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Holly Asturias     After an eventful stay in a morgue (/room full of far too many blood samples), and after seeing just about everything there is to see in the Sanatorium (well... Holly didn't take you up that elevator in her office, on account of it not being able to fit so many bodies, but also other reasons), it's time to enjoy the rest of the evening.

    It isn't that late, after all. If you arrived here in the realm of 5, 6 PM local time, it must only be 7 to 7:30 by now. The sky has actually cleared up, just a bit, and the Sun's still got a hour or two of light to burn before it's night.

    The route to the baths takes you back out upfront, then off to the right, opposite the greenhouse you arrived in. A large split in the Earth, near bottomless as far as you can tell, can be crossed via a nice bridge, walls and roof and all, of grey stone and wood. This leads directly into the baths. It's clear the area used to look nicer than it does; multiple small bathhouses surround a larger wooden structure which is essentially a collection of baths and springs and patio decks to relax on built on and around a hill. Holly leads you to that, rather than the smaller indoors bath to the side, to start.

    She comes to a stop by the small spring, which steams slightly. There's a rush of floral scents, of soothing incense, and of warmth; comfy, cozy warmth, nothing oppressive. Two Revenants occupy this spring already; a shorter man, dirty blonde hair, half of his face hardened into a golden mask, leaning back and whistling peacefully; and a taller woman, with deep black hair and a missing left arm, golden cracks spreading from the stump. Both are naked, but covered by the steam and the fact the water isn't nearly transparent enough.

    "And these are out baths! Or hot springs, if you prefer. Each is 'enchanted' by several layers of medical Formae, and I perform case by case adjustments depending on patient needs. As a baseline, you should expect bathing here to provide accelerated healing, to energize you, and to soothe any aches or conditions you may have." She looks at the bathing Revenants, specifically the woman, and comments: "Unfortunately, some injuries are beyond my skill to treat, at the moment. For example, those caused by a Revenant Hunter's Jail." She doesn't spell it out, but the implication seems obvious.

    "Now then! The bathhouse at the top is the largest, most comfortable, and the one with the best view. If you would follow me?"

    It's a few stories' worth of stairs, going all the way around the building, but the incline on them is small. Once at the top, the main bathouse and its view are all yours. The Sanatorium, off to the left; the looming spire, off to the right. Behind you, sharp, snowy peaks, and the hints of an amusement park's big wheel up top, and a waterfall flowing into the chasm separating the facility from its baths, all the way from the mountain's top. There are plenty of nice wooden chairs around parasols and tables, and further back, lounging chairs too. Walking all the way to the other side gives a view of the forest and hills beyond the Sanatorium; the broken landscape, fissured, overgrown, ruined apartment complexes and houses the last hints of more life here, once upon a time. It looks... sad, really.
Holly Asturias     "Now then! If you require a place to get changed, there are small private stalls downstairs. If you require towels, there are racks and cabinets all over for clean ones. If--"

    "Doctor!!" comes the soft-spoken voice of another woman, from inside the bathhouse. Nicole, a grey-eyed, red-haired young woman with medium skin who looks to be in her late-20's, wearing the same blue scrubs as the rest of staff, but without a mask, pops her head out and then walks towards Holly, to give her a playful shoulder tap. There's not a trace of gold on her, nor fangs in her mouth, or red eyes for that matter. One of two humans on the staff-- and she'd be proud to say, Holly's right hand despite being relatively inexperienced compared to all of the Revenants here.

    "Nicole!!" With the way Holly suddenly latches onto her and hugs her, you would think they haven't seen each other in months. Nicole side-eyes the guests, in a way that seems to say 'don't worry this is normal'. "Is everything ready?"

    "Yupyup," Nicole smiles. "Food, drinks, and the special ones you asked me to mix. Did you know some old blogs are still up with recipes? There wasn't enough for most of them, since you only wanted me to pick from your reserves and you're running kind of--"

    "Thank you Nicole," Holly interrupts, quite unwilling to have that hanging in the air right now. "So! There are snacks, and drinks, inside. If you'll excuse me, I need to go get something from the Sanatorium-- I'll be a few minutes. Please do feel free to get started without me!"

    Holly calmly struts off.

    Nicole looks at all of you like someone who just got asked to babysit a classroom she's never seen before. "... soooooo..."

    ...

    "Nice... weather, huh?"

    DO YOUR BEST, NICOLE.

    Inside the bathhouse are multiple trays of FOOD. There are small plates of roasted mushrooms, some cheeses and meats, crackers. It's all above-board, but not the finest. Crackers, and some fruits too. Mostly apples and assorted small berries. There's some baked cookies too! Vanilla, chocolate.

    Rows of empty glasses and a tray of ice are next to the food, alongside bottles of sake, wine, brandy, apple juice and water. A few drinks are also pre-mixed, per Petra's request. All of them are one shade or another of red, mixed with various alcohols, juice, cider, even some spices. One even has sugar. The slight metallic aftertaste is only obvious in some of them. They're all pretty good, despite it seemingly being Nicole's first time mixing drinks with that. Perhaps her first time mixing them at all.
Riku Asakura Riku is happy to get out of the morgue; the room with too much blood in it was too much for the young man, being reminded of L-corp in its heyday. Riku follows Dr. Holly out front, happy to get a breath of fresh air after all that, and excited to see the sun starting to peak, though setting on this nice day.  

Riku looks down the bottomless split in the earth, wondering what caused it.  "Doctor, what caused this split?" he asks innocently, still getting used to the fact that this world was post-apocalyptic.   They stop by the small spring as Riku gets a look at the building itself.  It's very spooky, still, but also less spooky than the mansion.  

Holly talks about the medical properties of the bath, but makes note that it doesn't heal all wounds.  He guiltily looks at the woman without an arm and nods grimly.  It will take more than that to heal her fully, if it's possible at all.  This world can be cruel, it seems, and with that, he continues to follow Holly to the larger spring.  

Up some stairs is the main bathhouse, and it's still in the Gothic style as before.  This is spooky to Riku, but he's getting used to this spookiness as it appears just to be a part of how this place was built.  

This is when Nicole arrives, and it seems Holly is just a very hugging person, embracing the human.  Riku smiles at this, as it's very nice to see Holly so happy after getting a hint of what drives the Reverent.  Holly mentions the food inside with the drinks, and Riku nods as she excuses herself to get something.  

Nicole, on the other hand, is...

'Nice... weather, huh?'

"Yup, nicer than when we got here.  Nice to meet you, I'm Riku Asakura.  So... food's inside, right?" he asks, before heading inside to sample some of the food itself.  He naturally wonders if the red drinks are on purpose with the vampire theme going on.  Still, he gets a drink of cider and rather likes the taste, managing to avoid the ones with a metallic aftertaste.

"Mmm!  This is good stuff, thanks, Nicole!"
Lilian Rook     It's funny to think about, but this really is like returning to the scene of the crime, isn't it? The moment where Lilian couldn't resist a petty little dogwhistle to try calling out Petra, years ago by now, which lead to so many catastrophic consequences that it changed her own life forever, happened at a hotspring bath like this. Not really like this, because it was in a completely normal location with a barbeque and everything, and not the ethereal peak of an isolated mountain fissure with a spooky view over annihilated civilization in the liminal space between ruins and reclaiming nature, but like, the setup itself is nearly identical! Except Lilian is way happier about basically everything and Petra kind of won?

    The first spring fakes her out a little. Lilian hesitates as they go by it, and considers just why it should strike her as strange and concerning that any given patient would be using it, plus, what difference does it make when most of her present company are basically strangers anyways? She's only just said "Oh it's rather cute though . . .", cheek in her palm, when Holly moves the group along right past it. Lilian doesn't even say anything about the obvious implication!

    The main bathhouse is finally something she might even call 'breathtaking' in a suitably charitable mood. Despite the strangely gorgeous gothic architecture, it's the view that gets her to cover her mouth and sparkle-eye in wonder. Humidity and fog are things some might consider a dreary addition, even if it's dissipated enough that it's only thick in the distance, but Lilian would call it 'surreal' as a superlative instead. "You know, in another hundred years, all that concrete will be practically rubble under the trees. And then could you imagine?" she opines out loud, pointing off at the horizon and sweeping her hand as if to brush a broken radio tower out of sight.

    "Well, I suppose that'd make it more generic, too, right? Taking a bath like you're the last few people on Earth has such an unusual charm to it." she says. "Who knew?"

    When Holly trots off, the spell of 'wondering if anything else is going to happen' is finally broken, and Lilian just pulls her comfy sweater right off over her head. She explains to nobody who asked "You know, I could honestly use a little magical soothing of aches and strain right now. So this is actually totally productive.", considers the lack of showering ahead of time, considers the foggy mineral water closely, and then perceives Nicole's existence as she tosses her sweater to Petra too.

    'Nice... weather, huh?'

    Lilian blinks. "Thank you very much for the hospitality." comes out a second later. "If you're looking for permission, I'm not going to stop you?"

    Then she decides on, "Ah. But me first~" and declares, with a showy snap of her fingers, "Tú ródhéanach cheana féin."

    Lilian splashes into the hot water by the side, already sliding against the edge down to her shoulders until it elicits the exact 'pwaahh' from her that she was hoping for. All her clothes fall into Petra's little butler arms, like she's been doing all day. With her hair tied up high, lily pin now fastening it to not fall in the water, and otherwise wearing only the usual black necklace and the ring on her left hand, Lilian points vaguely in a random direction and says, "Put those where they won't get mixed up, would you?"
Skipper     Skipper's still here! They try to sort of socially fade into the background when they're not actively speaking, trying to take breaks from the onerous ordeal of Being Seen and space it out the same way a diver must come back up for air. It helps that there are more interesting sights here to draw peoples' attention... like the giant golden weapons that are nearly literally as big as Skipper is. Or the morgue.

    ... Or the hot springs! Or maybe that's just drawing Skipper's attention. "Oh wow... the steam makes it seem like it's all foggy..."

    > ...you should expect bathing here to provide accelerated healing, to energize you, and to soothe any aches or conditions you may have.

    "Oh wow! They can do all of that?"

    Skipper gets a bit more somber when right afterward they learn what the hot springs *can't* do. "Oh..."

    > amusement park's big wheel

    Skipper literally climbs up onto one of the chairs for some extra height so that they can be absolutely sure their raised hand can be seen by Holly, but then they also don't actually wait to be called on.

    "Can we go there?" they ask, pointing over at the amusement park. "You didn't say- you didn't say you had one of *those* here. I mean the hot springs and the workshop and the morgue are all nice but - you've got a *fair* in town!"

    Plans are clearly already being made to sneak off to go check it out later, with or without Holly's escort (or approval).

    > Now then! If you require a place to get changed, there are small private stalls downstairs.

    Skipper had been bracing for a couple different possibilities here. What they'd do if they'd encountered gendered hot springs, or gendered changing rooms (or both), and how to handle something like that. So the reveal of a singular hot springs as the destination, and individual changing rooms, comes as a visible relief that they don't need to put those plans into effect.

    > "Nice... weather, huh?,"

    "It seems a little bit overcast? Hopefully we won't be rained on while we're heading back down the mountain? Or when we head to the amusement park." Skipper's already assuming that that's part of the itinerary now, because why wouldn't it be.

    Food! Drinks! Skipper eagerly tries a little bit of everything, aside from anything clearly alcoholic. "Oh this is good..."

    Absolutely no move is made towards the changing rooms or actually getting into the hot spring, at least not until ~~someone else~~ Lilian does first. Thank you, Lilian.

    Skipper emerges from the changing room with two towels on - one over their shoulders draped over their front, and the other wrapped around their waist (with their tail poking out from underneath) and stealths their way across the deck before gingerly sliding into the water, ideally without anyone even seeing them before they get at least shoulders-deep.
Kukuru With plenty of time left in the evening, Kukuru's still in high spirits to continue going along for the tour! As would be expected, she's taken a shine to Holly already, and the doctor's demonstration with the gatling gun and the Jail got a few amused giggles out of her as well.

Opening on eye slowly as Holly describes the baths, Kukuru hums relaxedly as she starts glancing around, oohing and aahing as she often does whenever she sees something new and/or shiny. "This sure does look like a nice spot to unwind, mhm... Oh?"

Following her gaze towards the woman with a missing arm, Kukuru understands almost immediately and nods after another moment. Rather than dwelling on that, she goes right along with following Holly again, humming once more in anticipation of a much needed rest. .

"The view from here is gorgeous...  Thank you so much for bringing us up~" Kukuru looks ready to head towards the changing rooms well before Holly even mentions them, but she bides her time As she just gazes out at the landscape off in the distance. The sense of loss isn't lost on her, but it doesn't seem to get her down much.

"Just some timme and hard work..." She murmurs to herself, then turns back around once Nicole makes her appearance and brings up the magic word: FOOD. Beaming a smile at her as well, Kukuru only briefly raises an eyebrow at the mention of 'special ones'. "Oh, you shouldn't have... Hehe. He-llo, Nicole. My name is Kukuru."

The pause, such that Holly has probably heard it twice now already. "That's Ku-ku-ru. Oh, be careful on your way, Hoooolly! Ah. So~" Perhaps sensing that awkwardness around the humam staffer, she just goes right into trying to get her to speak up even while shuffling towards the tables to snag some mushrooms, brandy, and a mixed red drink for herself. "How long have you been working here, dear? It looks like such a big place to manage with just the..."

Holly, Milly, Manu, and now Nicole. "Four of you?" She didn't even need to look at her hands that time!

Kukuru's not going to just talk all evening, of course, and once she's done with picking out something to eat and drink, it's time to get undressed! When there's a break in the conversation, she meanders off to one of the changing rooms. She comes back out fairly quickly afterwards with just a towel wrapped tightly around her chest and waist rather than allowing it to hang loosely and risk falling off.

She needs her hands free to come back out with that food and drink, after all, and she's already sipping a bit before settling down by the water. "Ooh, looks toasty in here. Oh, let me juuust-" She sets her snacks aside before sliding right into the water, letting out a satisfied groan once she feels the heat seeping in.

"Thaaat's better... Oh? Do you wanna put them with my things?" With her head drooping back and her mouth hanging open a bit, Kukuru tilts her head a little to look over at Lilian lazily before spotting Petra and the extra clothes. "I left them iiin..."

She already forgot which changing room it was, and she ends up pointing in a random direction as well.
Petra Soroka     Lilian was excited for this, and thus, so was Petra. The morgue was fine-- nothing to get worked up over, but Petra's not going to be *excited* by a *morgue*-- the house was pretty enough, the lore gave her plenty of hooks for later, whatever. None of that matters even a fraction as much as getting into a bath with Lilian.

"Each is 'enchanted' by several layers of medical Formae, and I perform case by case adjustments depending on patient needs."

    "I was about to say, 'this is the same kinda shit they did for tuberculosis', but, like-- this is the Sanatorium. It's *literally* the same shit they did for tuberculosis."

    Petra politely averts her eyes from the people bathing. Like, sure, they're patients undergoing a treatment, but this is a *tour group* that's passing through their *hospital*, so giving them some level of presumed dignity just seems nice. Th fact that Holly is pretty open about chatting about her patient's specific medical needs could be because that kind of wound is common knowledge among Revenants, or, based on how Holly acted earlier with Mesmer, it could just be because she doesn't consider patient health privacy to be very important!

    But, once they're climbing the stairs up to the main bathhouse, Petra does ask, "Is that what Jails do? Specialize in causing unhealing wounds? Do Revenants normally regenerate super quickly from cuts and amputations and stuff?"

    Petra rotates around at the top of the incline, looking at the vista of the world further beyond and absorbing the atmosphere of the view. She's trying to extract some feeling into words when her attention is completely captivated by the Ferris wheel over in the mountains and now that's all she cares about. "Holy shit. A Ferris wheel? Is that anything interesting?"

    Like a horse in Skyrim, Petra is seized by the impulse to beeline to the first point of interest up a mountain that she sees, with no regard to pathing. She's anchored to this location only by Lilian's presence, scampering to the edge of the plateau as if she might hop off the side and get caught up in some bullshit subadventure if not for Lilian.

    "It really gives *such* a feeling, right? The broken-up ground-- was that part of the Resurgence? Is that something Horrors just tend to do in large numbers?-- the ruins, the *quiet*, the fact that this is an *old* building but every other building got smashed-- I've *never* been in an abandoned theme park, I think??"

"Taking a bath like you're the last few people on Earth has such an unusual charm to it."

    "Yeah. Yeah!!! It does!" And now, Petra's back to focusing on the baths, because Lilian talked about them. She boomerangs back around to scurry to the bathhouse entryway and link back up with the group. "The idea of luxury after the apocalypse... it kind of does make you think of the country house, right?"

"You know, I could honestly use a little magical soothing of aches and strain right now."

    "Mhm! You've been working sooo hard." Petra says, pure and genuine about Lilian's terribly exhausting day of luxurious tourism and sleeping with her beautiful wife on honeymoon. "Let me know if-- Oh, yup!"
Petra Soroka     Petra catches the sweater, extending her arms out for just a moment, which is more than long enough for Lilian to pile all the rest of her clothes on too. Now she has to belatedly pay attention to Nicole to see where she can go change, after having completely ignored her awkward attempt at small talk to chatter with Lilian instead. She stares at her for a few seconds, then her memory fills in what Holly said earlier and she hurries down to the changing rooms.

