(o) Familiar stranger

Maea

And time it waits for no one
It heals them when you die

In contrast, Maea turned and gazed directly at the man beside her. Looked him over long and hard, and nodded in agreement. "Yes, you do." And she had no desire left to pretend it wasn't true. Or to try and soothe hurts that he kept nursing long after they'd gone rotten.

"I hear your apology, Sunjata. But no, I can't really accept it. It doesn't feel genuine, because I can't tell what you're sorry for. That you pushed me away when I didn't want to share you with someone else, or that I never made it back home, or that you treated me like shit when I did return?"

She shrugged helplessly, too sad to get worked up about any of it. "I'm sorry about all of those things too. I said it before; I never meant to hurt you, and I'm sorry that I did. I didn't go out to sea with the intention of never coming back. But all of that is moot and pointless now. It happened. And all I can see is that you don't seem interested in moving on from here. So there is absolutely no point in discussing the matter anymore."

It didn't lead anywhere, and she was so done cutting herself to pieces over him.

And soon you are forgotten
A whisper within a sigh

SUNJATA

i found hope in a hopeless home
found my father but i lost my soul

If there’s one thing Sunjata’s good at, it’s his brooding. It’s his getting stuck in his head over and over and over again and ruining everything around him. He’s used to it at this point, even if it still rips open old wounds time and time again. This is just another one of those moments, of going over where he’d gone wrong again and again until the lines blurred and he thinks he’s learned a lesson he most certainly hasn’t committed to memory.

He only looks at her when she’s been looking at him for a while now, burning a hole through his muted exterior. “I’m not asking you to accept it.” He begins, scanning her face for her emotions that had once been so easy to read, now locked away under masks made of time and shifts and changes to who she was at her center. “I’m sorry that you never made it back home and I’m sorry that I reacted the way I did.” But the one thing he wasn’t sorry about was that he pushed her away because of what she wasn’t okay with in their relationship. It was part of who he was now, especially now given the god he owes so much to now.

"Ah." His gaze drops from her, nodding in agreement before he pushes himself off the wall, stepping out as to not cage her in, as if giving her the room to leave should she wish to though he isn’t sure where she’s staying or where she intends to go – if anywhere.  “Where is there to even move on to?” He asks belatedly, distractedly. Because he doesn’t know where to even start with the idea, given how much they’d both changed, what type of people they were now.

i tried to trace it, i aimed to scope
been tryna kill it, but it's all i know

Maea

And time it waits for no one
It heals them when you die

She did not miss the part he left out. And it was a knife to the last sliver of hope she'd carried somewhere within. That maybe, maybe, there had been something left to salvage. That beneath hurt and anger and resentment they could have found a way.

But not. It would never work. She was not one to share, and he would not limit himself. And that was it, wasn't it?

Maea's face was an empty mask, void of external expression. No tears, no objections. She nodded. "I believe you," she said. A little distant, but her gaze remained fixed on him. It felt like a goodbye. Where could they go from here? "I don't know. Were we ever just friends? At the very least... I doubt I will be able to forget. Any of it."  

The good or the bad. Or that they lost it.

And soon you are forgotten
A whisper within a sigh

SUNJATA

i found hope in a hopeless home
found my father but i lost my soul

Their paths had taken them in separate ways, had brought him to the eventual god who’d rather Sunjata spend his days with whomever, wherever, tangled in sheets and sharing absolute bliss. Hers had brought her to the goddess she loathed, with little more than to simply be a ghost of who she once was.

Muscles feather in his jaw as he leans against the edge of the wall again, on the outside this time, looking in as he scans her. “I thought we were. Once. A long time ago.” Before feelings got in the middle of it and he refused to be the man she wanted him to be. But he’s silent for a moment before he finds himself pushing off the wall, invading the space of the alcove again toward her, the bags under his eyes heavy and dark. “I don’t want to forget, Maea. Regardless of how it ended, it shaped me.” He’s closer to her now than he has been before. The water from the rain clings to his skin, to his clothes, dripping from his hair to run down the side of his face, the dual sets of earrings in his ears glisten with raindrops as he shakes his head. “I think it depends on whether you want to forget and avoid me or start again as something else.” He sets out the option for her, his steel gaze focused on her face, ready to move should she wish to move past him.

i tried to trace it, i aimed to scope
been tryna kill it, but it's all i know

Maea

And time it waits for no one
It heals them when you die

There had been a time when the sight of him like this would have stolen her breath away. Tall, dark and looming, filling her entire field of vision as he encroached on the narrow space. Glistening with moisture in the wan light. Even now, she had to admire the unintentional force of his presence. No wonder she had been unable to resist - Sunjata was a force of nature, now more than ever.

