[OOM] Rabanastre West Garrison, with Jay (Prethreading).

[fluffiest_archadian]

Sherral nudges Jay awake carefully as they arrive, landing at a small set of docks built into the northern end of Rabanastre's west wall.

"We're here," he murmurs, before pushing off and ushering the men and chocobos out of the ship. "Get a meal and some sleep. I want you ready for a debrief at eight-hundred hours." To several of the wall's soldiers: "Get these chocobos fed and stabled, and kindly inform Lieutenant Illan that I want the garrison's reports for the time I was away on my desk by six-hundred hours."

"Sir," they say quickly, pressing their fists to their chest in a salute, before hurrying away to their tasks.

Sherral heads back towards Jay, undoing the clasps on his helmet and pulling it off with a grimace. "I feel like I've sand everywhere."

Comments

[runningred]

Jay chuckles and pulls himself to his feet with a yawning stretch. "It's not the sand that bothers me. I think I still have chunks of dragon all up my sleeve. Please tell me you have decent showers here?"

[fluffiest_archadian]

"We have baths. That's about the closest thing to one of bar's ... er, showers," Sherral says.

[runningred]

"A bath sounds wonderful." Jay sighs, unzipping his jacket. "Point me in the right direction."

[fluffiest_archadian]

"The bath-house is down on the third sub-level," Sherral says. "Should be mostly deserted at this time."

[runningred]

Jay nods and scratches his ribs. "You coming with me, or what? You deserve a good soak."

[fluffiest_archadian]

"Aye, I'll come with you," Sherral says.

[runningred]

Jay strips off his jacket as they walk, shaking sand out of himself and examining the damage to his wrist blade. "Teja's gunna be pissed. Looks like I've busted the casing pretty bad."

He glances over to Sherral. "You okay, man?"

[fluffiest_archadian]

"He'll understand. I think. I don't recall ever meeting the man, but I know he runs the forge," Sherral says.

"I'm well enough. Why do you ask?"

[runningred]

"He made me a few nice thing. This beauty included."

"You just seem down, that's all." Granted Jay's only as cheerful as he is because of the couple of hours sleep on the ship and the stimulant under the bandage on his ankle. "You did good. You achieved what you were sent to do and brought all your men home safe."

[fluffiest_archadian]

"Nethicite brings back bad memories. Memories which, given its rarity, I were not expecting to be prompted in quite so a material fashion."

[runningred]

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jay asks softly, standing close as they walk. "Back at the bar if you don't want to talk here. I owe you a good dinner at some point."

[fluffiest_archadian]

"There's little to talk about," Sherral replies mildly.

[runningred]

Jay nods, giving Sherral room to talk if be wants to. He knows better than to push. Here at least. This is Sherral's place and he has a position to uphold. Jay's just a scruffy interloper with dragon blood stains up one wrist.

He runs his hands through his hair and laughs, shaking out sand. "Yeah, I'm thinking bath is a good idea."

[fluffiest_archadian]

"Nearly there," Sherral says, leading Jay down a spiralling staircase.

[runningred]

Jay follows along quietly, feeling the stim starting the run out.

[fluffiest_archadian]

The baths are divided into one for men and one for women. The man's one, which Sherral opens the door to, is pretty much white and pale blue tiles from floor to ceiling, with a large, square depression filled with hot water, deep enough that it'd probably reach Sherral's waist while standing.

There are several rough-hewn blue-ish crystals floating in the water for unknown purpose, and on the wall several glass dispensers the size of oil barrels that look to be filled with some manner of shampoo and some form of soap.

"Here we are," Sherral says.

[runningred]

"Nice." Jay mutters and means it. He finds a corner to offload his stuff into and starts stripped off. "Any practices or protocols I should know about or is it just a case of jump in and scrub?"

[fluffiest_archadian]

"Nothing relevant to this situation, unless you're intending to start a mid-bath fight. Which seems unlikely."

[runningred]

Jay chuckles and finishes stripping off, unself-conscious in his own scarred skin. "I really don't think I have the energy for that right now." He grabs a handful of something that smells enough like soap to do the job and steps into the bath, scrubbing himself down well.

[fluffiest_archadian]

Sherral takes a little longer to remove his armour - it's a fair bit bulkier and in more sections than what Jay's wearing - setting it at one side of the bath and wading in.

"No, me neither. For all that the expedition was but a few days, it feels longer."

[runningred]

"Always does. This is the point in the mission I usually find a five star hotel and lock myself in for a few days." He ducks under the water, rincing the sand out of his hair. "Between dragons, crazy lightning horses and undead, it wasn't exactly an easy run."

[fluffiest_archadian]

"It reminded me rather of the war. I do miss it, oddly enough, even if I'm glad it's over," Sherral says, removing the last of his armour and stripping off the bodysuit beneath it.

[runningred]

"War is simpler. There is an enemy with far less grey area. I can see the appeal." Jay makes a point of not enjoying the view too loudly. Discreetly, maybe.

[fluffiest_archadian]

"Everything's much more complicated in peace time, it's true," Sherral says, stepping into the water. He pauses, giving Jay a small grin.

[runningred]

Oh, it's like that is it? Jay grins back, enjoying the view a little less discreetly but still quietly enough to be polite if someone happened to walk in on them. He gets out to grab some more soap stuff, fully away of the view he's making of himself.