    A couple minutes later, Petra and Lilian's clothes are neatly folded besides each other in the closest changing room (anyone else who chose the most convenient changing room has their clothes picked up and moved somewhere else), and Petra's sliding into the bathhouse with a towel wrapped around her. She passes by the snacks table first and calls out, "Hey Lilian! Want something sweet, or there's mixed drinks, or, uh, brandy?"

    Whatever Lilian asks for, Petra pours and brings to her, along with a glass of one of the drinks that *definitely* has blood in it. Three and a half years, as well as modeling for a semi-erotic calendar, hasn't made Petra *totally* comfortable with being in a state of undress in front of other people, especially when several of them are guys. And so, just before she hops into the water, a curtain of Silver rises up from a ring of morphmetal in the spring, then drops down again a second later, once Petra's already in the water.

    Thinking about the same thing as Lilian, Petra giggles a bit about Mesmer's absence. "And she didn't even call you a freak before storming off... this must be the most peaceful hot springs there's ever been."
Angela Roland is eager to get in the hotsprings and out of the morgue and is especially eager to get free food. Netzach is also eager to get free food and get in a hot spring and veg out. Roland doesn't slack off when he's working except for rare occassions when he has some time free to party with Netzach or when he gets pulled into a conversation with a Sephirah. Neither of them seem particularly interested in peering at Skipper or anyone else as they get in themselves. They both change privately and get into the hot springs with little fanfare.

"Ahh...yeah... This is nice." Netzach says. "See? The vampire horror land isn't so bad, Roland."

Roland's arms are pretty pristine but he's covered in scars across his back and chest that soon disappear into the water. He leans back and stares at the sky quietly. He has a lot on his mind right now and only answers Netzach in a belated manner.

"Oh uh." He says. "...It's fine." He closes his eyes like he's imagining something before--

''Nice... weather, huh?''

"Huh? ... I don't know, is it?" Roland asks.

He thinks about escape routes should this all go bad. He left Durandal and his clothes bundled with the towels so he should be able to get to his gear quickly enough. It should be fine, he thinks, but he can't entirely get comfortable when surrounded by bloodsuckers.

"Well, hopefully it'll stay that way." He says over to Petra.
UFO Gang Really, most of the group was probably glad to get out of the morgue. Most people end up having a non-matching number of 'times entered the morgue' and 'times left morgue under own power,' but it's always a win when they do balance out!

"Oho," says Ichirin once they are fully revealed in their Bath Path: "It's a proper hot spring, isn't it?" She sounds enthusiastic. At the sight of steaming breath, Minamitsu folds her arms and nods knowingly: mmhmm, this is the GOOD STUFF.

Though they are briefly nonplussed (or perhaps plussed? the etymology is unclear) at the glimpse of the patients they have been asked to not bother... aha, but they get the top one. This time both of them are doing the 'mmhmm mmhmm' nod, and Unzan may be doing so too, when they are met with:

NICOLE

"Heya!" Minamitsu enthuses.

ANYWAY

After some quick introductions of their own ("I'm Minamitsu! And this is Ichirin!" "Hello! This is Unzan." "*wordless ... and grunt from the pink cloud*") the girls went off to change.

Approaching the baths proper wrapped in towels, Minamitsu vectors off to get some of the cheese and meat on a little plate. "You know, I thought that's a good point about the amusement park. I was watching a show with a spooky amusement park and it looked really cool, so maybe they could clean it up and run it like that."

"That seems a little counterproductive for a restful and healing place like this," continues Ichirin, who seems intrigued by the roast mushrooms. After trying one, she gets another half-dozen.

"Maybe just the ferris wheel?" Minamitsu says with hope as they drift towards the water.

Ichirin eyeballs Roland's extensive scars for a moment, even as he slips into the water and is soon enough out of immediate viewing. "Life isn't always like a film or a play... sometimes, it's simply what you expect!" she says, even as both she *and* Minamitsu are briefly veiled by Unzan until they are securely in the water.

Unzan then drifts back over to the table to, enigmatically, collect a bottle of sake. It disappears into the pink cloud.
Holly Asturias     "Nice to meet you, I'm Riku Asakura."

    "Hello. I'm... well, Nicole," she says awkwardly, in a way that makes it clear she hadn't been told in advance she'd be spending time with half a dozen guests, ostensibly heroes, from other worlds. After only barely just finding out there are other worlds.

    She course-corrects slightly.

    "I'm Ho-- Doctor Holly's primary assistant," she explains, covering up the usual familiarity with some formality just in case? She can't imagine Holly wants *that* but she also doesn't know for a fact Holly is being familiar with them.

    ... she could guess, though.

"You know, in another hundred years, all that concrete will be practically rubble under the trees."

    Nicole glances at the landscape, then back to Lilian, a mix of agreement but maybe a tinge of discomfort layered in. "It's a little bit sad too, isn't it? To think about everything that's just... gone. All the homes and memories. The teddy bears and the photos. It's always surreal hearing stories of 'how it used to be', and thinking it all ended. The village I grew up in was basically just a couple dozen houses, and apparently you could find them by the hundreds before."

"Thank you very much for the hospitality."

    "O-Oh!" Nicole nods and smiles. "No, no, thank YOU all for... well I don't know all the details but I'm to understand you'll be helping, in the future?"

"If you're looking for permission, I'm not going to stop you?"

    "I really shouldn't..."
    She may be a workaholic.

"Can we go there?"
"Holy shit. A Ferris wheel? Is that anything interesting?"

    "The... Dream Land park? It's infested by Horrors. Doctor Holly likes to go every once in a while, but she never tells us why. I'm guessing it's something sentimental."

"How long have you been working here, dear? It looks like such a big place to manage with just the..."

    Nicole raises a hand, finger up, to correct Kukuru quickly. "Right now it's fourteen of us. It *was* fifteen about a year back, but we've been managing." She doesn't elaborate, since she knows it's a sore subject. "For your first question... I've been here since I'm six. Twenty-seven, if you must know." Does she mean her age or how long she's been here?

"It really gives *such* a feeling, right? The broken-up ground-- was that part of the Resurgence?"

    "I'm told so," Nicole says, far, far too young to know for a fact. "When powerful Revenants turn, especially, it's catastrophic. Explosions, earthquakes, floods... never seen it. Hope to never see it. But you look out there, and it's like... 'yeah I believe that', right?"

"Is that what Jails do? Specialize in causing unhealing wounds? Do Revenants normally regenerate super quickly from cuts and amputations and stuff?"

    "Oh yeah, Revenants heal crazy fast. You know, one time, the Doctor cut off her entire arm while cooking. All of it! Said the knife was really sharp and refused to elaborate further. New arm just sort of... swirled itself back together." Nicole is the one to answer Petra. "But the way Jails work... the way *Revenant Hunter* Jails work, specifically, it takes away the Ichor in the body before inflicting the wound. No Ichor, no regeneration. And then, even when the Ichor comes back, it thinks the wound is part of your 'normal' now. The body can't recognize it as something missing. If you ever see a Revenant with a prosthetic, that's what happened."

"Huh? ... I don't know, is it?"

    "You alright?" Nicole asks Roland, like she's found her nurse vibe back. "You're looking around like you're expecting to get jumped any minute now."
Foundation Scions     Mesmer Jr. isn't invited to the Hot Springs Episode of hit television show Vampire Blood Asylum- luckily, for everyone, the concept of her being present for it is mutually disagreeable. Especially after the morgue, she secures permission to simply sulk in the reading nook, compile her notes, and... probably find her own way to the exit back home, without bothering to inform Matilda at all. Will Matilda be scared, later, not being able to find her coworker around the Sanatorium? Yes, probably! That's not Mesmer's business to worry over, though. Matilda will survive.

. . .

    Matilda will not survive! What do you mean there is a near-bottomless canyon to cross via bridge! Bridges are a little bit scary! At least it's covered, walled, secure-feeling, but Matilda, who does not have much of a fear of heights, especially after such escapades as Petra's stratospheric boss-fight, has a small fear of bridges- under-breath mumblings, 'Sois courageuse, Mathilde!' until she's on the other side.

    But, then she's rewarded, by it all feeling like an entirely different world! Cute springs, blurbling, incenses, oils, flowers- "Ah-hah! Oh, and it is all so surrounded by trees and grasses, still..? Despite the weather, and, er, perhaps the statues- this is most quaint a spa!" Of course, this isn't even the focal point of it all- "Hein? There is, a larger, main bath-house..? Hah, yes, of course there is! It must surely be grand, huh!"

    There's an ambient nervous blurble to her voice, as she tags along with the group, trying to stay at Petra's heels especially after the little circumstance with Holly's Jail- but walking is also a good chance to continue to fuss with her own hair, trying to un-ruffle it, and ruffling it a little more in the process to have to un-ruffle, etc, etc- why do people insist on ruffling her hair, anyways!

' A Ferris wheel? Is that anything interesting?'

    "Oh! Perhaps, it was once by a beachside board-walk, of some sort?" Well, those are more places than just beaches, aren't they? "If, so, and, if the sea is still, somehow near-by, why is here where the bath-house is situated..? I don't believe I smell the sea in the air! It, is mostly pleasant flowers, actually." Whispered, "Is the rocking-motion of a ferris wheel direly upsetting to the riders? I, have heard that they are scary! But they move so slowly?" Tell Matilda about carnival rides!!!!

    At the main bathhouse- "Ah, oh, imagine these grand decks with any manner of sunlight! Lounge-chairs, cold beverages, if only the weather were not so,"
'Nice... weather, huh?'

    "So perfect! Ah! Hello," Matilda awkwardly waves to the new group-chaperone, showing off her complete lack of principle in this manner of social interaction!

    The changing rooms filling up quickly means Matilda goes off to the food-tables, and totally not just because it's dinner-time, about, and this is likely to be tastier than the food back at the Foundation! Especially if she's out, and misses serving hours! Idly, loudly-enough to the group, and with a bit of cracker-crumbs on her cheek, "Is this how Concord affiliates most-often go about their multiversal excursions..? It is quite pleasant!" Hey, isn't Matilda supposed to be a fancy high-class rich girl?
Foundation Scions     Once Matilda has the chance to change, wrap herself in towels, and- what takes her a decent-while, to quite-neatly braid her hair into the adventursome rings she tends to wear for outdoorsy outings, rather than just take it down, she, also, in hesitance to actually dip into the hot-spring, first rummages through the alcoholic beverage selection. The red mixed drinks, overall pleasant-smelling, and perhaps... tomato-based, take her attention first! Uh oh!

    So, it's with a blood-cocktail in hand, that she goes over to toe the side of the water, wasting time with a, "You know, there are some most excellently famous hot-springs in the scenic regions of France-! I wonder how it is that this one will compare to those, if I get the chance to visit-them on holiday..."

    And it's with an "Ach, tsh- it is so much more warm than I thought! Not pool-like at all!" that she actually, finally gets in. Added, out of ambient nervousness, "Not that swimming like if it were a pool would be anything but uncouth! Ah.. hah.."
Riku Asakura 'Hello. I'm... well, Nicole,'

"Nice to meet you!" he says, though when Nicole goes back and redoes it, Riku smiles at her.  "You can call me Riku. It's a pleasure to get to know someone close to Doctor Holly.  You must work long and hard hours here.  Must be rough!  Though I guess if it was too rough you wouldn't enjoy it, right?  This is the kinda job you have to enjoy to work."

'It's a little bit sad too, isn't it?'

"I agree.  Seeing the world like this is sad.  I'm glad my world isn't like this, but it makes me want to fight harder to bring back the smiles to this world," he says, smiling pleasantly.  He excuses himself, though, because he has to get into that spring.  

Riku finds a changing room and leaves his greebles with his clothes and walks back out with a towel wrapped around his waist.  Despite being young, he's got a reasonable amount of muscle and definition to his body.  He's not swole, but he is at least someone who regularly exercises and trains.  

Riku dips into the water while everyone else has and sinks to his chest in it.  "Oh, this is amazing.  I think it's better than any other spring I've been to before..." It must be the healing magic!
Holly Asturias "Hello! This is Unzan."

    "Hell...o..." Nicole says, staring at the cloud. Revenants can get a bit weird with their appearance, but not *that* weird. They're really offworlders huh... sometimes it's the little things that remind you. Or the big pink clouds.

    "Oh, but... 'cleaning up' the amusement park... I can't imagine anything up there still works? It must've rusted by now. Even if you exterminated every last Horror there, I don't know what it'd get you?" She's a... BIT curious, what's up there, but not so much she'd want to go.

"So perfect! Ah! Hello,"

    "Hi!" Nicole greets Matilda, because she looks, by far, like the most normal person here, and somehow that's a little bit reassuring in the sense it's relatable. "The Doctor certainly pulled in all kinds. So... you're all 'heroes' basically?" Matilda seems like the most likely to give her a good answer. "Are your worlds terribly different from here?" How could she not ask?

"This is the kinda job you have to enjoy to work."

    "Haha... yeah," Nicole says, earnest and actually a bit enthusiastic about it. "I wanted to be a doctor ever since I met Doctor Holly. To make a difference this way. It's exhausting, but we're all looking after each other. I think she'd be fine even without any of us here, and that's why it's even more important that we are."

"to bring back the smiles to this world,"

    "... good luck," Nicole says, like she's only half-sure that's possible.
Lilian Rook     'It's a little bit sad too, isn't it? To think about everything that's just... gone. '

    "I suppose." says Lilian, mere moments before the splash. "I may just be used to it. Things are even worse off in most places where I'm from. It's only that the places where people do still live are rather nice; they aren't so small and lonely as here. So it's difficult to think of the two as related, you know?"

    'I really shouldn't...'

    "Well, suit yourself." Lilian says, not without some amount of smugness. "I wasn't going to rat you out."

    'You didn't say- you didn't say you had one of *those* here. I mean the hot springs and the workshop and the morgue are all nice but - you've got a *fair* in town!'

    Lilian opens her mouth. Her brain forms the words 'How old are you again?'. She closes her mouth, and shakes her head.

    . . . . . . . .

    Eased into the water, Lilian puts her elbows up over the lip to keep herself from floating when she breathes deep, and tilts her head back to stare eyes-shut into the shade of the overhang, breathing in the high altitude air just so she can pay special attention to the contrast of cold against the toasty warmth on her skin, and the scent of fragrant oils replacing the lingering morque smell in her memory. Even with so much energy to spare, she had, in fact, spent all day running around, packing, unpacking, buying and transporting things, and giving back rubs, amongst other activities. Dimly thinking about how much she's been slacking on training, for literally the first time ever, Lilian wonders if she'd feel more knots coming undone or fewer if she hadn't.

    'Four of you?'

    "Weren't there fourteen or something?" says Lilian. She stares at Kukuru for uncertain reasons, then past her to Riku, then her gaze doubles back to the Gensoko Three, and the corner of her lip twists when her eyes finally linger on Matilda. Lilian pronounces "You're all so unexpectedly shy." in a tone that's difficult to read.

    'The idea of luxury after the apocalypse... it kind of does make you think of the country house, right?'

    With Petra in, though, Lilian's mood skyrockets back up. "I was actually just thinking that! But it doesn't really give you much of a sense of 'the apocalypse', right? That place is gorgeous, but it's more like being 'in anothr world' than above the bones of this one. It's not quite the same. Like, the appeal of this--" She ends up splashing Petra by lifting up her arms to gesture. "--is that you're enjoing something so decadent because there's nothing and nobody to stop you. You're supposed to be deprived and instead you're enriched. It's almost sort of sinful!"

    'Hey Lilian! Want something sweet, or there's mixed drinks, or, uh, brandy?'

    "Oh, brandy. Definitely brandy." Lilian waggles her hand in Petra's direction, turning her wrist over and over until a glass is placed in her fingers. "Thank you very much~"
Lilian Rook     'And she didn't even call you a freak before storming off... this must be the most peaceful hot springs there's ever been.'

    "Oh come on. We don't have to think about her at all." Lilian sighs. "It was actually very nice of her to obey my instructions and go off to the library instead. She would hate it here and nobody would like having her around, so it's just polite." As if compelled to drink whenever she thinks about Mesmer, Lilian decides to get a head start on everyone with whatever Petra handed her, deciding she'll be happier once it's empty.

    'Oh uh. ...It's fine.'

    "Finally." Lilian says, Weirdly, when Roland gets in. "Not bad~ I can see Angela is keeping you busy." Is this the power of Married to Married communication? She isn't even hiding her stare. "You look a little like I did after coming back from Dunscaith. Except I had more on my arms." Lilian says, and then decides to set her glass down so she can flex and hand-pat a bicep for emphasis. "Special occasion?"

    'Ach, tsh- it is so much more warm than I thought! Not pool-like at all! Not that swimming like if it were a pool would be anything but uncouth! Ah.. hah..'

