[Featured characters: Alanis, Belle, Mel, Viki] Marooned Ship: Goro's Bath House This room is a cramped shadow of what it used to be- now functioning as the Reception area while two doorways lined with more curtains that have a red spot in the center. These lead to the male and female baths respectively. There's a cot folded up against the wall, as well as a desk aligned right next to the entryway. ===== What a great day for a bath! Mel lounges back on the oak benches, feeling the warm mist rise to her face. She can occasionally feel the cool breeze from the lake sweep over the area, although it is actually a great contrast to the warm stuffy air. She looks over at Belle and opens her mouth. "No barrel today, my little cutie?" Branky says. Ah, so relaaaaxiiing! There's nothing like a steaming bath to relax with. Especially when things have been so very.. -stressful- otherwise. A whole pretty set of new inventions for the festival, and not -one- of them turned out well. All of that plotting, planning, all of those hours of effort in invention and presentation and for.. What? Psshhh. The castle's Gadget Master, quite frankly, would really rather not think about that. Next time, everything will go perfectly. Next time! Of course! Belle narrowly cracks open one eye at Branky's comment, peering over at the obnoxiously loud doll. In the spirit of all great maturity, she simply turns up her nose at him, closing her eyes once more and replying with a simple, "Well, of -course- not! You know how he rusted up after last time, and it took weeks to drain all the water out..." ...Er. She actually -did- bring Gadget.. near.. the baths...? Er. Um. Uh. Let's not even ask about that. But Belle's not done. With a slight huff, she adds, "Mel, -really-! Why did you bring that nasty puppet here?" Okay, so Viki shouldn't really be leaving her mirror for the sole purpose of taking a bath. But, it was really quiet lately and she really needed a good bath and all since her breakfast -and- lunch had somehow ended up on her dress. And her hands were sticky and so was her hair. Ick ick. And the weather was.. Oooh too many thoughts at once. Let's concentrate on getting to the bath first! Viki waves to Goro as she skips past him and towards the bath, a large towel tucked under her arm. She opens the door, enters the steaming room and closes the door behind her. She drops the towel at her feet, and struggles to get out of her dress, wand still securely in hand. Squinting into the fog, she tries to make out the two familiar figures. "Belle, Mel, is that you?" Or whoever it is..."Can you help me with my dress?" Because it seems to be...er..stuck. Mel lifts both her eyebrows at Belle. "Because... Branky needs to wash out his mouth with soap and water! BAD BRANKY!" *BANG BANG* "BAD! You don't talk to Belle that way! BAD BRANKY!" *BANG BANG BANG splash BANG* In between the corporal punishment, one could hear the tattered cries. "Ow! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that! Sorry! Sorry!" Mel grabs a nearby bar of soap and is prepared to run it through Branky's teeth when she sees Viki pop in. Did she actually enter through the door? "Hi Viki!" She then takes the soak and runs it over Branky's head, despite his loud protests. "What's new? Dress?" Branky mumbled, "You're eating too much!" In response, Mel immediately thrust her left hand underwater. "Dress problems? Maybe we can help you." She sidled over to the corner of the bath where Viki was, lifting a soaked Branky out of the water at the same time. "No, Viki, I'm not going to get out.... it's cold!" Belle opens her eyes just wide enough to make it obvious that she's rolling her eyes, even though she's still looking up towards the ceiling. "If you ask -me-, you should throw Branky over into the boy's bath. I bet he'd be much more in his element!" ..Is Branky male? Oh, who cares! The point is that Belle isn't thrilled to death about the idea of having to be in the same bath as him. Mel? Mel was good company. But that -doll-! Belle blinks at the sound of someone else entering, finally dropping her gaze from the ceiling. She waves happilly in greeting, grinning in response. Branky can be screamed at later, after all. And Mel seemed to be doing a good enough job with the discipline as it is. "Hi, Viki~!" High and cheerful! Nevermind that she was just irked a moment before! "...Um, you need help? Is something wrong? Can you try just pulling it over your head? Or did you put something on wrong or something?" What? It's not inconcieveable that Viki would put on something backwards or.. upside down.. and not have a clue how to get it off. Or knot something. Or whatnot. But Belle doesn't look any more interested in getting out. Really! There's a -breeze-! Well, um okay. So it was cold and everyone was -naked- so umm she was going to be stuck in this dress, wasn't she? Viki sighs and drops her hand, having only been able to discard