Day 55: Male Showers [4th Shift]

[zack_fair]

Having to be around food that he couldn't eat hadn't been nearly as bad as it could have been considering what that food was, and so Zack felt fairly decent as he left the cafeteria and headed through the Sun Room into the showers. Actually, it was his feet that were bothering him more than his stomach. He hadn't been allowed to sit down all day (

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[poorexample]

Before long, someone familiar took a spot at the shower next to his. Kratos, the one with the strange name that somehow had the same meaning in a different language on a different world. Their conversation the day before had certainly been interesting, but Castiel was still insistent on finding and talking to Dean, even if it had to happen while they were both unclothed.

There was no sign of the older Winchester yet, however, and so Castiel instead watched how Kratos went about cleaning himself. He first gathered some white liquid (or was it more of a paste?) into his hands and then ran it through his hair. Castiel took a moment to glance over at the two dispensers on the wall in front of his shower, seeing that one was labeled shampoo and the other conditioner.

The names were vaguely familiar, but he couldn't recall the function of each because he'd never had to use them before. Castiel wondered how odd it would be to ask...

Though as he started to watch Kratos once more, he realized that the man was moving stiffly, as if he was suffering from some sort of injury that was hindering his movements. He hadn't been doing that the day before, which likely meant something had happened last night.

But then he was being asked a question, and it seemed that Kratos had noticed his observation. Castiel once again searched the room for Dean, but still nothing. He held back a sigh and made eye contact with the redhead. "I apologize." For what, he wasn't entirely sure, but he got the feeling Dean would have classified him as acting "creepy" at the moment. "Are you injured? You seem to be struggling."

[spandexorgtfo]

Was his discomfort so obvious that it merited observation? He really had hit a new low, if that was the case.

But if it had already been recognized, that meant that there was no need for excuses or dancing around the subject. "I am." Kratos paused and ducked his head back under the water, rinsing off the suds before repeating the process a second time: he wanted to be extra thorough given the gap between showers. "I sustained several bruised ribs last night, so...I have been hindered appropriately."

He spared Castiel another glance and noticed that the other man still seemed to be standing dumbly underneath the shower head. Kratos was by no means an expert on all the ways to take a shower, but he was quite sure that just the act of standing underneath one was not exactly conducive to cleanliness. Then again, he was a foreigner in these parts; customs could vary wildly.

Or perhaps Castiel simply had more pressing things on his mind. "It seems you were luckier."

[poorexample]

Bruised ribs? While Castiel had never experienced such an injury himself, the term had definitely come up around Sam and Dean and he'd heard enough to know that that was no small matter. A bruise didn't sound like something too serious, but the fact that the ribcage was involved made it considerably more severe. And if Kratos was having a difficult time with even basic movements, then the answer was already obvious.

So either the shampoo or the conditioner was applied to one's hair. Perhaps it was both at the same time? Castiel had only seen Kratos grab for one, however, so which went first? Either way, once it had sat in the hair for a shirt while, it was then washed out. It didn't seem too complicated, so long as he could answer that one question.

However, Kratos had just made another comment, to which Castiel had to nod. "Yes, my night was free of any injuries for once," he admitted. Instead he had been threatened by most of the people he'd come across and then he'd found a demon, so he couldn't claim that it had gone well, even if he had been able to spread his wings once more.

"What caused the injury?" he asked, always intent to learn more about the enemy. However, he also needed to make sure that he got clean if he was going to satisfy the whims of the soldiers, and so he made a snap decision and got the shampoo first, seeing how it was on the left side. Most things seemed to go left to right in Western cultures, so it made sense.

[spandexorgtfo]

"That's always something to be thankful for," Kratos commented mildly. He was starting to deeply appreciate each day where he didn't wake up with additional bandages or need some sort of special assistance; those days had somehow become far rarer than he'd ever expected.

His hair properly cleaned (He had no idea what conditioner was; therefore, it was irrelevant...), Kratos reached for the bar of soap. It would be relatively easy to clean his extremities, but as for his chest...maybe if he kept his touch as light as possible, that would be for the best.

