Bath Time

After the scavengers had gotten their fill from the kitchen they made tracks up to one of the many baths around the castle, the closest wasn't far, an old style porcelain one with golden feet and a shower but it didn't seem to work. There were towels and many bottles of all shapes and sizes set to one side. Wait, Esha thought, I haven't seen any staff here yet? -So whose doing this...

She'd actually picked this one specifically because of the flea shampoo that was there for some reason, well this school might have animal forms and people that can turn into animals and they might get fleas? Esha was far too pampered to consider having a dried scalp, nevermind fleas on her head. She didn't know if Audi had extra passengers but if she did then she would get rid of them for her...Images of the ratgirl with raw bald patched was horrible but it would haunt her conscience.

She didn't know how Audi would take this at all, for someone that had never taken a bath before would she be scared of immersion in hot water? The amount of things that could go haywire here was growing the more she thought of it so she just banished the thoughts and, however foolishly, decided to just see where this went for the meantime.

"This is it Audi" She chirped as she opened the door and let Audi walk in first.

(Aisling can join anytime)

Audi followed Esha obediently through the corridors, looking around curiously at all the mysterious sights, but keeping close to her guide. It seemed like a real maze, this place, and it brought back vague memories of her childhood in the underground colony with its countless tunnels splitting off in all directions. Even before she had learned to walk on two legs she knew her way around and already she was committing to memory the layout of this new home. New home. Wonder what was it called...?

She gave the other girl a wide-eyed glance as she passed her by and walked into the room. The bundle of rags that was her baggage was again dropped rather carelessly near the door and Audi started darting around, inspecting every corner. She poked her head underneath the huge white bowl, touched the bottles, paused for a moment in front of a mirror, then quickly returned to stand in front of Esha, hands folded on her abdomen, tail slowly swishing from side to side.

"What now?" she asked with a small smile. She did not have much of a clue what was going to happen, but was obviously eager to learn.

Aisling floated into the room after her other to companions, her bright green eyes surveying the shower and shampoo bottles. she hadn't been inside a washroom since she'd died--not like she'd had the need, she couldn't even see herself in the mirror (or she thought--she'd never checked). plus, floating around randomly in a washroom in her...condition...would seem a bit creepy. ergo, she wasn't in them often.

"how many baths does this place have, anyway?" again, no reason for her to check. her eyes scanned about the room. she should have guessed what the room would look like, considering the rest of the castle. it had a cool look to it--goodness, she even liked the bathrooms.

Watching Audi whizz around the place was confirmation she'd never been in a bath. She started looking at the bottles she would need. The flea stuff, scentless maybe? She'd never bathed or had to look into looking after rats skin while bathing them. Rats cleaned themselves to her knowledge.

"I'm not sure Aisling...I only use one or two." She said while turning the hot tap on and checking it was coming through hot with sight, it could be useful at times. "With the size of this place there could be lots". She would have to count them sometime, only using the one near her room and this one was wasteful if the others had fluffier towels.

Looking back to Audi she said "We wait for the tub to fill, but for now you'll have to find a shampoo or shower gel you like" She looked from the ratgirl to the bottles "There is scentless, if you have a sensitive nose or perfumed. There's flea shampoo too" Ouch, she thought, I might have put that too bluntly. "If you have any sort of fleas" She said quickly

"Just open the bottle caps and smell a few to see what you like"

She kept looking at Esha's face, too busy nodding along to her instructions to acknowledge Aisling's entrance. Okay, choose one she liked. A weird order, but okay. She knew how to open bottles, but...

Before she got started, she paused for a moment, standing motionless as she went over the girl's words. Her nose scrunched in confusion. The explanation really didn't clear much up. Sham-poo was a funny word, but didn't sound too enticing. And why would fleas need a special one?

No matter, Audi decided with a shake of her head, and set out to inspect the bottles. Just to oblige with the other's wishes, she took a sniff of each one, but of course couldn't feel a thing. In the end, she chose a see-through plastic bottle filled with a semi-transparent liquid in a bright red color - her favorite. She held it out towards Esha while leaning over the edge of the tub, watching the falling water curiously.
"This." she said, leaning over the edge of the tub, watching the water flow curiously. She glanced upwards at Esha with a playful smirk, then suddenly shot out her hand and slapped the stream to splash some water at the other girl.

