Order of the Tooth

Log Info

• Title: Order of the Tooth
• Emitter: Aryia
• Characters: Aryia, Irshya
• Place: TarRaCe Bathhouse
• Time: November 24th, 2021
• Summary: At the TarRaCe bathhouse, Aryia is making up for sullying one of the pools at a party a while back. Irshya scolds her for doing so, the elf is a guest and a friend, and doesn't need to be doing such things. They compromise, and the pool-shark shows her a faster way of cleaning the place. A misplaced tickle makes Aryia fall into the half full pool, the shark dives in after. After a tussle, they recover, and Irshya invites her into her circle of friends, imparting a gift unto the mute woman. Aryia happily accepts, share a few deep thoughts, then race to see who could clean the bathhouse the fastest.

TarRaCe Bathhouse, Afternoon.

It's a lazy day. With the news having properly spread that the most popular bathhouse in the city has reopened, it came to no surprise that many have found themselves here, lounging away, trying to ignoring the overwhelming dread of demonic takeover that pervades every single aspect of daily life.

Well, for some, not all. Some just want a relaxing bath to soak in.

A familiar scarred mul'neissa in her black swim trunks and chest wrap is doing something odd this day. Instead of blissfully zoning out in the relaxing waters, she has a brush in hand. The elf is on her hands and knees, scrubbing at the grout on the tiles until it's spotless. She works slow. But slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. Though, even this task, she's zoned out, torch-bright eyes unfocused as she goes about cleaning.

The Gobbo-shark, aka owner and proprietor of the TarRaCe, oversees what might be called a tight ship. At the very least, it's efficiently run, decently staffed, and suffering from an uptick in popularity.

Irshya seems to enjoy roaming the building, her form allowing her to escape people's notice, most of the time.

Today, she's been watching a curious thing. Someone's cleaning. Not a shock, really, the baths do need a lot of care and attention, since their intended purpose means they collect a lot of ... grime.

However, the Gobbo is frowning. She stands in the Mul'neissa's path, and at some point... she'll be noticed, arms crossed, frown fully armed and operational, hints of teeth lurking in the darkness of her maw.

Aryia is quietly whistling to herself, some sort of shanty melded together from other shanties. Scrub scrub scrub. Shuffle up. Scrub scrub scrub. Shuffle up. Scrub- boop.

Perplexed by the tile having some sort of resistance, shining eyes refocus finally to see whatever foot they bumped into. She raises her head, coming naught but a couple of feet away from the proprietor. Blink. She raises a hand in greeting.

And tilts her head to the side. She copies the frown, points to her lips, and raises a brow.

Irshya can't help but smile at Aryia as she seems perplexed by the feet in her path, and the raised hand in greeting. Her smile is bright and cheery, and after waving back, she thrusts her hand out, palm up and open. Expectantly waiting for something.

Aryia looks down to the hand, back to the gobbo, back down at the hand. Her own raises, and falls down on the upturned palm with a gentle >smack< of a low-five. She smiles.

The Gobbo blinks at the low-five, and peers at her hand afterwards, sniffing at it gently. She snorts, then, and gestures to the scrubbing brush, and makes a gimme-gimme motion with her hand.

"Irshya wonders why you are on your knees, scrubbing, in her bathhouse? A guest, and most of all, a friend. Doing menial labour?"

One of her little feet begins tapping at the floor.

Aryia feigns annoyance and rolls her eyes, sticking her tongue out at Irshya and handing the brush over. She pouts some, her rocking back to sit cross legged and be eye level with the other. She gestures off towards where they held their little party. More importantly to where Aryia was making an absolute mess a bit ago.

She wasn't sure if the pool-shark had used the spell yet, so she stuck to gesturing for now.

The brush is casually tossed over her shoulder, and sploshes into a bucket near the back wall. The Gobbo steps forward to lightly cup the Mul's cheeks, before she claims Aryia's lap and settles down. The wee woman is clad in blue shorts, and a sleeveless green shirt. She smells lightly of soap, vinegar and lemon.

"Irshya has been observing your progress. Also... you're less talkative today?"

Aryia blinks, eyes widening ab it as her personal space is breached. Sea salt and linseed oil mingles with the other scents, and her face tinges red. She clears her throat. Right, goblins were always close. Murder was like that.

