is pressed, it nullifies ascended upgrades within 1ft, for 1 post per thread.

remember, pain is just an anchor

that you never had control of

HARPER

SuNJATA

the flood

Eye to eye, good, even as Gideon starts spouting off all this bullshit, Sunjata can’t help the laugh that leaves him — a hollow bark of a sound, head cocking as his gaze lands back on the Priest. Sunjata’s taller, despite all the bruising and pain, and he intends to own every inch he has above Gideon. Armored plates flicker to life along his shoulders, down his arms, hands turning into sharp clawed talons. His lips part, but nothing comes out — not as Nate’s suddenly there and there’s some deep comfort in having his husband here, even if it’s screaming in this Priest’s face.

Gods, he loves him.

There’s a sharp fanged smile that spreads on Sunjata’s face, one that has him tilting his head a bit. “Oh, we were civil.” He comments, waving the taloned hand between them. Aurelia’s voice pipes up and there’s a deep recognition that hits Sunjata like a train, something hidden behind the mask but Nate would be able to feel it still him. Then Harper is there and reaching for the Priest and Sunjata’s gaze focuses on the other man. “It’s handled.” He growls through his rough, hoarse voice, eyes narrowed when he looks back at Gideon.

“You wrecked the Ascended shrine. And yet you arrive here, preaching your bullshit in an effort to make us listen when you threw the first stone?” He snaps. “Jail him.” His clawed hand extends to try and catch Aurelia’s attention. And then? Well, regardless if Harper steps in the way, Sunjata pushes forward to try and grab Gideon.

rely a bit too heavily on alcohol & irony

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

GIDEON

And now I cling to what I knew
I saw exactly what was true

Aurelia had once been so promising and here she was defending the people he had told her to avoid; they never listened, not when it mattered. Gideon closed his eyes briefly in disappointment, trying to pretend it didn't sting to hear himself described as an old man. He simply stared right at her as she told him to leave, a challenge in his eyes that said it would take more than that. Raza's rousing efforts with the crowd only made him roll his eyes. They were fools.

One day, they would all look back at this day and the truth he told them and wish they had listened, he knew.

Things were thrown and he did not dodge anything unlikely to push him off the wall. They wanted to see him jump and flinch and he wouldn't give that to them. Instead he looked out over the crowd, felt the cold absence of the God's love in too many of the faces; Ascended. Infiltrating, hiding in the throng - except for the bold one, Sunjata's bull, that seemed unable to keep his hands to himself. Gideon was dragged forwards, struggling to keep his balance as Sunjata came to grab him too.

"You'll thank me one day." He hissed, looking up into the Governors eyes, before using the last moment of freedom for his arms to reach into his pocket and grab his compass, vanishing from their grasp and gaze back to Stormbreak in an instant. He had delivered the message; they could choose to hear or ignore it.

---
Gideon is peacing out, but if y'all wanna keep posting you can! I'll archive if it's been quiet for a while.

That's why I hold with all I have
That's why I hold

NATE

Sunjata’s words take a moment to register, Nate’s eye going wide when it does. “You. He hisses, face twisting. “You motherfucker.” The ascended screams, pulling back to break the Priests nose with his forehead when he just vanishes, his own hiss levelled towards Sunjata.A wordless scream rips out of Nate as he stares at his empty hands. “You fucking coward! Piece of fucking shit!”

Nate’s chest heaves, useless breath panting out of him as he stares at the empty space in front of him for a moment longer, white hot anger consuming him, overflowing through the bond in a dull roar. “What the fuck is the ma-” Whirling on Harper, Nate looses just a taste of his rage, his hand coming up and his jaw snapping closed in the same sudden instant. Regret flashes across his features, and he lowers his shaking fist, tasting fluid in the back of his throat.

He takes a breath, then steps back towards Sunjata, reaching up to turn him around to face the gathered crowd. Fucking say something, Unity, thanks.

Is there an acceptable result?
Do we mean something when we talk?

SuNJATA

the flood

There’s a point where Sunjata’s not sure if it’s his anger at the realization that Gideon had wrecked the shrine is his anger or his husband’s. But one thing is for certain, they’re both on the same page, even if Nate’s is sharper – more pointed, like barbs with jagged points that tear as well as pierce. He relishes in it this time, only because it isn’t directed at him.

But gods does it get worse. He moves for Gideon, clawed hand reaching out to try and latch on and pierce just as Nate’s essentially already done with gripping the Priest’s clothes. But it goes nowhere, because in an instant – one fucking instant, the Priest is gone.

Nate’s rage explodes and it nearly has Sunjata seeing red between his own anger at Gideon slipping through his fingers and the blinding rampage from his husband at his side.

His husband whips toward Harper and Sunjata’s only growing darker, angrier, plates aligning his skin until it’s covering his torso and he can’t stop the dragon wings from sprouting and curling – one coming up alongside Nate as if to tuck his husband in as he’s turned around. Fuck. Okay. He breathes through the bond, a tight sound that’s certainly not in a space to give a fucking speech.

They all stand there, atop the wall – Sunjata, some sort of gargoylesque position from where he peers down at his citizens. Nate’s words are uttered through the bond and Sunjata works his jaw, gaze narrowed and slit and sharp as he scans the crowd that’s formed. “Torchline,” it begins, grit out as he forces the words through his clenched and sharpened teeth, through a throat that burns as if his words are sandpaper, but he persists. “Your new Arbiter is right. These are delusions, given by those that are afraid and use it to try and get others to stoop to their level.” He pauses, wings flaring a fraction despite the tremble of rage that flickers through them.

“So I thank you.” His gaze drifts to Raza initially, before drifting to the rest of them. “For always looking out for your home and its best interests. Showing up and showing them that this will not be tolerated.” Because he’d been a bit late to the party, and Torchline had always showed up. Like they always do. “There will likely be more to come.” Given the war, given the bullshit around every fucking corner. “But we will never let someone treat us like we’re children being given a gift we should be thankful for.” His teeth click together with how hard he’s shut his jaw after – trying to quell that wildfire of fury within him. “They’re going to have to fucking try harder next time.” And the time after that, if there were one.

rely a bit too heavily on alcohol & irony

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3