Log: Girly Bath Time!

Apr 04, 2010 02:02

Who: Avey, Milani
When: day 18, month 5, turn 22 of the 10th interval
Where: Baths, High Reaches Weyr
What: Milani and Avey have a girlie bath time, wash each other's hair, talk a little serious about abortions and very unseriously gossip.


Bathing Pools, High Reaches Weyr
Omnipresent clouds of steam slink across the tops of three naturally warm pools, set into the floor of this kidney-shaped cavern. Near the entrance the ceiling is high and polished, gleaming with little mineral specks as it sweeps downward into increasingly ragged, uneven steps. The foremost of the pools is squared off with wide steps leading down into the water and has faucets for bringing in cooler water from a rain-catching cistern. Primarily used for laundry, there's an almost constant film of suds along its surface until the circulating current clears it at the end of the day. Four sinks line the nearest wall and various tubs stored beneath allow for the washing of delicates. Laundry bags can be dropped off in the bins near the door and clean, folded laundry is stacked in rows of tall cubbies for easy pickup.
The bend in the cavern leads to a rougher-hewn part of the chamber where the two circular bathing pools welcome those in need of a wash. Towels and washcloths are kept in neat stacks on shelves along the wall, along with sacks of sweetsand and a few bars of precious soap. Stone benches provide a place for sitting to remove shoes and clothing, while a row of gleaming brass hooks stand above, ready to hold clothes and robes.

It's steamy in the bathing caverns but pretty quiet at this hour and that could be why the headwoman has chosen now to get her bath in. She's got a pool pretty much to herself, does Milani and a little portable basket of girlie bath items, including shampoo and scented soaps and some bubbles! Though they circulate out quickly. The upshot: the bath smells like roses and lavender right now.

Avey's nose wrinkles slightly when she enters the cavern and smells all the... smell. Then again, she's got a competing smell all her own which isn't anything near as pleasant. Sweat, grime, and who knows what else - she's been outdoors much of the day by the look and smell of her, working hard. "Hi," she says brightly to Milani as she peels off her clothes and leaves them in a little pile. "Mind if I join you?" She dips a toe in the water to test the temperature.

Milani looks up from working lather into her hair. Which is very long and thick and has to be washed in sections. "Hey there, Avey!" she says cheerily and makes a sudsly little gesture. "Come on in, the water's fine," the headwoman adds. "So long as you don't mind coming out smelling like a bouquet of flowers. My mother gets some great things for handling hair, but it all has floral scents."

"I don't usually do flowers," Avey admits, "but it's better than what I smell like right now, I'm sure." In she goes! And she sighs happily. "Baths are the best thing ever. How've you been doing?" she asks.

"True, better to smell like a garden than the laundry basket?" Milani suggests with a chuckle and goes back to working stuff into her hair. "I think baths are the best end to any busy day. Just sit back and soak troubles away. I've been good! Not /too/ busy right now, though that will change soon enough. Right now things are pretty routine. Milandra's getting big though and crawling and pulling up a bit. Before you know it she'll be walking. I have to put all my breakables up where she can't reach."

"Oh, that must be a pain," Avey says sympathetically. "I can't imagine having a baby crawling around my quarters grabbing things. I guess if you're the mom, you don't mind so much," she says with a grin. "Has she said any words yet?"

"It's really cute though when she gets going, her butt wiggles," Milani says with a fondly maternal expression. "Oh let's see, just you know, babble-sounds. I /think/ she means it when she says 'mumumumum' but we'll see. She waves hi and bye though!" The headwoman reaches over to put a bit more of something from one of those bottles in her palm and gets it worked up underneath her hair at the back of her neck. "Do you want to try some of this? It's really great at keeping flyaways under control."

"Let me smell?" Avey requests. "Sometimes that stuff makes me sneeze, but if it's not one of those - that sounds great. My hair's been crazy lately, I've been outside so much now that the weather's turned nice." She reaches for the bottle, when Milani's done with it. "Babies can be fun. One of my friends back at Ista just had a baby a few months ago. He was really dull at first, but now he smiles and makes noises at you and everything."

Milani finishes working stuff in and drops her hands into the water to rinse them, then reaches over to pass the bottle to Avey. "Oh sure and it's all humid one day, dry the next. Crazy-making," the heawoman says with an expressive eyeroll. "They're a bit of a handful, but I've had plenty of help. Think you'd like kids someday?"

