Logs:Bathing Babbling
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| RL Date: 30 September, 2013 |
| Who: Jo, Tayte |
| Type: [[Concept:{{{type}}}|{{{type}}}]] |
| What: Jo and Tayte cross paths during a late night bath. |
| Where: Bathing Pools, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day {{{day}}}, Month {{{month}}}, Turn {{{turn}}} ({{{IP}}} {{{IP2}}}) |
| Mentions: H'vier/Mentions, K'del/Mentions, Yvalia/Mentions |
| OOC Notes: Back-dated, played via gdocs. |
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| Bathing Pools, High Reaches Weyr Omnipresent clouds of steam slink across the tops of three naturally warm pools, set into the floor of this kidney-shaped cavern. Near the entrance the ceiling is high and polished, gleaming with little mineral specks as it sweeps downward into increasingly ragged, uneven steps. The foremost of the pools is squared off with wide steps leading down into the water and has faucets for bringing in cooler water from a rain-catching cistern. Primarily used for laundry, there's an almost constant film of suds along its surface until the circulating current clears it at the end of the day. Four sinks line the nearest wall and various tubs stored beneath allow for the washing of delicates. Laundry bags can be dropped off in the bins near the door and clean, folded laundry is stacked in rows of tall cubbies for easy pickup. The bend in the cavern leads to a rougher-hewn part of the chamber where the two circular bathing pools welcome those in need of a wash. Towels and washcloths are kept in neat stacks on shelves along the wall, along with sacks of sweetsand and a few bars of precious soap. Stone benches provide a place for sitting to remove shoes and clothing, while a row of gleaming brass hooks stand above, ready to hold clothes and robes.
Late means the occasional appearance of Jo - and the baths are no exceptions. In she walks with a towel draped over her shoulder and cradling the little open basket of bathing tools while her little firelizard, Mime, sails on in behind her. Perhaps expecting the baths to be abandoned, hearing the bawdy song gets her to pause from behind Tayte before she snorts her greeting and prompts, "Singin' in the pools?" Then she quickly moves forward and sets her stuff down a few paces away, with Mime perching right on top of her dropped towel. The bluerider now sets to peeling her black jacket off. "How's it hangin', Tayte?" Being so focused as she was, the snort and comment prompts a yelp from the blonde as the razor draws a thin line of blood on her drawn up leg. That means the greeting Jo gets from Tayte is an eloquent: "Oh, for the love of salty men with mommy issues." The razor is set down carefully and she's arching back and twisting to grab gauze pads from her caddy that are certainly there for this and other reasons. It puts her in an interesting, if possibly artistic position when she sees that it's Jo, if the voice wasn't enough to register an identity in the moment. "Jo." It's surprised, but not displeased, despite the injury which she sets quickly to rinsing off and then pressing the gauze to. It's not anything serious. "I was focusing. With the signing." No longer though, now the bluerider has the better part of her attention. "I'm never sure how to answer that question since I lack the requisite part to know if it's hanging left, right or straight down the middle." Which doesn't answer the question at all. "How are you?" Jo eyes the cut before laughing, bearing teeth in a teasing smile as she drapes her jacket on a bench. "Nice one," is her comment to that greeting. "Yeah, I can tell. The singin' and all that. What song was that again?" Now the pants get peel down to reveal her boyshorts, the boots kicked off at the same time as her firelizard looks on. Tayte's answer on her question merely gets a grin from her since she's more focused on undressing, but her question gets a, "Well, some would say that an uneventful seven means that I'm doin' horribly. I guess that makes me just okay." Pants are down and kicked close to the bench where her jacket rests before she ruffles a hand through her wild hair. The glow Tayte's borrowed illuminates her blush plainly at the blueriders compliment of her choice of curse. "Well," is the wittiest response she can come up with. Maybe it's the bloodloss? Or just the fact that Jo is stripping down. "Dragonman and Maiden Fair, or Maidenhead, depending on which version you're singing." She answers, distracted, blue eyes following down the outline of the woman's body. If Jo's paying attention, she might hear the very soft sigh that escapes Tayte before the woman forces her eyes somewhere more polite: the cut on her leg. She knows better than to lift the gauze, but does anyway, too curious to see if-- yep! It's still bleeding. She resumes the pressure there. "Well, I'm glad you're not doing horribly, eventful sevenday or not." She glances back up to the bluerider, and her next words are sort of odd, "I've been missing you." She reaches now to tuck a lock of her wet hair behind her ear, "Remember that lunch date we had not long after we first met? It's been coming to mind in my quiet moments." "Interestin'," Jo comments on the song's name as she slips the panties off and drops to a seat at the pool's edge. Once she grabs the things needed for scrubbing, only then does she look Tayte's way - perhaps when that sigh was released, indeed. Eyes then drop towards the gauze, the movement catching her attention enough to have her pausing in her grabbing up the sweetsand. "What happened?" is all she asks, brows lifting along with her gaze towards her face. "Got knifed for stiffin' someone