trans_9 | Cascade [Open party time!]

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Cascade [Open party time!]

Billy had just launched another portal in that maze of mazes, exhaustion setting in. Surely this time he would land on another moving platform of death?

Nope, just the exterior of the finished bathhouses. All polished, systems running, and just about ready to open! Given how sore and exhausted he was, that sounded like an excellent idea at the moment.

With a quick message to the rest of the crew, he set out the 'Open' sign for the first time and took advantage of his owner status---the prime waterfall spot could be his!

((ooc: The bathhouses are now open! Feel free to mingle around, relax, and have a party. Or cause trouble, but that might invite more trouble. Just start a subthread with your character's location and have fun. For reference there are individual showers in front, followed by hot tubs centrally located, saunas further back, and private baths along the side. The showers, tubs, and saunas have smaller sex-segregated units along with a central group unit that's larger.))

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"Then its near perfect," Katara insisted, grinning. "This will be a great place to relax, bathe, even meditate."

She laughed. "To be honest, I couldn't imagine you being comfortable enough with something like that. But yeah, I met Mei-Xing earlier, she definitely seems to have quite a wild streak about her!"

"Traitor," he shot back and crossed his arms, all grouch this afternoon. "I felt like a juicy slice of meat for sale. Women and co-workers everywhere taking a good look."

And producing some of the most uncomfortable minutes of his recent memory.

She smiled, patting his arm sympathetically. "I'm just joking Billy, I'm sorry. I know it must have been pretty rough for you. If it makes you feel any better, Beastboy totally spied me naked by mistake one day at the hotel. It was pretty mortifying. It;s no fun being so vulnerable like that to someone else."

That helped a little, and he lowered his arms. "It's less fun when the person strips you deliberately and has such a great power advantage that there's little chance of revenge. They didn't help me, but they did undress and join in."

Billy shook his head, still baffled by it. Maybe the whole objective was to get him comfortable---loose, Kaylee would say. But it would clearly take more attempts.

"Oh, do you want the waterfall spot?" Billy offered. "It's great for the muscles, especially after three days of maze tests or construction work."

"Now that's just cheating," she said, making a face. "At least they tried to make you feel comfortable about it by joining in though. Nudity is a lot easier to deal with when its an actual group thing and not a single person thing. I mean, someone would have to be pretty brave to do it first."

By that she means to at least tell Billy he was brave even if they meant to tease him about it.

"Oh yes, definitely!" Katara said. "I've been training a little on my own, I could definitely stand to have the spout on my body."

After saying that though she looks around, as if expecting a certain book to join in with a dirty comment.

Billy shuffled over to make room for her. noting how much better he felt since first coming in. He almost didn't hurt at all.

"I suppose so," he agreed, curling against the wall. "I've just been left to plan to waterproof the morphers and beef up security. There's unfortunate potential for danger here."

He rolled his shoulders while she looked, curious and somewhat worried. "Were you expecting someone?"

Katara walked over and uttered a sigh of relief the moment she went into the waterfall. It actually felt really good. She should have done this ages ago.

"Security? Do you expect some trouble to happen while you're in here? Why would you need the morphers?"

She in turn rolled her eyes. "I just expect a certain someone to make a lewd comment when I say something like that. It's the sort of thing that would be right up the Overlord's alley."

Billy smiled as he watched her relax. That's what he'd worked for.

"Many of us are from cultures where public bathing didn't occur---we had private showers and that was all. We're not used to seeing other people in various states of undress, so harassment is a potential issue. The morpher, admittedly, would've served no purpose except protecting my modesty."

Ah, he knew of that. "Zetta's been teasing you?"

She didn't miss the smile, and it came well deserved. He really had done an extraordinary job with all of this.

"Rich people get to do that," she said. "But where I'm from, at least when we traveled, we didn't really have the luxury. You never knew when your next bath would happen so you stripped down, jumped in and got all of it off. I mean, yeah, I'd be more likely to actually be naked all my own, but you took what you could get."

She made a face. "Yes, especially when it comes to sex. He likes to remind me that I'm at an age where my hormones are going crazy and stuff like that. It gets really annoying, and I hate admitting at times that he's right."

Billy remembered hearing that. "So I'd trust you and your friends to behave yourselves, but it's the others I'm concerned about." Billy did not look forward to enforcing the rules there. He was convinced that something worse than what they'd done to him would befall someone else.

"That's not right," he frowned. "You have a healthy outlet, you have a happy social life for the most part. It's none of his business."

Billy was sympathetic. They all dealt with hormones, even late-bloomers like him.

Katara nodded. "No, you won't have to worry about us. Hopefully everyone will be on their best behavior when it comes to...hiccup!"

