Day 62: Men's Showers (4th Shift)

[forsworn]

This whole day had been quiet so far, and Kratos rather liked it that way. Aside from a mandatory therapy session, he had not been forced into talking with someone he didn't know under the pretense of making friends, nor had he been conversely accosted. There was still a report that he needed to give, if Sora would actually be around the next day for him to give it, but that was different. Reports and things of a more business-like nature agreed with him where small talk did not.

He was the first one into the showers for perhaps the first time, which meant that the often sought-after corner shower was now his for the taking. Kratos had no problem with communal showers, thanks to his time in the military, but the corner shower had this aura about it, this sort of vibe that clearly stated, "Do not bother me"--exactly what he was looking for, on a day where he'd enjoyed mostly peace and quiet.

Turning the water on, he waited for a few seconds under the spray to thoroughly soak his hair before reaching for the shampoo.

[OLD MAN CLUB MEETING NOW IN SESSION]

Comments

[terriblehaiku]

Of everything about this place, the only thing Hijikata could say he actually appreciated was the abundant availability of hot water. While he would have vastly preferred a bath to soak in, given the bruises covering nearly every inch of him, the water was good enough, and he stood there for longer than he might have otherwise, letting it take a bit of the ache out of his muscles. Eventually, however, standing got to be too much of a strain on his injured leg and he had to finish up, washing his hair as best he could with his right arm in the state it was. Once he'd managed that, he went to towel off and dress again.

[To here]

[toxicspiderman]

The greenhouse was becoming a habit. S.T. strolled back into the main building, dirt caked under his fingernails. Nature was the closest thing to a drug around here. Voluntary, that was. Easy enough to play benzodiazepine roulette with the nurses, but he wanted to be able to think.

S.T. wandered into the showers. Enough dirt. His goatee was sprawling like a Midwestern suburb. Shaving meant letting one of the bruisers lurking around the edges of the locker room have amateur landscape duty, though. He declined, and stuck his hands, then his head, under a shower.

[free]

[norainu]

Not a lot of takers for the showers so far, which Renji found kind of weird. Or maybe he just liked the whole plumbing and being able to bathe thing a little too much after years of having no option but furtive dips in a cold stream. Who knew.

He ended up at a shower next to some guy he'd never met. Renji gave him a polite nod, but didn't say anything quite yet since he'd notice some guys got kind of weird about it.

[toxicspiderman]

S.T. poked his head back out of the spray to find some shampoo. A tall guy with more tattoos than a National Geographic special, nodded at him.

"Hey," S.T. said. He could be polite, when he wanted. Especially to guys who looked like they could wipe the tiles with him. "Do I know you? I don't think I know you. Sangamon Taylor, biochemist and professional corporate pestilence. To the corporations, not for them." That slogan was going to need more work.

He lathered up his hands and started working soap into his hair; it had gone all stringy and gross. Maybe it was finally missing that fruity shit Debbie had left in his shower and he'd been stealing. Or he was just projecting. This place could make a nun feel dirty.

[oyaji]

When his nurse told him it was time for a shower, Kotetsu was actually eager. He preferred baths, but there was no room to complain when he felt gross from his earlier excursion in the restroom. The woman that followed him, however, was worried about his strange symptoms, but he waved her off with that smile of his and an extra dose of bravado that took a bit of digging to rile up.

“Alright, but if you become too light-headed, please sit down and relax. Fainting isn’t exactly the outcome we want here.”

“Will do, ma’am!” If Kotetsu wasn’t so suspicious of everyone in this institute, he’d have actually enjoyed the nurse’s good intentions. Unfortunately, her care was nothing to trust right now.

Walking into the bathroom again, the older man made sure not to lay eyes on the sink he had just deposited a ball of black hair in only an hour or so ago. He followed the rest of the male patients to the showers where, surprisingly, Kotetsu noticed they were not private. Most western facilities had a thing about nudity and privacy, but the older man didn’t really care either way. Living out his childhood in Oriental Town pretty much displaced any fears he had of public nudity.

He found a spare locker and began disrobing quickly. It was sad to compromise, but Kotetsu had to sit down in order to take his shoes off. His balance was a mess from this dizzy spell, not to mention the nausea.

[Bunnyboo~!]

[ham_fisted]

What was the matter with him?

The question had been bothering him since he'd woken up. But what worried him even more was the fact he hadn't had a chance to check up on the others when his nurse ushered him into the Men's Showers.

