You’ve been doing great as a rogue so far: sneaking into the Snake Temple’s dungeons solo, avoiding traps and detection to delve deeper into the lower levels, were riches are bound to be… but may it be overconfidence or just running out of luck, a single misstep has you suddenly plunging down through a hidden trapdoor and dropping unceremoniously into a dark room!
Despite managing to avoid damage from the fall, you are now in danger…

“Who interrupts our ssssleep…”
“…will it be friend or foe…?” speak two sibilant voices amidst the darkness, but you’re not in the mood to find out who they are!
Crawling on all fours, you try to make a silent exit through the blinding obscurity… a desperate attempt that fails miserably as one of your hands lands right onto a scaly, serpentine body sliding before you.
“A-ha!”
You barely get enough time to shiver at the sheer size of it and to regret your life choices before both ends of that serpentine body close around you, ensnaring your torso into a tight loop of coil!

You try fighting back and pulling free from it… at the very least you won’t go down without a fight! But even that is futile, for the coil’s grip simply keeps tightening, quickly leaving you breathless and pacified.
“Your trespassssing won’t go unpunished…”
“…but our ssssentence could be lenient if you state your motive…” say the two alternating voices.
Your eyes begin to adjust to the darkness as you lay limp in the coil’s clench, noticing glowy tattoos partially outlining the two nagas’ forms against the shadows.

Running out of options, you resort to taunting them and daring them to expose themselves under the light for a fair confrontation, to which they respond by snapping their fingers and magically bringing light into the room.
You lower your gaze a moment by reflex to adjust to the new lights; you see the thick, brown-scaled snake tail wrapped around you, and as your eyes follow its two extremities extending before you, you’re surprised to see they both end into two fully grown nagas! Like some kind of mythical amphisbaena, the two ophidian people happen to share the same serpentine lower body… though seeing such a rare specimen doesn’t make you any happier to be their captive!
The one on your left is looking down on you in a judging pose with all his four arms crossed; he visually strikes you for his wide cobra hood, the finely braided hair and the whisker-like barbels hanging from his snout.
The one on your right seems more pensive than judging, one of his hands rubbing his chin while the other three rest more casually at his ‘hips’… though it’s hard to guess what he’s thinking under the rattlesnake tails growing in place of his hair, almost like thick, rattling dreadlocks that cover his eyes. You also can’t help noticing the colourful dewlap adorning his gorge and neck, which reminds you of an iguana…
“I am Xer…” says the cobra-hooded one…
“…and I am Xes…” continues the dewlap adorned one.
“…together, we are XerXes~!” they declare in unison, striking a ‘cool’ pose together.

An awkward moment of silence ensues before they sigh at each other.
“I thought we practiced this Xes, why do you keep ruining it?”
“I don’t know Xer, how about you actually being in synch with me for once, uhm?”
“UGH not this again, shut up”
“No you shut up”
“Anyway, we must deal with the trespasser first”
“Yes but it won’t end here though”
The two stare daggers at each other for a moment before finally focussing on you again... and now they mean business with you as the coil wrapped around you gives you a squeeze!

“Ssssso… not so cocky anymore, uh? Forgot your line perhaps?” taunts Xes.
“Violating these sacred grounds has severe consequences…” says Xer, approaching.
“…although… you are the first to delve so deep into the Temple’s inner chambers… that takes audacity, AND talent…”
Xer raises an eyebrow at Xes as he says that, but seems curious to know where he’s going with it.
“…perhaps we could have fun with you, instead of punishing you…”
Xer’s expression quickly turns into a smirk; “Ahhh… are you ssssuggesting…”
“…yessss~” replies Xes with a knowing grin before slithering behind your back.
From there, his four arms easily bind both of yours into an armlock, leaving you open for Xer, who gets uncomfortably close; you try pushing him back with your legs but he simply catches them with his lower pair of arms, holding them out of his way until you feel the scutes of his torso pressing against your chest while he grins at you, showing his fangs…

“Don’t worry, these are not venomoussss… mwehehe~” says Xer, his other two hands forcing your head up before biting the base of your neck!
It stings, but much to your surprise the pain fades very quickly… moments later you feel light-headed, and the room seems to spin around you… is… is his venom actually drugging you?!
You try to beg for freedom, but your speech is slurred; already you’re struggling to control your body, while at the same time all your senses elevate to nearly overwhelming levels!
The colours you see appear more vibrant and detailed than ever and you feel like you could count every single scale brushing your skin right now, or smell the scent of the conjoined nagas in the air, or hear their heartbeats…

It is then that Xes leans over your face, his rattlesnake-dreadlocks draping like curtains around your visage and clearing for the first time the view into his eyes… and what a sight they are: they glisten like gemstones, the cyan of his irises constantly mixing with the green of his sclera in a series of swirling motions, forming alternating circles that move like ripples in the imaginary ponds of his eyes…
“Relax now, we won’t hurt you… although you won’t remember a thing anyway, mwehehe~” he says, and the view quickly fills your whole field of view as if entering a tunnel of cyan and green, losing yourself inside that hypnotic kaleidoscope~

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Ending this year's Snektember with this great duo of conjoined twin nagas! And even managed to write a short story presentation for them last-minute, yay! :D
Truth be told, I've secretly been holding onto this design for quite a long time in the hopes of posting something cool alongside the beautiful art I got of them, and yet I almost didn't make it in time for this year's Snektember due to my job '^w^

(For long time watchers: if this design looks somewhat familiar, it is indeed an upgrade of a previous naga design I own, but that will be our little secret ok~? ;P)

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Story and OC design by me, artwork by Arct1c0cean

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