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Shou cocked her head to the side; the faint blush betrayed that she suspected exactly what date Sasha had referred to, but Kalokin making a play? A play for what? The enigmatic puff of cotton candy gave a mental shrug as Khaesho blearily stirred from his nap with a yawn. He made grabby hands at her and successfully pulled her into his coils for a moment. "Mmmm, da was a good nap. Grocery shopping go alright?" She happily burrowed into his coils before fishing something out of a nearby bag; She'd grabbed a gallon of milk for the house, but while walking the isle, it occurred to her that he likely hadn't ever had any chocolate milk. Handing him the bottle, she smiled mischievously. "Here, love, I grabbed this for you." She could feel the distance yet to travel weighing on her though, so she gave him a quick smooch and started wriggling back towards the driver's seat.

Khaesho gingerly took the cold bottle and eyed the brown drink suspiciously. A glance at Shou showed only a patient smile and a wave, insisting he try it. Working on instinct and with some help from Kalokin, he cracked the top and tasted it with just the tip of his tongue."M-milk...?" His pupils dilated wide as he took a careful sip, creamy chocolate flooding his tongue for the first time. "Sweat heavens beside us that's good." Another careful sip before he eyed it again. "How... how did they get the chocolate to stay liquid?"

"Magic." She responded happily as she pulled out of the place, and started to drive towards her home. They wasn't much road left to travel now, and she could stash the car far enough from the road not to be seen. Nikolak could drive it away later and let it be found by some poor sod.

Khaesho gave this response the quizzical look it deserved, as Kalokin dutifully researched and explained the process in far more detail than was warranted. His coils writhed in the trunk, sliding to reposition himself to try and work the kinks out of his cramped muscles. "And what'd I do to deserve such a treat"

Her ears twisted and perked. "Guilt mostly. I feel terrible I can't bring you inside places with me." She growled, unhappy with this. "But I also wanted to just give you a treat."

He shrugged; he was used to hiding from people, and Kalokin had been telling him of plans, and plans within plans. It wasn't something they could just -do-. "Cows don't like Naga... most animals don't, unless they're bred and raised by Naga for at least a full generation. You need the animals to be born smelling the scent of serpent on their mother for them to ever truly be calm about us handling them." He took another, slightly larger taste. "And chocolate... Kalokin mentioned your markets worked differently, that things were priced differently, but to enshroud the entire market in concrete! Why do they close it off like that though, I couldn't even hear what was for sale from outside!"

The highway rolled away beneath them. Shou saw the goof of a snek jealously guarding the baked chicken, clutching it deep in his coils. "It's a grocery store. They keep the building artificially cooled so that all the food stays really fresh." She offered, "I plan to Soul gaze with you when we get somewhere safe, you can have a look at one of them then? See everything we just saw and probably get a better understanding of it than I could try to explain."

"Certainly, but no need to share inconsequential memories... Kalokin is making my head spin trying to explain everything at once. I made the mistake of asking him how they put chocolate in the milk, and he's split off onto so many different tangents that I think I'm better off not knowing." He eventually settling on a posture that had his torso in the back seat with most of him neatly coiled in the trunk. "Besides, there's better things to see in your eyes than grocery stores. Ever since you got back you look so... otherworldly. I mean, I always thought bipedals had odd souls, but now you look..." He took a few moments to find the right word. "Wild. Untamable. In a good way though." He hastily added.

She glanced at him with a loving little smile before her eyes returned to the road. "I wish I could see what you see when you look. But I expect that's not something I could ever manage. It would be like trying to explain how your soul looks to me. There just aren't words."

The little blue snake earring re-appeared, speaking quietly, in a voice that Khaesho heard despite the whisper into Shou's ear. "Unfortunately, no, I don't know of any actual mirror for the soul. The best we might do is show you our memories of looking at you, but it wouldn't be the same, like looking at a black and white photo. You look somewhat similar to Nikolak, if that helps. The wildfire that is her heart bears the same glint as the spark of fierce independence in you. Speaking of which Nikolak, stop sulking and re-manifest, we all know you're there."

The black wolf had dissipated after unloading the groceries, but sank into a bashful puppy in the passenger seat after being called out. "I... sorry. I didn't want to stress you out just by being nearby. You said that my touch burned-"

"Not your touch, but the guilt behind it. It is not falsehood I see, but the guilt that betrays it, so stop fretting. Whatever it is that you're not telling me, I know it's what shattered our resonance. We'll deal with it like we've dealt with every problem for the past few thousand years. You know I'm ethereally incapable of anger, and I know you plan to tell me tonight, so will you please stop fretting? I could feel your anxiety from the parking lot, and that isn't even my sphere of influence!"

She whimpered and put her ears down, looking up with big soulful eyes before slowly filling out a bit more, taking her bipedal form again. "A-alright... if you insist, Kalo."

