Work Text:
A Glimpse Into a Feathered Snake's Eating Habits
She was being observed. In her line of work, being able to tell as much was somewhat of a necessity, and it's not like she wasn't used to it. Truthfully, she had earned quite a lot of stares through her life just by virtue of having both feathers and a scaled tail, a sight which had unfortunately become rather unique in the modern world. Those were the easiest ones to notice, and only partially because people didn't always bother trying to not be obvious with their stares. Then there were the other kind of gazes, those more attentive, cautious, analitical, typical of those with a more professional interest in her. Another one was the hostile look she would occasionally get, usually when getting down to business with someone who had to be taken care of. There were many, many others still, but if she had to pick her favorite she would probably go for the wary, ever so slightly afraid stare. Generally speaking, it was indicative of a job well done.
With all of that said, she was rather sure the gaze directed at her at the moment was closer in nature to the first one.
She stretched her head wings a little, partially to give the onlooker a bit of a show and partially because she just felt like doing so, adjusting her position on the chair in the meanwhile. Rhodes Island's archive was quite the lovely place to spend her time at, and the surprisingly generous padding of the seats there contributed nicely to it. Now, she was quite fond of physical volumes as well, she even liked paper books better than digital files as far as her personal enjoyment went, but she had to admit that a computer was just much more handy for going through large amounts of documents. Leaning back a bit against the backrest, she closed a bunch of files and opened a few more.
Then her eyes moved past the monitor, to the little guest who had been staring at her for the last ten minutes or so. Ho'olheyak herself had been sitting in her little corner of the archive for a good three hours by then. There was a terminal quite out of the way there, far from the entrance and tucked behind a wall. Describing it as hidden would've been somewhat of an exaggeration, but it did remain out of sight from pretty much anyone not purposefully going to that specific part of the archive. It was a bit hot there, admittedly, but she didn't mind.
"Do you need something?" she then resolved to ask.
The ears poking out from behind the wall twitched, and a little vulpo walked out. Ho'olheyak's own gaze fell on her tails, much too numerous and uniform to be a mutation caused by Oripathy. Not that she wasn't Infected, the marks were there in plain sight on her arm. A somewhat peculiar sight, which roused her interest a little bit.
"I'm sorry, did I disturb you?"
"You annoyed me a little, at most" she replied "But I don't like talking from afar like this. If you have something to say, come here and say it"
"Sure. If you'll excuse me then" the little girl said back as she quickly made her way to Ho'olheyak, stopping at an angle which kept her from seeing what was currently displayed on the monitor.
Quite well-mannered a child, it would seem.
"What is it then?" she asked, adjusting herself on the chair again, catching the way the little girl stared at the tip of her tail as it moved for a few moments before focusing on her face.
"I'm Suzuran" she introduced herself with a light bow "And you are, miss... ?"
"Ho'olheyak" she answered, offering her hand for a shake.
She wasn't exactly fond of children, but that was no reason to forego basic manners, now was it?
"Miss Ho'olheyak, the archive will close in twenty minutes for the weekly deep cleaning so... if you could finish up your business here, it would be really appreciated"
Oh, right. It was that day of the week.
"I don't remember having seen your face here before"
"I'm volunteering for the day, that's all"
"Earnest little vulpo" she said, more to herself than to Suzuran, as her tail slithered on the ground before moving up to tap the little girl's forehead, getting a surprised little yelp out of her "And how longer were you planning to wait before informing me?"
Suzuran's ears twitched.
"I'm truly sorry, it's just... you seemed really focused, like you were doing something important, and I didn't want to interrupt you"
Suzuran truly had no idea what kind of expression Ho'olheyak had when she was well and truly focused.
"Well, I can wrap up my work here and be on my way then. Is that all?"
"... w-well, actually" she said, her gaze dropping to the ground a little bit, her legs shifting a little as if she was walking in place "... may I... touch your tail? Just the tip would be fine? Oh, but if I'm being too rude then I apologize!" she quickly added.
Ho'olheyak's head wings quivered slightly.
"Now, now" she replied, crossing her legs, placing an elbow on the desk and resting her head on her palm "Do you ask just about anyone to touch their tail so casually, child?"
Suzuran's cheeks turned a little red, not so much for the question but rather for the tone Ho'olheyak had spoken it with. Maybe due to her body language too.
"I-I thought tail contact to be a normal occurrence for pythia, so long as the tail doesn't entwine on another tail, and yours looks really smooth and pretty, so... oh, but you also have feathers, miss Ho'olheyak, so... forgive my rudeness, but... are you a pythia or a liberi?"
"So little, and yet a sycophant already" she almost laughed, softly.
"No, I truly think that"
"Do tell me then. How does my tail feel?"
Rather than answering, Suzuran yelped as said tail slithered around her waist and tightened, just enough to grab hold of her and lift her off the ground. In the blink of an eye, the vulpo had found herself upside down, nearly face to face with that green-eyed woman, the tip of her tail waving softly in front of her face.
"So, uhm... may I?" she inquired, one hand busy holding her skirt up, the other hesitantly pointing to the tip of Ho'olheyak's tail.
"I wonder. Why don't you tell me what you think first?" she asked, her tail coiling a faint bit more around her.
"That you're amazing, miss Ho'olheyak!"
"Oh?"
Suzuran had probably misunderstood the question.
"You picked me up like it's nothing with just your tail, in only a moment too! And it doesn't even feel uncomfortable being held like this, I've never seen a pythia use their tail this precisely and quickly!"
"... sycophant indeed" Ho'olheyak said, although this time Suzuran could identify a certain amount of sarcasm in her voice.
As for her smile and the rather oddly long canines showing behind her lips, those actually reminded Suzuran of a certain someone else, but she saw no reason to bring it up at that time and place.
"... what are you doing?"
Ho'olheyak turned to the source of the voice, and so did Suzuran. The former had noticed someone else approaching around half a minute earlier, but the former seemed a bit startled.
"Shamare! Ah, you're right, I got distracted! Sorry, miss Ho'olheyak" she then added, turning back to the woman "But I really have to ask you to leave the archive now"
"Put her down"
"And here we have a much less mannered child, I see"
She had closed all tabs on the computer while talking with Suzuran, she had even turned it off already even, so she just got on her feet and walked up to the new arrival, with Suzuran still upside-down within her tail's grasp.
"And you would be... ?"
"Put Suzuran down"
"Miss Ho'olheyak, this is Shamare. She's my friend. Shamare, this is miss Ho'olheyak" Suzuran answered, not all that bothered by her current position it would seem. In fact, she sounded like she was having a bit of fun.
Shamare, on her part, didn't, but her expression wasn't actually any different from the one she always had on so commenting on her state of mind was a rather hard feat to perform. As for Ho'olheyak, she actually already knew who both vulpos were since before introductions were made. She had gone through the list of all of Rhodes Island's operators, after all. Admittedly, having found children inside there had quite amused her.
"There's a certain word people would use in such situations, child"
"Now"
"Oh my"
"Shamare, you really shouldn't talk like that to someone you've never met before. Oh, but I'd like to be put down, yes. Being upside down for long can be harmful"
"... sure thing"
Bothering to turn her the right way up before dropping her to the ground, Ho'olheyak let go of Suzuran and stared at Shamare for a while. That child was... abnormal. She could feel hostility from her gaze, yes, but nobody that young should've been able to hide it that well. She hadn't really gone through each and every single operator's files, due to a combination of lack of time and lack on interest -the vast majority of people was, to put it simply, of very little interest to ther-, but maybe looking into Shamare's profile might lead her to something interesting. After all, the way Ho'olheyak had suddenly found the idea of putting Suzuran down as gently as possible and even apologizing for having picked her up like that in the first place so fascinating the moment Shamare had spoken, well... calling that abnormal would be an understatement.
But not right there, not right then. No, she just wanted to relax a bit now. Grab something to eat. Maybe something to drink as well, and the café seemed like a good place for that. And so she waved the two children goodbye and went on her way.
Rhodes Island had more than one bar, to be more accurate, and that evening Ho'olheyak decided to go the smallest one. She had heard that it was rarely frequented on that particular day of the week, which is why she had picked that instead of the other bars, and as it turned out there truly wasn't anyone. Not like the place could host many people either way, as there were only eight tables in total. Plus a jukebox playing some bearable music in the background, the song single-handedly making the whole place appear older. As she made her way inside, a blue-haired aegir boy leaning back against the counter turned around to face her, putting down what looked like an old game console. He was pretty cute, she thought. And the way he blinked upon seeing her... oh. Oh, now that was a kind of stare she hadn't felt in quite a while. She did like that. With that said, the aegir quickly adjusted his gaze to a more neutral -professional, perhaps?- one.
"Good evening"
"Is this place open?"
The sign on the door said so, but the complete lack of people suggested otherwise.
"We are. Do you want to see the menu?"
"That would be lovely, yes"
Not long after, Ho'olheyak was sitting at a table and wondering what exactly was wrong with the sashimi she had ordered. Aside from the fact that a bar serving sashimi seemed odd in itself, that is. Now, the food looked fresh, the smell was good and even the presentation of the dish as a whole wasn't bad, the sauces even went well with every bite, but... the more she looked at it, the more she got the feeling that the food was somehow still alive. A rather nonsensical impression for sure, it didn't take a prodigy to tell that the slices of fish in front of her were dead meat. Still, the impression remained.
