Day 30: Men's Showers (Fourth Shift)

[broken_exorcist]

As though his conversation during the last shift hadn't been terrible enough... the way that girl had treated him like a child, it was just another nail in the coffin to be herded along to the showers with all the other children.  Allen knew he must be dirty, but he was far from enthusiastic about the idea of public nudity.

When he arrived,

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[roger_hug]

Once again, Bridget found himself forced to entrust Roger to a nurse. He was leery, but she promised him that he'd get his 'toy' back. Pfft. Roger. A toy. How silly.

Stripping, the young man had no problems showering and went about the task while humming softly to himself. He wondered what he would do tonight as well as where he would go after he was done here.

[usoppsenchou]

[If you had plans, I'll be happy to skedaddle :D]

He hadn't appreciated being woken from his nap, but the truth was that he felt much better after it, brief as it had been. The haze on his mind was almost entirely gone now, though his limbs still felt a bit odd or weak. Not so much that he needed any help undressing or heading into the showers, ignoring the glaring orderlies to the side, and as soon as he was in he glanced around. If being drugged really was like being drunk, he'd bet on being right back to normal once he'd had a nice shower.

Seeing a familiar face, he headed over, pleased to see Bridget was still around. They'd only talked a little while on the buses, but Bridget had seemed really nice and Usopp hadn't seen the young man since that nasty mess with the bus attack. Roger was missing, he hoped that was to avoid shower mold and not a permanent loss.

"Hi, Bridget! It's nice to see you." Usopp grinned, turning on his own faucet. He didn't really care about their mutual nudity; after all, they were both guys.

[roger_hug]

((Yay for Usopp!!))

Bridget turned and beamed at the sight of a familiar, friendly face. "Hi Captain Usopp," he chirped. "I'm glad to see that you're okay. You are okay?" He looked a bit worried.

He rather liked Usopp. He was one of the few people who didn't bat an eye when he said he was a boy, and he was still willing to be his friend. Like Armand. He hoped he was okay too....

[usoppsenchou]

"Yeah, I'm doing great! Well... I kind of got dragged into stuff this morning. But I feel a lot better now." Usopp smiled back. "How have you been?" He didn't mention Roger not being present, figuring Bridget could bring it up if anything had happened.

Getting a handful of shampoo, he started lathering. With only one shower a week, he figured he should make sure his hair was nice and clean while he had the chance.

[roger_hug]

Bridget nodded and ducked under the water for a moment. "I'm doing great," he said when he pulled back out, starting in on his own hair. "Roger and I slept in through this mornings mess, but I'm hoping we can get some more exploring in tonight!"

He rinsed out his hair. "What about you? Any plans for tonight?"

[usoppsenchou]

Usopp nodded enthusiastically, causing a bit of soap to spill down his shoulders. "Oh, yeah! It should be a really busy night. Lots of people are supposed to be coming by; I'm hoping to make some great stuff, if we can get all the materials together." He ducked his head under the water, holding his breath a bit before leaning back.

"I'm glad Roger's doing okay too." It might be a stuffed bear, but it was still obviously Bridget's important nakama.

[roger_hug]

Bridget nodded and scrubbed at his face for a moment while Usopp spoke and rinsed his own hair. "What sorts of things do you make?" He'd read on that board about people that could make things, usually weapons, and Bridget was curious.

He smiled happily at the kind words for Roger. "I'm sure he'd be very pleased to hear that you care," he said. Honestly, he didn't think Roger would care at all, but Bridget did. Nobody really treated Roger like an actual living 'thing' before, not even back home when he was still functional. It was more of the 'Ah! Bear on fire! Run away!' kind of response there...

[usoppsenchou]

"Weapons," Usopp answered immediately, then added the far vaguer, "stuff." He started soaping up his body more, while still talking. "Nothing like the alchemists or anything. I just kind of improvise things. But that's what I did back home, too, so it's not so bad. And I think someone's..." He paused, then glanced around before speaking again. "I think someone's got some stuff that'll help me make gunpowder."

Gunpowder. Sweet, sweet gunpowder. The basis of at least half his weapons at home. After he'd first learned to mix it as a kid, he'd become an unstoppable force of absolute destruction. Well, more extreme annoyance than destruction, really. But here and now, with a working slingshot and some bases to fill for a few gunpowder stars, he was starting to really feel optimistic. Or maybe that was still the drugs.

Usopp grinned again when Bridget said he'd tell Roger about the concern, but it had been sincere. Like Luffy's hat, for instance--Usopp didn't have any objects he cared about that much...

"I'll carry you a

[roger_hug]

Bridget made an impressed sound and grinned. "Wow, really? That would be so neat!" Bridget wasn't much for gunpowder, or guns. If he could get his hands on his yo-yos again or even a yo-yo, he'd be set. "What did you fight with back home?"

He giggled behind his hand. "It would be nice to shower more often," he agreed. "I don't like the idea of not being clean."

[usoppsenchou]

"A slingshot. But I'm really good! One hundred shots, one hundred hits!" He sang the last part a little, posing with one hand ahead and the other pulled back as though he were aiming an invisible slingshot. Then he dropped the pose, laughing a little bit. "Or anything else. Hammers, frying pans, eggs, you never know what'll be useful, right?"

After that less dramatic confession, he reached up to play with the faucet a little, cupping his hands around the nozzle so the water clumped together and fell more naturally and less like a spray. "I guess I don't mind being dirty too much as long as I don't smell and my hair isn't all greasy, but I really miss being around water. Once, I bathed in a royal bathroom, it was like twenty times the size of this room!" Usopp gestured around, letting the water go back to spraying him. "The bath itself was as big as the room, no, bigger! It was a lot of fun. The faucets and all the decorations were made of gold, and the tiles were marble!"

[roger_hug]

"The improvised stuff always makes the best weapons," Bridget agreed. "Nobody ever sees eggs as a weapon."

He listened to Usopp describe the bathroom he'd seen, smiling. "Wow, really? That's huge! Even the bath at my family's estate isn't that big. That must have been so neat! What were you doing there?" He scubbed and washed off his face, enjoying the feel of the hot water.

[usoppsenchou]

Usopp glanced around to make sure none of his crewmates were close before answering

[roger_hug]

Bridget listened intently to the story, clapping softly when Usopp had finished. "Wow," he breathed. "That's amazing! I'll bet the princess must have been so happy to be able to go home too. How kind you are, Captain." He beamed at the other boy.

[usoppsenchou]

"She was, because she loved her nation so much." Usopp nodded, but frowned a little, remembering how they'd left. "But it was difficult too, because we'd all kind of gotten to know each other; Vivi was welcome to join us if she wanted. Her country still needed help rebuilding, and she couldn't just leave it. If we ever meet again, though, we've sworn she's still one of us!" He ended with a grin.

[roger_hug]

"That's so neat!" Bridget nodded. "I'm sure that if she could have, she would have been happy to join you. Pirate crews are the best."

Of course, he only knew one crew and now Usopp, but the Jellyfish were all good people (even that pervert Johnny) and Usopp was a good person so .... logically, pirates were decent folk.

Bridget wasn't known for his logic skills....

[usoppsenchou]

"Yeah, they are!" Usopp's enthusiasm for piracy, even after fighting with countless other crews and having his own home village threatened with slaughter by pirates, had no bounds. Piracy just had to be done right, that was all. "Being a pirate is a really great life. I guess you're kind of like Princess Vivi, right? You're an honorary pirate too."