Hotaru
Hotaru laughs mirthlessly into his neck. "I know." Her hand travels slowly up and down his spine, "But all the more reason to talk to Ronin, who is her demigod despite it. See if he would change things, or advise you on the right way to say no." Because too often Sunjata ignores his gut instincts, and in doing so takes the wrong road. He had already said moments ago that he wanted to tell her no; that's all Hotaru needs to know to see into his heart.
The serpent inside him is one filled with a venom she knows all too well, considering her experience with it on the other side of the coin towards very different people. There is no real way to comfort someone through a bond, but she can project a level of calm to try and help ease the bared fangs and fury there. "Immortality would be a temporary bandage to ensure you would survive the war - beyond that, it is a curse." Her voice is weary and wise beyond her years. So many times she had beheld the children of Helovia, tied to their godly lineage, live through horrors that the Valkyrie knew would be carried in their memories eternally in a way that was far too literal. Her own daughter, her firstborn, had bled out in her arms and lived despite it all. She knows too well that immortality is a cruelty, and she wouldn't wish it on him, even if he would have Nate at his side - effectively immortal as The Voice's son.
She goes where he leads, as she has so many times in the past, and settles as a barely-there weight upon his chest. The thrum of his heartbeat is a steady knock against her sternum, and she lifts a hand to gently wipe away the shadow of blood at the corner of his mouth with her thumb. Caressing his jaw briefly in a moment of weakness before returning her hands to his chest. "It doesn't have to be," she whispers. Reaching out through the bond where she is not brave enough to do so physically, flooding him with as much peace as she can by recalling spring afternoons with the twins up to their knees in the 'Song, the shared laughter with Deimos in the Feverlands. These are closer, more tangible memories that she can draw on to try and fill that aching void she can feel in him. "One step at a time. Talking to Ronin, to Nate about the protection over the children of Caido. Denying Safrin. When the war comes, we can only hold on hour by hour - and only then can you consider the future beyond." She has lived through so many wars, these steps are written into the inside of her veins, and she carries them with her through every new one.
The serpent inside him is one filled with a venom she knows all too well, considering her experience with it on the other side of the coin towards very different people. There is no real way to comfort someone through a bond, but she can project a level of calm to try and help ease the bared fangs and fury there. "Immortality would be a temporary bandage to ensure you would survive the war - beyond that, it is a curse." Her voice is weary and wise beyond her years. So many times she had beheld the children of Helovia, tied to their godly lineage, live through horrors that the Valkyrie knew would be carried in their memories eternally in a way that was far too literal. Her own daughter, her firstborn, had bled out in her arms and lived despite it all. She knows too well that immortality is a cruelty, and she wouldn't wish it on him, even if he would have Nate at his side - effectively immortal as The Voice's son.
She goes where he leads, as she has so many times in the past, and settles as a barely-there weight upon his chest. The thrum of his heartbeat is a steady knock against her sternum, and she lifts a hand to gently wipe away the shadow of blood at the corner of his mouth with her thumb. Caressing his jaw briefly in a moment of weakness before returning her hands to his chest. "It doesn't have to be," she whispers. Reaching out through the bond where she is not brave enough to do so physically, flooding him with as much peace as she can by recalling spring afternoons with the twins up to their knees in the 'Song, the shared laughter with Deimos in the Feverlands. These are closer, more tangible memories that she can draw on to try and fill that aching void she can feel in him. "One step at a time. Talking to Ronin, to Nate about the protection over the children of Caido. Denying Safrin. When the war comes, we can only hold on hour by hour - and only then can you consider the future beyond." She has lived through so many wars, these steps are written into the inside of her veins, and she carries them with her through every new one.
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