"Is something wrong?" the boy asked as he placed a glass of gin on her table.
"There probably is, but asking you would be no fun. You did prepare this, right?"
"I run this bar one evening every week, yes. It's small and not many people come by, so I can manage on my own"
Cute indeed she mused, taking another look at his pretty face.
His expression was quite nice too, a special kind of faint apathy leaning towards lukewarm happiness plastered on his face. A rather rare sight. His name was... Mizuki, yes. Another odd individual, if what little of his files she had read was true.
The door then opened again and, after having heard a few pleasantries exchanged behind her, Ho'olheyak found a forte woman standing on the other side of her table.
"Lady Ho'olheyak, I believe?"
With a slice of sashimi held between her chopsticks, she looked up to meet the woman's gaze. There was... sincerity, be it true or exceptionally well crafted, and a not at all veiled interest. Quite the stare, that one.
"It would seem you have found your mark, yes. Pallas, I believe"
"Priestess Pallas, from the Hall of the Twelve Heroes of Athenius, yes" she replied, offering her hand for a shake "May I have the honour of sitting at your table for a while?"
Ho'olheyak had... not a whole lot of respect for the clergy, in truth. Not that she spited them either, if anything what she felt was closer in nature to a kind of pity, generally speaking. With that said, what she knew of the Twelve Heroes' following painted it as a rather amusing thing, a set of beliefs outlandish in presentation and rituals while somehow down to earth and realistic at its core. As for Pallas herself, Ho'olheyak didn't really know much of her at all. She knew who she was, but that was it. Still, she could spot a few bottles poking out from the bag hanging from the forte's shoulder, and Minos was renowed for its love of good spirits.
"Company is not a condiment I'm particularly fond of. But sit down, yes"
"I shall try my best to prove worthy of your hospitality then, lady Ho'olheyak"
"... Ho'olheyak is enough"
"As you wish, then. Oh, Mizuki. May I have the usual?"
"Sure"
"Why were you looking for me?" Ho'olheyak asked as she finally bit the sashimi.
Yeah, that food was weird. The taste was good, the texture was too, even the sauce put onto it was of nice quality, but she just couldn't shake off the feeling of having just bitten down on something still alive.
... she did quite like that, honestly.
"Before answering your question, allow me to explain one small detail. I was not, in truth, searching for you this evening. I merely happen to frequent this establishment from time to time, and it was but a coincidence meeting you here at this time of this particular day. Nonetheless I had meant to talk with you for a while, ever since I saw you walking down an hallway on this landship three and a half weeks ago. Your appearance is one which easily stands out, much like a dandelion in a field of daisies, and I do mean that in a most positive manner. However, I failed to find you again after that morning, and your room was empty whenever I tried to contact you there. I believe my surprise and joy upon having seen you here this evening are then easy to understand. Doubly so, as none of the people I usually visit this place in the company of could attend today, each due to their own reasons"
"Like a meeting written in tiny letters on the sky" Ho'olheyak joked, silently musing if all priests of the Twelve Heroes were that talkative.
"A most poetic way to picture it, that one" Pallas replied, taking a brief pause to thank Mizuki as he put down a bowl full of rice and sea food in front of her, together with an empty glass.
Even that simple thank somehow lasted an entire minute though. Ho'olheyak kept herself from eating at her usual pace, as she had a feeling she would need the food to distract herself. But she did take another sip of her gin.
"Do you always bring your own drinks when going out?" she asked, amused at the fact that Pallas had actually taken a bottle of wine from her bag and was now in the middle of uncorking it "Are you this mistrustful of Rhodes Island's stock of spirits?"
Now, that was delaying the answer to her original question, but she wasn't actually too interested in why a priestess might be looking for her. Especially because she couldn't quite rule out the chance that she wanted to convert her or something like that.
"Not at all, no. But now that you do bring the matter up I am reminded that my current behaviour does indeed suggest a most uncount lack of respect, and thus it is my duty to correct this most reasonable and yet mistaken impression, lest I taint the reputation of the good people in charge of stocking up the pantries"
Verbose indeed, but... not entirely unpleasant to hear, no.
"The truth is, you see, that I have been forbidden from purchasing alcohol at the bars, the canteen, the café and the restaurant. Merely from purchasing, however, and not from consuming, as my current behaviour is clearly indicative of"
Ho'olheyak's head wings quivered a little bit. She stared at Pallas with a soft smile, then ate a slice of sashimi, chewing it slowly, letting the taste spread around in her mouth before swallowing. After that she grabbed her glass, took a sip of gin, savoring it with calm, and then put the glass back down.
"What"
"Quite the embarassing situation this one, if I might say so myself. As I have been told, the direction was worried that I would cause a disbalance in the reserves of the landship. And, seeing that I have other, personal means to acquire spirits, it was deemed a simpler solution to demand of me to bring my own drinks with me"
That. Now that was ridiculous. But... it was a fact that Pallas was actually uncorking a second bottle, the first one having been emptied already. Actually, about that bottle...
Without really asking for permission, Ho'olheyak reached for it, turning it around to read the label.
"I thought this winery had been destroyed back during the sargonian occupation of Minos" she commented, as the date written on it clearly indicated a bottle produced long, long after the liberation. Actually, assuming that the label was correct that bottle was just four years old.
"It had, indeed. It was only in the past two decades, in fact, that a young brave one decided to restore the name and bring the winery back to life. My own circumstances have kept me from personally visiting the area, but I am acquainted with some who occasionally travel there, and I am most thankful to them for having gracefully provided me with a few samples of the new product. Are you perchance an appreciator of wines, Ho'olheyak? Even at the peak of its fame, this winery's name never truly made it outside the border of Minos. Oh, I know. Mizuki, may I have a clean glass?"
"Sure" the aegir replied, once again putting down his console to attend to their table, however briefly.
"I'm an historian" Ho'olheyak then replied "But I do have a soft spot for alcohol, I suppose. What you have there is a leithanien spirit, however" she pointed out, her eyes moving to the second bottle.
"It is, indeed. Wine is a most blissful nectar, which comes in a great variety of flavors and textures, and the expertise of my homeland in the ways of its production is one of the many qualities which fill me with both pride and gratitude for hauling from such a country. This does not, however, mean that I look down on other kinds of spirits, much less on produces from other lands. May I offer you some?" she added, lifting the bottle -half-empty already- and tilting it slightly towards her second, empty glass.
... sure. She was there to unwind a bit, after all.
"I wouldn't turn down a drink with a good name to it, no" she answered, pushing her glass forward a bit.
A brief silence followed, during which the two women savored either their drinks or their meal without really uttering a word.
"I must say" Ho'olheyak then decided to speak "Sargon's attempt at eradicating the minoan culture were rather superficial and lenient, but I do believe the world would be a fair bit worse had it not been so"
Pallas' ears twitched.
"Allow me to say, Ho'olheyak, that I have never heard the sargonian occupation described with such words before. In fact, I would like to hear you elaborate further on this belief of yours"
Oh, she had annoyed her a bit. Funny.
"Oh, it's very simple. In relative terms, the military might of Sargon back then was much greater than that of today. That, however, inevitably led to an excessive amount of confidence. Sargon invaded Minos to make use of its lands and natural resources, but it didn't actually need a large portion of the local population to do so. A planned, organized culling of the minoan people would've required a considerable amount of resources, but the Sargon of the times could've afforded them. And while this would've most likely enflamed the spirit of the remaining minoans, a properly conducted operation would've left too few of them for any armed reaction to truly pose a threat. Naturally" she added, not quite hiding her smile behind her glass as she drank some more "I am merely talking as an historian. Actually, precisely because I am an historian I am glad that things played out the way they did. Very few cultures, if any, are deserving of complete destruction, and that of Minos is definitively not one of such few"
Pallas ate some more of her rice, not much of it left in her plate.
"History can teach us of the most beautiful times, tell us of the most fine of cultures, and immortalize people and places since long gone. It's important for the most ugly, the most tragic and unsavory of times to be recorded as well, however, for it is much too easy for forgotten tragedies to repeat themselves. You speak the truth, Ho'olheyak. The time Minos spent under the occupation of Sargon could have indeed been much harsher. However, the existance of more difficult circumstances in other parts of the world, be it in the present or the past, does not detract from the severity of any one hardship, be it individual or collective, brief or long lasting"
"I didn't mean to belittle a military occupation, don't worry. Much less one which attempted complete cultural erasure"
"I'm glad to hear that. In fact, while I do hope you weren't offended by my words, allow me to advise you to think with more care about the way you choose to express your beliefs. I fear some people might react more hastily to such words, and conflict born of miscommunication is not something the world has any need for"
"I wouldn't go so far as to say what the world does or doesn't need, but I would say that I personally wouldn't mind a taste of that one" Ho'olheyak replied, pointing with the tip of her tail to another bottle poking out from Pallas' bag "You have quite the collection here I see"
It had been quite the long while she had last had the chance to savor a diverse selection of spirits, after all. A diverse and quite fine collection at that, as while she wasn't familiar with all of those bottles, those she recognized were of unquestionable quality. Pallas, on her part, bent her head a little to the side.
