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Post by Executus Gira on Mar 23, 2018 6:03:54 GMT
It was a few hours after the group has reached the Violet Bar. Demmy looked up as she walked out past the entrance, at the scarlet Sun edging toward the horizon. It has taken them longer than she would have liked to get their uniforms ready, the room prepared for them, and the location of the bath house figured out. Now it was getiing late... but this stench on her was overwhelming, and she needed the baths sooner rather than later, and a shower wouldn't suffice.
"So, the Mival Bath house is just down the street, right? And we have towels for it?" Molly came up beside her.
"They'll give us towels apparently." Demmy explained. "And it's a co-bath, so don't be caught off guard by that."
"Really?" Molly gasped. "Well... if it's a co-ed bath, then surely there's rules to prevent... bad things from happening."
"Logically. Otherwise, it would have been closed down and overhauled long ago."
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Post by Stage on Mar 23, 2018 6:40:05 GMT
A third figure exited the bar. Sam looked more presentable now that she had dried out, but there was blood plastered flakily over her scratched cheek.
"You two finally done?" she asked flatly.
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Post by Executus Gira on Mar 23, 2018 6:51:52 GMT
"Yes. Sorry it took so long." Molly said to Sam. "Just, trying to get something in Demmy's size was very difficult. It was either long enough but too thin, or wide enough but too short, until we finally found something."
"Not my fault I'm taller than normal." Demmy shrugged. "Just how I am. But yes, we're not ready to go." With that, Demmy took the lead, with Molly right behind her. At this time, there weren't so many people out in the streets as there had been before, so it was easier to see where things were.
"Come to think of it, you made your own uniform for the cafe, because nothing I had fit you."
"Yes I did. Because trying to fit into any of that would have lead to modesty violations and complaints... not that some of the customers would have complained, of course."
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Post by Stage on Mar 23, 2018 7:01:06 GMT
"You should teach Bahn about that," Sam said with a hint of a scoff. Then she eyed Demmy. "You also fixed a pair of pants of hers to fit Molly, didn't you? Is tailoring a hobby for you?"
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Post by Executus Gira on Mar 23, 2018 7:16:31 GMT
"Something I learned from my mother." Demmy said. "She loved to personally mend clothes and tailor them to how me and my siblings needed them. I just picked it up after her and... yeah, it's a bit of a hobby you can sa-"
A shiver ran down Demmy's spine. For some reason, she felt a burning sensation in the back of her head, like a fiery, hateful gaze was drilling into the back of her skull. Yet, this wasn't the first time she felt this gaze...
No, it was all too familiar to her.
"Demmy, are you alright?" Molly's voice snapped Demmy back to reality. " You just froze there for a moment."
"Sorry. Just... felt a pang of fear for how she's doing." Demmy was quick to lie. "Normally, I don't care how my family's doing but... I do miss my mother."
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Post by Stage on Mar 23, 2018 7:41:03 GMT
"Neither of you have mentioned fathers," Sam noted. She looked at them, but her amber eyes seemed somewhere else. Her tone was abnormally placid. "On bad terms or absent?"
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Post by Executus Gira on Mar 23, 2018 7:50:28 GMT
"For me, just... not a part of the family anymore." Demmy answered. Her pace hurried, from a normal methodical walk almost to a light jog, toward a large ivory building at the end of the street, the bath house in question. "He preferred doing things his own way, and it didn't mesh with the family."
"My father... he died before I was born." Molly quietly answered, keeping pace with Demmy. Apparently, the need to be clean was that important for her. " Mom said it was a car crash with a drunk driver, but... whenever she told me that, she would always hesitate, and start shaking. I don't know what really happened to kill him, but she probably thinks its better I don't know."
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Post by Stage on Mar 23, 2018 7:56:53 GMT
Sam was quiet for a while. She followed the taller women mindlessly, staring past them.
"It was a drunk driver that got mine," she said at last. "It as when I was sixteen though."
