In the Pools

Log Info

• Title: In the Pools
• Emitter: Cryosanthia
• Characters: Cryosanthia, Tae
• Place: A03: The TarRaCe - Bathhouse
• Time: Friday, September 11, 2020, 9:57 PM
• Summary: Cryosanthia is relaxing on the bottom of the women's only bathing pool at the TarRaCe, with Lily swimming around, when Tae arrives. The pink kobold is happy to see her half-oruch rescuer and demands attention, then keeps swimming as Tae and Cryo talk. The topics range from hunting the hunters, to gods, to Lily's future. Cryo is ashamedly happy that Tae has been unsuccessful in locating a new kobold nest for Lily. She is certain there are some out there, as the Explorer's Guild keeps posting contracts and some of the groups that accept them don't come back. There is splashing, a race, and then Lily is getting a little cranky so they stop swimming and go for food.

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A light, warm mist welcomes those entering the grand bathing chamber. Rising from pools warmed by unseen sources of heat, the moisture makes the air somewhat muggy but still comfortable to breathe. The room it fills has been divided into three portions - the dividing walls, like the bathing pools themselves, clad in pale marble that contrasts with the dark granite that bears the weight of it all.

Attendants politely direct people to changing areas and appropriate services, and ensure that no one winds up where they should not. The central pool is open to both sexes, with a strict requirement for bathing attire to be worn. Those located to either side are mirrors of each other, each restricted to one sex and discreetly guarded to preserve patrons' privacy.

Beyond the central pool a pair of massage tables offer another form of politely-supervised relaxation, with cabinets holding an impressive array of aromatic oils for the use of trained members of staff. More prosaically, signs announce the availability of a service to clean clothes while patrons wash themselves, so that they can return to the outer world fresh from head to toe.

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 Cryosanthia     A dashingly tall, elegant white-scaled lizard woman.
 Tae             Female half-oruch, lean, black hair                 
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The hot baths, where one can take everything off and let the hair down. Not that the white-scaled sith'makar has hair, but she's done her best with the other option. Her gear is stowed, she has slipped into the water, swum a bit and now lies on the bottom on her back, staring up at a carnation coloured kobold girl, that is swimming in circles.

"That's good Lily, good form. Now hold a breath and dive down." <draconic> She sounds encouraging and instructive. She's got a message cantrip up, allowing her to speak through the water to her foundling.

The carnation kobold has an inflateable ring around her, which keeps her up and makes her splashing all the more vigorous. She's currently doing laps.

Tae has come to the city reluctantly. She generally likes the better accomodations, but Wilderness Pointe has fewer people looking down their high and mighty noses. She enters the women's bath with a sigh, her left arm stretched behind her to knuckle some sort spot on her lower back. She immediately notices Lily's swimming about, and as she draws closer looks down to spot Cryosanthia. "Having fun, Lily?" she asks quietly.

"Tae!" Lily says enthusiastically, turning towards the half-oruch, then splashing in her direction. She moves slowly through the water, but uses her tail, that helps.

On the bottom, Cryo hears the glee and turns her head. Through the distortion of depth, she can see Tae and waves at her.

Tae waves down at Cryo, a smile curling her lips. The half-oruch draws off her towel and slides into the water gracefully, reaching out to stroke Lily's hand. With a laugh she gives the little inflatable ring a spin. "I can see that you are learning how to swim very well," she says gently to the kobold. "Are you being a good girl? Following the rules? Not biting people?" Well, at least not nice people. Not that she voices that distinction.

"No! No!" Lily laughs as she's spun, objecting, trying to rotate herself back. She opens her mouth in a playful sort of grin, an expression copied from Cryo, and says "No!" again.

She bites!

It's not hard, it doesn't break skin, but she's a little rule-breaker!

Underwater, Cryo laughs, "Lily, don't bite." The white-sith rolls over and with a powerful stroke of her tail is gliding towards the two. She breaks the surface beside them, water cascading off her horns. "Tae, it's wonderful to see you."

Tae gives Lily a look and gently taps her nose. "We do not bite." With a smirk she warns, "Next time, I bite back." She adds a little splash of the kobold before turning back to Cryosanthia. "It's great to see you," replies. She looks over Cryosanthia openly before going on. "I see you've been taking excellent care of this little one. I hope she's doing well with other children."

