trans_9 | Splish Splash, I was taking a bath (Bendy timed to just after the weddings)

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Splish Splash, I was taking a bath (Bendy timed to just after the weddings)

Not everybody wanted to go to the consummation huts straight off the bat. Which meant if they wanted to get cleaned up, they needed another spot to do so in.

Luckily, the city had just such a place: the great public baths. They were rather immense. And open, since the Moai didn't have much in the way of nudity taboos. There were private stalls around the edges, though, for those who weren't quite so open. Or just wanted to do a little 'private' bathing (wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more). It's traditional for the baths to take a while. After all, pretty much everybody here has just gotten married! Enjoy!

(Oh. And your clothes are going to disappear. Nothing personal, the Rapa Nui just want to make sure you have something clean and dry to change into when you've bathed. Isn't that nice?)

((Yep, there are public baths in the city. Have fun with it! And Jono's still outside the city. I just want to be able to get notifs after I ask for no notifications on the main post.))

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Ronnie looked back at the source of the call. When she noticed Billy and who she thought she remembered was Hoshi? She smiled shyly and moved slowly looking a bit nervous. When she reached a spot nearby them she stopped.

"H-hey." Her face was a bit red and definitely avoiding wandering eyes. Which was kind of hard in this place right now.

That she was, Billy! See, Hoshi was just like that, you know? She then smiled and swam over a bit to Ronnie, grinning like she normally did.

"How've you been since the marriage thing?"

Billy shuffled over to join them, still trailing smeared paint wherever he moved. That would have to be taken care of eventually.

"We're sticking together to avoid attention from the locals," he whispered to Ronnie.

Ronnie nodded quickly to Billy and smiled up at Hoshi.

"I.. well... It's been really nice. It was. Well it was a new and very pl-pleasant experience." She looked embarrassed, but was clearly more at ease around them two than random strangers.

Hoshi smiled at Ronnie, nodding her head while she relaxed once more. "Yeah, it definitely was."

"How has your time been on the ship in general, too?"

Billy watched them with a smile, going back to smoothing water on his shoulders. "Agreed."

He decided to sit back and let Ronnie and Hoshi get acquainted. They'd be good for each other, he thought.

Ronnie looked up thoughtfully. "Well it's been alright. A bit awkward if anything and lonely. At least at the start. But that changed once I got into engineering. Even on lonely nights it was fun! But working on stuff like that has always kept my mind occupied for the most part...."

Then she looked to Billy and blushed heavily before looking back at Hoshi. "Recently... well... it definitely hasn't been as lonely... and... Actually it's been really nice." And she'd leave it at that.

Hoshi listened to her, leaning forward to show that she was interested. She chuckled softly, closing her eyes while she remembered how that been. She was extremely thankful for Sasami's help in getting her familiar with the ship in general.

That grin appeared again, masked by her perpetual smile. "I'm glad you've been able to find your calling, so to speak, on this ship, Ronnie."

Billy glanced at Hoshi suspiciously. She wasn't saying that their calling was each other, was she? Hmm. He'd focus on more neutral responses, but he couldn't help giving Ronnie a warm look.

"It's too easy to be consumed by loneliness here. Actually, it took me a long time to find people that I could trust after awakening. Inventing was the only thing that kept me going until I formed the friendships I did."

She smiled, looking a bit more chipper. Her knowledge of the crowd around them was non-existent at the moment. "Well engineering in general can keep your time used for really long periods. Specially if you're working on something really neat! Or are on the verge of finishing something you've been working on for a long time!"

She laughed a bit and smiled a bright smile at Hoshi. "How about you? How do you like the ship?" She asked curiously.

"I'll have to agree, Billy, but at the same time, you really can't let it get to you that much. After all, it can really eat you up inside and no one wants that," she said, taking a moment to glance at him before looking back at Ronnae.

"I've been alright. I can't complain, really. It's nice to have a break after things got pretty crazy on my Earth."