Gumshoe let out a heavy sigh after he caught himself staring at the inside of the locker door, feeling annoyed with himself. Was he expecting something to just appear there? That if he stared at it for long enough he'd be back in the Evidence Room? Was he hoping to see his photo of Maggey there, too?

He'd be embarrassed to say this, but he'd been caught daydreaming on the job more times than he'd like to admit. Sleeping past noon, though? Before Landel's Institute, he'd only done that when he'd been allowed to go on a break after a really tiring night (unless he had to testify in court the next morning). Which was to say, not very often; besides, he couldn't afford to sleep when there was all that work to be done. Even back when he had been a beat cop working night shifts, he'd gotten too wound up to be able to fall asleep easily the next day. And he wasn't saying the people here didn't have a good reason for sleeping during the day. Everyone needed to rest at some point, right? They couldn't survive on food alone.

But he used to be better at this!

Maybe he was being too hard on himself. He didn't think he was, but it didn't matter what he thought about it. Mr. Edgeworth didn't tolerate tardiness. Waking up this late while he was trapped here was almost as bad as arriving late to court. The same rules applied to this situation as long as his duty stayed the same: to help others. To do his job. To find the truth.

The detective pulled his shirt down over his head and with that, he was done. He sighed again and kept on rubbing his hair with the towel, clearly not paying attention to what was going on around him. The paramedic group... He was going to write a note to that Tear girl. It was a worthy cause, but it didn't seem like many people had gotten behind it yet. That was a shame. Gumshoe thought it was important that they made sure it got off the ground. He didn't know very much about medicine (or healing abilities, now that he knew they existed), but he'd say this: getting other captives to medically treat people instead of having to wait till morning would save lives.

If it meant they could do something to prevent people from dying the way Inspector Javert had, Gumshoe was all for it!

[free]

[tasteoftruth]

Productive morning. Unproductive lunch, but the man had been tolerable enough despite leaving Badd with an unpleasant craving for beer and junk food. The comforts of home seemed very far away right now, like childhood memories.

But here was something familiar, albeit familiar and naked. So what, they had communal showers at the police station too. No embarrassment here. Badd took his shower quickly, then grabbed a towel and went to meet with his former subordinate when the other man was dressing.

"Gumshoe." It did feel dehumanizing to be herded from Point A to Point B and washed en masse like a load of laundry, but the actual nudity hardly bothered him. Badd had led a hard and dangerous life that left his body covered in marks, and he wasn't ashamed of any of them.

[ham_fisted]

[Sorry for the ridiculously long wait! Been sick.]

"Huh?" Gumshoe looked up when he heard a familiar voice say his name, but he wasn't fully paying attention until he saw who it was. "Oh, hey, Pops!" He shut the locker door in front of him and draped his towel around his neck. He'd seen a few of Detective Badd's scars before, but it was hard to tell which ones (if any) were new. He thought he'd be able to tell a bullet scar from a monster bite, though.

His face softened. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that the old man already knew things about the Institute that Gumshoe didn't. "What are you up to these days, sir?"

[age_of_kings]

Oh god, showers.

While Tolten's first introduction to the communal bathing situation had been brunt and...er...intimate enough to jar a number of his reservations and hang-ups right out of him, he still wasn't keen on the idea. He awkwardly undressed, hunching his body forward and slinking into the shower area, thankful at least that there weren't many other patients about.

At least that made it easy to find a space that wasn't next to anyone. The young king turned on the tap and leaned forward, pressing his forehead to the tile as the hot water cascaded over him. That should help his aches.

Perhaps staying in would be a wise idea this night shift. He wouldn't even know about the blade until morning, and he really was feeling miserable. Almost like someone had hit him with Disease. And surely Locke had to be feeling run down as well....

[Free]

[tender_cruelty]

He still wasn't feeling any better after going outside and while spending time with Badou had distracted him from it a little, it came back full force when he returned inside. If he was sick, how did anyone cope with it? It was horrible. He felt exhausted and slight dizzy and...

He gritted his teeth and headed into the shower, hoping that perhaps the water would help to soothe some of his aching muscles that really shouldn't ache since he had done nothing for a couple of days to warrant it.

It looked like someone else had a similar idea to him too. When he arrived, there was another man there, leaning against the wall and looked every bit as nauseated and miserable as Allelujah felt. In his current state, someone weakened was probably the safest person to shower next to as well, so he headed over, taking a shower two or three over from him.