Shou hummed a little and she spoke carefully. "I can't be certain, but Nikolak might have gained a set of instincts similar to my own. You're Pack, family. And even if she knows in her head you aren't able to be angry, her heart fears. And she's learning that such fear and anxiety is inevitable." A glance at Niko and the darker canine nodded, smiling faintly that at least Shou understood. Then Shou's eyes widened some and she let out a little 'oh!' "I bet you could explain why wolves are monogamous in a way Kalo and Kaesh could understand as well." Her instincts were changing, somewhere between a wolf and a Naga, but she still had the desire for monogamy - of a sort. There was a willingness for the four of them to be happy together, but she had no inclination to share any of them. A selfish little heart, but it made sense in a way.

Nikolak tilted her head a little and thought for a moment. "Honestly Shou, I probably couldn't... I'm in your camp on this one. In blunt words, I think Shelandra's a slut, and I wouldn't be caught dead sleazing up every handsome muscle I saw. In fact, I-" She stopped dead and blushed with a crimson glow, giving just enough pause for Kalokin to continue for her.

"She's a virgin. At least, as close as you can get for ephemeral beings. She's never used a manifestation to pleasure anyone, and her lack of ability to synchronize with Naga meant she couldn't enjoy it secondhand either."

Mirth was evident in his tone, which caused Niko enough grief that she quickly dissolved and re-formed as a bracelet, to hug Shou's wrist for comfort. "Don't say that like it's a bad thing! I just... I want it to be with someone who understands me... besides, it's hard to seem appealing when the world thinks you're bloodthirsty."

Shou continued to voice her thoughts, still careful with the words that fell from her lips. "We're meant to have either one or only a few significant partners in our lives." She seemed to be working out something as she did so. "Like the Naga soul gaze we share parts of our souls when we have sex. That's why it's linked so closely to emotion. Why we pick our life mates so carefully."

She glanced at Khaesho from the corner of her eye. "Would you soul gaze with every Tom, Rick and Harry that came along?" To her it was something profoundly intimate.

His answer was immediate. "Hell no. That's something you do with family, your mate, and if you're chin deep in offal, with the town justice to prove you're innocent."

"Mmhm. That's like sex for us. We can't soul gaze our mates, but we can give of our bodies, mingle our souls in the physical pleasure and for a time exist as one in two bodies. That's the way it's supposed to be for us." She knew that - but she didn't know why she knew that. Just that it was truth. It was part of what made the wolves, wolves.

Khaesho nodded a little bit, understanding that much. "I think I understand... you might not soul gaze like the Naga do, but... I remember the way your soul almost reached out to me, when I first hypnotized you." He paused for a longer moment before speaking with a question floating from his lips. "Actually... we've said before that your souls, those of the civilized nations... they look unbounded. Your minds are like fire, flickering and dancing in the wind, whereas most Naga are water: still, contained by a clay cup. I know you don't soulgaze, but... perhaps you still share souls when you fornicate." He followed that thought a little further; it had never clicked for him that their wild souls might not need something stable like a gaze to intermingle, that theirs might leak through to eachother from physical contact alone. "I can believe that wolves share their souls during physical intercourse... I suppose that's why you have different connotations for making love, having sex, and fucking... I get that about right?"

She nodded to him. "Yeah, sounds right. Our life, our energy, our souls mingle with those we choose. So we don't hastily share ourselves with many. It hollows the experience. And though I can feel my instincts changing and I... might now be against the others gods joining our bed occasionally, I still want only for you, and for Niko and Kalo as well."

Her intimate world revolved around the three who would be her constants in life. "I don't think the mingling of our souls is something we - Niko and myself - can control when we have sex. So we're stingy about it. Which makes me a jealous mate unwilling to share." An amused huff. "Your soul is my match, it should be shared in such a way only with me."

He wriggled just enough to reach his arms around her seat and hug her waist. "And I'm not opposed to you jealously guarding my interests..." he chuckled a little bit with that, "but only as long as I can convince you that nothing could steal you from my heart."

She rumbled a happy growl. "I am believing it more every day." But it was a long road. She gave an encouraging pulse of warmth to Nikolak and focused on the road.

Khaesho's arms released, and he returned fully to the back. "Nikolak? If you'd come join me back here... we need to talk, I think." The wristband squeezed Shou's wrist for a few moments before sliding back to the Naga's coils.

Her ears flicked and her movements were relaxed. Shou was more at ease than she had been for a few days. And the closer they got to her childhood home, the calmer she became... but it was a calm like the surface of the lake, and a thin vein of tension stirred deep beneath the waters.

Khaesho and Nikolak whispered quietly in the back seat. It was soft enough that she couldn't make out the words, but she could feel the emotions they shared. Khaesho... guarded? No, offended. Bitter about something buried by the past, and speaking tersely because of it. And Nikolak... ashamed and apologetic. Shou felt an odd, premeditated worry from her. This was a conversation she'd been quietly dreading for a while, but now that it started, Niko and Khaesho both slowly relaxed. She knew the two had a rather unpleasant history, but neither had yet explained the details, and as they made peace, she wondered if they ever would. The Naga's heart slowly calmed, and Nikolak slowly relaxed. Good signs.

