Hotaru
That anger has always been in defense of Sunjata; all except once. It is so much clearer now with the bond, and she despairs over having not Attuned sooner. How much could have been avoided if she had? If they had understood one another this clearly, what might have been different in the way things went down? Even that temporary hurt burns away beneath the anger of injustice, of cruelty. Not for the first time she finds it overtaking her, fueled by the igniting force of alcohol, and she wishes she could stand on the level of Gods if only to rip Safrin from her throne with bloodied hands and claws like knives. How easily her loyalties change when swayed by those she loves, and this is Hotaru's Achilles Heel. So few held close, and yet they hold the power of the world over her. And she never, ever lets go. Even after everything, she is his in a way that hurts with every breath, every heartbeat, and yet she knows that to remove it would mean to change in a way that she would not survive.
"All children. Regardless of race, creed, or land. If they are not old enough to take arms, they are safe from the war. That means Kamaria - even if the Voice did such a thing, or even could, Nate would never be able to hurt her." For words meant to comfort, they blaze like fire across her tongue, trying to brand surety into his skin from where her lips brush against it with every syllable. For Nate, too, wherever he may be. If there is any doubt he harbors in his heart about his own Goddess, let those fears lie dead, let them both be freed from this shadow at least until the war is through.
Sunjata's beard is rough against the smoothness of her skin, which has a few extra scars of her own but still so few in comparison to his. Ru welcomes the slight burn of his touch, choking down a pitiful noise as his stubble glances over Nate's bite scar - a mark that she still traces with her fingers in the dark of the night when the cold creeps into her marrow and the sunrise feels like it will never come for her again. He holds her tighter, and she does so right back, palms splaying flat against his back and legs entangling to erase any minuscule amount of space between them. "Could you ask Vi? She is his herald, she must still answer to him." If anyone has the power and pull to draw down one of the Old Gods, it would be Sunjata. But perhaps if Vi is not as charmed by the Flood as Safrin is, he would be even more forbidding. "Or Ronin? Approach her at the side of another she favors, someone to witness?" The name burns, but she knows they are friends, and Hotaru is a fixer. She will exhaust every corner of her own brilliant mind if it means granting Sunjata an answer that will save his family.
"All children. Regardless of race, creed, or land. If they are not old enough to take arms, they are safe from the war. That means Kamaria - even if the Voice did such a thing, or even could, Nate would never be able to hurt her." For words meant to comfort, they blaze like fire across her tongue, trying to brand surety into his skin from where her lips brush against it with every syllable. For Nate, too, wherever he may be. If there is any doubt he harbors in his heart about his own Goddess, let those fears lie dead, let them both be freed from this shadow at least until the war is through.
Sunjata's beard is rough against the smoothness of her skin, which has a few extra scars of her own but still so few in comparison to his. Ru welcomes the slight burn of his touch, choking down a pitiful noise as his stubble glances over Nate's bite scar - a mark that she still traces with her fingers in the dark of the night when the cold creeps into her marrow and the sunrise feels like it will never come for her again. He holds her tighter, and she does so right back, palms splaying flat against his back and legs entangling to erase any minuscule amount of space between them. "Could you ask Vi? She is his herald, she must still answer to him." If anyone has the power and pull to draw down one of the Old Gods, it would be Sunjata. But perhaps if Vi is not as charmed by the Flood as Safrin is, he would be even more forbidding. "Or Ronin? Approach her at the side of another she favors, someone to witness?" The name burns, but she knows they are friends, and Hotaru is a fixer. She will exhaust every corner of her own brilliant mind if it means granting Sunjata an answer that will save his family.
But I am just a broken machine
And I do things that I don't really mean
And I do things that I don't really mean
