RP:The Poison Of Asps

Part of the The End's Not Near Arc

Summary: Reginae visits Muzo after a bout of restless sleep. They both struggle with their internal turmoil and bash themselves against internal walls constructed from deceit. The crown is set, curing for it's presentation while they slither ever forward.

Alithrya Palace

Reginae had been sleeping less and less, leading up to the days before the coronation. There's no real fear of death but the clock is ticking. Will she pull the plan off in time? Will whatever is out there move first? Will Muzo know she stole the vial? It's an endless sea of concern and she's afloat in the middle, linked with little life rafts full of Naga and no Naga alike. Reginae wakes in a film of sweat, gasping at the ceiling like a drowning hatchling. The night is dark, and it's cool touch presses against her sweat laced forehead. Sometime later, she's slithered her way past Muzo's room in the palace, and stopping just outside the door frame. Hesitation forbid her from entering, her own moral code clashing with her decisions.

Muzo lays coiled, quietly drumming his fingers against his scales. Using his tail for a pillow, he lays staring silently ahead, eyes half-lidded as he ponders and muses, muses and ponders. The night wears on, but he's feeling restless yet, and for the dozenth time he squirms, trying to settle his chin comfortably and, still, no good. Sleep eludes him. Twirling, cyclic thoughts will afford him no peace. A passing shape glides beneath his attention, and it isn't until the figure doubles back that he blinks through the partly open doorway, trying to register what he's staring at. "Reginae?" He mutters, sounding more dubious than surprised, and he stirs again, scales sliding on scales as he begins uncoiling himself.

While Reginae was ripe with indecision, she’s stirred the male within and sealed her fate. “I’m sorry Muzo,” She exhales with quiet amusement. “I was feeling a little restless, thought I would take a look around to make sure all was in order. I hope I didn’t wake you?” She kept her distance, nudging a loose floor tile with the tip of her ivory tail. It clattered quietly against the other tiles and made a decent distraction while she waited for Muzo to uncoil himself. It felt rude to approach him now, so she waited, feeling the weight of her own internal barrier pressing out through her scales.

Muzo gestures for her to enter. "Come, hrmm, ahrm," he croaks and clears his throat, the silence of evening heavy upon his disused voice. "Excuse me, come in." Muzo taps his chest, fingers splayed. "Hrrrm. Didn't wake me, no." It's true, but unconvincing. "Was staring off." His neutral, passive expression bends into a gentle frown as he begins to recall some of the ideas that had accompanied his staring. With a shake of his head, the researcher puts on a polite smile instead, one that warms into something more genuine as he considers his fellow naga. "Better that you've interrupted me."

Reginae slithered cautiously forward, allowing the misplaced tile to remain in it’s dislodged peace. Her movements are slow, hesitant and visibly awkward. It’s nothing like her, the normally grandiose Alithryian Ruler to Be. “Do you always sleep in your lab?” She asked, glancing around at the various containers, the bell jar earns a long stare before her azurite eyes return to find Muzo’s. The usual haze of ‘public figure’ is not present in her gaze. It’s all a clear and calm blue, disturbed by her slight frown. It wouldn’t do to appear anything less than confident to most but she trusted Muzo. What she disliked was how transparent she felt her guilt was. She trusted him but should he trust her? “Did you - ahem,” She clears her throat, unable to anchor her own thoughts on anything pleasant. “Did you happen to finish the work on the poison?” A work related question, something she tried to refrain from asking right off the bat. It was not her reason for coming here but a fine buffer.

Muzo has to think about her question, and he blinks, startled that he doesn't have an immediate answer. "Well I," his eyes fall to watch her tail's approaching undulations, "I suppose I do now, yes. It's, uhm," his eyes raise to meet hers, but they quickly avert to nothing in particular, "part of getting carried away. Ah, yes, er," he points to the necklace as it lays on his desk, resting alone on a chipped tile. "Curing now. Needs to, uhm, set up." His fingers make a scrunching motion, and their eyes connect again. "Overnight. So its safe to handle." Though he tries to divert his attention, Muzo's eyes keep snapping to hers. Why does he look away? What is he afraid of?

Reginae is so busy masking her own guilt, she fails to fully appreciate Muzo’s strange behavior. She smiles weakly at the necklace, “I knew I could count on you…” Her voice is barely a whisper, ripe with exhaustion and unspoken words. “You know some of the guest rooms have little …” Her finger twirls around in the air, replicating the motion of water down a drain. “Pools.” The word escaped her. “Like the water gardens, but private bathing pools.” It’s not a hot ticket item but it’s nice to relax in a hot or cold bath still. Suddenly she’s struck with a memory. The chaos spark turned into a small kitten inside it’s jar, content to watch the tangled nagas speak in Larket’s tavern. It curls the corners of her lips and she exhales with amusement. “Do you remember…” Her voice is wistful, longing for older days. “When we were in Larket? Doing experiments with the chaos spark?” Reginae can’t look at him. She’s too afraid he’ll read her thoughts through her clear eyes.

