[Soothing Waters] Oh Me Oh My... (Dra-Seven/Closed)

[Asara Willow]

As Asara entered the building, unsure of what it was called exactly due to her sad inability to read the Common tongue, she cast a cursory glance around, noting the dense human activity. With a quiet sigh, she paid her way into the public bath, also purchased a towel, soap, a comb for her fine hair, and sandals. She entered the changing rooms and took a few moments to study the other women in there, watching as they undressed and wrapped their towels around their bodies modestly before stowing away their belongings. Certain that she understood the practice, the small female began to copy them, half frightened to hear the first sounds of hate as she revealed her appearance by removing her cloak.

Flinching at hearing a murmured expletive, Asara briefly wondered if she should just leave, until she looked down at her thin body and saw the grit and grim of her travels. It didn't help that she was also sore from riding Zafkil, who ocaisionally mocked her for almost falling down.

With a quiet hiss in her native language, Asara stowed away her belongings and wound her towel around herself, finding that a towel that barely covered upper breast to upper thigh of the other women actually covered from her upper breasts to below her knees. The realization frustrated Asara even more and she took a few deep breaths to calm herself before she burst into tears.

Swallowing her frustration, Asara came out into the public area and immediately recoiled, folding her long, graceful arms closer to her body as she surveyed the overwhelming human presence. Crowds... Why are there always crowds? came an irritated thought. Asara hated crowds, she loathed them, but only because people in crowds tended to get hurt, and self preservation taught her to fear physical injury. Her bones were, after all, extremely brittle.

Quickly scanning the frolicking people, the thin female scurried away to a small group, looking to find a quiet area where she wouldn't be scorned for being so thin, so small, so inhuman. She only scanned the people at the bath when she was about three feet away and stopped dead, seeing among them a being so alike to her it took a moment to notice that he was also different...

It was the first time she had encountered another Symenestra, even if one with diluted blood, and she found herself completely enthralled, if a little disappointed... After all, a part of her told her to be afraid of another of her race, in case he knew her secrets and could tell her of herself, while another fearful part told her, loud and clear, that she could not risk a mate, even one as lovely as he. So, smothering the first feelings of attraction she had ever felt, Asara smiled faintly and looked to the strongest one in the group, the female.

Waiting a few moments as the group spoke, she listened closely to their voices, her thin graceful fingers curling and uncurling restlessly in the fabric of her towel. In a way, she envied these people, especially the Symenestra boy. At least they were physically appealing, although the thought of that made her flush. She waited until the woman spoke her name before speaking herself.

"May I join your party?" Asara asked in her deceptively calm voice, deliberately ignoring the male that had caught her off guard, feeling self conscious with her too-long limbs and pale skin. She was tensed, ready to fight or flee at the first harsh word. Perhaps not physically strong, she possessed the grace and killing bite of her race.

[Jaelyn Baroth]

While some might have seen Seven and found him strange looking, possibly guessed at his heritage and shunned him for it, Jaelyn was simply entranced by his exotic and handsome form. She hardly even noticed his period of silence and staring off, her gray eyes taking the time to drink deeply of his face and shoulders. She dared not let her eyes wander much further down than that.

When Seven did speak to her again Jaelyn couldn't help but return his smile with a soft one of her own, her cheeks only growing more flushed as she realized she had been staring at him, "Ah... I am Jaelyn Baroth," she lifted a hand out of the water and offered it to Seven by way of greeting, a habit more than a conscious decision.

Another voice cut through Jaelyn's contemplation of Seven, and as it was not Dimitri's or Jokor's she turned a curious eye to see who it was. As her gray eyes came to rest upon the short and slim figure with pale skin Jaelyn's first thought was that this must be Seven's younger sister. Though perhaps not, as it seemed the major feature they shared was that pale, flawless looking, skin. She briefly considered denying the girl, for the desire to spend time just talking with Seven, but quickly pushed the thought away and reprimanded herself. A Knight should be helpful in all that they do, and the girl was clearly nervous. Smiling softly to her Jaelyn gestured to the water, "You are more than welcome to join us. It is a public bath after all."

[Jokor]

Jokor just looked at Jaelyn and then back to rather familiar person, a small frown making its way on his face as he saw her fixation on seven and the slowly growing blush on her face. “I'm not really a friend of him, more an acquaintance.” Jokor bluntly interjected in the conversation,giving a warning look towards seven.and reminding jaelyn that he was still sitting right next to her. “I ran into him a few day's ago and we had a little spat about some strange book of his before some creepy guy came and began freaking us out.” Jokor made a face at the memory for a few moments but composed himself. “You still owe me an explanation about what those symenestra things are though and seeing as we got time now.” The small man grinned as he waited for seven's answer.

