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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[Hmm. She didn't refute the idea that she was in an accident, so he figures she's just pointing out where her symptoms are. At any rate, that's not a condition much can be done about, at least as far as he knows.]

Okay. Well, stay right there. [And he goes rummaging for a mop and bucket. He doesn't really want her walking around if the floor is slippery, but he does offer her the bucket since she wants to help.] Fill this up, would you?

[Ariel leans up as much as she can to see what he's doing, only to blink in surprise when he hands her the bucket. Fill it with... water, she guesses?

She smiles and nods as she takes the bucket, then mostly uses the counter for support as she moves to the sink, sets the bucket on the bottom, and beings to fill it with water. She watches that for a few seconds, then looks over at Everett, trying to see what else he's going to do, or what she can do.]

[He grabs the bucket, sets it on the floor and starts mopping up the soap suds. He has to wonder what massive volume of detergent it would take to get them that far down the hall, and can tell that clean-up is probably going to take a while, but he's too much of a good person to let her risk tripping and hurting herself.]

So I take it there aren't any washing machines back in your world?

[Ariel shakes her head as she leans on the counter, just watching what he does. So that's what a mop does? You just push it back and forth like that? So it's a bit like a mass of rags attached to a stick...

Now she looks off to the side, to where he came from. Maybe there's another mop in there...]

Ah. That's been difficult for me too--adjusting to all the new technology here. It's always best to ask someone for help who knows what they're doing.

[He looks back at her, noting her glance, then sets down the mop, opens one of the cabinets and pulls out a dishrag.]

Here. You can wipe off the suds that got on the furniture. But go slow and be careful where you step.

[A rag, huh? Ariel looks a little put out. She wanted to try out this mop thing!

Buuuut she nods, and shrugs to herself. Maybe this'll be easier on her. So, she takes a step and - FFFFFFFFFFFF her back foot just about slides out from under her.

...

Yeah, she can see why she needs to be careful. She managed to hold on to the cabinet and not fall, but still.]

[He spots her slipping out of the corner of his eye and bounds over, grabbing her by the arm to catch her. For a moment, he regards her very seriously--but she's okay, so his expression softens in relief.]

Careful. [He gives a short laugh.]

[Ariel gives a big, sheepish and somewhat nervous smile of her own as she nods a few times. Right. Be careful. Got it.

Once she pulls herself up, Ariel carefully moves to grab one of the rags. After that, she slowly squats down to start wiping the suds off of the bottoms of the counters - she'll move on to the table and chairs once that's done.]

[He continues mopping, skirting around the furniture, glancing back at Ariel every so often to make sure she's okay. Part of him wants to try making conversation, but seeing that she can't really respond, he fears it'll end up awkward. As a result he ends up working in near-silence until the floor of the kitchen's clear.

He straightens up, stretching his lopsided back and regarding the still bubble-coated corridor with a sigh.]

I admit, I'm kind of impressed you managed to get the bubbles all the way out there.

[Ariel had been moving her rag in tune with a song that she'd love to sing out, but... well, without her voice, she can't. So, she's reduced to just playing it in her head and moving to it.

But once she hears his voice, the music stops to listen. And then she smiles sheepishly and raises her shoulders in a shrug as she looks back at all the bubbles that remain. She tried not to let them get that way, but...]

[He gives a slightly teasing smile in return.] How many clothes were you intending to wash, anyway?

[She waves her hand in a circle as she rolls her eyes up, trying to think. It was a lot, that's for sure. After a moment of that, she glances to the side and presses her lips together, as if she's still unsure of the exact number, but she opens and closes her hands two times, to indicate about twenty pieces of clothing. The rest wouldn't fit.]

[Okay, a lot. His smile widens a little.] You must have quite the wardrobe.

[She nods, looking a little helpless as she gestures to the washing machine. And that would be why she has quite the wardrobe, having never really known how to work that thing in the first place. Plus, it's noisy. She didn't really expect it to be like that.]

[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?

[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.]

[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...]

[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?]

[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.]

[Man, everyone seems to raect like that. Well, almost everyone. It's pretty customary back in Atlantica, especially when there's no other way to say "thank you".

Instead of dwelling on that, though, Ariel leans against the washer and watches his movements, for all the world looking as if nothing happened. Once he's finished, her eyes widen, and she nods slowly and mouths an "oooh..." in understanding. Yeah... she thinks she gets it. Her fingers brush against the start button, and then she nods with more confidence. Right! She's got it!]

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Three Seashells - Action/Written

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