Here, have some lack of excitement. [Open]

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

Anyone who steps into this particular Sensorium pod will find themselves in a plain, boring-looking laundromat. But for a single running washer (thrum thrum thrum it goes, and there's a flash of red inside) and Meluly sitting on one of the plastic chairs while wearing only a white towel (wrapped around her from collarbones to halfway to her knees), it's unoccupied.

She's flipping through the May 2085 issue of Vogue.

Comments

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Everything is recycled in space. Air, water, food. The Abh have spent thousands of years engineering ways to mitigate the staleness.

If you put a gun to an Abh's head and told them to admit to a flaw in their culture they'd probably tell you to shoot them because they're that kind of people. But if they weren't, they'd probably say the faint staleness that seems to cling to everything on a molecular level after a couple months on patrol.

Thus the building she finds herself in is an exotic one. She's used to throwing her uniform through the chute which runs it through a complex, mostly dry cycle then pops it up on the other side of the ship an hour later. She looks at the washers and dryers as if they were great crystal spires.

Oh and then there's Meluly in a towel, she notices looking down. There's that lack of inhibition again...

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"Yo," says Luly, raising a hand in a not-quite-wave as she looks up over her magazine. Her hair is a little damp, looing closer--she mis have put herself through a bath not long ago at all. She smells nicer, too... she's snuck into the Sensoriums to scrub herself down relatively often, but there's still been a light aura of perspiration that's inevitably followed her in the constant heat of the meatship. Now that's gone,though, and there's even a faint undertone of soap.

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Lafiel walks in. She picks up the clean scents and inhales, savoring them as a contrast to the moist musk of the rest of the ship. Smell being linked to memory it brings her back to that hotel on Sufugnoff...

She wonders if things are now weird between them. But she's there now, so there's no use in speculating too much...

"Does it really work?"

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

Luly nods, gesturing Lafiel over closer. "Jawohl, printsyessa," she says, grinning enigmatically. She seems to be in a good mood, probably because she's gotten the chance to actually get herself clean for once. "Got anything you need to get washed? 'Scept for your hair,anyway..."

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Lafiel let out a sigh too big for her small frame. "Please, call me by my name. I don't want any 'your highness' or 'viscountess of paryunu' unless we're in a very formal situation."

She ran a hand self consciously through her hair. The long blue strands had started to frizz in the humid climate. "I suppose not..."

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"Oh, but Your Highness...!" Luly faux-protests as she leans forward. "You really should try a bath or something, it couldn't hurt... oh, I know," she adds to herself, grinning wickedly. "I... okay, you go through there," she says, pointing at the standing-in-midair doorframe that's suddenly appeared. "Shoo, shoo. It'll let you work on all that hair."

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Lafiel pouts, showing her dissappointment. The irresistable moe' of the little frown is totally unintentional.

She ignores the doorway for a moment to walk over to Meluly. "What is that?" She refers to the fashion mag in her lap.

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"Vogue," Luly says, offering the issue to Lafiel. "It's, like... fashion, gossip, girly things."

To Abh sensibilities, what NEG culture considers fashionable would probably range from 'a little weird' to 'what the hell are you wearing that for, it's way too embarassing'.

As part of the motion, she reaches to touch Lafiel's hair lightly, too.

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Lafiel plops down on the aluminum bench next to her and leafs through the glossy. The fashions (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/Hedgehogey/Snapshot2009-08-1416-43-22.jpg) of her time (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/Hedgehogey/Snapshot2009-08-1416-45-15.jpg) strike her as strange. They somewhat resemble the military uniforms she's used to but less practical in combat. Their war must have permeated their society on so many levels...And all that skin they expose...It seems to her like the kind of thing Spaurh would wear when she's feeling extravagant.

She felt fingers in her hair and kept herself from flinching. Did she set this up to seduce me? Wow me with an exotic environment so i'd let my guard down? She dismissed the thought. That was getting a little paranoid.

"I can't seem to do anything with it. I've never been anywhere this humid for so long before..."

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"Well... without hair stuff that'll last outside, the most I can think is to give it a good wash and see if that helps. And maybe a trim, if there're any split ends." Luly carefully lifts the end of some of Lafiel's hair to check.

The buzzer on the washing machine suddenly goes off as it stops spinning.

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Lafiel considers. "Hmmm...I suppose that can't hurt."

Then there's a beep. Eyes wide, she leaps up in alarm. "What's going on? Are we under attack?!"

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

Luly reaches over to grab Lafiel's sleeve and pull her back down. And pats her on the shoulder a little condescendingly, if she doesn't move away from that.

