Logs: Clothes-Washing

 Mikage-cho W - St. Hermelin???
      St. Hermelin, on the surface, is identical in Mikage-cho. This notion would be discarded somewhere along
the way of witnessing people not being quite what they were! Between the feared Dean Harding becoming a caring
individual and a popular educator turning into a mute - among other things - it's not long until any sense of
familiarity goes to the wayside.          
      The school appears as it was in the 2008 school year. The old gymnasium hasn't been expanded as it was
early in 2009, and there's no hole in the wall. Most of the classrooms do not even see use, the school
population notably smaller. The library has undergone the most peculiar change - a foreboding black doorway
sits near the back, the whole room coated in butterfly markings. Nobody is sure as to its purpose, or even
how to open it. A loud heartbeat can be heard if you stand close to it.          
      People here live in fear of a girl in black, whose influence sometimes rearranges the school into a
twisted set of corridors and dead-ends full of demons. Even a trip to the bathroom, in the best of times,
can spell disaster.

Life has been good ever since Minako's beloved long-lost older brother was brutally stabbed multiple times right in front of her.

No, really. It sounds bad, but he survived and is doing really well (just as Himeru said!), she awakened to a Persona just like his (well not JUST like his, but still), she met that girl Aigis who's a friend of Minato's and they all agreed she was going to go to Gekkoukan (like there was ever any doubt), Minato made his apparently legendary vegetable soup for her (it was DELICIOUS), and they had a long talk. One wouldn't necessarily associate Minato and long talks together, but... it's been ten years. There was a lot to talk about.

Right now, Minako's left him to his well-deserved rest in that spooky room they were staying in to take the dishes to the bathroom and wash them. It's kinda hard with no soap, but she's making do, and rather cheerfully at that. What's not to be cheerful about, after all? They'll be going home soon, too, according to Aigis--not that Minako ever had any doubt in that, either!

Compare this to Midori Nakashima, who has been completely and totally fine throughout these times. Sure the kids outside are now getting really rowdy and not many of them even really want candy any more, but she's fine. She's free of any imagined drama people make up from their boredom with their completely ordinary lives. Not her! For she has taken complete comfort in being a totally ordinary girl.

A totally ordinary girl who is being shunned by most people she claims to recognize, even when trying to study in mostly empty classrooms to subjects only vaguely coherent as if some sort of fleeting memory... like a dream. Even the truly caring and vigilant Dean Harding stopped her in the hall as if she were some sort of wandering intruder. But no! She's fine, she's fine, she's simply fine. So fine she's going into the bathroom /right now/ and then she'll be even more fine for the rest of the school day.

Following the sound of the bathroom door creaking open, there is suddenly this awful smell. It is an odor that cannot be missed. Somehow, a large shadow is cast on the floor from where the new arrival happens, which lingers in place before some figure (female - hopefully, because otherwise Dean Harding, hero to all children, is going to have to get medieval on someone) in way too much clothing for even the cool season decides to step inside, taking a very suspicious amount of time in deciding to go in any further.

It was funny a little, now that a little time had passed and retrospective settled in. Resolute SEES leader Arisato-sempai, gutted and solidly trashed by a little girl with her teddy bear. The image was funny at least, it could have made a funny internet caption photo without context but the truth behind the facts were less so, that little demon girl had possessed frightening amount of power for someone her size and the childish cruelty to unleash it without restraint. But he had endured and survived at least, it would have been unbecoming for a big brother to die the day his little sister discovered he was still among the living. Not an impossible fate mind, but a cruel one Himeru would not wish upon anyone.

The city still being a demon-torn place for those who choose to leave the relative safety of the school walls, she remained indoors for the time being, lacking a purpose or reason to venture out. Her monetary funds were low, but she had no need for money and thus no need for unnecessary violence. Her supplies had dwindled, true, but she had a good two days worth of food and enough bottled water to match still and the lessened backpack weight was a blessing in disguise. Handwashing her clothing with a bar of soap and the bathroom sink had been an interesting experience, the results not as perfect as she wished but 'good enough'.

Said soap was currently used as handsoap in the bathroom, cleaning the grime and dirt that had gotten stuck on her hands after the work. Her clothes had been stretched out on top of a rope tied between a stall door and an air vent, ALL of them, while makeshift underwear had been constructed out of first aid bandages. It makes her look a bit like some sort of bikini mummy, but style had not exactly been the goal of the exercise. Her hands however stop moving as a smell that can only be described as 'funky' assaults her nose. 'I'm going to need a bigger bar of soap...' is the first thought to cross her mind, as eyes focus on the half-shrunk piece of no longer whitish scrubbing tool.