"Uhh..." her lips say, but her hand gives a slight motion off to the side. "Not sure if you can understand me is all. Observe? What do you mean?" <Handspeech>

Her eyes are drawn to the wiggling fingers, and Irshya grins. "Irshya was watching you scrub, trying to figure out why you were doing this. Then she recalled that you felt poorly about making a mess." She giggles lightly, a hand reaching up to lightly pat at the spot where Aryia's heart is... at least, best guess. "You have a good heart. Irshya like that you are not afraid of work."

The Gobbo's little tail wiggles lightly and she puts her hands behind her head, enjoying the comfort of the Mul's lap.

"But, if you really, really feel that you must do some work, could Irshya show you something to make things easier? You don't have to do this, though."

The mul'neissa nods along, but she squirms faintly under all the closeness. To compromise, she leans back some, hands behind her to support herself. She rubs her neck. "Well, I'm used to manual labor, so... It's nothing," she motions with a shrug.

Attention shifts from looking off to the side back to the pool-shark. She tilts her head to the side, and raises a white brow. She's curious. <Handspeech>

Irshya obviously enjoys closeness, and perhaps also the slight embarrassment that Aryia seems to exhibit. But the Gobbo doesn't push her luck, hopping up with a burst of energy. She disappears out the door, a trail of wet footprints following in her wake. She's only gone for a few minutes, perhaps just long enough to raise curiosity as to where she's gotten to.

She returns bearing a broom, though oddly angled, as if it's meant to be used at a 90° angle to what normal brooms are used at. There's also a bucket, which, as she gets closer, bears a mix of scents similar to what can be smelled on her person.

The pool itself starts to make a few odd noises, a gurgling sound somewhere underneath. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the water level begins to lower. And in the middle of the pool, a divot appears, an indentation that slowly increases, as the water begins to circle it.

Aryia breathes a sigh of relief as her little bubble is back. But that relief is mulled over with curiosity as the gobbo dashes off.

She rubs her neck. One of these days Violet might walk in and shoot someone for a misunderstanding. The mute sighs. And she waits.

And waits.

Being an elf had benefits. Like patience. For the most part. It's only when Irshya returns was when she was starting to lean to the side from her spot to look further into the doorway to get an iota of an idea of what was going on.

She tilts her head to the side. Which makes her catch a weird noise, the mute's long ear flicking once as she notices the pool dip.

She glances between the new developments, then gestures towards the strange broom with an eyebrow raised. Asking the silent question of: 'what's that?'

"It's a scrub broom. Same as that brush, but you can do it standing up. No need to break your back. And you can put your full weight on it, so you're not using up all your arms' strength." The handle does seem appropriately size for someone roughly Aryia's height.

Irshya gestures with the bucket. "Soap and a few things to help with molds and mildews. You dunk the broom in here, and then scrub." Setting the bucket down, it's not hard to see that it's about half full of a sudsy looking liquid. The Gobbo-shark begins moving the pieces of furniture, benches, stools and a little ladder used for getting into the pool, to the far edges of the walls.

"Irshya glad that you are barefoot, wouldn't want to spoil your shoes." Her holy symbol is pulled free from it's place around her neck, usually concealed by clothing, and it flashes brightly. And for several minutes, it rains, completely soaking the tiles.

Aryia pinches her brows together as the explanation is given unto her. Not in annoyance, but in concentration. It's an important skill to listen to direction and not need repeating for... obvious reasons that are dictated all across her grey skin. She picks up the broom, testing its weight and finding it good.

She looks to the bucket, nods, then watches as furniture is moved around. Her head tilts to the side, and-

Oh fuck, it's raining! Inside?! The mute flinches from the sudden downpour, her looking up and around at everything. Now she was drenched. Well, Aryia had to admit, it was a rather efficient way of doing things.

Not wanting to jump the signal to start, she holds out a hand to catch a few raindrops before gesturing with it, "Do I start after this is done? Or can I do it while it's raining?" Oddly specific, but necessary. She wanted to do it right the first time. <Handspeech>

Irshya is distracted by the rain, hopping about and splashing, at least until she slips and falls upon her behind. She blinks a few times, her cheeks going a pale lavender, and she quickly looks away from the Mul as she slowly stands.

