Participants:
| Date: | 16 May 2011 |
|---|---|
| Location: | Eastern Weyr: Baths |
| Synopsis: | Directly after the log "Bastard", Max takes Hope to bathe, and meets Warin in the baths. |
| Rating: | PG-18 |
| Logger: | Warin |
Underneath the upper set of hatching sands, this cavern is fairly large in size, though it is dwarfed in comparison to others nearby. A natural hot spring, the steamy water has been diverted into one large pool - capable of holding about twenty odd people - and several smaller ones around the edges. Shelves have been set up along the northern wall, lined with different scents of bathing salts, sweetsands and oils. Under the shelves are benches where folk can dress and undress. Even given the tropical nature of the climate, this is still one of the most popular places in the weyr.
It's about lunchtime at Eastern, but Warin was conspicuously absent from the living caverns, one of the other workers making sure food and drink were in supply. Anyone who comes into the bathing caverns will find the errant assistant steward lounging in one of the pools, and actually looking quite relaxed.
By the looks of the pair that enter the bathing caverns, lunch was either not that tasty or just so good, they decided to wear it. However, the moment the dark-haired young man enters the steamy environment, the little girl in his arms starts trying to climb up him as if he were about to deliver her as a tasty snack to a dragon. "Aw jays, Hope, c'mon. It ain't that bad. See he's enjoyin' it," this spoken as dark eyes catch the assistant steward lounging in a nearby pool. "No…Hope be good. No bath," the little one whines plaintively as she shakes her head. Clearly she hasn't realized that the one in the 'nasty' pool is none other than 'Boo'.
Warin looks fairly amused as he catches the tail end of the conversation. "It sounds like you struck gold — knowing what you need to say to make her behave," he says conversationally.
Max honestly hadn't expected the man lounging the pool to add his two marks worth and so when Warin does, he blinks at him a few times before uttering a faintly amused snort. "Aye, that might work to get her to eat but it ain't gonna work to get her to bathe," the last given with a grunt as he tries to hold onto the wriggling toddler. A toddler who is wriggling to be let down not because she's wanting to escape but because she's recognized the assistant steward. As mercurial as the toddler can be, whining slips off as she giggles and declares, "Boo!" And then one of those flailing feet of hers catch the beast manager in the family jewels and with a slightly wheezed curse he lets Hope free.
Warin winces at the use of his nickname by the child, muttering to himself "Why can't they be forgetful like dragons?" He cringes as she gets loose, tracking her movements like a doomed cartoon character watches a bomb. Even a cute little bomb. Aloud he says regretfully, "I guess I should have kept quiet."
And right on up to the edge of the pool Hope goes where she drops down to her haunches next to where Warin is relaxing, (or was) so suddenly she's almost in danger of tipping forward into the water. She doesn't…this time. Instead, placing both hands together she scoops up some water and tries to tip it over the assistant steward's head, though there's really not much left in her hands as most of it trickled out. Max in the meantime is still leaned over hands to knees, trying to get his breath back. When the other young man speaks up all he's able to do is lift a hand in stalling gesture. Back to the toddler who now, unless Warin is wise and has moved away, will start rubbing her hands around on his head, "Wash, Boo. Wash!" she orders.
Warin watches bemusedly as she heads over to the pool, and only when he's drizzled with water does he realize what she was up to. "Hey!" he exclaims. He's regained his composure (and his footing) by the time she reaches for him, and sidesteps the hair washing. Looking at Max in a totally lost fashion, he tells the little one, "I'm sorry, I already washed. I was just soaking for enjoym…" He apparently decides the word might be too long for Hope, because he finishes with, "This was just for fun."
Max by this time has at least enough breath back to straighten up and give a rather weak sounding, "Hope, leave the poor man alone to bath in peace." And then he's stalking closer toward his errant daughter. "No! Bad Arsehole!" she gives an imperious wag of finger at the beast manager meant to stall him in his tracks and turns her attention back to Warin. "Boo all done?" little hands lift and spread out from herself and then she frowns and eyes the water warily when the assistant steward declares bathing to be fun. Tipping her head as she tries to assimilate the information, she asks another lisping question, "Boo play?" - "Jays, I'm sorry mate, she uhh…" Max scratches at his head awkwardly at a loss as to quite what to say or do.
Warin bursts out laughing at Hope's form of address for her guardian, smirking as he says, "Sounds like your little sister has you pegged." He shakes his head as playing is mentioned. "No playing. Well, maybe you can play. I'm here to relax." He does give Max a sympathetic look at the man's words. "Hopefully the Headwoman will be back soon," he offers.
