Home, Smelly Home. [M] [Glob!]

[Rhindeer]

Mei looked up from her book, blinking as though surprised to find him still there and talking to her, and then she flashed him a wide grin. She did so love to talk about her book!

"Oh, just drawing you!" she said, before she went back to sketching away.

[DaGlobster]

"Oh."

Daersen had never been sketched before, and he didn't really know what to say about that. She was a scholar, so he supposed he should be honored?

"You draw a lot?"

[Rhindeer]

"Oh! Tons!" Mei said with a beaming smile, bringing her knees up to rest the book on it--and angle it in a way so that Daersen couldn't see it.

"I draw all the interesting people and things I encounter! Things that stand out to me in some way. You know, to record and document my journey! But I've always loved art, and it really comes in handy in my work to have some talent in it. Do you draw at all? Or have any artistic talent? I'm afraid this is my only artistic skill. Ask me to sing or embroider and it's embarrassing."

[DaGlobster]

"Oh, I'm just a sewer bum. I wouldn't call myself interesting, but...Shit, I'll take the compliment," Daersen said, smiling as he rubbed the back of his head. He frowned a bit when Mei angled her sketch out of his sight, but Daersen interpreted it as her being a bit coy.

"I can play the fiddle...and I know how to ballroom dance. That's about it, though...Oh! I'm real handy too. I guess you saw that with my home, though."

Daersen took another bite from his apple, preferring to slowly savor it. He crossed his legs, and studied Mei a bit more closely.

"What's a pretty girl like you doing running around Le'Ranna sketching things, anyways? You on some kind of knowledge quest? Spiritual journey?"

[Rhindeer]

"You're very interesting! The first person I've ever met who has a home in a sewer and a giant pet rat! Not to mention how the bugs and animals seem to listen to you. Their behavior was so strange! Even more interesting is that you're a 'sewer bum', yet you can ballroom dance? What a strange combination! That doesn't sound like a skill typical to someone of, ah...your station. Of course, I'm not the most knowledgeable about the Serenian social hierarchy and what skills are typical or not among your people."

Mei paused her sketching to jot a couple notes, written in the intricate Thanati characters. Just a few memos to herself to find out more about that.

"Anyway, about me! You're not far off, actually! I'm on a quest for knowledge, yes. And I guess you could say it's a spiritual quest, too. So many people separate the two, but really, spirituality and knowledge go hand in hand. I'm a temple scholar, you see, hoping to one day become a Zhaobin! It's a lofty goal, but I'd settle on priestess, too. Either way, yes, it's a spiritual calling of mine to travel the world and learn what I can and just live, you know? Oh, I love nothing more than reading in a library, don't get me wrong, but reading about plants and animals and cities isn't the same as touching them and experiencing them."

Her sketching stopped then, and she looked over her work. "Knowledge is the path to enlightenment, after all, and there's holiness in all Inima's creation. She's life itself, after all."

[DaGlobster]

"Wow, that's..."

He didn't have the damnedest clue what she was talking about, for the most part, apart from the fact that she's a ambitious religious scholar with a knack for hands-on experience. He didn't know who Inima was either, but he could assume she was some kind of Thanati god.

She was Thanati, right?

"Sounds like one hell of a dream, heh. Either way, my abilities with ballroom dance and the fiddle have nothing to do with the fact that I live in the sewers. That's a whole other story I can tell, but that'll cost you even more."

[Rhindeer]

"Oh?" Mei asked, and blew on her drawing to clear away the dust.

"Well, I'm already paying food and a shave and throwing in a bath! What's the price of that story?"

[DaGlobster]

Daersen stretched, and scratched his beard a bit. As much as it made him look a bit more threatening to anybody who might wish him ill, he hated the scraggly beard that dominated his face.

"I...don't quite know, actually. Huh...You can probably understand why! I mean, proper food, a bath, and a shave is already like heaven for me, so I'm struggling to think of something..."

He stared intently at the ground.

"What can you offer me for my life's story?"

[Rhindeer]

"Hmmm..." Mei frowned with thought. "

Well, it's not like my own funds are limitless! I am on a budget, but I can think of a few services I could offer..." she said, brightening with a smile.