She felt nothing, however. No speeding pulse, no catching breath, not the prickle of electrifying skin. Cold uncaring numbness was all she had to offer - and her unwavering gaze, distant and unreadable. Small and pale as ever, Maea knew she probably looked the same as always. But appearances were deceiving.

"I wonder if it's possible," she murmured, unperturbed by the way he blocked the exit now. She was not trapped - not by him. "The thing is, it still hurts. For you, years have passed. But to me it was yesterday that we parted. Even if I said we could start over and be friends again... I would be lying if I ever said I was happy to see you well and thriving without me." Petty and cruel, perhaps, but as it turned out Maea had plenty of darkness inside. Unleshed already, even if the effects were difficult to determine.

And soon you are forgotten
A whisper within a sigh

SUNJATA

i found hope in a hopeless home
found my father but i lost my soul

He, too, wonders if it’s possible. Not from his side, but from hers. And he gathers nothing from where he tries to study her face, where he’d used to be able to find nearly every emotion under the sun cast along her pale face, impossibly paler than he remembered it. Still, he can’t help the huff of an unamused laugh, arms opening to gesture to the rain soaked body of his. “Well, take some solace in the fact I’m certainly not thriving.” And certainly not well. Though it hadn’t started without her. He’d been this way for a very long time.

His arms return to his middle, holding the bag as he speaks again, the accented rumble loud enough to be heard over the plinking onto the rocks nearby from a flooded gutter. “It’s up to you. I can’t make you. But I’m not going to go out of my way to avoid you, either.” This is the only place he’s welcome right now and he doesn’t intend on walking on eggshells around here. “Nor do I want you to.” Because it wasn’t fair to either of them at the end of the day.

And besides, he intends on being here for a while. At least until Nate wakes up, gods willing.

i tried to trace it, i aimed to scope
been tryna kill it, but it's all i know

Maea

And time it waits for no one
It heals them when you die

Accepting the invite to scrutinize, Maea's gaze traveled down the man's frame, then back up to meet his eyes. No. Not exactly thriving, as he said. A part of her did take solace in that. Though not nearly as much, or as extensively as she might have thought. She did not regret the actions of the past, but... it seemed she had no more cause to repeat them.

She faked a sigh.

"No avoidance. I think I can do that much." It was a bare minimum, but honestly it was better than he should have hoped for. Better than she had thought at the start of this conversation. "Let's just... agree to not mention anything from the past again? Let's... bury it. Once and for all." She couldn't go on if all they did was debate actions and outcomes that could not be changed.

And soon you are forgotten
A whisper within a sigh

SUNJATA

i found hope in a hopeless home
found my father but i lost my soul

Actions of the past that he’s unaware of, of how deep her upset sits within her. But she agrees, even after the sigh, and he feels some tension leave his body with that. Not enough, though, not nearly enough with everything weighing on him from above. So he lets her look, not the preening, cocky man he once was, though it wasn’t too far away — this time it’s his typical brooding self, tall, drenched, a wreck.

“Agreed.” He rumbles, rolling back on the balls of his feet, looking away from her over his shoulder to the way the rain starts to slow. “Where are you staying?” He asks her with a raised brow, turning his attention back into her, still clutching the bag to his chest. He has no home here, the VlamVloed being the space he tends to drift back to when here — after all, it’s a lingering structure of his. But for her? Where was it she spent her days?

i tried to trace it, i aimed to scope
been tryna kill it, but it's all i know

Maea

And time it waits for no one
It heals them when you die

Agreed, then. Rolling her shoulders as if she could physically shift the weight of the past, the young woman blinked slowly and then turned away, back to her study of the marketplace. The rain had driven all but the most persistent of shoppers indoors for the time being, and only the vendors in their stalls lingered to wring every last trade out of the few passersby. She did not visibly relax, but some of the severity faded from her face, and above all her tone was made more neutral. Almost conversational, as she replied.