    Lilian, probably sensing Matilda's nervousness, casts a sly little half-lidded stare her way, then decides to resolve this problem for her. She barely gets a second of rest before Lilian slides right up to her, pats her on the shoulder, and squeezes. "Come on~ Aren't you always boasting about getting first place in physical education? Surely the SPDM isn't so lax that you have anything to worry about~" Lilian says, and then gestures for the second glass; Petra's selected mixed drink, which she swirls for the first step smell out of habit and doesn't remark on anything in particular. "This is a huge luxury you know! Even I don't have one like this. What's the point if you get too nervous to enjoy it?"
Kukuru "fourteen of us."
"Weren't there fourteen or something?"

"Oh yeah, Hooolly did say that before. That's a good number of hands, then." Kukuru replies to Nicole and Lilian with a lazy nod, having somehow forgotten about that tidbit earlier in the tour. She doesn't let the sleepiness stop her from listening, though, 'ooh'ing once again when Nicole reveals just how old she was since she started. "Oh my... You must be quite the expert on stuff around the Sanatorium, then. No wonder you're Hooolly's primary assistant."

Somehow, she's still amused by stretching out that part of Holly's name. "We'll be in your care, then. Mhm, mhm, we'll be helping her out with her projects and stuff. I can fix people up and hit really hard, so I'll be pulling double-duty as she needs."

"It really gives *such* a feeling, right?"
"When powerful Revenants turn,"

"Is that what happened out here? It sure looks like this all happened a super long time ago, but... Mhm, I can believe it, for suuure." Closing her eyes, Kukuru sinks into the water further and almost looks modest until she sits right back up to get back to her plate of mushrooms. "But at least there's ways to dettect when they're about to turn, right? Now, you can even call on me if you need to just send them off somewhere." She suggests without explaining anything before taking a sip of her red cocktail.

She pauses briefly upon tasting it, then lets out an approving noise before taking another sip of that and a sip of the brandy a moment later. That's followed by a comfy and groan-inducing streeeeetch backwards, and then she rests the side of her head at the edge of the bath. Up close, it's easier to see that Kukuru isn't particularly built in any way despite her freakish strength, but she does have quite a few healed scars from all the gunshots, various stabs and cuts, and other assorted injuries over the years.

"maybe they could clean it up and run it like that."

"Once there's more support and employees around, maaaybe... A little gift shop could be added?" Kukuru suggests, piggy-backing off Minamitsu's suggestion while taking another sip of the brandy. "That'd be a way to get some more money in without having to do a whole park that needs cleanup and maintainants... Mainting... upkeep."

"Is this how Concord affiliates most-often go about their multiversal excursions..?"

Giggling softly, Kukuru gives Matilda a half-nod half-shrug while her eyes glint briefly upon spotting an opportunity to shill the Concord. "Not aaaall the time, but we do have lots of places like these all over. We've got Partners with lots of money and businesses to open up comfy places like these, Grand Dorado's a beautiful place with all sorts of restaurants and spas and things... We don't take eeeeverybody as Partners, but you're welcome to apply if you ever want to come be a part of our family~"
Skipper > The... Dream Land park? It's infested by Horrors.

    "... Oh."

    "... But, um, aside from the horrors. Do the rides still work?"

    > It's a little bit sad too, isn't it?
    > I'm glad my world isn't like this

    "... Mine's kind of... like this," says Skipper, looking over from their spot in the hot springs. They've ditched the towels, now relying on the steam and water for privacy.

    "I don't think we ever had the same sort of... amount of people all living in one spot, but there used to be a lot more villages and more than one town in Bramble Hollow. Pretty often I come across places that clearly used to have people living there. Occasionally... places where the people who were living there couldn't get away in time."

    "That's kind of why I'd like to help out here especially. I think I kind of know what it's like."

    > Things are even worse off in most places where I'm from.

    "So that's three already..." Skipper says, quietly. "So much for hoping mine was the only one having problems... Are most worlds like...?" They gesture vaguely around at the world in general.

    "At least there's nice places there, it sounds like?"

    > Not pool-like at all!

    "Oh! Have you met Mr. Nash?" asks Skipper.

    "His world, the island where he lives? It has a *beach*," Skipper says, as if imparting the details of the archeological find of a millenium. "A real beach, with the ocean and everything."
Holly Asturias "Things are even worse off in most places where I'm from."

    "... worse?" Nicole winces. "Sorry. I guess it's good your people aren't as... lonely? I've heard a patient say MagMell Island and its academy are still kind of nice, like that, compared to here. Lots of people there. So there might be spots like that left, and you're just getting a weird first impression stumbling here of all places." Might, maybe. She couldn't know.

"I wasn't going to rat you out."

    Nicole takes a moment to consider.
    "Oh, what the Hell."

    Expertly she grabs a towel and disrobes herself in a smooth, almost single motion, and then dips into the bath to sit down by the edge, at which point the towel is taken off. She lets out a deep sigh and just... relaxes, for once.

"No wonder you're Hooolly's primary assistant."

    "Some of the staff has been here way longer than me. After Camilo, and then the Doctor... a few of the Revenants have been here at least twice as long as me. But I guess I'm a studious little prodigy?" She's only half-joking. "Just don't ask me to fight."

"But at least there's ways to dettect when they're about to turn, right?

    "Kinda. The Doctor's Formae slow it down enough that if someone's about to turn, we'll know a few days ahead for sure. I'm going to be honest, that almost makes it worse. It's not easy to tell a patient... 'Sorry, we're going to need to exile you, we can't have you transform here. Good luck out there.' Like, sure, it gives them a few days to get their affairs in order, but... for that brief moment it doesn't feel like we helped them. We just prolonged the misery." She shrugs, allowing herself to melt a bit deeper into the water. "Part of the job though."

Scars.

    It's hardly just Kukuru with scars. Nicole actually peeks at everyone now. She gives a whistle. "Are you *all* fighters?"

"... But, um, aside from the horrors. Do the rides still work?"

    "I really can't imagine so but it's not like I've ever been. Maybe they just, miraculously survived this whole time. The Doctor might know."

"... Mine's kind of... like this,"

    A bunch of them. She might have preferred if everyone just had rosy worlds, actually. It'd be more hopeful.
UFO Gang "Isn't it great??" Minamitsu enthuses to Riku. "I haven't hit up many of these in the current day yet, but this is definitely the tops!" Though when Matilda begins to speak of the glories of French hot springs, Minamitsu's head swivels to look at her. Her eyes are wide. How many hot springs does the cosmos hold? *Can she visit them all?*

But on the topic of the Ferris wheel and the amusement park, Minamitsu frowns in thought. "I hadn't thought about rust... I figured if it wasn't collapsing it'd still be fine. This could be hard, huh..." She looks back to Kukuru and nods. "It all comes down to gift shops, huh."

Ichirin says to Nicole, "If it helps... our... I can't really call it home, but the place where we were from... It seemed similar to what we remembered before we were sealed away, but with bigger cities. And convenience stores." The convenience stores seem to subtly delight Ichirin. The reason is unclear.

"Oh, I'm not really a fighter, I just get in fights," Minamitsu says. She does point a finger at Ichirin. "She's a fighter, though." Ichirin puts one hand to her cheek with a demure expression.
Angela Roland glances over to Nicole. "Of course, why wouldn't I be? You mean because of the--" The bullshit he had prepared is pushed away by her pointing out he looks like he's expecting to be jumped. He lets out a long sigh. For an assassin, he thinks, he sure is easy to read. Maybe he should try talking to someone else. He glances over to Matilda. Nope! She has correctly pegged him as a guy who murders people in a Library. He considers Riku. Okay but what would he even talk to him about? He feels like he's gotten off track. Is Red Dwarf upset with him that he hasn't found someone to kill yet?

Well he can't stall anymore. He looks back to Nicole. "Well, why wouldn't I be fine? Got a free tour and a dip in a hot spring. Usually you gotta pay for this kind of service."

He glances at the staring Ichirin first and doesn't seem to get what she's getting at with what she's saying, largely because he was kind of spacing out. "Uh, I try to expect the worst so that I'm constantly pleasantly surprised." He quips at her, unsure if that was meant for him or not. "It's always worse if your good expectations end up a bit too hopeful, you know? Not that you should assume everything's bad or anything, but that's something you settle in with time and instinct, right? You can usually get a feel for the vibe once you know the area."

Roland is pretty well honed. He doesn't exactly come across as a bodybuilder nor does he have a bulky build but he works out, eats a balanced diet, and trains hard. A missed day could mean getting jumped by vampires and becoming a meal or, worse in his eyes, part of their Family. And that's amongst the more normal problems that crop up in The City. Weird bullshit is common and you don't always know the rules. If you relax even a little you can lose everything if it happens to coincide with a real bad day.

He looks over to Lilian. "Hm..? Oh! She is, she definitely keeps me busy. Actually most of my scars here predate Angela... But there's actually a funny story behind my arms." He grins. "See, when I first arrived, Angela was like right there in the Lobby. I was pretty disoriented and I guess she was panicking a little because when I didn't answer her quickly enough she ripped off one of my arms. And I was, uh, a little slow to learn my lesson and didn't have all the answers she wanted so I ended up gradually losing all my limbs. I thought I was gonna die. But then I woke up with a new set of limbs, said she felt a bit guilty hench the new set."

Netzach quips, "You've a funny way of telling funny stories, Roland."

He does take a moment of studying Lilian's bicep, as if to get a feel for the techniques that inflicted the wounds she mentioned she took there. He is a versatile fighter though he's most accustomed with Durandal, naturally.

"Some Fixers say that a wound on the back is a big shame, but I've had to fight groups a lot. In a way, the uh...work I'm doing now kind of perfectly fits my skillset." He frowns, wondering if SHE knew and planned this but he keeps that quiet. Best to not guess too much at the whims of older ladies in the business.

"You seem real relaxed." To Lilian, as if it is some hidden power of hers.
Riku Asakura 'You're all so unexpectedly shy.'

Riku looks up from his spot in the water, towel on the edge of the water, and looks confused.  "What?" He asks, though it's hard to move around in the water.  Mixed baths were always a sticking point for Riku, even though he roomed with a woman.  Well, and an alien too, but that's beside the point.  

'Oh! Have you met Mr. Nash?'

"Yup, been to his world once or twice.  I was there when he summoned his new friend, Hell Biker.  He's a good guy when you get down to it.  He'll set you straight, or so he likes to say, haha..."

'The Doctor's Formae slow it down enough that if someone's about to turn, we'll know a few days ahead for sure.'

"That sounds awful.  It's like knowing the exact moment of your death, but not being able to do anything about it.  That's... terrible, I'm sorry you have to break this news to people at all." It makes Riku more determined to help with the problems this world is facing, to help Holly anyway he can!

Are you *all* fighters?'

"I think most of us are, except for Matilda." Though he looks at Roland, who is pretty scared.  Compared to himself who is barely touched.  Part of being an Ultraman is revealed to Riku, the part where he rarely scars, and his body regenerates.  

'Isn't it great??'

"Mmm! It's wonderful, yeah, Minamitsu." Though he's likewise enraptured by the glories of Matilda's description of French Hot Springs.  "I'd like to get the chance to try those someday."

'See, when I first arrived, Angela was like right there in the Lobby.'

Riku listens to Roland's story with horror in his eyes.  He can't believe that he got his limbs ripped off.  It's merciful that Roland got new limbs put on, and that he didn't die of blood loss.  He must have properly spooked Angela by dropping into the Library.  "Geeze... I'm glad you're alright, but geeze..."
Petra Soroka "Well, hopefully it'll stay that way."

    "It will," Petra calls back over to Roland, lackadaisically. "I'll make sure of it. I told Lilian that I'd take care of everything while she's on honeymoon. A second Resurgence could happen right now and I would simply solve it without her even having to get out of the bath."

    Petra's clinginess to Lilian in the bath isn't just because she's a pervert horndog who should be hunted by any law-abiding citizen of the earth, though. As casual as she's trying to be, being in a *co-ed* bath is still kind of a stretch for her, and despite the soothing magic of the springs, Lilian can feel that she's tense and uneasy under the water. It's convenient to her, to reestablish some dividing wall in her mind, willing Riku, Netzach, Roland, and Skipper to one side of the bath while she stays with Lilian on the other.

"Oh! Perhaps, it was once by a beachside board-walk, of some sort?"

    "Oooh, maybe?~ I don't know, I don't think we're by the ocean?" Matilda sniffing to try and detect the sea is maybe one of the most Petra-like things she's ever done, and having another girl of a particular category to subsume into the group does a lot to soothe Petra's nerves. "Sometimes there's just amusement parks inland too."

"Is the rocking-motion of a ferris wheel direly upsetting to the riders?"

    "Oh! Oh my god, you've never been? Lilian and I went to a fair with one a little while ago." Petra just *has* to mention that it was with Lilian. Matilda should understand, since if she went on a Ferris wheel with Sonetto she'd never shut up about it for the rest of her life. "They're not scary. The rocking is nice, actually? It's sort of like... the nice parts of being on a boat, but it's private, and you get a cute view and everything. There's basically never any Ferris wheel accidents, I think. But also, if there was, that would be *such* a fun story."

"Is this how Concord affiliates most-often go about their multiversal excursions..? It is quite pleasant!"

    "Sometimes," Petra says, folding her arms against the rim of the bath and lowering her chin down onto them. Sinking deeper into the water, chatting with Lilian and Matilda, she actually can start feeling the healing effects of the Formae in the bath take hold. Or, maybe, she is just inhaling a lot of very hot steam. "I always try to treat anyone who comes over to Hydrochoeria nice, at least."
Petra Soroka "The... Dream Land park?"

    "Dream Land park..." Petra murmurs, looking through the door of the bathhouse towards the mountains. "I would soooo go explore around a Horror-infested abandoned amusement park. Fuck that'd be so fun."

    Petra is perfectly aware that there's human blood in the drink that she poured for herself, because she specifically requested that. Still, half a glass goes down before she says anything else. It's not *really* like she feels the compulsion she inherited from Rita anymore, but, like, the neural connections are still there. It still feels like she's found the Vitamin and the Vitamin will heal everything wrong with her. It also dyes her tongue and teeth red.

"But the way Jails work... the way *Revenant Hunter* Jails work, specifically, it takes away the Ichor in the body before inflicting the wound."

    Petra raises an eyebrow at Nicole. "What, would it work differently if a Revenant used a Jail on another Revenant? How did Revenants normally kill each other?"

"That place is gorgeous, but it's more like being 'in anothor world' than above the bones of this one."

    "That's true, that's true. The fog does kind of have that effect. But I guess it's-- no, I know what it is." Petra gesticulates, bloody wine sloshing in the glass.

    "That place is more like Hydrochoeria. 'The world ended, but my friends are here, instead'. Like that. Here, it's like being a spoiled wild animal after humanity's been wiped out, rummaging through their pantries and sleeping in their beds."

"Oh come on. We don't have to think about her at all."

    "True. Objectively, it's the nicest thing she could've done." Petra hums, cradling her drink in both hands and sipping away. The Silver coalesces on the side of the bath, ready to fetch snacks or pour another drink if Lilian ever needs it.

"Not that swimming like if it were a pool would be anything but uncouth!"

    Once Petra slides in on the other side of her, there's nowhere for Matilda to escape towards. "Yeah, what's wrong with being 'uncouth'? We're just having fun and relaxing, right?"
Lilian Rook     'Are most worlds like...?'

    "No, not really. The ones that are tend to be beyond help anyways."

    'Sorry. I guess it's good your people aren't as... lonely?'

    Lilian makes an indecisive wobble-gesture with her hand. "I mean, it wasn't a thousand years ago or whatever. It ended 'officially' forty years ago. It's a lot different, when it's fresh in people's minds, compared to when they've handled it poorly ever since and it's all spiralled into decay from short-sighted mismanagement and enmity." She meant it about the Revenants and the 'Hunters', but that thought makes her frown when thinking about her own world, and thus decide to push it out of mind.

    'Oh, what the Hell.'

    Lilian laughs. While her hands are free, she even claps! "There you go! Enjoy!"

    'Like, sure, it gives them a few days to get their affairs in order, but... for that brief moment it doesn't feel like we helped them. We just prolonged the misery.'

    "Well. You didn't put them out of it." Lilian stares into the bottom of her fresh drink, trying to make up her mind. "So you can choose to think of that as saintly or as cruel, I suppose. Does--" She winces, all of a sudden, at a thought that is only related on three further layers of abstraction. "Can you even stop the transformation if they die? I'd think people would choose euthanasia before succumbing to that, if it were possible." Yeah. More drinking will fix that right up. Lilian consumes a not-insignificant quantity of blood by tipping back her glass like that, wipes her lips, stares at the residue on the inside of the empty vessel, and remarks "Oh, odd. Shockingly not bad, though. Medicinal herbs, I suppose?"

    'You can usually get a feel for the vibe once you know the area.'

    "It's always easier to let your guard down than to put it up!" Lilian cheerfully declares. "So start with it up and let it down as needed. That's the conventional wisdom."

    'But there's actually a funny story behind my arms.'