[Seven Xu]

Seven’s eyes darted between the blushing woman and the frowning thief at her side. He nearly shot the expression right back at the contemptible little man, but the smile on his face remained – now more effort than sincerity. “It was not a spat, you stole it from me.” Those hard garnets remained on Jokor. Despite the fact that side-by-side the vagrant came to Seven’s nose (that a feat in itself considering Seven’s modest stature) he was wrapped tightly in whipcord muscles that suggested he could easily overpower Seven if he chose to protest further. “It doesn’t matter,” a pale hand lifted dismissively from the water, a comment that was aimed at both Jokor’s explanation of their acquaintance and his demands of knowing more of the Symenestra.

Perhaps if he ignored him, Jokor would pester the actual Symenestra girl that sat not an arm’s length away from them. Seven sure as petch wanted to – but he couldn’t simply dismiss the blushing woman that had just given him her name. “Jaelyn Baroth,” he repeated with a smile that drifted back into the realm of sincerity, “That’s a lovely name.” Seven was no half-wit. He saw Jokor’s frown brought on earlier by the floundering blush of the stammering woman and all thoughts of the earlier discomfort he harbored trickled away from the back of his mind. He certainly wasn’t the most charming of people; persuasion and seduction should have come naturally to someone with Widow Ancestry. Then again, there were many things Seven should have been. He inhaled, tilting his head in Jaelyn’s direction to attempt interaction beyond simply being polite. He would never admit that it was more to spite Jokor, than charm a woman he had just met. “So, Jaelyn Baroth,” the smile grew, giving way to venomous white points, “What is a woman with a name as lovely as yours, doing hanging around with the likes of a man who spends his spare time stealing books and asking silly questions?”

[Asara Willow]

Jaelyn Baroth... Asara would make sure to remember that name for later. Her gold eyes darkened as she nodded to the woman to show her gratitude, and she waited until all noteworthy attention was diverted to slip into the waters. She immediately shivered as the warmth crawled up her grimy flesh, cuccooning her in soothing waters. She could have closed her eyes and relaxed here, but that was hardly wise in the presence of humans, even if there was another little spider here. Short black nails, sharpened into claws, flashed as the Symenestra seized her soap and lathered it into her pale skin, trying to appear as though she weren't eavesdropping into their conversation while doing otherwise. She'd not had a chance to hear interaction between many people like this in such a public place before without being spotted and glared into leaving. She couldn't let this opportunity slip away.

She could have died as the unpleasant looking man pretty much demanded information on those Symenestra things from the only other Symenestra present. Maybe the human was dumb and didn't know what the race looked like, or he would have seen a weak female holding a bar of soap with fangs half extended in the residue of irritation. At that moment, Asara realized her fangs were extended and ran her tongue over them carefully, before continuing to wash her skin with the fierceness one would expect of a person paid to clean their own skin. She hoped no one would point her out as a spider. It was the witty remark made by the other Symenestra that had earned a snort from her.

She wasn't a half-wit either, and she knew enough about humans to identify jealousy and the hint of a girl crush. The male was playing what Asara would deem an unwise game with the affections of a girl whose suitor was probably the wily man at her side. Should be fun to watch this relationship play out.

[Jaelyn Baroth]

Admittedly Jaelyn did not pay much attention to the exchange between Seven and Jokor. From her experience Jokor had a seeming talent for bothering people with little to no effort, but she doubted the short young man had meant much harm in whatever he had done. Her gaze flickered to the pale girl, but she seemed determined to clean herself very thoroughly, and honestly Jaelyn had no clue what she would even talk with her about.

When Seven turned his smile and attention back to Jaelyn he had her full attention once more. His compliment of her name caused her to bashfully look away, and she offered a meek, "Thank you," as the only reply she could think of.

She could feel her cheeks growing warmer at Seven's charming words, but the last phrase to slip from those pale lips caused Jaelyn to turn her gaze back to Seven in confusion, "Steal?" as there was only one person Seven could have been talking about she turned her gaze to Jokor, surprise and a hint of anger in her voice, "You stole books?"

The presence of an injustice, something that needed to be fixed, pushed aside the nervous flirting with Seven, and Jaelyn's blush began to fade as she fixed Jokor with a stern look. She'd already suspected he might be a thief, but if he had stolen from Seven then that was proof. If it was true then there was only one thing she could do.

[Jokor]

Jokor gritted his teeth in anger and glared at the feminine boy as he began shifting the subject away from his questions. Towards one that he definitively didn't like, especially the fact how he was beginning to talk to Jaelyn made his blood begin to boil. “Oh and why doesn't it matter.” Jokor spat out. “Is your race made of the same stone as the zith, a bunch of vile and mindless savages? Or is there some other reason you don't seem wanting to talk about it.” He was barely restraining the urge to punch the teeth out that smug bastards mouth and shove them up his arse. But when he heard Jaelyn utter the word steal to herself in a confused tone before glaring at him, he temporally forgot his anger. “I didn't steal his book!” Jokor quickly defended himself holding his hands up in what he hoped was a soothing manner. “I mean, he still got his book so how in kelwyn's name could I have stolen it! Not to mention, why would I even want to steal a damn book? I can barely read.” Jokor shot a harsh glare to seven his anger slowly building back up. “How do you know that that symenestra isn't lying his arse of? Or do you really think I'm stupid enough to get it in my mind to steal in syliras?”

