PM to join Steam and Serpents (Zoszem)

[Tinnok]

Steam and Serpents
12th of Winter, 514 A.V.

Tinnok was still struggling with navigating the tunnels. She had gotten the basic pattern down. In essence the whole city was a giant downward spiral, but that was simplifying it to a very easy essence. This spiral had nooks, crannies, twists and turns, dead ends, and a million branches like that off of a tree that led to who knows where. It seemed the Queens had their fancy carved rooms in about the center, and anywhere above or below that was for the rest of masses, as if Tinnok could call the small population of Dhani here anything close to a 'mass.'

But if there were two places she knew how to get to, it was the small cavern Tsuya and their salamander friends called home, and the not so far away series of caverns containing the wonderfully warm steam baths that the Dhani loved soaking in. At first Tinnok had not understood the enjoyment. The tunnels were much cooler than the outside in the jungle, but the idea of sticking her body in sometimes practically broiling water seemed strange and redundant, that had all changed, however after a rough day of sparing in the gallery with a Dhani much too big for her. Someone snidely suggested relaxing in the pools, and with a desire to nurse her wounded pride she had found a secluded spot and discovered the wonders that the hot water and steam did for her muscles and nerves.

As it was now she stopped by at least once every other day if not more. She enjoyed finding new ones, and generally tried to avoid other Dhani. They were quite comfortable with their naked forms regardless if it was serpent or human, Tinnok...was not. She preferred to be alone, or occasionally find a more mild pool and enjoy it with Tsuya.

Today she was looking for another new pool, and padded lightly clothed passed a fairly large occupied one, a vent of steam dissipating enough for her to see several Dhani engaged in some...heated embraces. Her eyes darted away and her feet picked up their pace, though trod even more lightly in horror of what might happen if she interrupted the process.

A few more chimes and the steam around her drenching the loose cotton clothing she wore, Tinnok finally found a little nook that looked perfect. It was walled in by the natural formation of rocks so there was one slightly wide entrance and most of the pool was blocked form on loookers, so she could easily see if anyone joined her and have privacy. She dipped her fingers in the slightly glowing blue water testing the temperature, then without much further study stripped, folded her clothes and placed them to the side and slid in with a soft sigh of enjoyment as her scaled skin sank into the hot bubbling depths.

It was precisely then that she heard a faint splash and noticed that she was in fact, far from alone, and there were a pair of eyes assessing her from the other side of the pool.


"Ach, s-sorry, though this was...no full." Tinnok stuttered a bit nervously in her broken form of common.

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[Zoszem]

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Life in Zinrah was painfully repetitive. Most seemed content to pursue the same activities day in and day out and chase eachothers' tails as if the ancient rituals of courtship truly mattered. The women at the top of their matriarchy flaunted their imagined importance and had most of the young dancing at the flick of a clawed finger. Zoszem wasn't one to talk, granted. He spent his days going through the same old, cumbersome routines on the sidelines of the small society that still remained in Falyndar's underground; he had a purpose to pursue and his goal in sight. His bruises told the story well enough, spotting his otherwise pale skin in red and blue.

The human frame was weak. That's precisely why Zoszem preferred it. As a man obsessed with conquering his weakness and the shortcomings of his kin, he was determined to strengthen himself in the form he felt the weakest. Heaving a sigh, the Dhani sunk back in the steaming waters to momentarily submerge and let the heat work their magic on his aching joints and muscles. He still had a long way to go and had yet to make any real progress. Zinrah was full of distractions and many were difficult, if not impossible, to avoid. Fortunately for Zoszem, there were plenty of nooks and crannies that were out of the way of the general populace for him and undoubtedly many others to seek refuge in when the debauchery of their everyday life became too much of a distraction.

Moments later, Zoszem breached the surface and guided himself to the edges of the steaming pool, resting his back against the rock. He reached up to brush the bright blonde hair back and out of his eyes, letting his gaze travel across the water's surface to ascertain that the pool was still empty. When he confirmed that it still was, his shoulders slumped and his expression sagged wearily. His head fell to rest on the rocks behind him, landing with a soft thud and a grunt. The bustle of the nest echoed through the tunnels and leapt between the walls surrounding the pool, present but faint all the same. The pool's water squelching around his body was unsuccessful in drowning out the residual noise, but it was close enough to satiate the man for now.

Picking his hand out of the water and holding it above him, Zoszem studied his pale fingers with waning interets. He flexed them, turning his hand to inspect his unevenly trimmed nails and his cracked, blushing knuckles. He was so engrossed in the glistening flesh beneath the cracked skin that he didn't recognize the shadow of a figure approaching the entrance to the pool and slipped into its waters. Not until he felt the ripples of its entrance crash against his body did his attention shoot across the pool and his clear blue eyes lock upon the woman. He pushed himself up into a sitting crouch in the water, departing the rocky wall. When he did, the woman seemed to discover his presence for the first time.

"Not full," he commented dryly. From this side of the pool he had a hard time seeing exactly who this individual was. Zinrah wasn't big, nor was it very crowded; he couldn't bring himself to recognize the woman across from him despite this. "Just me. Didn't expect company." He pointedly tilted his head at that. "Ssseems you didn't, either."
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[Tinnok]

Tinnok found herself gaping at the Dhani in human form that she had stumbled across in the pool. She was pale compared to a full blooded Myrian, but still a nice even tan, one that she always wondered if she could change if her skin was...scales. This man, however, was paler than Tsuya, he practically glistened and this trait reached even his his hair, and accentuated the pair of blue eyes assessing her calmly from the opposite end of the pool. His features were sharp and distinct and seemed only to drive home his rather snide comments, making the half breed feel as if she had committed a small crime for stepping in his pool.