"It's just the machine, printsyessa," she says. (Good thing nobody Russian is here, or they'd complain about how she's butchering the word.) Luly shuffles to her feet and over to pop open the machine, pulling out the wrap she's been wearing about the ship (thoroughly damp, of course).

[not-prncss-tldr.livejournal.com]

Lafiel doesn't notice, thoroughly embarrassed as she is. "Sorry. It's an old habit from the Space Forces."

She looks up at Meluly, wondering what she's going to do next.

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

Luly plunks the red cloth into one of the dryers, closes its lid, and pushes some buttons (beep beep beep beep beep). The machine starts up with the low thrum instantly recognizable (to anyone planet-bound, at least) as belonging to its class of machine.

She shuffles her way back over to Lafiel, stretching her arms up over her head. It does interesting things to that towel wrapped around her.

[riseupnchargem.livejournal.com]

Is that - is that a laundromat.

Oh man, it is.

Jamie pauses on the threshold of the Sensorium pod, peering in with a guarded but strangely wistful expression. Finally he steps in, peering around appreciatively at the gleaming rows of washers and dryers and clean-swept linoleum flooring. He takes a breath and -

Oh yeah. Fabric softener. That's one of many, many smells he's missed since he wound up on the meatship. All told, the place reminds him of the laundromat back on the island, if not in physical appearance then at least in the mood it evokes.

- well. Except for its other occupant. The island's laundromat had generally been lacking in scantily-clad, strange-looking women. Her state of dress makes Jamie a little uneasy, but he supposes he can't very well ignore her, since he barged in on her Sensorium time.

"Uh. Hi." He offers a dorky little wave, being careful to keep his eyes on her face, and adds lamely: "Nice laundromat you thought up, here."

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"Zdravstvuyte," Luly says, grinning over at Jamie. "Servus, ni hao, saluton, bonjour, qué transa, sawubona," she adds on impulse, just in case the first foreign greeting wasn't enough. "It's a place from my old neighborhood. But I'm sure I got some of the details wrong."

She glances back down at her magazine and flips a page. "And relax, kid. I'm not going to bite your face off."

[riseupnchargem.livejournal.com]

Jamie has no idea what any of the foreign-speak means, naturally, and frowns in mild confusion. At her next comment, though, he actually bridles a little, having heard essentially the same thing from more volatile individuals who, suffice to say, rather promptly went back on their word. Though he has no particular reason to distrust this woman, her words, and the patronizing term of address, put him on edge.

"...sorry," he says a bit stiffly, and begins a slow circuit of the laundromat. After a pause he glances back at her. "So where're you from?"

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"Germany, Chicago, Nazza-Duhni, or space, depending on how far back you go," Luly says. Her expression suggests she's sizing Jamie up. Aaand that maybe she finds him a bit cute, in that boyish way. "This place is from the second one," she adds with a little bit of a smirk. "But I did move it up a couple dozen levels to actually get some good sunlight."

[riseupnchargem.livejournal.com]

"Um. Well, I've heard of the first two," Jamie says. "And...you lived in space, too? Like in a colony, or what?"

He's not entirely sure what to make of the way she's looking at him, and in situations like this, when he's uncertain of something, he tends toward paranoia. He tries to disguise his nervousness, though, continuing to meander around the perimeter of the room until there's a bank of washers between the two of them.

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"An armada, actually. I was born on the flagship."

She flips another page in her magazine, glancing back down. "And it's not as exciting as it sounds, before you ask. Sort of like living on a submarine."

[riseupnchargem.livejournal.com]

"Well, 's nothing wrong with...not being exciting," Jamie says. "Excitement's overrated, sometimes." He shrugs a bit, idly running his fingertips along the edge of one of the washing machines. "So how was it, other than...submarine-like?"

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"Very regimented... honestly, pretty boring." Luly shrugs, looking up at Jamie. "What're you hiding over there for, kid?"

[riseupnchargem.livejournal.com]

"I'm not hiding," he says, his expression flattening a little. "Just...looking around." He shrugs and starts off again, as though to prove his point. "I'm Jamie, by the way," he adds, in the hopes that she'll stop calling him "kid" if she knows his proper name.

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"Nice to meet you, ki—ah, Jamie," Luly says with a grin, offering a hand to the empty air since he's not actually next to her. "I'm Meluly. No last name." She leans forward a little as she retracts the hands, arms folding under her chest. (It does interesting things to the towel wrapped around her...)

[riseupnchargem.livejournal.com]

Jamie, being an adolescent male, of course notices those "interesting things." He reddens a little and makes an odd grimacing expression as he hurriedly looks away again. "...u-um. So that was your journal post I responded to. The one about, uh, the classes and stuff." He flicks a brief glance her direction, trying to make it look as nonchalant as possible.