theattic | Ryslig PSL: Snorse Mythology

The scrambling of hooves gets a glance over her shoulder from Lust, but no comment. While perfect for a Naga, the smooth wooden floors aren't a hoofed creature's greatest friend.

Perhaps they made hoof covers...

"This is I suppose the parlor? Or living room, whatever you prefer to call it." There's no functional furniture, exactly, only tables and cabinets to display and hold things. The large marble fireplace has a pile of unwrapped fabric bolts and pillows gathered in front of it, and a large television cabinet across. And of course there are potted plants and flowers all over the room, and moody, abstract art on the walls between the expansive windows.

"It's the room I spend most of my time in. The view of the gardens is spectacular."

"I thought parlors was where you had to put plastic on everything..."

A parlor in the deep south was very different than a parlor anywhere else.

The fireplace looked heavenly with all the bedding in front of it. The flowers and plants made him feel like he was walking through a forest without the threat of mosquitoes and horseflies. He let a dreamy little smile cross his face as he looked around.

"I'd like t' see that!" Maurice follows right along but a thought weedled its way into his mind ad out of his mouth. "Did you dream about anything last night?"

"Why would I have plastic on anything?"

Lust shook her head at the odd thought and moved toward the central windows, against the far wall. At the sudden question her attention turned from the daytime curtains to Maurice, a thoughtful frown tugging at her painted lips.

"Last night? I'm sure I did, I dream every night, from what I understand. Not all of them linger, though. And usually they're so hard to describe anyway - ever shifting scenes and images that bleed together and melt apart in little semblance of a story. But I dream about climbing a mountain sometimes. To the very top."

She could have just said 'I don't remember', but she wanted to have an answer for him. It could have been the mountain dream last night, though it's never exactly the same.

"What do you dream about?"

The centaur listened, both ears zoned right in on her. They were a clear tell of where his attention rested.

"I've never dreamed about a mountain...I wonder what it means. I heard dreams are supposed to mean stuff."

He moved to stand beside her and look out over the gardens. They weren't like anything he 'd seen and certainly weren't anything he'd imagine being here of all places. Where people were hurt and cursed and terrified around the clock.

Some of the bushes looked tasty.

"I dream about...it's stress dreams a lot. Like. I'm tryin' to say something but nothing comes out or I'm trying to get somewhere but I can't move my legs cause I'm layin' on 'em and they fell asleep. Sometimes it's just...weird stuff, like bein' a tree."

"I haven't the faintest idea. Dreams could mean so many things... sometimes I think they're just some messy jumble of whatever was on the mind that evening." A shrug of her upper arms.

She looked out over the gardens as well, though she wasn't quite seeing them. Her mind was still on the oddity of dreams and the complexity of the brain and heart and how maybe dreams were the two trying to communicate with one another.

"But I know the sort you're talking about. Not in the same way, but sometimes I wake up and all I remember is a sense of...fear. And the sense of wanting to move or speak and being unable to. Like...being underwater, almost."

"Yeah!" Maurice's ears stood tall. "Underwater, it feels like that! And the water is so thick and you just can't--" A few awkward flailing gestures as his body wiggled in mimicry of thrashing in a dream. "Scary stuff."

He fell silent for a little while, just enjoying hanging out with her without tons of other eyes or the risk of other eyes appearing in an abandoned lot to interrupt them. He couldn't keep the salmon pink out of his cheeks and sides though.

"Did you plant all those by yourself?"

Lust was more than glad to shift the topic of conversation. Upsetting dreams were a rather heavy topic for a friendly - or more? she wasn't quite sure - visit.

"Most of them, yes. I enjoy gardening, I find it soothing and I like to help things grow. It's creation in one of its purest forms, the creation of nature. They're something beautiful I helped bring to life."

And she simply liked flowers. Something about them just...touched her soul, she supposed. Or whatever bits she had remaining that passed for one.

"It's a bit silly..."

"I don't think it's silly..." said Maurice. He followed it up with a much more queit, "I think that's nice."

He fumbled with a strand of his kelp hair as he imagined Lust weaving deftly between the flower beds and placing each starter, each seed. Making beauty in a place that was so often so ugly.