[age_of_kings]

Shower etiquette was not, strictly speaking, Tolten's strong point. He wasn't even certain what it was! But he did know that someone had taken a spot close enough to warrant some form of acknowledgement. And the poor fellow looked about as well as Tolten himself felt.

So turning his head and bracing himself against the wall with one hand, he nodded to the other man with a nervous jerk of his head and an awkward attempt at a smile. He couldn't really bring himself to smile at someone in a communal shower. Not as a greeting.

He supposed he ought to actually take advantage of a chance to get clean...

[unpriest]

Though the fact that the showers were communal was hardly surprising, Seishin wasn't particularly thrilled. It reminded him of long-passed days in high school. More naive days, for better or for worse.

But after all that had happened the past few nights, a shower was desirable so he did as he was told without any objections. He quickly undressed, revealing the unmarred skin underneath the grey clothing. Those wounds had healed too quickly, hadn't they? Was it related to last night? It seemed strange, but the timing was the only thing he could go off.

After he finished disrobing, he awkwardly made his way into the showering area. He had no intention to be rude and choose the stall next to someone else -- and he was too self-conscious to do so anyway. The lack of privacy made him feel uncomfortable and exposed, but he supposed it couldn't be helped. He was relieved to discover that there weren't many patients who had entered the area just yet. The former priest made his way towards one of the more secluded stalls, keeping his gaze on where he was going rather than the men who were in the room with him.

Turning on the water, he took a moment to stand under its hot spray.

[Free!]

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar was, at first, thankful for the chance to bathe. He could not even remember the last time he had taken a decent bath. Of course, his memory of his last few weeks in Lior were cloudy, as if they had happened years ago.

Had it really been two days?

But when the Ishbalan was marched into some sort of mass-bathroom and asked to remove his clothes, he froze. The nurse did not actually expect him to strip with these other people in the room, did she? At least, from what he could see, there were only other men. He was used to being very covered, with layers of desert robes protecting his body from the harsh sun. And this was not 'covered.'

At least the steamy air was somewhat soothing his aching head ans stomach. But the heat was heavy and wet. It made him uncomfortable. A desert-dweller was not made for the humidity, and Scar was not feeling well to begin with.

Trying and failing not to be overly awkward, Scar shuffled to one of the remaining empty shower nozzles. His vision was trained specifically on the strange handle on the wall as he fiddled with it, trying to get it to work. The technology was not something he had seen before. Hopefully he could get through this without anyone getting too sociable.

[Free~]

[earthling]

Claude was still worried about his mother, but the nurses were insistent that he take a shower once shift ended. While he couldn't say he disliked getting clean, he had to admit that he didn't have much energy for it today. His stomach felt out of sorts, for one thing, like he'd had one hell of a bumpy space ride. An uncomfortable pressure had started building up behind his eyes, too, which was clearly the warning signs of a headache. Not only that, but his body in general was starting to ache. Didn't that mean he might have a fever?

As nice as showers felt, Claude couldn't help but think a hot bath would do him more good. Too bad they didn't have anything like that here, although he guessed they were lucky to be allowed to wash at all. He would have liked to spend most of the shift soaking up the warm water while letting the warm steam soothe his aching head, but in the end dizzy spells started to get the better of him. Claude didn't know whether it was due to the heat or what, but he didn't want to overexert himself.

After soaping himself up and washing his hair, Claude quickly rinsed all the suds off. With that done, he stepped out of the shower, toweled himself off and got dressed. Maybe he could just spend the rest of the shift taking it easy...

[earthling]

((To here.))

[heroesdontshave]

Snow had been in this place for... a hell of a lot longer than he really wanted to admit, to be honest. He didn't really tend to think about it. He also didn't linger too much on details. Sure, a lot of things about this place were weird and (literally) otherworldly, but he'd actually gotten used to a lot of things in this place.

The public showers? Not one of those things.

The idea of being naked around other people still really rubbed him the wrong way. Even if it was just a bunch of guys. He still couldn't imagine how anyone could consider this normal. Hell, Snow really didn't feel like it was any less embarrassing now than it had been his first time in. Though to tell the truth, the actual taking clothes off and walking in was probably the worst part of it. Once he was actually in the showers, he was too distracted by adjusting the shower water and stuff to pay attention to the fact that there were other people around.

But hey! He got the knob thing down! It didn't even take him that long to get the water to a normal temperature. See? He could get the hang of things. Maybe a warm shower was all he needed to clear his head up a little? ...Nah. He wasn't hugely into this stuff that he found it relaxing. If anything, bathing for a long time seemed like it'd be boring. He didn't have the patience to stand around doing nothing like that.

