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Description

Laundry: done. Again.

The laundry crew was luckily getting plenty of chances to catch their breath as the stream of clothes from dirty workers turned into more of a trickle. Just enough coming in that they were all still needed; as soon as one batch was finished another soggy team would find their way to the barracks. But they had perfected the pipeline by now and everyone was doing what they were best at, as finally the last came wearily in. A group who'd been doing some emergency roof repairs, and who both Mark and Kiki had mentioned while they were in the laundry room. Mark had worked with them too but come ahead of the rest of the group - he was long gone by the time the last three arrived. Looks like they hadn't been as close to done as Mark originally thought.

The harbormaster Griff led the way in, an older man clearly used to being drenched by the elements. Nimoo was next to him and they softly chatted about something Seste couldn't catch. Nimoo gave him a small towel and he handed her his jacket in return before drying himself off. Nimoo tossed it over the one tub they still had prepped for laundry.

"Looks like we've finally reached the end of tonight's work," she said. Nelson visibly melted and muttered, "Oh thank the goddesses." Pipa and Seste snickered quietly.

Nelson perked back up and swapped his broom for a mop leaning against the wall nearby. "We'll split the washing with cleaning up the room, Meeki why don't you help me dry the floors? Seste, you can keep washing. Wring those clothes out."

Straight-faced, Seste flexed her arms. Affirmative. Pipa saw Meeki shuffling over toward Nelson looking especially.. meek, and he jumped up and trotted over to her side.

"I'll help out cleaning the room too!" he said, and Meeki managed a little smile.

"Well then it's you and me dear," Nimoo looked up and Seste smiled back at her.

"Kay kay auntie!"

While the two other Anouki got to work with Nelson, Nimoo and Seste turned to the roof workers. Griff was taking care of himself but the other two looked a little more lost. One a Hylian, he came over to them after making eye contact with Nimoo, and the other a Rito who hung back near the door looking aloof. Seste couldn't tell if it was their attitude or just their resting face.

"Let me take that from you," Nimoo was saying to the Hylian. "..My, why the long face dear?"

"Oh... don't worry about it," he sighed.

"Lost 'is cap to the storm," Griff chimed in from the far side of the wash tub.

"Aye.. it's true." Cade said balefully. Nimoo smiled sympathetically in return.

"You'll probably find it again after the weather settles. Someone probably will! What does it look like?"

As Cade went on to describe his hat, Seste glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, squinting at his dour tone. Nimoo could handle this pitiful voe. Seste set her sights on Keaka.

The Rito hadn't approached, and as Seste strolled directly over to them she could already see them putting up a guard. There was something very recognizable about the body language. Upright, rigid, arms crossed casually but fingers discreetly gripping their sleeves. Yep. Seste saw herself in her little wizzrobe disguise, surrounded by monsters on a pirate ship. You try to act like you're supposed to be there, but you know you're only tricking yourself. You know everyone else can see right through you.

"You came to get your clothes cleaned right?" she said, and put out a hand palm up, closing and opening her fingers. Hand 'em over. The Rito seemed especially ruffled by this.

"I came here," they started, "simply because we finished our task outside. I was merely following the team lead."

Seste had a retort, but she held on to it as she sized Keaka up with a long look.

"So you're not getting undressed?"

"N-no," came Keaka's flustered reply, but even before their answer Seste was nodding up and down with understanding.

"Oh yea, you're right! It's way too cold in here to just start taking clothes off." She trotted over to a pile of folded and dried laundry and carefully pulled out the biggest towel she could find. Unfurling it she went back and with a "Here!" threw it at Keaka like a net, forcing them to open their arms to catch it. They did, and wrapped themselves in it all the way up to their chin. Seste smiled and nodded.

"Dry yourself off a little, and whenever you're done I'll take your stuff to wash." One last smile at Keaka, and she went back to the tub to help Nimoo out.

It was fast going with only a couple coats and small items like socks to do, and between Nimoo's washing and Seste's drying they whipped the work out at lightning speed. Seste was hanging up Cade's coat as she nodded sternly to herself, mentally assigning herself the title of Master Wringer, when Keaka finally came over.

A hand came out from inside the towel, they handed their purple sorter's shirt to Nimoo who got to work on it, and Keaka started to step back.

"Oh wait," Seste sidled up with a smile that Keaka didn't return. "Your hair is still so wet, let me wring it out for you."

"Ah- that- I appreciate it but you needn't worry about me."

Seste turned her head down and looked at Keaka out of the corner of her eye, eyebrows up. Her long silent looks were starting to make Keaka feel self-conscious.