Another thought popped into his head and made its way out of his mouth before he could stop it.

"You're sort of like a flower I guess."

"Thank you."

Lust cleared her throat, eyes on the greenery and color outside the window. Her scales hid the darkening of her cheeks.

But she couldn't keep her eyes from flicking to Maurice in surprise once more. Whatever did he mean by that? Something complimentary, she was sure, but...

"....Me? Really?"

"Uh! Uuuh! Yeah! I mean--it's." Yeah, Maurice, what DID you mean by that? He fumbled with a stray lock of his gloppy hair again and averted his eyes, his ears still aimed at Lust.

"Anyway! What's next?"

"I...but..."

Lust wanted to ask him to explain what he meant, but it seemed...rude, somehow. He hadn't offered any explanation himself.

Perhaps some later time she'll revisit and ask, but for now, Maurice seemed eager to move on with the tour.

"Well...from here, would you rather see the kitchen or the indoor pool?"

Maurice let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Okay! Good! She didn't ask him about his dumb poetic observations. That would be so lame, she wouldn't want to see him any more!

"The pool sounds nice!" Maurice said a little too loudly. "Maybe we could--uh! Go for a swim?"

"If you'd like, of course. It's certainly big enough."

Lust pulled herself away from the window and moved on, through a door off the the side into a long hallway decorated with more framed paintings. Some abstract, some less so. And they mostly seemed to feature Lust herself as the subject matter.

"It's down this way, it takes up nearly the whole back of the house down here." The hallway ended in a set of double doors that led to the pool room. Which earned its name well...

The pool itself took up much of the room. It was deep and decorated with multicolored lights beneath the surface, violet and blue and soft red. Tile decorated columns surrounded the pool itself, flowering vines growing up them. The windows in here were high and stained glass, abstract patterns in colors to match the pool lights. A few backless lounging chairs dotted the sides, but there was little to detract from the main attraction.

It was hard not to notice those paintings. The idea that Lust was vain didn't even enter his head. She was beautiful, who wouldn't want to paint her? Plus she had all those arms to do cool poses with! His walk slowed as he passed them so that he could take them in.

He thought about asking if they were gifts or things that she had paid someone to paint. He thought about, well, she liked art. Maybe she would like a song? He wondered if anybody had made her a song before.

These thoughts were stopped when The Pool Room revealed itself. It was so grand! It looked like something that would be in an airplane magazine and cost a bazillion dollars to visit. But it was here!

ANd he couldn't stop himself.

Maurice let out a snort and a little squeal and surged forward, his hooves clattering loudly on the tile. He leaped. He dove. The water sloshed up over the steps and the tile as the Kelpie thrashed around in his natural habitat.

Lust couldn't help but laugh as Maurice plunged into the pool immediately. There was something joyous in the way he took to the water with abandon, it was...infectious.

She herself took her time, taking off her halter and minimal jewelry and setting them aside neatly. Modesty has never meant much to her, and besides, it was no mystery to Maurice and her hair covered more than her actual clothes. There was a moment spared to contemplating fully braiding it, but the time and effort weren't worth it. Besides, she was nearly certain that he wouldn't give a damn how ridiculous her hair looked when wet.

"I should have just brought you directly here."

With another chuckle, Lust slid smoothly into the water from the side of the pool, in the deepest end to allow all of her to slither in.

Maurice brought his front hooves up and down into the water, unable to stop himself. Yes! YES! This was his environment. He made his way toward the deeper end and his hooves scraped the bottom of the pool and he began to swim proper.

It helped that he was naturally buoyant.

When Lust spoke, he turned toward her, panting. For a moment his ears went up and his eyes grew wide. She was. Nakey. But then he remembered that they had literally done the monster hanky panky in an abandoned lot and he should get over himself. Besides, she was doing the Mermaid Thing. Maurice coughed a little and swam her way.

"Sorry, it just kinda happens when I see a pond. It's been a while. This is great!"

"I'm not very enamored of natural bodies of water. Of course my experiences with them have been less than pleasant. I stick with manmade pools."

Always clean, her own she could set to whatever temperature she so desired, no surprises waiting in them. And clean, the clean aspect was very important to her.