So despite feeling victorious over his mastery of shower nozzles, he didn't take too long to finish. Getting dressed again was a lot simpler this time, too, since he didn't have a stupid, clunky military uniform to assemble around himself. ...Man, he'd hated that. Thank goodness that was all over.

[ heading here]

[stellarregions]

When fourth shift rolled around, Gren went for his usual tactics, waiting until there was a temporary lull in people before he got undressed and headed inside himself. Thankfully, his nurse seemed to be used to the routine by now, and let him hang around until the coast was clear.

As stressful as the whole situation continued to be, he was at least grateful for the chance to wash his hair.

[For Hakkai]

[vinesofregret]

The concept of communal bathing in of itself didn't faze Hakkai - he was, after all, Chinese - but the idea of bathing with total strangers made him uncomfortable on a personal level. There were far too many marks on his skin he didn't feel like explaining. Luckily, the nurse escorting him didn't seem to mind him waiting a short while for a quieter moment. He shed his clothing quickly, folding it and putting it one of the lockers with his glasses stacked on top.

Then he headed into the showers, determined to make this as quick a trip as possible. He stopped somewhat short though, when he saw that the only other person in the showers at the moment was somewhat decidedly not male. The mist from the shower heads made it hard to see, and he really was half-blind without his glasses on, but it was hard to miss curves like that. There was a moment of indecision - apologize, or flee and hope she hadn't noticed?

[stellarregions]

He was just starting to work the shampoo through his hair when he heard the sounds of bare feet on the tiles. He cursed mentally and glanced back over his shoulder to see if he knew who it was. If it was someone he hadn't spoken to before, he might be able to escape without having to make too awkward of excuses...

No such luck. Of course it was the one of the few people in the institute he'd actually spent any time talking to. That was exactly his sort of luck.

"Sorry," he said after what felt like one very awkward moment. "I'll be out of here in a minute." He hated hurrying himself out, but he didn't want to make things more uncomfortable than they were already bound to be.

[kings_thief]

Although Lunch had been nice and relatively relaxing, Locke was disturbed by the fact that whatever this was that was making him feel bad wasn't going away with a bit of rest. His face still felt warm and his lunch was barely even touched. He was certain his nurse escort noticed this but she didn't say anything and he was thankful for that. The last thing he needed was someone else harping on him about eating correctly.He just didn't think his stomach could take it right now.

He followed the nurse to the showers and hoped the water would bring some form of relief. However, after a few minutes of washing, he realized heat, when he was already feeling pretty warm, wasn't helping at all. Cutting the shower short, Locke dressed and retreated to the Sun Room.

[To here]

[osoreirimasu]

[Look at those aaaaaaaaaaabbbssssss aka hi Kratos ]

After taking a quiet lunch, Japan was more than ready for the showers. He would have preferred a soak afterwards, to help ease the tension in his back and the nervous energy running through him, but he supposed in a foreign hospital, the lack of common bath customs was to be expected. America simply hadn't learned to appreciate the recuperative powers of an hour-long soak yet. Perhaps one day, when the nation was older and had more old wounds to rest, his people would come to understand it. As it was, Japan was just happy they allowed them to bathe on a semi-regular schedule. He would have preferred a bath everyday, at the very least every other day, but he would take what he could get.

It was a sad thing when a Nation had to "make due," but Japan tried to remind himself that this was just a setback. A temporary one. Once he was able to find Prussia, America and England, he was sure the three of them could figure something out. Four Nations together could do anything, right? Certainly there were fewer of them than before, but that just meant the others were working to get them out, right?

....Right?

Japan sighed as he stepped up to one of the only showers left open. It didn't take him long to settle into the familiar routine of communal bathing. Sentou were the best places to deepen one's relations with the neighborhood and this was a wonderful opportunity to talk to people. Sadly, it seemed most of the others in here didn't seem as enthusiastic as Japan and were trying to hide away as if the baths were a shameful place. Strange.

A glance to the side and Japan froze. Those. Abs.

He knew them.

His side glance snapped up from his neighbor's perfectly sculpted (the best character designers worked on that) abs and up to his face. Oh. Wonderful. It would...be him. Wait, no, this was wonderful. Maybe in the space of a shared bath they could come to understand each other better! Japan perked up at that thought and tried to be as friendly as he could manage, which meant he actually looked at Kratos as he spoke. "Good afternoon, Aurion-san. I hope it is not a bother that I have taken this space?"

