PM to join [The Water Park] A break from the cold! (Voss)

[Joliece]

30th of Winter, 514 AV

Joliece cannot express how much she hates winter. It is the absolute worse season ever to her. To completely avoid a day or two of the season, she had picked up on her first love’s habit of sleeping during the cold. The konti would stay bundled up in bed for no more than two days out of a week now, occasionally getting out of bed to make sure both Lynis and Nathaniel had something to eat and to let Mistrial know that she was alright. The owner of the refuge found it odd that Joliece slept all day, doing nothing with her life so far. Most women were out by the morning either working or trying to find something to do. But not Joliece. She and her kids lie in bed all day and it was starting to become a bad habit. So the next time Joliece let Mos’rila know that she was alright, the human woman told her that her sleeping all day was a bad habit.

”Riverfall is not very those who want to lounge around all day and be lazy. And this refuge is not a free lodging either, it’s to help you stand on your own two feet.” Mos’rila said flatly to her. ”This city has a lot to offer and a lot for you to do. I understand that winter is not a very pleasant season for you but that doesn’t mean you get to sleep all day. I won’t let you sleep all day. I want you to go read that book that provides information about Riverfall. Find a location you like and take yourself there along with your kids. Be out in twenty chimes.”

The konti nodded in respect, running to her room and finding the literature on Riverfall. Doing what she was told, Joliece found a location she thought her kids (and herself) would very much enjoy. It was called The Water Park, and she thought it would be a nice break from the cold, having an indoor pool and waterslide. Being both afraid of and respectful to Mos’rila, she was out of her room in twenty chimes, holding both of her sons’ hands. Before leaving the refuge, she waved goodbye to Mos’rila who gave her a warm smile in return.

Joliece had no kind of transportation to the water park and after a couple chimes of walking; the kids grew tired of walking. She carried Lynis on her back and allowed her youngest one to fly, nervously watching him as he tried to stay in the air – which did not last for more than ten chimes, Nathaniel’s wings would grow just as sore as his legs did and he would rest in his mother’s hand in his kelvic form.

When they finally reached The Water Park, all three of them could not help but rush toward the building in excitement. Inside, Joliece helped Lynis strip down to his undergarments and helped Nathaniel put his on after changing back into his human form. As for Joliece, she stayed in her dress.
The inside of the park was nice and hot. They found a slide and one by one, they each slid down it and every time someone hit the water, there was a loud SPLASH noise.

Common-Kontinese-Snake-Tongue

[Sarshassilivoss]

It was not that the Iyvess could not abide the cold, for deep within a hidden part of Voss scoffed at the chilly temperatures, tame compared to the frigid depths of the Ocean, but despite that, he was a snake, and snakes loved the heat. Wearing only his kelp trousers no longer cut it, and Voss found himself in need of warm clothes, and warm refuges.

One thing he had to give to this beautiful city, was how connected it was to the water. His home in the aquatic apartments, the nearby Blue Vein, and how much water was incorporated into the city always worked to cull his need to return to the sea, even if only for a little while.

His discovery of the Water Park's underground heated pools, however, was perhaps his favorite thing, at least in the Winter. It was wide and open, with so many stairs and winding passageways, he could invited a Dhani friend from the Coil's Club, or several, or simply slip into one of the more private areas and lounge the day away when he was not working.

He spent the morning at the Club, tidying up and making ready for the evening with a few other workers, but then took his leave for a nice quiet soak in the underground pools. Though he wasn't planning for company, Voss didn't go out of his way to find one of the more sequestered pools, and instead stripped down to his trousers and found one that had a view of the rest of the underground, enjoying watching other inhabitants have fun on the slides, which he had largely not yet tested.

He was startled from his watchful reverie when two young boys slid into his pool, giggling and splashing, for several long moments, completely unaware of the individual they had disturbed. After a few ticks one with blonde hair glanced over, and his mouth opened in an 'o' of realization. Voss's tanned arms were propped on the lips of the pool, a relaxed smile on his face.

"Good Morning."