"It'd be my pleasure to share" the priestess replied as she opened another bottle "You called yourself an historian. May I then ask... "
...
... ...
... ... ...
... what glass was that again? Ho'olheyak held her head a little, her head wings being ever so slightly misaligned, a weak pulse echoing every now and then in her skull. How much had they drunk by then? She looked to the side, to the more than generous amount of bottles stashed next to them. She couldn't have downed that much, however. Pallas had drank decidedly more than her, after all, and she didn't look that drunk. Not to say that she looked sober either, no. Besides, talking with someone who had not only a genuine interest in history but also a remarkable wealth of knowledge herself, especially in the matter of alcohol, was not something that happened just everyday. A small part of Ho'olheyak wondered if she hadn't accidentally gotten a bit too engrossed with the wines though.
"Do you need some water?" Mizuki asked as he placed another plate of canapés on their table.
He wasn't really concerned, not too much at least, after all he had already seen Pallas drunk a couple of times before. In fact, a quick glance at the priestess was enough to tell him that she wasn't actually really drunk, just a bit tipsy. Though most other people would've needed medical care after having drank that much alcohol in such a short time. In that sense, Mizuki was sort of awed by Pallas. Or by her liver, at the very least.
Then there was Ho'olheyak, to whom the aegir dedicated a slightly longer gaze. The woman returned it, her stare ever so slightly unfocused, her head bent a little to the side, her tail waving slightly every now and then. Mizuki found his eyes briefly fixed on her lips. Hers, on the other part, lingered for half a second on what little of his tentacles poked out from underneath his cloak.
"No need for that, pretty boy"
"An especially quiet evening, this one" Pallas commented as she took another sip of wine, the intensity of the scent permeating the air by then being almost enough to make Mizuki think he had actually drank a glass or two himself at some point "Not a single other soul beside us, it would seem. May I offer you a seat at our table then, to spend what time is left before closing hour in company?"
"Thanks for the offer, but I've been taught a good chef and host shouldn't sit down until the last client has left"
"Now have you"
"Ah, true dedication to the craft, I see. I hope my offer to have not caused any offense then, for to doubt your sense of duty and obligation was by no means my intention"
"Don't worry" Mizuki simply answered as he walked back to the counter, refraining from taking another look at Ho'olheyak before doing so, although he kind of felt her eyes on his own back for a moment or two.
He picked his console back up and resumed playing, not quite listening to the two women as they talked about history and wine and history of wines with frequent deviations into a wide and heterogeneous array of other matters. He had a feeling Ho'olheyak was occasionally trying to get Pallas riled up, but he wasn't paying enough attention to their conversation to be sure about it.
... instincts.
The word surfaced in his mind on its own. A perfectly ordinary thing, they were. All living animals had them, humans were no exception, and in fact Mizuki believed to have a more intimate knowledge of his own instincts than most. In good part due to the fact that his nature caused said instincts to be much stronger than normal within him. Not that he hated that fact, instincts were meant to help one stay alive after all, and to shun them would be akin to invite death over. With that said, Mizuki also knew that blindly following his instincts would more often than not lead him to troubles, as they weren't exactly meant to help navigate what was colloquially known as modern society. No, he often listened to them, but rather than obeying them he would treat them as suggestions. He might have the instinct to bite down into a good piece of raw steak, yes, but that would just mean he was hungry. No need to waste a fine ingredient by chewing it raw with no condiment, cooking it would fill his stomach all the same, with the added benefit of pleasing his tongue. And his mind too, yes. He quite liked cooking.
Yes, Mizuki was well accustomed to his own instincts. However, the one which had suddenly surfaced when that peculiar pythia -or liberi- had walked in was, admittedly, not one he had dealt with often. In fact, he could only recal having had the pleasure of listening to such impulses on three or four occasions before, and those times had been less intense too.
He wasn't entirely sure how to handle that, in truth. Well, the easiest thing to do would be to deal with it later by himself. That wouldn't really satisfy that sort of instinct, but the more physical urges pertaining to it would abate. With that said, the temptation to try and strike up a conversation with Ho'olheyak was quite strong indeed. Which was especially odd, considering that she didn't sound like someone Mizuki would particularly want to hang around with. Still, that might cause a bit of a mess later on. Assuming they would actually truly interact again after that evening, which wasn't exactly a given considering how large Rhodes Island was and how many people resided on the roving vessel.
"Ops" he casually said as he turned the wrong way in his game, getting his character stuck in a dead end of the labyrinth, an angry ghost eating it soon after.
His attention to the console in his hands lessened due to the loading screen not really requiring any, his ears caught a few more details about the conversation the two women were having. Seems like Pallas had pulled out a rather potent wine. Then he heard his name called, and soon after he was heading back into the kitchen to prepare a few more canapés. Pretty simple snacks, in principle, but they did allow for a lot of creativity precisely because of that. He hummed a tone he had heard once in an old video arcade as he prepared three, no, four, no actually three were enough, three different kind of canapés, four of each, arranged them on a plate and then got to quickly clean up everything. He liked the company of other people, but one of the perks of being alone in the kitchen was that he could use his tentacles without unsettling anyone, which greatly sped up things. They were a somewhat rare trait even for the aegir, after all, and it wasn't all that unusual for someone not familiar with them to be a little weirded out by the sight.
So he walked back to Pallas and Ho'olheyak's table, placing the order down between them and exchanging a couple of pleasantries. His eyes then wandered on the liberi -phytia?- again, this time for a little longer, that one particular instinct speaking in his mind again. Oh, she smiled at him. She had noticed them. He had been told staring at people was considered bad manner. Should he apologize?
"It's about time you close up the shop, right?" she asked, cheeks red from all the alcohol "Why don't you sit with us for a bit then? Drink up some, even"
Mizuki wasn't exactly fond of alcohol, but only because he didn't like the taste all that much. Not that he really disliked it either though, he did make use of it in his cooking from time to time after all.
"Thanks, but as I said- "
Ho'olheyak clicked her tongue behind her teeth. Her tail lashed, wrapping itself around Mizuki's waist and pulling him in. A moment later, the aegir found himself sitting on her lap, his back lying against her arm as her tail coiled around his chest a bit more, her head wings spreading a little.
"Don't be such a killjoy, sweetie"
A few seconds later, Mizuki would come to realize just how much of his attention had fallen on that woman's face. Because, while he had seen her tail coming and simply found himself not quite willing to resist it -whether he could've actually done so or not is an entirely different matter- he got caught completely by surprise by her shoving the neck of an open bottle past his lips, an exceptionally strong flavor filling his mouth as she made him drink gulp after gulp after gulp in but a few seconds at most.
Pallas had been sincere, that stuff was strong. Mizuki discovered right there and then that a single bottle was enough to make his head spin, and... the feeling itself was not terribly pleasant, to be totally honest. The warmth of Ho'olheyak as she held him, on the other hand...
... the voice of that one particular instinct grew a bit louder, but he still managed to not pay it too much attention. Ho'olheyak's smile, however, did have his focus. It was sharp. Doting and predatory at once. A different kind of instinct roused within Mizuki.
"Ho'olheyak" Pallas said from the other side of the table "That was a most uncout thing to do to our host"
She didn't comment about the fact that she had just downed the entire bottle down his throat though, since she did believe Mizuki deserved a generous taste of a good spirit. Really, it was just the way she had made him drink that which she had a problem with.
"... no, it's fine" he said, fanning his face a bit with one hand "It's fine" he repeated.
His metabolism was unlike that of any ordinary person, so... he was honestly surprised to be feeling dizzy and light-headed from just a single bottle, no matter how quickly he had been made to gulp it down. He wasn't familiar with that condition, which left him even more disoriented. In that sense, being held by someone else was a good way to keep his sense of balance fully in check.
He made a mental note to triple check any drink Pallas might offer him in the future. Or he tried to, at least.
"... oh. Oh dear me" the priestess said, Mizuki's own words having already settled the matter of his treatment it would seem "I must apologize, Ho'olheyak, for it would seem that the original purpose of this conversation had slipped from my mind completely"
She looked up to meet the priestess' gaze. Her face was somewhat flushed, and she had a feeling Pallas' head was wobbling a bit. A part of Ho'olheyak was telling her to put the glass down for good, her head was pulsating already after all. That voice didn't speak nonsense, but she shut it off nonetheless. Right, they had started talking about other things and Ho'olheyak's first question ended up remaining unanswered.
Mizuki reached for one of the canapés and brought it to his mouth. He tried to not leave any breadcrumbs on himself as he bit down, but his hand was shaking a little. Bit of a shame, that was.
"I had meant to ask if you would be willing to pose for a portrait, Ho'olheyak. Drawn by hand, with pencil, by me personally. An hobby of mine" she added upon seeing what she believed to be confusion appear on Ho'olheyak's face "An activity I partake in from time to time. I truly hope to not give you the impression of being vainglorious with these words, but I do believe this craft of mine to be quite appreciated by the residents of Rhodes Island"
"Oh, I remember posing for one of those" Mizuki commented.