"For example...art!" And she turned her book around so he could see the sketch she'd done, which was a rather realistic portrait of Daersen. "I've actually made a fair bit off my sketches traveling about the land. It's how I pick up extra coin when I need it! People do love having a lasting image they can pass down in their family. Of course, if art doesn't catch your fancy, well, I saw how you were eying the bed. A night's sleep in something not a pile of trash, maybe? Oh! And I know a lot of things! If you need information, I'm you're gal! Not to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty smart."

[DaGlobster]

The art was an interesting proposition, but then again, the bed was even better. He might as well milk this for everything he could get!

"Oh, I think the bed's a darling idea! It's been so long since I slept on a proper bed," He said.

He cocked his head to her, grinning.

"Or had someone to keep me company at night."

[Rhindeer]

"Right? I've been alone on my travels for the most part, myself! Which I can't say I'm really used to that, because where I come from, I shared a room with several other women so I was never alone and always had some sort of company. Don't get me wrong, I'm having the time of my life traveling to all these exotic places! But it is a lonely affair, too. I suppose that's why I find it so easy to talk to strangers, like you--though sometimes it doesn't work so well. Sometimes, they're not very friendly. But boy, do I have a lot of stories to take back home now! Like, just a week ago, if that, I almost got eaten by a bear and met an ork! Who does that? I do, apparently!"

Then Mei paused as though realizing something.

"You don't snore, do you?" she asked, as though she hadn't just gone off on a total tangent.

[DaGlobster]

Frankly, Daersen was surprised Mei took his last few words to close to heart. He was also surprised he didn't have a red hand mark on his cheek. Were...were the rumors he heard about Thanati women true?

Her question snapped him back into focus.

"Me? Snore? Erm, I've been told that I do, actually. veeeeery lightly. Barely louder than breathing, really," he said, having no shame in admitting that.

"It must be pretty cold for you, sleeping alone in these western nations. I mean, I have less of a problem with the cold, since I live in a sewer, but I know the nights can get pretty cold and lonely pretty quick."

[Rhindeer]

"Oh. Well, that's not terrible! If it's just like breathing, then it won't be an issue. I can be a light sleeper, so snoring is the worst! Though there are methods I've heard of for dealing with that! In any case! Yes, the nights here have been rather chilly. I'm more used to a more balmy, if often miserably humid climate. But at least even then, it was warm, and you could always take a swim to cool off!"

Mei shivered a little, just thinking about the climate difference! Well, that and she was sitting around in her skivvies.

"It's the loneliness that's the worst, though. I must say, Serendipity is rather hit and miss so far! When you find friendly people, they're very friendly! But so many look at me, see 'Thanati', and turn their noses up. To think, some people actually believe we're necromancers and demon-worshipers!"

[DaGlobster]

"Necromancers?" Daersen repeated, incredulity flush in his voice.

He shook his head, scoffing at the very notion. He saw that she was shivering, so he scooted up next to her, mostly just to see how she'd receive it.

"I don't know how anybody could look at such a nice girl as yourself and even think about considering the possibility that you summon the dead, or worship demons."

[Rhindeer]

If Mei was bothered by Daersen's closeness, she didn't show it! Mainly because she wasn't bothered. She stank as much as he did after being in the sewer, and she had a tendency to invade peoples' personal space when she got really excited and distracted. She hardly noticed when her own space was being invaded, namely because she was usually oblivious to it with her mind working a hundred directions at once half the time.

And this was a subject she was passionate about!

"Oh! You don't know, then?" she asked, eyes going wide--because she did so love to share her education!

"Well! It's because I'm Thanati, see? And we used to live in Le'raana, too! Our population was smaller back then and we were more nomadic, I hear, but then the witch hunts began! You see, gifts of divination and primal magic run high in our blood, so many among us can actually commune with the dead and conjure spirits and such! Now, granted, gifts like that can be taken to a dark place. The line between summoning and communion and necromancy is a bit thin, but they're very, very different things! Well, because of a very small criminal minority that abused their power, we all got painted with the same brush. People got paranoid and called us demon-worshipers and grave robbers, and we got hunted and persecuted and ultimately had to flee the mainland for our lives. So says history."