[forsworn]

Honda might have been happy to see him, but Kratos could not say with complete honesty that the feeling was mutual. Even though no one else had witnessed the...he couldn't even bring himself to name it. The unmentionable. Even though no one else had seen it, he was still a bit sore about the whole affair and it showed.

As he worked some shampoo through his hair, he wondered if there would be any consequences for telling someone flat out that he did consider it a bother. It would be the honest thing to do, actually. The one problem, he realized as he tried to glance around discretely, was that there were no other open showers. It was one thing to tell someone to bugger off (albeit politely); it was another to make that person wait for another shower head when there was so clearly one open. The second left room for a spectacle, which Kratos wanted even less than Honda's company.

...He could always just refuse to talk. That was easy enough to do; it also had the added benefit of communicating his feelings without him having to actually admit to them.

"It isn't." It is.

[osoreirimasu]

"Ah...." Oh. "Thank....you....." That was a decidedly different greeting than the last time they had met. Then again, the last time they met, Japan hadn't somehow or another gotten Kratos to make a paper mustache under the guise of it being a military strategy. Well, to be frank, it had been a military strategy, just not a very good one; not that Romano had thought it through before putting it into action against Germany. Japan dropped his gaze to the tiled floor and quickly dunked his head under the stream of water as he turned the knob.

It was ice cold at first and he bit back a shriek at the shock of it. It was enough to wake him up, however, and as the water grew warmer, he held his breath, staying under it as long as possible. Under the water, not only was he hidden so Kratos couldn't see the depression in his eyes at realizing he had royally messed up their working relationship, but it also kept him from staring at Kratos and the fact that he was exactly as drawn in the character profiles. Of course, that was to be expected, seeing how he was Kratos Aurion, but....still.

Ugh. Why did this make him feel so sick?

...Wait.

Japan stepped back suddenly, breathing in deeply and clutching his chest. Right. Breathing. Breathing was a thing he needed to do. Breathing and not thinking about how he should pay a visit to Namco when he returned (if he returned) to congratulate them on their designs - these were things he needed to do. Turning his face away, he tried to go about the ritual of showering with minimal conversation in order to put Kratos at ease, but the atmosphere was so thick that it was starting to feel like real pressure against his temples. "...Ah...Aurion-san....? If I may....? I apologize for the other day. I realize it must have been an uncomfortable experience, and I regret putting you through such a thing."

[girlsandgadgets]

After a visit to the bulletin board, Edgar showered quickly, having thought he saw Locke heading out on his way in. While he'd often preferred warmer showers, their heat more akin to the desert he'd been acclimated to his entire life, he found himself liking the colder temperatures these days, the cool water helping stifle that inner fire. He sighed, knowing this was probably going to be the norm for the rest of his life.

In and out. He had business to attend to.

[To here.]

[ryuuzaki]

Not better, not worse: as he made his way to the showers and slipped out of his clothes, L felt as under the weather as he had when he woke up. Everything required more effort than seemed possible.

He'd requested a few paracetamol from a nurse after lunch, but the blank look she'd given him had prompted him to alter his request into one for acetaminophen, with more fruitful results. He wondered why he hadn't used the right word to begin with. There was no indication that this was America as he knew it, but statements that Landel had made during the days of his exile led L to think that he might be trapped--in a fantastical, unbelievable way--in an iteration of it. The accents seemed right, but the way language could be manipulated in the Institute... in Doyleton, too... made it hard to say. Still, on a better day, he would have remembered to try the American term before the one that was more natural to him.

The shower itself felt good: the water was warm enough to soothe some of the ache without being so hot that it exacerbated the slightly overheated feeling that came with a low-grade fever. Overall, even though he kept it short, he was more comfortable when he finished than he had been when he stepped under the stream.

He credited the improvement to the shower, in part, but also to the medication, which seemed to have gone to work. The dosage he'd taken usually lasted about four hours, so he'd ask for a second dose at dinner, which would set him up for the night. If the nurse wouldn't give it to him, he could dose himself; he had looted plenty of the same substance from one of the storage rooms upstairs, just after he and Lunge had encountered the Sphinx. Taking any medication at Landel's required him to suppress his skepticism at varying levels, though. He ate the food that they gave him because he had to, and because ill effects had been minimal to this point; likewise, he didn't think that a daytime nurse would give him any medication more questionable than a placebo. But pills that he had found packed away upstairs, at night... his confidence that they were what they were supposed to be, and not something potentially harmful, wasn't as strong.

[To the Sun Room.]