on their drink or somethin'?" The sweetsand gets wet then before she's applying it and beginning her bathing ritual - quick and efficient - and when Tayte utters the next on missing her, she passes that cocky grin back her way as she drawls, "Most always do, darlin'. The lunch date." There's only a breath of a moment before she nods as she scrubs and says, "Yeah, I remember that. Why that in particular?" "Mm," Tayte considers the question before answering, her light alto laced with sarcasm, "Well, I was in the bathes late one night shaving my legs with a straight razor, singing this song-- maybe you've heard of it? Dragonman and Maidenhead," The one just under discussion, "And this sexy bluerider surprised me and I cut myself." She reaches up with her free hand to flick another lock behind her ear, giving Jo a smile that's full of sass. "I suppose if I had gotten knifed and didn't want to tell you about it, I'd say I cut myself shaving, anyway." She allows her expression turning innocent. She lets her shoulders rise and fall in a shrug. "Can't say for sure. Just remembering how it was nice to talk with you. Flirt with you. Get to know you, a little, anyway." She glances back to the gauze and poses thoughtfully, "Do you suppose you could and would want to make time in the next couple sevens that we could do that sort of thing again? Another proper date?" One that doesn't see them largely occupied in a bed. "Gotta be more careful," Jo quips on cutting, sending Tayte an amused look from where she is. "Ya could have gotten knifed. S'not on me whether ya tell or not. I do believe there's much ya don' tell me anyway," alluding to Southern, likely, but there's no rancor in her tone. If anything, it's matter-of-fact. It's not something she lingers on, either. She shifts to work on her legs then while Mime chirps at her, the question coming forth on a proper date getting a brief pause before she sends the blonde a considering glance. After a moment, "Maybe," she says, as if she was giving it some thought. "There's some stuff I've been takin' care of lately, but...." her head does a half nod sort of thing, "...when some free time comes up, I'll let ya know, darlin'." That she's been missing more than lately these days from the Weyr is likely noticeable to those that would notice that sort of thing - barring drills and sweeps, naturally. "How's it goin' with Mr. Monogamous?" she suddenly asks as she wiggles the toes on one leg through the washing. "Because you're you, Jo, I'd likely tell you anything you wanted to know, if you asked." Tayte pulls the gauze away now, and sure enough, the bleeding on the light cut has now stopped. "But that's the trick with me," She dips a clean piece of gauze into the water to swab away the trailing red, careful not to reopen the just-formed barrier keeping the rest in, "You have to want to know enough to ask, and ask the right question to get the answer you're looking for. Habit, from turns of being at the bar." And probably before; nature of the beast almost certainly plays into this. "Well, if time does come up... You know I wouldn't want to keep you from business or things more important," That's oft been her excuse before about 'why not' bother Jo, she's not about to forget it now. "I don't suppose any of that stuff is stuff you can or would want to share the details of with me," She adds, "Though you know I'm always willing to hear, right?" Lest she not have expressed this before in so many words. As for Mr. Monogamous, "They're not. I don't think. Although, they might be. But I'm really not sure." She frowns at the bloody gauze and stretches to tuck them away in the caddy before giving Jo the short version: "I told him I wanted to keep sleeping with you. He called me a whore and said he'd fallen for me in the same breath and left. After he got stabbed, we agreed to try to work it out. I asked him not to sleep with anyone else until we got it settled. I was waiting for him all prettied up the night I could have sex again, and he'd brought a girl home. He blamed me for losing the baby, I kneed him where it hurts, took his bedmate for my own and left. Then we were together again... And that was very confusing. The whole thing. How it happened, what's going on since." She shakes her head. She doesn't know. "Ahh, darlin'," and Jo reaches for more sweetsand, "I dunno what ya'd tell if I asked or not. Just like ya dunno if I would ask at all or not. Ya bartenders with yer doublespeak and yer 'askin' the right questions'," and there, she chuckles low and shakes her head before looking her way. "But that's where we differ. I don' care about the wantin' to know enough's and the askin' right questions. If the answer's meant for a person, it'll be there. If not, well, it's not." With a roll of her shoulders to get the kinks out, she starts to work on her shoulders right then as she tries to beckon her fire lizard to land on her leg. As for her stuff, there's that secret little smile that comes as she answers back, "Some of it's not mine to tell, but....just been trying to get in touch with some old friends lately. Folks from before I came here. Most of'em I haven' seen for over ten turns." That seems to be all of it since she's frowning now as she goes silent, listening in Tayte's account with the bronzerider. When she mentions sleeping with her, a brow lifts and she pauses her washing to regard her for a few moments before she says, "We....don' sleep together often enough for my name to be thrown in there at him. I hope he's not the type that thinks he needs to throw his territorial weight around to make a point." A point in her direction, even. She listens to the rest without