Lily laughs again, maintaining her grin and saying "Gwaarrlf!" She air-snaps, and then she's paddle-swimming. The life-ring doesn't seem entirely necessary but it does slow her down, so perhaps that's its purpose.

Cryo dips her head, smiling at Tae and being careful with her lips, "This one is happy too, it is great to see you again. She's a delight on her own. With others..."

Cryo exhales, her eyes still bright, "She's learning. She's learning to share. She wants things, this is a natural hoarding instinct, but she understands that others will play with her if she shares her things." The whitescale waves her hand, "As soon as she understands that everything she sees isn't hers, the biggest hurdle may be over."

"I hope that works well, it is a common challenge with her people," says Tae. She stretches out a leg, playfully causing currents under Lily as sne she swims about. "I begin to think, Cryo, that she may be the most important of her kind, before this all is said and done." The half-oruch looks tired for a moment, her spirits down. "She will see a bigger world. Something more than a cramped den and a few meagre possessions. I hope she will learn to see what many hands are capable of holding, rather than just what she can clutch." Tae dips under the water, bouncing back up a moment later. Both hands are lifted to push her hair over her back and to clear the water from streaming over her face. "It's a lot to ask, I know. But it's all that I can really hope for, now."

"You've... not had any luck finding a new home for her?" Cryosanthia asks in tradespeak. Her words careful, but she can't hide the hope that mission may have failed. "This one will give her the best opportunity I can, to see, to learn. I've spoken with my kin's mother, a professor, and she'll help me with her. She's a lucht siuil, and this one hopes her perspective will be a positive one, even if she is cold."

Lily has swum to the centre, and sees that Tae and Cryo aren't watching, "Ssassa! Look! I'm swimming! Ssassaa!"

"This one sees you!" Cryo giggles, her eyes torn between watching the water fly and fling out of Tae's hair, and her little charge. The pink youngling wins out, and the white sith'makar watches, "I'm trying to find young luchts for her to play with, although she might relate better to goblins or gnomes. She plays well with the younglings in Mictlan, though she bullies the ones smaller than her, and they are growing fast. This one intervenes a lot."

Tae shifts to softer tones, and follows in trade speak. "Those I knew are gone, Cryosanthia. Taken like her family was. No foundlings were missed, this time." She sighs quietly, her eyes shutting, "Shade and I did our work with them, but it is clear we are simply swatting away a few flies from the swarm." She watches Lily closely, making sure she cannot hear anything she says. "But honestly, this is best. I wish I could find more of her kind, so that we might bring up a whole family of them with new values, a spirit of cooperation, and bonds of understanding and friendship with more established people. I have set Shade to watching the marches leading to that fetid place where the lost are taken. She and I may have much hunting to do." Sardonically she notes, "I may run out of coin for earrings at this rate." "This one will keep you in earrings. Slavers are not to be tolerated." Cryosanthia says, stern and determined. Her breath is visible in the steam, and some of the water passing by her ends up with a cold current.

"This one had similar ideas, that perhaps they could be taken to Am'shere, set up a colony, near enough one of the people's they would be helped. A place they could prosper, away from softskins that hate them."

Lily wiggles out of her float and does a long dive underwater towards the two. She crashes into Cryo, then climbs the whitescale, surfacing at her elbow. Cryo grins down at her, slipping an arm around to support and lift her up.

"There are contracts at the Explorer's Guild, to hunt Kobolds. So, they are out there, and well hidden. The last ones this one met... it did not go well."

"There will be, until and after they are able to stand on their own, equal in power, or at least remote enough to be impossible to threaten." The druid watches Lily's antics with a small smile. "She's such a cutie, isn't she? I wonder what she will be when she grows up."

Tae leans back, letting herself float in the water. "It's so strange being here, in the city, discussing her kind. The city is ultimately our enemy in this effort. There's no interest in helping a more vulnerable people become a race that can stand on their own. The only way to get into the club is to already have so much power that you cannot be ignored."

Cryo nods, lifting Lily then zooming her through the water, then resting with her swimming against her hip. "Your assessment is true. She'll be a little larger, when she grows up, what path she chooses to follow this one doesn't know. I am so curious what she will choose."

"Sabina, Irshya, a few of my friends know. They will help, they aren't prejudiced. Who knows what we might accomplish, but you're right, too often might is all that is allowed to speak." Cryo sounds resigned, but not defeated, and she looks powerful. Her size, her movements, she's determined and it shows, "This one is Speaker, this one will say the words for her that need to be said."

