Day 44: Women's Showers (2nd Shift)

[hajike_tobiume]

The sting of the water on Momo's wounds reminded her exactly where each and every burn was. Between that and the clear plastic wrapping the nurse placed around the long cut up her arm to her shoulder, she decided as little time in the actual spray would be wise. Sitting on a stool out of the direct stream, she went about scrubbing the grit and

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[thatdamnedninja]

"I'm going to turn myself into a radish," Yuffie told her nurse.

"With the water, dear?"

"No, with the gum in your pocket."

"Hanna, I don't have any gum in my pocket."

"You totally do."

And so the conversation went on. Really, it was the way it had to be; if Plucky suspected that something was wrong, she'd get edgy. An edgy Plucky meant an extra vigilant Plucky, and that meant even tighter surveillance than normal. Stupid closed environment making it impossible to do anything… It made Yuffie itch to act out, when all she really wanted for once was a bit of peace

[tofindherwings]

The shift from night to day had been rather jarring to Cissnei, despite the warnings that she'd received. It had left her disoriented for a good few moments, wondering where she was and where Tseng was and why she wasn't out searching for Zack before the clinical white of the room had brought it flooding back. Right. Insane asylum, other worlds, Reno and Rude being very surprised to see her

[thatdamnedninja]

Gonna take this slow, Yuffie decided, basking in the warmth. She closed her eyes. Evildoers, be warned! Amidst the slew of terror and the rain of blood, something bright still shines! It is I--

Somebody was coming over. Sloshing footsteps against wet tile, sure and confident. Hmm… The ninja tilted her head just slightly, cracking one eye open. Nope, not somebody she recognized; her height, her age, seemed capable and not immediately crazy. Note keywords. Yuffie opened her other eye, blinked the water off her lashes, and nonchalantly returned most of her attention to massaging the ache out of her shoulders.

"If I did, you'd know about it," she responded lazily. "Hi. Mind the soap, I think they replaced it with superglue when nobody was looking."

[tofindherwings]

Well, that was good to know. Someone who at least believed that they were capable as a fighter. It was probably better not to take the chance that she was bluffing, at least not until Cissnei was certain. "I'll bear that in mind," she replied, reaching to take some of the soap into her hands and begin to rub it into her hair. She had to agree with the other woman; it wasn't brilliant quality.

"I'm called Cissnei," she said after a moment, giving the other girl a small smile.

[kagurazuki]

Kagura was honestly relieved when breakfast was over and her nurse led her to the showers. She felt sorry for Haine, since he was new, but aside from that, she honestly wasn't sure what to think about him. He was kind of abrasive and a little scary, but that seemed to be true of a lot of the patients here.

Sighing to herself, she headed into the showers, glancing around for an open spot. It didn't take long to locate one, especially with how empty the place was. At least it seemed like her wounds had all more or less healed up. There were scars left, sure, but they got fainter each day. Maybe they wouldn't be as bad as she thought. Maybe.

[free, no limits]

[mind_the_sukima]

Ah, shower time. It was a little gross to only get this twice a week, but considering that no one walked into breakfast smelling like blood, Yukari had to assume that some form of cleaning happened while they were unconscious. While this may not have been satisfactory for most people, as a youkai who often simply twisted reality into a state of cleanliness rather than take an actual bath, this sort of logic was good enough for her. Still, it was nice to get a chance to soak.

There were other benefits to the shower, such as the clearly naked ninja over there. Unfortunately, the girl had found relative safety in the form of Raine, though that seemed to be backfiring from the looks of it. As it was, Yukari wasn't about to barge in on them. She'd just subtly harass the ninja

[kagurazuki]

Kagura had set about washing up, but it wasn't long before the showers started to fill up. A woman with long blonde hair stood next to her, but she tried to be polite and only look straight ahead and kept to herself. Still, it was rude not to talk when addressed, and she did seem pretty nice.

"Good morning," she said shyly, her soft voice barely carrying over the sound of the water. "I... ah... y-yes. We didn't leave our room, we were u-um... taking a night off. It was kind of... nice."