    "Oh my god!" Lilian spreads her fingers before her open mouth. "Right!" Her eyes light up. She laughs. "I can't believe I forgot! Oh my goodness; it's really been that unchallenging since? You're going to get soft, Roland~"

    'Some Fixers say that a wound on the back is a big shame'

    "They're fucking morons." Lilian laughs a second time, this one 'in-group' styled rather than 'incredulous'. She flops her weight back against the edge of the bath and hums contentedly with her eyes closed. "They've inherited that from the customs of soldiers. When you're marching in formation, you only get hit in the back if you turn around and try to run. It's the same with knights and the sort who fight duels. When you're fighting alone, your back is the first place everyone wants to go for if they can get to it."

    Years ago, Lilian would have made sure to undersell that bicep to hell and back. She'd have dragged a towel in too. She doesn't fail to notice Roland looking, but the feeling that comes to her is wry amusement at the place she's arrived at. Even though magical amplification does most of the work, it's too late to avoid looking like someone who swings around a sixteen pound sword; and she wouldn't go changing it by now anyways. Besides, Tamamo likes it.
Lilian Rook     'You seem real relaxed.'

    "I get to be." she says, mysteriously. Slipping her fingers through the neckplace she wore into the bath, Lilian lifts up the little black magnetite pendant from her collarbone and spins it back and forth cheerfully. "A little perk of being fast and having good instincts."

    'Are you *all* fighters?'

    "Not all, but most here do dangerous work." Lilian says, then points to Kukuru. "Those are honourable injuries sustained in the line of duty saving lives and putting people back together!" Getting to be good to Kukuru for once is kind of nice. Lilian wiggles a little at Matilda's side. "I'd be covered in the things if it weren't for the outrageous demands of modern feminine perfection." Lilian sighs. "My wife is so incredible you'd never know you'd ever been hurt once she's taken a look at it." Hey so why the one on your face? "But I've come to rather like being 'unapologetically feminine'~" Lilian snickers at the private joke, then leans Petra's way; which means against Matilda again.
Skipper     > Are you *all* fighters?

    Skipper actually has zero scars, though when scars are brought up they sometimes reach up and rub a specific spot on the bridge of their nose. "It seems most of us are, at least?"

    > I was pretty disoriented and I guess she was panicking a little because when I didn't answer her quickly enough she ripped off one of my arms.

    There's a long pause from Skipper as they process this, which only extends further as Roland continues relaying his story.

    "Um..."

    "... Sorry, is that actually as horrible as I think it is, or is this like getting stabbed in the face for looking away and you're supposed to be grateful for it?"
UFO Gang Ichirin glances back to Roland. "Pessimism... I think it's a justifiable way to see things, but it can be a burden to your vision, too," she answers him. "You're right, though! You have to learn how to read the situation."

Then Ichirin blinks. She frowns a little. She looks at Netzach. Then at Minamitsu. Then back to Roland. "Er... she took your limbs? Did she disable you with... um..."

Ichirin trails off. She is not quite as dense as Minamitsu (fun fact; both of 'em have blue hair!) but the fact that the limbs aren't as marked as his back... One can almost see the little buddhist hamster running in the wheel, before she brightens. "Ah! You must have the ability to grow your limbs back! Well, they're very well made, I wouldn't have guessed if you hadn't mentioned!"

"... That doesn't seem like something Angela'd do usually," Minamitsu says, with uncertainty. She glances at Skipper. "But she was kinda... under a lot of stress for a while there..."

(In the background, Unzan quietly drops off an empty sake bottle near the space for collecting the used plates and other objects.)
Angela ''Geeze... I'm glad you're alright, but geeze...''

"Honestly it's kind of impressive for the City, at least, that I kept them as long as I had." Roland admits to Riku. "I really lucked out there." Though he is a bit casual at the way he says that--even more so than Riku, even! Maybe he doesn't want it to become a 'big deal' but does want to 'tell the story' and is trying to walk that fine line. He is giving Lilian and Petra space, perhaps moved to do so by Petra's will, but is still intent on chatting with Lilian if only because it's the one thing that's calming him from being surrounded by people who, kind of inherently, view him as filled with tasty 'ichor' and all that!

''Sorry, is that actually as horrible as I think it is--''

This is another reason why Roland isn't having the easiest time relaxing. As he turns his head to politely answer the question, he is reminded that he is sharing a hot springs with a walking talking mouse person and he sort of stalls out for a moment.

"Well... I was grumbling a lot at the time. But I guess it is a little like looking away. I let my guard down and wasn't careful. That's what happens, you know? When you go off half cocked and join, say, a war or something without really knowing what you're getting into and not taking that part seriously."

Roland had a lot on his mind at the time, of course, but he doesn't need to get into that.

''It's really been that unchallenging since? You're going to get soft, Roland~''

"Hey fighting in Elibe will keep me toughened up if the Library doesn't." Roland says to her. "When I get 'killed' I don't keep the scars, though that's only happened once--"

''They've inherited that from the customs of soldiers.''

"A lot of tough Fixers used to be soldiers," He admits, bobbing his head in agreement with the 'conventional wisdom' even though he was the one who brought it up in the first place, but Lilian's a respected leader in the community so when she agrees with you it's good to give a sort of nod in that direction. And besides--

--well he doesn't want to dwell on that either.

"Of course, a lot of ''those'' Fixers struggle to adapt away from the Smoke War for one reason or another, so it doesn't always translate to a higher Grade."

''I get to bne. A little perk of being fast and having good instincts.''

"The good instincts are the toughest to learn." He admits. If Lilian is relaxed, though, he supposes that means he should try to relax too. She's the one who'd know best in this situation.

''But it can be a burden to your vision, too.''

"Not my vision." He smiles. "Uh... I think it was some EGO she was using, I don't remember the exact one but it definitely didn't look normal."

''That doesn't seem like something Angela'd do usually.''

"Maybe not. It sounds like it was a weird time for her." He is willing to acknowledge she was 'under stress', but he doesn't seem to care about holding a grudge about the limbs either anyway.
Foundation Scions 'Oh! Oh my god, you've never been? Lilian and I went to a fair with one a little while ago'

    Matilda does understand simply having to bring that up- she's nodding, as she makes a statement of disagreement, somehow- "I, do not think a ferris wheel accident would be fun, if anyone was hurt! But, their vantage..."

    Excited again, "If they got stuck and broken, would one have to climb down the decorative slats of their siding..? That could be very exciting, I think! Or to be stuck at the top with..." A sigh. Matilda Bouanich is pretty much imagining a combination of getting trapped on a ride, in an elevator, and/or on a desert island with Sonetto, and it's right there obvious on her face.

'The... Dream Land park? It's infested by Horrors.'

    "Ah? But, if the director still goes there... did it only become so infested of late?" A pouty pause, "Either way, that is most certainly a shame..!"

'The Doctor certainly pulled in all kinds. So... you're all 'heroes' basically?'

    'All kinds' stings, a little bit, but not so much that the attention doesn't more-than make up for it! "Hm! Of course! I, the extraordinary Matilda Bouanich, am a prodigy diviner and soon-to-be exemplary Field Investigator of the St. Pavlov Foundation, not to mention, also, a well-regarded Paladins Chevalier~!" Cool it with the claims! "Perhaps, there is more of a divergence from expected participants, in my case, because, I was brought-along by someone herself more interested in this place!" A pause, "Er- but, not interested in bath houses! And rest assured, you are still very-lucky to have now met one so up-and-coming as I am! You are welcome."

'I think most of us are, except for Matilda.'

    Pouting, and still kinda wrong, "I most certainly am, please excuse yourself of that comment! The School for the Primary Defense of Mankind ensures its graduates are suitable for such things!"

. . .

    In the water, there's not much of an easier way to sit than facing the wall, if one doesn't wish to clumsily hoist drinks over-top the water. Unfortunately, Matilda has not figured this out, and so has to contend with a more-awkward posture, lower in the water, as she sips at the red drink, a little disappointed in it, with her nose wrinkled-up to suit the distaste- "Hrm... is, this a regional beverage..? I, would have expected something containing tomato juice to be more savory in flavor! It is more faint than expected, too..."
Foundation Scions ''The world ended, but my friends are here, instead''

    Matilda perks up at that, interrupting with a quiet-question, "Do you find that to be a happy feeling..?"

    When Lilian (and then, quickly, Petra) come over, Matilda isn't jumpy at the sudden attention, because that's always a good thing- mostly she's glad her hair isn't being ruffled again now that it's neatened-up and being kept mostly protected from the water! Because it seems right to say something to friends, raising a hand above the water to wave, she gives a goobersome "Hello!" to them both.

'Come on~ Aren't you always boasting about getting first place in physical education?'

    Swimming here is scary! It's for relaxing, not sport! But, Matilda is so peer pressureable- "Eh-? It is not *boasting*, it is a true and provable fact! And, at swimming no-less than anything else, I am quite successful!"

'Yeah, what's wrong with being 'uncouth'? We're just having fun and relaxing, right?'

    Matilda is so peer pressurable, but she still gets embarrassed at the idea of rule-breaking, here- faster, a little whisper-y, "But- we are guests here! Ms. Nicole, she is watching, too, and surely one to care about uncouthness!"

    Matilda is so peer pressurable, and it's not even because she's so-quickly gotten most of the way through an entire cocktail (because it's annoying to hold while full!). Taking a big breath, and dragging others into the mess, "Fine! Then, perhaps it should be a formalized race, to swim across and back to the starting-point! How else will I prove my remarkable athletic ability! I trust those terms to be acceptable!" Wait, Matilda! There's no stakes! That's a beginners mistake to leave in other's hands!
Skipper > "When you go off half cocked and join, say, a war or something without really knowing what you're getting into and not taking that part seriously."

There's a moment of contemplative silence from Skipper...

... and then they carefully make their way over to Roland, give him a single sympathetic pat on the shoulder, and then navigate the hot springs back to their prior position.
Kukuru "Just don't ask me to fight."
"Smart cookie... Hehe. Don't you worry, dear. Leave the fighting to us if anything comes up, okaaay? That's part of why we're here."

"It's not easy to tell a patient..."

The topic of a Revenant about to turn is serious enough that even Kukuru can't keep her forever-smile on, and she nods solemnly while letting Nicole's explanation swirl around in her head for a bit. "No.. No, that kind of thing is never easy. My healing doesn't work on everything, either, and seeing people's faces after I've promised to save them from whatever was hurting them..."

It always comes back to that one place, doesn't it? Kukuru's gaze goes hazy while her thoughts linger on something in the distant past, and then she clears her throat briefly before finishing her cup of brandy with one long sip. "Mmhm, it's part of the job for sure. There's..."

"Can you even stop the transformation if they die?"

Nodding lightly at Lilian, Kukuru holds her hand up and pantomimes squeezing something in the air. "That's something I was wondering, mhm. Would ending the misery sooner by... You knoow. Killing them sooner help at all? Is that something you do here?" She asks Nicole, then cranes her head sideways to chuckle lightly at Lilian a little while taking a sip of her own blood cocktail. "Right? It's not as strong as drinking either of these straight... It's warm."

"Those are honourable injuries"
Praise is normally something Kukuru's fond of hearing, but hearing that from Lilian puts her into an especially good mood. "Oh, Lili.. Ah, Lilian. That's so sweet of you to say!" She squeals giddily complete with cheeks turning redder, both from joy and from drinking. "Hehehe.... Ah, thank you, dear. That's part of the job, too, mhmmm. Anything for family, you knooow?"

Even without the alcohol, is she really so easy to please?

"It all comes down to gift shops, huh."

"In a way, mhm. It's easier than a whole park, and it's gotta be a good way to make money. There wouldn't be so many all over if they weren't, riiight?" She asks Minamitsu with another giggle, already back in good spirits after Lilian's praise. It really is that easy!

"except for Matilda."
"I most certainly am"

Still giddy-giggly, Kukuru peers at Matilda from across the hot spring with one eye closed. "A school for fighting... Ah, I'll be counting on you if we ever fight together, then~ What iiis your specialty, anyway?" She asks, pursing her lips briefly in thought. "Do you uuuuse... Guns? I don't smell gun stuff on you, though. Magic, maybe?"
Lilian Rook     'A second Resurgence could happen right now and I would simply solve it without her even having to get out of the bath.'

    "Right. You absolutely would~" Lilian nods, smiling. She'd make fun of Petra for this normally, but right now she totally believes it. "You'd dive down between the couch cushions and beat up the Resurg-o-mancer in one go." She reaches behind Matilda just to pat Petra on the shoulder too, which turns into a brief but lingering moment of wandering pressure on her back. "So don't be a problem, or she'll get you."

    'That place is more like Hydrochoeria. 'The world ended, but my friends are here, instead'. Like that. Here, it's like being a spoiled wild animal after humanity's been wiped out, rummaging through their pantries and sleeping in their beds.'

    "You get it!" Lilian giddy-crows, sloshing the water with her exciteable kicking. "I feel like I'm almost jealous of Ash! Which is ridiculous, of course, because I get to live in the nice mansion and visit the space station and the pretty island and everything. But could you imagine? Just being able to go anywhere, to do anything, for as long as you want, with no tethers, no limits, no drawbacks; if I were Ash I think I'd never stop exploring the old world."

    'I, do not think a ferris wheel accident would be fun, if anyone was hurt!'

    "Okay-- Okay but imagine. Imagine you're on the ferris wheel, right at the very top, and it gets stuck, and you and Sonetto have nothing to do but talk to each other in private for hours while they slowly get everyone off one by one until you get back down." Hey Lilian. She didn't say Sonetto's name at all. You didn't even wait for her to look dream about it! You're drinking pretty fast, girl.

    'Do you find that to be a happy feeling..?'

    "Why not? It means everyone I hate is gone and everyone I like is still here."

    'Yeah, what's wrong with being 'uncouth'? We're just having fun and relaxing, right?'

    "Yeah Matilda. Aren't you having fun~?" Lilian motions Petra instead, both to freshen up her glass and to get Matilda something else, seeing her dislike of the mixed faire.

    'Eh-? It is not *boasting*, it is a true and provable fact! And, at swimming no-less than anything else, I am quite successful!'

    "Yeah? Yeah~? Then why so nervous~?" Lilian slides into Matilda's personal space, increasingly overbearing as she goes through multiple glasses of brandy. "You're not secretly scrawny are you~? I thought you liked showing off!" Huh?

    'Fine! Then, perhaps it should be aformalized race, to swim across and back to the starting-point! How else will I prove my remarkable athletic ability!'

    "Psh. That's such a small distance to swim! You'd have to at least make it challenging, right? Like swimming while balancing an empty glass on your head." Lilian giggles just at the mental image. "Loser has to give me a back rub and feed me little grapes or something like that. Don't be a wimp!"
Holly Asturias "Of course, why wouldn't I be?"
"Uh, I try to expect the worst so that I'm constantly pleasantly surprised."

    "Oh." Nicole says, in the tone of a nurse who just understood why a patient is harming themselves. "Best I've got for you is that nobody ever gets harmed here. The last time a patient tried to jump me, the Doctor shot him in both legs and then rammed her bayonet in his--" She stops, and winks at Roland. "Y'know. Lemme tell you: I have no idea where she even came from? It's like she just knew I was in trouble. And lemme also tell you: that patient never stepped a millimeter out of line after that. I wager there's no safer place to be in the entire Frontier."

"That's... terrible, I'm sorry you have to break this news to people at all."
"Well. You didn't put them out of it."

    "Something inbetween saintly and cruel, yeah. 'We did what we could'. It's a nice thought. I think we all beat ourselves up over it a bit. The Doctor especially. Still... there's no denying we buy these patients a considerable amount of extra time. And we try not to forget that part."

"Can you even stop the transformation if they die?"

    "Yeah. The Doctor is the only one allowed to dispense... that, though. It's an option and it's on the table, but she won't let anyone else shoulder it. Thing is... you can't miss. Because a grievous injury like that, it'll accelerate the turning. So will stress. So you understand the risk, I bet." A bit grim.

"Oh, odd. Shockingly not bad, though. Medicinal herbs, I suppose?"

    "Oh, yes! Hawthorne, olive leaves, lilies. Nothing that would overwhelm the other flavors, but the blog said these have high compatibility with blood and so they mix well. Makes sense, given their other uses. I, uh... feel a bit guilty for having a taste, myself. Kinda feels... weird, right?" Clearly not for the others!

"My wife is so incredible you'd never know you'd ever been hurt once she's taken a look at it."

    "Oh yeah? Congrats. The Doctor said something about that. Oh! That's probably where she ran off to, come to think of it."

"What, would it work differently if a Revenant used a Jail on another Revenant? How did Revenants normally kill each other?"

    "A few different ways," Holly says, entering the bathhouse from another side. "But most of them involve destroying the heart. It's the one thing we can't regenerate," she happily gives away, like no one in the room might ever try to kill her. "Through slow wear and tear, through exhaustion, through ambushes. Singularly powerful attacks. Those are all easier for a Revenant to do than a Revenant Hunter."

"Ah? But, if the director still goes there... did it only become so infested of late?"

    "It's been infested for a long time now. Miraculously, when I was still a child, a few Revenants kept it running, as a refuge, as a place people could go to find just a bit of whimsy in an otherwise ravaged world. But then there was a tidal wave of Horrors, and... well, some fifty plus years later, it's like this now. I know my way around, so I can usually avoid the Horrors."