Ho'olheyak's tail ran another circle around his chest. He couldn't tell much about the texture of her scales since his clothes were in the way, but the hold itself felt rather firm. Something in his brain went off, but the sound got muddled by the wine swirling around inside his mind, leaving nothing but a slightly unpleasant pulse to reach his conscious thoughts.
"By all means, feel free to take a look at some of my works before making your decision" Pallas continued, pulling a binder from her bag -quite the large bag, that one- and handing it to her.
Her curiosity piqued somewhat, she adjusted her grip on Mizuki a little bit before reaching for the binder. And, since he figured she'd have some trouble consulting it with one hand behind his back and the table in front of her taken up by empty bottles and a couple of plates, he decided to hold it open for her. She didn't comment, but the way her tail seemed to caress him sent a very specific kind of tingle through his body.
"... dear" Ho'olheyak commented as she turned the pages rather slowly, her head wings quivering "Oh, oh dear"
She had very little to say about the technical quality of those portraits, partially because she didn't really think herself much of an expert in that field and partially because she just wasn't interested in that to begin with. The strokes of pencil were pleasant to the eye, that much she could concede, yes. As for the subjects of the portraits, however... well, she truly hadn't expected to be handed a book full of portrayals of people in varying states of undress, and chained up to boot. Not to mention that some were even making use of a very adult-oriented kind of toys in those portraits. The intensity of the situations depicted was subject to great variation, with some being merely titillating and others which could more than reasonably be called pornographic in nature, although Ho'olheyak could spot a certain autenticity to it, a certain taste to the depiction. They were portraits of single individuals for the most part, the overwhelming majority tied to a bed, a chair or what have you, but a few were rather donning the chains as if they were a kind of fashion gear, not to mention a few rare group portraits as well. Whether that was art or not, she didn't really care, but... well, that sure was a book she could see herself using on a cold night before tucking herself to sleep, let's put it that way.
Then it hit her.
"You want to take a yet to be discussed amount of clothes off me, physically restrain me by means of chains, perhaps even apply a rotor of some kind to my persona and then draw a portrait of the end result?"
"In the most respectful of ways, I do wish to draw such a portrait of your persona, yes. Yours is a most peculiar kind of beauty, as I am sure you have been told on multiple occasions before, and it would be an honor and a joy for me to be allowed to commit it to paper. By all means, if you do accept I would be more than willing to let you keep the portrait if you so desire"
Well, now that was yet another thing Ho'olheyak hadn't expected to hear. That evening was turning out to be full of surprises. Still, while a tiny part of her found the offer quite amusing, a much more prominent portion of her mind was decidedly more interested in a certain someone else currently on her lap.
"She's a quick drawer" said someone commented.
"Is she, now? Say, I don't see your portrait in here"
"It's in a drawer in my room" he replied.
Ho'olheyak's tail slid further around Mizuki's chest, its tip then poking him lightly between his pants, feeling something a bit stiff underneath the fabric. She looked at him, the feathers of her head wings trembling ever so slightly as she shot him a knowing smile. His cheeks were a bit red, but they'd been so since she had shoved over a liter of wine down his throat to be fair. Still, that small touch had led Mizuki to move a little himself. He extended one of his tentacles to support Pallas' binder, freeing one hand to run it along Ho'olheyak's tail. He could feel tiny depressions between each scale, and yet his fingers glided along smoothly, the cool surface accompanying him. He followed the curves around his own chest a bit before simply jumping past them, going for the base of her rather thick tail instead. Much to his own surprise, he realized that the change in texture and solidity beneath his palm, from cool and sturdy to soft and lukewarm, had been caused by his grasp having gone all the way to her rear only when her smile grew sharper. The tip of her tail slid past his trousers, poking the waistband of his boxers and making that one instinct rear its voice again inside his mind.
"Is something wrong, perchance?" Pallas asked since, while she had figured out something was going on, all of that had happened underneath the table and out of her line of sight.
"Not really. I think"
"I would be quite interested in seeing your portrait, Mizuki" Ho'olheyak said, casually reaching for a canapé and bringing it to her mouth.
Her lips parted to let her tongue out. A tongue which slowly coiled around the canapé, running an entire circle around it, lifting it away from her fingers and pulling it back into her mouth, her lips closing again as she slowly chewed it. All the while, the tip of her tail had creeped around between Mizuki's trousers and his boxers. He felt his fingers sink a little bit deeper into her rear. Her feathers quivered ever so slightly.
"In fact, I believe I would like to take a long, accurate look at it"
Mizuki blinked. ... oh. Oh, he had heard about that. He had even experienced it once or twice before. That's what they called flirting, right? He didn't know it could be so pleasant though.
"... my room isn't aviable tonight" he remembered to say, possibly after half a minute.
Utage was throwing some kind of fashion party in her room. Kirara shared the same dorm as her but, since she was allergic to that sort of gatherings, she had asked Mizuki for political asylum in his quarter. Partially because, for as much of a retro gamer as he was, he did have a couple of modern consoles and a few games to run on them in his room. Besides, the two of them did occasionally game together. Now, going back there by himself wouldn't have been a problem, but... he had a hunch that returning to his quarter with Ho'olheyak while Kirara was still there would've been a terrible idea. He couldn't rationally tell why, but he decided to trust his instinct on that one.
"Now this is quite the predicament" she said, her smile growing sharper as she felt one of his tentacles carefully poke her leg "My room isn't exactly equipped for such things, unfortunately" she complained, without elaborating on what exactly she meant with that.
Now, Rhodes Island did have a few... recreational rooms which could be used for a somewhat wide array of purposes, with one of them being exactly what the two needed at the moment. But the pulsations and slight vertigo in their heads made them unable to think of that soon enough, giving the priestess ample time to suggest something else instead.
"My quarter is aviable, if you are in need of a bed" Pallas said, because by that point she had pretty much realized what exactly was happening in front of her.
"... now is it?"
Mizuki, on his part, just stared at Pallas in silence, blinking a couple of times. In fact, he felt like the time it took him to blink was all that was needed to get to the priestess' room. He opened his eyes again and found himself sitting on a bed not his, in a quarter he had never seen before. He knew they had gotten up, he knew he had brought the dishes and everything back into the kitchen, that he had cleaned up everything -if... a bit hastily, maybe- and locked the place, but he couldn't recall much about any of that. Oh, and there was Pallas, sitting on a chair a fair bit of distance away from him. She was looking on, with a particular kind of expression on her face. There was curiosity, a bit of expectancy maybe, but also some sort of... he didn't know. She looked excited, yes, but at the same time her excitement seemed entirely... almost intellectual in nature. If he had to put it as bluntly as possible, he would say that Pallas just didn't look horny at all. No, she looked more like someone who was about to watch a movie, or a theatre play.
Despite the ringing which had been echoing inside his head ever since having tasted that wine, however, it had only taken him a few moments to make those considerations. His gaze then settled on the other woman in the room with him, the one who had roused a certain kind of primal attention from him.
"Ever done this before?"
Mizuki was somewhat short, while Ho'olheyak was a fair bit taller than average. Combined with the fact that she was standing while he was sitting, she towered over him a little despite the fact that she was bending forward.
"A couple of times" he answered, realizing that his tentacles were sort of sprawled out behind him. Nobody seemed to mind though.
"I do like your frankness" she said back, her hands moving around behind her.
Her coat was lying... somewhere, much like his cloak, and Mizuki felt a few different sort of things stirr within himself at the sight of the top half of her dress coming undone and falling to the ground, leaving nothing but a pleasantly designed, dark green bra to cover her breasts.
"Now then" she said as she got on her knees in front of him, spreading his legs apart "Let me have a taste"
The words sent a spark or two flying through his mind, followed by a couple more as she effortlessly pulled his trousers down, having lifted him briefly with her tail just enough to make the cloth slide along without issues. Then she did the same with his boxers, and Mizuki realized that having a woman he had such an intense physical attraction to stare at his naked member was a lot more intense an experience than he'd have ever expected.
As for Ho'olheyak, biology wasn't quite her forte but she could still tell that what she was looking at wasn't quite typical for an aegir. The shape was definitively off. But... it looked sort of cute too, much like the rest of Mizuki. Even had a bit of a nice scent to it, though maybe that was just the alcohol playing a trick on her. Whichever the case, she wrapped her fingers around his base, stroking him firmly, a bit of fluid already beginning to pour from its tip as she leaned forward, staring as he grew a bit stiffer still before placing her lips on it. Oh, the taste was surprisingly sweet too.
Her head wings quivered a bit as she heard him vocalize softly, and she planted a soft kiss on his tip before pulling back a little, moving her hand up along his length and running her thumb over the tip, spreading the sticky fluid coming out of him around for a brief while before moving her palm back down, slowly repeating the process over and over, casting him a sharp smile and a penetrating gaze.
