(SE) close your eyes, all is taken care of

i closed my eyes and saw my father's sins, they covered me like a second skin
i peeled them off, and sure i bled a bit, but now i'm free to sink my own damn ship

They’d gone to the Grounds. Together, this time – at least until Nate departs with a kiss and a just for the night, which leaves him and Kamaria to explore. It’s her first time in the Grounds, though they don’t stray too far from the VlamVloed. And despite the rage of everything back home, he knows Nate’s safe. He knows Kamaria’s safe, because she’s with him and he can keep an eye on her.

But then it also leaves entertaining his daughter, without boring her with the simple facts of the Grounds – how it had been behind a barrier for centuries, how her mother had been trapped here for just as long, how it wasn’t as hot as Torchline and didn’t smell like fish and salt and everything else. It was a different experience, but one he was sure she was excited about nonetheless.

So he’s planned a game, had obtained some paint and some brushes, some canvases, and set them up right outside along the Domiciles where she’d be able to experience how different those of the Grounds were in comparison to Haulani. “Alright, so, I’m thinking we make it a game. What do you think?” He muses, his voice still hoarse but the bruising has nearly gone away, little yellow dustings here and there. “We spy something and try to paint it.” A glimmer of mischief crosses his gaze with it as he goes to sit beside her with the canvases spread out. "What do you think, my kleintjie?"

i cut my branch down from my family tree to start a fire in the living room

SUNJATA

Kamaria

I would rather stay here
Where the moon, it glows

The Grounds is new and different - and for that alone it's exciting. Sunjata doesn't have to worry about keeping her entertained at first, instead he and Nate were probably more concerned with making sure she didn't run off to gods-know-where or get into gods-know-what. But eventually her childish wonder and curiosity settles into a good place.

The idea of a game keeps her attentions glued to her father, trailing close behind him as he collects the materials he intends to use for their painting. The different people that mill about the Domiciles draw her gaze away occasionally, curious about them, but Sunjata's more familiar voice asking her a question brings her back.

She smiles in return, brushing an untamed lock of her hair out of her face as she takes her seat beside him. "Okay!" She replies easily, "I think..." she squints, puzzling over the objects and people around them. "Ek... spy.." she says a bit slowly, unsure of a few words in her father's language, "met my.. klein oog... 'n.." and suddenly she giggles, "snaakse snor!" She discovers that the combination of the two words sounds pretty funny, which makes it all the better.

At that, she leans in to see how Sunjata will approach the task of painting. She, herself, doesn't really know where to begin and therefore will follow his lead.

Soaring doves and falling crows
Laughter is the only sound here

i closed my eyes and saw my father's sins, they covered me like a second skin
i peeled them off, and sure i bled a bit, but now i'm free to sink my own damn ship

There’s relief in the fact that Kamaria’s so intrigued by the Grounds. It’s a different place, so at odds from the Grounds, that he can only imagine the surprise and shock she might have upon seeing somewhere new. Which makes the prospect of this game all that much better, it gives her a chance to look around, to take it all in, and paint the memory of it.

See? He’s thought about this.

What he hasn’t thought about is the fact that she’d spy something on him, and it’s with a flickering of blue feathers from his neck that his gaze snaps to her face with a raise of his brow, a huff of a laugh – “Hey.” He chides her playfully, tilting his chin up a bit but giving her a chance to actually look at the mustache. “Ek hou nogal van my snor.” He tacks on, grumpily, a rise and fall of his shoulders purely for show, as he stares at her and considers it.

“Ek spioeneer met my klein ogie…” He reaches up to tap at his cheek. “iets groen!” He flashes her a bright smile, moving to show her the way in how to paint.

He isn’t a good painter – abstract at best, but he does grab the paintbrush and start to swipe in a few lines to outline her eyes, helping guide her where she needed it whether it be with whatever brush she wanted to use – or even her fingers if she so chose to – to try and get her idea out on the canvas, half forgetting about his many times.

i cut my branch down from my family tree to start a fire in the living room

SUNJATA

Kamaria

I would rather stay here
Where the moon, it glows

His chide is met with a shy laugh, her hand coming up to cover part of her face - as if she might be able to hide behind it. She then pulls her hand up to poke his mustache. Immediately she recoils and giggles. She's reminded of the first time they'd met, the way his beard had tickled her. "Maar jou snor.. kielie!" She informs him, punctuating the point with another grin.

Spioneer, huh? She'll have to remember that one, making a note of it for future use. She tilts her head at his exclamation of something... green, and immediately looks about for clues as to what that might be. But she doesn't spend too much time doing that because he starts to paint.

