PM to join Sahovan Community Baths

[Elsa Marin]

Elsa stripped happily along with Osd, not bothering to hide her appreciative glances. Blacksmithing did good things for a body, apparently. Woah. She took the time to fold her clothes and carefully tuck them away, getting out her mirror and toiletries and setting them aside. Last was the bone she wore around her neck, placed securely in her pack. She couldn't bear the thought of losing that bone. "Nope," she said, picking her way into the river, somehow managing to not slip on the rocky riverbed while still shivering from the water. She bent over and started soaking and soaping her hair. "Just shake it off."

Faulty artifacts, sure, sometimes. Strange, poisonous alchemy, occasionally. That had made up most of Elsa's work as a Voider. But you let one sailor pee into a portal for the bragging rights, and they just line right up. "The Void is another world, kind of. Put things in, and you'll never see them again. Usually." Elsa paused, focused, and a few moments later part of the world pulled in on itself, leaving a head-sized ball of absolute darkness hovering above the river. "Wizards have been throwing their garbage into the Void since the Valterrian, as far as we know. Sometimes things get out. Only sometimes."

As Elsa made her ablutions, she considered Osd. So far, very promising! Helpful, pleasantly direct, certainly nice to look at, especially the bits where the filth was scraping off. She smiled at him. "You know, Osd, unless you're actually one of those mages who have had their souls burned out and you're planning to eat me raw, in which case I will throw you into the Void and there will be no trace that you ever existed, I think this could be the start of something wonderful."

[Osd]

Osd rolled his eyes at the cheery retord he got for his question. “I'm not a dog you know.” He deadpanned. 'Great, this pair of clothes is going to be wet after this then. Luckely the forge is hot enough to dry me out.' He just shook his head as he began lathering himself up with the soap. The water around him darkening with the filth that had been on his body. He gave the small and now black, piece of soap a lookover. 'Might not be enough. Oh well.' He thought with a shrug before continuing cleaning. After a few moments of enduring her glanced he just let out another sigh. This woman really needed to get laid, what was she ? A hormonial teenager? Still as far as quirks went for wizards she wasn't that bad, bells and being about as mature as a teenager. It could be a lot worse. “Better not fall in then.” 'Or get pushed in.' He mentally added. He would have to be carefull around her.“With the rate sahova churns out deadly artifacts, failures or successes. You'll be put to some use. If nothing else the wardens could use another voider. It's easier to become a warden then to become an apprentice. Though the survival rate is a lot lower I heard.” At least that was what silverheart told him a few times. “Cleaning up after mages isn't the safest of all occupations.” At the last comment of her he stiffened for a short moment, the memory of earth grasping at his feet and fire swirling as a mad wizard was about to murder him. He forced himself to relax. If she went mad she would be dead, she probably knew that she was worth less then even the slaves on this island in the eyes of the nuits. At least until she got through her judgement. So he let out a small forced laugh and turned around, grinning at her with to much teeth to really seem natural. "Might be, just don't go around talking like that. Or else It will end soon. And not by my hands. just a friendly warning. The wizards here are crazier then average."

[Elsa Marin]

Elsa only sighed at Osd's dog jab. Dogs had a lot going for them. Certainly more than Osd, in many cases. A properly kept dog was certainly cleaner than Osd, and more sociable. They could even do tricks. All she'd seen Osd do so far stink and was lack a sense of humor.

With a vaguely affirmative noise, Elsa made a brief trip to the riverbank to retrieve her tooth paste and brush. She returned to her place upstream of Osd, cleaning her teeth with one hand and her body with the other.

"Have you ever heard of Vuld Shaik?" Elsa asked, spitting. She returned her tooth brush to her pack, shivering just a bit. The river wasn't nearly as cold as Zeltiva could get in the deep winter, but that didn't mean Elsa couldn't miss hot water like she missed regular sex. "He was an Alahean scholar before the Valterrian. I think you'd like him. He wrote a biography called 'Magic and I'."