"You can start now, or whenever, as long as the tiles are wet, you can scrub them." The brush previously used by Aryia is retrieved, and the Gobbo-shark settles upon her knees to scrub at the grout.

"Irshya will do another spell after and we can push all the water into the pool. Then we scrub the pool, and set the system to fill it back up after."

Aryia watches Irhsya prance about, a light smirk appearing on her lips as she leans on the broom in waiting. Following by a snort from the tumble. She nods, dips the broom in, and gets to work.

She listens to the other directions as she scrubs, nodding along. Getting the idea of it pretty quickly. And she works quickly. Very, very quickly. Wax on, wax off and all that.

The Gobbo moves back and forth between the bucket and the spaces she is scrubbing, the little woman using copious amounts of energy to keep up with Aryia.

As the rain ends, the little symbol around Irshya's neck glows brightly for a moment, and a dense fog begins to fill the place. Aryia can see, being above the fog, but her feet, and the Goblin disappear for a time.

"Irshya is glad to have a new friend.", says a little voice from below, somewhere nearby.

Aryia has as stick. Aryia is honed to a point that she can leap buildings and roads without an issue. Aryia is fast. Aryia is strong. So it does not take long for these tiles to be cleaned out by the sailor. In fact, it looked like she was enjoying this kind of work. Though, she does cast some worried looks over to the Gobbo who was trying to keep pace with the pugilist.

She blinks as the fog rolls in. Squinting some, she scratches her head. This was counter productive to making sure the floor was clean, as it was harder to see what she had missed thus far. Nor was she certain that her 'talking' could be seen as well.

An ear twitches, and she looks in that direction. "New friends are nice," she motions with a small smile gracing her lips. "Have you many?" <Handspeech>

There may just be some heavy breathing, the sounds masked by the scrubbing, and the fog's ability to mute sound just a little. The fog itself begins to gravitate towards the half empty pool, and soon the soaked sharky-one becomes visible once more.

She pants a little, and peers over at the Mul'neissa. "Some.", she says softly, "A few missing, a few ... passed on.. but always room in Irshya's heart for another."

Aryia has a hand on her hip as she sees the pool-shark once more, her brow cocked off to the side in a half-frown. A sigh leaves her, the mute dropping the broom to let it clatter against the ground. She pads over to Irshya, and sits on her haunches. "Hey."

The mood becomes surprisingly calm, and her face relaxes into a sad sort of smile. "xgBefore I got here, I had no friends. And the ones that I did make friends with got traded away. So there was no point in making them."

"Now I have a lot of friends. Family, even. And...-" her face dusts crimson. "... even love. Friends keep me going, believe it or not. And I always like having new friends."

She rubs Irshya's head. Then squints. "And friends should tell friends to calm the fuck down when trying to keep up with me because I've done manual labor for over eighty years," she lightly chastises before sticking her tongue out at the pool-shark. <Handspeech>

The Gobbo settles back on knees, and cants her head slightly as Aryia settles down close to her level. Her expression grows sad as the Mul'neissa speaks of how friends were.. taken away from her. But it vanishes in a moment as she grins broadly at Aryia's admission of love.

She makes a little sound, something like a squeak, as her head is rubbed, and then she snorts.

"Irshya simply wants to do her share of the work.", she says, sticking her own tongue out in response.

Aryia crosses her arms, brows pinched at the rebuttal. "Equal share isn't an equitable share. You getting the small places low to the ground is a good share. Me doing the whole damn floor is a good share because I'm really good at it. I've cleaned so many ship decks top to bottom, and stupid fancy floors in random places that I couldn't even shake a stick at how much I've done. Would I tell you to punch a hole in the wall? No. Would you tell me to swim to the bottom of the ocean to check something out? No."

She boops the owner's forehead with a digit. <Handspeech>

The maw opens automatically as the hand moves at her face, showing a few rows of teeth, and then the eyes cross as she watches the finger all the way til it touches her forehead. Irshya blinks a few times at Aryia. "Fair, Irshya supposes. However. Irshya is the boss." Her grin is broad and cheeky.

"It would not be right to let you hog all the work." She giggles, and a hand sneaks out to tickle at one of the Mul'neissa's feet.