Dark eyes roll in response to Warin's laughter and then he trades smirk for smirk without so much as a blink of hesitation when Hope is referenced as being his little sister, "I ain't even gonna ask why she's callin' ya 'Boo', mate." With the toddler distracted in her concentration of trying to figure out how not playing is fun, Max is able to wrap an arm about her waist and haul her up, stoically taking the expected slaps she delivers to his arm and then uttering another curse as she tries to sink her teeth into him. "Not soon enough," he growls out in response to the Headwoman's return. Without another word and with a grim expression in place, the beast manager turns, heads to the steps that lead into the bathing pool Warin is in and…wades in, clothes, boots and all until he's deep enough that the water comes up to Hope's waist. So much for the assistant steward enjoying a nice relaxing soak, huh?
Warin is all sympathy now. "I can't believe she didn't just leave her with someone in the nurseries," he muses. As Max wades in, Warin raises an eyebrow, but doesn't comment beyond that. He's too busy watching the little girl for some telegraph of what she might do next.
When she realizes what it is that Max is about to do, Hope goes stiff and tries turning about but she's too firmly held in that one-armed grip he has on her. "She don't like other kids," the beast manager lies on why it is that the toddler hasn't been left in the nurseries. After struggling for a bit to try and pull the little girl's top off over her head to faked cries of, 'Ow, ow, ow', he turns to Warin for help. "Here, do me a favour will ya? Get her kit off for me while I hold her still." Yup, it seems getting a toddler bathed is a two man job.
A look of horror crosses Warin's face at Max's request, but for whatever reason he decides to be helpful and wades over. Wary of her kicking ability, he stands as far away as he can as he reaches to get the shoes off first.
Hope's struggles have abated a little now that she realizes she's not about to be dunked head first in the water, not that her father would ever do such a thing. Catching the horrified look on Warin's face, Max can't help the snicker, "She ain't gonna eat you." Well, she might bite but he's not about to say as much. At first the toddler doesn't make it easy for Warin to remove her shoes; shifting her feet away any time he reaches for them until eventually she's starting to giggle. It's now apparently a game. While she's distracted with the assistant steward trying to get her shoes and shocks off, the beast manager takes the opportunity to start undoing the few buttons on the back of her top with one hand. Judging by the skill he employs, somewhere along the line, he's had a lot of practice undoing clothing with one hand.
Warin gives an exasperated sigh, asking (or perhaps just thinking aloud), "How do women *do* this?" as he makes another lunge for a foot which she withdraws. He appears to be employing strategy, however, when after a few minutes of making a grab at every other foot, he fakes an attempt followed by a real attempt on the foot she had just withdrawn.
A chuckle from Max greets Warin's exasperated words, "Must be somethin' in the way they're put together, aye?" The assistant steward's attempt is successful as Hope's foot is indeed captured and the child gives a delighted, though muffled, "Boo win!" as her top gets dragged off over her head. Now that she's stopped struggling and thanks to Warin's unwittingly having turned it into a game, the toddler leans over her father's arm and scoops up water, attempting to splash the young man. Max will wait until his co-conspirator has the other shoe off before stepping back and having a go at getting the rest of the toddler's clothing off. Next he'll look around for a pouch of sweetsand, something he'd not thought about when he waded into the pool, clothes and all.
Warin mutters, "Must be. Still makes me glad I'm not one." He experimentally tries to remove her sock upon being declared the winner, and whether he manages or not he reaches for her other shoe while she's distracted in trying to splash him. The sweetsand he used is in a shallow dish at the pool's rim.
Warin is indeed successful in both endeavours with Hope wriggling her toes, once freed, in the warm waters. "Boo play," she declares triumphantly making it hard to determine just who had been conning whom, into having fun. Spying the sweetsand, Max sends an approving look to the assistant steward for hs help and a nod of head, "Thanks mate." And then tossing the toddler's soggy clothing to the side of the pool, he extends a wet hand the assistant steward's way, "Max." Formal introduction made despite the two likely being aware of who the other is.
Warin shakes Max's hand firmly, saying, "Warin." He involuntarily smiles at the girl's antics, then asks rhetorically, "I don't suppose the nice warm water will calm her down?"
"Well met," Max gives and then casts a rueful look over his wiggling daughter and quickly jerks his head away as she tries splashing water at his face when he moves to get the sweetsand. "Only thing that's gonna calm this one down is a shot of whiskey." He's kidding right? One can only hope so. In short order, he's seated on one of the ledges that run around the pool beneath the water and getting down to lathering the toddler up, patient while she stands on his legs trying in turn to wash his hair. Twisting about to see where 'Boo' has gotten to, Hope loses her footing. The beast manager makes a grab for her only to have her go slithering through his hands and under the water. Luckily he catches her up in time, his eyes wide with shock, "Shit they're slippery when they're wet." As to the toddler? Where one might expect her to come up spluttering and howling with fright like she had when she'd bumped her head on the pool step the previous day, she instead chirps brightly, "Hope shit slippery." And then announces, "Again!"