[Joliece]

The boys were not natural swimmers like the konti. Both Lynis and Nathaniel – especially Nathaniel who was only about three years of age in human years—were very good at keeping themselves above water. But the movements used to keep them afloat were ones that would come off to a skilled swimmer as odd and almost unnatural. Lynis and Nathaniel did not move their arms did not move slowly, back and forth, in a steady manner. Instead, the boys flapped their arms rapidly, almost tiring themselves out. Their feet too would move pretty quickly as if they were running and usually when Joliece and her boys were near a body of water, she would try her best to correct the way they moved when they swam. Joliece would not do that today though, she would not teach them how to paddle instead of kick their feet. Today, she wanted to focus on having fun and getting all the energy they had from those long resting periods out.

Lynis did more going down the slide then swimming. He would slide down the slide, plunging into the water and then hop out of the pool and walk (as his mother instructed) back up the stairs to go down again. Each time Lynis hoisted himself out of the pull, Joliece watched. Being half-isur, the boy had a particular hue to him. He was blue but not as blue as the common akalak men that paraded around Riverfall. One of his arms was red too and Joliece did not understand why. I really need to take some time and learn about his isur side. She thought to herself but the thought was distracted by a panting toddler who wanted nothing more than his mother’s attention.

The little kelvic she called Nathaniel flailed his way to his mother’s arms. Joliece could not help but laugh at him as he panted heavily in her arms. ”Swim much?” She asked as she removed a few heavy dripping curls from the dark-skinned boy’s face. He did not answer back but instead smiled. Joliece tossed the boy on her back and began swimming some more. She made sure to keep her head and Nathaniel’s head above water as she made her way from one end of the pool to the other.

Once she got to one side of the pool, she turned her back on Lynis, giving him the perfect opportunity to sneak up on her and splash the living heck out of her. The half-isur took this opportunity too when he slid down the slide for the last time, he saw that Joliece paid no attention to him whatsoever. Lynis made sure he was a good distance away from the two before taking one of his arms and slapping them against the water; he raised the same arm and repeatedly began to splash them.

”Ahh!” Nathaniel bellowed. Joliece turned around and with the help of Nathaniel, they began splashing Lynis.

The splashing almost became too much for Joliece. She quickly turned her head, grinning from ear to ear, away from the direction of the splashing. While her head was turned she got a glimpse of the other side of the pool and saw that they were not the only ones there. In a corner of a pool, there was a dark-skinned man who was just a surprised as Joliece herself. He gave her a warm smiling, relaxing his big muscular arms on the side of the pool and said good morning to her.

“Morning!” She tried to overpower the voices of her shrieking children and when it became too much, she had them stop splashing. ”Sorry if we’re bothering you.” With Nathaniel still holding onto her, Joliece began swimming closer to the man. ”I’m Joliece.” She put out one of her webbed hands for him to shake. ”And you are?”

Common-Kontinese-Snake-Tongue

[Sarshassilivoss]

Voss was starting to get a grasp on the race of Konti. He had heard stories of Iyvess watching the beautiful aquatic women on their secret isle, fair and endowed witht he abilities to breathe beneath the surf as the Saltwater Iyvess were. It was true their forms were lacking in the natural grace of the serpent and Dhani forms of the Iyvess, but as far as Voss could tell, they were the closest thing to the Charodae as any land dwelling (or partially land dwelling) race could come. He also found himself drawn to their appearance far more than that of the Charodae...not that they were ugly...but it seemed as if the human forms the Dhani adopted were sculpted into forms that more matched the Konti, who seemed themselves to be a fluid combination of human and aquatic being wrapped into one surely attractive combination. In fact, Voss had yet to see a Konti who was not stunning in one way or another, recalling Kavala's vivacious form, and noticing the differences between her and this woman who as kind and courteous as any in the city offered her name up as Joliece.

Shaken from his thoughtful reverie, Voss extended his hand in response. To be honest he had not gotten a whole lot of handshakes since entering Riverfall, so instead of shaking it, he simply leaned forward to meet her halfway, and held it at a polite distance from the Konti's webbed appendage, the smile still on his features, before retracting it when he thought enough time had passed.