A warm, pleasant tingle running up his spine, Mizuki found the voice of that one instinctual call drowned by other kind of impulses. He wasn't ignorant of such desires, but the intensity they were coming at him with was indeed new. Though that might've been in part due to the dizziness from that one bottle.
"See something you like, my sweet little thing?" Ho'olheyak asked, and the way she pushed her own chest up a bit with one arm made him realize not only that he'd been staring at her breasts, but that she had also noticed too.
It probably didn't count as unpolite though, given the circumstances.
His fingers twitched a little bit.
"The way your feathers change color from black to blue-green across their length is really nice"
"Why thank you. I'm quite proud of them, you know"
Her hand stopped moving near the tip of his member, her palm caressing him while her fingers delicately worked on his tip, her eyes fixed on his face.
"Anything else?" she inquired, her tail running a circle or two around one of his ankles.
"Your lips look soft. And I like the length of your canines"
"My, my, quite the honest one, aren't you?"
"Is that a problem?" he asked back, tilting his head a little, the tender, expert touches on his member making his breath grow ever so slightly ragged, more out of anticipation than actual stimulation.
"Not on this particular occasion"
"... your breasts look firm"
Ho'olheyak laughed softly.
"And bold to boot. Now then, would you like a feel?"
Mizuki blinked. A warm spark ran through his tentacles.
"Can I?"
She didn't quite reply, nor did she move her hands away. But Mizuki felt her tail unwrapping from his leg and then he saw it move behind her back. He didn't know how exactly the hooks of her bra were made, but he still found her ability to undo them with just her tail quite impressive.
"You know" she said as she slowly slid the garment off herself, the stiffness of her nipples briefly catching his gaze before it could move back to her eyes, or maybe to her head wings "I feel like pampering you a little bit"
Admittedly, Mizuki hadn't expected her to grab her own breasts and take his member between them. They felt warm, embracing him firmly, and something about the way his length poked out from her chest stirred the more primal side of his mind.
Oh, maybe he understood that. It was a bit like eating the seasoned skin off a nicely roasted fowlbeast before digging into the tasty meat underneath. ... no, that analogy didn't quite seem right. But thinking about other things was quite hard at the moment, and he figured he could do it later. That one instinct from before was telling him something, but he figured he could ignore that too and just focus on the feeling. For the time being, at least.
Ho'olheyak, on her part, greatly appreciated the almost transfixed look Mizuki had on his face, the way his gaze moved back and forth between her breasts and her eyes. Oh, so lovely, that aegir. She squeezed her chest, giving him a show of the way her fingers dug softly into her breasts as she enveloped his member, slowly dragging her chest up along his length until even his tip disappeared between her generous bosom. Then she squeezed some more, grinding her breasts around him, letting out a soft laugh in response to his stifled moan, smearing his pre-ejaculate around, occasionally easing the pressure of her chest to let it slip down between them. Then she leaned forward a bit, her long tongue extending from her mouth and coming to rest right above his tip, guiding a generous amount of saliva down onto his member. She dragged her breasts back down, the mix of pre-ejaculate and saliva making the process charmingly smooth, tender pleasure slowly making its way up Mizuki's body.
"Should I do something too?" he asked.
Ho'olheyak looked up, seeing his tentacles moving upwards a little as if to signal that they were there and functional. Her lips curled up into a smile, one which seemed a little too wide perhaps.
"Oh, I'll absolutely have you do something for me too" she replied, squeezing a little bit more of his voice from his lungs by massaging his member again with her chest, his tip coming in and out of view as she moved "But for now, just be a good boy and let me savor you a bit"
"... sure"
She briefly flapped her head wings, exactly once, a sight unusual and pleasant enough to easily drag his eyes away from her breasts. At least until he felt her tongue on his tip. Pushing her chest against him with more strength, she dragged his foreskin back up.
Something inside Mizuki's mind clicked, or perhaps snapped, upon seeing the tip of Ho'olheyak's tongue split in two. She blew on him a bit, the brief gust of cold air enchancing the warmth of her embrace before her forked tongue came to rest against him, briefly running over his member to gather up their mixed fluids before sliding underneath the foreskin covering his glans. Their eyes met, her sharp, delighted smile triggering three or four different, conflicting emotions in the deeper part of his mind and a single, much simpler one in his more conscious thoughts.
Then she moved her breasts up again, her tongue extending as needed to remain around his tip even as her chest hid it from sight, the increasing amount of colorless, viscoud fluids coating her being a spectacle he had never expected could be so... thrilling. Her motions sped up, warm shivers running through his body with more intensity as she kept massaging him, her tongue running around his glans and then coiling around his length as his foreskin got pulled back down.
"Would you mind if I touched you?"
"Oh?"
She pulled back her tongue, sending a sudden shiver up his spine before spreading her head wings for a second or two, flapping them a couple of times.
"I wonder" she mused out loud "Is your touch as endearing as your looks?"
"... I don't know" he replied, his breath a bit heavy "So... let's find out, maybe?"
Somehow, her smile grew even wider, even sharper, if only for a moment. Her wings closed.
"Let's just do that"
Mizuki found himself waiting the few seconds Ho'olheyak needed to coil her tongue around his member again, the feeling of both that and her breasts enveloping him sending tender pleasure straight into his body and mind as the knowledge of being staining her skin with his fluids tried to trigger a more primal side of his brain. His instincts were compelling him to do something, but he was accustomed to reining them in. Well, not those instincts in particular, but the difference was...
... it was quite stark, actually.
To take his mind off them, he briefly wondered if he should've used his hands or his tentacles, settling for the former and grabbing her head, taking care to avoid her wings, feeling her skin under his palms, her hair between his fingers as she kept stroking him with her chest and tongue.
She looked up, and something about her gaze, about the upward curve of her lips, even about the sudden, brief tightening of her tongue around him made him feel like she was... inviting him to be a little rougher. No, rather than an invite, that seemed more like a challenge somehow. The most primal side of him felt thrilled by the prospect, but Mizuki himself wasn't all that much, so he simply kept stroking her head instead, almost in rhythm with his own breaths, which were growing heavier and heavier.
Ho'olheyak bent her head to the side a little, an equally amused and analytical look on her face as she pulled her breasts up, once again enveloping his tip completely, warmth and fluids surrounding him. He felt her tongue slide further down, its forked end reaching his base and then coiling softly around his testicles, almost massaging them as she resumed stroking his member with her chest, her feathers ruffling a little as he kept running his fingers through her hair.
She felt him being to throb faintly, and decided to slow down her motions. The slight twitch in his fingers almost made her chuckle, doubly so as Mizuki nearly bucked his hips a bit in response to her increasing lack of motions, her hands no longer rubbing her chest along his member but rather simply keeping it buried between her breasts, her tongue running circles around him while avoiding the actually sensitive bits.
"... Ho'olheyak" Mizuki then said, face red and tentacles softly moving "Can you speed up a little? Please?"
That sounded almost like an amicable request from a fried, given his tone of voice, and the relatively neutral curl of his lips suggested a remarkable amount of self control. But she could see longing and need in his eyes, she could feel it in the way his fingers ran over her head.
Oh, she did like that.
"I'd like to savor you a little longer" she said after having pulled her tongue back, a little jolt coursing through her tail upon seeing the look on his face "But then you wouldn't get the chance to return my courtesy, isn't that correct?"
"It does sound right, I think" he concurred.
"Of course"
And so she bared his tip again, dragging her breasts down and sending shivers up his spine as she opened her mouth, showing off her unusually long, sharp canines. She opened her mouth wide. Perhaps a little too wide, a part of Mizuki wondered. That didn't seem entirely normal, he mused, though it's not like such kind of oddities bothered him. He found himself drawing in a quick, sharp breath as she felt her blow a little on his member, a weirdly intense gust causing a brief chill to course through him. He drew another breath when her tongue closed around his glans again, and then one more as the warmth of her mouth enveloped him, her lips closing around him, his pulse nearly skipping a beath at the sight of his own member engulfed between her breasts at the base, swallowed by her mouth at the top, the feeling of her tongue coiling slowly around his glans sending shivers of anticipation through his body and mind.
Then he felt her suck, and Mizuki nearly shrieked at the sudden burst of pleasure which shot through him. His tentacles crawled almost on their own along the sheets and then down, reaching for Ho'olheyak's legs and waist and hips and closing around them as his gentle grasp on her head turned into a firm hold. She laughed softly at his reactions, moving her head up and down as she kneaded her chest around him, licking and sucking his member in ways which quickly drained the air from his lungs, all the anticipation from the previous teasing rapidly turning into sheer pleasure, strong enough to shake his body as she savored his oddly sweet taste, his pleasant aroma and his oh-so-lovely reactions, the pulses in her head from the alcohol doing little in the way of hampering her amusement.
She felt him begin to throb again and let go of her own chest, grabbing his hips instead and suddenly lunging forward, burying his entire length into her mouth, playing around with his member within her throat, pleasure of a kind and intensity the likes of which Mizuki had never felt before overwhelming him.
"H-ho'olheyak, I think I'm- " he tried to warn her, only for the woman to suddenly stimulate him with even more intensity, very little abandon in her touches, methodicity and precision in its stead.