"Well can I wring your hair out so you don't give Nelson and them more work to do?" she said with a cheeky tone, and motioned toward the housie and the two Anouki, getting the floors cleaned and dried. Keaka looked at the three, then over their shoulder at the little puddle forming underneath their dripping ponytail.

"I.. I suppose that would be a wise idea.."

"Great, have a seat!" Seste motioned toward the edge of the wash tub, and Keaka sat. "What's your name? I'm Seste."

"Keaka, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Cool!"

"..." A bit of an unorthodox response, but okay. Keaka grunted as Seste grabbed the base of their huge ponytail and started twisting, holding the hand nearer their head still to not pull their hair too hard. Keaka heard a cascade of water splashing into the filled tub behind them as Seste worked her way down.

"Some weather huh?" Seste opened with, channeling her inner hair dresser. "You guys were doing repairs on a library or something? I didn't even know there was a library on this island."

"Ah no, the Libretto house stores a large personal library of all sorts of tomes." Seste stared blankly at the water in the tub. The who did what now? "We were repairing the roof of their library wing."

"Ahhh. ..That sucks!"

Keaka glanced over their shoulder. Another.. odd response.

"I think I would have just let myself fall off the roof and die. Anything to get out of the rain, it's way too cold."

Nimoo, giving Keaka's shirt a light scrub beside them, quietly snorted with laughter.

"Like, at least in here, I can dry my hands off whenever I want!" she said, picking up the end of Keaka's towel to wipe her hands before putting them right back into their wet hair. The water kept splashing into the tub. "You should make sure you get warmed up after this though, rotten weather's the perfect chance to get sick. You know the inn is serving everyone who was working? Go get a nice hot meal there! That's where we're all heading as soon as we're done here. That poor voe needs it especially," she said with a chuckle and pointed at Nelson, mopping in the corner. "Can't believe the work they expect that guy to do every day! Also can't believe how reliable he is for a voe." And she laughed.

Keaka silently listened to Seste til she let a pause in. "Yes, I expect I will be heading there after this."

"Great! Then you're free to go!" Seste said, and she tossed Keaka's hair over their shoulder. Keaka put a hand on it, and it was surprisingly dry. They stood up and thanked her for her work.

"Thank you. It's much appreciated, really."

"Of course! Noooo problem," Seste replied with a pleasant grin. "You should take that towel with you, it'll keep the rain off at least while you're going between buildings. And uh.. your clothes'll be a bit til you can actually wear them again. Though... we did have a Rito in here earlier blowing everything dry with her wings.." Seste gave Keaka an expectant smile, but she didn't push it. Keaka couldn't exactly shed the towel to open their wings after all, with nothing else to wear. "So you could probably take your stuff with you and do that if you don't have anything else to wear out."

"..I see. Yes, perhaps I will," Keaka answered.

Seste smiled and nodded, "Great!" She gave Keaka's clothes a hard wring til they barely dripped, then handed them back.

"Of course, you're also welcome to wait around for them to dry out a bit too," she said.

"And with that, we're done!" Nimoo suddenly declared. The two's attention turned back to the Anouki, and Seste grinned and hopped in joy. "Well, not quite. Seste, you need to help carry the tub out to dump it." Seste's excitement evaporated and she let out an exaggerated groan, but she quickly smiled again just amused by the situation. So close yet so far.. yet again!

"Yea okay, we got this. Hey Nelson!" she trotted over to the others to get his hand with carrying the tub. The other two Hylian men were still there, and right away Griff volunteered himself and Cade to help out, clapping the young sailor on the shoulder to push him along. Two on each side of the tub, they hoisted it up and started shuffling it toward the door. A metal tub full of water was still a heck of a weight even for four able bodies, but nothing they couldn't handle despite all being worn out from a long day's work. As she shuffled backwards toward the door side by side with Griff, she caught Keaka's eye one last time.

"See you at Flora's Inn!" she called, and rounded the corner out of sight.

A Stint at Lon Lon #5 <<-- -->> A Party at Lon Lon #1

----

Okay I'm done doing laundry now lol. Someone pry me off BtGS, I have a bunch of other art and general stuff I gotta catch up on that has nothing to do with this group and also has deadlines in the form of Christmas visitors and postage. I say this, knowing full well there's still two more BtGS things I want to do before the end of December... XD;;; I'm gonna try to forget those and just miss them though. Being in rp groups is fun for the prompts and motivation, but I've always had a bad habit of prioritizing them because of their constant forward progression and everything being on a deadline. Gotta learn to let some things go by the wayside, there's just not enough time in the day to do it all when you are working alone..~
I really hope the group slows down after this chapter finishes and we're caught up. I need the time to do other things without missing out! XD

----

Characters:

Seste
Keaka
Cade
Nimoo and Griff
mentioned in text
Kiki
Mark and Nelson group NPCs

Description

Laundry: done. Again.