"I am Vosss. Sssorry for my...ach, I am no sso good with the Commonss, but the Dhani in Coil Club help me learn. Thisss is open place, yess? I am not... how you say? dissturb, and is nice meet you, Joliesse." His voice took on the natural speech signature of a Dhani in its sibilant lisp, and Voss's gaze turned to the two male children. He was fairly sure that they were either a race comprised entirely of women or...something close. He wondered if they were her children, or perhaps she was simply their caretaker for the day, unsure of how child rearing worked upon the land.

"Iss nice to get out of cold, no? Do you all like the sswimming?" He glanced first at Joliece, then the two boys, not wanting to exclude them from the conversation. He adjusted, sliding a bit more into the water, wading easily even in his human form in the moderate depths of the small pool.

[Joliece]

Like most dhani in their human forms, Voss had what sounded like a lisp to Joliece. But instead of his s’s sounding like a Th, it sounded like a hiss. A nice long hiss that Joliece pretty much enjoyed. Why wouldn’t she? Joliece fell in love with a dhani, married him. Most people found it disturbing but not Joliece. She loved the way it sounded, especially in her name. Joliesse. The hissing sound Voss made while pronouncing her name made her smile. She would have asked him to say her name again if it did not sound like a weird request. Joliece missed the hissing and so did her kids. Lynis stopped what he was doing to move closer to the man. He studied his human form for a second before giving him eye contact. As for Nathaniel, he gave Voss a grin and began to giggle a little. The dhani had the whole family’s attention, none of them were scared of the dhani. The one each of them loved most was a dhani. A dhani that had no shame and shifted quite often around them. If Voss would have done the same, no one would flinch or even blink.

”I sspeak little snake tongue. If you no common, speak me in ssnake tongue.” Joliece told him. She didn’t want him to try and speak a language he was not too familiar with. The konti was not the best at speaking snake tongue but she could understand what someone is saying.


”Yes, we love to swim!” Joliece placed one of her hands on the edge of the pool while using the other to hook Lynis and pull him close to her. ”I hate the winter. Morwen forgive me but it brings nothing but misery to me and my sons- I forgot to introduce you to them!” She laughed. ”Voss, these are my sons Lynis and Nathaniel.” She gestured to the boy blonde haired boy she had an arm around and the kelvic on her back.

She knew it would confuse him. It confused most people, seeing a konti with sons that were not akalak but somewhat human. Obviously, she adopted these kids and many wanted to know why she would do such a thing. When questioned like those were asked, she did not know how to answer them. It was not because she did not know how to answer the question but because there were so many answers to a question like that. The first answer would be that when she married her first love, she knew that she would not be able to give him a son. Only daughters. Another answer would be that she was once an orphan and although her experience in an orphanage was not one she could ever recall being bad, being adopted and knowing that someone wants to love and take care of you like you were their own biological child is the greatest feeling ever. Anyone can conceive and birth a child, but not everyone can adopt a child and call him or her their own.

”I know most dhani try to avoid the cold. Makes you guys drowsy. Heck, it makes me drowsy now!”

Common-Kontinese-Snake-Tongue

[Sarshassilivoss]

Voss was grateful for his work int he Coil's Club, so that he could fall back into his most fluent of languages in the form of Snake Tongue, and he was more than a little taken aback when the woman used it to address him. It had none of the tenor of the type of body born with the ability to naturally make the sounds required, yet he understood her phrase quite well, and part of him wondered if that was how his Common sounded to a native speaker. His brows knitted together for a moment, piecing the next sentence together.

"Thank you, iss...kind of you, but I need practicess with the commonss. Have not met any no Dhani who know the sssnake tongue..."

He tilted his head to side at the mention of 'Morwen.' Not knowing anything about the deity of Winter, he was unsure if the word was a person, a phrase, perhaps even a curse, though this woman didn't seem the type to curse in front of her children, whom she introduced shortly afterward.

"Nathaniel, Lynisss, iss pleassure." Though Voss was still learning, the niceties of Common were quick to stay in his memory. He inclined his head, and though his mouth had tightened in the effort to continue his Common, the smile returned to his features at the two boys who did not in any way resemble their mother. Another Voss would have been quick to point out the differences, but this one present since his arrival in Riverfall, stayed quiet.