Aisling couldn't help but snicker at the action--a little wildly, really. for the first time, she was almost thankful that she was dead--no water for her!

still giggling, she leaned over to inspect the shampoo bottle. it smelled nice--like roses. Aisling liked it; it wasn't sickly sweet, but just the right kind of scent. it smelled more like a natural rose than the little-kid type scents that always used to make her sneeze, and it reminded her of spring time. Aisling looked back up to grin at esha and audi again, deciding to watch to see what would happen next

Esha took the bottle and didn't bother examining the label, knowing she wouldn't be able to read the print anyway. Taking a smell she decided that maybe roses and floral shampoos weren't for her...She liked something a bit more sugary or sweet. Maybe because the times she had grown up in sugar was something for the richer? Damn, I'm not exactly young Esha thought.

She wasn't watching Audi make her selection of bottles but rather just inspecting the room to see if it held any features that outdid the bathroom near her bedroom- so far the shower was out of action the towels were more than two meters from the bath and it didn't have a the densest shower curtain with the way the light shone through it. Surveying and taking all dropped marks into account she decided that-

Upon being splashed she giggled a bit and placed the bottle down along with all her divaish thoughts. "This" Esha said, skimming her hand over the surface of the water and shooting a handful of it toward the rat girl.

For a second, Audi wondered if it would work on Aisling. Her hand couldn't touch the see-through human, but would water as well? What was with all the weird humans in here, anyway? All she had met so far were off in one way or another. Just... where exactly has she ended up at...? She squinted slightly as she tried to work it out, but was soon pulled out from her thoughts by Esha's retribution.

Audi chuckled breathily upon being sprinkled, then sneezed, some water droplets getting into her nose. She twitched her whiskers and huffed. Oh, that meant war. She looked up to the other girl with a jokingly threatening expression, placing both her palms on the top of the wall of the tub. She then bent her legs slightly at the knees... and jumped up into the air, springing up like a bouncy ball, moved over the edge of the tub and fell inside, causing a tsunami to rise up and crash onto the floor, likely soaking most of Esha's front if she didn't dodge in time.

Regardless of where she was, she learned one thing about the place already. Bathrooms were fun.

Aisling was laughing so hard, she thought she might fall over. she was pretty glad that she couldn't get wet, though joining in with the other two would have been fun as well. at least Audi seemed to be enjoying herself, so much so that she'd actually jumped right into the tub. the ghost girl grinned as the tsunami wave flowed Esha's way.

in the back of her mind though, she was trying to push back the slight ache that seemed to have settled in her body. water fights were so much fun! sure, getting soaked was a bit annoying, but it was worth it, and now the ghostie couldn't join in the fun...

she shoved that thought away, trying to focus on the moment. this right here was important--Audi and Esha were having fun. but she wanted to have fun too....no, that's not important. she shook her head forcefully, and sat balanced on the edge of the tub.

Esha held her hands up to protect herself against the oncoming water, shutting her eyes as if maybe if she didn't see the water it would evaporate or disappear. It soaked her completely, she could even feel it on bare skin. Esha was glad the water wasn't freezing or anything.

Knowing the castle, they didn't do anything in half measures and she assumed the bathtub would be solid enough to support more than one person jumping into it. Without any warning she vaulted over the side of the bath and sent a tidal wave towards Audi, She sat two legs and one arm in and out the bath sneezing to get rid of the water in her nose.

She couldn't see how more water would affect Audi all that much and so might have just soaked herself more for no reason but water fights were fun anyway.

The swoosh of water caused by Esha jumping in caused Audi to slide up for a moment, then settle down, but of course she couldn't get any more wet. Not that there was much water left in the tub anyway, most of it having formed a huge puddle on the floor.

Now that Audi's fluffy fur was soaked and clinging to her figure, it was clear she was pathetically underweight. Her bony limbs and a long, thin face with sharp cheekbones together with her large eyes completed a rather haunting look, only emphasized by the fact that she was laughing with mirth. The clothing she was wearing looked even more like just a bunch of rags now that it was drenched.

