The Day After (Ronin)

[Vala]

Vala was on the brink of a total meltdown. It was bad enough she was in petulant child mode, but her first kiss? Her first kiss, stolen by a guy she barely even knew. Sure he knew about her fear of touch and many social disorders, but that didn’t nearly put him on the range of a possible suitor. Her first friendship, already close to ruins. Vala uttered her first curse in years - “PETCH!” as she pushed away from him with all her might, nearly tripping again. She wiped away at her mouth, spitting out the bit of blood that dribbled out from her inner lip. This was far worse than anything that could have happened - a girl’s first kiss was supposed to be magical; it was supposed to be with someone she loved. This was so unfair. Just so petching, unfair. She raised her head, ready to have a riff unmatched since the Valterrian. He was still being a nice guy. Such a nice guy; Vala snarled. She wanted to be mean; she wanted to snap at him; she even wanted him to suffer something painful, but she just couldn’t get it out... why? Her brows furrowed at the sight of his apologetic face. He was being sincere, and she knew it. Unable to get past his accidental force field of niceness, Vala resigned, allowing her rage to drain away to a pulsating throb of annoyance, mostly at life. There was no point in yelling at him, he wouldn’t get mad at her - he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. The pain in her ankle was also reminding her of all the nice things he’d done for her already - like a manacle, enslaving her into a guilty level of civility. With a surly voice, Vala replied to Ronin. “Yeah, let’s just get this over with ok...” She made sure to avoid any more eye contact, the memory of his lips still burning like a spice against hers. Vala scooted over to the edge of the Miners’ Pool, and eased herself in to the cold water. She shivered, teeth chattering. Using her hands she began to scrub off globs of dirt and even bits of leaves and twigs, trying her best to tear away the feelings of shame with the swirls of dirty water.

[Ronin]

Ronin wanted to disappear. It was obvious that Vala was angry since this was the first time Ronin had ever heard her cuss, but that was just a passing through compared to the embarrassment of the situation. Ronin squirmed under Vala's glare, waiting for her to speak first. He held her in high regard, but still, her temper was not something he wanted to set off. Ronin didn't even realize it, but in the back of his mind he was hoping acting angry was just that, an act. Sure, this wasn't how he had wanted to kiss her, but he couldn't deny that the urge to do so was there. So if she was completely offended by it, Ronin was was pretty sure he could rule out any future romance between them. With that in mind, he was relieved that Vala had seemed to want to let the accident slide as she hobbled toward the pool and got it. Ronin didn't say anything in response, rather, he just followed her into the pool and began to wash off the dirt and grime. He stood in a shallow enough part of the pool that the water came up to about half way up his abs. Ronin did his best to keep his bandage dry as he washed around it, but the attempt wasn't entirely successful. Ronin tried to put a little bit of space between himself and Vala so that she would have enough privacy to wash up while still being close enough to be at her side in a moments notice when she wanted to get out of the pool. Ronin did his best to keep his mind on scrubbing himself clean off all sorts of filth. Most of it he didn't even want to know what was. He struggled not to think about Vala, knowing that he had to clear his head and think straight so that he wouldn't cause any more awkward moments for the rest of the day. He thought that maybe he had been fooling himself into thinking that she might feel the same way about him as he did about her, and he needed to check and make sure his feelings made rational sense before he made any sort of move as far as tell her what he was thinking. With the battle of heart and mind consuming his thoughts, Ronin spent the rest of the time bathing in silence.

[Vala]

The water was filthy. The Miner’s pool always was. It was so hard to keep balance on one leg; the pool floor was basically a layer of silt. In her urge to get into the water, she had forgotten to get a metal spoon. With the water still shallow, covering her only to the hip, Vala more or less waded to the edge and called to a passing Dek. “I need a spoon.” She didn’t even bother looking at the naked, skeletal wretch, too preoccupied in keeping track of Ronin’s whereabouts. The Dek came back with a simple strigil, just as Ronin slid into the pool himself. Vala looked away in disgust, forgetting to thank the Dek. She brought her fingers to her lips, still burning, painfully. Motivated by her shame, Vala began to paddle further away from Ronin. He had already given her quite a bit of space, but it wasn’t enough. As a cripple it was near impossible, but ignoring all the pain, she tried to keep her ankle locked as she used her arms to tread into deeper water. She splayed her left hand wide to get better water traction, trying to compensate for her fisted right hand, clutching the strigil. She knew she could have placed in her mouth as she swam, but that was far too disgusting to the squeamish girl, preferring the pain over that. No one, not even the Dek, allowed their heads to dip underwater in the Miner’s pool. Once the water reached her shoulders she stopped and tried to support herself on her right ankle. It was then she realized she had paddled too far; with a few shoddily maneuvered kicks and flails, Vala managed to edge herself into a shallower end, still far away from Ronin. Once she felt stable enough with her right foot planted on the silt, left ankle balanced against her knee, and left hand still treading the water, Vala began to use the strigil to scrape the grime off her body. It took her five chimes or so to get the thickest of the patches of dirt off her limbs. She couldn’t reach below her knees, since she couldn’t bend down, but the flow of water was enough to clean most of that off for her. “Hey you!” Vala called out to another passing drudge. “Catch.” She threw the strigil at the old dek, though he was probably not much older than her, just broken down from the years of service. He was too slow, and was not able to react in time. The strigil hit him square in the chest, eliciting a pained grunt. Vala didn’t apologize. With both hands free, she found it much easier to paddle back to shallower water. Learning from experience, Vala kept her sprained ankle buttressed against her right ankle, and relied on her now free hands to paddle. She made it all the way to the edge, even pulling herself up onto the ledge, but it was there she was left stranded. “Ronin?” Vala called out for help, grumbling under her breath, after about ten chimes of pretending he didn’t exist. She knew she was being a brat. She wasn’t even really mad at Ronin anymore, the first bath enough to lift her spirits, but she the sting of losing her first kiss wasn’t going to leave her anytime soon. Though she would never admit it, she was a little glad, she had at least lost it to someone she liked instead of some jerk headed stranger. Her furrowed scowl slowly let up to a cuter pout. OOC : They technically still have two more baths to go through: the Glassworker’s Pool and then the Salt Pool. You can skim through that or you can go into more detail. Your call. Also you might want to include your swimming challenge in here somewhere since the season is almost up. Glad you’re back dear. Here is a picture of a Roman Strigil used in baths.

[Phoenix]

Character: Vala Experience: Socializing- 5 Lores: Wanting what is most feared, Dealing with the pain of numerous injuries, Going to extremes not to be touched, Learning how to thank another, Slipping and falling, Meanie pants Character: Ronin Experience: Socializing- 5 Lores:Helping an injured friend, Honorably refusing care for the benefit of another, Faced with the impossibility of dealing with Vala, Asking questions to distract from uncomfortable situations, Body slammed by a falling Yasi, Being too nice of a guy The Method, The Fire: I wish that this had been given a chance to be finished, but it was an interesting read! Any questions or concerns, please send me a PM and I'll be happy to help!