Thanks to Miwa, Minako knows that not everyone who's wearing a St. Hermelin uniform is necessarily a student of St. Hermelin, but her automatic reaction is to assume that Midori is a classmate of hers when she walks in to use the facilities. Minako smiles at her, and it's probably the friendliest smile that Midori's seen ever since this entire disaster hit.

"Hi there!" she greets the fellow St. Hermelin student. (Fortunately, Minako already changed out of the blood-stained uniform she'd been wearing yesterday, after helping the multiple-stabbed Minato back to the school and getting ingredients and such for their meal that would come the next day.) Any futher conversation, though, will have to wait, when a truly *rancid* smell hits the bathroom, following in Midori's wake. Minako stops in her cleaning to make a face, but before she can remark on *that*, now Himeru is pausing in her clothes-washing. Having had the company *did* make this more fun, and she's chatted with the other girl in between getting these dishes clean. There's not a lot, but hey, even so.

"Are you okay, Himeru-chan?" Minako thus asks, looking over at her friend. "I think maybe something's clogging the vents. Oh, can I borrow some soap from you after all? I think some of the soup stuck to the sides."

"Hi!" Midori's cheery reply completely and utterly betrays the unsure, suspicious body language expressed when she fully steps into view, and it's... one may wonder just how someone dressed so heavily manages to actually even use the restroom proper, but this is likely a topic best not dwelled upon for long.

Eyes lock onto that friendliest, most receptive gaze she has seen in nearly two weeks. That sense of familiarity, even if the rest of the face doesn't immediately ring a bell... but this doesn't stop Midori from quickly coming up around the perimeter of Minako's personal space with her gloved hands clasped together around chest level when Minako turns to address the girl in the cleverly makeshift undergarments.

"How are you? Fancy meeting you here. It's a great day, isn't it?" She suddenly lays on a thick assault of empty conversational topics with a certain raw enthusiasm that is not warranted by any single component of these circumstances as her eyes drift just past Himeru and on the hung up clothes.

The smell gets a whole lot stronger. There is no debate at all as to where this stench comes from.

The look on Hime's face is one of abject horror as she looks at Minako since for a moment, she feels ACCUSED of having caused such an odor to spawn. "It wasn't my doing, and the vents were not clogged when I tied that rope." Why'd she have a rope anyway? Because she was going to SEBEC Tower, duh. That might not feel like a proper answer, but in her mind she had prepared for it like an adventurer prepares to tackle ancient trap-riddled crypts. She had no idea what sort of twisted security systems Kandori's headquarters might hold. Rope was mandatory.

Of course, given the certainty her statement holds, the source of the smell and it's arrival coinciding with the door opening and a new girl entering, well, one can't believe in coincidences too much. Eyes turn past her dishwashing friend and onto the new face who entered to use the facilities. Features are recognised easily, "Candy-girl." She didn't have a name attached to the face, but she remembered her and her offer of sugary goods. Pity fills Hime's heart however as the smelly girl moves at point-blank (point-smell?) range of A-ko-chan's nose. Pity and a strange dread that her own turn may yet come.

And then the barrage of words. It's like a flood gate that was torn down, and it's pretty irrelevant as the odor-assault is causing the verbal one to become little more than a buzzing noise. "Great...day...yes." is said with uncertainty, it HAD been one five minutes ago but that assessment no longer felt true. Eyes slide down to the floor, and toward a dull brown backpack. She had bought six bars of soap, all the convenience store had really, and while most of them had been donated there remained two: She held one right now, and an untainted wrapped one remained.

Another lenghty look at Midori. Had she bathed at all since that day? There's no way to easily tell, is there? 'For the greater good...' she tells herself, gathering courage as Hime clears her throat. "Your clothes reek. Strip. Now. Everything, on the floor." At least she ASSUMED it was mostly the clothes. If it extended beyond that, kidnapping to the gym showers was not out of the question.

The first impression may or may not have been good, but the Gekkoukan student was definitly going to make a wierd second impression.

Huh, Midori seems pretty shady. Even Minako, who is rather innocent about things, can tell that. She seems pretty bulked up, maybe she's hiding something under her clothes. When she gets close enough, chatting it up with her, that it's /extremely obvious/ that the smell is coming from her, Minako comes to the conclusion that whatever she's hiding probably is what's stinking it up. "Sorry, I don't think it was the vents now," she tells Himeru.