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Post by Executus Gira on Mar 24, 2018 22:53:57 GMT
"Oh..." Molly went silent. Her hand slowly reached up to cover her mouth. "I.... I'm so sorry..."
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Post by Stage on Mar 24, 2018 23:24:18 GMT
Sam shrugged her broad shoulders. "It was eight years ago. I got over it," she grunted.
However, despite a valiant effort, she was clearly not as unaffected as she tried to seem.
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Post by Executus Gira on Mar 25, 2018 2:34:19 GMT
Molly opened her mouth, and wanted to say something, anything to Sam, but as she reached out to grab her shoulder, she held back. It was clear to her Sam wouldn't have appreciated the gesture, and would rather bear the brunt of her sorrows herself. "I-I see." Was all she said.
By this point, the three had arrived at the entrance to the baths. The ivory exterior stood out like a sore thumb among the rest of the buildings in the area, and the design, with marble vines and cherubim etched along the pillars of the front, gave the building a decidedly Italian look. The doors to the entrance were open, and Demmy was the first to enter, along with Molly and then Sam.
"Ah, a visitor at this hour? I was going to wait for the rest to leave them close down, but come in if you must." A short, wrinkly woman said from behind the counter. She was covered in a white robe, similar to a roman centurion or an angel, and quite elderly looking, with the hair on her head breaking and stringy. She walked out from behind the counter with a walking stick as her support. "Oh, visitors? Please, welcome to the Baths, and enjoy your stay. Please use the female changing room, where your towels are."
"No pay to enter?" Demmy asked, raising an eyebrow. Molly noticed that she was looking down at the woman's stick, which seemed to be made of the same marble as the building. The head was shaped like the sun, complete with stone flares and plumes coming from it. "It's free?"
"For today, yes. Just this day of the week, though. Consider yourselves lucky." The old woman chuckled. "But behave yourselves, please."
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Post by Stage on Mar 25, 2018 2:37:47 GMT
Sam arched a thin eyebrow. "Business is good enough to let you have a free entry day every week?"
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Post by Executus Gira on Mar 25, 2018 2:49:58 GMT
The old woman nodded. "Plenty of people enjoy these baths, and Mival's a large enough city to supply them almost constantly. The baths absorb people's anguishes, their exhaustion and their worries, and leaves them feeling relaxed and refreshed.You can thank the rare minerals beneath the city."
"That's rather interesting." Molly began to say, but a strong hang grabbed her by the shoulder and began to drag her off toward the women's changing rooms. "Wait, I want to know more! Demmy!"
"I came here for a bath, and I don't want to wait any longer!" Demmy mumbled. "You can chat with her AFTER we're done."
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Post by Stage on Mar 25, 2018 3:01:21 GMT
"I agree," Sam said as if it hurt her to agree with Demmy. "You reek," she then told the taller woman, as if insulting her would make her feel better.
Not waiting for a response, she began moving towards the changing room. She didn't exactly smell like roses either, Sam admitted to herself. She had not bathed in anything but a sluggish creek for many months now. The scent of the water, a mix of rich, earthy odors and the piercing, sour stench of fish, had permeated her skin. She did not dislike it actually. It reminded her of camping trips and day drives to fishing holes She doubted many other people appreciated it though. Her face grew warm as if she was entering a sauna, not a bath. Of course, the only proven exception had been Alex, who innocently and happily claimed she smelled like the outdoors...
"Goddammit, Alex," she mumbles near silently to herself.
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Post by Executus Gira on Mar 25, 2018 3:21:24 GMT
If Demmy had heard that mumble, she gave no indication of it, outside of the tiniest of smiles etching on the side of her face for a fraction of a moment.
The changing rooms were rather sparse, with lockers for each person to put their clothes away in. Beside each other was a towel to take, and on the other end of the rooms was the entrance to the baths itself. As Molly stripped down and took her towel, she noticed that one of the lockers was already taken, and the towel for it as well. They were going to have company, apparently.