She frowned, shaking her head. "A few awful people can destroy it for everyone. Anyway, the old prejudices still linger."

[DaGlobster]

Daersen listened quite closely as Mei gave him a crash course in Thanti-Le'Rannan relations, nodding every once in a while to let her know he was still paying attention. When she finished, he ran a hand through his hair.

"Oh, that...I didn't know that," Daersen said, crossing his arms.

"A lot of people find us Serenians weird, too. It's because of all he fey blood we have, and how we're all magical, in a way. Not me, though. My mother was Adelan, and I took to her more," Daersen said, motioning to his ratty brown hair.

"Personally, I'm glad my hair isn't bright green or something. I've always found it a bit weird, even if I did grow up with Serenians."

[Rhindeer]

"I think the colorful hair is quite pretty, myself!" Mei said, smiling wistfully as she thought of all the different hair colors she'd seen that day alone. "Granted, there might be some combinations that wouldn't be aesthetically pleasing--say, a baby puke green, that would be unfortunate! And I suppose it'd be hard to ever blend into a crowd. But I'm a little biased; I've always enjoyed the unconventional. Maybe because I have a rare eye color myself? Who knows!"

Closing her book, she put her charcoal neatly away in its case in her haversack, but kept her book atop it for easy grabbing. "Honestly, I'd say everyone's strange in their own way. Everyone like to think they're normal and that their way is the one true way--even us Thanati! But if anything, I'd say all my traveling has confirmed one thing: there's so much variation in the world, everyone's right and everyone's wrong, all at once!"

At that moment, a knock sounded at the door, and Mei paused in what had been about to turn into another long tangent. "Ah! That must be our baths!" she said, hopping to her feet and trotting to the door, and she swung it open without a care to the fact that she was in her smallclothes--which were naught but a breast band and a breechcloth.

The two men carrying the filled tub--singular!--just about dropped it when she cheerfully greeted them.

[DaGlobster]

"Ain't that the truth. No matter what you say, there's always somebody out there who thinks the opposite," Daersen said.

He practically shot to his feet when the men arrived with the bathtub, and before he could even really think about at least throwing some pants on before some complete strangers entered, Mei'd answered the door for them.

Really, all he could do from where he was was watch.

[Rhindeer]

"Uh...I think we, uh, got the wrong room, my apologies..." One of the men said awkwardly, his face red, though his buddy snickered behind him.

"What? Oh, no, this is the right one. Come in, come in!" Mei said, and held the door open wider so they could enter.

They came inside, took a look at Daersen, a look at Mei, and while the one man looked increasingly mortified, the other just flashed them both a knowing look. They set the steaming tub down in the center of the room and then left, but not before the one said, "Enjoy your bath!" while the other hushed him and slugged his shoulder.

The door shut behind them, and Mei stared at it a moment after they left. "Huh. That was strange," she said with a shrug, before she untied her breastband and unlaced her breechcloth, with the same nonchalance she'd stripped with before. She wasted no time in stepping into the tub, with was wonderfully hot--but not unbearably so!--and shot Daersen an apologetic look.

"I hope you don't mind, but I really can't stand the grime!"

[DaGlobster]

Daersen was oddly quiet.

"Oh, no. I'm, uh...perfectly fine. Really," he muttered, a bit of color making its way onto his cheeks as well. Although he was in no way opposed to this, it was a bit jarring to see someone so willing to get naked in front of somebody they'd met barely an hour ago.

Not to mention she was pretty damn hot, too. With her piercings and tattoos...

Damn!

Daersen began to strip out of his own undergarments, grinning.

"No way I'm letting you sit in that by yourself until it goes cold, either!" He said, and he quickly clambered in across from her once he was in the nude, going quick so Mei wouldn't see just how awkward his boner was.

He slowly slid in as well, probing forwards with his legs as a look of absolute bliss entered his face.

"Holy shit, it's been so long... I could die right now and be the happiest man in the world."