damned_institute | Day 51: Men's Showers [Second Shift]

Bah. So much for yet another suggestion of von Karma's. Such priorities this Institute had. They would implement a foolish suggestion to introduce origami lessons and to offer sewing supplies to select patients, yet refused to allow them to cleanse themselves more often than twice a week -- and, of course, without any additional privacy? How many more of his reasonable suggestions would the Head Lunatic make a point of ignoring?

von Karma scoffed, shaking his head as he entered the shower facility. Fortunately, it appeared that he was the first one in here. As soon as the announcement over the intercom had blared out signaling the shift change, von Karma had been quick to excuse himself from his conversation with Naraku to promptly head for the showers. It had been bad enough last time that there were already three men in the showers by the time he arrived. This time, he would make certain that he would be the first one there.

Without wasting a single second, he disrobed, meticulously washed off the grime from the past several days, dried himself, then got dressed. All within a perfect three minutes, zero seconds, before anyone else had a chance to enter. He would have preferred a much longer time to devote to hygiene, but he didn't want to risk any needless immodesty in front of anyone.

Now finished, he exited the restroom and entered the Sun Room.

[To here]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A shower? Wonderful. He needed one. He was rather disgusted that they weren't allowed to bathe every day. Most hospitals were rabid about hygiene after all. Why should this one be any different if it wasn't to keep up appearances? It was amazing how times changed though. Once the thought of bathing so often would have been vaguely horrifying. It made him smile vaguely, until the realisation that he would have to shower in the same room as Russia and Prussia and Germany when he was injured.

Lovely, several of the last countries in the world that he would ever want to be around when he was at a disadvantage.

Not that he was going to hide. Not at all. He had more pride than that. He stripped off, huffing as the nurse insisted on helping him get the t-shirt off over his injured shoulder. He found a free spigot, as far away from Russia and other people as he could, and ducked beneath the shower head, letting the hot water soak over his body.

[Free]

[hope you don't mind!]

Thank the gods for showers and gender discrimination. Kratos had the feeling that if they'd had the opportunity, Raine and Rita would have followed him around until dinner spewing out questions and expecting him to answer. But, now he'd successfully escaped in a way that was according to routine and that didn't involve violence and forks.

The nurse was kind enough to help him get the brace off his arm and his shirt over his head, but he didn't escape into the shower room without a lecture on behaving and being patient - which he ignored. In his mind, he'd had legitimate reasons for threatening Rita, mostly the assurance of his continued existence.

Once in the showers, Kratos looked for a shower head as removed from everyone else as possible, but found that that particular one was already occupied. Simple enough. He took the second best space next to the other man. It was somewhat difficult managing the shower controls with one hand, but eventually he got the water to turn on, and Kratos stepped into the spray eagerly.

He looked across at the man next to him. "I apologize if you weren't looking for company." Although, did this really count as company?

[I don't mind at all!]

England blinked away soap suds from his eyes, reaching up to wipe them away with the back of his arm. He shoved his choppy hair back from his face, squinting through the water as the other man approached. He wasn't unfamiliar with bathing as a group; he'd done it enough with soldiers in the barracks, and having someone to talk to, or at least to stand nearby, was better than having to endure Russia once more. Most things were better than that. It was enough to make him wish for the days of the Great Game. At least neither side had been able to annihilate the entire world back then.

He shook his head when the new man reached him and stepped under the next shower head over. "I don't mind at all," he said politely, leaning back against the wall so the water could just fall over him. "I've met people in worse places than a shower."

It was impossible to wash his hair with just one hand, but unfortunately, using two did not make the task any easier. Although he had managed to 'fix' his arm three nights ago, the pain was still there, shooting up through his elbow every time he moved his right arm.

For once, Kratos tried to distract himself from pain by carrying on a conversation. "I hardly think one would meet anyone in the shower," he said, leaning out of the way of the spray to scrub the back of his hair. "Normally, that is." He too had done his share of communal showering long before his arrival at Landel's; most of the time, it had been in silence.

England smiled slightly, amusement curling his lips. "The bath houses in my country used to be used for all manner of meetings and politicking," England replied with a little shrug. He'd been very small when they had been built, a child by the standards that nations went by, and he had been amazed by them when Rome had taken him. All that water gathered in one place by human hands, piped up from the ground to bathe in, rather than having to just jump into icy rivers and lakes. Of course, he'd denied caring vehemently when Rome had asked him.

"And the showers here seem to fulfill much the same function since its the only place where you can get any peace away from the harpies they claim are nurses."

"Is that so. What country is this?" Kratos asked mildly as he rinsed his hair off. He could think of no public baths in either of the twin worlds. The only possible match were the hot springs in Tethe'alla, but they were similar to Altamira in that they held no use other than for relaxation, and he had never heard of any sort of official business being conducted there.

He looked darkly toward the entrance to the showers where no doubt a nurse was waiting eagerly for him to emerge so she could strap the brace on again. "Indeed."

"England," he said with a touch of pride in his voice. "Well, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to be proper." But he had always been England and the formal title was such a mouthful to say. He didn't go around saying 'good morning, Federal Republic of Germany' or 'get off my sodding sofa, French Fifth Republic, you bloody wino'. "Not that bath houses are very common in the modern day." At times he sort of missed them, but he was rather fond of his own private shower, it had to be said.

"Where might you be from, if you don't mind me asking?"

Edited 2010-08-19 20:46 (UTC)

"I have to admit that this is the first time I've heard of such a thing," Kratos confessed. A communal shower in the barracks he could see, but an entire house for the sole purpose of bathing? That seemed extreme.

And he could immediately see the reason for the name 'England'; there was no way anyone would be willing to use that country's full name unless they were trying to cover all their bases far too thoroughly. It was a strange idea, to call a country the 'United Kingdom', though, because that implied that there were kingdoms that were not united. Or maybe he was just being stupid.

"Where I come from...it is difficult to explain. My home world was, as the result of a great war, split into two separate worlds, one for each of the countries involved in the war. One is Tethe'alla, which is the country I hail from; its twin is called Sylvarant." Hopefully it was not too mind-bending of a concept to understand.

Day 51: Men's Showers [Second Shift]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Sorry for the lateness D: Had less internet than anticipated over the weekend.

no problem! /o/

Re: no problem! /o/

no subject