"Methinkss Iyvessss more usse to cold, Ocean get cold no mattering where one iss, if you go deep down, but we like the warm watersss ssso much than cold." He smirked and ran his tanned fingers through the water in front of him, creating a couple little splashes. "You all come here many timess?"

oocApologies for the delay on this post!!

[Joliece]

”Well I wouldn’t consider myself not a dhani.” She paused for a moment, trying to figure out if what she just said made any sense. ”I like to think of myself as a dhani by affiliation.” She started to laugh again. Joliece highly doubt that the dhani would get anything she was saying right now. He would not know that she is talking about her husband, who was a dhani. He also would not know that she picked up snake tongue by listening to him talk and questioning him on what he said.

The boys waved to the rather large man before returning to what they were doing before. Lynis continued to leave the pool and slide down the slide and Nathaniel remained wrapped around his mother, who propped an arm up on the edge of the pool, leaning her head against it. The arm she had propped up was one most people noticed, it had a bracelet that identified her as a nakivak. While she did not know too much about her own status, others did. They knew how important she will one day be to the city. One day, she will be carrying an akalak (or konti) child and until that child is born, Joliece will be protected and watched carefully by the city.

”Ivy-ness?” Joliece asked with a puzzled expression. ”I thought dhani were only constrictors?”[/b] She never knew there were different types of dhani species. Her husband was a constrictor and he too was large like the man in front of her. Joliece could not spot the difference between this man and her husband at all in their human form. Was his dhani form different? What about his snake form? She wondered if Iyvess had a different pattern or an ability that constrictors did not have.

She moved in close to the dhani, almost invading his personal space. Joliece stared him down, trying to figure him out. The man had not only Joliece staring him down but little Nathaniel. [i]”My auristics won’t help me figure out the difference. Mind if I see your dhani form?”[/b] She asked the question in a very flat tone of voice.

It was just Joliece and her kids in the pool with Voss. He did not have to worry about scaring anyone, not even Joliece’s children who have seen such a form so many times before. Luise changed forms often when he was in the comfort of his own home. He would play with the kids in his dhani form and they loved the form just as much as his human one.

Common-Kontinese-[i]Snake-Tongue

[Sarshassilivoss]

Joliece was absolutely right in her assumption that Voss would not understand what she was saying. She was most certainly not a Dhani, of that much he was almost positive. She had no lisp, her snake tongue was severely lacking, and he thought he had a grasp on the Konti and their appearance, of which she certainly appeared to be. His smile wavered, confusion setting in and his lips drifting slightly apart, but before he could ask for clarification botht he boys began to play, distracting him somewhat.

He found it odd to see the small humanoid children around the city, since Dhani did not learn their human form until they were practically an adult, they never appeared so small and strange. The way they flailed in the water spoke of a lack of grace that he could not understand being raised beneath the waves. Of course they were much more capable on land than he was even now...the oddities of these land dwellers vs. the Iyvess who were so new to the whole thing.

To Joliece's question Voss glanced back at her, deep brown eyes understanding this question much more than her earlier phrases. "Consstrictorsss only one kind of Dhani, we are Iyvesssss, came to the sssity thisss Fall, did not hear?" He found it odd. Though most had no idea about how to deal with the Iyvess, everyone knew they had come to the city, or so he thought.

"I can show." Truth be told he had been longing to relax back in his Dhani form, which felt like a return beneath the sea, even if he was only in his apartment or lounging on the beach. He rolled his neck, a loud cracking sound heralding the beginning of his transformation. Since only his upper body was visible, that was where Joliece could see the majority of the change. Immediately his skin darkened, and the flesh beneath his chin crawling down his belly turned yellow. First it seemed an unhealthy color, a mixture of yellow and flesh, but only ticks later it changed to a bright vibrant color while the deep tan flesh around it darkened to a rich cobalt black. His eyes turned darker and skull lengthened stretching to reach its more serpentine heritage. His arms thickened and dark claws appeared at the end of each of his fingers, as he stretched them, reveling in the enjoyable feeling, Joliece could see webbing between them, and feel the elongating tail brush against her legs due to her proximity with him. In a glorious 30 ticks the fairly large man had become a massive Dhani, only slightly smaller than most Constrictors, his coloring stark. When the tip of his tail lifted out of the water, Joliece could see it was strangely flattened, and bore more of the colorful yellow in jagged stripes along its tip, there was also a bit of webbing underneath his arms.