Aryia snorts. "So the boss can do the dirty work of cleaning the bottom of the pool then. I don't think I'd-"

The mute doesn't have the capability of speech. When she talks, it comes out as a breathy rasp, followed by some coughing. Sometimes she could be heard, but it's mostly hissing of consonants.

So take that, combine that with a surprised sound. And you get: "Ackwpffftkkssss."

The pugilist flails backwards, falls off her haunches, back hits the side of the pool, and she rolls into the water with a >splash!< <Handspeech>

"Aryia?", Irshya blinks just once, and a few moments later is diving into the water after the monk.

The pugilist isn't far deep, her resurfacing with a glower to her visage, eyes squinted into a thin, glowing line, a hand pops up. "It's on."

What?

The mute starts briskly swimming after the pool-shark, fingers outstretched and set to tickle. <Handspeech>

The Gobbo was concerned, it was etched into the lines of her face, but it goes from concern to shock in a blink. She squeaks and begins to dart away, her little tail working overtime. "N.nooo, is not on.", she squeaks.

The gobbo may be fast in the water. But there is one thing that was faster. A brawler that knew how to teleport at the blink of an eye.

Aryia's outstretched hand, concentration on her face began to fade away. The image of her, just fades. Then she appears again a split second later on the other end of the pool, crouching against the inner wall, poising to jet off of it. Then that image slowly fades away. And a heartbeat later, Irshya is face to face with a glowy eyed mul'neissa with a big grin.

Yoink.

There's a flurry of tickles on the gobbo's sides.

Irshya's squeak echoes in the half empty pool, and while she is scooped up easily, she may prove to be a slippery fish to hold onto. The clothing she wears is pretty much her downfall.

She laughs, she squeals, she makes many attempts to flee, her sides and feet vulnerable to teeeeekles.

Aryia gives the gobbo a taste of their own medicine for a few seconds, trying to keep the floppy fish in her grasp to dispense justice. She snickers, stops, and lightly tosses the pool-shark back into the waters with a lopsided grin on her face.

The sharky-one will right herself before hitting the water, and will lazily float there, face down. Her gills can be seen, opening and closing, and after a few minutes she'll slowly stand up. Giving herself a shake, and attempting to settle her slightly roughed up clothing back into place, she moves to the side.

And stares at it. Hopping, she latches onto the side, and then struggles to pull herself up.

Aryia's grin slowly comes down to a neutral rest. Then a light frown. Did she do something wrong? A sigh leaves her, and she briskly mantles the side of the pool. Padding over to Irshya, she squats down to help the pool-shark out of the waters if allowed.

There is no objection to the assist, and the Gobbo settles down on the floor with a sigh. Then there's a loud hiccup, and a confused and surprised look on her face. "Irshya think *hiccup* that you have become very forward. Is... refreshing to *hiccup* see." She peers to the Mul, and grins. *hiccup*

Aryia blinks in surprise at the hiccups, and she holds a finger up. And pads off.

Only to return a minute later with a glass of water, which she hands off to the goblin. "... forward?" she echoes with a hand. The mute scratches her head, and looks off to the side. "... what do you mean by that?" <Handspeech>

The water is downed in moments, the Gobbo pouring it down her throat. It seems to work, as a cure for hiccups. Irshya nods. "Yes. You allowed Irshya to recline in your lap, something you would not allow previously. You also had no problem tickling and holding a squirming Irshya trying to escape. Something you probably would not do before."

She smiles brightly then, and bounces up to her feet, and runs off.

Again, she's gone just long enough to perhaps raise curiosity, but returns at a run. Her hands are held together as she comes up to Aryia. "Hold out your hand, please. Irshya has a gift."

Aryia makes a faint 'ah' sound, relaxing a bit. She didn't want to come off as *too* forward now. Just friendly. She nods at the observation, and adds to it, "I've gotten a bit better about all of that."

Shining eyes blink as Irshya dashes off. She scratches her head, and idly picks up the cleaning supplies and moves them out of the way.

Quickly padding feet make the perceptive elf pivot around, her head cocked to the side a the outstretched hands. A gift? People rarely give her gifts. Usually she's the one handing out things.

