upthere | Three Seashells - Action/Written

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Three Seashells - Action/Written

[Ariel's closet is getting ridiculously full. With every piece of clothing that got dirty, she got a new one rather than washing it, because the washing machine was a mystery that she couldn't figure out and didn't really want to figure out. But forty dresses and other such things in her closet? This is a little too much.

So, Ariel's in the back of the kitchen where the washer and dryer are, and she's got a frown and a squint on her face as she leans to try to figure this out. The clothes go in... here, right? Right. That's the only place they can go. And then... This detergent stuff goes in with them. How much goes in...?

Surely, the more that goes in, the cleaner it'll be, right?

...

Well.

Twenty minutes later, the entire first floor and even the bottom of the stairs of Community Housing 4 is absolutely covered with soap suds. Ariel's by the entrance of the kitchen, on her knees and trying desperately to get the bubbles back into the kitchen. It's... mostly a futile effort, so she holds her hair with both hands, unaware that she just got bubbles in it, and then she slides across the suds to get to her journal on the counter.

The image shows her looking off to the side awkwardly, before she smiles widely and writes. She's... trying to be innocent, like she did nothing wrong, but... ahaha...]

~~Does~~ ~~How~~ Could someone tell me how the clothing cleaner works? Is that what it's called?

And [...] how to clean up a lot of [...] bubbles?

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You think so?

The simplest! The soulfullest! Aye, I do, lass!

Soulfullest... I like the sound of that! [Assuming it's meant to be a compliment.] I guess that does make me a simple person.

You make it sound like it's a bad thing to be, though.

It's not bad. Not at all. I didn't want you to have that idea, poppet.

You have never before had pizza? I shall enjoy educating you; it is one of my favorite indulgences.

Poppet? Do you mean "puppet"?

No! Oh, I'd love to try it someday! We'll eat and talk over pizza, then!

Perhaps after you've cleaned the floor of bubbles. I wish you all the best of luck with that Ariel. So long as it's done before the hour is out you should not have to worry overmuch.

[He chuckles.] You'll have to do a couple separate loads. I'll show you how once this is cleaned up.

[And he moves to tackle the hallway, looking a tad reluctant as he turns away from her, simply because of the scope of the job. He goes to it without complaint, though, working quickly yet thoroughly and leaving her to wipe down the walls in his wake.

As he finishes, lugging the bucket back to the kitchen to dump out the water, he winces a little. Yep, this effectively aggravated his scoliosis for the day. Great. He waves Ariel over to the washing machine, leaning against it.]

All right, so... [He peers down at the soaked mass of clothes in there.] The first thing you should know is that you shouldn't be mixing lights and darks, or else all your light-colored clothes are going to get stained. How about we do a load of lights, first?

[Giggling, Miyabi picks up a flower before they all vanish (Bloom doesn't last long on surfaces other than earth) and hands it to the young woman. A little white flower to perhaps tuck behind her ear or something.]

That's just one of the skills I actually know and have mastered pretty well. The one I wanted to use here was Waterspout, so I could move all this soap and water into the buckets...but I'm not good enough yet. We'll have to do it by hand.

[MANUAL LABOR, BOOOO.]

...No.

You're not a puppet, are you? [Because GOD that would be creepy.]

[He doubts he's ever seen someone this excited about cleaning. Sanji grins back at her and nods. Yes, you're mopping! Fairly well, actually. Sanji was going to offer her help with this part - and will get to draining more water off the floor in a moment - except now it almost feels like he'll be ruining her fun]

Ariel-chan, I think you're a natural at this! [If she can keep up that enthusiasm, they'll have this place clean in no time]

[She follows his instructions, though she reaches both hands out to hover over his shoulders. Is he okay? She noticed that wince, and he seemed to be a little worse for wear...

But she pulls her hands back when she starts to explain, instead bringing them together in front of her as she looks down at the wet clothes.

So... you wash them separately? It seems like a hassle, but it's apparently important, as the lights will be stained. Right... she needs to remember that.

With another concerned glance at him, she slowly kneels, arms held out for balance and swaying ever so slightly, until she's comfortable enough to do this. And with that, Ariel works on separating the clothes, darks on one side and lights on the other. She occasionally makes a face, because nnngh, all of her clothes already look ruined, what with them being completely soaked with both water and detergent...

After a few minutes, though, she looks between them, and it looks like she has it done correctly. She glances up at him with a smile, then gathers the light clothes up and... well, seems to be stuck kneeling down. These are heavy, and she feels like she can't stand up correctly like this. Okay, so... something different?

She lets go of the clothes, slowly stands, then moves to start putting in the light clothes one by one. There we go. That's a lot easier than trying to move them all at once.]

[Ariel takes the flower and, sure enough, she touches the petals for a moment before she tucks it behind her ear. After that, she folds her hands in her lap to listen, though she doesn't seem to be disappointed by the news. In fact, she seems to grow excited, and she makes a motion with her hands as if to get her attention, then points to the mop that's leaning against the counter. They're going to clean with that thing, right?]