The laundry crew was luckily getting plenty of chances to catch their breath as the stream of clothes from dirty workers turned into more of a trickle. Just enough coming in that they were all still needed; as soon as one batch was finished another soggy team would find their way to the barracks. But they had perfected the pipeline by now and everyone was doing what they were best at, as finally the last came wearily in. A group who'd been doing some emergency roof repairs, and who both Mark and Kiki had mentioned while they were in the laundry room. Mark had worked with them too but come ahead of the rest of the group - he was long gone by the time the last three arrived. Looks like they hadn't been as close to done as Mark originally thought.

The harbormaster Griff led the way in, an older man clearly used to being drenched by the elements. Nimoo was next to him and they softly chatted about something Seste couldn't catch. Nimoo gave him a small towel and he handed her his jacket in return before drying himself off. Nimoo tossed it over the one tub they still had prepped for laundry.

"Looks like we've finally reached the end of tonight's work," she said. Nelson visibly melted and muttered, "Oh thank the goddesses." Pipa and Seste snickered quietly.

Nelson perked back up and swapped his broom for a mop leaning against the wall nearby. "We'll split the washing with cleaning up the room, Meeki why don't you help me dry the floors? Seste, you can keep washing. Wring those clothes out."

Straight-faced, Seste flexed her arms. Affirmative. Pipa saw Meeki shuffling over toward Nelson looking especially.. meek, and he jumped up and trotted over to her side.

"I'll help out cleaning the room too!" he said, and Meeki managed a little smile.

"Well then it's you and me dear," Nimoo looked up and Seste smiled back at her.

"Kay kay auntie!"

While the two other Anouki got to work with Nelson, Nimoo and Seste turned to the roof workers. Griff was taking care of himself but the other two looked a little more lost. One a Hylian, he came over to them after making eye contact with Nimoo, and the other a Rito who hung back near the door looking aloof. Seste couldn't tell if it was their attitude or just their resting face.

"Let me take that from you," Nimoo was saying to the Hylian. "..My, why the long face dear?"

"Oh... don't worry about it," he sighed.

"Lost 'is cap to the storm," Griff chimed in from the far side of the wash tub.

"Aye.. it's true." Cade said balefully. Nimoo smiled sympathetically in return.

"You'll probably find it again after the weather settles. Someone probably will! What does it look like?"

As Cade went on to describe his hat, Seste glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, squinting at his dour tone. Nimoo could handle this pitiful voe. Seste set her sights on Keaka.

The Rito hadn't approached, and as Seste strolled directly over to them she could already see them putting up a guard. There was something very recognizable about the body language. Upright, rigid, arms crossed casually but fingers discreetly gripping their sleeves. Yep. Seste saw herself in her little wizzrobe disguise, surrounded by monsters on a pirate ship. You try to act like you're supposed to be there, but you know you're only tricking yourself. You know everyone else can see right through you.

"You came to get your clothes cleaned right?" she said, and put out a hand palm up, closing and opening her fingers. Hand 'em over. The Rito seemed especially ruffled by this.

"I came here," they started, "simply because we finished our task outside. I was merely following the team lead."

Seste had a retort, but she held on to it as she sized Keaka up with a long look.

"So you're not getting undressed?"

"N-no," came Keaka's flustered reply, but even before their answer Seste was nodding up and down with understanding.

"Oh yea, you're right! It's way too cold in here to just start taking clothes off." She trotted over to a pile of folded and dried laundry and carefully pulled out the biggest towel she could find. Unfurling it she went back and with a "Here!" threw it at Keaka like a net, forcing them to open their arms to catch it. They did, and wrapped themselves in it all the way up to their chin. Seste smiled and nodded.

"Dry yourself off a little, and whenever you're done I'll take your stuff to wash." One last smile at Keaka, and she went back to the tub to help Nimoo out.

It was fast going with only a couple coats and small items like socks to do, and between Nimoo's washing and Seste's drying they whipped the work out at lightning speed. Seste was hanging up Cade's coat as she nodded sternly to herself, mentally assigning herself the title of Master Wringer, when Keaka finally came over.

A hand came out from inside the towel, they handed their purple sorter's shirt to Nimoo who got to work on it, and Keaka started to step back.

"Oh wait," Seste sidled up with a smile that Keaka didn't return. "Your hair is still so wet, let me wring it out for you."

"Ah- that- I appreciate it but you needn't worry about me."

Seste turned her head down and looked at Keaka out of the corner of her eye, eyebrows up. Her long silent looks were starting to make Keaka feel self-conscious.