She moves back from Midori. Minako likes people but she does not like that rank-ass smell. The way Midori seems to address her proves it; she must be another St. Hermelin student. "Oh, you too! I haven't seen you in ages!" she replies cheerfully, despite not being *entirely* sure if she's met her before. She probably has, they look like they're in the same year! ...and more or less cheerfully, that really is a horrible smell. "Are you doing okay? That is a *really* bad smell. If you've got something you need to throw out, you can just throw it out, it's no big deal. Whatever you've got *reeks*, though. You should definitely get rid of it or the smell'll get all over your clothes, too!"

Of course, Himeru's assuming that it *is* the clothes themselves and comes over to demand that she takes them off. Minako looks thoughtful at this, then nods. "Himeru-chan's right, the smell might've already gotten into them. We'll help you wash 'em up! We were doing that anyway so it's no big deal."

The I'm-Fine Girl vs. two very blunt young ladies. At least one of them is well-meant?

Candy-girl does not smell anything at all like candy!! Unless candy comes in the form of rancid body odor and built-up grime over... who knows how long?! This could be a new horror for the books to bring back to the outside world. If... there's going to be a way back in the divide between dimensions.

"Huh?" She looks away from the hanging clothes at the request. "N-No, I'm fine... I know!" Nervousness segues abruptly back to cheeriness almost immediately, as if a trained response. But something about the way she smiles... "Really, I'm fin--"

Her catchphrase interrupted by the second in a double teaming of brutal honesty, which elicits a twitch in her leg only indicated by the very slightest movement in her overly long dress. Seriously, do the delinquent girls around these parts even /wear/ that much?

"No no! I'm wearing perfume," Midori starts rapid-firing words, "it's this really expensive stuff from America, and, and there's this... there's this really cute boy from there, and... and I need to wash my face before I see him," she nods quickly as she turns very abruptly towards one of the unoccupied sinks, "I need to make a great first impression, you know~"

Is the uniform even salvagable, she wondered a little. This might be something beyond the cleaning powers of soap, and the uniform may be doomed to cleansing fire. But Himeru hoped it would not come to that, waste of clothing in a time where they could not afford to be wasteful. It was a little comforting to be backed up by Minako, as she did worry that her friend would be as freaked out as Midori was proving to be by the suggestion of 'Get your clothes off, it's washing time.'

"Then you're doomed to fail if we don't help you. You might be fine." The fact she sounded almost frantic, panicked led her to have doubts about that, "But your clothes are not. I can smell you from a meter and a half away. There is no need to be ashamed or worried, we may have been in this city - this world for merely two weeks or so, but we've all endured hardships and...had moments of lessened freshness." Understatement of the year, right there. Ripe would ill-define what smell the nervous girl was radiating.

"Let us help, for your sake as much as our own. You won't owe us anything for it, except maybe telling me your name since we only crossed quickly last we met. I will make you bandage undergarnments if you want some too, I really don't mind." she adds, trying to sound as soothing as possible. Trying to calm Midori's nervousness felt like trying to approach a rabid cat more than anything else right now. "I am Himeru, by the way. Himeru Namikawa."

Most normal people would in fact be freaked out by the sudden suggestion by a random girl that they strip off their clothes! You don't even have to secretly be a bundle of issues like Midori is. Minako barely even notices, in the same way that long skirt = delinquent girl doesn't occur to her like it would most girls her age.

"It's terrible perfume, it smells awful. You got ripped off," Minako states decisively when Midori makes her excuses. ...wait, did she actually *believe* that!? "I know how you feel about the cute boy, though! You definitely want to make good first impressions for those~ Oh, I know!" She brightens, as Himeru attempts gentleness in suggesting that it's okay that Midori smells rank and that they'll help out. "With all these cleaning going on, I may as well get mine done too. You can wear my uniform while we're cleaning yours, if you want; I don't mind!"

And in fact Minako is /already taking off her clothes/. The school slippers are kicked off and off come her socks, top and skirt, which are promptly offered to the other second-year. She at least doesn't take off her underwear, but uhhhhhhh this sort of creates an odd kind of pressure for Midori, doesn't it? Minako looks so /earnest/, too, like she really doesn't see a problem with what she just did. Which, well, maybe there isn't in these circumstances. Midori's beyond even ripe, that's well into the stages of fetid and rotten. Hopefully she isn't *actually* rotting underneath those clothes...

"I'm Minako Arisato~" she adds in when Himeru introduces herself. "I'm in class 2-B. What about you? We're in the same year, right? I could swear I've seen you around!"