"I brought clean clothes for us both... apparently from the former employee girls that left the bar." Demmy said, as she came over with her towel around her, and placed a set of clothes for Molly. "Part of why it took so long to get ready was me making sure they fit you, and my new stuff fit me."
"Oh, thank you." Molly said, wrapping her towel around her. It was long enough, and wide enough, to cover her from the base of the neck to the thigh. Demmy's however, left less for the imagination, especially around the upper chest. "Uh, does your towel fit, Sam?" She asked, looking back over at her...
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Post by Stage on Mar 25, 2018 3:39:23 GMT
Molly caught Sam in the transition between her clothes, folded in a tidy pile on the ground, and the towel, which was being hoisted over a deeply cleaved globe balanced atop two pale, toned thighs that resembled the marble the bathhouse was made out of. Twisting around upon hearing the question, Sam also unintentionally have Molly a glimpse of her chest before it too was enfolded by the towel. While no where near as eye-catching at a certain raven-haired woman, it seemed far larger freed of clothing than trapped within, a boon of being so stout perhaps.
"It fits fine," Sam shrugged, and indeed it covered her better than Demmy's. Despite the younger woman's greater height however, it only trailed to her thighs, just like Molly's, almost certainly due to the prominent curve it had to follow behind her.
As the red-blonde woman turned to face them however, something different leaped out: a long scar, starch against the near white of her fair Irish skin. It traced the interior of her leg from her knee nearing her pelvis.
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Post by Executus Gira on Mar 25, 2018 4:00:20 GMT
Molly's eyes landed on the scar on the leg, and yet again, she wanted to ask about it. But as she opened her mouth, Demmy drowned her out. "I can already feel the heat from here." She said as she walked out of the room, and Molly, deciding to ask later, followed suit.
The main pool of the Baths was massive, seeming to span over forty meters in width and length. Two marble statues, both of angels holding bowls out over their heads, poured steaming water down below. The steam rising made seeing very far hard, but Molly could just barely make out the edges of the pool, and a figure swimming on the far end. Yet, strangely enough, there didn't seem to be anyone keeping watch. No life guards...
Demmy was the first to enter the pool, slipping down the side gently. She let out a relaxed yawn. "This is divine." She mused, an almost heavenly smile on her face. "I needed this so bad."
Molly slipped in beside her. Sure enough, the hot water's effects were almost instant. The wear and tear on her body from trekking across the land for a full day were sapped from her, and she struggled to not just submerge herself entirely to let the water ease her. Why was it so soothing? Was it really the minerals? "Why couldn't Regina have anything like this?" She asked, more to herself than anyone else around her.
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Post by Stage on Mar 25, 2018 4:13:16 GMT
"Home?" Sam asked Molly as she submerged her own large shoulders, the warm water rising to her pointed chin. She neither displayed nor hid her naked form from the other woman, apparently unconcerned either way.
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Post by Executus Gira on Mar 25, 2018 4:41:43 GMT
Molly nodded. "Regina was the town I was born in. Lived there for twenty years of my life. It's a sorta big city of over 200,000, but I wanted a quieter place to live, so I moved an hour out to a smaller town, found the cafe there that was in need of new ownership, and I took over. There's times I miss the city, but the town's friendlier and everything's less hectic to manage."
"I can agree there." Demmy answered. She raised up her arms over her head and stretched, until she felt the pop of the shoulder joints. "I come from a pretty rural area, then I ended up in the big city, and while it had its perks and enjoyments, I hated it. The town with the cafe is just right for me but... Here in Mival, might as well get back to urban living. Hopefully with less killjoys and obscenely tall murderous women."
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Post by Stage on Mar 25, 2018 4:49:35 GMT
After internally scoffing at the hypocrisy of the latter, Sam looked back to Molly.
"You own the cafe? That's impressive for someone your age," she said.
If it isn't slowly going out of business, she chose not to say.
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