Avey gives the bottle a sniff, then helps herself to a bit of the stuff to rub into her hair. "Me? Oh no, I just plan on being everyone's kids' aunt. That way, you can give them back when you're finished playing with them," she says with a grin.

"Not a bad plan. I was on the auntie plan myself for a while. Buuut I changed my mind," Milani explains and works fingers in to massage her scalp. "Ahh, that part always feels good too. Especially if you can get someone else to do it for you. Speaking of, hold on and I'll rinse and if you like I can work it in for you. Spoil you a little!"

"Aw, thank you! That's so nice of you," Avey says. She piles her hair up on top of her head so that the shampoo doesn't drip in her eyes. Fortunately her hair is short. "How come you changed your mind? If that's not too nosy. If it is, you know, just ignore me," she says cheerfully.

Taking a moment to dunk under the water, Milani leaves behind a swirl of suds and reappears, rubbing water from her eyes, then shifts over nearer Avey. "Turn around," she instructs, tucking her own soaking wet mane behind her ears. "How come I changed my mind? Welll ... I just felt okay about it after a while. I didn't for a long time. I didn't really want kids or all the work that comes with them. But something shifted and ... well then I did get pregnant," she says slowly and very quietly. "And for a lot of reasons, I couldn't keep that baby. And it was really really sad having to get rid of it. So when I got pregnant with Milandra there was just no way I wasn't going through with it."

Avey turns her back on Milani and sinks lower in the water, to make it easier to reach her head. "Oh!" she says. "Oh, that's too bad about the first one. I only had to get rid of one once, but I felt kind of ooky about it, even though I totally don't want to have a baby. I'm glad I could, though. I'd really hate it if I was a holder and had to have a zillion babies no matter what."

Milani reaches forward to work the suds well into Avey's hair and massages scalp besides with firm motions. "Mm, yeah, it's good to be able to have the option and well ... it's not that I wasn't usually careful, but I've been /more/ careful since then for the most part. I'd rather you know, prevent than have to ever do that again."

"Yeah," Avey agrees. "I don't know about you, but I had the worst cramps." She sighs happily as Milani rubs her scalp. "That sure does feel good. If you need to put anything else in yours, I can do you, after," she offers.

"I've got one other thing, yes. Helps keep the tangles down." Milani makes a sympathetic face as she keeps up the scalp work, though pretty soon all those suds will need rinsing. "It ... was just very hard," the headwoman skims over the details. "Painful and exhausting."

"Are you going to try and have more babies?" Avey asks. Still a nosy question, but probably less nosy than the current topic of conversation, anyway.

"Yes. Probably when Milandra's around two or so, have another," Milani answers briskly and finishes up rubbing suds in. "Time to rinse, you've got a stack of meringue building up here!"
Avey laughs and ducks under the water, vigorously rinsing out her hair. She pushes it out of her face when she comes up, and wipes her eyes. "There! Thank you," she says. "You want me to do you, now?"

While Avey's rinsing, Milani wades over to pick out the next bottle. "Yes please, work this in from top to ends if you don't mind. I know there's a lot of it," the headwoman says of her hair. "So if you get tired of it, just let me know and I'll finish off going all the way down."

"Oh I don't mind," Avey says, and takes the bottle. She takes up a position behind Milani and starts to rub the stuff into her hair gently. "Do you have a favorite weaver?" she asks, changing the subject off babies altogether. "I was thinking about getting a new outfit, maybe."

"Thanks," Milani tells Avey and ducks down to make it easier to reach: she's pretty darned tall. "My mother actually," the headwoman says with a laugh. "For some things. Otherwise, one of my best friends is a weaver at Fort. Amerie. She used to be an assistant headwoman. And E'dre, Wroth's rider makes lovely gowns."

"Oh! Gosh, I didn't know your mom's a weaver. How about that. E'dre - I'm trying to think if I know her." Avey puzzles on it while she works on Milani's hair, though she's not likely to get anywhere, having assumed E'dre is female.

Milani shakes her head. "Oh well no, not technically a weaver, just she makes things, did some training at the hall after Thread stopped. But she's not knotted or anything and she never apprenticed," the headwoman explains. "E'dre was a tailor before he impressed. He's P'ax's weyrmate."

"Oh! He's a guy. OH! Right. I know who you mean," Avey says, and laughs. "I had no idea he was a tailor, though. That's funny."