"Er- but, not interested in bath houses! And rest assured, you are still very-lucky to have now met one so up-and-coming as I am! You are welcome."

    "Consider me honored and grateful," Holly smiles, before Nicole nods vigorously. "Yeah! We... definitely need all the help we can get."
Holly Asturias     Holly isn't empty-handed! She makes for Lilian, a straight line that makes her intentions clear! She sits down on the edge of the bath, to be more at-level with her than when standing. In her hands, a large, round planter, made of white marble, inlaid with golden streaks (assuredly her own blood). It somehow manages to play second fiddle in beauty to the flower it contains. A single, larger than usual spider lily. But not the red, ominous kind; a bright azure variant, slightly larger, a bit sturdier, still with a green stem.

    And oddly, slightly cool to the touch.

    "My apologies for my delay. Lilian! Congratulations again on your wedding. It isn't much, but on such short notice, it was all I could think of. This is actually a rare mutation I discovered as a child with my mother. We planted more, and they grow in the cold mountains nearby. Sadly... I've not managed to make them grow down here, at least not in a manner that they survive for long. It seems they only thrive in the cold. There's a Forma in the planter, it should keep it alive for a few weeks at least. It's my favorite flower, aesthetically and... as a reminder of my mother."

    A smile, to reassure the subject matter doesn't sap her mood in the slightest. If anything, she's glad to share her love of this flower with anyone at all. If she knew Lilian's interest in all things botanical, surely, it would be twice as much.

    "Now then! I believe it's quite time to put business aside and enjoy the installations with you. Oh, no, there was... hmmmmmm. No, no, nevermind on that. Some other time! Now, it's bath time."

    Holly, perhaps predictably, isn't shy about just taking her clothes off and hopping into the bath. The only thing she leaves on is her black and gold... neck brace? Collar? Either way, she sits down in the hot water, close to the middle of the bath.

    On the matter of scars...

    On her right arm are red markings not unlike flowers and vines. They're not tattoos or birthmarks, and not quite scars, but they're... not right, either. Despite being aesthetically pleasing, they give off a curse vibe. Or maybe a disease. It mustn't be contagious, if she so freely hops in.

"I, would have expected something containing tomato juice to be more savory in flavor! It is more faint than expected, too..."

    Holly and Nicole exchange glances. "Oh. Is the blood not to your liking?" "Doctor I... don't think she knew what she was drinking..." "But it's red!" "So's tomato juice!" "Oh. Yes. Quite right. Well, still. If you have feedback, I'm sure Nicole will make note of it for next time. This was her first time after all." "I don't think that's the issue..."
Petra Soroka "Once there's more support and employees around, maaaybe... A little gift shop could be added?"

    Between Kukuru and Matilda, and also a full glass of wine on a mostly-empty stomach and a lot of hot steam, Petra narrows her eyes and starts seriously considering putting an amusement park on Hydrochoeria. She hums in concentration, lost in thought for a while, before eventually saying, contextless, "Oh... but if I put a Ferris wheel up there, then the wind would knock it off and it'd go tumbling down into the ocean."

"Oh, what the Hell."

    In her increasingly drowsy and relaxed state, Petra still whips her head around at light speed to not be facing in Nicole's direction when she strips right there in the open. Doing that immediately makes Petra so dizzy, so she complains to no one in particular before solving the problem herself.

    "Ouh... I need snacks..." Blobs of mercury zip over to the table and turn into plates, scooping up fruits and cookies and bringing them over to Petra. A side effect of the water's healing properties is that moments after she starts putting food in her mouth, she feels right back at one hundred percent again.

"Are you *all* fighters?"

    Petra lifts her arm out of the water to examine it, turning it to angle the lateral scars on her forearms away from Nicole's view. She's toned, sure, with more muscle in her obscured lower half than the visible upper, but surprisingly few of her scars are actually from battle. Most, still, are from Lilian, during that one month years ago, or alternatively from herself during that same time period. Kukuru or Tamamo have prevented most of the others.

    "It usually happens to Elites one way or another. Kukuru--" Petra nods at Lilian also bringing Kukuru up. "Kukuru's the reason why there aren't way more. But, sort of, the job description at all is 'willingness to engage with danger', so."

"But I've come to rather like being 'unapologetically feminine'~"

    Petra giggles back, with an extra hint of secret humor to the joke for having suspicions about its origin. "'Unapologetically' really is *such* a specific word. Like, it's true, but *still*."

"If they got stuck and broken, would one have to climb down the decorative slats of their siding..?"

    "Yes! Yes, exactly!" Matilda has been pincered into place so thoroughly that Petra is gravitating to her preferred distance away from Lilian, with is zero, with Matilda in between them. In order to adjust her grip on her glass, she just places it directly on Matilda's shoulder. "They look like they're *built* for climbing! That abandoned one over there is perfect for trying that, right?"

"I most certainly am, please excuse yourself of that comment!"

    Petra points accusingly at Riku from across the pool. "Yeah! Matilda was *instrumental* to almost-defeating my giant robot that I attacked her with! Seems kinda evil of you to start insulting your supposedly fellow heroes, huh?"

"I, would have expected something containing tomato juice to be more savory in flavor!"

    With both Matilda and Lilian commenting on the weird taste, Petra takes another sip from her blood cocktail before saying anything. "Oh, that's because it's blood?"
Petra Soroka "Do you find that to be a happy feeling..?"

    Petra falls quiet, giving the question its due consideration. Chomping away at a bunch of grapes in a floating Silver bowl, Petra closes her eyes and sinks up to her shoulders in the water, conjuring up the Dragon's Garden and Hydrochoeria in her mind.

    "... Yeah. I'm not so self-important that I think every apocalypse is one I can stop, and I don't love the world broadly enough to mourn every person I've never met. Having a place, set aside from the ruins of the world, where the *threat* isn't even present, it feels like... an epilogue, I guess. It's not perfect, but it's satisfying. That's really two of the only circumstances I ever relax in; the country house and the island."

"Maybe not. It sounds like it was a weird time for her."

    "It might be a little bit my fault," Petra calls over to Roland. She waggles her fingers apologetically. "I had reasons to believe that big threats would start invading the Library. So I told her, anyone you don't know who shows up, defend yourself without hesitating. Sorry 'bout the arms."

"But could you imagine? Just being able to go anywhere, to do anything, for as long as you want, with no tethers, no limits, no drawbacks"

    Petra nods a few times excitedly. There were a few days where talking about Ash was a sore subject, and the fact that it was resolved so quickly and painlessly, from something as unprecedented as having a stable foundation for a positive relationship, makes it feel like a *drug* whenever Ash is brought up now. It's sooo easy to feel positive!

    "Yeah! We talked about it a few times! I met them in, uh, whatever Urban Center's on the east coast of the U.S.A.? There's so many little villages and stuff, they talked about them." Petra closes her eyes, and bites a grape in half, taking a semantic shortcut that she usually only would with Nika. "It's quests."

"You're not secretly scrawny are you~?"

    Petra giggles, and then bursts out into a short fit of laughter. The image of Matilda starting to swim and then having the most pale butt cresting up over the surface of the pool like the white fucking whale is *uncontrollably* funny, and Petra has to duck to the side to recover. Getting her breath back, Petra lifts up her head again to watch the snack table, coordinating her Silver at a distance to nab the bottle of brandy and pour Lilian another glass. She *does* still have to see through her eyes, after all.

"Loser has to give me a back rub and feed me little grapes or something like that."

    "No, no, Lilian! That's not fair! I wouldn't mind doing that at all, so it's not a proper punishment!"

    Matilda is saved! Unless, "So it wouldn't be properly competitive if I raced too. Matilda can just race to do a lap under a timer, and if she fails, then she has to give you a backrub."
Riku Asakura Riku is at his side of the baths, rather, that's influence from Petra or his own shyness is anyone's guess.  Probably both!

'I most certainly am, please excuse yourself of that comment!'
'Seems kinda evil of you to start insulting your supposedly fellow heroes, huh?'

"Sorry, sorry..." he still doesn't think of Matilda as a fighter.  She might disagree all she wants, but she's still a great support and diviner.  Still, maybe it was rude to say to someone on her behalf.  He looks a little embarrassed by it and hopes Matilda forgives him!

'The last time a patient tried to jump me, the Doctor shot him in both legs and then rammed her bayonet in his--'

"Oh my!" Riku says, surprised by just how violent Holly could be, which seems to be against how she normally acts.  He guesses that everyone can be a little violent, and in this case, it sounds like the guy deserved it for attacking Nicole.  Or, rather, attempting to!  "I guess it's nice to have a safe place to live."

'Something inbetween saintly and cruel, yeah.'

"I think it's good that you can buy them even for a few years.  I don't think Dr. Holly will settle for anything less than curing it, so I am going to do what I can for her!"  He says brightly, believing in Holly's goal here.  This world needs something, and it's smiles might be what it needs back!

'Yeah. The Doctor is the only one allowed to dispense... that, though.'

That sounds...hard to bear.  Riku understands it, though, rather to be put down mercifully than to hurt the people around you.  That kind of death is scary to him, losing control... not being you anymore.  Those are things that should terrify anyone.  He looks down, sad, but doesn't say anything.  

'Doctor I... don't think she knew what she was drinking...'

"Um.  What's in the drinks?" he asks, not sure what's the matter.

'Oh, that's because it's blood?'

Riku looks a little pale, shaking his head and sinking into the bath.  "Please tell me the cider was bloodless..."
UFO Gang "Hmmm... A little gift *does* really raise someone's spirits," Minamitsu muses to Kukuru. "And it's a memento of your trip, too, if you don't give 'em away. Oh! Is that why people buy so many things there, so they can share AND keep them?" The business potentialities are rising.

"You could have escape ladders in each car," Minamitsu tells Matilda. "Then even if it gets stuck, you've got hope. And if you can't climb down, someone else can climb up and help you!" This seems to please her, although at this point Minamitsu puts cheese in her mouth. There is a 'woah!' look on her face as the titles come out.

Minamitsu watches the beginning of the swim race. Minamitsu is not participating. Maybe she has an official exemption. Her eyes turn back towards Nicole as she speaks, and grimaces at what Nicole is saying, because she totally got the Implication.

And-- then Holly! Ichirin looks over towards her. "Ah... the heart... that makes so much sense. And I expect it's not just physical injury, too..."

("Why do you say that?" "It's the heart, Minamitsu... don't you know it can break?" "Well yeah, but it doesn't *break* break." "Don't be an empiricist in the bath!" "fine")

Ichirin looks at Holly's arm in thought for a few long moments. She may have completely missed the prospect of what exactly was in the drinks, although she didn't get one herself... so perhaps it's academic to her! "Were those from an attack or something else?" she asks Holly, tone thoughtful.

"Oh, cider's not bloody, it's usually apples or pears," Minamitsu reassures Riku. "Nothing but crisp red app- hm." Now she's frowning too.
Holly Asturias "Ouh... I need snacks..."

    The floating bits of Silver certainly attract Holly's attention again.

    "You mentioned your blood was "irresistible" to women. Is this why?" She sniffs the air, just a bit, as if she were trying to tell by scent alone how closely related the fluid is to her own.

"Kukuru's the reason why there aren't way more."

    "How incredible. I cannot wait to work alongside her!"

"Please tell me the cider was bloodless..."

    "Well, of course. Apples ferment into cider! Not blood!" Holly takes a moment to consider this fact. "Wait... no, no. Under the right conditions, with the right bacteria, the sugar in blood *should* be able to turn into alcohol. And so, if we had blood with a high sugar content, and perhaps, a high BAC to start with, in a heavily regulated environment..."

    Holly looks at Nicole, ponderous.
    Nicole laughs.
    "Are you asking me to eat a ton of chocolate and then get wasted so we can try it out?" As if it weren't the first time.

    "... well, we should research if anyone else has attempted this before, but it's an idea, isn't it?"

    "I think we could skip the fermentation part and just have you drink it while I'm whoozy?" Oh this is normal.

    Holly, hungry, brings a hand up to her mouth and taps her lips for a few seconds, before shaking her head. "Not in front of our guests."
Angela ''A sympathetic pat on the shoulder.''

Roland blinks slowly at Skipper and watches as they turn back around and return to their prior position. He thinks back to the animal adventurers in the young adult books he used to read way back when and thinks, more or less, that he is kind of pathetic for worrying this little critter.

''It all comes down to gift shops, huh.''

"One way or another, it's important to hold onto little momentos of your adventures, you know? Especially if that adventure is a tour, actually." Netzach says.

''The last time a patient tried to jump me...''

Roland, who had just been convinced to relax, is now convinced to stop relaxing. He smiles with a little twitch in his right eye. "Well, well... I didn't know she had a bayonet. Seems like she's pretty quick on her feet, and even faster to act."

He does glance over to Holly and notices the markings but they look like cool combat augment tats to him not actually like scars--sure they look a little off, but sometimes augmentations look a little off. Eventually he pushes himself to ask, "Are those some form of augmentation?" He nods to the 'not quite tattoos'.

''I had reasons to believe that big threats would start invading the Library. So I told her, anyone you don't know who shows up, defend yourself without hesitating.''

"Oh shit." Roland sinks back. "That really could've been it." He gets this distant look in his eyes before he shakes his head. "Uh don't worry about it. Like I said, I was being careless. Might've happened anyway."
Holly Asturias "Are those some form of augmentation?"
"Were those from an attack or something else?"

    Holly glances down at her arm, and then frowns just a bit. She doesn't do that much. "Neither. A genetic defect of my bloodline. As I keep using my healing Formae, it will worsen. You could say... the gift of healing is a costly one. It's nothing you should concern yourselves with, though, least of all right now. I'm managing it quite well, and it poses no threat to any of you." Maybe it's trauma, after all?

"Well, well... I didn't know she had a bayonet."

    "Oh, yes!!!" Holly no. "Would you like to see? I'm very proud of it!" Holly please. "I built it from the ground up! I needed something that suited me and my Formae." Holly!! "... perhaps I can show you when we aren't bathing." Then again it may not be *just* trauma after all.
Riku Asakura 'Well, of course. Apples ferment into cider! Not blood!'

"Phew..." Riku says, looking a lot less pale now.  Though the talk about what happens to human blood that comes after making Holly think about this causes him to look pale again.  It's vampire stuff, he considers, but it's still going to make him uncomfortable thinking about consuming blood.  Human blood that is.  

'Neither. A genetic defect of my bloodline.'

Riku makes an 'oh' face.  He can't believe that there is a curse here on top of everything else.  Every time she uses her power, the curse grows.  He can't imagine that... using his powers would corrupt him or something.  He'd probably still fight, but that would be an awful fate.  "Oh, I'm sorry to hear..." he says.  

Only for Holly to get into her bayonet.  Riku blinks and shrugs helplessly.  It seems that Holly might be in the pervert category after all.  
Kukuru "Imagine you're on the ferris wheel"

Kukuru's usual instinct to offer aid is too slow this time compared to her actually catching onto what Lilian's hinting at for once. Even if she doesn't know who Sonetto is, she's hearing just enough that the plotting is obvious, and that's enough to get her giggling again. "Sneakyyyy... Hehe. Good luck."

Seeing Petra refilling with the power of the silver reminds her that she's finished both of her drinks, too, and Kukuru  wobbles back onto her feet unsteadily from inside the bath. Seeing that everything's waaaay over there, though, means that instead of just walking over, she settles back down and instead opens up a little murky-looking cloud right in front of herself and a second next to the drinks. She reaches in to pick up a bottle of sake and, carefully pours two cups, then brings them both back in and sets one aside while sipping from the other with a satisfied noise.

"the Doctor shot him in both legs"
"How thorough... Hehe. That'll make sure nobody gets any funny ideas around here." Kukuru lets out an approving noise, looking from Nicole to Roland and back again a few times as her curiosity grows again. "If they won't listen to a polite request, theeen..." She says and trails off, holding her hand out and making a little pinching motion in the air as though that explains anything.

With Matilda's and Riku's apparent confusion on the drinks, meanwhile, Kukuru once again chimes in with her free hand raised. "Oh, I can take those if you want something else! It's important not to waste things." She offers to Riku and Matilda, somehow also sounding like she's trying to impart wisdom upon both of them while also trying not to sound half as tipsy as she already is.

Seeing Holly coming back, meanwhile, has Kukuru waving a little groggily with her sake glass. Somehow, she manages not to spill any of it, and she takes a long sip from it before eyeing that gift in her hands. It quickly becomes clear what Holly was working on, that gets another long 'awwww!' out of her. "Oh, how sweet... Mm. Mm."

"Kukuru's the reason why there aren't way more."

Petra, too, joins in on the Kukuru glazing tonight, and getting that from both her and Lilian is enough to have Kukuru actually covering her face a little. She's starting to get flustered with all this good attention, although the big grin on her face is a clear sign she definitely isn't against any of it. Still, even she has a limit to how much she can take before becoming even more of a giggly mess.
UFO Gang "Whew," Minamitsu exhales, slouching back when it's revealed that the cider isn't blood! Except maybe it is. Minamitsu's face is a pretty clear and distinct C_C until such time as Holly moves along to speak lightly, perhaps lovingly, with Nicole. At this point, the Minamitsu relaxes. She is used to people flirting.

