Mission: Vacation [Elrick, Raen]

[Lagunamov]

This is totally not an attempt to check your rear end.

“Nothing. right,” he commented while giving her a weird look. Even though deep down he wanted to laugh out loud, since they had probably caused some serious confusion for Raen. Poor guy would have to get used to this kind of stuff. “Am I Captain just because of the hat? Cause I know, it’s an awesome hat,” he joked, tipping his hat for a second before looking around and following Lillian. Finally, they were gonna hit the hot springs.

After walking for several minutes, getting almost to the edge of the city, a forest was starting to come into sight as the buildings thinned out. And there it was, a large two story house, fancier that anything around in that area, with spherical lamps hanging outside. That was clearly the place. Which anyone who could read whatever goddamned language they wrote in here could tell you from the sign on the front. “Well, I think we are here. Ladies first?” he stood and opened the door to the place, signaling both Lillian and Raen to enter the building.

[Nothingness]

Ladies first alright...

It wasn't a particularly long walk to the hot springs, and once they got there Raen was feeling immediately reinvigorated? The reason? He saw a rather beautiful pair of women walking in. "Don't mind if I do," he said in reply to Elrick, entering the building and not even bothering to notice the joke.

[Fate]

Sure it's not.
--

"It is," she replied to Elrick. It was all about the hat. They kept walking, not taking too long to get to the place. It was a two-story building with lamps hanging outside and a sign written in a language none of them could read. Yes, relaxing could start now. Raen went in first, seemingly oblivious to what Elrick just said. She shook her head and gave the other a look before following.

The interior was a beautiful set-up. There were different parts of the building not just including sections for the springs themselves. Maybe they could stay longer... And there were different sorts of baths one could do. Oh yes, she was definitely staying here a bit.

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[Lagunamov]

I'd make a 'knock on wood' joke, but it'd be distasteful.

He the door open for a couple more seconds, letting two ladies exit the building and greeting them with a slight bow of his head, as Elrick took a good look around the place. The building was beautiful inside, and certainly impressive. He searched for the reception desk, walking straight for it and finding the details. After a minute of fast talking and checking, with some flirting done with the receptionist, he was told were he could change and which direction to take to the proper hot springs. Not before paying, that is.

“Ok, I paid for all three of us,” he walked over to Lillian and Raen, looking rather cheerful. “The springs are down that hall over there, changing rooms to the right and left of it, for guys and girls respectively,” he started explaining, then remembering a very slight detail the receptionist had told him about. “Oh, right. The springs are mixed. There is no wall dividing it in two like in most places. Don’t worry, I think they keep a guard or two in there to avoid any… shenanigans,” he scratched the back of his head. ”Yeah, as if Lil was one to need any help with that,” he thought to himself, trying to keep the chuckle from the thought down.

[Fate]

There'll be no shenanigans here... right. Bets on how long that'll last.
--

Elrick took care of talking to the receptionist and paying for the three of them, coming back with information. Lillian tried her best not to make too much of a face when they were told that the hot springs were mixed-- that didn't succeed at all. Though, when she thought about it, it'd be awfully boring if she was just sitting by herself or with a bunch of women she didn't know. Besides, not like she hadn't done this before.

She smiled, starting to walk down the hall. "Pfft, like we need a guard," she muttered under her breath as she walked into the changing room. Quickly changing into a red bikini with a halter top --no way in hell was she going to do anything less with those two around, especially since this was already asking for it-- she wrapped a towel around her and came out. There weren't too many people around today, thank goodness.

It took at least another minute before she picked a place in the springs to actually sit and relax. Looking around cautiously, she took the towel off and folded it, putting it down next to the water. "Damn I should have gotten something with meat when we ate-- I'm turning into a stick," she thought to herself as she slipped into the hot water. "It'd be nice if all of me would turn into a stick. God I need to stop thinking."

Now to wait for the boys.

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[Nothingness]

Don't freeze the water, don't freeze the water...

After Elrick took care of everything, he told them about how the springs were mixed. A silent, "Yes!", yelped in his mind. Of course, he also realized that he was letting his manly-man thoughts and personality take over, but whatever. It wasn't healthy to restrain any part of one's self for too long.

Heading into the changing room, he stripped down and put on some dark blue and white swim trunks before heading out to the springs. A part of him wanted to go find some ladies to flirt with, but he decided against it. Always something to do later, at least. So he instead looked for Lillian and headed to where she was.

Easing into the springs he immediately felt relaxed, more so than he had in years. "Just as a warning, I might possibly turn this into an ice bath. Or at least my section." Raen had no problems with hot water, but hey, his element of choice was ice. It was practically an obligation to like cold things.