"The cause was a monster," he explained as he gingerly washed off his left arm, trying not to grimace from the sting of the soap on the still-healing scratches. "It was an enormous serpent with the head and torso of a woman" - He paused as he had been doing throughout the day to collect his breath and allow the pain to subside - "and clawed hands. I am familiar with such creatures from my own world, but here" - another pause - "I'm too limited to deal with them efficiently."

[poorexample]

Kratos' first statement was something that Castiel had to agree with. Before coming to this place, he'd not fully understand the burden of physical injuries, what Sam and Dean had dealt with after almost every hunt. He'd seen it with his own eyes, the bandaging and the misplaced bones. He'd watched them grimace with pain and yet push on nonetheless. In fact, he'd always understood pain himself, but the way that a wound lingered in humans had been something entirely new to him. A night where he avoided such a thing was something to be appreciated.

The other soldier hadn't been nearly as lucky, though he was doing his best to continue going through the motions of the day nonetheless. Castiel followed suit, tentatively placing the shampoo in his hair and then running it through like he'd seen some of the others do.

Even as he worked at that, he was quickly distracted by the monster that Kratos described. "A lamia," he said automatically. "Or perhaps an echidna. Creatures of myth, but they are more real than most would guess." It seemed that Kratos was familiar enough with them, though there was a chance the monsters were called by a different name on his world. Castiel had never encountered one himself, but he had no doubt that they existed. If Kratos was suffering from bruised ribs, then it was likely that the half-woman half-snake had grabbed him with her tail and squeezed.

[spandexorgtfo]

As soon as Castiel named the monster, Kratos couldn't help but give him a strange look for a second. "Yes," he said slowly, "it was indeed one of those." He ought to have expected such a thing if his own name already had a correspondence, but these similarities were still so startling. "I've never heard them described as 'mythical', though." Both were too common to fade into myth, even though the places where a lamia or echidna might be found were not usually traveled to by the average citizen.

Now for his ribs...he could do this. He would do this. Kratos' expression tightened momentarily as he soaped down his entire midsection and accidentally grazed his ribs a little harder than he'd intended.

"In any case, you seem well-versed in these matters," he added as he rinsed off the soap, holding back a small sigh of relief. Castiel had given his answer more swiftly than Kratos had expected; even he, with all his knowledge, had taken longer to recall the exact species of the creature that had attacked him. And why would a simple soldier know of such things so extensively? It was a rather interesting hobby to pursue.

[poorexample]

The look that he was suddenly given caused Castiel to pause for a moment. Not that there was much to do at that second; the shampoo was successfully in his hair, so he needed to wait for the appropriate time to rinse it out, and then he'd put the conditioner in after. But he had to wait for a lull in the conversation first and foremost. Either way, he didn't see why his recognition of the monster's name was so odd. It might seem strange to a human who knew nothing of the supernatural, but Kratos had clearly been here long enough to have met a few, not to mention the fact that he had already explained that they existed on his world as well.

When Kratos started to busy himself with the soap, Castiel went ahead and took his chance, plunging his head under the spray of the water. He realized at a delay that his eyes needed to be closed when this happened, and so he was suddenly assaulted by a stinging pain in his eyes. He rubbed at them with his fists, blinking back tears. Eventually he realized that the water itself would clean them out, though, and managed to fix the problem despite some lingering soreness.

After he recovered Castiel considered the comment that Kratos had made, glancing over with red eyes and nodding. "I have never seen one myself, and most believe that they do not actually exist. On my world monsters are considered imaginary by most, but that is not actually the case." He didn't know if there was any easy way to explain why he had all of this information when most didn't, but hopefully Kratos would just accept what he was saying without asking. He didn't think he could pass as a hunter, nor did he have any desire to lie.

[spandexorgtfo]

Too absorbed in considering Castiel's response, Kratos didn't seem to have noticed the redness in the other man's eyes or his previous failure with the shampoo - or at least, he masterfully hid any of sign of doing so. Turning a convenient blind eye to allow others to save face was something he was definitely experienced in, no thanks to Yuan.

"I see. Curious." While the explanation didn't fully answer the question he had embedded into his comment, he could sense that Castiel would not be very forthcoming about the matter, and so he chose not to pry much deeper.

