Outside the Dorms, Friday Night - Scantily Clad, Covered in Goo, and Wet

[notyourpawn]

Alice was now covered in raw sewage as well as gooey alligator bits. Zack had mentioned that it was probably a bad idea to go back into the dorms dripping these sorts of things, and Zack happened to be right

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[once_a_traitor]

Ed was really not having the best day, having handwavily encountered the same thing most of the town had. Monkey-fighting alligators. Well, no, there weren't any monkeys involved, but it was far more polite than what he was thinking at the time.

At first, when he saw people getting clean, he was relieved. Then he saw how scantily clad Alice was and was all of a sudden rather flustered.

"Uh, er, alligators," was all he managed.

[notyourpawn]

"All over town," Alice said cheerfully. Somehow, seeing others undressed unnerved her, but stripping down herself failed to be having that effect, today. "I was covered in goo and sewage. Would you like a hose-off?"

Amazingly, she didn't realize how unfortunate that sounded.

[once_a_traitor]

Edmund was doing everything in his power not to look at her. Oh look, that tree was fascinating. As was the grass! And the sky. One could never forget the sky.

Still, he was covered in the unfortunate grime that came with battling mutant alligators, so eventually, awkwardly, he managed a "yes please."

[notyourpawn]

"Hold still, then," she said, aiming the hose at him. "It's very cold, I hope that's all right. Consider it a nice, bracing English sort of thing. Stiff upper lip and all that."

[once_a_traitor]

"Something I'm well-practised at," Ed said, steeling himself. This involved squeezing his eyes shut in preparation. It helped that he now couldn't see the scantily cladness. Not that she wasn't pretty, but various states of undress often flustered Edmund depending on his mood, the time of day and the number of daffodils growing in Pennsylvania (not that he knew that). "Fire away."

[notyourpawn]

The water was very cold, and very forceful, both of which made it very good at removing alligator bits, so there was that, at least.

"It helps if you strip down some yourself," she noted, "but if I say that, you might blush harder."

[once_a_traitor]

He thought, for the briefest of moments, about denying that he was blushing and that it was just from exertion or the very cold water. The moment passed. "Am I that obvious?" he asked, now dripping wet.

[notyourpawn]

"You're very proper," Alice said solemnly. "Dignified and formal and whatnot. If you weren't blushing and thinking that I'm a terribly indecent sort of girl, I would wonder if you'd gone mad, too."

[once_a_traitor]

"Are you a terribly indecent sort of girl or is this just in the name of cleanliness?" he asked bluntly.

[notyourpawn]

"Both," Alice decided. "That is, I'm only out here half-dressed because I was covered in alligator bits and raw sewage, and this seemed preferable to dripping goo on the floors. It seemed practical, and it's not as though I'm nude. So I wasn't attempting to be shocking, or flaunt myself. But I am quite unseemly, at least, by Victorian standards. Modern ones would have me as fairly tame, I think. Tell me where yours fall, on that scale, and I can tell you whether you should disapprove of me."

[once_a_traitor]

"Somewhere in between Victorian and modern," Edmund replied, not really quite sure how to take this girl's oddness. "So while your state of dress has me blushing, as you pointed out, and left me unsure of what to say or do to a lady in such a state, I'm not about to insist that you're a harlot or insist you find a nunnery. Still, aren't you cold? I could get you a coat if you are."

[notyourpawn]

"You'd make a good knight," Alice said, and now she was blushing. "I'm in my undergarments, and you're still calling me a lady. I'm fine, I thank you. I smell far less like something unfortunate now. It's probably for the best that I've never gone to a nunnery; I fear I might have a very ill effect on nuns."

Two weeks until someone snapped and attacked her with a pencil. Maximum.

[once_a_traitor]

"I am a knight," he said, but it wasn't the point of his reply. "If you have an ill effect on nuns, and from what I've learned it's not a good idea to tangle with the clergy, then there's even less reason for me to insist on you going to a nunnery. I suppose that's decided then."

[notyourpawn]

"No nunneries," she said. "That doesn't touch the larger question of what you think of me, but polite society loathes discussing such things. As a knight, I expect you'd demur. How is the hosing coming along?"

[once_a_traitor]

"I think I'm clean enough for now," he said. "As to your question," he added with some thought, "I don't know what to think of you. You caught me off guard being in your underthings." Oh Ed, underthings? Really? "But I don't know you, so I have very little to base a proper opinion on. I think, for now, it's best that I wait until I meet you under different circumstances with more clothes and then let you know what I think after that."

[notyourpawn]

"Right, then," she nodded. "That's quite the charitable offer, which fits nicely with you being a knight. Giving the lady a chance to redeem herself, even after she's mentioned how she terrorizes nuns. Hypothetical nuns, I assure you; I don't seek out nuns in order to disrupt their daily lives. I'm sure most nuns are quite pleasant. When would you like to meet under different circumstances? Or were you leaving that to the vagaries of fate?"