"Ssasaa!" Lily cheers, not understanding a thing, and reaching with tiny claw-hands for the sith's shoulder.

Tae nods slowly, "Ultimately, there is only power, Cryosanthia. It is what people respect because they cannot continue to exist if they do not respect it. For now, her kind must live in cramped dens that humans avoid and cannot even fit into. Perhaps in time, they too may live in the sun and wind. At least, if that is their choice. I want them to have that choice, and to make it deliberately." She reaches out to tap lightly on Lily's tail, getting her attention just in time to send a little splash at the kobold. And probably Cryosanthia, as well, considering things.

Lily squeals! She is splashed! She shows how much splashing she can do with her tail. Tiny waves of water are flung at the half-oruch, and she squeals, "Tae! Tae! Tae!"

For all the weighty subjects discussed around her, they don't stick and drag her down.

Cryo grins and wiggles her hips, her tail rising behind her and coiling back and forth like a serpent. She winks, "You don't want me to splash."

"Times change, attitudes change. The people would kill softskins and they us, and now we have a treaty. Goblins have the power to world and hobgoblins are keeping them organized enough they will, but you are right. To stop being a considered a monster one has to be powerful enough to push back, and have something no one else does."

"I don't resent it," says Tae. "It is pointless to wish for the very workings of the world to change. What else can there be? Humans have so much power, and elves are no different, either. Each does what they can and seeks to favor that which is familiar. That which is their own. Those of us who fall between have no place, but we can still be sharp little blades of change, if we have a mind to." She giggles at the little waves coming her way, doing her best to pretend to be distressed by them.

"The short lived races drive change that the longer lived ones resist." Cryosanthia nods, agreeing, "Humans seem uniquely positioned between them. They worry the people, the elves, Charnath, never advanced the way the City of Mists has. I think because of the oruchs and the goblins, you are the blades."

She releases Little Fang, who splashes some more, then gets her hands on Tae's hair. She doesn't pull, or play with it. If anything, she's hanging on and waiting for the half-oruch to swing her or something.

"And that is all they are," says Tae. She emphasizes /they/. Clearly she finds little kinship with her more wild side. Feetling Lily taking hold, Tae gets an idea. She pushes off and starts to swimg as much as she can, in a circle, letting Lily hold her hair. It's perhaps as close to tubing that one can get in this world, and it looks rather funny.

At the chance to be drawn around like this, Lily lets out a happy cry of joy. She doesn't let go, holding on and bouncing a bit on the water and on Tae's back. "Fasster! Fasssster!" she squeals.

Cryo treads water, watching intently with her cold gem eyes. The warm water and warmth of friendship making her relaxed. She cheers, "Hold on tight Lily, to Ssa Tae! Don't fall off. You're such a good girl!"

Tae turns under Lily and takes hold of her, lifting her in the air. She holds the kobold there, smiling, "You will outsoar us all, Lily, my dear. The joy in your heart can outshine any shadow you come across, if you trust it."

For a time, the half-oruch is lost in thought, thinking of something that the little girl will enjoy. Then it occurs to her that splashing is clearly the best. Setting her down on the water, she raises a hand, showing Lily just how to hit the water to make the biggest splash she can. Which predictably leads to a LOT of splashing and laughing. "But for now," Tae says, "we play!"

Lily grins, looking both evil and bright pink. This new technique is wonderful! Water fans are flung Tae's way, achieving a great distance. "Ssa! Ssa!"

Cryo watches with interest and then she does something that shouldn't be possible. She is a powerfully acrobatic lizard however, and she leaps fully out of the water, then tucks her legs against her chest. Rolling in the air, she uses her momentum to slice the water with her tail. She sprays a fan that crosses the pool.

Lily squeal-screams and turns on her clutch-mother, splash-splash-slash, as Cryo drops so just her head is showing and stares at her. Tae laughs at all the water in the air, admiring the remarkable leap and splash of Cryosanthia. She pushes herself up for a moment, taking a break from the water and sitting on the edge of the pool. This doesn't spare her from the occasional tail splash as Lily tries to compete with the Sith-makar. Tae rakes her fingers through her hair, shoving the errant locks once again out of her eyes. "Is there anything you need for her?" she asks suddenly. "I could gather a few artifacts of her people, if that might help. It's not like anyone is going to complain at this point."