Half in and out of the water, utterly naked, and completely aware of the fact, her scaled skin glistened in the midst of a decision. To leave the wonderfully warm water meant trying to put on already damp clothes on a wet body and surviving that gaze for the effort. Tongue running across lips that would otherwise have been dry, Tinnok stepped fully into the water. "Can leave if want." She met the male's gaze for the first time in their short knowledge of one another, yellow gold gaze meeting his blue one for an instant before glancing around. "Methinks both us want be alone?" The words slipped out of her mouth swiftly, but the accuracy of her statement struck her. She had chosen this spot for its seclusion, would not another entity be seeking the same?

It amused Tinnok no end to see the similarities between Zinrah and Taloba, the foremost of which, how the females treated their males. It was strangely ironic that Tinnok was treated...in most ways better in Zinrah than she ever had in Taloba, thanks to her connection to Caiyha, a position which she could never of held carrying her Dhani blood in Taloba, yet males were treated almost identical in the city, lower than females, able to only move so far up social ladders. She had identified more closely with males in her time than she had with females, and part of her was already curious as to this one's story.

She dipped low in the water, so her head and neck were all that remained, dark hair floating around her ears. She wasn't precisely one for talking, so if the Dhani did not wish to, she wouldn't press, though she sincerely hoped he wouldn't ask her to leave the water.

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[Zoszem]

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Those eyes. Zoszem was caught off-guard when her golden gaze met his and he couldn't muster the composition to conceal the look of surprise that crossed his face. A serpentine trait indeed, though their human disguises rarely showed off such blatant give-aways. It was curious, and the Dhani found himself drifting through the water to close the distance between him and her, ever so slowly. He was determined to get himself a closer look, though he handled his approach with caution and apprehensive respect--given the woman's reaction to his presence alone, he couldn't safely predict how she would treat his approach. While he harbored a fair amount of resentment towards the matriarchy of Zinrah, he knew better than to challenge the pecking order and, as far as he was concerned... this was still a woman.

A woman with very curious features.

"No, there's no need... The water isss good." While his approach was slow, the pool wasn't that big. He'd already closed half the distance between him and the woman, making him no less intrigued by her appearence. It was rare to spy anything other than a Dhani in this subterranean complex, and the few features Zoszem was able to discern at this distance made him... suspicious. If she wasn't a Dhani, she was either foolhardy or brave to dare the tunnels of Zinrah. Then again, if she was... His brow furrowed visibly and his eyes travelled across the woman's face unabashedly for a moment before locking with her golden gaze, whether she'd meet it or not. "Thisss... is a good place to relax. The other pools are too crowded..."

Admittedly, Zoszem wasn't normally much for conversation, either. He would like it if she didn't depart the pool before he satisfied his curiousity, however, so he was ready to make an exception this time. Unfortunately, modesty as a tactic didn't cross his mind. He waded through the water without shame, not giving the fact of his nudity the shadow of a thought. The water reached his bellybutton as he made his way through the fairly shallow side of the pool, putting the patterns of bruises on clear display.
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[Tinnok]

Tinnok was not good under scrutiny. A small part of her mind reassured her that the male's gaze was nothing compared the unflinching, skin crawling gaze of the Undead Sorceress, but the half breed had always been uncomfortable under the watchful eyes of anyone. It didn't take much to notice the sheen of her scales, nor the rounded, yet still slit shaped pupils in her yellow gold eyes, and clearly the icy blue gaze of her new companion was sizing her up, dissecting her to try to ascertain what she was.

He was moving closer to her, and Tinnok found herself standing up to her full height, just barely shorter than the male, arms crossing rather self consciously across her chest, revealing more starkly the fact that her right arm was entirely consumed in a singular intricate tattoo in the form of her 2 Phylonura marks. To her forearm, especially with water dripping off of the surface, the skin was nearly obsidian in color, broken up with varying shades of grey and a strange phosphorescence that shone in the depths of the mark that displayed the subterranean. As the mark crawled up her arm, the blackness turned into deep brown loamy soil, breaking up with a strangler fig that crawled up to her shoulder, its branches slowly twining into the sky which transformed into a river that snaked around the back of her head. Tinnok never tired of studying the slight changes that occurred in the marks from day to day, the essence of the image staying the same, while points of each changed.

"I servant of Caiyha." She started. Best to cut off the questions before they came. Soon it wasn't like she'd need to answer them anyway, the number of snakes here so small, but she couldn't abide the silence stretching between them, even with the man wading unabashedly towards her, water dripping over deathly pale skin. The bruises were quite distinctive and visible, blue and purple flowering shapes upon his flesh. It made the half breeds eyebrow quirk upwards a bit in curiosity. From what she had seen, all Dhani liked to keep their looks in tact. But perhaps this male was a guard or fighter, and spent much time in the gallery wrestling or training.

"I came here, Siku led me to caves, I am half Dhani, half...Myrian, but you no worry, I here by..ah, will of Caiyha, if seen by Myrians, I drag back to Taloba, torture and kill most like." Her lips pursed. Well that was a lot to absorb all at once. No Dhani yet had attacked her outright for what she was, probably because they believed that she wouldn't be alive in the city without Siku's say so, but Tinnok had lived a life in fear of what she was in Taloba, and could certainly not shake that apprehension here in the den of those she considered her enemies for over two decades of her life.




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