the outer two layers of her dress. But what else can she do? She'll have to take a bath with her clothes on of course. Like she's done dozens of times before. Not a big deal. "Uhh, its okay, I'll just take a bath in my dress." She slowly lowers her body into the steaming water and sighs happily. It was so relaxing! She holds her wand in both her hands, placing the bottom of it between her feet and leans her head against it, using it as support. "Goodnight..." She mumbles, her eyes closing almost immediately and she starts to snore lightly, obviously tired from the long hours on her feet. A nap? In the bath? ... Wouldn't Goro be proud? Unfortunately, Mel peers at Viki cautiously and decides to slide back the other way, closer to Belle. "I... don't want to be under that staff in case it slips," she says, eyeing the Trickster with the corner of her eye. She then feels slightly cooler around the shoulders and lowers herself lower in the bath. "I think Viki's dress just soaked up a few centimetres of our water." Mel's casual tone said it all - she was used to this kind of behaviour. "Didn't Shizu ask you to fix the elevator the other day? How's it going?" Branky, however, still hadn't gotten used to the teleportation mistress. "Viki! If you slip and fall asleep you'll drown in the bath!" he yells. "Viki! I might have just saved your life!" ...Yeeeeep, that's Viki for you. Belle shakes her head lightly, but restrains from saying anything else. In the bath.. In her dress. All righty! "Viki, do you really need to bring your staff in here...?" I mean, what's she going to teleport? Do we even want to know? Belle blinks as Mel siddles over. And then coughs a little. "Hm, well, about that..." Belle lets her gaze slide back upwards, almost innocently, almost distractedly. And giggles uneasily, "You wont believe this, but Shizu doesn't want me to work on the elevator! She said that she can do it all by herself, and that she didn't know if I had the expertise in that area.." A huff, and Belle closes her eyes, raising her chin in defiant pride, "Really! -Me-, not having expertise in that area? I would have been offended, but I bet she just didn't know who I was. But I still want to help, you know? I'm sure that I could be really useful in fixing it, no matter what Shizu sai--.." Snoring? Belle blinks out of her little monologue at that, glancing over at the now-dozing Viki. She blinks. And stares. And blinks. And then... It's -irresistable-, with Viki sitting there, propped up so uneasily against her staff. Belle simply reaches out and -pokes- her, as if to test and see if she'd topple over. What? What? Fire? Huh? Viki jerks her head up, her eyes still groggy from her nap and she wipes at her mouth with her left hand. Geez, Mr. Branky was so loud, wasn't he? Huh? What was he rambling about? Ummm, okay, it didn't really matter. She smiles at him and reaches out to pat his head. "There, there Mr. Branky. You're a good wolf, aren't you? Yes you are!" And.."OW!" Viki winces in pain as something pokes her in the arm. Very hard, even. It was definitely gonna leave a bruise. "Belle, what was that for? You really need to stop po-" Oooh, it was cold in here! A breeze! Wasn't the bath supposed to be a warm place? Where was it coming from? "Is it cold in he--Ah..ah-CHOOO!" Oops. Viki looks at both Belle and Mel in horror, her hand covering her mouth. The hand that reacted a second too late. Did she just sneeze? Uh-oh.... There is a scream and a splash. Water flies everywhere as a figure in red - very wet red - leaps up and flails until it can find the edge of the bath and grab onto it. WATER? Since when did the cafe area have WATER? Obviously, her table has just morphed into.. a bath. Right. Hugo didn't mention anything about that. Is this some kind of joke? Alanis sputters a bit and looks around. Little droplets of water fly from her pigtails. "What? Where am I?" Her eyes pass over Viki, Belle, and Mel. No one she knows. Just her luck. Mel feels a chill just before the tramumatic incident. It's not the breeze. It's... Branky shouts, "Viki sneezed! COVER!" Mel didn't need Branky's warning to instinctively shield her head with Brranky's face (it was always like that - Branky likes it). She could sense the explosion. The water flew all over the place. It was as if they were flying. "We're going to die... we're all going to die," Branky murmured. *splish* Mel opens an eye and looks. There is a young girl in a red dress sputtering water. Most of the bath water was now on the deck instead, and she wouldn't have been surprised if Goro suddenly decided to run in to check on his dear bathhouse. Now there were two people in the bath with their dresses on. She glances at the little girl curiously. "Uhhh.... why, hello!" Uh-oh. Viki didn't... did she? She did! No! It's amazing just how quickly Belle recoils, backing away from Viki as if she had just confessed to being infected with the plague. Her