interrupting again though, nodding here and there as she resumes her washing. At the end of the story, all she can do and snort softly and dip her rag into the pool for a moment. "So....y'all are together," she gives, though it's slightly more of a question than a statement. "I mean, that's great if yer are and all," she's quick to add. Tayte's eyes linger on the brunette as she speaks. There are times with the bartender when things go unsaid, this is one of them. She neither nods, nor shakes her head, simply shifts her eyes back down to her leg when Jo's finished her take on questions and answers. There's a nod to the matter of old friends. "Sounds like a challenge. A lot can change in ten turns." She meets the bluerider's gaze and doesn't drop it. "I don't think you have anything to worry about with him seeking you out. I wouldn't expect a cozy reception from him if you're the one doing the approaching." She reaches to the razor that was abandoned beside her and she dips the blade into the water before returning to the task she was at when Jo arrived. "Your name came up because you were the only other person I was sleeping with regularly and he wanted me to be sleeping with no one else regularly. It wasn't like he didn't know you existed in my life before that. Sorry if you're used to bedding people whose legs spread more frequently and with more partners. But seeing as we don't sleep together anymore, I doubt it's an issue you'll encounter with me again." Is Tayte annoyed? At least a little. She throws the last off flippantly, as if it didn't matter. "And no, I'm not with him. He's not with me. He thinks I should be with someone else." She shrugs her shoulders, as if that didn't matter either. Mime is finally lured to Jo's leg from the blanket, in which the bluerider leans forward to slip the blanket away so that the little blue doesn't use it as a perch anymore. "It is a challenge," she agrees with a single nod. "I think at least a few of them remember me fondly. The others would likely stab me rather than greet me, so....but, I'm on a mission, and I've got questions to ask them. It's a better reunion than, say, goin' home, for example," something that by the look on her face, isn't happening anytime soon. She turns then to the matter of one bronzerider, nodding on the fact that there won't be a bronzerider hiding out to attack her at a moment's notice with a wry, "Good. Ya never know with bronzeriders." Meant to be a joke, but there's enough truth in it besides, from her. Of course the rest give her pause and just a slight furrow of her brows towards the blonde as she starts working on her hair. Fingers working in her scalp as she leans forward, "I think I see why H'vier appeals, now," she drawls idly, her tone still at ease. "You've got a temper, darlin'. I've never realized it, 'till now. Now I wonder what other hot little buttons I can push, should anymore reveal themselves." If Tayte looks her way, brows will waggle in a challenging manner as she peeks beneath her elbow. "Anyway, guess there's more to him than he lets on," she says on that very last. "Well, do try to use that winning smile and unique charm of yours to keep yourself stab-wound free. I hear it's not pleasant. Even if they do give you the good stuff in the infirmary when it happens." Tayte's lips curl momentarily into a smirk, but then it's back to a look of focus as she finishes scraping the suds off her leg. "Bronzeriders." She does agree with a roll of her eyes. "Endless surprises." She might be thinking of a particular few, but she doesn't get into them. She makes an amused noise in her nose, lifting the razor away from her leg before looking at Jo in time to catch that challenge. "Yes, I do." She'll admit without hesitation or apology. "Just don't press any buttons you're not ready to see the consequences of. I know how to stab, too." The purse of her lips and the lightness that comes to her voice for that last phrase probably means she's kidding, but the warning is real enough. "I think there's a lot more. Actually, you two seem to have a lot in common with going out of the Weyr for goodness knows what and being very thin on the details. You might even be cut from the same piece of cloth. You could probably get back in his good graces entirely if you showed him the hottest three-or-more-some he's ever had." The blonde rolls her eyes, probably because that much is likely true (or she thinks it is). "Been there," and Jo lifts the leg with the large stab wound, scarred on top as Mime flits off from the movement, "done that." Then she slides into the pool to submerge herself, only her head breaking the surface once her hair is thoroughly wet. She eyes that challenge before she chuckles and states back, "Stabbin' doesn' intimidate me, darlin'." Beat. "Yeah, I know me and H'vier seem to have a lot of similarities. I've been told, but I dunno. Really, I've only really met him that one time, when he bought me a drink. Am I in his bad graces already?" That does give her some consideration, wading back to the edge of the pool. "Huh. I imagine a hot-some would be all that it took to get back into his good graces." Tayte's eyes follow to the scar, briefly following the blue as he takes wing. "What does intimidate you, Jo? I wonder if I could, if I set my mind to it." The blonde purses her lips, giving it serious thought. Chances are good that she doesn't actually want to set her mind to it, but it's something interesting to wonder about. "Well, being the woman I wanted to sleep with, without him watching, since that would've been fine," She pauses to roll her eyes. "Hasn't ingratiated you to him when I was his or however he was thinking