"Eyes on the road, foof." Kalokin slithered down her arm to coil up on the dashboard, eyes soaking in the landscape around them. "They're grownups, they can settle things without mediation. Hopefully." He looked mostly solid, a definite improvement, but still a ghost of his former self.

"I love them both, I can't help but fret." And she knew it was true, admitted it without shame as she might once have hidden behind laughter or unease. She loved the three in the car with her in a way she had come to terms with in the most emotional of settings. "How are you holding up Kalo?" She worried for the spirit. He was not the same as the other four and she wanted him to be well.

Kalokin caught Khaesho's eye in the back for a moment before turning to Shou. "Your worries aren't unfounded. For a while, I thought he'd never quite be able to look at her without flinching, but he's trying, and that's good. Besides, I never said you couldn't worry, just that you shouldn't let it distract you." He looked back to the world around them, mapping the world with every mile they travelled. "Fear tells you what's dangerous. Without fear, sentience would wipe itself out with reckless abandon." Nikolak heard this from the back and smiled slightly; it was a quiet compliment, but his approval was enough for her to shore up her fragile emotions and face Khaesho with a straight face.

"It is good, it's more than I would have ever asked of him." And that was true too. She had asked for very little from her mate. Just to stay with him, to remain by his side. Her entire world had changed and she didn't know quite what to make of it. For days yet she had been running on adrenaline, not really having the time to take in the changes to herself, her soul, her body.

She and Kalokin fell silent for a moment. He gazed out the window, letting the road roll by as he gave his soul a quick diagnostic. "Honestly, I'm far from well. I can feel the world tugging at me... its gentle, since I'm sheltered by Khaesho's soul, but this world is not kind to spirits. The four deities are the only ones we know of that can truly exist indefinitely without a physical, mortal form for the spirit to live in, but their souls are different. I cheated the system, spending most of my time synchronized with Fear, but... now, its only a matter of time until I lose my grip and float away... Best case scenario? When Khaesho dies, he takes me with him to the afterlife. Don't know what the worst case is... but mortals who try to remain on earth after eventually lose themselves. There's a reason debt is such a serious topic in our culture, it's that we know what a severe debt can do to a person. There can be guilt and shame so great it tempts one to stay longer, to try and right past wrongs, to make up for mistakes made while alive. If they do it quickly, they can still move on, but if not..." He rippled slightly, cooly describing his own fate. "The soul just... weakens, until it sputters out and dies. They remain awake, if you can call it that, but they lose all sense of self. We called them the bereft, and I've never heard of one successfully reaching the sun." Without a soul he could feel no remorse. No fear, no anxiety, no worry nor even a drive of self-preservation. Just-resignation for his inevitable fate.

Shou too was calm, happy and content for all appearances. Stable enough to sooth Khaesho's worry, ease Nikolak along, and try to reassure Kalokin as well. "Well then, we'll just have to make sure you don't fade. It's another thing to add to the ever growing list of things we must tend to. You're our Kalokin, like we would let you just sink into oblivion."

He attempted to fake a laugh, but she knew his heart wasn't in it... mainly because he didn't have one. "As you wish..." He said nothing else, preferring to absorb the scenery they drove past. Shou glanced into his mind to see that he was literally doing just that; in the forefront of his conscience was an incredibly detailed map. One that was more empty than filled, but a map that must have been everywhere the deity had been. She saw the capitol of the Nagas' monarchy, a vastly intricate and detailed nation that contained far more than just the deserts of legend. There were sporadic, seemingly random patches of the world colored in, like Scandinavia... except it had a different name, and it was in the wrong time. A second glance was all she could spare to confirm; the map existed in four dimensions, three for location and one for time, the path of his entire life traced out into a single construct. Most recently, there was a rough and winding trek east, a thoroughly explored mountain, and a thin trail of road that led up to the wheels beneath them. Power, he might have lacked, but his memory encapsulated each individual tree they passed, every road sign, every highway stop. Even in his reduced form, he was capable of this, and she had to tear her attention back to the road after the rumble strip warned her she was drifting.

She left him curled up as he wanted to be, observing the world they passed. When she made a turn down a dark road, it led to another turn down a tree lined driveway. Branches reached overhead, making a green tunnel that filtered the light into speckles, fragments along the old gravel drive. The driveway was long, almost a road in and of itself, and it curved back out of sight of the main road. The house that came into sight was idyllic, a single storied home with a basement, a wide porch. It was dirty and dusty, but the windows were intact and the bricks were all there. Seeing it tension drained from her shoulders, and Shou smiled softly. "Home sweet home." There was a wistfulness to her words as she pulled to the driveway edge and parked. Just staring at the house through the windows for a moment.