Warin nods thoughtfully, as if seriously considering the possibility. He doesn't move over to help bathe the child, but when she slips he does make an automatic move to grab her, then pulls back when he sees that Max has it in hand. He also doesn't appear surprised at her swearing, let alone mortified. Chalk it up to absolute inexperience with children.
Max for his part, makes no attempt to correct the child's language and instead goes back to bathing her, except that this time, much to her disgust, he makes her sit down rather than risk having her disappear under the water again. "You enjoy work?" he asks of Warin, and then bids Hope to close her eyes so that he can get started on her hair. Hope of course takes that to mean the start of a new game and covers her eyes with her hands, then quickly pulls them away as she'd done in the Headwoman's office and with a giggle, eyes Warin and goes 'Boo!'
Warin shrugs and says, "Mostly I'm doing what was expected of me. My father was head Steward at Crom." He adds hastily, "I do like being assistant steward here better than I did candidate chores. I'm glad the Headwoman gave me the chance." To Hope, he says earnestly, "I think he wants you to keep them covered."
A smirk fits onto Warin as Hope provides unwitting explanation for the nickname he's been given but he says nothing to it, choosing instead to respond to the answer given. "You always do what's expected of you?" Max asks with faint amusement at play. To Hope, "Boo's right, love. Keep 'em covered." And whether or not the child complies he sets about lathering up her hair.
Warin's answer is quick, but there is a brief pause which might or might not be noticed before he answers, "Usually, although I don't know that anyone would have expected me to accept search on another continent completely." He sits on the ledge, not quite relaxing, but also not averse to watching Max do all the work with the child.
Max having caught that brief pause lifts a quick look over to Warin and then one corner of his mouth curves about a crooked grin. "That the most unruly thing you ever done?" appearing to challenge the other young man, though there's a hint of something else at play they may suggest he's of a mind to dangle 'trouble' in front of the assistant steward just for the heck of it. With Hope's hair ready to be rinsed off and not wanting to upset her by purposefully dunking her under the water now that she's actually letting him bathe her, the beast manager casts about and then sends a slightly helpless look to Warin, "There a jug or somethin' in here?" Assuming an assistant steward would know such things.
Warin asks casually, "The most unruly thing I've done or the most unruly thing I've let happen?". Whether deliberately not he mis-interprets Max's question and asks, with a perfectly straight face, "You want to give her the whiskey *now*?"
He gives a shrug of soggily clothed shoulders to the other young man's first, "Both." It's rare that someone catches Max unawares with verbal jesting, but that's just what Warin has done, evidenced in the way the beast manager stares uncomprehendingly at the assistant steward and then he gets it and laughter fills the caverns. "Very good, steward. Very good indeed." Hope, with little eyes screwed shut claps and laughs too, though she has no idea what the joke is about and then suddenly throws herself backwards, head completely submerging under the water which once again has her poor father's heart in his mouth and making a grab for her. "What the shards are you doing?" breathing heavy with aftershock. "Hope all done," the little one's response comes gargled through the mouthful of water she'd all but inhaled which then has her setting to coughing and spluttering as she wipes at the water streaming down her face.
Warin considers this for a minute, then says carefully, "I was never caught doing anything… untoward, though I must admit I didn't stop my peers from doing it." Or from doing it *for* him. "And perhaps it was the company I kept, but my pers did tend to get in trouble a little more often than other cliques. But then again, I was V'tol's shadow for the longest time." He makes another involuntary step forward when Hope self-dunks, and then just shakes his head when she tells Max what she was up to.
The careful reply given earns Warin a grin of approval, "Man needs to have himself some fun every here and there." With Hope announcing she's done, Max takes that as signal and hauls himself up from the ledge, tucking her under his arm as if she were a football. "Alright then, time to get you dressed, missy." Wading out of the pool, boots squelching and leaving a stream of water in his trail, he wraps the little one up in a towel, plonks her on a bench and then rather than make her and the towel wet, strips off his soaked shirt before picking her up again. "You ever of a mind to misbehave, drop by the beast caverns," he sends to Warin with a wink as he passes by. Hope claps both hands to her mouth and then throws them out toward Warin making a childish kissing sound. "Bye Boo," she lisps, soft dark eyes trained on the assistant steward as she's carried off by her caretaker who studiously ignores the snickers and odd looks he gets as he squelches by. He has of course, left his daughter's wet clothing behind.
Warin snickers at the offer, and agrees, "Maybe I will, when your mother's not looking." This is about as informal as he's ever been with anyone at the Weyr. He slips back into the water and waits until he's a prune before getting out, only then noticing the child's clothing. He folds it and puts it on an empty shelf, shaking his head as he does so.
Song: "Wild Child", by Enya