"Where we're from, there's a tradition to go from temple to temple with a little booklet," Ichirin says to Netzach. "So you'll get a stamp at each one. But I think it'd be more fun if they were little things you could hold onto. It might get cluttered, though..."

She trails off in thought, and also in the face of Bayonet Enthusiasm.

Minamitsu leans over a little to ask Riku, very quietly, "Is a bayonet like Shine Blader or something? I'm kinda getting that feeling..."
Kukuru "Is that why people buy so many things there, so they can share AND keep them?""

"Thaaat's right. Some of them are pretty cheap looking, but it's nice to have something to remind you of good times you spent somewhere." Kukuru replies to Minamitsu with a shaky little nod, closing her eyes and tilting her head back to just enjoy the air in the hot spring. "And sometimes, the really cute ones can even get people to visit a place because someone brought them a gift! It's like aaaa... Um. A viscuous cycle?"

Kukuru purses her lips lightly. "No, that's not it... Hmm. What was the word...? Eh."

"Would you like to see? I'm very proud of it!"

"Mmm? Oh, that'd be wonderful. You can show us yours, we can show your ours..." Kukuru suggests to Holly with an intoxicated giggle, pauses for a second, then snickers once she realizes something about what she just said. She doesn't comment further about that, though, instead just resting her head back on the side of the bath so she isn't wobbling so much. "Whenever we're done, or when we find something to harvest for parts... Mhm, I'll be looking forward to that."
Foundation Scions 'Imagine you're on the ferris wheel, right at the very top, and it gets stuck,'

    With great emphasis, head nodding up and down, "I am very-much imagining!" A little sigh, and, "I think I am a fan of ferris wheel accidents!"

'That abandoned one over there is perfect for trying that, right?'

    Confused, like a dog at a party, at her shoulder being used as a stabilizing point, Matilda glances over, a distant little look on her face for a moment, but, ferris wheels- "It certainly does so! If, the Horror monsters there are perhaps over-stated in their danger, perhaps it would be fun to! How scary could they be!" Matilda you saw the weapons the people here use, probably pretty scary.

'Having a place, set aside from the ruins of the world, where the *threat* isn't even present, it feels like... an epilogue, I guess.'

    Matilda sighs a little bit at that. Taking a few moments to think herself; though it's something she's thought about a lot of times, "I think, while, most-obviously, it is better than the alternatives- to, be so fully surrounded only by 'epilogue', I find it is very sad! It is like skipping ahead through a book, or, just starting at the end! Staying even safely around the Foundation, with the people I know, is very lonely, and strange feeling. Perhaps it is a matter of familiarity to it? Having spent ten years there, is no short period of time!"

'Oh, that's because it's blood?'
'Oh. Is the blood not to your liking?'

    Squeaky, immediately near-tears, "What? Why !" Then, in part given the alcohol, and in larger part the embarrassment, decides to double-down instead of shrivel up, even if each word makes her a little queasier sounding, 'Er- ah, no, I, surely, knew what was within-it! Y-you are right, I do have flavor criticisms! Salt would do it much good! Even a small amount! Like what is added to fancy coffees!" Matilda wishes she had coffee instead of blooze (blood booze).

    Luckily, once there's another drink around for her to drink, and it isn't bloody, Matilda's queasiness drops away, though her face stays red from a mix of many thinks, frankly.

'You're not secretly scrawny are you~?'

    "Hein? I certainly am not scrawny!" Matilda pouts severely when Petra starts laughing, so close to her- "Stop it! I insist you stop laughing, at once! I, I have proper meat upon my bones! I, am perfectly-suited to adventurous athletics!" Matilda isn't really skinny, and she's certainly not got no strength to her, or else how could she drag her silly orbuculum around, but, as she bats at Petra to get her to stop imagining funny things, the idea of spotting a defined muscle on her is absurd. Office job haver!

'You'd have to at least make it challenging, right?'

    Half-squeaky, half-prideful, "Hah..? Well, of course! I, I'll have you know, I have excellent balance! Surely, in the water it will be no issue!" Matilda crosses her arms, under-water, because the tone demands that pose from her.

    Then, to demonstrate her certainty at being able to accomplish that feat, immediately undoes the pose, grabs the new drink from the side, and stupidly downs it all in just one go, so she has an empty glass of her own, to then try and place on-top of her head. Bobbing a little more out of the water to show off her feat of balancing almost makes it fall, her arms ready to catch it- she's focused enough on this to nearly miss that Lilian adds stakes, and Petra backs out-

    "Hein..? Little grapes- a timer?" No, too late, she's already committed! "I, will complete it in under, one single individual minute!"
Lilian Rook     'Thing is... you can't miss. Because a grievous injury like that, it'll accelerate the turning. So will stress. So you understand

    "Yeah." Lilian sighs before Nicole actually gets to 'the risk'. "It is what it is."

    'Oh yeah? Congrats. The Doctor said something about that.'

    "Mhm mhm~" Brainhacked again. It's so easy. "Otherwise-- Well, it's actually really rare that I get injured enough that it'd scar, these days. On account of how badass I am." Lilian inexplicably yawns. "But otherwise I'd still have those bullet holes--" She pulls herself up out of the water just enough to "--here, here, and here." poke against her abs, which she stares down at herself for a little longer, caught off-guard by how well she remembers exactly where it was, and almost surprised to see no sign of it.

    "It's so not fair actually." She splashes back down, careless of Matilda and Petra. "Guys can get all the scars they want and it makes them look cool and grizzled, if a woman gets more than a couple, then they're automatically some kind of musclebound barbarian and for people with niche taste." she whines.

    ''Unapologetically' really is *such* a specific word. Like, it's true, but *still*.'

    "It's still on my mind! Oh my god she's such a funny girl! And so sweet!"

    'That's really two of the only circumstances I ever relax in; the country house and the island.'

    "Then let's get you out to the secret club house more!" Lilian declares, probably to everyone's eventual regret. "I'll come up with a permanent solution for getting in and out, and then we can all hang out as much as we want!"

    'It's quests.'

    "I'll have to thank Strawberry Princess for getting me into video games." Lilian says, still pronouncing it as two words. "Or I'd have no idea what any of you are talking about, I swear." A beat goes by. "Funny to think that they'd appeal to all of us, though. Hm."

    'So it wouldn't be properly competitive if I raced too. Matilda can just race to do a lap under a timer, and if she fails, then she has to give you a backrub.'

    "You're so magnanimous Petra." Lilian giggles over the rim of her newly filled glass. She briefly wonders if this is seventy-side or one-twenty-side brandy, then loses interest. "It'd be chaotic if multiple people tried racing anyways. You're sooooo right."

    'My apologies for my delay. Lilian! Congratulations again on your wedding.'

    Holly had said she had a gift in mind earlier, but Lilian had put it completely out of mind. After all, she barely knows her, and the wedding had happened shortly after she unified, so there's no way it can be anything important. When she hears her voice again, Lilian's automatic (brainhacked) response is "Keep it coming, keep it coming~" just before she sees what Holly brought with her, and cuts off at "You're one of the fortunate few who--"

    Her eyes settle properly on the planter. Her gaze traces down the first gold line she sees, down into the bottom, then back up the green stem, to the blue flower, and she covers her mouth with her hand. "Oh my gosh they're both so pretty."
Lilian Rook     This is the first thing that can successfully detach her from hassling Matilda with Petra. Lilian sets her glass down on a Silver platter so that she can gently push off the side and glide closer to Holly. Turning her back to the rest of the bath, incidentally exposing the glittering gold between her own shoulders to god and everyone, she reaches out to take the planter in her own hands, feeling the surface as if it isn't real until she has the tactile information as well.

    "Oh we were just about to start a new garden too. This is beautiful-- goodness it'll fit the cottage area just right! Oh! Oh, if you have any notes on care, I'll take them! If I can replant the flower as well, we can have more of them!"

    'Oh, no, there was... hmmmmmm. No, no, nevermind on that. Some other time! Now, it's bath time.'

    "Thank god!" Lilian throws her arms up again. Less than 'excited', she sounds 'exasperatedly satisfied'. About Holly? What? "The people here are normal after all!" She develops untouchable waves of smugness two seconds later, and adds "Very nice!" with the aura of menace she had at Roland, except more tipsy.

    Her eyes visibly linger on the red markings (third), but before she thinks of a question to ask--

    'Nothing that would overwhelm the other flavors, but the blog said these have high compatibility with blood and so they mix well.'
    'Oh, that's because it's blood?'
    'Oh. Is the blood not to your liking?'

    "Oh god dammit. Again?" Lilian huffs. "That's like the third time." Fourth. "I was wondering why it was kind of salty-sweet."
Lilian Rook     'I think I am a fan of ferris wheel accidents!'

    Lilian preens. "Knew I could convince you."

    'You mentioned your blood was "irresistible" to women. Is this why?'

    "No no, that's different." Lilian helpfully corrects, incomprehensibly. "It's because it smells really good and looks great on her." She makes a self-satisfied humming noise and drapes herself on the pool-side, reaching over for snacks off Petra's nefarious little platter.

    'And so, if we had blood with a high sugar content, and perhaps, a high BAC to start with, in a heavily regulated environment...'

    ". . . Okay. That's actually interesting." she says, begrudging. Eyes closed, she puffs her cheeks out thinking about it. "I'd volunteer to eat a lot of chocolate and get wasted, but like, then you'd need my blood, so." Lilian waves her hands uninformatively. "You know. Take one for the team, Nicole."

    'Not in front of our guests.'

    Lilian cracks an eye open and glances sidelong at Petra's neck and shoulders.

    'I'm managing it quite well, and it poses no threat to any of you.'

    Lilian burbles "Me too.", and picks up another drink.

    'Oh, yes!!! Would you like to see? I'm very proud of it!'

    "Oh you're a pervert!" Lilian exclaims mere instants after putting her glass back down. Flush-faced, she stares at Holly extra hard, and shimmies to get a better look. "Well guns aren't really my think but if that's your freak-on then I gotta see! Not checking out someone's freak is just rude! And soulless too!"

    'You can show us yours, we can show your ours...'

    "Yeah!" Lilian presses her fingers to her lips and stifles a hiccup.
Lilian Rook     'It is like skipping ahead through a book, or, just starting at the end! Staying even safely around the Foundation, with the people I know, is very lonely, and strange feeling.'

    "No no! See, that's exactly why!" Lilian jumps on the topic as if this were suddenly the most critical thing she can tell Matilda at all. "It's 'sad' because you haven't even gotten to start yet!" She grab's Matilda's shoulders-- both of them-- and drags her over just so she can shake her a little. "The Foundation keeping you on the bench like that is stifling your potential! You're so ready to leave the nest and spread your wings, and they're soooo annoying about dragging their feet and hemming and hawwing about whether you're ready and it's just-- It's a waste! They're fussing so much about the ending that they forgot they have to let you do all the parts in the middle first!"

    Then she fondly slaps her bare back, just hard enough to sting a little. "But I believe in you, Matilda. If girls like you don't feel that wanderlust in their bones, then those old fuckin' toads in the Caucus are just gonna play-to-lose themselves to death. You're indispensible." Nodding at her own sage wisdom, Lilian declares one more time for (drunk) inspirational purposes, "Girls."

    'Hah..? Well, of course! I, I'll have you know, I have excellent balance!'

    Lilian begins giggling at Matilda's contrarian fussing at Petra (specifically at 'meat upon my bones'), and then has to cover her mouth to keep from cackling at the rest. Her drinky poker face is awful. "Yeah yeah! That's the spirit~! My Master had me doing stuff like this all the time! And it wasn't in a cozy warm tub either! It was freezing!" Wait so what-- "You got this!" She so doesn't got this.
Holly Asturias "Oh, if you have any notes on care, I'll take them!"

    "I'm glad you like them! Ah, tips... the temperatures in the mountains oscillate between minus ten and minus twenty Celcius, on average. This mutation strand is quite tenacious and doesn't require watering, but its roots *are* optimized to draw water from underground flows and ice. The roots seem to secrete a saline solution for this purpose. I *believe* that the presence of a layer of snow on the ground is essential to it, which is why it's so difficult to make them last down here. At first, planting its seeds didn't guarantee the next generation would be blue, but after almost seventy years of planting them, it's gotten quite consistent."

"It's because it smells really good and looks great on her."

    "Oh?" Holly does not completely follow. It's okay.

"I'd volunteer to eat a lot of chocolate and get wasted, but like, then you'd need my blood, so."

    "Are you skittish about having your blood drawn? By needles, or teeth?"

"Me too."

    "?" Nicole makes a vague motion towards Lilian's back, for Holly's eyes to follow. She blinks, surprised."... are you a Revenant, Lilian?" Understandable confusion, showing off a bright gold tattoo, talking about blood, agreeing about some vague bloodline curse.

"Oh you're a pervert!"

    With pressure from both Kukuru and Lilian, Holly smiles, no longer worried it'll interrupt bath time in the same manner pulling her Jail out had. She lifts her hands, and golden-and-red blood gushes out of her arms, swirling and spiralling into the shape of a long rifle held firmly. Snowdrop is an intricate piece of work; golden, engraved with floral patterns and writing - is that the Revenant alphabet, then?. The handle is curved, more towards the back than a traditional firearm, and a reservoir of golden light is by it - still, it has a magazine. So it takes ammo? And of course, at its tip, there's a long, sharp blade matching the aesthetic. It's no sword, but you could easily use this like a short spear.

    "This is Snowdrop. I've named it after another flower I enjoy! Which, by coincidence, also thrives in the cold." Well, maybe she has a type. "It's been refined over years and years of careful Forma engineering to be the perfect funnel for my ice-based Formae. Everything from its balance to its weight and length are adapted to my grip."

    She doesn't mind at all if someone wants to grab it and hold it. It's actually quite heavy, considering it's made of gold. Blood-gold, but gold nonetheless. You can barely tell thanks to its perfect balance. A bit awkward to hold if you were expecting a standard rifle frame, though.
Petra Soroka "I, uh... feel a bit guilty for having a taste, myself."

    "It's fine." Petra believes this so strongly that she's reassuring Nicole while pouring herself another glass of blood cocktail. "I wouldn't worry about it."

"Oh god dammit. Again?"

    "I thought it'd be so *lame* if there wasn't *vampire drinks*! It'd be so boring! Come on, we're in a vampire hospital relaxing in gothic hot springs surrounded by the ruins of human civilization. It's weirder *not* to have some blood in your drink!"

"You mentioned your blood was "irresistible" to women. Is this why?"
"It's because it smells really good and looks great on her."

    Petra leans against the side of the bath, smugly propping up her cheek on her palm. With an unnecessary point of her finger, the Silver nearby Holly splits into droplets and then each droplet contorts into sunbursts of spikes, like dancing ferrofluid in the air. "I'm a woman of many talents. I'm the best of both worlds."

    "I've got human blood too; wanna see?" The disastrous combination of Petra being relaxed, tipsy, and temporarily relieved of pain, creates a Petra that's *recklessly* confident. A bit of Silver darts over through the air towards her, catching between two fingers and flattening into a razor. A moment later, she's drawing it across the palm of her hand, red blood welling out of the cut.

"I think we could skip the fermentation part and just have you drink it while I'm whoozy?"

    Petra stares for a while at Nicole, mouth hanging open while blood continues to fill up the crevices in her palm. Her assessment of Holly is rapidly changing ever since she showed up at the hot spring, for the better for sure, and Nicole's name is guaranteed to stick in her head for a while too. "Woah."

    Then she turns to Lilian, holding out her hand. "I don't wanna make a mess of this in the pool. Do you want it?" To add to her drink, probably??

"Would you like to see? I'm very proud of it!"

    "Yes." Petra gives her a droopy thumbs-up while slouched over the side of the bath, blood leaking out of the bottom of her fist. "If you're confident. So confident you can show it off while in the bath. Then I wanna see it. It's safe here."

"I think I am a fan of ferris wheel accidents!"

    Petra kicks her feet, causing a churn in the water's surface. "I knew it! I knew you'd get it! It's like getting stuck in an elevator! Or on a deserted island!" They might be worryingly similar, actually. Someone rescue Sonetto.

"Er- ah, no, I, surely, knew what was within-it!"

    Petra looks across Matilda to meet Lilian's eyes with an expression of horrified awe. It took *that* little effort to get Matilda to defend drinking human blood mixed with her alcohol-- together, they can shape her like *putty*!!! It's *intoxicating*!

    "Next time, I'll make sure there's salt for you, okay?"
Petra Soroka "I insist you stop laughing, at once! I, I have proper meat upon my bones!"

    Inebriated as she is, Petra's giggles keep lurching out of her long after she thinks they're over. Wiggling back over to press herself against Matilda, her sentences keep getting broken up by them, without noticing that she's still laughing at all.

    "Sorry, sorry, ehehe. No, no, you do, right? You're actually kinda..." Petra reaches out and squeezes Matilda's arm near the elbow, leaving a bloody handprint. She keeps squeezing, moving her hand up to Matilda's shoulder, humming approvingly and snickering.