"He made me this /really/ sexy little number," Milani describes. "Pink with lacings across the front. He's pretty good in bed too," is the headwoman's further blase assessment.
"...oh," Avey says after a pause. "That's not part of the fee, I hope?" She lets out a nervous giggle.

"What? Oh shells no. We're friends you know. Had a little fun for a bit." She tilts a look over her shoulder at Avey with a grin. "Just marks for the fee."

"Oh, that's good, then," Avey says. "P'ax is - well, I don't know if I'd call him a friend, exactly, but I don't want to sleep with his weyrmate. That wouldn't be very nice."

"P'ax has issues," is Milani's mild remark. "But he's not a bad guy. And I'm glad he's finally found someone. He seems to've calmed down a little since." Operative word there 'a little'.

"No, he's not a bad guy," Avey agrees. "And I wouldn't want to hurt his feelings."

"I don't think ... they're the exclusive kind of weyrmates," Milani points out. "But I'm not entirely sure. At any rate there's a couple of handymen who make great eye candy, and good fun against a storeroom door." Apparently, someone is indulging her gossip bone.

"Really?" That surprises Avey, but she doesn't comment further on it. "Ah, are there? That's good to know. I broke up with my weyrmate last seven." Again. "I usually spend more time with riders, but... which one's the cutest?"

"Mm," Milani semi-confirms and then makes a little sympathetic face. "I heard through the grapevine. You're holding up okay right?" And then there's some general comparing of handymen and the name 'Joffin' for Avey to take away with her as info at least.

"Oh, I'm fine," Avey says with a wave of her hand, before she goes back to the hair. "It turned out he was a jerk, so whatever. You just never know with guys, I guess. But I've been having fun setting my new weyr up. Someone took the one I had before, so I had to pick out a new one. I couldn't find one with a bath. But it was kind of fun, hunting."

"Well, depends on what you want them for. A little bit of fun ... doesn't matter if they're jerks or not, just if they're good with their hands and hips," Milani says rather bluntly. "But for keeps? Mmm. Have to do a litle more testing." She blinks a few times. "Oh so you'll need some things from stores for that? And well ... you might want to think about not moving in and out so much. Just keep your weyr."

"I got what I needed already mostly - it wasn't much," Avey says, a little bit guilty. "Just a rug and a chest of drawers, the chairs and table were mine and I took them with me and uh. Yeah. Well, I probably won't move in with anyone for a while yet." How long that is in real time, she doesn't specify.

"I got what I needed already mostly - it wasn't much," Avey says, a little bit guilty. "Just a rug and a chest of drawers, the chairs and table were mine and I took them with me and uh. Yeah. Well, I probably won't move in with anyone for a while yet." How long that is in real time, she doesn't specify.

"My mother's always kept her own weyr, if only for the work space. And well you know, for in case of after flights that goes long and she doesn't want to be holding up the guest weyr," Milani notes with a little smile. "And if you need anything else, just let me know. Want some of this no-tangle stuff? I can put that in for you and then I should hop out and dry off, head home."

"Sure," Avey says as she finishes up the ends of Milani's hair. "There, you're all done. My hair's so short, it shouldn't take long at all," she says cheerfully. "I guess I could do that. Keep my own weyr just for sometimes. It's not like there's a shortage."

This stuff is the kind of stuff that you leave in. Milani trades spots again and with shorter length it really won't take long to work the stuff into Avey's hair. "No, there really isn't and probably won't be ... for a while," the headwoman says with a little smile. "Smaller clutches and not so often and all."

"Exactly," Avey says. "I do keep hoping one with a bath will open up. But aside from that, it would be nice to move less."

"There just aren't that many of those sadly. My parents have one and it /is/ nice to be able to just go wash at home, I bet. Though our baths here are nice." She gestures around the cavern one-handed as she finishes up with Avey's hair. "There, you're all set. Enjoy the rest of your soak! I'm going to get on home and check on Milandra. Thanks for the help with my hair. Oh - and let me know if you need to know about any other weavers, I have some names on file."

"You're welcome, thanks for the hair stuff," Avey says happily. "I'll check with those guys, but yeah, if nobody can do it - I'll come find you." She waves and smiles. "See you later!"

A little wave and Milani is hauling herself out of the pool with a distinct lack of modesty. A towel wrapped around her hair, bathrobe and flip-flops will see her back home with her little basket of goodies. "See you Avey!" is her parting at the doorway and she's off for the evening.

avey, @hrw, $e'dre, $abortion, #headwoman, $p'ax

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