Billy was fairly quiet, shifting to rub idly at his back. It did eat him up inside. It was doing that right at the present moment. But he would never consider this a vacation---it was murder. His world was gone. Most of the people he'd known in Angel Grove, possibly all of them, were dead. Holding himself together was really a challenge most days.

He knew Hoshi knew that too, though, so he remained silent with a thoughtful expression. They were new, and for now the positive aspects of ship life shined brightly for them. That was just fine. So when in Rome, he'd focus on the positive too.

"I'm actually surprised that this mission is going so well. It definitely isn't the norm for us."

Ronnie blinked a few times and tilted her head curiously. That sentence certainly came out different, she'd been really happy she'd gotten to know Billy... Specially since he was quickly growing in her heart. However he didn't seem he wanted to interrupt the scene so she'd talk with him later.

"Maybe the ship's karma pendulum is swinging back our way right?" She said with a sweet cheery tone, moving idly behind him and grabbing a small cloth to wash his back.

"It'd be good... Specially for people who've been on the ship long. To finally have some hope." Hope... that was a word she hated... But in these circumstances it was the correct one to use. She idly began washing Billy's back trying her best to look around him so she could keep conversing with Hoshi.

"I guess there's other earths then? Just like there's different Azeroths?" She asked curiously.

"Well, we're more than prepared for anything that comes our way," Hoshi said, still trying to keep up the optimism and confidence that she had. Sure, it was tiring at times, but she could keep it up.

"Yeah, hope... That's what we gotta do." Idly, her right hand moved to rub at her neck a little bit, closing her eyes as she moved it around a bit. In this position, her scars were visible once more.

"Yeah, there are. What's Azeroth like?"

Billy's quiet sigh became a high-pitched breath when Ronnie's hand and cloth touched the tense bundle of muscles that was his back. After a moment of shock, he recovered and bowed his head to give her access. If he just let himself feel this, it was oddly comforting.

"I don't have as much as I once did, but...you're both helping. It's nice to see the light in your eyes." Especially yours, Ronnie.

Taking a deep breath, he nodded. "That's right. Most earths didn't have Power Rangers. Some had Gundams. Others had widespread magical ability among the humans, but...admittedly I don't know much about Azeroth either."

Care to share?

Ronnae listened, peeking around Billy or standing on her tip toes peeking over when he lowered his head. She noticed, just as she had thought, the knots and tense muscles he had. Her instinct took over her shyness for the moment and her hands began to deftly and firmly massage his back. It wasn't anything out there for her, she did it for her parents and siblings all the time, following the caring nature of one of her mothers.

"Sounds like the variety of Earths is really big. That's really interesting and I want to find out more about them all!" She looked up for a moment though, after the question about Azeroth. "From what I've been able to gather, the different Azeroths in the ship are pretty consistent with the change being in how some of the major events took place. But..." She paused, her head dropping a little.

"As much as I love my family... Azeroth was a world full of strife... As far as I can remember since I was born, it's been locked in constant war. And even before that there's been wars going on for thousands of years. Both between it's denizens and major world destroying threats.... I don't ever remember reading of a time of peace... " She paused to give them time to take it in, in case they had any questions.

"It'll take a hell of a lot of effort from someone to knock the light out of my eyes, Billy. I'm stubborn like that," commented Hoshi with a little grin tugging on her lips. She blinked for a moment or two -- Power Rangers? Sasami didn't say anything about them. "What exactly are the Power Rangers, Billy?" sh said, easily keeping up with the conversation.

She then listened to Ronnae's tale about Azeroth, figuring it had to be at least something like Earth, just with things that you would see in fairy tales or tall tales. The grin dropped to a straight expression as she nodded in understanding. "What kind of wars were these and between which species?"

A time without peace surely had to be grating on the nerves, all things considered.

It wasn't hard for Billy to quickly relax when Ronnie started in on his back. Yes, they were in public and he was slightly embarrassed by it, but he'd been needing attention for a while. If they listened closely, they'd even hear him making uninhibited noises of pleasure.