If she's wearing /this/ much, assuming there's no room for any further clothing... she probably does require one hell of a fire to keep herself warm on the really, really cold nights.

"Doomed?" Midori asks as she (for some reason) decides to splash her gloved hands with water without taking them off, running them with extreme caution - maybe unwarranted - through her cheeks but not really all over her face. She doesn't even take the time to go over her hair. She goes over her face yet again in much the same minimalist way as Himeru narrates about her clothes. She tries to tune it out, because really, what's everyone's problem, life is just fine here, it's just this really long and drawn-out Halloween festival and the kids are getting really kind of mean, and, and...

"I'm fine!" She replies somewhat defiantly. The great stinky Fine-chan, is that her name? "I'm Midori Nakashima," she adds as a complete afterthought, something of a reflex.

She would be on her fourth or fifth pointless, futile face-washing gestures when Minako pipes up. Midori only looks at her through a somewhat dirty mirror, never making any particular eye contact over her choice of perfume. "Oh, it's okay, I..."

And there it is, Minako's gesture not just being an outstretched hand. It's a fastball pitch coming inches of her skull, just begging to end in her walking off to first base... whatever the hell that metaphor even translates to here!!

"Um." She starts to giggle, gloves over her face. Such giggling sometimes sounds like it's going to cross the border to crying, but it is very difficult to tell precisely. It's very vague. "I'm 2-A!!" She continues this giggle/sobbing, whatever the hell this thing is, seriously, "I know, it's, it's, um, it's been a while, it has to have been a while, and... and, um... okay... I'm fine!"

So fine she merrily picks up the discarded clothes (sans a sock, which falls out of her grasp) and hurries inside a stall with a loud slamming noise. "...Oops."

She opens the stall and closes it gently. She has, notably, taken up the fourth stall counting from the wall.

Himeru doesn't think it's perfume at all. For one thing, how would a highschooler have gaijin perfume in Mikage-cho, and apply it NOW? This scent was not present when Midori offered candy. Why would she have applied it now? In attempt to maintain 'normalcy'? Would she have been carrying it on her person? Why? Too many holes for that excuse to make sense. It's assumed to be an excuse born of shame, and it's understandable even acceptable when seen this way.

But her gaze looks away momentarily when Minako just tears into the fact the perfume stinks. Ouch. She also doubted there was such a cute boy, although that was not as impossible. But the repeated statements of being fine, the laughter, the crying brings a look of barely repressed alarm on Hime's eyes, her lips tightening a little. Alarm gives way to what may be sadness, or compassion. Normal people were caught up in this, and not all of them might be coping well. It's a scary world out there and it only got scarier lately, can she be really that surprised some people may be suffering heavily for it? Her own fortitude was due to having a purpose, having a reason to go out there. If that reason went away due to either success or failure without them finding a way home in the process, what would Hime use to ward off terror and despair?

Watching the shaken girl run off into the fourth stall, the tall first year student moves to lean against the surface next to the door, as if awaiting the dirty clothes to be tossed above or slid underneath. "We are all fine, Nakashima-san. We are here. We will be fine tomorrow too." she says softly, lacking the presence or words to be more encouraging.

It is really quite odd, the way Midori reacts, but Minako figures she's just stressed out from everything that's been going on. Who could really blame her? Minako was a normal up until yesterday and she was pretty all right, but not everybody necessarily is, and Minako's not the type to judge others anyway. So she gives her an encouraging smile, hoping it helps dispell whatever is making her giggle and almost-cry at the same time, when the girl from 2-A takes the clothes and heads into a bathroom stall, first slamming and then gently closing the door behind her.

"Oh, you dropped a sock!" she says, picking it up and holding it over the door. "Don't worry, all right, Midori-chan? We're all in this together!"

A solid nod over at Himeru when she tries to reassure the other girl too. Even if Himeru lacks the presence or words, Minako at least has an extreme force of faith, such that reality might even warp around the power of her beliefs. Fortunately, her belief is that everything will be all right in the end and that they'll all go home safe and sound. "Right! It's going to be fine. Aigis-chan told me so yesterday, too."

It is that line of thinking, Himeru, that may one day pierce the fog of lies in order to unearth the truth that lies within - if such is her quest. As it is, the girl wearing way too much (with the funky smell). Either way, she does seem intent to stay in that stall. Shy about her body image, perhaps? Or maybe it's just too simple an explanation to the bizarre little gestures and body language for all Midori expresses.