    "You do... have kind of, some meat? Better forearms than biceps, which, eh, makes sense. And you're surprisingly soft? Kind of bottom heavy too, which, I think that's good. Is that pear shape, or is there a different...?" Petra trails off, before surprising herself with another giggle that nearly covers up her mumbling, "Pawg...."

"But otherwise I'd still have those bullet holes--"

    While Lilian points out where she's been shot, Petra's eyes are locked straight on her tita. She thinks she's being subtly, by turning slightly away and sipping at her drink, but, like, she's not wearing sunglasses or anything.

"Then let's get you out to the secret club house more!"

    "Yes!" Petra has nothing more intelligent to say right now than clenching her fists and shaking them up and down while chanting. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

"Funny to think that they'd appeal to all of us, though."

    "All of you," Petra echoes in the affirmative, nodding. "It's-- I've got thoughts. It's about, button presses. It's about meters. And, it's, like, designed."

"I, will complete it in under, one single individual minute!"

    "Okay! Okay, okay, okay!"

    Petra presses her hand to the top of her snack plate, pulling out her phone from the reflection in it. She holds it up, displaying the stopwatch on it. "Okay, ready, Matilda? Ready? Set? Gooooooo!"
Holly Asturias "I do have flavor criticisms! Salt would do it much good! Even a small amount! Like what is added to fancy coffees!"

    Nicole nods, grinning. "Noted! That's so smart, actually. Ah, would you be willing to taste test the next iteration, then?"

"I've got human blood too; wanna see?"

    "Ah, that won't be--" Petra cuts her hand and blood slowly drips out. Holly's nose wiggles, she sniffles just a bit. Her gaze locks onto the wound, mouth slightly agape and revealing her long fangs, just slightly pressed against her lower lip.

    Nicole squints, tapping Holly on the shoulder.

    "Doctor, when was the last time you fed?"
    Holly, without turning, mumbles something along the lines of: "A few days?"

    Nicole frowns. "Doctor! You know that's not safe!"
    "It's fine. I'm fine."

    She hasn't taken her eyes off Petra's wound.

"I don't wanna make a mess of this in the pool. Do you want it?"

    "I--"
    "Doctor," Nicole says.
    "Need a minute."

    She's quite forgotten she's holding her rifle.
    Or was asked to demonstrate it, even?
UFO Gang 'Oh you're a PERVERT!'

Ichirin has to cover her mouth for a moment at the explanation. She hasn't had anything to drink, but the mood is a little contagious! (Perhaps a bad word for a sanatarium but we'll go with it.)

Which means she's facing the right way to see 'That' as Holly takes it out. The revelation of Snowdrop makes the priestess startle, but when it becomes clear that this isn't some sort of arterial rupture or unleashing of an inner horror -- or at least not the monster kind -- she sits upright and gets interested. Her eyes narrow for a moment, squinting at the gun.

Presently, Ichirin says, "It's beautiful... I haven't seen any guns like this. It's got an unusual beauty to it. And you can store it like that, in your -- in your body, in your blood? Do you have gold in your blood?" Her eyes widen slightly. "That would make it doubly precious!"

Though she falls silent when Holly is distracted. Ichirin turns her head to look.
Holly Asturias "It's beautiful... I haven't seen any guns like this."

    "Oh. Yes. It's gorgeous," Holly says, still staring at Petra's hand, and not her rifle, or Ichirin.

"Do you have gold in your blood?"

    Nicole fields the question in Holly's complete absence from reality. "Revenant blood is mostly red while it's in their veins, but it turns golden almost instantly when exposed to oxygen. It can also harden. Ah! Even more interesting, objects can be stored in a Revenant's blood, and pulled back out on-demand. I'm a bit jealous, just for that. It's so convenient."
Lilian Rook     'I'm glad you like them! Ah, tips...'

    Lilian actually pays rapt attention to this one. Gardening may be a 'new' interest of hers (in that it always was one, and she felt like she was 'allowed' to touch it again a year and a half ago, and people have publicly known about it to some extent for six months), but like every other one of her interests, she is already so deep into it that for every fact Holly relays, Lilian thinks up two ways to address it already.

    "Got it. I think I know something to try." Lilian huffs triumphantly. "And if it doesn't work out, the planter fits the nearby ruins perfectly so anything that goes in it will be gorgeous!"

    'Are you skittish about having your blood drawn? By needles, or teeth?'

    "Huh?" Lilian cranes her neck to blink at Hollyin somewhat bleary confusion. "No? I have to take my own blood samples all the time. It's just real dangerous if I give it away to people. Like, for everyone." Hey what does that mean? Hey Lilian what does--

    '... are you a Revenant, Lilian?'

    "Whyyyyyyy?!" Lilian suddenly whines at the top of her lungs. Kicking her legs makes the water splash surprisingly high. "I'm not a Revenant! Or a Blood Fiend! Or a Demon! Or a Vampire! Why is everyone always asking me that?!" Lilian points at her face emphatically. "My eyes are green! My ears are round! I go out in the sun! My teeth are just like that on their own!"

    'I thought it'd be so *lame* if there wasn't *vampire drinks*!'

    Lilian leans her head back just to yell "Not helping Petra!"

    'I'm the best of both worlds.'

    Lilian rolls her eyes and faux-gags. Then she very unhelpfully turns her head in Petra's direction the moment she cuts herself, even though she wasn't looking before.

    'I don't wanna make a mess of this in the pool. Do you want it?'

    "Freak." Lilian snorts, and holds out her glass anyways, because someone physically offered something at her and she still hasn't learned a thing. "Don't do that around vampires. That's so rude." She grabs Petra's hand with hers, and black-gold magic causes the surface of the cut to coagulate in instants. And yet, she nods along with Petra's drunk babble all the way through 'it's safe here', as if she were somehow being supportive of something.
Kukuru Joining in with Lilian to encourage Holly, Kukuru semi-drunken giggliness turns into a bigger smile when Holly obliges with showing them her weapon of choice. Despite seeing her Jail earlier in the evening and that gatling gun in the workshop, Kukuru still can't help marveling at Snowdrop's refined construction.

"How beautiful... Oh? Ice-based attacks, but from a gun? That's such a neat idea." She whistles softly while leaning over to get a better look at the rifle, waiting politely for her turn to give Snowdrop a closer look. Before she does, however, she takes a closer look at Holly's hands, and only after that does she take a peek at Snowdrop as well.

"I see, I see... I don't reeeally know anything about using a gun, but this does look like a perfect fit." Giggling lightly, Kukuru hefts the rifle delicately like it weighs the same as a standard rifle. She drums her fingers on the handle a few times, then slides her hand languidly all the way up to the blade at the other end.

"Oh, that's extra neat... You could use this like a spear, too, or even a club with the other end." She continues, nodding slowly while tapping her fingers against the sharp edge. "Being able to use that many different things in one, and to build this yourself... Hehe. How talented~" Clearly impressed, Kukuru's about to return the rifle (or pass it to whomever wants to get a look as well), but...

"I've got human blood too; wanna see?"
"Doctor, when was the last time you fed?"

"Hooooollyyyy." Despite still being kind of drunk, Kukuru still has it together enough to give the doctor a concerned frown. "Nicole's right. It's important to have at least three to five meals a day to stay healthy. It's especially important to eat up when there's guests around, too, so nobody gets worried, okaaay?"
Foundation Scions 'I knew it! I knew you'd get it! It's like getting stuck in an elevator! Or on a deserted island!'

    "I, I was just thinking of-such, myself! Did you read my mind? No, that's silly... Ah, to be trapped upon a desert-island... perhaps one with a ferris wheel..? No-where else but the horizon, and each-other to stare at, fondly, or with other emotion..."

'Ah, would you be willing to taste test the next iteration, then?'

    "Hah, leave it to the French to have the best culinary opinions- yes, I can do so! You are preemptively, welcome." MATILDA NO! She's forgotten it's about blood! Human blood!

'No no! See, that's exactly why!'

    Matilda lets out a little gasp-noise when she's pulled ragdoll style by both of her shoulders, but she's kind of long past the point of not just being along for the ride- and then Lilian starts validating exactly what Matilda's always been saying! Louder, and with increasing amounts of emotional investment in the idea, "Yes! They are stifling my potential! To do such, may as well have been the reasoning, years-past when I first requested to join the Investigator training pathways, and, was pushed-to other things; if it was because I was too young, then, I would have later been allowed to, but, but then it was a matter that I had not already been on-track for such! My, potential, it is so much! I am, as always, destined for greatness!" Pouty-armscrossed, "Just you wait!"

    Matilda yelps at the back-slap, but, hey, that's friendly, that's cheering-her-on type pain! So, it's good! Smiling, nodding like a fool- "A toad could try but, would certainly not get me to stop trying, yes!" Does she think Lilian means literal toads? Matilda is drunk, too. "I'm indespensible..."

'Girls.'

    Much the same as talking about a favorite sort of animal, or ice-cream flavor, bright, rising-pitch over the sentence, "I do like girls!"

    When Matilda is back in Petra's threat range, getting poked and prodded like a show-dog, and leaving bloody handprints, Matilda murmurs, in the stead of any protest, aside from giggles when ticklish, "Hah, this is like cave paintings, or, war-paint... Surely, I will succeed at the race now!" Too bad the blood washes off immediately when she's back more underwater.

    'Is that pear shape, or is there a different...?'

    "My mirror says that a pear-shaped body is quite in-fashion through all of the twentieth-century! And, that it suits my fashion-sense well! Perhaps I should ask the mirror for more aid, though, if, Sonetto has-yet to notice that (quite obvious, I think) appeal!" HUH? ASK A MIRROR? What's she talking about!
Foundation Scions 'Okay, ready, Matilda? Ready? Set? Gooooooo!'

    When it comes to crossing a pool of this size, 'one minute' is an embarrassingly generous amount of time, to just swim. It's maybe eight to ten strokes across, and much less than half that for an excellent swimmer, not even counting that it's likely possible to propel just by pushing off hard-enough from the walls. Matilda is a Normal swimmer, and not an excellent one- but that's not the issue here at all! The issue here is that she's drunk and trying to balance a glass on her head!

    Matilda is brave. Matilda is indespensible. She makes a couple good choices with this- her head, obviously, has to stay above water, and the rest of her, she'd prefer stay under it- there is, of course, only one swimming style able to be slow and steady enough for the task: the humble doggy paddle. Also smart, was emptying the glass- you might start to think Matilda had prepared for this, if you were wrong. First fussing at people to make way, Matilda Bouanich...

    Does, actually, almost as well at the task as she does at embarrassing herself. The cup wobbles a few times, especially when she tries to glance upwards above her own head to check on it, but she moves slow and steady enough to have it not fall. But, this is timed- she doesn't also have the capacity to keep track of how long she's taken, and she'd get it wrong if she tried! By the time she's tapped the other side of the pool, she's behind the halfway mark, and pivoting to paddle back over, she's trying to be a bit faster, and the cup wobbles to show for it. And so, when time is called-

    She's just away from tapping the side, and the surprise of it makes her nearly jump, such that the cup falls over with a *ker-plunk* into the water- "Ah! *Merde*!" Fully submerging to try and find it, Matilda forgets entirely that she was trying to keep her hair dry, and emerges with the glass (now full of spring water), pouty. "You, you must have set the timer fast, Petra! That, was too close to be anything but a proper testament to my skill, so!"

    Matilda, drunk, forgetting she might have intended to lead somewhere with that sentence, holds out a finger for Petra to wait a moment- then almost sips from the glass she's now holding, before realizing and pouring it out. Despite not having accidentally drank any of the water, she still makes a little wrinkled-up grossed-out face.
Lilian Rook     'Kind of bottom heavy too, which, I think that's good. Is that pear shape, or is there a different...?'

    "Along with everything else, she has narrower shoulders than hips, like, skeletally, so yeah." Lilian nods. "Like you kinda? You look more athletic though. Maybe that's just because you're older? Or is that another type? What'd Ash say? 'Fuckboy'?"

    'Pawg....'

    The more dangerous thought is averted. Lilian laughs until she starts coughing; which doesn't take long.

    'It's-- I've got thoughts.'

    "Share them when you've got clothes on you fuckin' whore~" says Lilian, overwhelmingly fondly. She's giggling again, with Matilda revving up to swim.

    'This is Snowdrop. I've named it after another flower I enjoy!'

    Lilian gasps at the display. "Yesss!" comes out of her mouth like 'Yooo!' from someone who acts younger than her. "Let me see!" Nobody is stopping her anyways. She beelines for Holly while Matilda get swimming. "I'm not, like, a huge gun head or anything, but-- Gosh I have to show you Winter Crow later." Hm.

    "Oh wow it's-- This is a wand? Is that what the reservoir is for? Oh it can't just be gunpowder in the bullets right? Come on, spill! Where's the-- okay so there is a charging handle, but it's so hard to see like that. What does it recoil like? There's no stock at all. Does it have one of those sliding blocks or floating rails or something? No trigger guard? You're crazy haha! No fucking pistol grip, nice, nice-- gosh it's been so long since I've seen anyone trust the user to just hold the damn thing and not slap fucking picatinny dog-slop all over. You need mag-- Ichor to catalyze the mechanism anyways right? It looks like that kinda thing. Can I try holding it?"

    Lilian's greedy fingers are already hovering around the emponymous 'bayonet' section. Given the slightest chance, she'll heft the great big brick of gold with a moment of unbalanced surprise, then handle the weight alarmingly easily once she knows how heavy it is, and then turn it over to brace it over her lap, stock in the water, so she can sight down the bayonet's upturned edge and test the geometry (safely) with her fingers, pressing on each side enough to get an idea of its flex and flicking it with a fingernail to hear a resonant tone.
Holly Asturias "It's important to have at least three to five meals a day to stay healthy."

    "Ah, no, really, it's..."
    Nicole looks at Holly and sighs.
    "Well, it doesn't have to be *that* often, but a Revenant as active as the Doctor is really should be eating every day or two if they can help it. Revenants with slower lifestyles can manage almost a week, but she's using her Formae heavily every day, and hasn't had to fend off any Horrors in a while either. Compound this with the fact she'll happily forgo her own share of blood for others' sake, *and* doesn't like asking me for a bite too often. Of *all* the things for her to pay attention to, it's our *power dynamic*. It's cute that she cares, though."

    Holly is still so out of it she has no reaction to that.

"I'm not a Revenant! Or a Blood Fiend! Or a Demon! Or a Vampire!"

    "Oh. No...?" A reaction! A small one.

"Don't do that around vampires. That's so rude."

    The wound is closed. Holly shakes her head, regaining some of her normalcy. She's likely the least drunk (that is, not at all) person present and yet looks momentarily hungover all the same.

"Oh wow it's-- This is a wand?"

    GUSHING brings her back.

    "Oh! Yes, yes, you might actually call it a wand. The reservoir stores blood and Ichor, and the magazine supplies ammunition. The Formae inscribed on the rifle can fire the rounds normally - 7.92mm caliber, though most simplify it to 8mm - or it can alchemize them into a blast of ice."

    She watches, quite thrilled, as Lilian handling it with evident skill and appreciation. "Winter Crow? Is it a firearm of your own?" Thankfully, it's very safe to handle. Since Holly is a bit stronger than a human, she can afford the trigger to need just a bit more force than usual to pull, to prevent misfires while swinging the thing like a spear.

    "If you'd like to fire it, go ahead. Try aiming at one of those chairs, perhaps?" There's so many.
Lilian Rook     'I, I was just thinking of-such, myself! Did you read my mind?'

    "Huh? No. Why bother?"

    'I'm indespensible...'

    "Irreplaceable! One of a kind! There's nobody who's quite like you Matilda! There really really isn't!" Lilian nods furiously, continuing to hypegirl without really thinking about it. What's on her mind is how quirky and expressively ensouled Matilda is about absolutely everything, from the recent camp-out backwards, and how hard she tries at everything from Trídéag to just that silly little road trip.

    "You're a pull and everyone with a brain knows it. God even Mesmer does! Just because you're kinda weird doesn't mean you aren't serious! Those old fucking pencil-pushing bastards wore their ties too tight and the apoxia gave them brain damage! Those snotty fuckin' lightly-microwaved cadavers in suits wouldn't know talent if it rammed itself through their ribcage!" She takes Matilda by the shoulder, gesturing grandly before releasing her. "Fuck them! You're better than they are! I'd know because I'm lightyears better than they are! You need anything, Matilda, you come to me! I'll sort it out!"

    'I do like girls!'

    Lilian starts guffawing. She doesn't stop when Matilda takes off, either. She keeps being assaulted by waves and waves of fresh giggling until Matilda is all the way back, because the entire sequence of events that follows is somehow even funnier to watch. Drunk hazing was exactly what she needed, it seems.

    'You, you must have set the timer fast, Petra!'

    "Nope~ I counted in my head~" Lilian crowds, ever so proud of myself. "You're consigned to the little grape mines!" Completely forgetting that the stupid backrub threat was a joke on her part, she turns around again to rest her front over the edge of the bath, folding her arms under her head and rubbing her cheek against her wrist. "Put in your time and you might still get off on good behaviour!"
Petra Soroka "Ah, would you be willing to taste test the next iteration, then?"