Her eyes flickered to Aisling and without thinking, she shot out her arms to wrap them around the girl and pull her in as well. But... of course, they went right through, and she ended up awkwardly clapping her hands together and slipping back into the tub with a dejected expression.

Aisling felt a sharp pang in her heart--she felt a little happy that Audi had thought to try to include her the the tub festivities, but the fact that she was just a spirit was sharply emphasized by the rat-girl's inability to pull her into the tub. she couldn't splash with them. she could laugh with them, and she did try, but it didn't feel very fulfilling. mostly it just made the ache in her chest more noticeable, like the extra oxygen was feeding it. still, she managed to make herself smile and laugh with the other two, and she figured she did a fairly convincing job, for the most part

Aisling took that moment to really get a good look at Audi--considering how much she'd eaten in the kitchens, she hadn't expected the rat girl to be so skinny. maybe she hadn't eaten well in a while? well, at least she would be eating plentifully at the castle.

Smiling at Audi's gesture to try and make her join in, because of how little she had to breath she hadn't realized the water in her nose until now, and during Audi and Aisling's interactions she just made weird sniffing noises and rubbed her nose uselessly in an attempt to clear the liquid.

Esha wasn't fazed by the scrawniness of Audi, she had spent parts of her childhood like that. All skin and bones. In the dawn of the 1900's no person in sight, or even out of it was overweight where she grew up. It didn't help that for reasons her parent didn't think it was worth feeding her. Only the royals were fat..and- Oh my. Why was she imagining herself with a cane shouting at people on her lawn?

The stone girl barely thought of her origins while scooping up more water for the bottom of the tub. She was selectively amnesiatic about it, choosing to remember it how her childhood how she wanted it to be.

After discovering what meager there was in the bath she resorted to splashing it at the rat girl.

Audi was good at picking up non-verbal cues; all ratpeople were. She could tell that Aisling's laughter was partly faked, and it made her sad. The fact that the only way she knew how to comfort people - cuddling them - was out of the question spoiled her mood even further. As such, she returned Esha's splashing rather half-heartedly with a lazy flick of her tail and her eyes remained trained on the ghost.

Dang, maybe there existed some sort of... transparent water... that transparent people could bathe in...?

Either way, the water fight didn't seem as appealing anymore. Audi heaved a sigh. Well, that was it for the bath, she supposed. She stood up with the intention of getting out of the tub.

Or, at least, that's what she tried to do.

The day was rather chilly, and so she was wearing her heaviest garment - a cape made of patches of carpet, sheep skin, and other various, thick fabrics - and underneath that, she had a woolen sweater vest that hung off her frame like a dress. All rather absorbent materials... and so, when she attempted to get up, the weight of all the water was too much for her to lift. Immediately her eyes shot open wide as the feeling of being trapped overcame her and she started to flail in a panic, kicking her legs against the slippery enamel of the tub. Her tail whipped around madly as she attempted to scramble to her feet and she didn't quite pay attention to whether she hit Esha or not.

Aisling jolted forward, her hands hovering in the air with the intention of helping the rat girl--though of course, something like that was rather impossible.
"Audi, are you alright? try wringing out the water!" she yelped. the poor thing seemed to be suffering from a fit of some kind of water-logged claustrophobia. aisling remembered that awful trapped feeling, but to experience it while slipping and sliding around inside a tub? honestly, she felt fear for the rat-girl, like a kind of empathy pain (she didn't think "sympathy" pain did it justice). feeling useless, aisling shot esha a desperate look for help. goodness, with the way this was going, audi may never want another bath!

After a halfmeant splash Esha looked at Audi and then looked at what might be upsetting her...nope she couldn't see anything. Bracing the sides of the bath she went to get up and about halfway with getting out- WHIP* Something came flying at her face and whacked her right across the eyes. Audi's haywire tail.

She grasped at her eyes, they were made of -thankfully- smooth stone but the area above felt like it was on fire because of the tail lash. "Aagh!" She screamed in a high pitch as she fell her length into the tub in a weird side angle, inhaling a mouth load of water.