Mizuki released his seed inside her warm, welcoming mouth, feeling her tongue coil tightly around him to squeeze every last drop out of him as she drank his sticky, peculiarly fragrant seed, relishing in the way he was holding on to her as he came, until she could no longer suck anything out from him and slowly pulled her head back, a soft 'pop' to mark his release from her devouring lips and constricting tongue.
"Your taste" she commented, running her index over her lips as she spoke "Is decidedly not normal, you know?"
"It isn't? I... I honestly don't have anything to compare it with. I guess it makes sense though"
The sight of a few strands of his seed still stuck to the inside of her mouth made something click inside his brain, his member twitching another couple of times as it let out another spurt. Ho'olheyak blinked, not having expected to actually get any on her face. Some of it even ended up on her breasts.
"Well, uh... sorry about that" Mizuki apologized, scratching the back of his head as his hands and tentacles let go of her.
"I suppose I can appreciate a little bit of enthusiasm, under these circumstances"
By all means, Ho'olheyak didn't like getting herself or her clothes dirty. She loathed it, even. But to most things there were exceptions, and that was one of them. Not that she had a particular appreciation for having men release their seed on her, far from it. But, well...
... well, she was feeling rather excited. Among all the memories passed down in her bloodline were also the memories of the moment when the next heirs of said bloodline were conceived, after all, not to mention that a few of her predecessors had been rather... frisky, shall we say. Having those memories easily accessible did indeed come in handy at times, Ho'olheyak had taken some kind of twisted pleasure in already being experienced when she had had her first time for example, but sometimes she would just stumble into them while looking into her mnemonic heritage for other kind of memories, a fact which could be either mildly amusing or greatly annoying depending on the situation.
So, she figured she might as well add another entry to that particular genre of recollections and let herself go a little bit in the meanwhile. Besides, she really felt like savoring that cute aegir in front of her some more. It'd been years since she last allowed herself some distraction of that kind, after all.
"Now then"
She got back on her feet, taking off her shoes in a way Mizuki found sort of elegant before moving her hands behind her back to unhook or unbutton her high-cut skirt, letting it fall to the ground, the aegir not quite trying to hide the way his eyes trailed from her feet up along her thighhighs-clad legs, following the line of the garter straps all the way to her garter belt, the two forming a most pleasant frame for her underwear.
Her tail moved a bit behind her. She didn't like the attention itself all that much, but rather she enjoyed being able to garner it.
"Lie down for me, would you?"
Mizuki blinked, and apparently that took him long enough for Ho'olheyak to decide he didn't know how to answer and push him down herself, getting on top of him. Then she moved further up, and soon after Mizuki found himself staring up right between her legs, the woman nearly sitting on his face.
"Do you know what to do, pretty boy?" she cooed, ruffling his hair with one hand "Or shall I spell it out for you?" she asked, her tail coiling around his body a little, sliding his shirt up a bit as it did so, even intertwining with some of his tentacles a little, her head wings quivering a bit in response.
He had never done that before, admittedly. Well, he had done something similar once before, but not in that particular position. He wasn't too thrilled by that detail, in truth, as it was quite hard to see Ho'olheyak's face like that. But at the same time, seeing her naked breasts from below like that was stirring up his more carnal impulses. Not to mention that having her nethers so close to his face had not only brought back that primal instinct from before, it was also making it louder.
"I think I have a good grasp on it" he replied, grabbing her hips before realizing that holding her butt instead would've probably been fine and deciding to do just that.
"I sure hope you don't think of that as a clever line"
It only then hit him.
"Now that you mention it, that was pretty bad. I hadn't realized it"
"You're so earnest I might just believe you"
Taking a moment to enjoy the feeling of her firm rear underneath his palms, of the lace against his fingers, of the scales of her tail around his body and tentacles, Mizuki pulled her down a bit, Ho'olheyak allowing him to lower her down enough to feel his breath on her. She adjusted her position a bit, grabbing hold of his head and hair with one hand as he breathed in her scent, an alluring, feminine fragrance which stoked his desires and needs alike.
Generally speaking, Mizuki considered himself a somewhat patient person. He didn't like to rush anything, and he took his sweet time to do whatever thing he had to do whenever it was possible, without stepping the line into procrastination. But the specific situation he was in made him quite eager to get started, not to mention that he didn't actually know much about foreplay and the likes. Utage had lent him a magazine once, but Franka had also told him to not take anything shown within said magazine seriously. So he just pulled her a bit closer still, enough for his face to come into contact with her wet panties, his mouth closing on the damp cloth over her entrance.
"Oh"
Somewhat more of a simple exclamation than a moan, Ho'olheyak's feathers quivered ever so slightly as she felt Mizuki run his tongue over her, the warm, tingling need within her getting the first real scratch of the evening. Or night, by then.
"By the way" the aegir said as he suddenly pulled himself down a little, just enough to be able to speak "Can you tell me if I'm doing something wrong?"
She leaned forward enough to meet his gaze, her expression sending a weird shiver down his spine, one he honestly couldn't tell whether he liked or not.
"In this case, how about not savoring me through a layer of cloth?"
Mizuki blinked. That... yeah, that made perfect sense.
As for Ho'olheyak, she also liked to take her sweet time and savor any kind of pleasure she decided to indulge herself in. But it'd been a tad too long since she had last had some action with someone -some action of that kind, at least-, and in her mind what she had just told him was rather analogous to having him dive straigth for the main course. She could enjoy that perfectly well too, after all, it's not like she was just binge-drinking a bunch of- hold on.
... hold on.
She turned around, her neck twisting a little bit more than most people would be comfortable seeing as she casted her gaze at Pallas, whose exsistence she had only then remembered about. The priestess was still sitting there just a short distance from them, a few bottles next to her, a wooden tablet on her crossed legs, a few sheets of paper resting on it, a sharpener and four different pencils in one hand, a single one in the other. The priestess returned her gaze, cheeks flushed from all the alcohol coursing through her veins, her expression paradoxically sober.
"Oh, my apologies" she said almost casually "This is not quite the kind of scene I usually depict, but the sight of your passionate exchange truly inspired my pencil to draw. By all means, if you would rather not for these moments to be committed to papers, do tell me. I shall stop immediatly and dispose of what I have produced, if that is what you wish me to do" she explained herself before taking another generous -perhaps overly so- gulp from a bottle.
"This is fine by me" Mizuki commented.
He had pulled Ho'olheyak's panties to the side to get started -pulling them down wouldn't have helped given their current position, and tearing them simply felt rude-, but Pallas' voice had prompted him to join that brief conversation. Much to the annoyance of his physical desires, admittedly.
"... whatever" Ho'olheyak herself said, nearly clicking her tongue behind her lips.
She wasn't exactly thrilled to be depicted having sex, no. But her top priority at the moment was enjoying that oh so cute aegir beneath her, dealing with that drawing woud come later. So she readjusted herself a bit and simply pulled Mizuki against herself. He took the hint, if that could be called such, and began licking her wet privates, lapping up her juices, poking her with his nose, sticking his tongue inside her and running it over her warm insides, occasionally being directed as to better please her, which in turn did quite please him as well.
While not quite a complete amateur, he did really lack experience, Ho'olheyak found herself thinking, but she truly appreciated his eagerness to follow her orders, his touch growing more accurate as she instructed him, heat building up in her lower half, the way his hands would occasionally go from grasping her firm butt to fondling it almost making her chuckle. Still, she wasn't really one to remain passive in any kind of situation, which is why she had picked that specific position to have him eat her out.
So she bent her legs a bit further, fully smothering Mizuki's lovely face and beginning to move her hips herself, grinding her dripping snatch against him. The way he suddenly trembled in response pleased her greatly, so much so she nearly moaned from that alone, an actual whimper leaving her lips as she kept riding him, heat and pleasure building up as she rubbed herself on him just the way she liked, enjoying the way his grasp on her butt had grown decidedly more firm as well.
As for Mizuki, he had come to the sudden realization that, for as pleasant as his current position underneath Ho'olheyak was to his senses, for as comfortable as her thighs felt on the sides of his face, for as sweet as the fluids dripping right into him mouth were, that specific environment wasn't exactly suited to sustaining life in the long, medium or even short term.
Or, in other words, Mizuki wasn't used to holding his breath at all due to being able to breathe underwater, and his air supply being cut off so suddenly had kicked an entirely different kind of instinct to life. He still tried to aid Ho'olheyak's attempts at self-pleasure with his tongue, the way she petted his head in turn and cooed him into keeping that up with an almost sultry voice between one purposefully half-contained moan and the other doing things to his brain he had never quite thought possible, but at some point he just had to get her off his face to breathe, the way his tentacles twitched and trembled in the few parts intertwined with her tail telling her as much.
But she oh so loved his growing agitation, her tail coiling around his chest a little bit tighter to reward him as he tried to signal her to lift her hips by spaking her, if only because he really wasn't sure how to get the idea across with his mouth full and his words sealed.
But for as cute as his distress was, she couldn't just choke him to death just like that, now could she? And so she stopped her hips and lifted them up a bit, allowing Mizuki to take a deep, loud breath. Had she waited a few more seconds, Pallas would've actually interrupted them to ask if the aegir was still doing fine, but since that no longer seemed necessary the priestess remained on her seat, pencil running.
