Fell !eU97cKEiBQ 09/10/03 (Sat) 12:21 No. 96692

File 12545724881.jpg - (240.12KB , 1024x768 , pretend this is on the second floor.jpg ) [ iqdb

>>96656

Taken into consideration.



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[≋] splash



A bath sounds nice. A bath. The syllables flow nicely.



And the idea of bathing appeals to me, as well. I haven't taken one since my days of stealing household fixtures. It was a lot of work, but the reactions were priceless. And I think the last time I bathed was a few days before the green girl caught up with me last.



The pond was clean and clear but colder than Blue Fairy's danmaku or Forkpin Mother's breath. Cold things.



I got clean, but then the green girl dirtied me up again. I don't know how my clothes come back when I do. Part of being a youkai, perhaps? They don't mend as fast as skin and organs and bones and muscle do, though. Most of the damage comes from my own travels and from fighting against her. When she takes me up and in and down, she strips me down because it's easier to get to me that way.



It places me a little closer to my old side of the fence when she does that, I think, but only a little hop. It doesn't help much against her shoving me in her direction.



But it's one thing I can cling to and I never say anything about it no matter how many times the knife goes in, comes out, glides across my skin, parting it with the red river parade behind it. You can taunt your enemies, but when you know you have no escape and they have nothing but time, it's best to not make it worse.



"A bath sounds lovely, I think." I look at my food, untouched, feeling a little guilty.



The Black Hand of Slap notices this, and says quietly, "We'll put it in the fridge for you, so don't worry about it." My confused expression prompts her to explain a little further, "It's a box in the kitchen that keeps food cool and fresh for longer periods of time."



"Oh! One of the white winterboxes? Thank you, then!" I've seen them at Silverman's. Some are outside in the piles, but he has a few inside. He keeps pretty-colored liquid in not-glass bottles in them, and food, too. I never knew what it was called.



"I'll show her to the bathroom." Pinkblue Madness stands up, and makes such an offer. It's rather unexpected of her.



I follow the girl up the stairs and back down the hall to... oh.



"I've been here before," I tell her. "You've got one of those Western-style bathrooms."



"I know you have. I was watching you, after all. But you don't know where you'll be staying the night, do you?"



"Ooh... nope, didn't get that far." Pinkblue Madness must have found this funny, because she laughs after I say it.



Still chuckling, she leads me down the hall a little ways further, past two more rooms, and around a bend. A few more rooms, another bend, a few more rooms, and my blood is going to get bubbles in it if I turn any more corners.



Finally, we arrive at the end of the hall, and she opens a door on the right. It opens up into a smallish but clean room. Clean as this place generally gets, at least, which means somebody probably sweeps the dust off it once a week and most of the rubble has all been pushed to one corner of the room.



My friend points out a few other things to me: the windows are all intact and clean, there is both electrical and conventional lighting in place, the bed looks rather large and nice, and the carpet on the floor doesn't seem very old at all.



so this is the guest room



can't think of why else it would look so nice compared to everything else



i could've guessed that's what it was because they're putting a guest in it, too



entirely true, but beside the point



sometimes it's like you think like me



god forbid



That's not an insult, coming from him. By being me outside of me, he's allowed me to stay more of me than what I feel like. It's an incredibly terrifying moment when you discover you're less of yourself than you think you are. It's not like bits are falling off of me or disappearing. They just move a little more to the green girl's side of the fence.



Even the most dim youkai



airplane?



how rude of you



knows when she's becoming less of herself.



"So... yeah." Pinkblue Madness turns back to me after opening the door, and gestures at its interior. "This is one of the guest rooms. We try to keep 'em really nice for company, as you can kinda see, so don't party too hard and trash the place or whatever you groupie freaks like doing."



I look at my friend. He smiles back at me. There's two of us. I suppose that does makes us a group, but I don't know if that's what she meant.



"The guest bathroom is the second door on your right as you go back out into the hall. Towels and stuff should be in there. You, uh... you want some new clothes?" Pinkblue Madness eyes my slightly-less-tattered-but-it's-not-obvious-for-someone-who's-only-known-me-for-about-an-hour apparel.



"Nope, they'll be fine," I reply, waving away her concerns. I look down at them, thinking for a moment. "Although... they could use a bit of a wash. I guess as long as I'm somewhere nice like this..." I look back up. "Do you have a place I could clean them?"



Pinkblue Madness grins. "We've got somebody for that. Just leave them somewhere, and she'll pick 'em up."



I nod, and we go back into the hall, and to the bathroom. I step in, and Pinkblue Madness reaches in behind me and calm down no need to beware of Dog flips a little something on a plate by the wall. 'Light switches,' right?



The illumination reveals a bathroom a little larger than the first one I saw. I was going to ask why we didn't go there, but that bathroom-in-training must have just been a normal one. This one is all nice and big and posh for guests, or at least as posh as things in this house can get: The tile, the birdbath things, and the big big tub with two faucets (one high and one low). One of the birdbaths is off to the left, and the other must be around the corner inside. There's a big white dresser sort of thing, too.