"I... yes." Cryo looks at Lily then back at Tae. She comes behind the kobold youngling, and holds her in the air so she can tail splash more easily.

Lily giggles, high pitched and happy, getting the whitescale as much as the half-oruch.

Then Cryo sets her down, "Get the ring Lily, then I'll race you. I'll give you a head start."

Lily splashes into the centre of the pool.

Cryo looks back at Tae, "Artifacts, would help, memories. I've been getting her some toys. It wouldn't hurt to have things of her people. This one can never replace them, but... it will be something."

"I can gather many things. I'll be careful, though. Not knowing exactly what we are up against, I need to ensure there's nothing exotic that's been done." The woman frowns thoughtfully as she considers that idea. "I rather doubt it, though. Those doing the work never seem quite bright enough for it. They have become a boring, easy hunt. Lazy, stupid, never expecting that they might become prey." She can't conceal the fact that she enjoys turning the tables on them.

Cryosanthia nods, "They are too easy prey. See if there is a book of traps. They might all be oral tradition and creativity, but you never know."

She thinks about that for a while, "The people write things on stones, but we also have the Lore Keepers. If their nests are slaughtered, they lose a lot of culture and gains. It is not fair, that they are sent back to the starting line each time."

She reaches out, laying a white hand on Tae's knee, looking up at her, "Hunt well, please, for the ones she has lost. Do not suffer slavers to live."

Tae sighs gently, looking down at Cryosanthia's hand. There's a moment where her expression slides into sadness, but it only lasts a moment. "They are hunted. I show them the same mercy they have shown. But every face, I carry with me, Cryosanthia. What I will never lose is the weight of what I do." Her bravado returns a moment later, "But I would be lying if I denied that there is satisfaction in making examples of them. I've gotten quite inventive at leaving messages."

"This one did not mean to bring sadness," Cryo lifts her hand away, holds onto the side of the pool instead, "thank you for bringing Lily to me. She saved me, still saves me. This one feels bad that I want to keep her close. I will do what is best for her."

She bobs her head, "And messages are good, continue to do so. There are consequences to actions and choices made, and you are the retribution they deserve."

Tae watches Cryosanthia withdraw her hand, her eyes then lifting to watch Lily. "Do not feel bad for finding something your heart desires, Cryosanthia. I don't put much stock in divine interference in our affairs, but consider it the will of the world that this little one should be with you. I trust it to end well for both of you." She folds her arms under her breasts, letting out a deep breath before lidding her eyes for several seconds. "Gods.. hmph!" she grumbles softly. "As if we don't have enough problems."

Watches the motion, and Lily swims over to watch whatever Cryo is watching. The whitescale lifts her out and sets her on the edge of the pool. Lily immediately flicks her tail and launches herself back in.

"Ssa!" Cryo hisses at Lily

"Ssa!" Lily hisses back.

The whitescale looks back up at the half-oruch, tilting her head, "how do they enter in?"

"They always do, in one way or another," replies Tae. "Whenever someone is off to harm others, they will whip up some god to justify the damned act. Surely you've noticed this? The so-called 'good' gods are just as likely to sanction destruction as the 'evil' ones. It's just a matter of who they like to direct their ire towards. If they even are speaking at all. Like as not it's just a person deciding that they want to have something and it is easier to just wave a divine mantle instead of admitting it." Tae keeps her tone even, though her eyes flash with anger. "Every leader invokes some manner of god sooner or later. I'm not sure if it's more frightening when they know they are lying, or when they truly believe the gods are on their side."

Cryosanthia floats in the water, considering her response. Finally she says, "It's worse when they truly believe, when they're 'sure', then their fanatic gaze sees no flaws. They follow blindly. If they know they are lying they can be swayed with arguments or threats, but with a god at their back they have no doubt."

She swims around, so she can lean her elbows on the side of the pool, rise out a little, parked beside Tae's hip with her head up near her shoulders, "Mine says, 'Don't get involved, appreciate every side, use your experiences for creative expression'. Ceinara is... a happy goddess. She asks little."

"She's mine, I suppose," replies Tae. She smirks, "Mostly I like that she supports my impulsive life style. And probably wouldn't mind my fascination with certain vices. Freedom and all that. For all the good it will do me, I suppose." She reaches out to run a slender finger along the side of Cryo's snout. "When I think too much, I get bored with myself and feel unhappy, and nobody is interested in a sulky half-monster such as myself."