[Seven Xu]

Seven felt the color rising above the water and to his cheeks as Jokor berated him with that slack-jawed accent indicative of his foreign origins. The unassuming brown-haired youth seemed to have a knack for bringing out Seven’s anger: their only interactions had been short of outright confrontational. A slew of insults sat on Seven’s tongue, ready to pounce from the flat pink bow his lips were making in their indignant pout. The confused voice of Jaelyn broke their mutual death glare and he turned to her. Seven could not mistake the acute flash of confusion and anger on her fair features that brought a thin, knowing smile to his own.

“Yes,” Blond brows rose into the cover of his shaggy bangs, “He would have gotten away with it too, if I had been less aware.” Though Seven spoke to Jaelyn, his mocking expression had turned back to Jokor. The man looked as if he could have boiled the water between them in his rising anger. After a pause, the crop of white hair shimmered and an ear turned into a smiling face as he regarded Jaelyn with a shake of his head. “Don’t look so worried. He gave it back when I gave chase to him; told me it was a lesson, and then begged me not to tell the knights.”

Seven drew closer to Jaelyn beneath the warm wet bath that embraced them both before lifting two fingers above the glistening blue in a sort of salute towards the vagrant. When Seven bent forward to speak, his voice grew low in an attempt to sway the man from doing what his twisted face and white-knuckled fists begged of him. “I never did tell the knights, so you have that.”

The pale, willowy arm reached behind his head to grab hold of soap that had been laid out for him shortly after he had entered the bath and brought it to his opposite shoulder. Small circles coaxed a thin layer of film to cover his white skin and the smell of wildflowers filled the air and mingled with the thick steam air of the water. “So, Jaelyn,” Seven had decided he’d had enough of Jokor’s insults regarding his heritage, “what is it that you do?”

[Asara Willow]

Asara stopped her bathing to listen, and listen closely. Her gold eyes flashed and slanted a look at the trio to her side, looking at the thief in question. A small man, by the standards she'd come to judge human stature by, but still a rather strong one. He had the unmistakable appearance of someone who would fight for whatever reason, stupid or otherwise. In any other discussion, she would not have cared what his profession was, but to hear that he stole from another of her race was enough to draw her attention and coax her to depress her lip with the glistening tip of a white fang before speaking.

Lowering her eyes to the pearly water, Asara drew in a deep breath. Her first question, she decided, would be directed at the Symenestra an arm's length away. The next to the thief.

"He has tried to take your book? What book?" She said quietly to the water, trying to appear like she was speaking to herself. She didn't wish to draw to much attention to herself, and she felt that if she spoke aloud, all eyes would settle on her and she'd want nothing more than to sink into the water and drown. The next question, she lifted her head for and looked at the man. Maybe, she knew, she'd be an unwelcome commentator in this discussion, but she was genuinely curious. "Why would you try to steal a book?" Her quietly spoken Common lilted in odd places with the accent granted to a creature born to speak Symenos first and foremost, even in her thoughts.

Now that she had jumped into the conversation, she sunk deeper into the warm water to her chin, which was not so hard considering her stature. She didn't feel required to hide the fact she was listening, and she was ready for whatever harsh words she'd receive. She had no option to flee this time, due to her own insecurities in the presence of a stronger female. She looked at said female after the question of the male next to her. She would consider the female's profession if it sounded suitable to her.

[Jaelyn Baroth]

A frown was firmly upon Jaelyn's lips as Jokor attempted to defend himself, the word Symenestra tickling at her memory but being pushed aside for the current problem, but at Seven's further explanation it softened slowly, "Well, I suppose if you did not keep the book Jokor that is good, but still it would be best to not try and teach someone a lesson in that manner again. If Seven had gone to the Knights instead of giving chase after you things would have gone very differently," the fact that she was siding with Seven might have been due to her past experiences with Jokor, possibly her current infatuation with Seven, but she didn't linger on those thoughts for long.

The little girl's question drew Jaelyn's attention to her, but as the question was directed at Jokor she decided it was best to let the young man answer it. Never mind the fact that doing so allowed her attention to return to Seven all the sooner.

Turning her gaze back to Seven she found her gaze inadvertently drawn to his chest as he lathered himself up, but her gray eyes quickly darted back up to his red ones as he spoke her name, "Me? I am a Squire, training to become a Knight," the soft smile she offered Seven was definitely tinged with shyness, "I hope to become a good and noble Knight, like my Father is," she was silent for a moment as she enjoyed Seven's pale features, and then asked in return, "How about you Seven, what is it that you do?"