[He starts to bend down to help her, but a stab of pain in his back convinces him to squat instead, picking up some of the clothes and putting them in. Once the machine's full, he considers adding some detergent, but it looks as though there's a fair amount still inside already. He takes up the bottle anyway to show her.]

I'm not going to add any more right now, but next time when you do that, measure it out by filling this cap. This--[He unscrews the cap and holds it out for her to look, just to make sure she understands]--is all you need for one load.

[With that, he turns to the dials, adjusting them.] All right, we have it set to large load, normal wash--these other settings here are for if you have some kind of delicate fabric, but from what I saw you don't need to worry about that. This one here is water temperature and we want it set to warm or hot if we're doing lights--when we do darks, we set it to cold. So now we press this button, and...

[And the rush of water is heard as the machine starts filling. He offers a slight smile.]

That's it.

[Though on second thought, he's probably going to have to show her how the dryer works too...]

Maybe more than a couple. [Just maybe.]

[Ginji's shifting into problem-solving mode, and unfortunately it's going to involve quite a few "ifs". Sheridan has never thrown out an idea because it's been too crazy.]

If we could somehow route the water outside, it might save us time. Or...if we had one of those big vacuum cleaners that can suck up fluids. [What were they called again? Something-Vac.]

Anyway, there are some mops in my apartment down the hall. I can bring more buckets, too.

[He turns his attention to Ariel.] And you might want to try to save your clothes. I'm not sure what you have in there, but I've heard they can shrink up and stuff if you aren't careful.

No! Humans can't be puppets! [... That's what she's aware of, at least. Humans here are capable of straaange things...]

[She is MOPPING!! Ariel laughs at the compliment - silently, of course, before she carefully twirls with the mop as if she were doing so with another person. Once she's done with that little move, she side steps and continues her awkward mopping, what with her having to stop every now and then to get the movements right once more.

She looks back at Sanji, then, and sweeps her arm up from the ground to the air. Is he going to use his magic again?]

[What's she trying to--oh. Oh! Yes, that'll work perfectly. Miyabi goes over to it after putting her sword back in its holster at her hip, and picks it up to begin mopping. It'll probably take them a long time to mop up the entire mess of water and soapy bubbles, but with two people, it shouldn't be as long. However...]

Is there another mop around? We can work together to get done faster! [The faster they finish, the less casualties there may be, after all.] I can go look if you want to clean up meanwhile. Just put the dirty water into the bucket, like this.

[And, after mopping up some water and soap, Miyabi dump the mop over the bucket and wrings it out.]

[But Jack WAS sort of a puppet, not that long ago. A puppet uncomfortably controlled by a doll.]

Oh, I wouldn't say that.

[Ariel takes the cap when he shows it to her and holds it in both hands, looking down at it with curiosity. So... really? That little amount can wash an entire load of clothes? Well... no wonder it practically exploded with bubbles. She must've added about half the bottle in there.

Despite how caught her attention might be, she does still lift her head up to watch what he's doing and listen to what he's saying. It doesn't quite make sense, but she's sure she'll get it in time. Just have to copy what he's doing in the meantime. And then the machine starts to run, and her big smile comes up again. Yay! He did it! And there aren't any more bubbles flowing out!

She grins up at him, then leans over to hug his shoulders and give him a grateful kiss on the cheek. Now maybe her clothes will be clean and safe from this disaster! And it's all thanks to all these kind people who want to help her...

Honestly, how can her father think they're so bad?]

[Ariel leans in to watch what Miyabi's doing, and it's only when she understands what the other girl is doing that she answers her question. She blinks and looks up as if she was just asked the question, then nods and gives a light smile as she points to the closet. There were about three in there, she just wasn't sure how to work more than one at the same time. Even one seems a bit daunting.

She's a little wobbly, but Ariel manages to stand up again, and she reaches out to take the mop. Okay, now it's her turn. While Miyabi goes to get another mop, Ariel moves her own back and forth, though her movements are slightly stiff. She's never done cleaning like this before... Even so, there's still a big smile on her face, and she looks at Miyabi excitedly. Look! Look!! She's cleaning!]

Thank you, Adele. I think I'll need all the luck I can get. [She presses her lips together and looks at the bubbles, which still grow a little.] And I also think I'll be going now.

[That kiss takes Willock by surprise and he gapes at her for a second or two, reddening. Well. He barely knows her, and she just kissed him. Um.]

...You're welcome. [Annnd he's just going to turn to the dryer now, opening the door.] Uh, when the washing machine turns off, you're going to want to put the clothes in here to dry them. You put them in, shut the door, take this part out and clean off any of the lint that might be here, turn the dial to about here, and press this button.

[He goes through the motions, cleaning and replacing the lint trap, shutting the door, turning the dial and pointing out the start button, too awkward to send more than a passing glance in her direction.]

[Pause.

...]

Then they can be?

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Three Seashells - Action/Written

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