She is deathly silent to Himeru's and Minako's attempts at sympathy. There's a lot of rustling - a whole lot of it - as heavy clothes hit the bathroom floor. The sock dangles for a bit before it is snatched not as a carefully considered boon, but as though like a hungry animal. No clothes are pushed over the top of the stall for several seconds.

There is a very loud sigh.

Her clothes are /eventually/ pushed up over the stall en masse. If nobody knew any better it could be assumed that these are the clothes of, like, three entirely different people. The uniform top, that's normal enough. There's at /least/ two... no, three shirts?! How the hell do you even move wearing these shirts? The skirt is overly long and very heavy enough. It really doesn't need that second (shorter) skirt, or... two pairs of leggings?

Two pairs of socks. One looks very close to the ones Minako just gave her. They are not. One can tell by the smell.

Two gloves are added to this mess and - the kicker - she must really enjoy not being able to breathe or have completely free movement of her body or something because that right there is a corset.

They all smell horrible. Was she, like, bathing in this perfume she claims to have been using?! (Spoilers: no.)

The clothes are taken methodically, Hime doing every possible effort to breathe through her mouth, but taking a cautious whiff through nostrils to confirm if the stench was really ONLY clothes-bound, or if by her generosity A-ko-chan had doomed her own uniform to stinkyness. She probably won't be able to confirm without taking a whiff of the other girl' skin and that would be ankward, not to mention rude. She remains silent during the entire clothespicking, leaving some for her friend to grab as well, but one could tell at how every piece is making the Gekkoukan girl's eyes widen that she's either impressed or appalled that someone was wearing THIS much even if she won't say anything about it. The corset is just...she has no words for this. Dumping her taken mass next to the sink, she reaches to take the unwrapped soap bar and throws it deftly in a soft high arc toward Minako-chan. She'll need it. Hell, between a fresh bar and the half-bar she had left Himeru was uncertain they had enough.

But before she can start pouring hot water and filling some sinks (more than one will be needed, clearly) everything freezes in her mind at the mention of that one name. Too unusual a name to be a coincidence, and she had not been at Minato' side at all in two weeks, or part of the numbers part of the original operation. If she had been in Lunarvale at all, she would have found them earlier. Assumptions, conjecture on Himeru's part, but the pieces fitted all the same.

Panic seems to form on Hime's face. Her muscles tense, worst case scenarios form at breakneck speed. "Aigis-san. Here?! That means...tch." frown, stare at floor. Was the magical sealing dome starting to have cracks in it or did people find or make a portal or doorway back to 'normal space'? Were there people and things entering, or were there also some /exiting/ including potential angry demons? People lacking knowledge of the situation? The proverbial potential monkey wrench? Her left hand reaches to grasp her forehead as if it would steady her mind and focus. It's not so easy. "Shit. We're out of time."

The dome was a blessing as well as a curse. It kept them trapped, yes, but it kept many dangerous things trapped as well. If people begin to haphazardly get involved and tinker where they should not, try to capture Aki, Mai...she found herself shaking, PRAYING only Aigis-san and maybe a few _trusted_ others had found a way through. If the Self-Defense Forces started moving in, things will to to hell in a handbasket. Part of her wanted to laugh, and here she thought they would be able to advance with caution and try to bring the issue of the Rebellion HQ to finality with calm and measured movement. So much for that. Then again the people who got involved with those issues were not all for calm and measured approaches. Hime's right hand swings out to grasp Minako' shoulder, eyes delving deep into the other girl's own looking for certitude.

"You're absolutely certain about this? That it was Aigis-san you saw? Did she say anything about how she arrived here?" she asks, releasing the shoulder after asking, realising she might have been grasping a little hard. Her mind conjured possibilities are only made worse by the voice at the back of her mind assuring her that these imagined scenarios could be merely the tip of the iceberg.

"Wow, you wear a lot of clothes," Minako observes when the massive bundle is finally pushed over the top of the stall. She doesn't mind that Midori doesn't come out of the stall, any more than she minds having stripped down to her underwear, but it does seem like a lot. There's even a corset! In a tone of curiosity, rather than accusation, "Don't you get hot wearing all of that? Or do you have troubles keeping your temperature up or something?"

Either way, she grimaces at the stink before helping Himeru gather the clothes. She grabs the bar of soap out of the air easily enough, giving her friend a grin before likewise filling sinks with more hot water. Cleaning, cleaning~

As for the bit where Aigis and trusted others vs. the SDF coming in are concerned... Minako is likewise innocent of the implications of one vs. the other. She only just got a Persona, and while she's been in demontown for the past couple of weeks, well... In a sense, she's sort of like Midori, save that she doesn't push reality to one side by sheer force of denial, but the sheer force of being a bit of a space case. But it's impossible not to see the way that Himeru's expression changes, and Minako blinks before expressing concern for her friend. "What? What's the matter?"

