Private Emergence

[Marus Saretti]

"It's a quick system, actually," Marus replied. "High efficiency, sonic technology, mainly. Works similar to a sonic shower or a sonic dishwasher. Just vibrates a lot of the grime right out, vacuums it right out, not like a normal washing machine. Quick rinse afterwards to knock anything loose, flash dry. What, did you think I was just wandering around naked or taking two-hour showers?"

...

He actually kinda wondered what her answer to that might be. It might give some valuable insights into how her imagination worked.

"Most spare clothes I have is the jacket here. All I know about anything else onboard is that none of it fits me." He certainly couldn't deny that it would be entertaining watching her wander around in his shirt waiting on laundry—or one even larger. She might actually disappear into the clothes. Giving her his jacket, though...the last time he'd given a girl he met his jacket he never got it back. It was probably halfway across the galaxy right now.

He wouldn't give it up that easily, and certainly wouldn't let her out of his sight with it.

All thoughts of the jacket and its potential to disappear left his mind quickly with her next question, though. "Nope, never been before. You?"

Rhia Kesyk

 

[Rhia Kesyk]

"Oh" the girl said, cocking her head to one side as though she hadn't even suspected that at all. "I dunno, how am I to know how long you've had this hijacked ship for? Might be you were one of those stinky boys who don't even really like to shower." She pouted, then shifted out of the seat and stepped past him toward the hallway. She paused when he redirected the question back her way.

"Nope. Never been this way before."

Then she shrugged.

"You can keep the jacket," she said with a small and arguably mischievous smile, beginning to feel all at once like herself again. Far from perfect but, alive. Like she wasn't immediately about to splinter into a thousand pieces at a moment's notice. "I'll shower then; I'll drop the clothes outside the door, if you can get them sonic-washed, or whatever it was you just said... I uh... Yeah, I appreciate it."

A shower would do her a world of good. As she thought about that, she made her way over to the refresher. Hopefully he still didn't mind helping her out where the clothes were concerned. Maybe she should have asked a little nicer.

Marus Saretti

 

[Marus Saretti]

"Wait, are you saying I smell?" He raised one arm, sniffing at the sleeve. Then, once he was sure she wasn't looking, actually sniffed in the direction of the armpit. Sure, he hadn't had a shower yesterday because of the obvious insanity, and clearly not one that day yet as well, but he also hadn't been living particularly strenuously those past two days. And he certainly didn't smell anything. When she called back about the shower, though:

"Yeah, sure," he replied, starting to move from his seat, and then rapidly thought better about it. Sure, he'd be taking her clothes to wash them, and it would've been one thing if he'd actually carried her there that morning, but to just...follow her to the refresher and wait outside for her clothes?

That seemed a bit too weird.

So he waited a little while, pretending to fiddle with some instrument or another on the console, checking readings, before rising and heading back towards the refresher to take her clothes and get them cleaned.

Rhia Kesyk

 

[Rhia Kesyk]

What was he saying?

She glanced over her shoulder and caught sight of him looking a little concerned; shook her head. "What? No, I just mean... Well..." Her gaze shifted over to Ideon's door, and she rolled her eyes a little. "Maybe you had more clothes before you hijacked this ship. There, I said what I said. And boys can be stinky and not shower." She nodded her head toward that door which separated them from the teenager inside as though that made her point obvious.

In response she received an unimpressed mental push from her brother. "You only hate it because you know it's true, Deon!"

Then she turned and entered the refresher. A few moments later and a careful pile appeared outside the door. Then the shower started up, and Rhia lost herself for a little while within it...

Marus Saretti

 

[Marus Saretti]

Okay, so the younger kid was a typical younger kid. To some extent of 'typical,' anyways; Marus remembered being that age and not wanting to take a shower either. Or not understanding why everybody was always telling him to remember to wear deoderant and the like. Puberty; it was a hell of a thing to deal with. At least between the two of them they could probably bully Ideon into proper hygiene. Hopefully.

Otherwise, he'd end up quarantined to that room.

As for more clothes...well, he did set out with more clothes originally, but between being captured by slavers and then rigging their ship to explode to give himself a distraction to try to escape in, the clothes were gone.

Completely gone.

Before long, he heard the door to the refresher shut once, and then twice; peering down towards it, he could see the pile of clothes left just outside. He quickly got up, making his way over to pick them up—

—hearing the water running inside—

—desperately hoping that neither Rhia nor Ideon could read his mind and figure out the image that just flashed through his imagination—

And took them towards the rear of the ship, where the laundry room was. Better to distract himself by getting the laundry done than let those thoughts flash through his head too much, or he'd never get anything done as long as she was on the ship with him. Especially if Ideon kept hidden in his room the entire time. He moved Rhia's clothes into the sonic laundering unit, switched it on...and rapidly left the room, shutting the door. It wasn't exactly something that could be heard, given that it was in the far ultrasonic range, but it still set him on edge to be around nonetheless. Sonic showers had always done the same—luckily, if a ship or station was so pressed for space and supplies that they couldn't have a proper shower, a sanisteam was far more common than a sonic shower nowadays.

