[Soothing Waters] Bubble Trouble

[Oriah]

oocI definitely took some liberties in terms of where you guys would be in the situation xD Let me know if anything needs to be changed!

Winter, Day 20, 513 AV

"Hello there. What can I help you with?"

Oriah balked at the receptionist before her, with his well-combed hair and long, straight nose. She hadn't expected someone to ask her for anything other than her coin; such was the case in all of her previous experiences with bath houses. The Benshira tilted slightly to one side and could see an expansive room behind him. This place...had massage services?

It wasn't really a matter to think long on. Now she had to get a message. But first and foremost, cleanliness!

"Just a bath, please," Oriah answered with a smile. The receptionist nodded as the required mizas were proffered and looked as though he was on the verge of saying something. He was promptly interrupted, however, when a trio of knights burst into the room. All three were panting, and one looked as though he'd gone through Hai and back.

"Nili," the receptionist called out, twisting around to address on of the masseuses, "clear one of the beds. Tell your girls to fetch some cool water and get the supplies ready..."

His calm, steady voice faded as he ushered the knights into the massage room. A flurry of motion had exploded and all relevant staff had coalesced into that single space, leaving the Benshira to stand there by herself, mute with shock and uncertainty. What was she supposed to do now?

There was an entrance to the left, and another to the right....

...well, only one way to find out.

Oriah veered towards the right and rushed down the hall, where she was promptly greeted with the sight of several naked, hairy buttocks, and then veered back towards the left. On her second, hasty trek across the reception, she took a moment to peek at what was happening in the massage room. There were grunts of pain and hurried murmurs, but beyond that she couldn't see much. She did, however, catch the pretty, delicate sight of a petit figure with blonde hair amidst the roiling chaos.

A customer? A masseuse? The Benshira came to a dead stop and stared. She had always been, since the beginning of time it seemed, enamored with fair hair and fair skin. Especially little blonde children; oh, how angelic they looked! Perhaps it was because her childhood had been painted with a palette consisting solely of harsh, desert hues. Or perhaps it was just because she was odd. Whatever the case, her silly affinity turned into a potential social disaster when the blonde happened to look in her direction and for one painful, awkward moment, their eyes locked.

"Hurrgh..." Oriah's face burned as she ducked away, bounding down the hall towards the other side of the bath house. It wasn't long before she found herself in a changing room of sorts and the dancer wasted no time stripping off her garb and stuffing it into an open locker. Her most valuable possessions, however, she kept with her in a spare pouch. Mizas, Tamos, slingshot, and a little jar of mystical Bymntip--all jouncing noisily as she hurried into what she could only hope was the actual bath.

As luck would have it, the Benshira actually managed to make her way to the communal bathing room. An attendant offered a towel and bar of soap, which she took gladly for a small fee, and Oriah hastily skirted around the perimeters of the giant pool. It was rather steamy in the room, thereby obscuring most details, but she surreptitiously avoided areas where there were any men at all.

She was here for a relaxing Syliran bath, after all.

So focused had she been on searching for a suitable spot to enter, however, that the Benshira completely failed to see a dark shape rounding the opposite corner through the thick steam. One moment, she was trying not to slip on the slick ground, padding quickly across the edges of the pool as she clutched the tiny towel around her naked form. The next, a loud smack! could be heard as her bare flesh collided with that of another and she was sent reeling backwards across the wet stone.

In her reckless wind milling to keep balance, the soap in her left hand went spinning across the floor before plopping into the warm water with a thunk. She barely managed to catch hold of the pouch, one pinky hooked through the leather thong right before it fell completely out of reach. Oriah breathed a sigh of relief.

Until, that is, she realized three glaring issues.

One, in her effort to catch the pouch, she had let go of her towel, which was lying in a limp heap before her feet.

Two, the person she had smacked into was obviously, vividly male.

And three, her little jar of Bymntip had somehow slipped out of the pouch and was now shattered into a thousand pieces, its hallucinatory contents billowing upwards in a cloud of fine, dusty smoke, swirling and mixing with the steam.