A lot, given the way that Himeru grabs Minako's shoulder and pulls her closer. "Yeah, big brother introduced us. He was surprised to see her too," she murmurs back, blinking in surprise. "She said something about how a few people came with her, too. I didn't know their names. What do you mean, we're out of time?"

BOSS BATTLE!

Midori's Clothing Stench (Resist: Soap). It's a good thing Fuuka and/or Shiori aren't here, otherwise Shiori may nag on and on about how soap won't work. And then, there won't be any matches for the obvious counter from there.

"I like clothes." Midori speaks up very suddenly. "They're comfortable! They feel nice." As there's no direct line of sight, there's no telling at all what she's doing in there. There's nothing going on that suggests she'd be using what's inside of the stall - she's just staying inside, for whatever reason.

"I'm fine," she adds. The stall's lock is at last engaged, but not a whole lot else can be heard. She doesn't seem to have much to say about 'Aigis' or 'time' or anything. "What are you doing later today?" Her tone is significantly more relaxed than it was earlier across the board, relaxed still even with the stall locked. "We could hang out later. It's gorgeous out there."

Cleaning is the important goal here, yes. The Gekkoukan takes a bit of distance using a sink a little farther. Distance, even short, might help to mask the distress she felt over this shift of situation. Just when you form the confidence and strength to think you have some semblence of understanding of what is happening, and then everything is thrown back into potential chaos of a thousand unplanned occurances. Then again, that's the very essence of unplanned things, they can be helpful at times, but...

Drenching one of the many shirts into the almost scathingly hot water, the blackhaired girl puts her hands to use and tries in part to use the washing as a foci for her thoughts. Manual labor, especially repetitive gestures could be soothing to her mind and soul. She will purge the stench from this shirt if possible or nullify it at least, and then grab the next as her mind swirled. Maybe when they dry will the vain nature of their efforts be revealed "I'm not entirely sure how to word it. You recall that little girl from two days past? Now, imagine the risk of her getting OUT of here and into our world. Now imagine ten like her. Or a hundred. Or maybe with a thousand demon footsoldiers. And with as many playmates available as she wants. Normal weaponry may be effective to some degree, but the bloodshed and death toll would be bloodchilling. And that is the least horrible scenario." softly said Himeru, trying to keep her tone low enough so it won't reach the stall or if it did, the words would be too unclear to make out. If someone with the power of creation and destruction like Aki possessed moved outside Mikage-cho and decided she hated their world? It would end poorly.

No argument about liking clothes. Some people would choke under so many layers, but if she likes them and she's...fine, as she keeps insisting, Hime won't question it too much. "I don't know yet." she answers aloud to her plans for the day. "It's a possibility, if outside isn't too dangerous." She's hoping that whatever technology or tool Aigis used to force her way in is top secret, and that the rift was sealed. What if various government agencies begin to try and kidnap denizens? These demons had done no foul, this was their home, but any fate at the hand of humans would make the young girl weep.

I will buuuuuurn... theeeeeese... threeeeeeads...! I once ran away from the god of reek, and he chained me to this funk here! Buuuuuurn theeeeeese threeeeeeads... I'll scorch this funk and run 'til I smell the sunshiiiine freeeeshneeeeeess... I'll lift my face and smell the sunshine freeeeeshneeeeeess!

"You must like them a lot, you've got a ton," Minako remarks as she begins the busy work of attempting to clean these clothes. Unless she rolled in something that died, they'll /probably/ be cleanable? It'll... just take a lot of work. A *lot* of work. This is what Minako assumes of this whole affair anyway. The water is scalding, but she's already almost naked, so she'll deal with the heat. As she washes, she continues conversationally, "How'd you get into clothes, Midori-chan? Do you collect them or something?"

Well, it makes sense! If she's a real clothing nut, it'd make the whole 'wearing tons of them' make sense. Minako follows this up, though, with an encouraging, "You can come out and join us, by the way! We're all girls here!"

Not that it would make a difference to Minako if they *weren't*, but it seems like the appropriate thing to say in a situation like this. When Himeru continues the conversation, tone low to keep it from carrying (good luck with *that* inside a bathroom, though), Minako sobers. Even pales. She remembers the girl from the other day very well. Maybe it'd be better if Midori *did* stay in there. "Oh... I see what you mean. I wonder what's going on outside..."