"Was that too intense, pretty boy?" Ho'olheyak asked as she leaned forward to make eye contact, poking his hard member with the tip of her tail.
"Aaahhh, quite, yes. I'm really not used to this. Could you let me breathe a bit next time?"
She smiled, a smile wide and sharp, his gaze focusing on her canines.
"My, my, you do know that I'm not done yet, don't you?"
He blinked. His tentacles moved a little.
"Now, be a good dear and help me out a little, would you?"
"Oh, sure. I'd love to" he replied sounding almost calm, the clear hints of excitement she could perceive in his tone making her ruffle her feathers a little bit.
And so she lowered herself on him again, beginning to grind her slit against his face once more. What happened then, however, admittedly blindsided her. A fact which did sour the experience a bit since, for as pleasant as the surprise turned out to be, Ho'olheyak wasn't fond of being surprised like that in the first place.
Mizuki's tongue had split up. Into several tendrils, eight she would say, two moving up to coil around her stiff, sensitive clit, two more sliding over her labia and skin and the remaining four slipping inside her, following the instructions she had given him earlier about how to better satisfy her.
A pleased, ever so slightly annoyed moan escaped her, her fingers closing more intensely on his head as he tried his best to please her, his face buried between her legs as she kept grinding on him, the unusual stimulation he was now providing her with doing wonders for the growing heat within her, pleasure building up further and further, her hips slowing down a bit at some point to avoid ending it too soon, her thighs still firmly closed on Mizuki to keep his face exactly where she wanted it, sweat and sexual fluids pouring right into his mouth. Her irregular, fairly controlled moans eventually stopped, her grip on him tightening as the pleasure in her lower regions tipped over and washed over the rest of her body, her head wings spreading a little as her hips slowly stopped moving, Ho'olheyak still riding his face a bit to prolong that sweet, sweet high, the way she could feel him growing frantic again underneath her only adding to the pleasure.
"Lovely little performance, yours" she said softly as she got up and leaned back, uncoiling her tail from his body and sliding it away from his tentacles, sitting back on his chest while bothering to not actually rest too much of her weight on him to let him breathe "Peculiarly unusual too. Your physiology is not entirely natural, I take it?"
"That's... the second time... I'm told that... " he replied, decidedly more out of breath than her, though he seemed to be recovering quite quickly.
"So then" she said, the tip of her tail coiling around his member and stroking it a little, the way it twitched in response making her let out a soft yet sharp laugh "Ready for the main event?"
Later, Mizuki would realize that what had truly made him act the way he did had been the combination of the alcohol still running within his body and altering his thought process -the fact that Pallas' wine hadn't been processed by his organs yet was a wonder all of its own- and the way Ho'olheyak could somehow just rouse a particular one of his primal instincts and make it act up so strongly. In the there and then, however, he just rationalized it by thinking that, since the last person he had had sex with had liked it that way, it wouldn't be such an hazardous guess to think Ho'olheyak might be into that too.
His tentacles sprang to life suddenly, managing to catch her by surprise in good part due to how subdued Mizuki had been up until then and coiling around her arms and legs, binding the former behind her back and the latters apart and up as they switched position, Ho'olheyak finding herself lying on the bed while Mizuki ended up right in front of her, hands on her alluring thighs.
"Oh?" she spoke, either really annoyed or really amused, Mizuki finding his own inability to tell the difference equally surprising, annoying and mortifying "I don't remember telling you to take the reins"
His tentacles felt surprisingly nice against her skin though. She hadn't meant to say that part out loud, but his gaze told her she had actually ended up doing just that. Ugh, freaking wine, all those glasses were still making her head pulse. Not that Mizuki was all that better off himself in that regard, though.
"Sorry, this was just a... " he tried to explain himself, only to realize that the only reason he could think of at the moment was probably better left unsaid "... "
"So?"
The sight of Ho'olheyak in his grasp like that, nearly completely naked with legs spread open, her chest and -to a much smaller degree- her face still covered by his fluids, the way her expression conveyed a mix of expectation, curiosity and perhaps a bit of indignation, the way the alcohol still made his head ring a fair bit, the reprimands from his instinct for having wasted his own seed earlier, it all added together. And so, for possibly the first time in his life, Mizuki found himself fully giving into one of his instincts, like a fish that answers the call of the sea at last.
He had to reproduce.
He had to breed her.
Ho'olheyak's head wings shook a little at the sight of his member, which had apparently changed shape a fair bit compared to earlier. She barely had the time to take notice of that, however, as Mizuki pushed himself inside of her completely with a single motion, forcing some air out of her lungs in the form of an still controlled moan, a few little, slightly hard protusions along his length scratching her insides in a most pleasant way, almost as if his body itself had taken her earlier instructions to heart.
"Ah, youth is quite the predicament, isn't it?" she joked, warm shivers running up her spine, through her tail and across her feathers with every frantic trust of his hips, the unmistakable sound of flesh against flesh echoing between the four walls surrounding them, with Mizuki's own panting and moans to cover it.
Under most other circumstances, Ho'olheyak would've taken... drastic measures upon being handled like that, but between her own sheer needs and Mizuki's mix of endearing cuteness and thrilling excitement, she decided to indulge him a bit instead and savor his vigor, lifting her hips up a bit so that his member would truly hit her where she liked it best, each thrust threatening to force a new moan out of her, the tentacles coiled around her arms and legs tightening their grasp in a way which she did admittedly find remarkably stimulating.
She felt him throb a fair bit earlier than she'd have hoped for, however. Well, she couldn't quite bring herself to chastise him for not lasting that long with her though. So she just adjusted her hips a bit more to get the most out of his thrusts, savoring his every motion and, even more, the way he had apparently quite lost himself in her, until he stopped moving, holding on to her with more strength as his members pulsated between her warm, embracing walls, releasing hot seed within her, a nice little feeling which she savored like one would with a most interesting footnote, an amount higher than she had expected filling her.
"My, my" she said once his high had passed, his heavy breaths filling her ears "Done already, pretty boy?"
Perhaps it was the almost mocking taunt in her voice, although that was quite unlikely considering Mizuki's personality. Perhaps it was the call to ensure fertilization was successful, possible given how unusually strong his primal instinct was that evening. Or perhaps it was just the realization that he had actually rushed through the act without really enjoying that body which was apparently the perfect sum of all the preferences he had never even known to have before seeing her. That, and he wasn't sure if she was satisfied too.
"Well" he replied, scratching the back of his head a bit "... can I continue for a bit?"
Oh, wasn't he just the prettiest little thing, she thought.
"I'd be quite offended if you didn't. I haven't really had my turn yet, you know?"
"Oh. My bad then"
He took a moment or two -or a few more, even- to catch his breath, adjusted his position a little and then resumed moving, his seed making the back and forth motion a little smoother. Ho'olheyak immediatly noticed the difference in pace, the quick and almost relentless thrusts from before replaced by slower, more delicate ones. Surely because Mizuki didn't want to overwhelm himself. She smirked a little, and by the looks of it he wasn't entirely sure why she had just done that. Still, she pushed her shoulders down a bit to better lift her hips, further adjusting the angle of penetration to make sure she could enjoy that peculiarly shaped thing scratching her insides, tingling pleasure building up deep within her and slowly spreading out through her being, her head wings occasionally shivering a little bit.
And then he leaned forward, his hands kind of fumbling their way from her thighs to her breasts, his eyes meeting hers in a way which seemed to be silently asking for permission. So, rather than answering verbally, she gave an equally silent answer by locking her legs behind Mizuki and pulling him closer, taking care to do so at the right moment to push his member as deep within herself as possible, the sudden shiver forcing the aegir's voice out of his throat.
He spent a moment to readjust himself, his mind partially focused on the ample, alluring breasts underneath his palms, and he started to fondle them, an endearing mixture of earnesty and lack of experience to his touch. Ho'olheyak simply let him be, almost more delighted by his innocent behaviour than by his member moving back and forth within her, though she did take care to instruct him a little on how to treat her chest and nipples. Mizuki, on his part, was more than happy to comply, the flushness of the woman's cheeks luring his gaze while he melted into her, the beads of sweat rolling down her skin mixing with his own, his tentacles writhing softly around her, her hips moving in tandem with his own, her legs occasionally pulling him in, until he felt himself reaching the edge again.
Ho'olheyak let out a pleased but entirely controlled whimper, the aegir's motions stopping once more as he released his seed within her a second time, the viscous fluid quickly tipping over and pouring out from her entrance, having fully coated her insides in a thick layer of warmth. She allowed him a short while to catch his breath, feasting her eyes on his disheveled hair, on his sweaty skin, on his flushed cheeks, on the way his chest moved with every breath.
"Shall I take my turn now?" she then spoke.
Mizuki leaned back and looked at her, their eyes meeting. He blinked, which only made her all the more eager to feast on him a little more. He opened his mouth, but only to say nothing, not quite sure what would've been a good choice of words.
"I'll take that as a yes then"
"Well, I supp- woah?!"