of it at the time. The fact that I haven't slept with you might help your case with him. Or hurt it. I'm not sure. He's been fucking a lot of people. Though maybe not lately." She shrugs her shoulders, not dwelling on that over-much. "In a lot of ways, he's not terribly complicated. In other ways, so very. Maybe that's part of why I like him. Why I like you, even. Some things are straight-forward. Attractive people, good sex. Other things are entrenched in mystery. At least I'm never bored." She lets slip a fluttery sigh that isn't really complaint. "Nothin' I can think of in all my turns since finding Tac out in the sands," Jo answers that question too serenely, her chin lifting before she dunks again. Back up, "Ya can try, but ya'll fail." Hearing the reason why H'vier's pissed at her doesn't even have the ex-con batting an eyelid as she heaves herself out of the pool to settle once more on the edge. Reaching for the towel, "There's no case between he and I, darlin'," she says, sending an amused look Tayte's way. "If he had real problems with me? He would have addressed them to me by now, and he hasn'. Seems like, his antics are more about you than about me." That last, though, does have her laughing and tilting her head up as she runs her towel over her damp hair. On boredom, "So ya choose complicated people that will go outta their way to piss ya off and shit," is her conclusion. "Nah, I'm not the type." Tayte shifts to slide into the pool to rinse her legs. "I'll leave intimidation to the experts." She glances toward the bluerider briefly, her lips curling into a smirking implication. "I know." About H'vier, "I was only answering your question." Not implying that there would be, especially not after reassuring the woman already that she didn't have to worry about H'vier lurking around to make a point. "Maybe I do. Maybe I just need to make better choices." Her tone is thoughtful, but not decisive. She lingers in the pool only so long as it takes to rub down her legs, then she's moving to pull herself out again. It wouldn't do to get pruney toes. Jo is quick but efficient in patting herself down with a towel, nodding on H'vier and stating on choices, "Maybe. Maybe not," in her usual easy demeanor. "How's yer daughter? K'del still steppin' up for her?" She drapes the towel over her legs once she pulls them both from the edge of the pool, already turning back to go through her things. Her gaze strays on Tayte then as she lingers in the pool, her stares having been more discrete on the blonde all this time than perhaps the other way around. Tayte paces over to the cubbies to collect her pink towel before making answer. If she's aware of Jo's more subtle attention, she doesn't let on, but she's not hiding anything as she moves gracefully there and back. She doesn't even start toweling off until she's back at the pool's edge. "She's well and he is. I'm interested to see if he remembers my turnday this turn. He might not have marked the date on my last one. We were pretty hung-over in the morning. Maybe even the next morning." "Turnday, huh?" Jo drops the towel and starts to slip her underwear back on, seeming to be going over what's said. "Is it close? I'll have to send ya somethin' sometime." As for K'del, a shrug is lightly given on that score before she chuckles once and goes over to settle on the bench. "So ya spent the last one gettin' drunk with K'del? I'm assumin' this is before things got complicated." More statement than question, and a look to go along with it as she continues to dress. "On the twentieth," Tayte confirms with a nod, "You ought to get an eyeful of me that evening. I'm always a sight on my turnday. The dress came in at the beginning of the month and I've had the weavers here fit it the rest of the way for me." There's an excited glint to the woman's eyes for an awesome outfit. "It's gorgeous." She can't resist adding. Of her last turnday, there's a laugh, "Yep. Alcohol and cake. Nothing was complicated then. It was one of my best. Although there's always hope for this next one to rival it." She smiles as she picks up the caddy, towel slung across it and she moves to the cubbies a short distance away where her clean, dry outfit is waiting. "Are ya," Jo is amused on the initial statement about her turnday. "I reckon many are. I've spent many a turnday comin' home drunk outta my mind, knuckles bloody, and singin' a bawdy tune. Hardly even remember my last turnday, beyond that. Well, I do hope yer turnday turns out the way ya want it. Drink nothin' but the best, hm?" She's pulling back on her black leathers now, boots and all as wet strands of her hair cling to her face. Getting to her feet as she collects up her bathing tools, "I better head on out," she states, the lopsided grin in place along with a single nod. "See ya around, hm, Tayte?" "I am." Tayte doesn't hesitate to confirm, a certain something downright cocky in the way she smiles for the moment, even though Jo wasn't really asking a question with her first words. "Sounds like your turndays are just as fun, if a touch more violent than I usually care for mine to be." There's a bemused smile that has a hint of the approving in it for the general idea. "Never fear. Only the best." She answers. "Take care of yourself, Jo." She offers as she dresses to face the wintry walk back to the Craft Complex. "I prefer to call them memorable, at least," Jo remarks on her turndays before she nods her final farewell towards Tayte and whistles for Mime to follow along with him. With that, they're gone out of the bathing cavern, her booted steps falling to silence in the distance. |
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