"With Amun, for now. He insisted I come here, until we know how much of an effect the Stormbreak incident will have. And you're... at the bar?"  Her thoughts went to the secret room beneath the tavern, with it's bed and couch. It suited her image of him better than the sort of rooms she had been staying in, once upon a time.

And soon you are forgotten
A whisper within a sigh

SUNJATA

i found hope in a hopeless home
found my father but i lost my soul

Tension aired, tension relieved. At least for the moment. Which felt like a good thing given the fact that the world around them seemed tense enough. So his shoulders droop, his freehand pushing back the wet mop of hair from his face again, before he shakes his hand off to rid it of the water. “Mm, yeah, likely a big one.” And he’s dreading it, truthfully. To be a part of those talks when all he wants to do is rage through there and get Nate’s body back, and then figure out what to do with himself after.

“It’s the only place that’s mine these days.” And even still, it wasn’t really his anymore. He’d been gone for so long, ruled an entirely different region, then fucked off to King’s End. He’s just glad to have a familiar space to return to while everything else felt so unsure and uneasy. “Just me and my twins at the moment.” He lifts the bag in his hands as if to emphasize that he was here on an errand run.

i tried to trace it, i aimed to scope
been tryna kill it, but it's all i know

Maea

And time it waits for no one
It heals them when you die

That made her frown. Staring down at the top of her shoes, Maea didn't like the idea of big effects. Not while she was in the Grounds. Not if it meant new walls and never leaving. Humming vaguely in recognition that he'd spoken, she was so busy rueing over possible repercussions that it took a moment for her to register that he'd gone on and changed the subject. When she did, it brought her head up with a jerk, blinking at him.

"Your what? What twins?" She had of course heard about Kamaria, who hadn't at this point, but there were more kids?

And soon you are forgotten
A whisper within a sigh

SUNJATA

i found hope in a hopeless home
found my father but i lost my soul

It isn’t really something he wants to think about either – having had a hand in it as deeply as he had. And yet there wasn’t anything else he could do other than wait and face what consequences came his way, what kind of talks there were to be made over what exactly the two regions were to do.

His gaze finds hers, though, as she sputters, at the mention of his twins and there’s a small little smile that tugs on his scarred cheek as he regards her. “Nate and I saved them from a daemon attack in King’s End. Their parents didn’t make it and so we took them in. They’re young, though, close to a year now though we don’t really know for sure. We figure they were likely born in Deepfrost so that’s when we’ll celebrate it.” One shoulder rises and falls in a small shrug.

i tried to trace it, i aimed to scope
been tryna kill it, but it's all i know

Maea

And time it waits for no one
It heals them when you die

"I.. I see. Good for you, I suppose." Good for the kids could be debated. "I just... thought you didn't like children." They'd had a whole conversation about it, once. And been unanimous in the agreement that it was not for either of them. But apparently Sunjata had changed too, and in more ways than one.

Distracted enough to fall back into old habits, Maea raked a handful of hair back from the face and shifted weight, the fabric at her back catching against the old stone behind her shoulders. "I can't really picture it," she admitted.

And soon you are forgotten
A whisper within a sigh

SUNJATA

i found hope in a hopeless home
found my father but i lost my soul

They had that conversation before, but in an effort to not bring up that whole can of worms so recently after they’d decided to put it behind them, Sunjata hums slightly and nods. “I didn’t. I didn’t want to become my father.” Which was part of that whole conversation they’d had previously – the fear deep down that he’d turn into the person he’d hated the most. “But then Kamaria happened and truthfully? It changed everything.” Even if she didn’t speak to him anymore, even if she’d left to be with Ronin after his allegiance change. It didn’t change the fact that Kamaria was his daughter, that he’d wanted the best for her, to protect her and raise her, but even his word is little against the onslaught of a goddess.

“Same.” Is another admission – one that he hadn’t been able to quite see either. But he makes a good father for all accounts, even if his better half wasn’t around to help out. He was doing his best even if he was hard headed about a lot of it. “You could… Meet them, maybe, if you wanted to get out of the rain?” He doesn’t know if she’s interested, but perhaps a fresh start could start like this.

i tried to trace it, i aimed to scope
been tryna kill it, but it's all i know