Sun And Scales (open)

[Cera Lamprey]

Wow, this girl knew a thing or two about snakes and, apparently, wasn't afraid of them.

"Can't constrictors...constrict you?" Cera asked dubiously. "Like the snake in The Jungle Book. Kaa?" 

He had tried to eat Mowgli, and obviously a fictional book about personified animals would be 100% accurate in its depiction of animal behavior. 

The fact that the other girl was not a dryad was a little disappointing. That would have been cool; changing sizes was all well and good, but turning into a bush would be pretty spectacular. 

"Oh. You're not a bush, you're just....wait, what? Why...why are you naked in a bush?" 

She could think of no reasons why anyone would be naked outside in the fall in Vermont. That didn't sound very comfortable. 

[Naga Riddell]

Naga laughed slightly at the question, mostly due to the Kaa reference. Thank the lord that her little sister was obsessed with Harry Potter instead of Disney. Though the whole 'constricting' thing was true, most snakes would try to bite you since no living species could swallow an adult human whole. "Theoretically, yeah they can. Though they're more likely to bite you instead."

Naga's grin turned to a slight smile as the girl questioned her naked nature, reaching up with a hand to rub at the back of her head. "Well, you can't shift with clothes." When shapeshifters changed shape, their clothes didn't. They just kinda... dropped somewhere. Hers were probably on the floor in her room.

"Oh yeah!" Naga exclaimed, letting her hands drop to below the bush; grabbing a hold of the picnic basket which had been residing beside her. Ribbon curled up slightly at the unexpected grabbing but remained seated on her legs. "You dropped this." She said, holding the basket forward with both hands.

[Cera Lamprey]

"Oh," Cera replied. That made perfect sense to her; she had known a number of shifters during her time at Hammel. It was a fairly common power, after all. She didn't think to ask what the other girl shifted into, however, until she was handed her picnic basket.

"Oh!" She exclaimed again, "Thank you!"

She pulled back the checkered blanket covering her food and began to rifle through to make sure everything was still there. "I was so startled I must have dropped it and you...you...found..."

Wait. In order to have found her basket the other girl had to have come from the same direction as the snake. She hadn't seen another person, or heard them, or really seen any sign of them.

But there had been an enormous snake.

An enormous snake that probably wasn't native to Vermont.

"You were the snake! Oh. Is that why you know so much about them?"

[Naga Riddell]

"Your welcome." Naga responded with a lazy grin, quite amused by the girl's apparent excitement of having her basket back. As the girl began to rummage through the basket, the shapeshifter hoped that nothing had fallen out of it along the way. She didn't have any hands, she couldn't of picked anything up if it did.

Naga laughed as the stranger seemed to finally catch on that she and the giant snake were one and the same. Even though being a snake helped a lot, the blonde teen mostly learned about snakes through her father's breeding hobby and the fact that snakes always interested her as a kid, despite the fact that one of the snakes almost tore her throat out. Naga rubbed at the large white scar on the side of neck absent-mindedly.

"I suppose, though this guy helped a bit." The snake shifter said, reaching down to pick up Ribbon and drape him over her shoulders. He wasn't the biggest of snakes but he was certainly longer than the average scarf. Ribbon flickered his tongue in curiosity about why he was moved before relaxing again.

[Cera Lamprey]

"Oh. Ohhhh." 

Cera leaned forward inquisitively as the other girl draped a snake across her shoulders. "Hello, widdle snakey," She greeted the reptile in a painfully cutesy voice. "Awww, you...don't bite, do you?" 

She glanced up at Naga for confirmation. She knew that with certain animals it was best to go slowly, not making eye contact or sudden moves or you might get clawed. 

She'd never had a friend with a snake before, though, so she wasn't entirely sure how to go about petting one. 

"Do you...pat them on the head?" 

And then, rather belatedly, she realized that they hadn't exchanged names. She held out a hand and added, "I'm Cera, by the way. Do you want to join me?" 

She lifted up her picnic basket meaningfully. 

"I have plenty."

[Naga Riddell]

Naga smiled and slowly shook her head to Cera's unspoke question, no, he doesn't bite. Ribbon flickered his tongue at his new position and the new scents before him.

The blonde grinned. "Nah, snakes are careful with their heads. Best bet is to lightly stroke them along their bodies."

Ribbon flickered his tongue again. "<I like being petted, just not by males. They're rough.>" 

Naga rolled her eyes at Ribbon's statement, she knew that he just preferred being touched by girls; it had nothing to do with how rough he was petted. Though, of course, he got more adgitated when grabbed.

Naga reached up with a grin and shook the extended hand. "My name's Naga." To the next question, Naga raised an eyebrow and her grin turned into a coy smirk. "I'd love to, though I am a bit lacking in the clothes compartment." She gestured to the bush that was acting as her coverage.

[Cera Lamprey]

Cera leaned forward to tentatively touch Ribbon's back. His scales were rougher than she had expected; she had envisioned something slimier, more akin to an amphibian than a reptile. 

"Hello widdle snakey wakey. Do you eat mice and bugs? I don't think I have anything you'll like in my picnic basket, no I don't." 

She bit her lip at the other girl's commentary about nudity, however. "Ohhhh. Where'd you leave your clothes? I can go look for them for you." 

That was assuming, of course, that they would be easily found; it was just as likely that Naga had hidden them so that nobody would steal them while she was off cavorting in snake form.