While her vision was still blurry she was no good at helping Audi, but seeing as she was the only help available she ignored the now developing red stripe across her eyes and eyebrows and located what temperature the cape was and what was fur and separable them..Oh...the bath had made everything the same. All she could see was a solid Audi shaped block..She could tell there was a cape and she assumed it attached itself around the neck and not too tight.

Resorting to groping around the area and grabbing the attachment around rat girl's neck, while being kicked several times on the stomach and chest, and lifting it with slight urgency out of the water, hopefully pulling the rat girl with it.


*for all the comics I read I'm still no good at onomatopoeias.

Aisling's and Esha's screams echoed in her ears, not at all helping her calm down - and neither did the grabbing and pulling hands, classified as a threat as much as the soaked garments that pressed down on her body. Her eyes were wide open, but all she saw were images of fire, as if they were burned into her retinas, clouding the view of the bathroom with flames and billowing smoke.

She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, as if trying to retreat from the oppressive reality, but all it did was make her sink deeper into the vision. Flickering, blinding lights, obscuring everything. The whines and screams of fellow ratpeople all around her, the roar of flame and sounds of bricks crashing down. Smell of burning fur so strong, she could feel it with her disabled nose as she struggled to breathe and choked on the smoke. The heat that licked her skin. And the weight, the rocks, the bricks that piled upon her, she could feel her ribs cracking and poking into her lungs, oh Master make them go away, but he is dead - he died first and they... and she...

Make the weight go away. Make it disappear.

As she zoned out, her struggling slowed down slightly, allowing Esha to grasp the cape. As if in a time-lapse video, the clothes Audi was wearing began to quickly dry, lighter patches spreading across the fabrics as the water they'd absorbed seemed to disappear into thin air.

Audi's hands found the edges of the tub and she helped the effort of pulling herself up. She managed to catch her footing and sat half-squatting in what was left of the bath water, slowly breathing in and out. Then she blinked her eyes open and focused her now-calm gaze on the girl opposite her, then glanced to Aisling. She twitched her whiskers.

"I don't like baths."

aisling watched audi's now calm face, licking her lips nervously. what had just happened? with the cape? she tried to push that thought away and focus on the rat girl's well-being instead. perhaps they should leave, before something else like this happened. still, aisling kept quiet, as she felt that it wasn't really her place to say anything. not in this case, any way. the ghost girl self consciously chewed her lip, feeling worried. she hadn't been able to do any good for her friend when she was in danger. what good was she, anyway?

Once Audi was alright as possible after all that Esha slumped back into the bath and held her face, the wet rat's tail had acted like a whip across her face. Ughh was the only noise she made while holding her face and trying to get out of the bath. When out she tried to blink but it just hurt.

Screwing her eyes shut she didn't realize how red her face was getting right across the eyes.

"Couldn't blame you Audi, after that one." Esha said, still not opening her eyes. Any eyebrow movement was painful and stingy. When she opened her eye it was blurry, she could see Audi but it was just a featureless mass of person. Everything was annoyingly blurry.

She smoothed her soaking shirt, thank goodness she hadn't worn the lightly coloulred thin thing she was going to this morning. That would be a embarrassing for all.

She blinked a few times and squinted, finding that if she just blinked slightly it didn't hurt all that much "Is everyone okay?" she asked to everyone in the room.

Audi remained still for a moment, then closed her eyes and exhaled a weary sigh. Hunger began churning in her stomach again. How lucky that a treasure trove of food was so close by...

She reached for the buckle of her cape and opened it, letting the garment slide down to the bottom of the tub. She had a feeling she wouldn't be wearing that for a while. The cape began soaking up remaining water and looked much like a dead animal... and smelled like one as well. The bath hardly helped the effort of making the ratgirl and her clothes cleaner.

Audi stood up and clambered out, then shook herself off, spreading droplets of dirty water all around. She was quite the pathetic sight now, emaciated and trembling from the moisture in her fur cooling off. Still she wasn't one to complain, and without as much as a wince she started running her hands along her thin limbs to squeeze out the water onto the floor. It didn't make much of a difference; the whole floor was one big puddle at that point.

