Life After the Apocalypse

Raquel distributes the extra treasure from the goblins as evenly as she can among those who were present for the fight. She buys a HP Potion, an Eliixir, and 3 rations, saving the rest of her gold for now. She then nervously waits for Grace and Clara to be ready to go to the bath house.

>>>"That pretty much sums it up, mate..." the knight concurs with Isbjorn. "Log in and wake up on a road ain't never in my life seen and dressed like I raided a 1066 reenactment." the more he spoke, the more his slight English accent slipped out.

>>>"You came here with others ? How many?" hers was an American accent but Isbjorn couldn't place it exactly. She was trying not to sound too inquisitive. "I thought we were it for a while. Just me and Guy 'til we got a TeleChat from some Guildmates in the same mess. Looks like it's worse than we thought..."

>>>"Ain't raining, innit? Deffo could be worse..." Guy interjected. "No 'monsters' and stuck in a village in...what is this? South of France?" he chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.

>>>"It's Missouri... The U.S." she flatly corrected him and he seemed a bit crestfallen and confused. She turned back to Isbjorn, "We were recording some 'B Roll' footage for our YouTube gaming channel and suddenly ended up here."

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>>>The Blacksmith's shop is relatively small and cluttered with numerous projects in progress. The telltale ringing of a hammer on anvil sounds out the finish of a day's work repairing the field tools for the village.

>>>"Watch your tail..." the smith nods to Fren as he enters the shop. "Those things go up like a torch if you get em too close to the forge."

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>>>The Bath House is somewhat behind the main boulevard of the village, detached from the other ships and living spaces, opposite the Blacksmith. Tubs of steaming soapy water stand in the open room; the pulleys and rope lines crisscrossing the large room give you the impression that laundry is also washed here. The tubs look like giant half-barrels with attached plumbing and a step to help you get in. Towels hang on the laundry lines between the tubs for a modicum of privacy and to dry off once finished.

Clara receives the extra gold coins from Raquel and decides to buy 2 elixirs and 3 rations while wondering if this food will have a decent taste, or any taste at all. Before heading to the bathhouse, she addresses Taylor, seeing that she's been quiet: "Do you wanna come along?"

Once in the baths, Grace is not shy about disrobing in the presence of other women. Her back is to them, in case any of them are bashful.

The original early-twenties-me was shy.

Once her clothing is folded and shelved, she steps in and slowly sinks into the soapy water, only hesitating at the point where, surely, most people hesitate! …then she dips down until only her head and shoulders are above water.

"Only now it occurs to me there’s no hair products in 1364," she says to the others, voice far too relaxed for someone allegedly bemoaning the lack of a modern convenience. "I’m not even sure I’ve a hairbrush in my purse. And if I do, is it six feet long and meant to bop monsters on the head?"

"I guess so. It would be mice to get all the sticky from traveling off/."

Raquel blushes and quickly turns away as Grace wastes no time in taking her clothes off. She waits with her back turned until the bard is fully in the tub before slowly unbuckling her leather armor and removing it, followed by the undershirt and breeches. She studiously avoids looking at her own body as well, instead quickly grabbing a towel and wrapping it around her body, mindful to cover all her womanly parts. She keeps the towel on as she carefully steps into her own tub.

The water does feel nice, but it's hard to relax given the circumstances. When Grace mentions hair products, Raquel just chuckles and smiles nervously, having no clue how to maintain her own head of long hair. "Maybe there will be a menu to change your hairstyle," she muses. "Just select how you want it to look, and poof! Who knows? This whole thing runs on video game logic, so anything is possible."

Grace is happy to relive her youth with someone else being the shy one this time.

"If Game Logic means I can get my hair wet without consequence, I’m going under."

She thinks on Brad’s lesson, but doesn’t recall her purse (or ‘magic bag’) having anything ordinary in it. Just the Baroque Theorbe.

But she gives her UI another look. As she does, her hands are on the surface of the sudsy water, pointing and clicking…

Isbjorn stops by the shop and empties his gold for an HP potion, an MP potion, and 2 sets of rations while continuing his chat with Guy and Tina. He feels a bit lost when Tina starts talking about Youtube and gaming footage—his son would definitely know what she's talking about if he was here—but something else caught his attention.

"Your guild messaged you? How? And where are they now?" he asks. He's familiar with Telechat thanks to the crash course from before, but he didn't have any contacts in it until he added the others. He sighs, and says "I was playing the game with my son Ulrik but we got separated after getting transported here. Unfortunately I don't have his contact..."

Fren enters the smithy and his eyes glitter. It is much better than what he had in mind. He greets the elf and tucks his tail. She is right and he still has not used to having a tail. "Is there anything I can buy? A better sword than what I have and possibly a recipe? You see, I also have a production subclass." he says, hoping that the lady knows that there are subclasses and some of the game terminology still applies to the (real?) world.