And they were breathing it right up their noses.

[Alasdair]

It was no wonder the bath house had soothing in its name he thought as he sunk deep into the water at the edge of the large pool. Warm steam filled the air, giving a foggy effect that allowed a surprising degree of privacy. He heard the muffled, echoing splashes of others in the pool, as well as hushed voices or the occasional laugh. Mostly it was a quieter place. Once, a few years ago, he'd fell asleep in the water, and all of his muscles had stopped working because of the relaxing quality of the bath. They'd had to take him in and massage life back into the joints and flesh under his pruned skin. After that he learned his lesson not to get too comfortable.

There was a ledge underneath him, hidden in the water that was perfect for sitting on. His back pressed against the stone wall of the pool, and his arms rested behind him along the perimeter edge. Splashes disturbed the water from all corners when people stepped out or in, occasionally rippling the calm water. The closest people were two his left - a group of four men talking amongst themselves. The fog obscured their faces, giving a strange effect that went with their muted voices. Alasdair's head tipped back to rest on the stone edge behind him, and he closed his eyes for a few chimes. He didn't come here all that often, but at the stables the other day he had managed to pull a muscle deep down along his spine. Now every time he moved too far at any angle, it sent a painful jolt through his back.

The water seemed to be helping exponentially. He felt weightless and warm to the core. It was refreshing too with the cold of winter hanging heavy over Syliras. Alasdair couldn't remember the last time it was this cold here. He relaxed for a while, letting himself forget about all of the things that needed doing. Even if just for half a bell, he wanted to be free of any responsibility and just focus on himself. After a while, he felt the threatening lure of sleep tug at his heavy eyelids. Alasdair blinked rapidly, frowned, and stood instantly in the waist-high water. Seems he'd been in long enough. The graying man looked around him a moment, then turned and climbed out of the pool. A towel was folded and ready. He wrapped the dry, warm cloth around his waist and knotted it tightly on his hip so it would stay in place.

Long hair hung wet around his shoulders, clinging to his back and chest in thick tendrils. He wiped some loose locks from his forehead, pushing it back and away from his face as he moved carefully along the pathway around the water's edge. Torches blazed warm and bright, set in sconces down the walls. It was well lit, despite all the humid mist, giving a strange effect on how the light traveled. It bounced off the steam at strange angles, which was probably why when he was dodging carefully around a group of bathers piled supplies, another body smashed into him. The wet floor made him skitter precariously, but he caught himself on all fours when his legs tipped and he tumbled to his knees. It jarred his back roughly, making him grit his teeth. When he leaned up, preparing to stand, he tensed and held his hip toward the base of his spine. "Shyke," he rumbled harshly, gingerly massaging the muscles there.

When his eyes finally fell on the woman who'd bumped into him, he frowned for a moment before his brows shot up. The first thing he noticed was that she was stark naked. An embarrassed flush colored his face - one of humble modesty. He wasn't one to gawk at a naked woman in her state of misfortune. He was a purely consensual man, not the kind to take advantage. Looking around frantically for a moment, he spotted her towel and scooped it up. It was now thoroughly damp, but she needed covered. A little awkwardly, Alasdair held it up for her, letting it hang down and obscure her from his view. Just in case, he kept his eyes turned toward the wall. "Are you alright?" he finally managed to ask. She was far too young for him to see her exposed like he had. It made him uncomfortable. "Your towel," he mumbled, shaking it a little to emphasize that she needed to grab it quickly.

Absently, out of the corner of his eye a small object caught his attention. Alasdair took a quick moment to glance at it. A broken jar? Was it hers, or someone else's? That was dangerous to have laying around. He'd pick it up in a moment.

[Wanda Endust]

OOCSorry for the shyke post, skip to the last bit for interact-able-ness.

Wanda spasmed to attention as an authoritative voice -- her boss's, no doubt -- rang across the stone. While her her job primarily entailed servicing regular clients, she was also occasionally required to attend to emergency cases. Like this.