[mind_the_sukima]

Aw, how cute, she was shy. That sort of innocence always left Yukari on the border between either playing nice or teasing them mercilessly. She'd go with the former at the moment

[yin_yang_fox]

The water felt cold.

She could objectify that now. This was the fourth time she had been under the spray--the fourth time lower emotions rose up to overwhelm. But she was better than that now. Her control was tighter, her self more secure, and there were no new injuries to creep sensation along her skin. Renamon wondered offhand, how Beelzemon was doing in this new setting.

A shiver of air caught her, and Renamon froze, then turned off the water and walked towards the door.

[to here]

[madeinthehrl]

Speaking with Edgar had been a--distraction, if not an entirely welcome one. It wasn't that Soma had disliked him; it was simply that she was completely unused to interacting with people like him, and she had had too much on her mind as it was to focus on the conversation. It had probably showed.

She stepped into the showers without complaint, undressing and ducking under the closest available showerhead. Ignoring the sting of hot water on her recent injuries, she began to wash quickly. She didn't relish the upcoming meeting, but she'd had to face a few facts last night and she supposed she might as well make the first move.

[closed]

[madeinthehrl]

[to here]

[ninelivesonce]

The shower would have been the perfect place for Taura to show off the results of last night's healing session, except that they'd herded all the women into a different room than the men.

Then again, there had been all that talk of virgin-eating monsters on the board; animal fodder was not the usual industry for virgin consumption, but it would explain the segregated showers. Or maybe it went along with their notions of therapy -- sex either explained everything or nothing at all, she'd gathered, which hadn't done anything to improve her impressions of experimental psychologists or their pet theories. Sex was sex, and showers were usually too cramped to make very good places to have it. And tile was coldOh well. There still wasn't much to see even when she was naked -- a faint yellow bruise-halo could be from anything, and Mister von Karma hadn't seen it when it was fresh. She poked at it -- no pain left at all. Then she got to work unbraiding her hair, tugging it where frizz had turned into tangles while letting the hot

[mugenreppa]

So she had missed yesterday, Mele thought as the Scarecrow was led away by a nurse. Mele remained at the table, unmoving until the very last second until a nurse came to get her.

As they entered the showers, Mele told the nurse she could do this by herself, and stood up to prove it. The nurse consented to leaving her alone, though Mele had the inkling the nurse didn't care if she fell. Which suited Mele fine; damned if she was going to repeat her last showers experience.

Mele managed to hobble over to the nearest free spot (which, as it happened, was next to someone who made her feel really short), and let the water run over her body while she reached up to free her hair from its usual loops.

"Is the woman on the intercom familiar to you?" she asked conversationally, without preamble. "'Head Nurse Lydia'?" What an odd title to name herself by.

[ninelivesonce]

Most people were really short next to Taura; the woman unlacing her enviably unfrizzy hair from some sort of complex arrangement fell squarely into Taura's estimation of average height. What was more noticeable was that she was limping. The last person who'd said he could stay upright on his own and shrugged off assistance had collapsed with gaping wounds shortly thereafter, which made Taura a little twitchy about taking this woman's statement at face value. Even if she hadn't been talking to Taura when she'd said it.

It was daytime, and neither of the last two night's events were being treated as normal by the more seasoned ranks of the population, so maybe it would be fine. And a fall on slippery tiles would hurt, but it wasn't anything like a stab wound to the shoulder

[mugenreppa]

"Hnnnn?" Well, there was no other way of saying it- Mele shook her head as she said, "I haven't been...paying attention." It had only occurred to her just now that tracking the movements of the voices on the intercom might be a good idea. "I've been here maybe...three days? Four?" Counting her conversations with Soma, that was three, and then the trip to town, and then the day she'd missed that belonged to last night with the weirdo screams, assumedly.

Combing her hair out with her fingers, she said flippantly, "I'm Mele. Nice to meet you~"

The gashes on her legs stung a little more than expected, but it was only water, and the injuries were mostly healed, anyway. Even so, Mele was careful to keep balanced on her feet, since falling would be utterly embarrassing.

"Meet anyone interesting lately?" Engaging in small talk-silence made her edgy and uncomfortable now, though she couldn't say why.