Muzo tilts his head, not quite following her train of thought as she mentions the bathing pools. "To help one sleep?" A good soak would likely do him some good, admittedly. "Oh! Yes. Still have it, not with me..." Muzo doesn't complete that thought. Something in his mind has gone very still as the conjured memory floats across his mind's eye. "Vividly," he admits, quietly, "I often remember." He slithers closer, though he hesitates, as his tail brushes the edge of a hole seared in the floor, an apparently bottomless scorch mark. A frown of disappointed worry creases his scaly lips. "Regi, there's bad news. Should have told you sooner. Meant to get around to it. You know how I can be." Guiltily he sighs. "The, ah, the decomposate. The remains in the vial. Allowed them to escape my attention."

Reginae can’t hold up the weight of his serious tone. Muzo was spacey, fragments of sentences and thoughts without visible links until you pressed him. He was a mess of thoughts and ideas, of good intentions. So sincere...Reginae’s eyes close, chin tilted down towards the floor. He’s drawing closer, she wants to apologize and confess it all. Maybe if she admits it now, they can have a laugh and she can get some sleep. Instead, she turns, mouth agape to speak when he confesses the remains have gone missing and all the moisture in her mouth dries up in an instant. A shade of color drains from her face, making her humanoid skin resemble her tail or the snowy locks tumbling loosely around her shoulders. “Don’t blame yourself.” A smile tries to construct itself on her lips but she falls short. “Luckily, Larewen already knew what it was. I suppose this plan will draw out more test subjects soon hmm?” It’s supposed to be encouraging, to evaporate his guilt while sublimating her own. If she soothes him, maybe she too can be temporarily soothed? “It’s nothing to worry about, really. A minor detail in the grand scheme.” Ah, scheme. It sounds so dark. So pitch and hopeless. “I’ve been diverting your attention a lot lately, it’s probably my fault anyhow.” Her head cocks to the side, trying to hold it’s own merriment, but still it’s just a few steps short. Her expression rests solely on some melancholy in between that must look like disappointment from the outside.

Muzo feels his lungs contract once in a single, sardonic, breathy laugh as the absurdity of the situation presses upon him like the thumb of an unseen god, to have stumbled so clumsily over a problem that had played itself out so inconsequentially in, as Reginae says, the grand scheme. "Yes," he agrees, looking down at the floor again, needle fangs glimmering gently in the dim light, only to snap away suddenly, sharply as he corrects himself. "Ah, no! No fault of yours," Muzo's forked tongue flicks as his eyes scrunch shut, and he taps his nose with the pad of his index finger. "Meant about the grand scheme. Relieved." In an attempt to be casual, he flexes his tail to scoot his steamer trunk over and cover the hole. It scoots with a noisy buzz that echoes through the vacant halls.

Reginae’s shoulders slack, his agreement a balm to her restless mind. Though it’s the noise of the trunk that creates a juxtaposition of sorts. Hard to relax in the presence of a nerve grating thought or sound. No rest of the wicked, as they say. “I should probably let you get some sleep,” She suggested, feeling suddenly more like a stranger that didn’t belong in this space with her appointed confidant. The things she loved now held the naga she -loved (?) at tails length. It’s too messy, she can’t hold a straight face much longer. Her lips draw back in a faint smile, head tilting towards Muzo to signify a roguish goodbye. There was too much palpable distance here, even for two blushing fools, like they usually were. Ahhh, the guilt grates it’s own pleasurable punishment through her ribcage, tightening her lungs and wrenching her heart all at once. “Sorry to have disturbed you. Please make sure to rest. It would mean a great deal to me.” With that, she turned to move back towards the door. To face the darkness of the night once more, tangled up in her own imaginary traps.

Muzo cringes at the sound of the trunk. Though he opens his mouth to apologize, it feels gratuitous. The moment is already quite far gone. "Might try to get some work done," Muzo admits, turning around to regard his instruments. "No, ah, no disturbance, really." His brow furrows, his gaze narrows, and there are many fleeting, unspoken things that don't escape his guarded lips. "Certainly, then, will try to rest, as you ask." Regi is leaving, Muzo is watching, and as he sees her torso nearing the door frame, he can feel the tension within him winding near to a snapping point. "Please, Reginae, would you," he raises a single finger, hoping to interrupt her exit, "would you come by again? Not tonight, but," driven by an impulse, his deep, black eyes sweep the length of her, "come by again. Like this. Or, not like this, rather, I..." Feeling himself on the precipice, Muzo opts not to tumble down into incoherent babble, and he trails off instead.

Reginae stops when Muzo fumbles over his words. She’s silhouetted against some candle light, burning dimly in the hallway, hand perched against the door frame. Her face in perfect profile, painted in sheer ebony shadow. She wondered if Muzo agreed because of her rank or because of her personal affection. “I’d love very much to do just that.” The collected voice of the female drifts back into the depths of the lab, curling ever so slightly around Muzo’s ears. It did not replace the reassurance of a hand grasped or a kiss shared, but it would do for now. “Good night, Muzo.” And with that, her hand falls from the doorway back to her side and she casts herself out into the darkness of night alone.