"If you ever have the misfortune of coming across one here..." The possibility seemed unlikely unless he entered the mine, but Kratos was not about to underestimate either Landel's or now Aguilar's thoughtfulness regarding monster placement. "...fire proved to be an effective deterrent." He was unsure if this was already known to Castiel, but it surely didn't hurt to repeat it.

He was almost finished washing, but Kratos was not looking forward to what would follow once his shower was done. No doubt the soldier was lurking nearby this very moment, waiting to...assist...him. The words were difficult to even think.

[poorexample]

Castiel was not surprised to hear that fire was the best method for killing such a thing. It was the most likely way to be rid of a creature, provided it didn't require something more out of the ordinary like a stake or dead man's blood or a silver blade. He was not as much of an expert as Sam or Dean, but he at least knew that when in doubt, fire was useful. Still, he took in the information with a nod. "Thank you. I'll keep that in mind. Though how did you have access to it in the first place?"

Fire wasn't difficult to create, necessarily, but it did require certain tools that he didn't believe they had access to. If there was a place to find such tools, then he'd like to hear about it. He was limited in his fighting ability here, so he needed to take every opportunity he could get.

With the shampoo now washed out of his hair, Castiel was prepared to move onto the conditioner, but that was when he caught sight of Sam Winchester entering the room. He didn't look like he was in any position to speak to anyone and was being very swift with his cleansing methods. Castiel would have ignored that and headed over nonetheless, but Sam wasn't the one he really wanted to talk to.

As he turned to view another portion of the room, he realized that Dean had found a spot as far away from him as possible. Castiel was about to dismiss himself to go meet with him despite that, but then Dean was joined by none other than the Doctor.

Another chance lost. Castiel's shoulders tightened as he wordlessly started to deposit some of the conditioner into his hands.

[spandexorgtfo]

If Castiel was seeking information on supplies, he would be sorely disappointed.

"I have some magical abilities left here; summoning fire is one of them," Kratos explained. He had only run into one or two skeptics here, and even so, he was comfortable admitting to his powers - and their origins, even, so long as he didn't need to discuss the other, physiological effects of the Cruxis Crystal. "The spell itself is relatively weak, but it worked."

Glancing the other man's way again, he noticed a shift in Castiel's demeanor, as if the other man had been suddenly let down. Had he been expecting something - or someone, for that matter? If this was about his answer, it seemed a rather extreme response. Either way, it probably...was none of his business.

[poorexample]

So it seemed that Kratos had kept more power than Castiel had been allotted. Granted, angels didn't possess that specific ability, but when it came to anything offensive he was limited to his host's physical capabilities. Thus far it hadn't served him all that well, as he'd lost all of his strength and resilience.

"That must be useful considering the things that stalk us at night. I expect a lot of them are weak to fire," he commented with a nod, trying to draw his attention away from Dean; it was clear that he wouldn't be given the chance to speak with him, so it was best to put it from his mind. The conditioner was soon all in place, leaving his dark hair in clumps and almost entirely covered in white.

There wasn't much more to say, and more than that, his shower was almost over with as far as he could gather. What, then, to say? The part of the conversation that Castiel was worst at was ending it, and so he killed some time by rinsing out the conditioner.

[spandexorgtfo]

[ack! sorry for the delay ;A; guess I'll wrap things up...]

Kratos nodded. "So it seems." There were plenty of drawbacks to using his powers, though, namely the gross amounts of energy that casting consumed. He could barely manage two spells even when he was fully rested, and his fighting ability dropped drastically once he was drained. It always seemed the better choice to save his magic as a last resort even though it made fights that much harder; in the end, he just wanted to be able to keep going.

And as nice as their conversation was, Kratos wasn't given to lingering in a room for long. By now, he had finished rinsing off, so he was ready to head back and attempt to get dressed on his own. Turning the water off, he grabbed his towel and wrapped it around his waist.

"Best of luck." He nodded curtly to Castiel by way of farewell before turning away and making his way out of the showers. It was not the best way to end a conversation, but it worked - and he did sincerely mean it.