She follows his lead, as she'd intended to, grabbing her own brush. This one is a bit too big, picking one similar in size to his. In comparison, her hand is far too little to reasonably balance the paintbrush. Not that that'd deter her. Instead, she starts to paint and subconsciously sticks out her tongue as she works. She chooses a dark color (for the hair) and begins to paint Sunjata with his mustache.

It ends up looking simple - like a stick figure, or maybe worse - but... well, considering she's colored it in, it looks okay. For her age, anyway. She tilts her head at it and then looks over to examine Sunjata's progress.

"What is thaat? A bug!?" Genuinely unaware that of what it's supposed to be, she is stumped.

Soaring doves and falling crows
Laughter is the only sound here

i closed my eyes and saw my father's sins, they covered me like a second skin
i peeled them off, and sure i bled a bit, but now i'm free to sink my own damn ship

She pokes at him and recoils with a childish giggle, one that does spark an actual true smile to cross his face – one that lights up his eyes for a few moments longer than anything else lately has. “It tickles, huh?” He asks her, humming a soft laugh as he moves to start his painting, putting up a shade of green to adjust and toss with some yellows, some blues, mixing and melding them until they’re something of a mixed, different shade.

She follows his lead, though, and he leans over to help her whenever is required – checking in on her attempt to paint his mustache. There’s another blossoming smile at the way she focuses, tongue poked out of her mouth subconsciously – something he imagines she’s picked up from Nate and Sunjata finds it incredibly adorable, but makes no comment on it otherwise.

“Oh no. Dit is nie ‘n insek nie.” He rumbles to her, adding in a hint of brown and black to line the edges of where her eyelids sit, where her eyelashes darken and blur it – hints of pink where her tearduct sits. “Guess again.” He suggests to her, pausing to reach over and poke her cheek with one of the smaller paintbrushes, a brow raised her way.

i cut my branch down from my family tree to start a fire in the living room

SUNJATA

Kamaria

I would rather stay here
Where the moon, it glows

When he says it’s not an insek, Kamaria’s brows furrow and her lips pinch together. She glares down at the painting, watching his hands as they work at the more detailed aspects of his painting. He tells her to guess again and, just as she opens her mouth to guess, he pokes her cheek with a paintbrush and startles her. She rubs the spot he poked and glares playfully back at him.

“Oe!” She announces, brows wiggling up with the realization. Her hand lowers from her cheek and she seems almost unable to contain her laughter as she explains, “Ek spioeneer met my klein ogie…”

And she takes her paintbrush to splotch a thick coating of dark brown paint on the tip of his nose. “Ogies!"

Soaring doves and falling crows
Laughter is the only sound here

i closed my eyes and saw my father's sins, they covered me like a second skin
i peeled them off, and sure i bled a bit, but now i'm free to sink my own damn ship

If there’s one thing that does manage to get him out of his mood, it’s certainly the laughter that slips from his daughter. It cracks the mask he’s placed, a true smile managing to break across his face as she glares at him, touches the cheek with the paint, and tries so very hard to contain her laughter.

But he’s paused in his painting and he’s watching her, awaiting her response as he had asked her to prior, and she retaliates much like himself with a paintbrush globbed with dark brown right on the tip of his nose. His brows raise and he huffs a laugh, wiggling his nose as if he’s trying to get it off – withdrawing from how he’s encroached into her space, nearly going crosseyed as he tries to look at the splotch on his nose.

“Watter kleur het hulle?” He asks her, reaching up with the back of his hand to wipe away the paint on his nose, but it ends up smearing along the back of his hand as well as along his skin. “Can you guess who’s eyes they are?” He asks with a playful smile, turning back to his painting, before he’s squinting at her, staring right at her eyes before he turns back to his canvas.

i cut my branch down from my family tree to start a fire in the living room

SUNJATA

Kamaria

I would rather stay here
Where the moon, it glows

She grins up at him, watching his reaction with the paintbrush still raised in her hand. The edges of her eyes crinkle and her shoulders shift with her little laugh as she withdraws, too.

At the question spoken in Korofian, she's quick to answer back given that she remembers what he said he had spioneer'd. "Groen..?" Her head tilts slightly to one side, hoping she's remembered right. It sounds right.

Her lips come together thoughtfully when it comes to who the eyes belong to. She looks up, squinting at all the people around them to try and see if any of them have green eyes. No, most that she can see are brown or blue...

"Hmm.." she brings her hand up to her chin, accidentally swiping paint onto her face with her paintbrush. At the feeling of the cool, wet paint against her cheek, she jumps slightly. "Ah!" she grins sheepishly, glancing at him and away again as she puts the brush down. Using the back of her hand, she attempts to rub it off... which only smears it and spreads it around. She gives up on the endeavor pretty quick.

