[ OPEN ] Hot Springs Episode!

[shri]

CHARACTERS: EVERYONE
WHERE: The Second Flight
WHEN: DAY :022
SUMMARY: The Sauna!
WARNINGS: Nekkid times.

[ A few hours after the murder, she hasn't blown the ship up, and here they are. Another knock knock on everyone's brain: ]

( For those of you that are interested - I have secured us a place at the Sauna. Free for us to be use without interruption from outsiders.

You are to be clean before you come in. )

[ Maybe you're here because she bullied you, maybe you want to soak - maybe you're the poor bastard that is standing guard at the door. Either way, welcome to the Suana, have fun. Or don't. ]

Comments

hi mat hi

[shri]

[ Rather unfortunately, she isn't particularly. But mercifully perhaps with the position is that it's part of the territory. More than anything it's different, these days. It has been awhile since anyone had that sort of reaction to her - especially here. Her eyes fix on him, lifting her head up a bit more.

All teeth, is her smile. It's probably its own kind of warning. ]

Yes. [ She laughs at his bluster. ] Must a woman expose herself to be worthy of your attention? Or do you something especially interesting to warrant the attention?

a/s/l lakshmi

[calhar]

[ She responds to his comment without leaning into her title, and that does a better job of easing his nerves than his own stubborn resolve. This is how it's supposed to go — him with the bad lines, her humoring him with laughter. He can even handle the teeth so long as the smiles aren't completely at his expense. ]

A woman doesn't have to do anything, but looks make the first impression. [ ... unless you're covered in awful robes, but whatever. He probably would've liked her if he'd just spoken to her first, if that's worth anything. Her next question doesn't give him pause, though he doesn't rush to answer; Mat crosses his arms over the edge of the pool, careful not to crowd her. ]

I'd say a warrior queen is worth anyone's attention — in the interest of self-preservation, mind.

[ She's beautiful, of course. But she clearly knows it, and there's a slight tease in the way he dodges saying it outright. ]

out of ur league, mat

[shri]

[ Oh, that was a good answer. For the game itself, she can appreciate it. For it he gets another laugh, another smile, the long stretch of her back out as she positions herself to talk to him clearer. ]

I regret to inform you, I ruled behind veils as well.

[ It's playful, what a thing. Were they all so unadjusted too it ? She did not favour them, and when her husband pass, outside of foreigners such as he was, she never bothered with the dance of light and shadows. But she could hardly pretend that was prevalent, the restrictions of purdah were daily life for many women. ]

When it was not veils, it was curtains and screens. Until I found myself upon battlefields.

[ She laughs once more, life and meaningless. ]

[calhar]

Pity for your people, then. [ Missing out on the view. That's the shallow response, though he's actually a little curious — veils meant a lot of different things, back home. Usually aggression, which obviously doesn't line up with diplomacy.

There memory's there, close to the surface; men and women with red hair, black veils, long spears. But he's not here to talk about other people. Mat shifts his curiosity over to battlefields instead, tone lightly amused. ]

"Found" makes it sound like you took a wrong turn and wound up in a fight.

[ That's a joke, though in retrospect it basically describes his entire life. ]

[shri]

Something like that. Misjudged those around me, more like.

[ It's deliberately vague, but the details aren't particularly unheard of. A Queen places her trust in those around her, but those people don't deserve her trust. A war follows and good men die because of wicked men's hearts. Like a saga or play, it has its acts and pauses, its peaks and falls. ]

Granted I think some of them were a little more surprised than I was when the battlefield settled its dust.

[ She couldn't particularly say she hated the Queen of Orcha, but she had pressed an advantage that she quite frankly, didn't have. ]