Elsa stretched, trying to squeeze some of the cold out of her body. Elsa stretched like a cat. Starting from her toes, she gradually tensed and relaxed and stretched every muscle in her body going upwards until she was curling and uncurling her fingers.She shimmied her hips out of habit, and the lack of her bells was like a missing finger.

Re-energized, Elsa resumed her washing. All she had left was detail, really. Fingers, toes, ears, nails. She talked as she worked. "Wizards are crazy by definition. Faced with forces that can conjure fire from nothing, or pull things into a dark non-realm from which there is no escape, we think 'Neat!' I could, if I so chose, kill myself with magic right here and now. It wouldn't even be that hard. I'd just have to make a really big portal and hold it open through the screaming and the bleeding until I lose control and accidentally void half my chest cavity. Or I could just make a smaller portal and try and stand on it. Magic is at best a very elaborate suicide. People who dedicate their life and death to it are certifiably insane."

Elsa looked to Osd and smiled. "So you can see why, even having not so much as touched another living thing for two weeks, I extend my friendship to you while informing you that I won't hesitate to defend myself if I have to."

[Osd]

Osd shook his head as he once again lathered himself up with the soap, trying to get the stubborn last bits of sooth and oil out of his skin, he hadn't even even started with it yet. “Haven't heard of him. Didn't have much books to read all the way back in sunberth. They'll probably have a copy of it in sahova's library though. Might check it out if I got free time.” 'Which might be never, sahova never sleeps and that means I won't get any sleep if I also want free time.' He sarcasticly added to himself. Even then, he never fancied himself much of a reader, though that might have been more for a lack of books then for not wanting to read. That and having to constantly look over your own shoulder for a mugging didn't really encourage becoming a bookpecker either. “I noticed” He deadpanned at her comment. Still, he couldn't shake the idea, world magic should be a lot safer, but wasn't he screwing around with djed as well? Didn't that make him as insane as her? “Still, sahovian wizards are in a class of their own. You'll see that soon enough when you meet em.” He gave her a friendly warning as he tried to get the last of the stains out of his skin. Eventually just giving up and starting on his hair, the water once turning a black as sooth came out of it. “Sure, I'll take it.” He said without skipping a beat as she offered her friendship. The notion that she would defend herself not even making him blink. “So why did you come to sahova anyway? Gotta have a reason if you came here without even thinking about the judgement thing.” He tried to make small talk. If she didn't wanna talk about it, then she probably would change the subject and blather on about that. Saved him the effort of finding a decent one.

[Elsa Marin]

Faced with a direct question, Elsa stumbled. She'd been carrying the conversation pretty much entirely so far. Looked like she was finally managing to engage the man. "Oh, um- I mostly came here to be with my sister. She's the real wizard in the family." Elsa's good cheer faded a bit at the mention of family. "What's left of it, at least. She'll be a ranked wizard soon, I think. It wouldn't surprise me."

Having finished her bathing but not her sentence, Elsa cast about for something to do, then settled for simply standing there, squeezing the water out of her hair and letting the wind take the rest. "Anna's always been the best at everything she does. Magic, speaking, writing, languages- Anything, really. All I'm good for is making holes, and while I was learning to make holes she was off getting a professorship."

Elsa sighed. "I've always looked up to her, you know. I've always tried to at least keep up. But I come here and the first thing she does is tell me I'm not good enough. She tells me to leave like she's doing me some kind of favor and I just-"

Elsa jumped as something splashed in the river in front of her. A white, oblong shape was floating downriver. It was her soap, she realized. She'd been squeezing it so hard it slipped out of her hand. Panicked, Elsa splashed after it. "Ack! Catch it! Help me catch it!"