"Dad?" She asks, brows raising curiously, "Is my oë groen?"

Soaring doves and falling crows
Laughter is the only sound here

i closed my eyes and saw my father's sins, they covered me like a second skin
i peeled them off, and sure i bled a bit, but now i'm free to sink my own damn ship

“Groen!” Sunjata chimes with a half-smile sent his daughter’s way. And with the follow-up question, he wonders if she’ll get it right or not. Instead, he glances between her and his painting, continuing on with it despite how his hands become coated in the paint, despite how he’s managed to smear a stripe along his cheek just as Kamaria does as she thinks.

Part of it is amusing – seeing her this young and seeing just how much of himself is within her, how much he’s rubbed off. So far it’s been all good things, though, and when she jumps and laughs a bit sheepishly, he offers a quiet rumbling chuckle along with it. It’s perhaps the lightest he’s felt in a while, all thanks to her.

“Dad?” Something he still isn’t quite used to. But it does draw his attention over toward her, a dark brow raised just as her own raise, a hum of ‘hmm?’ leaving him before she’s finishing the question. The smile that spreads across his face is bright as he nods. “Yes they are, Ria.” He murmurs softly, leaning in as if he’s about to tell her a secret. “It makes you very special.” Because in comparison? Nate's were vibrant electric blues, Sunjata’s a muted silver with hints of blue.

Returning to his painting, he thinks he's mostly gotten it finished up, aside from a sprinkling of white - comparing it between her and his painting, before he smiles bright and leans back to get a better view of her own. "What do you think?" He asks softly, uncaring what it was she said about it. He knew he wasn't much of an artist, but at the very least painting would be fun for her.

i cut my branch down from my family tree to start a fire in the living room

SUNJATA

Kamaria

I would rather stay here
Where the moon, it glows

Kamaria is completely oblivious to the effect she has on her father. If she knew, though, everything that troubled him and weighed him down, she might not be able to be this way for him. She, too, might be bogged down by sadness and overwhelming problems - ones she is not yet ready to face. So, perhaps that's for the best.

She returns his smile at the confirmation that her eyes are, indeed, groen. He leans in to tell her, quietly, that it makes her very special. A warm, bubbly feeling starts up in her chest at that. Isn't it something every kid wants to hear? That they're special, in some way, some form? Maybe it doesn't matter how, only that they are special to someone.

Kamaria returns to her own painting with that smile glued to her features, deciding to finish the painting of his mustache. It's quite.. crude, even as she tries to add the details in around it - such as his nose, his lips, his chin. It only seems to make things worse but, at this point she's beginning to enjoy the process of painting itself. It's.. calming, in a way.

Feeling his eyes on her, she leans back a bit to give him room to see what she's painted. She takes this opportunity to do the same with his painting, glancing over to see how he's done. "I think it's pretty!" She says, "Can we keep them?"

As the moment eases, she settles down and puts her paintbrush back in its place. She huffs a small sigh and then rests her chin on her hands. "Dad?" She asks again, but this time her tone is more serious and weighty. Her gaze seeks him out even from how she sits. "How come you and... Melita aren't friends?" Some part of her tells her that Melita has to be wrong about her father. He's not that kind of person... is he?

Soaring doves and falling crows
Laughter is the only sound here

i closed my eyes and saw my father's sins, they covered me like a second skin
i peeled them off, and sure i bled a bit, but now i'm free to sink my own damn ship

There’s some small part of him that’s glad, too, that his words can bring about some happiness and warmth to his daughter. And as they finish up their paintings and Sunjata’s curiously watching the mess she makes with the paint all over her, his brows raise in a bit of surprise as to how much she’s tried to get it accurate. “I think it’s beautiful, Ria.” He murmurs about her painting, moving to collect the brushes and clean them but not after adding the season and year to the bottom of the painting.

“Of course we can, little one. Maybe next time we can get Nate to paint something too?” He suggests with a sparkle of mischief, before he’s setting the brushes to dry. “They need to dry first, though. Are you hungry?” They could hang them in the VlamVloed and get some lunch while they waited.

But before he has a chance to do that, she’s asking a difficult question and Sunjata can’t keep the surprise from his face. “Melita?” He repeats, wholly unsure of why the honeybee girl had such problems with him other than his decision making. “Well… We were, for a bit, until we disagreed on how to go about certain things. She didn’t like the choices I made that I thought was best.” He tries to explain as diplomatically as he can.

i cut my branch down from my family tree to start a fire in the living room

SUNJATA