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--- sessions:worldbuilding:2026-01-17 [2026/03/14 14:11] – shyriath
+++ sessions:worldbuilding:2026-01-17 [2026/03/22 16:41] (current) – shyriath
@@ Line 80: / Line 80: @@
 {{wst>shyriath|Puugwol seemed to consider this, watching him with an otherwise unreadable expression. Finally, somewhat hesitantly, she asked, "If I am at liberty at that time, would you consider a continuation of our collaboration?"}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|I would hope for it, even," Einriss revealed - and in his manner of being bad at concealing his true feelings, it was quite obvious that he meant it, rather than that it was some kind of empty platitude he felt compelled to utter. Puugwol and he had very different styles of working, but they had complemented each other well, and for all his social blinders, Einriss had no illusion that he was any less eccentric than Puugwol with her desire to take drugs.}}
+{{wst>shyriath|Puugwol was visibly pleased with Einriss' response.
+To her eyes, she wasn't the only one. Where the faces of her god looked out at her - from the designs on the walls, the shadows of the room, even from the faint reflections in Einriss' scales - they grinned encouragingly. //Think what interesting things you could do,// they seemed to say.
+She was inclined to agree. And she had projects of her own to pursue, which, perhaps, Einriss might be persuaded to participate in as well. She had made some progress in permanently modifying herself, but doing so through her own magic alone was... relatively inefficient, so perhaps...
+Her grip on Einriss' arm, which had remained relatively firm through the conversation, loosened. //Bilaak-tesh// had taken her on an unexpected turn into terror, but it was now in the realm of the more helpful communion with the gods that devotees of Mangukal sought. Einriss was, perhaps, not the optimal replacement for one of the shamans, but he had managed the role in a pinch.
+//A position of trust,// the Lords insinuated into her mind. //And if worthy of trust in this, and possibly in your own future projects-//
+Puugwol's face briefly scrunched up. She knew what they were getting at. The Oracle had felt moved to make the same argument to her, somewhat less persuasively. But, perhaps, they both had a point. Her stare at Einriss became direct, filled with a sort of hazy thoughtfulness, and the tip of her tail curled lazily this way and that.
+"There are some things that should not be decided within the grasp of //bilaak-tesh//," she said slowly, as if half to herself, "but: do you still think that producing eggs between ourselves would be the best option for obtaining experimental specimens?"}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|Einriss briefly reflected on that this was a strange change of topic - not being privy to the thought process that had led her from the first point to the next - but wasn't deterred from thinking about it in earnest. "I cannot say whether it is the //best// option," he mused openly. "As that depends much on what parameters are important to you. But I do believe it would be //convenient// for you." Again, as before, his statement was delivered matter-of-factly, as though he weren't capable of thinking about it from a perspective of lust - although whether that would be true if they would actually pursue such a union was a different question altogether, and he might yet be weird about it in //other// ways, too.}}
+{{wst>shyriath|The answer appeared to satisfy Puugwol. She also was not quite thinking of it from a perspective of lust - //bilaak-tesh// interfered with that sort of thing in any case - but it might, perhaps, be true to say that the prospect of an extended scientific collaboration had stirred up some embers of interest. Her tail flicked back and forth again.
+"Some time after I have fully returned from my time within the veil," she murmured, "perhaps you could raise the matter again. I have not-" She paused, as if trying to assemble the right words. "I have never mated with a male voluntarily, so it would be a... different experience. But one of the lessons of my god is that different experiences are themselves lessons."}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|"As you wish," Einriss promised, his tone neither reluctant nor magnanimous. That there were dark patches in Puugwol's past was not a surprise to him after what the Oracle had told him, though he wasn't presently realising that Puugwol didn't know that he had previously been told about this, and so his lack of comment might be taken as indifference, rather than as a polite acknowledgement that it was not something to pry into.}}
+{{wst>shyriath|Puugwol did not bother much about Einriss' reaction; in the grip of //bilaak-tesh// it seemed unimportant, though she might have felt a bit differently in her usual state of mind. In any case, the memory, though somewhat anxiety-inducing, was less so than it might have been, because of the... the brain-thing. In that respect, at least, it had been successful, if probably not as much so as it'd been intended to be.
+"Thank you," she said aloud, and added, "and... thank you for remaining. //Bilaak-tesh// has rarely beset me with terrors, but it is never an impossibility. But the visions have become more pleasant now; I would be pleased if you wished to stay, but if you have other things that need doing..."}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|Other things always needed doing, but as far as his list of chores went, he was effectively here to collect Puugwol, and he was certainly not going to do that until the drug was out of her system. It was, evidently, mellowing out a little at this point, judging by the signals he was getting from her biochemistry. There was little harm in simply waiting it out, even if that meant forgoing the small meal he had been planning to eat soon, and perhaps proffering himself as a bony plushie as she slept at the tail end of her journey. "I can stay," he reasoned, and managed not to accompany it with a deep, reluctant sigh. As soon as her body stopped being quite so talkative, he could probably at least think about some of their projects and advance them in ideas. It wasn't all lost time - and he //was// fond of Puugwol, and helping her was enjoyable in its own right.}}