The Onsen, Sunday afternoon

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The Onsen, Sunday afternoon

Seivarden had finally made her way to the local bath house, and had found out that you had to wear clothes in the bath. She had snorted and given the staff an unimpressed look, but given in to the rules and bought a pair of trunks. And people here thought wearing gloves was strange?

The pool was pleasant though. Seivarden leaned back against the pool edge, mostly keeping her hands in the water. Obviously you didn't wear gloves in the bath, but that didn't mean you waved your hands about. She closed her eyes, hoping to forget her situation for a while. It didn't succeed, but the warm water was soothing nonetheless. Shifting a little, she sank deeper into the pool, glad to have it to herself.

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Fjord knew that the baths were really more of a sometimes habit, but considering most other things around the island were confusing at best, he had to find some way to spend his time and ease off some of the tension in his shoulders.

... Anyway, he had that pair of swim shorts to his name now, and if he was going to spend the money to buy them, he was going to damn well use them.

So he made his way to the onsen today, paid his way in, and found his way into the pool, sinking in halfway to his shoulders with a sigh that was very nearly content.

And then he glanced up to see who else was in the pool.

"... Afternoon."

Was he intruding on something?

... Well, no. It was a public bath.

It was a public bath.

Seivarden opened her eyes. "Good afternoon," she greeted in return. She didn't mind company, at least not Fjord, and especially since he wasn't waving his hands about.

That would be distracting.

"Is this your first time here?"

"My second, actually," Fjord replied, smiling wryly. "The first time around, I learned about their 'swimsuit' rule."

He gave his head a bemused shake.

"Everything here is an adjustment."

"It's actually my first," Seivarden admitted. "For some reason I haven't got around to gong before. I was surprised about having to wear clothing too, and apparently those who have breasts have to cover those too."

She leaned her head back. "It still baffles me sometimes."

"And keeping covered up makes sense enough while walking down the street," Fjord sighed, "but this is a bath."

That was going to be a sticking point for him for a while. He shrugged.

There was a whole lot of shoulder to shrug, there.

"I suppose sooner or later, it'll make some measure of sense. For the time being, I'll just go with what I know and pay closer attention to the rest."

"Might be a good idea."

Seivarden was a bit distracted by the shoulder shrug, and the water running along green skin, which was why she tilted her head back and looked up at the ceiling.

"It really helped me to get a cat."

"A cat, huh?" Uh-oh. Fjord's smile went faintly awkward. "I'll leave cat ownership to you, I think. Allergies."

Someday he'd be in an adventuring party with someone whose familiar remained predominantly feline.

Ah, good times.

"Oh."

Seivarden looked at Fjord again.

"There aren't any medications for that?"

Fjord seemed like someone who needed a cat.

"I... have no idea." Fjord lifted those shoulders again. "Not from around here, remember?"

And he really had little interest in keeping a pet, anyway. It was a miracle he could take care of himself, really.

Seivarden could hardly ask him not to lift his shoulder, and she wasn't sure she wanted him too either. She did her best not to look though, and more or less succeeded.

"Medical technology here is very bad anyway," Seivarden said.

"As compared to where you're from, I assume?" Fjord looked faintly amused. "Most everything I've come across here so far is so advanced compared to what I'm used to that I'd be inclined to assume it was magic, if I didn't know any better."

"Really?" Seivarden said, watching a drop of water run down along Fjord's neck. "I was shocked when I learned they can't grow back limbs here. Or that people get incurable deadly diseases from having sex."

"Yeah... that's fairly standard," Fjord replied, frowning a little.

And not commenting on anything sex related for love or money.

"Lose a hand, that's it. No more hand. There might be a spell out there somewhere that can restore it, but I'm no cleric, I can't possibly be sure."

With the right magic, you could raise the dead. Fjord... also didn't have that magic.

"Really?" Seivarden said. She held back any comments about magic, and instead continued:

"That sounds harsh."

Probably best to not comment about magic to the warlock, yeah.

"It's life," Fjord said simply. "Life is harsh."

Seivarden looked down, letting her fingers move under the water.

"Well, that would add another level of harshness."

The reply to that was a deep chuckle from somewhere low in Fjord's chest. He shook his head a little.

"I suppose." He wasn't going to go so far as to call Seivarden soft, no. But the thought was somewhere in the back of his head all the same. "We wouldn't have any way of knowing, back home."

"I suppose you wouldn't."

Seivarden would object to being called soft.

"Any other peculiar things you've discovered so far?"

There were so many, and laughing about them together was more fun.

"The roads," Fjord offered. "Across the causeway. They're black and they smell of tar."

They also had giant vehicles on them with loud horns, one of which had very nearly reduced Fenris to a fine paste, but one thing at a time, here.

"They really do smell," Seivarden agreed. "I think they need a lot of maintenance too. They should come up with a better solution. It suits their vehicles though, I suppose."

"Does it? I've only seen them in action the once. So far the impression I have of them is that they're loud."

And dangerous. But mostly loud.

"They are," Seivarden agreed. "Really primitive engines. They work ok though, although they seem prone to accidents."

Seivarden's personal experience extended to taking a taxi home and riding with Rosa across the causeway.

Fjord was smiling faintly. There Seivarden went again, talking about the primitive nature of the here to someone who had nothing to compare.

"I would think that anything that has a person at the reins would be as prone to accidents as the one in control, yes."

Seivarden wasn't perceptive enough to pick up that, which probably didn't surprise anyone.

"Well," she said. "It depends on how well they are designed. What kind of vehicles are common where you are from?"

Fjord's eyebrows inched up a little and he gave Seivarden an amused look.

"Wooden carts," he replied. "Pulled by horses."

"Horses? As in... animals?"

Seivarden actually managed not to sound judgemental.

"Yeah," Fjord agreed, trying not to laugh. "Horses are animals. Never seen a horse before?"

That honestly sounded like a much sadder life than one where people couldn't grow back lost limbs.

"No, well, they weren't popular where I grew up. I know they are on some planets."

Usually not as the only available mode of transport though.

"Aren't they a bit slow?"

Oh, Seivarden. You really had no idea how to talk to someone from a completely different background from yourself, did you?

"Slow as compared to what, exactly?"

Fjord was still doing an admirable job of not smirking at her outright.

"Air shuttles? Don't you have flying animals?"

She really didn't want Fjord to be inferior though.

"I know our worlds are very different. I've spent most of my life on spaceships."

"We have flying animals," Fjord confirmed, "but people managing to tame one well enough to be able to use it as a mount? That's rare at best. Dragons and hippogriffs are more than a little vicious."

And he'd be allergic as hell to a griffon's ass end anyway.

"Oh." Seivarden reached up to lean her elbow on the edge of the pool, making sure to keep her hand in the water.

"So, different for both of us. At least there's good tea here."

When in doubt, talk about tea.

"At least there's good tea," Fjord replied.

Yeah, it was almost impossible to keep the amusement from his face. He wasn't even all that concerned about tea, himself.

Seivarden couldn't think of anything else to say, and she looked up at the ceiling, finding the silence awkward.

Fjord, meanwhile, didn't find the silence awkward at all. He just continued to smile, leaning back against the edge of the pool, closing his eyes, and leaning his head back.

Relaxing.

He approved.

After a while Seivarden looked back at Fjord, and, as Fjord had his eyes closed, kept looking. The water trailing down those shoulders was a nice view.

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The Onsen, Sunday afternoon

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