Lily has almost reached the far side of the pool. She calls out, "Going to beat you Ssasaa!"

Cryo just grins after the nose stroke. Then she swims, dropping into the water and pushing off with strong strokes of her tail. She glides underwater like an ominous beast. Lily squeals and splashes harder.

Just before the carnation kobold reaches the other side a whitescale hand reaches out and touches the side. Cryo surfaces beside her, then noses. "Be faster. Try and catch me."

She's underwater and on the return as Lily's squeaky protests chase her, then Cryo rises up, twists in the air and sits beside Tae. "You're not a monster, halved or not, nor boring. She would consider your life inspired, this one thinks. And be wary of thinking too much."

"It is ironic, I suppose, that I loathe oruchs as much as I do," replies Tae. "It's the lack of hygiene and manners. Behaving like dim-witted beasts. Those that make that choice have elected to be the monsters that everyone considers us to be. And I say us, because their misdeeds drag down those of us with mixed blood, as well." She smiles ruefully, reaching up to tap one of her 'tusks'. "At some point I may get rid of these. I'd like to step away from that particular legacy. As for my life being inspired? Well, it is focused. For now. Frankly, though, I'm not really indulging in my complete sense of self, you might say."

Cryo exhales a 'hrrrm' sound as she listens. She leans closer, peering at Tae's tusks, "I suggest you get those carved. Then you can put little writing on them, which gets smaller and smaller and someone would have to lean in, very, very close to see it."

Which the whitescale demonstrates by doing so, closer and closer, until her cold breath is felt across the tusks and the lips protected behind them. One of her sapphire blue eyes winks, and she whispers "And then they kissed."

Except she pulls away, leaning back with a laugh. "Sorry, overcome by Crimson Pen. This one understands the need to edit one's self, I may hollow these so I don't feel I'm carrying a castle, or perhaps not." She sweeps a hand along her great horns.

Tae arches an eyebrow at Cryosanthia as she draws close, and her breath catches when that cold breath teases her lips. When the Sith-makar pulls back, she lets out a sigh and grumbles, "Not overcome enough, clearly. And here I thought things were about to get interesting." Of course with Lily close at hand, they couldn't get /too/ interesting. Still, there's a bit of a pout on Tae's lips. "Your horns are impressive, though. And I imagine they have a practical purpose, as well."

"I've caught them on door lintels and gotten stuck in trees more often than I've gored someone with them. They're practical only in the sense of keeping my ego in check. Thank, though, I am flattered." Cryo turns to show off her horns in profile, and slides her hand along the swooping curve of the nearest.

Lily by now has splashed up, and now is splashing Cryo regularly to get her attention, "I'm hungry. You cheated. You aren't supposed to use your tail. Ssassa, you used your tail."

"I see that there were rules," says Tae, laughing gently. She reaches down to pluck Lily from the water and set her on side of the pool. Which lasts perhaps a half a second before Tae has to pluck her from the water again. "If you are hungry, you need to leave the water for now," she explains to the child. "We have probably used up enough time here, anyway. And for me, the wild awaits. Shade won't be pleased if I don't see how the watch is going."

"Yes," Cryosanthia says, spinning in a smooth motion then rising to her feet, "She should not wait, and this one sees the tired and grumpy times have arrived."

"Not tired!" Lily protests, looking like she's going to lunge for the water until Cryo shakes her head, "No, it's clothes time. We must wear clothes so no one mistakes us for uncivilized beasts." She sighs as she says it, walking with a heavy sway of her tail from side to side, the muscles in her legs clearly defined as her weight shifts. To the storage attendants, and proper dress and convincing a kobold youngling the fabric is indeed necessary.

Once attired, she curtseys to Tae, and gestures for Lily to follow suit, and she manages. "Thanks again, for visiting with us, and good hunting."

Tae smiles at the sight of Lily properly dressed. She is a fan of clothing, herself. She returns the curtsey with a warm smile, "You look very much the proper little lady, Lily. I'm proud of you! If you are very good, I will bring you something next time we meet."

Tae rises and looks to Cryosanthia seriously, "The only good hunt, dear, is the last one I need to do. Still, I will keep the pressure on them. I'm hardly an army, though."