She raises her voice again, cheering up at how it sounds like Midori's relaxed, to converse with her fellow Hermelin student. "Oh hey, that sounds like fun! I didn't have anything I was gonna do. Outside might not be the best idea, but we could always have lunch on the roof and enjoy the weather that way! Do either of you cook, Midori-chan, Himeru-chan? We could make ourselves a bento!"

Midori is in her happy place. She can be heard, she can't be seen. It's like nearly all the tensions from moments before have just... merely... washed away. UNLIKE THAT STENCH. It may not be so much the stench (awful as it is) as much as it is the sheer volume of clothes. It may be economical to just do a single set, until more soap can be found. If there /is/ any more soap left in Mikage-cho to collect. Perhaps when the SDF comes in to kill everyone, they will at least have some hand sanitizer or something.

"I just like clothes." She says, without really shedding any light on the matter. "They're fun to make too! I should make some more next club meeting. I even made my own yukata. It was so pretty. I should make another." She giggles forcibly. Annoyingly, this giggle is timed over talk about a worst case scenario. It's probably coincidental, given the low tones of voice being used here, but still might be grating.

She says nothing at all about coming out of the stall, happy enough to... just exist out of sight, up until the idea of making lunch comes to mind. "Ooh, that sounds good! I love cooking. I'm really good, too, let's do lunch later!"

Regardless of beliefs, the results of their scrub-war against the funk caused by heavens know what will only be known once they dry. To give up before even trying would not befit her, Himeru' scrubbing efforts wage on, partially in a competitive sense. She does not wish to fall behind her older and potentially more experienced friend. She's only handwashed clothes a few times when they proved to have a resistant stain, and never in this large a volume.

"You handcraft clothing? That's pretty impressive." admits the blackhaired girl. "I don't have the design sense for things like that, so I am a little envious, Nakashima-san." Color matching is one thing when buying premade things, but to conjure patterns, colors, fabrics and more to eventually make your own? Beyond her ability mentally, although her hands might be able to if she was coached on the how and with what. Hime's not too bitter about it, even if she claimed envy. "Making pretty things big or small isn't really my strong point. I am better suited at fixing than making, anyway." In more than one sense, too.

"I can cook somewhat. It's not an explosion of delicious flavor when consumed but it is nutricious and filling." is her answer regarding cooking. There was no love in her recipes, only calculated quantities and calories. Still, better something nutricious and bland than something that tastes like burnt rubber right? "Are you a skilled cook yourself, Minako-chan? Or are you a cup-food expert as some other people seem to be?"

"Oooh, you make clothes? Could you make a yukata for me sometime?" Minako asks, enthralled, pausing in the clothing-washing. If there were any guys here right now, they'd probably be enthralled by how soaked she's getting right before Himeru broke their arms and threw them out of the girls' bathroom. Himeru, at least, won't have to worry about having to 'beat' Minako at this; she doesn't really seem like she knows how to hand-wash clothes. She's just kind of rubbing the soap into the clothes in the hot water. Some kind of clothes washer would probably be a better idea, but the chances of something like that being at the school is staggeringly low. "Or I guess something better for the winter would be best right now, huh? What kind of clothes can you make, Midori-chan?"

Himeru's explanation of her cooking skill gets her a laugh. EXPLOSIONS OF DELICIOUS FLAVOR would indeed be pretty awesome, but Himeru's odd sense of humor makes up for it, even if she thinks it sucks. "I'm okay, I guess?" she replies, thinking. "I'm not bad but I'm not great, either. I'd actually love to learn how to cook better." She raises her voice a bit to the girl still hiding in the stall. "Do you think you could teach me, Midori-chan? What kind of stuff do you like to cook?"

The giggling, at least, doesn't grate on Minako. It didn't seem to her like anything more than an ill-timed laugh. She does think that there's something odd about Midori--conversations with her don't seem to have a lot of substance, for example, and she freely ignores direct questions--but for everyone's sake, she's willing to take that in stride.

Of course they should be envious of Midori, for she is the ordinary girl standard all ordinary girls are measured against... maybe. But if her claims about being able to cook and make clothes are true...