>>>"Guild?" Guy responded. "That might be stretching the term a bit... Sure, we joined in but it's kind of a 'working Guild', I guess you could say. We're all Streamers and kind of grab footage for each other so we're not so spread out that we can't post content regularly. Looks like that's all on the back-burner now."
"We sell game footage to the bigger Content Creators on social media to fund the gear and stuff we make our own shows with." Tina explained as the two followed Isbjorn around buying his supplies. They followed him almost like they were afraid to be left alone again. "The Guild we belong to is called TTV. We're pretty far outside where the others are. They're back on the Coast around Liberty City. What we don't really know is exactly where WE are... We're somewhere around Mound City but the mini-maps aren't working so we can't even tell which way is North."
"We just followed the road we woke up beside and ended up here in Belle." Guy became a bit somber as he addressed Isbjorn more directly, "Sorry to hear about your kid, though. How old is he? What's his game avatar like? We can ask our mates in Liberty if they've seen anyone like that around." Guy patted Isbjorn's large arm to encourage him, "Players are all supposed to show up in the Great Cities, the Player Cities. There's five Great Cities on each server so as long as he's on the same server he had to have shown up at one of them. Maybe he's at the nearest one waiting on you, eh?. Mound City, right Tina?"
She nodded affirmative to Guys question. "You get us to Mound City and we'll help you find your kid. As much as we're able to anyway..." Tina wasn't sure how much help they could be but they had a network outside of the backwater they were currently in so maybe that'd weigh in their favor.

>>>As the three conversed in Varduhn's shop, the old Apothecary listened in intently, enraptured by having so many Adventurers around town so suddenly. Some of the others filtered back in after looking around at the rest of the town.
>>>"Woah! Where'd you guys come from??" BradL33 remarked as he walked through the door with Arga in tow behind him.

"That's not your kid I'm guessing?" Tina asked Isbjorn as she looked at BradL33.

BradL33’s eyes narrowed a bit before blurting out, "I. Am. Not. A. Kid!" The outburst didn't really sell the assertion.

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>>>"Not much that an Adventurer might have interest in... Belle is a farming community and swords aren't in much demand, I'm afraid..." she said, the swinging of her hammer slowing. "You'd need a Sword Maker SubClass for crafting one worth having and that's a bit beyond me. You're welcome to look through the Recipes I have available." she pointed to a sooty desk across the room from her forge and anvil. "Basic items, mainly. Not much call for the unusual or exotic in Belle but there's stuff to get you started if you're new to your SubClass."

>>>The desk had numerous scrolls of thick and oily vellum placed in cubby holes around the desk. The desk looked a lot like the one in the Tutorial where Fren discovered the book that let him open up the Blacksmith SubClass. Such hidden items were a bonus for the curious who didn't 'speedrun' through the Tutorial.
>>>The scrolls contained the Recipes for a number of handy metal items, mainly farm tools that were 'weapon-adjacent' but not weapons themselves. A Recipe for a Toolbox Item stood out from the rest. A Toolbox let a Blacksmith make minor repairs to weapons, armor & other items in the field rather than having a Blacksmith Crafting Station, aka a Forge & Anvil. Amongst the other scrolls, Fren noticed the Recipe for smelting Goblin Iron. Such things as were made with Goblin Iron instead of regular Iron had greater durability and a small chance for a minor enchantment or special quality to arise during crafting. Goblin Iron, as the scroll stated, could only be obtained through defeating a Goblin with a high enough Rank.

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>>>The water was nice and hot. You wouldn't think a hot bath on a May evening would feel good but after hiking who knows how far through the woods it felt amazing.

>>>"Where's the hot water come from?" the goth girl wondered, hesitating at joining the others. As aggressive as she came off earlier, she seemed a lot more timid or hesitant than before, almost as if she were trying to find some reason to not join in.
>>>Once everyone else was in she groaned and started taking off her outfit like everyone else had. For privacy, she used one of the other big barrels to block line of sight. She stood back behind the barrel for a long time, not really moving once her black and red dress was removed and hung on a chair nearby. Her voice trembled a bit as she said lowly, "... it's been so long since I could see my feet..." She'd said it to herself but the voice carried in the big open space. Piphany entered the steaming hot water and sort of curled up into herself.
>>>As if to distract from Piphany, the elf matron who ran the Bath House appeared with a stack of fluffy towels and wordlessly set them down on the benches beside the barrels containing the Adventurers. "Will you be needing your clothes cleaned?" she asked. "It'll only take a few minutes as long as what you're wearing is Production or Magic Class Items. Anything above that should clean itself." She waited for a response to her query, ready to gather things as needed.

Grace smiles with empathy at Piphany’s whispered confession. She wants to say something but stops herself, fearing her attempt at kindness would only embarrass the poor girl, who seems as self-conscious as Raquel!

So the bard turns herself around to face Aegelby, leaning on her elbows, mindful of her posture so she’s covered just enough by her arms. "It’s sweet of you to offer. My clothes is plenty clean, but would it be a bother to ask for help with my hair?