Oh yes, that's right, she had a bit of Mei-Xing's drink, and that was why Katara looked like she had a permanent blush to her cheeks.

"Oh, he's always like that, saying stuff," she said, waving her hand. "He's a jerk, but he can also be a really nice person when he fees like it. It's just really irritating when he reminds me about it. I'm a martial artist: we don't like to think about situations where we're not in complete control of ourselves."

"A lovable jerk, then," Billy mused. "And I think I understand. I feel the same way about experiments, but I've been physically powerless and dominated for such a long period of my life that it's somewhat easier to take a backseat. The uncertainty would be the worst part for me."

That hiccup and blush concerned him. He leaned forward, gently tapping her cheek and checking for awareness. "Katara, what happened?"

She nodded. "Yeah, something like that. But I try to do what I can. I mean, I've been able to focus on the things I've needed to do like training and helping others, how hard can ignoring hormones b-hiccup!"

She looked a little sheepish. "Well, I told you I ran into Mei-Xing earlier, remember? She left a few bottle of her secret stash of alcohol, and I had some. It hadn't hit me until now."

And she let out a giggle. "I think I might be a little past tipsy, but I should be ok."

Billy nodded, still looking worried. "I have faith in you. You'll be fine."

He held onto her shoulder for a moment, peering as closely as he could to be sure that she was okay. "Yeah, that would do it. Let me know if you need any help?"

Mei-Xing had caused more than enough trouble for them today, as helpful as she was sometimes.

She nodded. "I'm a fighter Billy, you know me! I'll do what I have to. Besides, let's face it: there's a LOT of things we have to do before I can even thing about my hormones.

And she would hope it stayed that way.

She laughed, hitting her chest a little. "I think I'll be ok. It's just some alcohol."

She tripped a little here, looking uncertain. "Of course, it doesn't hurt to be careful."

Yes she was. Billy was pleased with her usual fighters' attitude. Wise and strong, except...tipsy.

"I wouldn't put it past Mei-Xing to make it exceptionally strong," he muttered, eyes darkening. He held out an arm for Katara to grasp or lean on if she needed to. "Do you want me to walk you back to the hotel?"

It was new: well, tispy wasn't, she'd done that before, but MORE than tipsy was new. She'd have to make sure not to do this again, as she'd said to Mei-Xing before, except on special occasions.

"She did say something about mixing other chemicals, but she wouldn't tell me what they were. I think she wanted to keep it a secret."

She thought a moment. "Considering I never did this before, yes. Maybe I won't ever make something as strong as Mei-Xing did: the drink made me cough a lot."

Billy would stay, then. He was at her side, waiting to help Katara if she should need it. "That's not reassuring. Make sure you get some rest, all right? We should probably get you out into the clean air. Do you want to go?"

He held his hand out to her.

She thought a moment. "Yes, I probably should. I still know what I'm saying, but with all that steam, I am feelling a little light headed. Who knew that something like this worked so slowly?"

Ands he let out a giggle. "Suuure!"

"I hear you. All right, let's go." Billy clambered out of the tub first, stabilized on the ground level, then took her hand. "It's ok, you'll be taken care of soon."

Kataraa leaned on him a luttle, smiling. They walked for a few inute, and then Katar stopped.

"Hey Billy," she said in a sing-song voice, "will you carry mee?"

Could he? Billy thought a moment. He'd been doing strength training for the past few months, plus that construction work, and Katara was fairly lithe...so it was worth a shot.

"I've got you," Billy whispered, carefully scooping her into his arms. "Hold on, it's not too far now."

She grinned when he did so: she actually hadn't expected him to do it.

"You've gotten stronger Billy," she remarked, smiling. "See, I told you that you could get stronger if you worked at it. Soon you'll be pretty strong, and you will be a more awesome blue ranger!"

She held his neck at the moment though, just so he could get a better grip. She was slightly drunk, not inconsiderate.

Billy held her securely, moving them toward the hotel at a slow and steady pace. After all the heavy equipment he'd lugged these past few weeks, Katara wasn't too much of a burden.

"It's a long work in progress," Billy commented, "but I'm managing. Thanks to you."

They were almost there, thankfully. He could see the entrance. Just a few minutes longer, then he could see about collecting water and some sort of pain medication.

"I keep telling you that you're the one that's responsible for how well you do," she said, attempting to give him a stern look and failing miserably. "Just keep doing what you're doing .'

She wiped her brow, panting. Was this what alcohol did to you often? If that was the case, she didn't think she would drink too much again.

When she swa them approaching, she made a movement to let Billy knwo she could walk all her own. When they reached the lobby, she collapsed on the couch laughing,.

"SLOBO!" she exclaimed. "I remember now! Slobo and Static! They started the Outsiders here! And Slobo had some sign on the couch before. It's not here anymore though."

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