[Osd]

'Izentor save me. It's family problems.' Was all he could think when elsa began to talk about why she came here. 'Why does everybody who comes to this place willingly has enough emotional baggage to sink a ship?' When she mentioned anna his blood froze, the face of a laughing madwoman coming back to the fore. 'She couldn't be related to her could she?' Most of it checked out, there weren't that many pulsers around in this place. He needed to know about this. If they really were sisters. hen hanging around elsa just might not be very good for his continued health. Not just because they might hurt him with their magic. But anna was completely nuts and the more he talked with this girl the more it seemed she had some serious self esteem issues. That wasn't even counting the magic related things she might have knocking around the welds in her mind. “Look, just stop thinking that way.” Osd bluntly said. “There aren't perfect people. They only look that way. Putting yourself down never helped anybody anyway. In the end what you're doing now is just a waste of time.” It was a crude coment, pretty course as well. But whining and just talking about how other people were better and how you couldn't catch up wouldn't help you catch up now would it. Then thank god the sullen mood was broken when she lost her piece of soap. 'Thank izurdin that's over at least.' He fished the piece of soap out of the river as it passed him by. “Got it. There ya go.” He handed it back towards her. “How did you even get soap here? Havn't gotten my hands on that in years.” He commented. "So your sister, what's her name?"

[Elsa Marin]

Gratefully taking the soap, Elsa sighed when Osd asked about her sister. It was her own fault, really, for talking about her so much. "I'm surprised you haven't heard of her," she said, smiling and trying to brush it off. "Annalisa Marin. I'm Elsa Marin."

Now clean and slowly drying, Elsa went back to her pack and put the soap away. She thought about saying something more. She could tell him how he'd probably change his tune about perfect people when he met Anna. She could tell him about how much better Anna was than everyone around her.

She really didn't want to keep talking about Anna.

[Osd]

"Petch." He couldn't contain that single curseword as he heard the name. "I know her. Enough that I never want to be in the same room as her again if I can help it." He bluntly commented. Probably making his opinion about her sister more then clear with just a few words. As socially blunt and clumsy as Osd was, he picked up soon enough that she didn't want to talk about her sister. Probably because whoever wanted to talk about that fractured mess of a mind probably needed a some readjustment him or herself. He struggled for a few moments to find another topic for them to talk about. Anything else then her wierd family and hoping that the streak of insanity wasn't running in the family. "Soo..... where did you get the soap? brought it with you from home?" If he could have gotten away with it, he would have smacked himself. If that was the best he could come up with he deserved it.

[Elsa Marin]

"Yep!" Elsa brightened up considerably at the change of subject. "Food for a week and soap for half a season." She chuckled, opening her cosmetics case. "Shows where my priorities lie, I guess."

Turning away from Sahova, Elsa raised her mirror so that she could see her face, and see Osd behind her. She dabbed kohl at her brows, smiling and shaking her hips. She missed her bells already. "So, no sex? You sure?"

[Osd]

Osd had to laugh at that comment. Both because he was relieved she went with the clumsy subject change and because her comment was actually slightly funny. "At least it made both of us clean. that has to count for something." The woman turned her back and began to apply make up of some sorth to her eyes with the mirror. Something osd could never really understand the use off. But that was probably part of the reason why he hadn't cared too much about not having a bath for six whole years. Not one like this at least. The careless comment of her that came next however dumbfounded osd. He came from sunberth and even most people there weren't as freespirited about sex as she was. they sure didn't ask an almost complete stranger to have sex with them. But the way she shook her hips, osd couldn't help it to let his eyes roam over them and the rest of her body for a while. It had been more then six years since he last gotten laid. But no he just met her, diving into bed with somebody he just met, on sahova of all places didn't seem like a good plan. Little osd however didn't really care about what his brain was thinking and got to attention anyway. Osd quickly covered that one up. As he got out of the water. Hoping that elsa hadn't seen that happening in that mirror of hers. "No, no sex, not now at least. I have lesson with my master in not to long. the bath took a bit longer then expected. " He should have said that he wasn't interested in it, keep the same stance he had at the start of the conversation. But he always had been a terrible liar. "So about the food. Where and when do I give your part?"