"But I'm also a desert serpent, I imagine I have some natural aversion to cold ponds and lakes."

Maurice was a water horse, something at home in those places. How different they must seem to him, welcoming and comfortable and familiar.

"Oh, I didn't think about you bein' from the desert," Maurice said a little airily, trying to pay attention to Lust over his kelpiebrains yelling MUST SPLASH in his ears. He could not splash Lust.

He could not.

His tail spread out on the surface of the water like a fine bed of orange duckweed as he drew up beside her. His sides heaved in and out as he tread water. Maurice brushed his shoulders up against her upper pair.

He would not. Splash her.

"I bet this is great in the winter, huh?"

"Once upon a time. And my markings are consistent with a particular viper found only in the desert."

Most of Lust stayed underwater. Most of her. Here and there, curving out of the water, were lengths of her tail - like some ancient sea serpent. The very tip of her tail was lazily swishing under the water, making small ripples.

She tried to keep her tail out of the way, but there was so much of it, Maurice was bound to bump into it at some point. Especially with them so close together - not that Lust minded in the least.

"And you've no idea. I can make it very hot, if I want. Sometimes I sleep in here, on the warm tile beside the pool. I feel like I could sleep for months, in winter."

It never occurred to her that snakes hibernated.

"That sounds great." Maurice allowed himself to finally relax a little at the thought. Hanging out in a big, perfectly heated pool while it was storming outside.

Another thought--hanging out in a big perfectly heated pool while it was storming outside with someone. He glanced aside at lust and felt heat rising into his cheeks again. Would they get to do that this winter? He hoped so. The thought of chilling in the deep end caught up in Lust's coils and playing with her hair was almost enough to make him melt.

His hoof touched a length of her tail and he let out a shrill half-whinny of surprise, instantly launching himself out of the daydream. His tail swung up and sent a small shower over Lust.

"Woah, sorry!"

It was wonderful - Lust enjoyed nothing more during the dark storms of winter than to curl up in the heated pool room, half of herself submerged. It was a particular sort of comfort - one she'd more than like to share with Maurice, when the weather turned unpleasant.

At the sudden brush of hoof, Lust instinctively drew back...only to be splashed lightly as Maurice reacted far more enthusiastically.

A laugh burst out of her, and she flicked her own tail to the surface to return the spray.

"No apologies necessary, we are in water."

Lust's laugh chased away the barage of I'm Sorry's that were just waiting to come rushing out. Maurice's ears swept out to the sides. He loved the way her eyes crinkled up when she laughed.

When she splashed him back, Maurice lifted his arms as though that would do any good. A dumb boyish laugh escaped him.

"Awh no! Nu uh! Don't start somethin' you can't finish!"

He swept an arm through the water, sending a more deliberate wave toward her.

Well now that gauntlet had been properly thrown down, hadn't it? She shook water out of her eyes and hair with another laugh, bangs straggling down into her eyes.

Lust grinned, more playful than anything, and swept both her left hands through the water to send a returning wave in Maurice's direction.

"I believe you'll soon find I always finish what I start."

"That aint fair!" Maurice said through a laugh. He tried to return fire by lifting a front hoof out of the water and splashing her that way, but he was too far in the deep end to rare up against the tile.

So he just sort of bobbed and flailed, slinging water at her any way he could. His nerves left him. He didn't have to act cool around Lust. He didn't have to pretend to understand all the fancy paintings in her house or anything like that. All he had to do was be himself.

And right now, the himself Maurice was being was KING TSUNAMI. He turned and tried to use the broad side of his horse body to send a wave her way.

"You can't win this! I'm one with the water!"

"I'm only making use of my advantages!"

Lust was not a creature of the water. Her advantages were her size and that she knew her own pool and was comfortable in it. And Maurice's vigorous aquatic assault trumped those advantages.

She tried to use her bulk to easily slip under the water and out of the way. The tumultuous water and her own natural love of land worked against her, and she found herself rolling without control and dunking under the water as the wave went over her.

At least she was making plenty of splashes herself as she twisted and grasped at nothing with her four hands. When she resurfaced, her hair was sodden wet and plastered to her in a thick, dripping mess.

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