Talking about himself in such a condition was difficult, but he was lucky that the knowledge was so well-worn. "The Power Rangers were a team of heroes who defended Earth. We were average teenagers selected for the strength of our friendship and diversity of our skills---I wasn't chosen for any fighting ability, I can promise you that," he laughed modestly.

"Like the other heroes here, we failed in the end, but I've tried to keep it going. It's difficult for me to do alone, so I used items found in our base to form a new team with people on the ship. You'll probably see them around soon."

After that, he lapsed into silence and listened to Ronnie's tale, his body sagging further and further down. It all stopped when he heard her words, though: a world never at peace. Constant war, constant death. He'd turn around and hug her if he had the willpower, but instead his hand trailed back to squeeze her knee supportively.

Ronnae wanted to ask more about their worlds but it seemed the spot like was dead on her. At least for once, she was relaxed, plainly in that 'must work' mode. Her hands continued to skillfully massage Billy's back, shoulders and arms, with a playful massage of the scalp every now and then. She blushed at his squeeze of her knee but tried to keep a straight face.

"Well there were wars of all kinds really. I'm young, so I only took part in the most recent one... Some claim it's the worse to date. I wouldn't have thought so with the studies my parents had me do to learn the history of the planet. From wars with gods and demi gods, wars between empires, wars against the unrelenting Burning Legion, the Scourge, the Old Gods, the Quiraji.... Everything apparently had a hankering to destroy or enslave all of Azeroth one way or another. They hardly ever left a moment for the denizens to recuperate from a war before another was upon us..."

Her eyes dropped, for a moment stopping her massage to think about her most hated war. "Then, the never ending war... the one that made every single other war much harder than it should have. The war between both factions, the Alliance and the Horde... The Alliance held the Humans, the Dwarves, the Gnomes, the Kaldorei or Night Elves, the Draenei and most recently the Worgen. While the Horde held the Orcs, the Trolls, the Tauren, the Forsaken, the Sin'dorei or Blood Elves and most recently the Goblins... And even with the outside wars and the wars between factions... sometimes the animosity within the factions would cause strife, distrust and ... and hate amongst our own people... " She paused letting a sorrowful sigh escape her lips before her hands idly began the massage again.

Hoshi listened to both Billy and Ronnae's stories about their home worlds before she decided upon something.

One of her arms wrapped around Billy and the other one wrapped around Ronnae. she didn't care that she was doing this while naked, either. "I'm very sorry you went through that, Ronnae."

Then, she gave a considerable glance to Billy and made both of her hugs strong.

Billy got the hint. He shifted to the side to face Ronnie, wrapping both of them in an embrace. "So am I," he whispered to Ronnie. "I couldn't even imagine. But you made it, and I couldn't be happier about that."

It was a silly little spur of the moment thing to say. He hoped he hadn't gone and offended her. Whatever the case, he made his meaning clear by holding onto them protectively.

Before she could react she was being hugged by a much naked Hoshi, and Billy. Her face went completely red but the tender moment allowed her to calm her anxiety. She put her arms around them both and hugged the group. "Th-thanks" She said in a small voice. She was really glad, so happy she had met them.

Oh. Oh, well, this was new. It honestly felt nice and she could really get used to this -- just not when she was naked because that could open a whole can of worms that she didn't want right now.

"Yeah. Sometimes, there's points in your life that you just gotta get through," she said, knowing that a little bit too well. She glanced at her arm once more before shaking her head a little bit in response. Right, this was no time to dwell on the past of all things.

Billy had noticed the marks earlier, but he was definitely not going to look. Too dangerous right at that moment, given the line of sight that would be required.

"And we'll get through them," Billy finished, carefully drawing back down into the water. He felt so much better after that massage, and getting to know his friends better was certainly a bonus.

Ronnie nodded in agreement before rearranging her towel and moving back to her original spot. Her eyes trailed from Billy, to Hoshi, to her arm. She looked at her concerned before speaking in a caring voice. "H-Hoshi... What happened to your arm?" Young curiosity getting the better of her.

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