"You know how everything works, so if you don't need anything more, I'll be back downstairs." She goes to leave, before I stop her.



I bow once, deeply.



"Thank you very much, Miss Madness. You really don't know how much this means to me. I am eternally grateful for the aid and shelter you and the other girls are providing me. If there's anything I can do for you, I'll try my best to do it."



She seems taken aback for a moment, then embarrassed, then confused. I can't see her, being in mid-bow, but my friend tells me this.



"Oh, it's no-- well, it's def-- But we're not expec-- ...wait, um. Thank you? But... 'Miss Madness'? Is this because of earlier? I only do that when... you know, we go out and perform, and... Er. Just enjoy the damn bath, okay?"



The pastel girl hustles out of the room, closing the door behind her. I giggle, and then begin to undress.



I look around as I disrobe. I was right: around the corner from the door, out of sight, is the... 'toilet,' I think it's called --there's the handle and everything.



My friend has a seat on the middle level of the tabletops and watches me undress. Nothing scandalous about it. It's like worrying if the person in the mirror who looks like you might be thinking dirty thoughts about you.



...Although if you're feeling frisky, they might be.



I haven't felt ...frisky... in a while. That thing about living on the edge of uncertainty of whether or not you'll die tomorrow being a powerful source of arousal? Having been living that edge for around half a year straight, I can say with certainty that it's mostly bullshit.



...Mostly.



you're blushing now aren't you



good luck finding out



I stick my tongue out at him, and then pull off my shirt the rest of the way. I set it and the rest of my clothing down on the upper level of the dresser between the other birdbath thing and the bathtub, and approach the latter.



Hmm.



Now, from what I remember, there are supposed to be two knobs on either side of the faucet, but... there's only one, here. No, wait, there's a second, but that's tiny... hmm. And there's no drain plug to pull out. And a handle sort of thing underneath the faucet.



And and and and and and how does this work?



Perhaps it's a psychic bathtub, or maybe a kanbari-nyuudou sits behind the wall and takes care of everything? It's the least it could do after watching me undress.



I look a little closer at the handle above the faucet. There's what looks like a sideways エ on one side and a backwards つ on the other. I have no idea what they mean. Perhaps this is some sort of artistic bath fixture?



I look around at the rest of the bathroom. No, I don't think these people get too into fancy pointless things. I turn back to the handle.



Oh, wait. It's a traffic light, too. But I think it means hotness, I think. I think? I do.



I turn it towards the red stripe and the funny sideways エ, and... nothing. I wiggle it back and forth, and-- oh, it's like that? You have to pull it, it seems. I do so, and a lot of water comes pouring out of the faucet.



Yay~



I clap my hands a little, having bested this tricky gaijin contraption.



After a minute or so, I begin to think I celebrated too early. The water's only pooling a little, and it's going right down the drain in short order.



Time to poke something else, then. This handle thing seems pointed down. Perhaps that tells the water which way to go? I don't see a drain plug, and I don't think one would work anyway, since this drain has metal holes over it.



Or the holes are made of air, and the circle is made of metal.



Don't get me started on butterfly dreams.



I reach out and poke~ the handle. It gives a little. So I don't want the water going down. Then... up?



poke~



...Aha. The guttural gurgling stops immediately, and the water stops going down. After a bit, the water level begins to rise.



Satisfied, I stand up, and look around the room, which is beginning to fog up.



Now, when I was reading, I'd assumed they just glossed over the wash-before-you-bathe step, but I don't see any such area. Shrugging a little, I accept this oversight in foreign design. It's a lot more than I've had recently, so I can't complain.



A few minutes later, the tub is filled about right, and I push the handle back in, shutting off the water. Then, I gingerly climb into the tub, letting out a happy sigh as I submerge myself in the hot water.



I drift for a little while.



away



still here



not going very far



but away enough to not care for a little while



while



the fog hangs on the ceiling



I relax.



I haven't been able to do this in so long.



It feels good.



Very good.



The door opens.



Hot water without, ice water within.



[ ] Its vision is based on movement. It can't see us if we stay still.

[ ] Have you ever simply tried... talking to them?

-( ) Hail the incoming vessel and give us a visual, Ensign.

-( ) Be cool, Honey-bunny. Just be cool.

-( ) I'm not crazy! I'm too rich to be crazy. I'm eccentric!

[ ] All work and no play makes ______ a dull youkai. All work and no play makes ______ a dull youkai. All work and no play makes ______ a dull youkai. All work and no play makes ______ a dull youkai. All work and no play makes ______ a dull youkai. All work and no play makes ______ a dull youkai.



________________________________________



Did you know that the only reason separate hot/cold knobs still exist on faucets is because they're easier to make than sensible single-handle faucets? I hate them.



Also, I can't believe there's no water drop/teardrop thing in Unicode. There's got to be one, right? Even if it only looks like one, that would've done just fine.

Oh well. This works pretty well, too.



So sorry that this is so late. I planned to have it up by this evening at the worst, and then plans got planned elsewhere.