But, she complies, a calloused and scarred grey hand held outward, palm up. Her halfway anticipating another low-five. <Handspeech>

Irshya opens her palms, allowing a small object to fall into Aryia's hand. Triangular in shape, and a faintly off-white in colour, it is a shark's tooth. It is just about the same size as the teeth seen in Irshya's maw.

"Irshya loses teeth regularly. She usually keeps them, unless she swallows them. She... gives them to friends. Irshya welcomes you to the Order of the Tooth."

Aryia raises a brow, her bringing the tooth up to inspect it closer. She's seen shark's teeth. She's seen a lot of shark's teeth. She flips it around through her fingers, looking at it every which way as Irshya explains what it is.

The fiddling stops. Blink blink. A soft chuckle leaves her, and the mute pulls the pool-shark into a hug.

"Some of Irshya's friends drill a small hold and...". The Gobbo squeaks at the sudden hug, and giggles, hugging at Aryia's waist. "Run a chain through it and wear it around their necks. Is good luck charm." She leans into the hug, obviously enjoying the attention. "Irshya is happy to call you friend." A hand runs up Aryia's side, the fingers tickling. "Even if you cheat at tickles."

Aryia softly sighs, holding the wet embrace for a long moment before-

The mute tenses, biting her lip to stifle back some laughter. "Pppfftt...!" she blubbers out, trying to not laugh aloud.

She pulls away to be able to talk, as well as cease the tickling on her flank. "Rude," she teasingly gestures. "Cheating is just playing smart!" She sighs, and shakes her head with a little smile. "Same. Thanks for being so kind to me despite my issues that crop up from time to time."

She looks down to the tooth, and she brings it to her sternum. Seeing how it would look. She bobs her head, approving of it with a thumbs up. <Handspeech>

"Hah, still cheating.", the Gobbo says with a cheeky grin. Canting her head slightly, she shrugs her shoulders. "We all have our problems. Irshya tries not to let that get in the way of kindness or friendship. Irshya's life too short for that. You have already lived far longer than Irshya ever will. Is something Irshya keeps in her mind."

Aryia snickers and shrugs as well. The elf didn't get this far by being the honorable type, after all.

The mul'neissa softly sighs and nods slowly, pocketing the tooth into the pocket of her trunks. "... thank you for keeping that in mind. It's something I have to remember a lot as well."

Her shimmering gaze relaxes some and she asks, "How old are you, if I may ask? I'm... a hundred ten, give or take ten years, I can't remember." <Handspeech>

Irshya's cheeks flush a light lavender in colour. "Rude to ask a lady her age.", she says with a snort. "Irshya has seen twenty-five summers come and go.", she says shyly, managing to look embarrassed. "Hardly hold a candle against your life's work."

Aryia snerks as well, rolling her eyes. "Guess I'm one rude jerk," she motions, shrugging with a grin. She reaches out, rubbing Irshya's head. "That's like comparing apples to grapes, I think the humans say," she motions slowly. "You've been around for a while though, that's nothing to scoff at. Would you believe I can barely remember my first few decades? And some of the ones after it blur together pretty hard. Your candle may be smaller, but that doesn't mean it's dimmer than mine." <Handspeech>

The Gobbo murmurs at the touch, her enjoyment of the touch evident in her expression. She shuffles forward a little. "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.", Irshya says softly, leaning into the touch. "Irshya can believe it. From her little understanding, Irshya thinks that your life has been a hard one. Is in your voice, your eyes, your expression... how you carry yourself. Your scars are only a small part of the story."

Aryia rubs her arm, her giving a long sigh. Her hand slides down and off the pool-shark. Her eyes half-lid, and unfocus slightly. Her head bobs slowly. "... yes. It has been. And it's a story that I'm trying to unravel still, to this day."

She smiles a bit more, and straightens her posture up some. The shadow elf pats the Gobbo's head once more, and she kicks the brush back up. "Thank you. Let's get this finished up, yes?" <Handspeech>

Concern clouds the Gobbo's features as Aryia seems to be unsteady, but she snorts as the scrubber's kicked back up. "Show off.", Irshya says with a grin. The holy symbol flashes and the rain falls again, fresh soaking for the rest of the tiles. And the pool.

"Race you!", she says cheerfully, as she begins scrubbing, her energy returned.

Aryia snorts, grins, and cracks her neck.

It's on.

-End Scene-