When Voss spoke again his voice was deeper, and more overtaken by the snake tongue, though he still spoke in Common. "I am no Conssstrictor." He said the word with some disdain, but with none of the hatred of the old Voss, who held the same grudge against the Constrictors of Zinrah as all his brethren did.

[Joliece]

Joliece shook her head side to side. ”No, I have not heard.” She paused, thinking about what had happen to her this fall. The poor konti was isolated... hidden from the rest of the world of the world for that short period of time. She was kidnapped by a zith, one that did very awful things. The zith threatened her life and her kid’s lives too. The time she spent as a captive was the scariest moment of her life. Joliece had never felt so helpless until that happened. ”I was kind of… busy that season. Very busy.” She pushed the memory of fall to the back of her mind, trying to forget it. ”But if I would’ve known, I would be the first in line to meet you!” Joliece told him cheerfully.

”Seriously? You’ll show me your dhani form?” Joliece’s tone of voice hinted how excited she was that he would show her. She knew how fairly big dhani could get, so Joliece swam back a bit to give Voss some space. The konti stopped her half-isur son from sliding down the slide to prevent him from getting in the dhani’s way as he changed forms. Voss had all their attention once again. Lynis settled down outside the pool, standing beside his mother and Nathaniel was peeping at the dhani from behind his mother’s back. Joliece bit her lip as she watched in amazement, flinching at the sound of his neck cracking like thunder. When his skin changed from a dark brown to a sickly yellow, she was in awe. The dhani form was one she found to be quite beautiful and almost magical.

It was true, he was no constrictor. She had seen a constrictor’s form many times to know the difference. The Iyvess form was just as beautiful to the young woman though. She actually found this particular form far more attractive than the human one—but that was not something she would like to admit aloud.

”He looks nothing like dad.”

Joliece was surprised to hear Lynis mention Luise. Her gazed shifted from Voss to the boy then back to Voss. She stopped biting her lip so that she could speak, ”Yes, nothing like Luise. Voss is different. He is a different species.” Joliece began swimming closer to Voss again, looking up at him into his dark eyes. ”This is very lovely if you don’t mind me saying. It’s been awhile since I have seen something so unique.”

Common-Kontinese-Snake-Tongue

[Sarshassilivoss]

oocSincerest apologies for the lengthy delay here

Dhani were rarely uncomfortable shifting in front of others, and Voss was no different. He did study Joliece and her children as he shifted, however, noticing that she was not as uncomfortable as non-Dhani often were when witnessing the change. It was a comfortable procedure, but not beautiful, or a seamless transition like the Kelvic were prone to. He opened his mouth in what could be a terrifying smile filled with sharp teeth, but also had a certain amount of warmth in it, finding that Joliece, nor the younger ones seem to be intimidated in the least.

His neck and head rotated somewhat to assess what the child had said. "Your father iss Dhani?" It seemed odd, but Male Dhani could reproduce with non-Dhani. That being said he had a feeling that the word 'Dad' was not used in a biological sense, something that Voss was quite familiar with since the way Charodae raised children, the chances of actually having one's own offspring was fairly slim. The idea of a land dwelling Dhani, doing this, however, boggled Voss's mind somewhat.

The Iyvess's smile widened at Joliece's compliment, and he inclined his head somewhat. "Thank you." He stretched out his arms, then glanced around him, assessing the curvature of the pool that would allow him to slide down. He glanced at Lynis. "Race you to the bottom?" He grinned, fully showing off his wide maw, then without waiting for a reply he drew back his tail in a tight coil, twisted his torso and lunged belly first down the carved pathway, landing with a massive splash into the second pool, bright yellow tipped tail flashing behind him.