Aisling frowned as she glanced around the room. between Esha's eye, and Audi's rather gloomy demeanor, the feeling of the room was rather somber. and just a few minutes ago, they'd been laughing and splashing each other like little kids. Aisling sighed.

"Esha, are you alright? maybe we should get some ice for you eye or something...and maybe a towel for Audi. there should be some in here somewhere."

all the ghost girl could do right now was make suggestions, as she obviously couldn't help to actually achieve any of those goals herself. it was ironic, being as, in a normal situation, she would be the one that should complete the tasks. it would just make more sense, because of state of the other two girls.

the situation wasn't normal, though, and Aisling couldn't help get towels or ice at all.

Esha got out of the bath and picked up a towel, barely noticing the soaked floor becuase her shoes were filled with moisture. She stepped out of them because they squelching sound they were making meant that they were too wet to wear.

"I'm fine Aisling" She said, trying to put a cheery tone on and failing slightly. "It will go away soon" She knew that was a lie. All she could do is disappear somehow and fetch ice to stop it hurting until things healed at a snailpace. She put her towel over her shoulders and passed a towel to Audi. Esha spotted that the cape had been shed, which was good.

Shivering she turned to the other two people in the room "I think I do need ice though" and some new clothes. She pulled the plug in the bath and took a few steps to the door. The girl shivered again, several patches of her skin turning to stone involuntarily.

"It was nice meeting you both, I'l see you around"

Audi blinked tiredly and accepted the towel from Esha. She looked at it for a second, then mirrored the other girl, slinging it over her shoulders. Sniffing a little, she nodded as a goodbye. Her head felt a bit dizzy and her limbs were cold, and all of the day so far was a crazy whirlwind of new things and new people. All she could think of at the moment was a nap in a spot of sunshine, but seeing that it wasn't immediately available, she had no clue what to do.

When in doubt, turn to the nearest human - and so she did, stepping in place with a splash to face Aisling. Audi then proceeded to stare at the ghost expectantly, ears perking up to attention, every bit of her body language saying 'I'm here, I'm listening, and I'm ready to do whatever you tell me to'. A pose she was well accustomed to.

((crap--i could have sworn i replied to this o.o i must've started it, and it got deleted))

Aisling sighed and watched Esha go. goodness, the fun trek around the school hadn't certainly ended oddly. the ghost girl looked at Audi, feeling worn out for the first time since she died. she was still certain that she couldn't exactly sleep, but boy, did she need a break! She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed.

"well, that was certainly an interesting first day for you, huh Audi? I think it might be best to call it a day--i'm pretty sure the festivities are done for now, at least." it wasn't late enough to actually go to bed. if it were, aisling would have suggested that first. instead, she figured that now would be a good time to take it easy. she cast a wary eye at the water on the floor.

"don't worry about the mess," she said with a wince and shake of her head. it's not like either of them would do much good in trying to clean it up, anyways. Audi was still soaked to the bone, as were the towel's whose locations were known, and aisling had no idea where to find a mop.
"i don't think there's too much more we can do here, really. I'm pretty sure no one will mind of you bring the towel with you and use it to dry off the rest of the way."

aisling felt like taking refuge in a chandelier or something and just staying out of people's way for a while so that she could re-cooperate.

((That's fine. Man, this train of threads lasted a while x'D))


She listened to the ghost speak, standing motionless save for a few slow blinks. Lots of words, no directions. Right. She could take the towel with her... where?

Audi's gaze slid down from Aisling to sink down in the puddle and she squinted slightly. Right. Maybe this human simply wasn't competent enough to give instructions. And honestly, Audi was too exhausted to care at that point. She would think things over later, when her body wasn't screaming at her to hide and sleep off all the stress.

Without saying as much of a word of warning, Audi proceeded to shake herself off like a dog, spreading droplets everywhere, then she sniffed again and with a last glance towards the girl headed towards the door. Maybe she would find a place to hole up, or maybe she would just lie down clinging to the wall in one of the corridors. Either would be fine, the roof over her head more than made up for the lack of comfortable bedding. It was more than what she had for the most of her life.