"Uh huh!" She says largely in response to handcrafting clothing to Himeru. "I make some in our after-school club." Which, by the way, is presently non-existent in this part of the... universe? Multiverse? Whatever the hell this sort of place is supposed to be as the subject goes more towards what kind. "Umm, I like... I like to make all kinds of clothes, um, like that really long skirt is mine." It is a very long skirt. Way too long. You couldn't even see what /socks/ someone was wearing in them. Maybe even their shoes. "I could make... I could make mittens! Mittens are fun. They're so snuggly and warm~"

More giggling. "My favorite thing to cook is... is... um, I cook lots of things but my favorite is... it's soup!" She seems to have decided this on the spot. "I'll show you how to make some of my favorites!" For all her giddiness in talking about clothing and cooking and stuff, she's still not doing anything in that stall... nor does she show signs of ever wanting to leave it.

"Oh, um, here's your clothes, I'm fine." She pushes them back up over the stall for Minako to take back. "I'll just wait for mine to dry..."

It isn't as much a matter of 'beating', but a matter of 'not falling behind'. Himeru's scrubbing being faster or not was irrelevant, but she would not endure being a burden at their cleaning efforts. She will scrub her half of the atrociously large clothing pile with pride, and be able to say they did a good team effort later. Such a claim isn't possible if the task is divided in thirds or worse.

But really, Midori had enough clothing for two. Special girl, but not in a bad way. Her cheerfulness and laughter felt pleasant and worrysome at the same time, and they were not enough to make Hime discard entirely the possibility that this is her method of coping with their current predicament they had come to call 'Mikage'. One more reason to fight added to the list, she thought. It's one thing to say you want to fight and find a way to bring people home, but it becomes moreso personal when you can associate faces and voices to the suffering people trapped here.

"I intend to learn in seven months or so. I will apply for work in a restaurant during Summer Vacation, and hopefully retain it as a part time thing once school resumes." Summer school? She won't go there. "While it's likely I may be hired for serving customers, I will endeavor to observe the chefs at work when possible. I hope to, anyway." Application did not mean they will be looking for staff or consider her after all, but she will try with everything she has. "Maybe you should consider something similar, Minako-chan. Unless you have a plan in mind of course." The idea of learning from Midori isn't a bad one, but she'll refrain judgement until the stall-locked girl answers on her kind of cooking. It might involve sweets, but that's just a hunch...

The mention of the long skirt being handmade leads Hime to HOPE it won't be damaged by hot water washing. She didn't get to it yet, but it might not have a 'how to care' tag too. She seems however to turn her head toward the wall opposite from Minako as Midori mentions mittens. Maybe something on her face at the thought of cute handmade mittens, but her attention straightens after a few seconds and she resumes Srsious Scrubbing. "I will look forward to it, Nakashima-san!" she says, never to ignore a potential learning experience. "Assuming the fabric's water retention is less than my clothing, yours should hopefully be dry before lunchtime." Denim clothing soaked humidity well and a bathroom lacked the wind to really dry them efficiently. Hime doubted hers will be entirely dry, but she can deal with 'a little humid' for her jacket and jeans as long as the cotton pieces are dry. "I wish there was a faster way..."

"Wow, you made that long skirt yourself? It's pretty. We'll try really hard to get it clean for you again," Minako reminds, approval sounding in her voice. Even if it *is* really long--long enough to be the female version of a pair of long pants. One wonders how she manages to keep cool with that, two other skirts, two pairs of stockings, a corset, and everything else. Including gloves! It's probably fair to say that it's impossible to see even a scrap of skin below the neck. That Midori may have some severe body issues doesn't even occur to Minako, for what should be obvious reasons. "Mittens sound great! Make me something really cute, okay? <3 I'll be trans

She does give Himeru a curious look when she says she'll learn in seven months. "Why not learn now, then, so you can practice and get better? We could learn together," she suggests, smiling. "I didn't really have anything specific in mind, though. --Oh, soup, really? My big brother makes some *amazing* vegetable soup. If I learn the recipe from him, maybe I could make some for you, Midori-chan!" Minako then enthuses over at her classmate. She sounds pretty proud of her brother's ability to make veggie soup, actually--but then, given as they're twins only recently reunited, why shouldn't she be proud of his accomplishments? "Actually, we have some left over, he made a ton. I'll re-heat it and we can have some for lunch, and you can taste for yourself!"

Ah, she's just going to wait for her clothes? Oh well. Minako walks over and accepts the clothes. "OK then. Then let's hang them outside the windows, and it shouldn't take too long!" This has the potential for disaster, but thankfully disaster does not happen. For now, Minako will simply put her clothes back on, and later enjoy lunch with the two.

Himeru Namikawa (himeru) pages: The reply to 'why not now' would probably have been how Hime was expecting to have to learn by herself, and she would probably leave it vague. Interested, but something like 'Once we're out of this mess, maybe we can think about it more seriously'.