Tranquility, Master Bedroom

"You could play hoops in this room, what is it?"   "The master bedroom is through here, you can see the closets past that screen."   "Honour my aged grandmother sideways! Just how big is this house?"   "This medium-sized manor of 10 rooms and 4 bathrooms is 35 meters by 25."   "Ten rooms?"   "Master bedroom, secondary, tertiary, guest, main hall, two transit hallways, kitchen, dining room and work room."   "No gym?"   "I keep some weights in a cupboard by the pool in the main hall."   "And the main hall is that monstrously huge room I walked in?"   "Doubles as a solarium, pool, and temple room, for worship."   "I could tell, the holy octagon shape gave it away. You use all that space?"   "Well, perhaps not every day, but I have found every bit useful before."   "That lawn outside, do you ever get tired, trimming it?"   "That's not a lawn, it's a protected savannah, there's wild strawberries, and all sorts of wild plants and weeds, I never trim it, but I can't improve it either, it's a natural park, my parents just made such a fuss at having to destroy their property, they managed not to get expropriated. Every month or so, some curators come and check on the wildlife, animals, etc. They usually get upset if one of the cats gets a vole, but I can't tell them not to follow their instincts."   "And who are those two people in the painting?"   "Mama and Papa, they had it commissioned on their anniversary."   "Your parents commissioned their own painting?"   "What part of 'aristocrats' was unclear? My family would get a sharply worded letter from Meihomei for 'acting beneath their station' if they hadn't, well, probably. Meihomei's pretty chill."   "And what's that?"   "Just a screen."   "I meant, behind the screen."   "Just the bed."   "Do you need a map to go to bed? I couldn't touch both sides laying down..."   "Mama and Papa liked their comforts, it's a very comfy place to sleep."   "And what about other things?"   "Oh, quite comfy for that too..."  

---

  "I still can't believe I was that brazen..." Shibué mused, on her back, her hand climbing up his chest, playfully.   "Hopefully, it was worth it..."   Hmm, I had fun, and I like how environmentally conscious you are, your own protected park? Do you ever just go doze out in that nature?"   "Hmmm, you'll make fun of me..."   "Aw, no, come on..."   "I do, just never without at least one cat, I'm deathly afraid that I'll go there and some vole will come out of a hole and bite me."   "That's a little funny, you're a lot scarier to the vole than it is to you."   "Still not as scary as Raven in a mood."   "Hmm, probably not, is she fully grown?"   "Just about, she and her quadruplet sisters are just about adult, they sexually mature like a season before they're fully grown, I can't say I fully understand it, but their parents and their parents, had the same thing, bunch of kittens, but still growing a little."   "No wonder, Robyn puts the panther in housepanther."   "I can't get how big this bed is... It's almost a parody of a bed. And I saw hammocks in the temple room, who are they for? Servants?"   "No, they're the cat's beds, all my cats turned out to be hammock maniacs."   "That looked like a quarter of your temple room dedicated to the little apostates..."   "I'm just a humble lay worshipper, Aumhavar never said anything."   "Hmm, if I was aumhavar, I'd have sharp words!"   "Hmm, please, I would improve, if you but tell me how, Aumhavar."   "What?"   "You know if you sleep with a priestess, it's how you call her for the rest of the day..."   "Oh, honour me sideways with great reverence, I forgot that." And you're the first man that bothered to notice, or give me that much respect, in a long time... She thought.   "How can I make this right, high one?"   "Well, the hammocks have to be around the pools, they can't go into that room and just neglect that the holy pools are what the room's about, cat or no cat."   "Hmm, hmm. Did you know all the adults know how to swim?"   "What? Do they swim in the temple pools?"   "Yeah, so do I, not when I'm having a ritual ablution, obviously, but I go for a swim with them all the time."   "Miau!" Came the ringing call from the other side of the bedroom door.   "Seems they want to worship with their bellies full, at least."