[Lagunamov]

Yes, we are starting early.

The other two took off to the changing rooms before Elrick, who had lingered on in the hall for about another minute, simply looking around. The place was truly extraordinary. Shaking his head, he moved to the changing rooms, starting to get changes just around the time he noticed Raen leaving it. After removing all his clothes, hat included, he put on a pair of brown and beige swim shorts, grabbing a towel from a pile before heading off.

And then he noticed how visible the scars from their previous trip were after catching a glimpse of himself on a mirror in the room. His chest now had one large one on its left side, going vertically from almost shoulder height down to his last ribs, and his right side had a small circular one from the arrow. Which was bigger on his backside, which itself had an extra couple of scars from the torture. He shrugged it off, and headed towards the springs.

He looked around the hot springs for a couple of seconds before finding where Lillian and Raen were, which was relatively easy since there weren’t that many people around. Leaving his towel somewhere dry and relatively close by, he entered the water and started moving towards his friends, having stopped walking through the water and instead floating face up for the last couple of meters. “Well, ain’t this lovely?” he said looking at them, looking at Lillian in particular. “The water is also good.”

[Fate]

Oh that was real smooth.
--

"Just keep that ice over there then," she said to Raen, reclining a bit. Yeah, she didn't like cold much. In winter, she was often found curled up in a blanket next to the nearest fireplace and glaring at the snow falling outside. It didn't help that snow made it absolutely impossible to fly. And then the ice would coat the runway and ugh. Raen's powers were pretty neat though; she had to give him that.

Elrick joined them a couple minutes later. She rolled her eyes at his comment. "Yeah it really..." She had to stop herself mid-sentence when she looked back at him. "Holy shit what the hell happened to you?" Definitely not the nicest way to ask that. Yeah she had some tact to work on there. But still, her question was pretty legitimate. He had a huge scar on him that she was pretty sure wasn't there before.

That wasn't it of course. Why she didn't see the three on his face before was beyond her-- probably because when they were in Eurydice, they just wanted to escape. And then when they were on the ship, they wanted to sleep. Still didn't make her lack of subtlety a good thing. "Sorry," she said in a quieter voice, facepalming for a second before looking back up, "Question still stands."

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[Nothingness]

I feel so zen

"Hm, you're no fun," he mumbled in response to Lillian, not particularly aware of what he was saying for the moment. It wasn't really until Lillian's outburst that he noticed Elrick had even joined them. And even then he didn't fully register anything, and threw in his own little half-witted comment. "I hear chicks dig scars--lucky, man."

In retrospect, that wasn't the most intelligent thing for him to say, given that with a little thought he could've figured out where Elrick actually got the scars. But thinking about anything wasn't really on Raen's mind right now. Just relaxing in the moment was all that mattered.

[Lagunamov]

I still see it in my dreams.

Ah, how Elrick had missed seeing his partner roll her eyes at his comments. They could just banter all day lo… nope, she had to freak out over the scars like a high school girl. At least Raen’s comment was more comforting. Even though he was pretty sure Lil would never outright say she digged the scars, seeing how she reacted, and aside from the facial ones, the rest were unlikely to be seen by anyone else. “Thanks man. That certainly makes me feel better,” he said to him, stopping floating and standing properly now. Or, rather, kneeling so that the water would remain at chest level.

“Lil, are you honestly realizing this just now? I have three on the right side of my face alone for God’s sake!” he said smiling, bringing his index and middle fingers to the larger scar on his cheek. “I feel so… insulted? Disappointed? Hurt?” he teased his partner, clearly still trying to think of other words just for the sake of it.

“Alright, you want to know what happened? I’ll go in chronological order,” he stood up from the water, brining his thumb to the scar on his right shoulder. “Arrow,” he pointed to the large one on the left side of his chest. “Slash at the ambush at night,” he pointed once more at the right side of his face. “Hammond’s Water Spirit. Damn thing has claws, alright,” he sighed, then turning around and showing both of them his back, which was the worst. Then he pointed with his right thumb over his shoulder, making the five or so scars, most diagonally either to the right or left, with one almost vertical on the right side, visible. “Torture the morning after I got captured.”

Elrick lowered himself into the water again, turning to Lillian and Raen. “Is that enough, or you need more details of the things I went through when you two were missing. Cause I’m pretty sure neither would like them,” he said with a small smile. In reality, he was pretty sure he’d get the most reaction out of either of them if he told them about the cleavage the doctor that treated his torture wounds. And by God, it was glorious. "Now, to test Raen's theory... You dig the scars?" he let out a small laugh as he said that. It was hard to keep a straight face at that moment.

