#also Arjun being two different Palace cryptids is hilarious to me

[the-iron-orchid]

❝  i’m not expecting anything,  i just,  thought it’d be nice to keep you company tonight. ❞

For Yeshe and Arjun because I feel like causing problems on purpose.

The FACE I am MAKING right NOW Pearl

Background: I haven't even finished writing it all up yet... we just thought it'd be funny to saddle Yeshe with a naga character with traits vaguely based on my actual pet snek lmao The gist is that years ago, the Nagaraja sent messengers around the world to warn of the Devil's plans. However, Arjun, the one sent to Venterre, was caught. Worse, because his serpent form is leucistic, he was bound in that form and given to Lucio for his menagerie. He remained captive for years, even after Lucio's death and the Devil being bound. While visiting the Countess's restored animal sanctuary, Yeshe accidentally frees Arjun by speaking the Mantra for Animal Liberation over him - something xe does out of habit as part of xir spiritual practice. Arjun declares that he now owes service to his liberator, otherwise he would be disgraced for not repaying his debt on top of failing his mission. The rest is sitcom history...)

Yeshe squints at Arjun over the mending in xir hands. For all of his decades of life beyond xir own, he is still somewhat young... for a naga. It shows in his brashness, even cockiness at times.

This diffidence, mild as it is, is unlike him.

"You keep my company all day, Arjun." In fact, xe cannot leave the flat without him shadowing, ready to defend from all manner of imagined city threats, puffing his chest at anyone who gets too close. It's become something of a point of amusement in the Marketplace.

The naga's pale eyes flick aside. That is also unusual; he often stares like a snake, seldom blinking.

"Are your rooms not to your liking?" xe asks. "I'm sure the Countess would be happy to have them changed for you."

"No... no, they are very comfortable," he answers.

Xe pauses, taking in the attitude of his shoulders as he slumps, his elbows resting on the table. "Forgive me, but... are you homesick?"

A faintly stricken look comes over his face, then he sighs. "It's not important."

"Arjun, you are very far from your people... and you have been for some years. It would be strange if you didn't feel that way." Xe sets down the work, folding xir hands. "I've told you... my freeing you was an accident. You don't owe me anything. You can go home whenever you want."

A scowl furrows his brow, disrupting the crimson line of his tilak. "And I have told you... I must do this, before I can return with any honor to my name at all."

It is Yeshe's turn to sigh, now. "But you miss your homeland."

"...yes. I miss the waters. I miss my siblings." He takes a deep breath. "I... don't like being alone."

To give to one in distress is a moral imperative, the Perfection of Generosity. That imperative is even greater when it is something intangible, given of the self - a teaching, or comfort. What must it be like, to be the only one of his kind in all of Vesuvia, perhaps on the continent?

"You don't have to be alone," xe says, reaching for xir cane, rising with its aid. Arjun looks up at xem questioningly. "You may stay. As for the waters... well. I'm sure there's some place where you can at least go for a nice swim."

"The Palace waters are quite nice... if you don't mind the vampire eels." He laughs, showing the little points of his fangs. "Of course, they are afraid of me."

Yeshe gives the naga a narrow look. "Are you saying that you are the mythical King Eel of the Palace moat?"

His grin broadens. "It isn't my fault if people can't tell a giant snake from a giant eel."

-----

Arjun prefers to sleep in his natural form. His humanoid half rests quite normally on the pillow, but the vast coils of his snake-tail loop about under the coverlet, trailing off the edge of the bed. A cat has curled up in one of these loops, like a nest. Another cat has insinuated itself behind what would be his legs... if he had them at the moment. He seems to have fallen asleep the moment he arranged himself, no longer alone.

Samsara is a strange place. All beings have been all things to each other, over and over again through beginningless time, returning and forgetting. Perhaps Yeshe has become too complacent, too attached to xir current way of life, and this is the action of karma, disrupting that.

Having crossed over, I will rescue others. Having liberated myself, I will liberate others. Having found comfort, I will comfort others. Having attained parinirvana, I will cause others to attain it.

Both of them have taken a vow - he to xem, and xem to all beings.

There is little for it but to see how it all plays out.