Now it was just the little wait for the laundry to finish. Without much else in mind for what to do while he waited, Marus reached down into his jacket, pulled out his little sketchbook, and started to draw Rhia and Ideon in it.

Rhia Kesyk

 

[Rhia Kesyk]

Rhia took as much time as she possibly could within the refresher, stood beneath the cascading water. It was like a warm blanket had fallen over her, a shield protecting her from the rest of reality, and she relished the opportunity to simply exist within it for a time.

No intrusive thoughts this time, no waterworks, just a girl in the moment.

Sadly her time spent there rapidly came to an end, thirty minutes truthfully not all that long to clean and get ready, and once she was out she wrapped herself in a towel and carefully approached the door. Peeked her head out, hoping that she'd find her clothes waiting there once more...

Marus Saretti

 

[Marus Saretti]

Unfortunately, as Marus somewhat mindlessly sketched in the book, it appeared his imagination had, in fact, taken over. Not that he noticed, as he was engrossed in the work by that point; when the laundry machine finished its work and ding-ed at him, he closed up the book, placed it back within his jacket, and grabbed the clothes. He was even nice enough to grab a chair to set them on outside of the refresher for Rhia, rather than unceremoniously dropping them back on the floor.

About the time she peeked her head out to check, she'd feel the slight shift as Marus set the ship to descend towards the planet's surface up in the cockpit. "We'll be landing in Voma in another couple minutes," he called back, just loud enough to be heard in case Rhia had still been in the shower.

Rhia Kesyk

 

[Rhia Kesyk]

She found her clothes not on the ground as she'd expected, but set atop a chair. For a moment her heart skipped a beat, and she hurried back into the bathroom with the pile before any blush could creep into her cheeks. It was a simple, considerate act yet something which would likely have been overlooked by most. She held the still warm clothes to her chest as she finished drying off her hair, and then proceeded to dress.

Rhia emerged looking more or less the same as she had upon entering, but she felt so much better. It was amazing what a quick shower could do. By this point the ship was more or less landed, so she approached the cockpit and knocked on Ideon's door as she passed. "I hope you're ready" she called into the room beyond, before she joined Marus.

"Thank you. I... That was needed."

Marus Saretti

 

[Marus Saretti]

Marus turned back hearing Rhia raise her voice at Ideon, watching her walk in. Sure, she looked much the same, but she certainly seemed more relaxed. "I aim to please," he replied, turning back to the controls. The ship didn't really need him doing much to get it properly landed, but he felt more comfortable being part of the process. "Besides, it'll be good to have at least one of us being fully clean and fresh down there." He was relatively so, Ideon...he had no real clue.

As he brought the ship in to their hangar bay, he did remember one important piece of information. "You don't mind droids, right?" he asked Rhia, although he didn't turn away from the instrumentation this time. "Trevura in general, and especially Voma are full of them, from the bit of info the air traffic controller told me. At least equal to the organic population."

Rhia Kesyk

 

[Ideon Taldrel]

Ready?

Ugh, he had to go too? All that he wanted to do was remain buried beneath his blankets! By this point the holobook had long been finished, though, and he was running out of things to keep his mind occupied from present affairs.

With a soft sigh he rolled out of bed, leaving the duvet half strewn across the floor, and approached the door as it opened. He peered beyond, then hurried across to the refresher before anyone could spy him. Inside he looked in the mirror, his face was all blotchy and his hair was sweaty. He turned on a tap, splashed his face and ran the excess water up through his hair with one hand. Shook it this way and that, then combed it with his fingers.

The natural curls bounced up in response, just as unruly as before. Not so sweaty though he hadn't exactly cleaned it either.

Back out into the hallway, he crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall near the boarding ramp.... Once he figured out where that was, of course.

Marus Saretti

 

[Rhia Kesyk]

Not quite landed, she took a seat in the copilot's chair and watched as the world came into view. "Soon you'll both be able to shower, and everyone will feel better for it," she stated, with a nod. Ordinarily she might have felt guilty for being the only one who actually got a chance to, but frankly she was just relieved. She'd washed just the barest amount of grief down the drain alongside the water, and in doing so felt a weight lifted.

His question made her laugh.

"You're kidding? I love droids! My best friend growing up was a droid." She said it with utter sincerity, though thoughts of Kiss made her heart sink a little. She missed that little guy... With any luck he'd be on Tribunal too.

Force, she hoped he was on Tribunal.

Marus Saretti