She shot up from where she'd been lounging against the wall. A small group of workers -- attendants, masseuses, healers -- were already buzzing about. Nilichoa was hastily waving a couple attendants away as the teen approached. "You!" The dark-haired woman gestured pointedly towards one of the hovering attendants. "Fetch some clean towels and water." Her voice was controlled, but the urgent undertone was undeniable. The attendant nodded rapidly and sprinted off towards the laundry room.

Another worker was escorting in a party of three knights, two of which were supporting their limping comrade between them, their armor clanking heavily against the stone floor.

"Bring the fellow here," Choa ordered smoothly as she arranged some supplies by a cot. They did, and, a few ticks later, each of the knights were settled.

"Wanda, come see to the Ser over here." A healer beckoned to Wanda, and the teen hastily made her way towards them, eager to get to work. As she approached, the healer too a step away from the cot and laid a hand on Wanda's shoulder. "I don't think he's got anything serious. No cuts or gashes or anything," she explained, glancing back at the knight. "But take a look to see if he's got any internal damage, will you? There's a bit of bruising, too."

"Alrighty then," Wanda nodded, shooing the other girl away so she could get to work.

The knight in question was a giant of a man, already stripping out of his armor. "Bah, I'm fine!" he urged, waving Wanda away as he chucked his dented breastplate to the floor. "Check my man o'er there! I'll be damned if'n I lose him. Petchin' rogues."

Wanda ignored his protests huffily, laying a hand on his broad shoulder. "Hes in Nilichoa's hands, he'll be fine," she tried to coax him back to a laying position. "But you won't be if you don't sit still."

The knight grumbled something under his breath and flopped back down on the cot, which creaked, and Wanda worried whether or not the wood beams would support his bulk. But the contraption held, and Wanda got busy.

"What's your name, Ser?" she asked as her hands flitted her the man's shoulder to his chest. The man sighed, reaching up to drag a meaty hand over his bald head. "Titus Maximus. Sergeant Knight, Brown Company, 2nd Regiment, Silver Quadron. I swear to you, I'm not injured."

"Mhm." Wanda's ministrations continued down to the man's abdomen and, when the heel of her palm pressed between his ribs, the fellow flinched. "Not injured, huh?" she griped back at him gently. The healer from earlier was standing nearby, and Wanda beckoned to her.

At that same moment, there was a tingling sensation down her neck -- the familiar feeling of being watched. Reflexively, Wanda's gaze darted to the open doorway where it met a startled-looking pair of clear blue eyes. For a second Wanda froze in surprise, wondering how long the woman had been standing there. Not that she minded, of course. The other girl was a pretty interruption to the otherwise slightly-less-than-chaotic surroundings. But the moment was fleeting, and the girl, seemingly embarrassed, retreated. Wanda shook herself back into focus once more.

"Think he may have a broken rib," she explained as the other girl approached. Her slender hand cupped Titus's side as he tried to cross his arms in protest. The healer bent, tugging the man's undershirt away to inspect the skin, laying her own forefinger on the wounded area. After a moment she straightened and shook her head. "There's no swelling, just a lot of discoloration."

"So it's just a bruised rib," Wanda stated, a querying tone in her voice. The healer nodded. "I'll take over from here."

With that, Wanda found herself once more without something to keep her busy. Each of the knights were being attended to, and she ran the risk of getting in the way if she wasn't needed.

"Wanda!" Nilichoa urgently called across the room from her place beside the most severely injured knight. "If you've finished, we're still waiting on those towels and that attendant isn't back yet -- find out where he went!"

"On it!" Wanda replied, dashing out the door without missing a beat. She hadn't gotten too good of a glimpse of the man on the cot, but from what she'd seen, Choa would be needing those supplies as soon as possible. Where in the world had that attendant gotten to?

Ivis paid her no mind as she rounded his desk and stormed towards the laundry room. However, as she passed the entrance for the main bath, she caught the very audible smack of flesh colliding with wet stone. Augh, that sounded like it hurt... she thought. But the supplies were more important, and she started to skip past the bath door. Until she heard the sound of shattering glass.