back is against the edge of the bath in an instant, almost cowering, and her eyes are tightly shut as she stutters a quick, "Not my fault, not my fault!" No, it's the wind! Definately the wind that made Viki sneeze! We're just confirming this! That cringe proves to be in good preparation when.. SPLASH! -Something- falls long and hard into the bath, letting loose a miniature wave at Belle. She coughs a little then, apparently having breathed in a little too much of that, spluttering a little before she rubs lightly at her eyes. Hey, she was -trying- to keep her hair -dry-, see? How unfortunate! But as she finally glances up at the poor girl who was dropped in the middle of the bath, Belle only gives an awkward little laugh. Oh. Um. Yes. Awkward. "...at least... Viki didn't teleport -us- somewhere..." "Ah---I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to..!" And SPLASH! Something, no someone, lands in the middle of the bath and water flies everywhere, drenching Viki from head to toe...not that most of her wasn't wet already...but..still! She blinks, pauses, then quickly moves her wet bangs from her eyes to glance over at the newcomer. It was a young girl in a red dress! And she looked lost! Thank goodness Budehuc's teleporter happened to be on the scene right? "Hello!" She chirps, making her way over to the girl. "Are you lost? Do you need teleporting?" Mirror, or no mirror, a job was a job and oh yeah, her duty too of course! "Teleporting?" is the weak response. "Um... hi..." Teleporting. Bath. It's all starting to make a sort of horrible sense. She'd been /warned/ about the girl by the mirror, but since she hadn't gone even remotely close to that part of the main room, she'd thought she was safe. Apparently, that is not the case. "No, that's okay." Alanis raises her hands with a smile plastered onto her face, trying to ward the other girl off. "I guess I needed a bath anyway..." She looks around, peers into the water. "I hope my sandwich didn't come with me..." Since it seemed the others were trying to get a decent soak, that is... Mel lets out a breath. "Oh! Uhh, well, welcome to the baths. I'm Mel. That's Belle, and that's Viki, who... kindly gave you a bath. She... slipped and fell into the water," she added. Branky coughed loudly. "She didn't know how to take off her dress and decided to take a soak." Mel rolls her eyes. "And this is Branky," she added. Branky grins. "Mel's just upset that Viki didn't pick someone more suitable to be brought into the baths. Like Ba..." Mel whacked Branky against the deck of the bath, which made a nice, wet 'smack'. As annoying as Branky is, Belle can't -help- but giggle at that last line. Not like Belle had any such wishes and dreams like that either, no, no, not at all! But, er.. Really, it's rather nice that a -girl- got teleported into here, of all people. That's a little less mortifying. But she looks up then to the new girl and smiles, offering a little wave, "Really, sorry about this. Viki didn't mean to pop you in here. She never does!" An indirect apology for Viki's sake, almost. Don't be mad at Viki, please! She really -didn't- mean it. Promise. Nor did she mean to blink and look confused and offer Alanis a teleport out. Ahem. "But, right, right. I'm Belle! What's your name? I don't think I've seen you around the castle before." Belle catches herself then and pauses, before adding a more serious, "..Er, you -were- in Budehuc Castle before you got brought here, right..? It'd be awful if you were in, you know, Caleria or something.." Though certainly not out of the question. Viki's sneezes left nothing untouched. "I slipped and fell?" Viki turns to blink at Mel. Wow, it's a miracle she wasn't hurt! She pats herself a few times just to make sure. Yup, no injuries. She looks back towards the pigtailed girl to give her a friendly smile. "No? Okay then. I'm Viki! Make yourself at home!" And....she frowns, staring at Mel and Belle again. "You two, aren't you cold? Why don't you have any clothes on?" She shakes her head a bit, giggling. Really, Mel and Belle were so weird sometimes! Alanis stares at Viki for a minute, then gives herself a shake. Well, she's here now... "Oh! I'm sorry!" She turns around with a slosh to face everyone. There's just enough water to soak her shoes through entirely! How... nice. "My name is Alanis. I came here with Hugo a few days ago to help out." She holds her hand out automatically. Perfect manners are bred into everyone in her family! "Nice to meet all of you! I, um... didn't mean to suddenly drop in like that..." Well, she can't really hold it against Viki. It couldn't have been deliberate... as this is very FAR from the cafe. And she can only stare at Viki at her next comment. And pull at her coat so it won't stick to her like that. Mel glances over at Alanis and she smiles widely. "Well, nice to meet you, Alanis! Oh, so you came over with Hugo? Are you good friends with Hugo?" She