"I seem to have arrived in your fine village without my hairbrush or—" Did they have shampoo Back Now? "—special soaps that keep my hair silky soft, with this pleasant aroma that’s a little bit citrus, a lot bit floral… and the lady in the ad seems to enjoy it much more than I do." Getting to the point: "If my hair dries funny, it’ll resemble a briar patch."

Grace’s eyes roam the elf’s green braids with genuine admiration. "Your braids are lovely, so I’m hoping you might be the local hair expert," she adds with a hint of a nervous laugh.

Atalanta shakes out their wet hair. "Hey Grace, how long does it take for hair to dry? Mine has never been this long before."

"Thank you," Atalanta says to Aegellby, "If it doesn't cause you any trouble."

Atalanta doesn't appear to have any of the body shyness Grace or Raquel, but if you look close she appears to be removing very robotatically.

"I’ll have my clothes cleaned, please and thank you," Raquel says.

Grace replies, "Drying this much hair back where I’m from only takes—" She says the amount, but then names several hair products along with the steps she takes "normally just for the stage, but once you’re used to it, you know what you gotta do daily and my girl Cynthia at the spa gives me the full treatment."

It occurs to her that she’s talking about her younger days as if they are present.

"Well… not Cynthia now. Or monthly." Her enthusiasm seems to peter out for a second or two—but she snaps back to her seemingly default chipperness: "It’s actually nice regressing to novice at hair anyway."

From the way Grace turns her body when addressing Atlanta, it might be apparent that the bard is neither covering up nor purposely ‘showing herself.’She asks Atlanta, "What’s it like having a tail?" She turns to Clara, who’s as qualified to answer. "I hope that’s not a weird question. I… almost played a catgirl."

>>>"If you're wanting anything fancy done with your hair, you'll have to ask an Elder Maid." the Bath House matron announced as she collected the clothes to be cleaned. "You'll not be finding their like around here." She held up Raquel's armor and looked at it before folding it under her arm with the others. "If you want something simple, I can have one of my girls tend to you. Their Maid level isn't too high but they can manage. The practice would do them some good." She prepared to leave as a bevvy of young women filed in all wearing very traditional looking maid outfits. The oldest of them had to be late teens at most and each had a wooden caddy of bottles, soaps and brushes.

Grace is surprised by the small army of Girl Scouts.

"Good evening, girls." Grace gives each of the young maids an appraising look. "Aegelby was just talking about Maid Levels. Well, my Bard Level ain’t ever gonna be anywhere near Taylor Swift’s, and truth be told, I’d be happy to level-up to Half-a-Kim Deal… and to pull that off takes practice.

"So you little ladies are in luck. I’m Grace, and this is Atlanta, Clara, Piphany and Raquel. Pick a head o’ hair, and see if you can Up those Maid Levels."

Grace dunks under a moment, and as soon as her head emerges she tosses her wet hair and leans her back against the tub. She closes her eyes.

"If any of the other women don’t want their hair done, feel free to team up on mine."

"How much for those two scrolls?" Fren asks the blacksmith. He wanted the Crafting Station and the Goblin Iron sounded promising. Maybe he could etch runes on the items, down the line. He hoped he could upgrade his blacksmith stats soon, as he did in his previous game.

Raquel is distracted watching the water dripping from Grace's beautiful red hair. Not knowing how to tend to long hair herself, she lets the novice maids style her own hair in whatever manner they choose.

The prospect of a hot bath is so exciting to Clara, that she forgets she is now a full catfolk.

As everyone casually soaks in barrels full of steaming water, Clara's paws are hovering over the edge of the tub. An unfamiliar instinct was kicking in. The water almost seems... menacing. This reminds her of her beloved cat, Cinnamon, who tolerated baths only with the most dramatic protest.

The fleeting unease towards water is quickly overshadowed by the offer of hairstyling. Clara's eyes light up, but a touch of self-consciousness follows. Unlike her long, black hair in the real world, her current calico mane isn't exactly brimming with styling options. Still, she is curious to see what magic the bathhouse maids can work.

In the meantime, her interest is piqued by the soaps and shampoos of this world. Having dabbled in formulation science back in university, Clara can't help but wonder if her knowledge is at all applicable here. Since Brad mentioned subclasses before and half the party, including herself, being women, how feasible is it to whip up some simple beauty products?

>>>"Most of them are 10 Gold each but the one's you're looking at are 25 Gold." Almathea responded, quenching the red hot chunk of metal she'd been working on into a bucket of oil. The smell of scalded oil filling the air with a heavy scent as flames licked up the tongs she held it with. "Lots of Goblins in the forests around here but haven't had a call to smelt Goblin Iron in a long time. Adventurers used to come in and sell it to my father when he was the town Smith. Haven't seen any in a long time... You're probably the first Adventurers to come by since he died a dozen years back." She left the metal in the bucket of still seething oil and closed the air channels below the forge and unhooked the chains to the bellows above it. She seemed to be finishing up work for the day and cooling the forge but was in no hurry to rush Fren out the door. Especially since the Smithy didn't even have a door.