    "Call me over to taste-test tooo! I'm a fucking, a fucking, somma, smala, somme-- taste tester." Petra giggles at the silliness of herself saying the same word twice. Distractedly, she rambles longer than she should. "I've probably got the most experience of anyone here. I'd bet. Maybe even more than the doctor if we're just counting, mass?"

"I'm not a Revenant! Or a Blood Fiend! Or a Demon! Or a Vampire!"

    Petra agrees sagely, closing her eyes and wiggling towards Lilian like a moth towards a lantern. "She's a normal girl. Or, the best, actually. Her teeth are just like that. But they're *really* sharp. Everyone else's are way blunter."

"Don't do that around vampires. That's so rude."

    "Oh. Yeah. Sorry." Petra looks over and sees Holly piningly staring at her hand, while she squeezes her fist to drip blood into Lilian's drink. She looks from Holly, to her bloody hand, to Lilian, considering in her hazy mind whether she should offer to let Holly feed off of the open wound. Like, you know, since it's already there. But Lilian scabs it up, so there's no more blood!

    "You gotta eat, though. It's no good for you. At least hunt small animals in the woods, or something, to take the edge off. If you went outside more you could just, find some human who coincidentally got killed by a Horror a minute ago, or something."

"Did you read my mind? No, that's silly..."

    "No, no." Petra drapes her arm across Matilda, squeezing her opposite shoulder reassuringly. Leaning in close, as if confiding a secret, but not actually speaking quietly at all, "No, I just get it. We're two of a kind, Matildork. I've gotta help you out. You deserve, my wisdom." About, trapping your love interest in elevators? Maybe Lilian *shouldn't* be hearing this, actually!
Petra Soroka "I am, as always, destined for greatness!"

    For the first time ever, Matilda is flanked by naked women who are hyping her up and fawning over all of her traits and proclaiming her inevitable success. Her planned autobiograpy chapters don't have this happening for another decade at least!

    "Yes! You are! Literally eeeeveryone should be grateful to have you around! You're like a," Petra gestures frustratedly, trying to find the word she's looking for. She cups her hand palm-down, wiggling it above the water, and then blurts out, "Beetle! You're like a special little beetle with a shiny blue carapace! And you're so precious and you wiggle around! How are you *not* pulling!"

"I do like girls!"

    "Yeah!!! Woooo!!!!!" Petra throws both her arms up while cheering for Matilda, like this is Family Feud and she just gave the best answer. With Lilian's laughing fit in the background, Petra suddenly wraps Matilda in a tight hug, squeezing her and wiggling her around. "Yay!"

"What'd Ash say? 'Fuckboy'?"

    "Nooooooou......"

    Petra defeatedly sinks into the water up to her nose, burbling in the hot spring with a death rattle. "Nooo be niiiiiiice! I look more athletic 'cause I am! That thing's unrelated! It's just 'cause I'm... soooo... popular." Those last two words are distorted by her sinking halfway underwater again.

"Share them when you've got clothes on you fuckin' whore~"

    "Eh?! Huh?!"

    Petra startles and looks down in absolute shock and horror, like she didn't *know*. One look is all it takes to remember that she's in a bath and this isn't some embarrassing dream where she's accidentally naked, though. "Oh, yeah."

    "Wow. Blood and alcohol mixes like *shiiiiit* in your stomach. I drank way t-- too much."

"Hah, this is like cave paintings, or, war-paint... Surely, I will succeed at the race now!"

    Petra punches her (now healed) fist into her palm, hyping Matilda up for the race. "Yeah! You've got my blessing!"

    One minute and point nine seconds later-- literally! Petra thrusts her phone stopwatchs around to everyone to see it, while laughing-- Petra claps for Matilda anyways. When Lilian turns around to present her back, "Well!! That's my blessing! Good job!"
Lilian Rook     'Oh! Yes, yes, you might actually call it a wand. The reservoir stores blood and Ichor, and the magazine supplies ammunition. The Formae inscribed on the rifle can fire the rounds normally - 7.92mm caliber, though most simplify it to 8mm - or it can alchemize them into a blast of ice.'

    Before Matilda is banished to the mines (forever!), Lilian wraps up enthusing over Holly's Girthy Bore. Warmly declaring "It's a nice size!" about the-- calibre? She adds "I've met one or two other girls with something like this too, and we all agreed it's kinda like that." with sagely confidence. "I heard the normal guns back home used to mount a battery and load ammunition separately until they figured out how everything's way simpler to roll the two into one disposable thing. I guess if you're a one woman army slash auter gunsmith you get used to the quirks and difficulties of needing both combined at the moment of manifestation though."

    'Winter Crow? Is it a firearm of your own?'

    "Yeah! I saved a famous gunsmith's daughter and she agreed to it!" Lilian beams about the exact same story yet again. "But the whole chrysopoeitic mechanism was all my idea!" She claps her hand to her chest and puffs it out proudly.

    'If you'd like to fire it, go ahead. Try aiming at one of those chairs, perhaps?'

    Lilian immediately tries to sight the rifle in line with her cheek, just before realizing she can't actually do that. She wiggles the whole assembly around in drink-slowed mental processing as she tries to feel out what to do with the big invisible space where a full stock would be, then apparently decides not to treat it a rifle at all, and mumbles something about "No sights anyways."

    So Lilian decides to hold just the grip with both hands, supporting the unbalanced weight like that for a few seconds before freeing one hand to touch the side of the bayonet and slide lengthwise along the flat. Stroking the cold metal back and forth, she ends up naturally letting Snowdrop fall into exact alignment with her target as though she were intending to lunge and thrust instead. Bracing the weapon like an incredibly unbalanced sword, the handle ends up jammed against the side of her breast, but the bayonet point hovers exacty ahead of her extended fingers. She has to interrupt her own automatic breathing to remember to pull the trigger instead of get up.

    Poor chair. It never stood a chance.
Holly Asturias "Hah, leave it to the French to have the best culinary opinions- yes, I can do so! You are preemptively, welcome."
"Call me over to taste-test tooo! I'm a fucking, a fucking, somma, smala, somme-- taste tester."

    "Oh sure!" Nicole says, largely untipsy herself on account of not drinking much at all, with how overstimulating this has all been. "Good, good. Matilda, Petra, I'll have you over again and we can figure this out. I think the Revenant staff is *really* going to enjoy being able to drink a bit. Can you believe the Doctor had no idea we even *had* alcohol? I mean I've *had* it when we make trips to other places but..."

    "I never thought to look!" Holly protests.

    "There was so much... how did you miss the wine cellar?" Nicole asks.

    "I never go down there."

    "Where else do you never go? Doctor! Have we been working out of an unexplored mansion for decades?"

    "S-Statistically I'm quite confident it's mostly explored."

"You gotta eat, though."

    "F-Fine... Nicole, could we..."
    Nicole is suddenly next to Holly, back turned to her, pulling her wet hair away from her neck. She was ready for this.
    Holly leans down to reach the neck, and plunges her fangs into it. Her hands come to rest around Nicole's waist, to support her. Nicole doesn't even wince. She's also... actually relatively normal about this, in stark contrast to everyone else.
    It's a long ten or so seconds. Holly pulls back, a slight streak of blood escaping the corner of her mouth as she lets out a deep, deep appreciative sigh.

    Nicole, a bit whoozy, walks out of the bath to go get water. A lot of water. Hot environment, with a bit of alcohol in her blood, and now she's missing quite a bit of blood? That's bad! She needs to hydrate and take it easy for a bit.

    Holly (Normal), who has not noticed the blood on her face, clears her throat. "I'm sorry you had to see that. But thank you for your understanding."

Lilian firing Snowdrop.

    With renewed attention, Holly watches Lilian settle on how to use the rifle. When it fires, it's a brilliant blue and white stream of light, not a bullet; more like a cryo-laser than anything else. The chair freezes solid and shatters in essentially the same stroke. Holly smiles and claps her hands together. "Oh my! You're a natural at this. You're quite right about having both combined. Since I manifest the weapon out of my blood, I don't need to worry about storing it safely. It's best if it just comes out ready to fire. Ah, I look forward to seeing your own! Chrysopoeitic... that sounds familiar, but I can't place the word. It's Greek, isn't it?"
Foundation Scions 'No, I just get it. We're two of a kind, Matildork. I've gotta help you out. You deserve, my wisdom.'

    Matilda huddles in, too, bobbing her head up and down in agreement. "Your wisdom..." She echoes, a little bit too conspiratorially. Uh oh.

'Beetle! You're like a special little beetle with a shiny blue carapace! And you're so precious and you wiggle around!'

    Matilda, likes beetles! So this is a good thing, and it's said with good tone! Matilda nods, giggles, and then wiggles, because if that's what's appealing about beetles, then by god, she's got to wiggle. Saying words to say words, "I can pull!"

    Petra's laughing is infectious, because Matilda is drunk and being absolutely overloaded on so many positive sources of attention. Like this is a summer pool, Petra's hug and subsequent Matilda-wiggling has her splash around a bit haphazardly, just mirroring all the excitement Petra's transmitting. Clinging back as best she can, for utterly no reason, Matilda, also, exclaims "Yay!"

'What'd Ash say? 'Fuckboy'?'

    Murmury distracted (and drunk), "The very-same one..?" A memory pinged on that name, but Matilda's woozy!

'Nope~ I counted in my head~'

    Resigned, "Hein..? But, I did too..." fades out into a pout.

'You're consigned to the little grape mines!'

    "I think, grapes, even small ones, tend to grow upon vines!" She's so helpful, she knows trivia, she knows where fruit comes from! Saying this, Matilda sounds not like she's jumping to correct, but like she's hungry for a gold star.

    Matilda isn't getting out of the water to fetch grapes, right now, but luckily, Petra has a floating bowl of them Matilda can shamelessly hunt and steal- not, really gracefully, moving through the water always has a bit of slosh to it. If Matilda can't get to little grapes, then she'll have failed the challenge, that she undertook, for... some reason? She's not thinking about it, because right now completing this task is crucial! Everyone will hate her and throw rotten tomatoes at her if she messes up and that's like dying (it'll definitely happen!)

    With Petra's plate of grapes grabbed to carry over, that horrible fate is averted! Excited, after she's selected the smallest to hold and hand over to Lilian, "Des petits raisins!

'Put in your time and you might still get off on good behaviour!'

    "My behavior, it is always good! Excellent, even! I will get released faster than anyone," Matilda hums. "I've read, books!" That statement doesn't stand on its own, but it takes a little pause for Matilda to assess why it doesn't, and fix it- "As to how to perform proper massage! It is important, for so many sorenesses! I, thought-it to be useful, in case!" In case of what? Matilda might not even know right now.

    Matilda, because it seems right, tries to dramatically crack her knuckles, because she thinks that's what people are supposed to do before it, but her knuckles just don't crack! Hot spring baths are good for relaxing joints! And then it's Mines Time for Matilda.

    Staring at the glittering ink of Lilian's tattoo, a bit later, Matilda cocks her head to the side- and with a little 'hmmm', and then- "Mrs. Rook! I, think I recognize this array! It's that, remarkable warding against the remembrance of dreams!" a pause, "Mesmer never mentioned that the array could-be inscribed upon a person? She, never-mentioned much, but, she's not much of a talker, is she! I like talking more than her! Hah... I thought it was areal, instead... Is it a common array of your Earth?" Matilda is too drunk to imagine a more correct reason Mesmer might have come to her with a tracing of this tattoo to analyze. "It is very pretty! It glitters in the light!"
Lilian Rook     'Where else do you never go? Doctor! Have we been working out of an unexplored mansion for decades?'
    'S-Statistically I'm quite confident it's mostly explored.'

    Lilian looks at Petra, and meaning to say with her eyes, says with her mouth instead "Ah fuck they're kind of cute."

    Thirty seconds later, she's looking back at Petra slightly bug-eyed, and blabbering "Is isn't like that, right?!"

    'I'm sorry you had to see that. But thank you for your understanding.'

    "No I--! No it's fine!! I didn't have to see it anyways so really thank you for-- uh . . . um . . . Oh god don't say 'thank you for showing us' come on . . ." Lilian trails off into bleary mumbling.

    One gratuitous jiggle later,

    'Oh my! You're a natural at this.'

    "I'm a born warrior~!" Lilian smugs, puffing herself up again. "Even Scáthach said I'm a prodigy!" She breaks her poise with a mild hiccup again. "By the end at least. She was kinda weird early on? I still don't get why I had to do half of that stuff--"

    'Chrysopoeitic... that sounds familiar, but I can't place the word. It's Greek, isn't it?'

    "Yes!" Now Lilian gets to look excited again. "Hahaha, figures you'd recognize 'gold-making' of all things! It's alchemy~!"

    Handing back the rifle warmly, Lilian shouts out,

    'I can pull!'

    "You can pull Matilda!"

    'The very-same one..?'

    "Yeah! We're friends now! In the secret clubhouse! Shhh!" Lilian starts giggling. God those two are so cute. And she's totally not drunk.

    'Hein..? But, I did too...'

    "Well I've been counting seconds my whole life so naturally I'd be more precise, hehehe~" Girl what?

    'Des petits raisins!'

    "The little grapes!" Lilian takes a deep breath, and tries her very best to copy what she's seen effortlessly performed several times already. "Yay!"

    Like five glasses of brandy in, with one containing blood for some reason, and also some of Petra's blood, still infused with honeymoon glow and getting to relax in a top-tier hotspring bath, Lilian reclines against the edge with the sort of sleepy self-satisfaction usually reserved for god's own most pampered cats. The fact that she had no plans to actually ask Matilda for anything, nor the fact that her back isn't even particularly sore, are completely incidental to the ritual of having Played A Game and thus being bound to participate in the rules.

    When Matilda starts babbling on about reading books, Lilian enthusiastically replies with her cheek against her folded arms, "I'll be sure to give you an honest appraisal then! A test! You love tests, right?" and quietly snickers to herself for thinking that somehow only she is so clever as to realize Matilda was practicing to give Sonetto massages, heh heh heh.

    'Mrs. Rook! I, think I recognize this array!'

    "You can see it in my Laplace uniform sweetie." Lilian says without opening her eyes.

    'It's that, remarkable warding against the remembrance of dreams!'

    Well. She cracks one eye open just a little.
Lilian Rook     'Mesmer never mentioned that the array could-be inscribed upon a person? She, never-mentioned much, but, she's not much of a talker, is she!'

    Even Lilian isn't quite drunk enough to not get a little bit suspicious about that. She turns her head the minimum amount to still not quite see Matilda over her shoulder, and frowns ever so slightly.

    'Is it a common array of your Earth?'

    "No Matilda. Mine is the only one. It's completely unique." Lilian huffs, considerably less enthused.

    'It is very pretty! It glitters in the light!'

    "Well naturally! Tamamo made it!" And there it is again. Lilian drunkenly swerves right back into the effusive positivity lane the instant she can brag about her wife. She stares fondly at the ring on her left hand, having rested her head facing right just so she could look at it. "You're really smart if you figured out it had something to do with dreams~ It's super complicated. But did you know? It's way more remarkable than even that! If Tamamo hadn't come up with it, I wouldn't even be here!" Lilian laughs way too brightly for such a heavy topic. "It's the sweetest and the most best amazing thing ever and I still feel kind of happy when I see it. My life-- no, the whole world is so much better because of all the people I've met along the way . . ."

    Lilian trails off into dozy humming, so much it seems like she's just about to fall asleep, only to suddenly say "Maybe you can be one of them?" She blinks, and her tone changes all over again. "So don't slack off! Get in deep~!"
Holly Asturias "My behavior, it is always good! Excellent, even! I will get released faster than anyone,"

    "You're really cool!" Nicole shouts from way over there ------>, wet towel around her shoulders and chugging down water next to the table with what's left of the food on it. The upside of the springs is that her bite mark healed immediately. Sadly, you can't heal BLOOD LOSS with VAMPIRE MAGIC, because that would be infinite energy!

    "Heeeey, Doctor?"
    "Nicole?"
    "If I drink right now, my BAC would go up faster."
    "It most certainly would. Please don't!"
    "Oh. Okay." Wobble. She reaches for a cracker and munches.
    "Matilda! Do you... have a favorite flavor? I'll make sure we have it."

"No I--! No it's fine!!"

    "Are you... *sure* that you aren't a little bit Revenant? It's really quite staggering." Holly creeps closer to Lilian, to look at into her eyes. Given her height, this might also have unforeseen consequences. "You're right that they aren't red, but there *are* some rare cases, for a number of different factors, where Revenants have unusual eye colors. Recently-turned humans are the most likely," she says, in the tone of someone who has read ten papers on the subject and is about to try summarizing them in a way that will produce an eleventh.

"Hahaha, figures you'd recognize 'gold-making' of all things! It's alchemy~!"

    "Gold-making..." Holly repeats, insisting this does not help the perception in the slightest!

"If Tamamo hadn't come up with it, I wouldn't even be here!"

    "A protective Forma engraved directly on your body... a permanent one, no less. That's quite rare!" Well, now she wants a closer look, so don't mind if she circles around Lilian and gawks at the golden spell from every possible angle.