[Fate]

Better than mine?... Don't answer that.
--

Yeah, she was going to work on her subtlety from here on out. After teasing her, Elrick told the both of them where he got all of the scars from. All of them were gruesome, but the ones on his back were the ones that made her grimace the most. That was from the torture he had to endure before the public execution. What the hell did they do to him? Lillian didn't really want to know. "No need to tell us what I'm sure would be a lovely story," she said sarcastically, "Unless Raen wants to hear it."

And then he had to ask that question. She couldn't stop herself from chuckling. "Oh yeah, totally dig them Elrick. They make you so much more manly." She crossed her arms over her chest with that and shook her head. Perfectly normal sarcasm.

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[Nothingness]

Those look...painful

Ah, great. Elrick was being such a downer right now, what with his whole story of torture and stuff. Raen couldn't even properly relax, feeling his stomach turn slightly as Elrick described the origin of each scar. Still, how Lillian didn't notice was baffling him, and since it was somewhat funny to him it helped keep him more relaxed that he otherwise would've been. "Nah, I'm good." He said in reply to Lillian's remark.

With Elrick's story over, he was back to his sudden zen-like state. If a stranger had gone off of their first impression, they'd have thought he was stoned. His eyes were half-lidded, he was wobbling slightly, and his speech was so smooth that it had an almost slurred quality to it.

Pointing a finger and accidentally splashing water onto Lillian he said rather languidly, "Hah! I knew you had a thing for him. Yeah, I knew. Mmhm. Yeah..."

[Lagunamov]

Stop talking. Stop talking now.

Good. Elrick wouldn't have to go into the gruesome details of how he got his scars. Of course, that also meant not mentioning the glorious bussom... which actually worked better for him, since it meant Lil wouldn't kick him in the leg again. Or, considering their current location, drown him.

"Really, you like them? Cause ten seconds ago I could swear I could see you cringe at them," he laughed, scratching the back of his head. "I only mind the ones on my back, to be honest," he shrugged, falling backwards into the water while holding his breath and rising a second later, the water pulling his hair backwards and out of his face. If he could breath under water, he'd have probably stayed down there due to how nice the warm water on his face felt.

... And then Raen had to point fingers and would have caused Elrick almost to choke on something were him eating or drinking in the first place. So, instead, he just got a dumb look from him before he bothered to react. "Yeah... No offense Raen, but if she did have a thing for me, we would have long ditched you somewhere and would probably be locked somewhere doing... what bunnies do that make them famous," Elrick couldn't help but laugh as he said that. "Of course, we do have a large enough ship now, so..." he started wondering aloud, stopping the second he noticed he was actually saying those words, and then slowly hiding under water.

[Fate]

Well now I know who to use for target practice.
--

Raen was one lucky dude-- he could just almost instantly relax and sound almost completely stoned. She rolled her eyes at his comment, splashing him back. Oh yes, this was definitely the most mature traveling group ever. She was definitely not one to talk about maturity of course-- out of the three of them, Raen was probably the most mature. That was sort of a scary thought. Topic change. Concentrate on relaxing. She was about ready to close her eyes and nap right n--

Oh Elrick did not just say that. Lillian kept her mouth firmly shut, glaring at him. If her hands weren't underwater, one would have been able to see her knuckles turning white. Her cheeks were already turning red from either anger or embarrassment, probably both. She was waiting for him to stop now; he usually caught himself, but this time it took longer. A lot longer.

Typically, she could put up with this, even offer a quip back-- not like she wasn't used to this after being in the Libertas military with a bunch of guys on an almost twenty-four hour basis. Not a single reply was coming to her head. Just fury. And a couple different ways of how to drown a person. Drowning in a public place was bad though. They'd get in trouble for that. And not like she'd actually do that... maybe.

She stopped glaring, looking away for a minute. "Yeah Raen-- if I did like him, I wouldn't be thinking of how to drown him right now." She attempted to sound calm during that-- probably didn't work during that last bit there. She sighed, getting up and wrapping the towel around herself. "I need a nap. Raen, if you could freeze Captain Wise-Ass in the springs, that'd be cool. And funny. Take lots of pictures." She walked back into the changing room, changing into her normal clothes, and then headed toward the ship for what would probably be a good, long nap.

[Aly: Writing myself out for now because of my current infrequency]

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[Nothingness]

What a downer, man

In Raen's current mental state, he couldn't possibly see why Lillian should storm off at Elrick's comment. Then again, he wasn't exactly sure why he was so entranced by the steam coming off of the springs, either. Regardless, Lillian had left the two of them and Elrick was hiding under the water in embarrassment. So, what was there left to do?

For the moment, he was content to just kick back and relax and watch the steam twirl in the air.