"Well can I wring your hair out so you don't give Nelson and them more work to do?" she said with a cheeky tone, and motioned toward the housie and the two Anouki, getting the floors cleaned and dried. Keaka looked at the three, then over their shoulder at the little puddle forming underneath their dripping ponytail.

"I.. I suppose that would be a wise idea.."

"Great, have a seat!" Seste motioned toward the edge of the wash tub, and Keaka sat. "What's your name? I'm Seste."

"Keaka, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Cool!"

"..." A bit of an unorthodox response, but okay. Keaka grunted as Seste grabbed the base of their huge ponytail and started twisting, holding the hand nearer their head still to not pull their hair too hard. Keaka heard a cascade of water splashing into the filled tub behind them as Seste worked her way down.

"Some weather huh?" Seste opened with, channeling her inner hair dresser. "You guys were doing repairs on a library or something? I didn't even know there was a library on this island."

"Ah no, the Libretto house stores a large personal library of all sorts of tomes." Seste stared blankly at the water in the tub. The who did what now? "We were repairing the roof of their library wing."

"Ahhh. ..That sucks!"

Keaka glanced over their shoulder. Another.. odd response.

"I think I would have just let myself fall off the roof and die. Anything to get out of the rain, it's way too cold."

Nimoo, giving Keaka's shirt a light scrub beside them, quietly snorted with laughter.

"Like, at least in here, I can dry my hands off whenever I want!" she said, picking up the end of Keaka's towel to wipe her hands before putting them right back into their wet hair. The water kept splashing into the tub. "You should make sure you get warmed up after this though, rotten weather's the perfect chance to get sick. You know the inn is serving everyone who was working? Go get a nice hot meal there! That's where we're all heading as soon as we're done here. That poor voe needs it especially," she said with a chuckle and pointed at Nelson, mopping in the corner. "Can't believe the work they expect that guy to do every day! Also can't believe how reliable he is for a voe." And she laughed.

Keaka silently listened to Seste til she let a pause in. "Yes, I expect I will be heading there after this."

"Great! Then you're free to go!" Seste said, and she tossed Keaka's hair over their shoulder. Keaka put a hand on it, and it was surprisingly dry. They stood up and thanked her for her work.

"Thank you. It's much appreciated, really."

"Of course! Noooo problem," Seste replied with a pleasant grin. "You should take that towel with you, it'll keep the rain off at least while you're going between buildings. And uh.. your clothes'll be a bit til you can actually wear them again. Though... we did have a Rito in here earlier blowing everything dry with her wings.." Seste gave Keaka an expectant smile, but she didn't push it. Keaka couldn't exactly shed the towel to open their wings after all, with nothing else to wear. "So you could probably take your stuff with you and do that if you don't have anything else to wear out."

"..I see. Yes, perhaps I will," Keaka answered.

Seste smiled and nodded, "Great!" She gave Keaka's clothes a hard wring til they barely dripped, then handed them back.

"Of course, you're also welcome to wait around for them to dry out a bit too," she said.

"And with that, we're done!" Nimoo suddenly declared. The two's attention turned back to the Anouki, and Seste grinned and hopped in joy. "Well, not quite. Seste, you need to help carry the tub out to dump it." Seste's excitement evaporated and she let out an exaggerated groan, but she quickly smiled again just amused by the situation. So close yet so far.. yet again!

"Yea okay, we got this. Hey Nelson!" she trotted over to the others to get his hand with carrying the tub. The other two Hylian men were still there, and right away Griff volunteered himself and Cade to help out, clapping the young sailor on the shoulder to push him along. Two on each side of the tub, they hoisted it up and started shuffling it toward the door. A metal tub full of water was still a heck of a weight even for four able bodies, but nothing they couldn't handle despite all being worn out from a long day's work. As she shuffled backwards toward the door side by side with Griff, she caught Keaka's eye one last time.

"See you at Flora's Inn!" she called, and rounded the corner out of sight.

A Stint at Lon Lon #5 <<-- -->> A Party at Lon Lon #1

----

Okay I'm done doing laundry now lol. Someone pry me off BtGS, I have a bunch of other art and general stuff I gotta catch up on that has nothing to do with this group and also has deadlines in the form of Christmas visitors and postage. I say this, knowing full well there's still two more BtGS things I want to do before the end of December... XD;;; I'm gonna try to forget those and just miss them though. Being in rp groups is fun for the prompts and motivation, but I've always had a bad habit of prioritizing them because of their constant forward progression and everything being on a deadline. Gotta learn to let some things go by the wayside, there's just not enough time in the day to do it all when you are working alone..~
I really hope the group slows down after this chapter finishes and we're caught up. I need the time to do other things without missing out! XD

----

Characters:

Seste
Keaka
Cade
Nimoo and Griff
mentioned in text
Kiki
Mark and Nelson group NPCs