casts a sidelong glance at Belle, lifting an eyebrow slightly. "Viki... yeah, it's getting a bit chilly now. Err, perhaps it's time to get out of the bath." There's perhaps one too many people soaked in the tub with their clothes on, so may as well make a getaway. Branky stares at Alanis for a moment, but refrains from commenting and instead mumbles more about Viki. "Disturbing my peaceful bath with sneezes and..." Aaaahhh, why are you looking at Belle like that, Mel?! Why, er, Belle doesn't care at all if this young girl is a friend of Hugo's! Really, um. Why would she? Ah ha ha... Cough. Still, she shoots Mel a rather unamused little peer before she turns back to Alanis with a smile. "Really? A friend of Hugo's?" What, no, Belle doesn't sound overly interested at all, "...That's.. very nice of you to come and help, Alanis!" Ah ha ha. 'Help'? Hmmmmmmmmm. But Belle can be graceful about it. Belle can not comment. "But it's nice to meet you! If you ever need any help with anything mechanical.." When does anyone? The only people who seem to even be concerned with Gadgets are, well.. Okay, just Belle. "Just ask me! I'm the resident Gadget Master!" And brilliant to boot! But of course Belle doesn't say -that-. She's -modest-. She shoots yet another peer over at Viki at her last comment, before she shakes her head lightly and mutters, "And whose fault is that? It was plenty warm, and with lots of water, until you went and sneezed!" Belle isn't making terribly much sense, pardon. But with that little grumble, she snatches up her towel--Soaked completely through by this point--And hops out of the bath with a shiver. Such a nasty little breeze! ...Was that a sandwich floating in the water? She blinks and shakes her head. Oh uh, friend of Hugo's? Oh how nice! Any friend of Master Hugo was okay in Viki's book. Viki elbows Belle in a not so subtle way and in a rather loud voice, says. "Belle! She knows Master Hugo!" She giggles. "I'm Viki, Alanis. If you ever need teleporting, I'm always by the huuuuuge mirror in the hallway!" Hmm, it was getting rather cold, wasn't it? "I'm going to go get changed, my dress seems to have gotten wet somehow....." She walks off towards the bath entrance, stops by Mel and the grumbling Branky to pat his head again. "Hello Mr. Branky! You're a nice wolf aren't you?" ...And, she continues on her way, already having forgotten the reason for her exit. She was strangely in the mood for some hot tea. And maybe a sandwich. Alanis waves at Viki with that same smile plastered on her face. She seems nice enough... if a bit.... well, if Hugo likes her, she must be okay. Everyone seems nice enough so far! She hoists herself out of the tub and starts wringing her skirt out. Mother is not going to be happy to see the condition of her new dress, no she won't be... "Yeah, I know Hugo... haven't seen much of him lately, though." She laughs a little nervously. "Ummm..." She looks at Belle and Mel. "I'm terribly sorry." Branky mumurs underneath Viki's scritch-scratching as she makes her exit. He stops suddenly when Mel glances over and gives him a look. Mel quickly towels herself off and begins to pull on her dress. "It's okay, Alanis... I think the bath water needs changing anyhow." Mel smirks. "Okay, Branky... oh, you're still wet. Maybe I should get... ~~Hugo~~ to cast some of that fire magic and help dry you off." She glances back at Belle. "Are you coming too? Oh good! Maybe you should come as well, Alanis..." Belle is right on her way of hopping out of the tub when she gets elbowed, quite sharply, in the ribs by Viki. "Ow! Viki, stop that!" Stop what? Why, stop talking so loudly, so obviously, about Master Hugo! Especially when otherwise it's such an innocent comment. Who -doesn't- know Hugo? Really! With an unhappy wrinkle of her nose, Belle makes her way out and sighs quietly to herself. Viki is sooo terribly hopeless sometimes! She tosses on her clothes while Viki babbles on and wanders out, although she'll have to get back to her room and change in any case. So much splashing water! It's unsurprising that -nothing- in this place seems to be dry now. So why does she sound so happy when Alanis says that she hasn't seen Hugo much? "Really?" Yay! "That's too bad! I bet he was just really busy with the festival. But there's nothing to apologize for, at all! It's hardly your fault Viki popped you in here, right?" Hee! But the dripping-wet Gadget Master simply -spins- over to face Mel while she smiles and dares, DARES! to say something like that. Gasp! -Gasp-! "Mel, don't even -joke- about that! You are so -mean- sometimes, I swear!" Since when? Bah! Branky must be a bad influence on Mel. Unsurprising, when she spent every waking moment with that nasty toy. But Belle nonetheless scurries after the departing Mel. Teasing or, not, after all.. "Oh, but of course I'm coming, too! Just wait a second." Not much use being here anymore, after all, is there?