Day 51: Women's Showers [Second Shift]
It said something that the showers no longer affected the Digimon to the point of panic. It spoke of the weeks she had been here, that she was gradually become neutral to the process. She was warned to be careful of the bandage over her eye--this said almost suspiciously; she would not react the same as she had a week prior. She made a motion as if
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Pulling her scrunchy out and flipping her thick, straight hair out across her shoulders, the brunette walked into the steamy communal showers for an empty shower head.
"Oop, excuse me...!" Tifa kept her warning light and cheerful, so she didn't scare the woman she was walking behind. The brunette had learned that some of the girls here were more private than others, and if this woman minded a stranger standing beside her to shower, Tifa didn't mind moving on. There were very few women compared to the men, so it was easy to pick out the new ones at the institute. The young fighter assumed the blond had been properly updated on the 411 around this place, but just in case, Tifa was happy to lend an ear or her few days of wisdom and experience to her.
"Do you mind if I stand here?"
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There had not been too much danger of Natalia stepping into the other woman, as she had already been looking over the fog obscured room. Soap oozed down the side of her face, risking her eyes, and she slid a wet wrist across her skin to impede the flow. It was then that she heard the warning, failing to jump.
"Oh! No, not at all," she answered, eyes moving up to the woman's face. And ... they nearly made it, pausing at her chest. Only for half a second, struck first by the difference (even Tear, perhaps, couldn't compare! the thought which, strangely, produced in her a brief irritation with Luke), next by the scar. Goodness -- had that happened here? But, Natalia would not stare, though she found her cheeks hotter than expected. Despite having been bathed by maids, she had not done so with other naked women, and while not self-conscious in regard to her own body, she had been less prepared than expected for another's.
Thankfully, the hot water had already flushed her skin, making the blush imperceptible. Wondering if she ought to apologize, Natalia meanwhile smiled, greeting,
"Hello! It's wonderful to have a shower, don't you think so? I'm Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear."
A mouthful, but it rolled naturally from her tongue, more so than her single name would have done.
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"Oh..." Tifa's smile was lost for a minute in her surprise at hearing such a long title. "That's... quite a name you got..." It spread back smoothly across her face as she introduced herself in turn. "I'm Tifa Lockhart, it's nice to meet you..." Her rough hands pulled her long rope of hair across her left shoulder as she finagled with the shampoo. She'd probably have to use the whole bottle. Oh well. She could kick Landel in the nuts by draining him slowly of toiletry products.
"Sure is... I was afraid they'd just hose us off in the rec field or something my first day. Glad to see they can be humane when they feel like it..." Her smile grew sharp at the edges as she turned away from Natalia and started pouring a thick line of shampoo down her hair. "So..." Tifa continued through her rigorous grooming. "Do you have friends here?" Hopefully she wasn't all alone with no one from where she had lived. It must have made adjusting to this prison much harder.
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"Thank you," Natalia replied, completely missing the nature of the other woman's surprise. It helped that the room's atmosphere made it difficult to read her expression, and that a little shampoo had dripped into her eye. Not wanting to interrupt Tifa's introduction, she squinted and swiped again with her wrist. She agreed: "It's a pleasure!"
Goodness, and Tifa had such long hair!
"Hose us?" Natalia gasped, "How barbaric! As much as I'd rather not take their generosity, I am glad they haven't gone that far." Glad enough to remember to step beneath the shower head, finally rinsing the shampoo out. She could still make out Tifa's words beneath the water, and Natalia nodded, a broad smile taking her.
"Indeed, I'm--well, if I were lucky, I would not be here. Yet, I must be, to have three of my dear friends here. Not that I, oh, that sounded terrible!"
Exasperated, at expressing such joy that her friends would also be imprisoned, Natalia clapped bare hands to her hips in disgust, splashing water as she did. Of course she knew that, for them as for her, they and she wanted to be there for one another. But, still. Then, as if it hadn't been such a horrendous thing for her, she considered Tifa with a renewed smile.
"Have you?"
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Turning around, she bent backward into the spray to wash out the never-ending river of suds that poured from her dark hair. The bulk of her time in any shower was spent on this futile endeavor. "I have a few friends here too. They were here awhile before I showed up. It's weird since I had seen one of them not long before I got here... and yet he says he's been here almost a week. Makes a girl wonder...."
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She tipped a small dollop of conditioner in her palm, and pulled it through her hair, reflecting on Tifa's understanding. Though it was, possibly, something basic, grasped well by all patients with friends within the walls, it remained good to hear from another person. Especially, oddly enough, a stranger.
"It does make her wonder," Natalia agreed, emphatically, now rinsing her hair. "I've encountered something similar. Though it had been a month since I'd seen any of my friends, they have been here for weeks, so long that it is impossible I wouldn't have heard."
"None of it makes a bit of sense," she concluded, though it was difficult to sigh or frown over it, while relishing the shower.
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