Just as suddenly as Mizuki had switched placed with her earlier -if not even a little more abruptly- Ho'olheyak coiled her tail around his chest, catching his arms in the process and sliding up around his neck too, pushing him around on his back and getting on top of him herself. A feat she could've done easily even with her limbs still restrained like that, in truth, but she had used a little air manipulation as well just to make it all smoother. And Mizuki had felt that, a different kind of shiver on the back of his neck, though there's a good chance he mistook that as a simple reaction to having his neck constricted. Not enough to hamper his breathing, but still enough to kickstart a different kind of instinct inside his brain. One he could reign in remarkably easily though.
"Hold on tight, Mizuki" she said, her words and smile equal parts a promise and a threat "This won't take too long"
Whether his tentacles closed around her more firmly in response to her tail doing the same or the other way around, he couldn't quite tell. What he did know was that the only parts of her he could reasonably grab with her tails around his arms like that were her hips and her butt, which he really didn't mind feeling under his palms again.
His voice then escaped him as Ho'olheyak started bouncing her hips up and down along his still stiff member, and by the way her insides had started to coil around him, almost as if rubbing and massaging his entire length, he would've almost sworn she could control her inner walls just as well as she did her tail. Which was impressive, he thought. In several ways, and all of them positive he believed.
"This is... aahh... a bit much for me, I think" he managed to say between one laboured breath and the other, the pleasure shooting through his body with every motion of the woman straddling him having started to spill over into uncomfortable territory due to how much stimulation he had already received by then. And the tail closed around his neck only made the feeling stronger, a fact which sent his instincts into confusion and roused a couple of questions inside his mind.
Ho'olheyak, on her part, smiled a little more sharply still.
"I'm almost done myself" she said, her tone alluring enough to make him even more willing than he already was to bear with the overstimulation for at least a little bit "Be a good boy for me, will you?"
Just as he had opened his mouth to answer, Mizuki felt her insides twitching along his length again, any words he might've meant to say coming out as a more meaningless and yet decidedly more expressive vocalization instead.
Ho'olheyak kept moving, using him to scratch that itch deep within herself to great results, her own breaths growing heavier and heavier as the pleasure built up, her wings beginning to spread open as she felt her climax approach, her motions growing a little faster still until she finally reached her high. Rather than stop moving, however, she started gyrating her hips instead, changing up the stimulation and prolonging her own pleasure, her insides squeezing Mizuki and wringing him for all that he might've had left, her legs and tails closing further against him, to the point that for a second or two the aegir actually had his air supply cut off.
"You were lovely" she said as she eased her hold on him, albeith she only did so after Mizuki uncoiled his tentacles from her first.
"... say" he replied, a thought having clearly crossed his mind "Can we sleep like this? If you want. I'm a bit tired, honestly"
"Well, well, well"
She leaned down, pressing her chest against him and loving all the little reactions she could spot in his body language.
"I don't usually do this" she answered, pressing her index against his cheek "But I suppose I could do an exception just for you, seeing how well you behaved yourself"
That, and she had enough inherited memories about such things that she was admittedly a little bit curious about experiencing it herself at least once. Her previous sexual encounters had all ended in... let's just say none of them had ended like that. Besides, a part of her just felt like taking up someone else's bed for the night.
"Thanks"
Pallas, on her part, remained quiet. She couldn't find it in herself to interrupt such a lovely moment of intimacy, or what she believed to be intimacy at the very least. So she waited in silence for a long while, only getting up once she believed the two to have fallen asleep. The priestess sorted her stuff without making a sound, put the pencils and the sharpener and everything else away and made herself comfortable on her chair, since that's where she would be spending her night it would seem. Not too comfortable a resting place, admittedly, but definitively a small price to pay for having witnessed such an endearing show of passion.
It'd been a while since then. Mizuki hadn't seen Ho'olheyak again at the bar, not when he was in charge of it at least, and he hadn't quite searched for her himself either, although he wasn't entirely sure why. The sketches Pallas had drawn that night -they hadn't quite remained still long enough for her to have the time do make anything more detailed than a few sketches of the two in different positions- had turned out quite well, but Ho'olheyak had insisted on taking all of them. Pallas had no objections to it, but Mizuki did occasionally find himself wondering if maybe he shouldn't have asked to keep at least one himself. In fact, the memories of her body underneath -or above- him still lingered quite vividly in his mind.
"Ohy, to the right, the right!"
"But isn't that a dead end? The berserker would run me over if I go there"
"Agh, you're rig- it's coming run!"
The friendly conversation with Kirara anchored his thoughts back to the present. They were sitting in his room, going through the campaign mode of the very first Gears of Conflict together. Shooters weren't quite his favorite genre, albeith he did enjoy third person more than first person for the camera, and that game was a bit too old for Kirara, but finding something that wasn't quite in either of their comfort zones to play together every now and then was a sort of hobby of theirs. She liked his deadpan attitude no matter what happened on the screen, and he liked how overly emotional she could get in response to anything that happened on the screen. The tips of her tentacles would occasionally touch his, yes, but that didn't seem all that weird considering the size of his couch. It probably just meant that Kirara wasn't as bothered by that kind of contact as most aegirs were.
They'd been playing for around three hours that day and, had a knock on his door not interrupted them, they'd have probably kept going for at least another one before taking a break.
"Hold on"
"Sure"
She put the game on pause and turned around on the couch, watching him walk to the door to answer.
Then every single hair on her body stoop up at the sight of who had just knocked.
"... oh. Hi. It's been a while" Mizuki casually greeted.
"This is quite the cold reaction you're giving me, pretty boy" Ho'olheyak said back, her wings moving a little and her tail slithering a bit on the floor as she caught all the familiar, little signs in Mizuki's body language. Not to mention his gaze.
"Wait wait wait, hold on, stop, pause!" Kirara jumped, literally off the couch and figuratively into the conversation as she walked up to them "Who's this?"
"Kirara, this is Ho'olheyak. Ho'olheyak, this is Kirara" he did the introductions like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Kirara stared at her, from head to toes back to the head. She was tall, beautiful, curvaceous in all the right places and exuded maturity and confidence from every pore. Not to mention the small smile she had plasted on her face, so sharp Kirara figured she could cut butter with it. Then she turned to Mizuki, and noticed a little something in his expression.
"What the- why is a raid boss just casually strolling into your room?!"
"A raid boss?" Mizuki asked back, familiar with the term but unable to grasp just why Kirara had referred to Ho'olheyak that way.
The k'uk'ulkan, on the other hand, figured out right away the reason behind that choice of word, and decided to let out a soft, knowing laugh just to amuse herself with the growing agitation of that other aegir.
"We met at the bar a couple of weeks ago, on the evening I run the place" he continued to explain.
"We met there, yes. But we moved to other venues later too" she said, placing a finger on her lips as she spoke.
Kirara's face had turned red by then.
"Wh-wha-what kind of "other venues" is she talking about?!"
"Well, that... "
Was it alright to be blunt about that, he wondered. For better or for worse, Ho'olheyak decided to take the decision away from him.
"I quite liked your cooking, Mizuki"
Some kind of relief appeared on Kirara's face
"So I was wondering if you could prepare these eggs for me" she continued, handing him a bag "Or for the two of us, seeing how much of a role you played in their... production"
The complete opposite of relief suddenly manifested on Kirara's face. Ho'olheyak wasn't one to talk about such things so casually in front of others, but that girl's reactions were doing wonders to keep boredom at bay.
"Wai-you-her-y-you and her have- you?!" she shouted, grabbing Mizuki by the collar and shaking him almost violently.
"Aahh, we did, yes" he answered, scratching his head a little "Is that a problem?"
"Mizuki, you... you... I-we-you... you freakin' suck at diplomacy in 4X games!" she shouted before darting off, quickly disappearing in the hallways of Rhodes Island.
"What a poor display of manners, to throw slanders and then run away"
"That's less of a slander and more of a fact, to be honest" he pointed out, puzzled by Kirara's reaction.
Ho'olheyak, on her part, couldn't get enough of it.
"I'll leave the game paused, she usually calms down quickly. These are ours?" he then asked, taking another look at the bag. There were three eggs inside, each smaller than his closed fist, their colours unlike any he had ever seen before of any kind of egg. He had heard that, unlike eggs laid by animals, those from races such as liberi and pythia would keep growing after the laying, and by the time of hatching they'd have reached the size to host a properly sized newborn within. That seemed odd, and he wasn't sure how the presence of a belly button could fit into that, but unless Ho'olheyak was pulling his leg with those eggs' origin then their size seemed to suggest that what he had heard was true.
... asking about that would've probably been rude though, he believed.
"... are these... fertilized?"
"Does it matter?"
Mizuki quickly went over all the recipes involving eggs he could remember.
"That depends on when these were laid"
"They're fresh, I can promise that much"
"Oh. Alright. Then no, it doesn't" he answered, wondering if he shouldn't maybe cut up the tip from one of his tentacles and use that too. It seemed fair, considering what she was giving him to use as an ingredient, and it would grow back rather quickly anyway.
Admittedly, dinner tasted a bit more odd than usual that day.