Peeetch. She couldn't just ignore that. If there was glass in the water, things could turn very sour very fast. With an exasperated hand across her brow, Wanda steeled herself and stepped into the swirling steam, following the small commotion.

It wasn't difficult to spot the source. Not too far away, she could see the naked form of a lady sprawled on the ground and an older fellow uncomfortably shaking a towel at her. As Wanda drew closer she could see the remnants of a glass container strewn across the stone floor, its contents fleeing into the air.

On one hand, Wanda could empathize with the situation -- she'd slipped many times on the wet floor herself. On the other hand, who the petch brings glass into a bathing area?

Wanda was about to break into a brief lecture, but decided against it. For one, any chastising could probably wait until the mess had been cleaned up. Two, she recognized the lady on the ground as the one who Wanda'd caught glimpse of just chimes before. Three, she should probably help the unfortunate girl up.

"What happened?" Wanda asked lamely as she rushed closer, though it was fairly plain to see what had happened. She stepped to the girl's side, tiptoeing around the shards of glass with her own bare feet.

The older man seemingly was already taking measures to clean up, but also seemed to be too flustered to do much. "Ay, stop waving that around like a bit of a lunatic and do something with it!" She slipped the towel out of his hands and stooped in front of the girl, taking charge and moving to drape the cloth over her bare shoulders. "Looks like a bit of a mess in here."

[Oriah]

Oriah would've, should've been more worried about her nudity. Truly. Undeniably. But at that moment, she was seized in the grip of shock, more over the shattered jar than anything else. And she was slowly, ever so slowly, trying to cope with what all three people present were about to experience in the next chime or two.

Someone was wrapping the fallen towel around her shoulders. Oriah looked up, mildly surprised to see it was the angelic, blonde masseuse from earlier who was helping her.

You shouldn't be here, she though dazedly in her own head. She would have said it aloud, made some attempt to warn the girl, but her vocal chords had stopped working. Oriah tilted her head slightly to the side, peeking past a slim shoulder at the man she'd collided into earlier. He was moderately tall and well built, his age made apparent in the streaks of grey near his widow's peak, as was his lifestyle and heritage in the multitudes of scars and tattoos covering his bare skin.

And...wait...was he...glistening? Oriah squinted harder as the pretty masseuse helped her to her feet. No, it wasn't him who was shimmering. It was...the wall behind him, the steam...

Petch. It was starting.

If her unsuspecting companions said anything for the next half chime, Oriah heard none of it. It took all her focus and strength just to stay standing, one hand propped against the slick, stone walls, as things began to shift wildly out of control.

First, the walls. They shimmered, wavered, bent, until they were walls no more, but rolling hills of light. Then the stones beneath her feet seemed to melt away, revealing glowing patches that moved like miniature auroras. This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real, Oriah chanted in her head. It did her no good. Perhaps the Bymntip also affected her motor abilities. Perhaps not, and it was just her stupefied wonderment that was leaving her so physically helpless. Either way the Benshira was stuck, leaning against what appeared to be a wave of luminescent clouds, looking as though she'd eaten something very, very disagreeable.

Somehow, the scenes rolling out before her felt...familiar. And at the same time, they didn't. Strange. So strange. Her skin tingled, though she knew not from what. Also, the air tasted green. There was an itch on her bum. No, don't scratch! You're naked!

And, just like that, it was over. Oriah swallowed huge gulps of air as though she'd just emerged from the bottom of a pool. Slowly, she sank against the wall, until she was sitting on her rump, the towel only just barely covering the important bits. The Benshira blinked violently, as though trying to rid her eyes of lingering dust. Gods be good, she was never going to get used to how that felt.

A thought struck her. There were other people. Had they breathed any? Had they seen the broken shards of glass?

Oriah looked wildly around, blurting before she could make any conscious observations, "Is everyone alright?"