I didn’t even bother responding and just nodded my head in sad agreement with Mary. Lynn had started to physically undress when I stopped her.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Getting ready to bathe,” she replied looking at me like I was stupid. “I’m not going in there clothed, Callie.”
I shook my head at her misunderstanding my meaning.
“You can just unequip everything and put it in your inventory,” I pointed out. “This locker room is pointless. At least it is for us. Purely aesthetical.”
“Why do you think they included them?” Mary asked.
“Two reasons. First, they are clearly going for the Japanese communal bathhouse vibe here for some reason, there will likely be showering stations in the next room along with an oversized hot-spring-style bath.” I explained, pointing out the obvious first. “Second, what if a crawler came here before getting their inventory unlocked? They couldn’t just unequip things like we can.”
“I didn’t think about that last one,” she said.
I looked over to Lynn who was fully in the nude now as she walked to a nearby shelving unit that had stacks of fluffy white towels on it and grabbed one, then wrapped it around herself. Mary, seeing what Lynn had done, followed suit. I turned away respectfully, and to hide the flush currently climbing my face. Looking at my side of the locker room, I spotted another set of shelves with towels like the ones on the girl’s side of the locker room.
“You don’t have to turn away like that, Callie,” Lynn called. “It’s not like you haven’t seen both of us naked before, and we’re all girls here. Some more willing to admit it than others, but still girls.”
I shook my head, trying to ignore her comment, and grabbed a towel. I wrapped it around my waist then unequipped all of my gear. At that moment, the air from a ventilation vent blew on me, making me shiver slightly despite the humidity in the room as it blew over my bare chest.
“Huh?” I gawked out loud.
I looked down and sure enough, I saw that my breasts hadn’t disappeared, but the bra clearly had. I checked my paper doll. The bra was still listed as being equipped, which is what I had expected considering the item’s description, but now, in brackets beside its name was [Bathing Mode].
An achievement popped up.
New Achievement! Nudie Mod Activated!
You may have thought that I didn’t think over everything when designing the perfect bra for you, but you can’t outthink a hyper-aware supercomputer. I planned for this. First of all, it is practical. You have to get clean sometime and with the bra present, that would be a challenge, so for all intents and purposes, when you go to shower or bathe, it will appear to unequip to outside viewers, displaying that lovingly crafted rack I worked so hard on. Enjoy the fruits of my nanoseconds of hard labor, Princess.
Reward: You’re looking at them.
“Well shit…” I muttered to no one in particular.
I quickly grabbed a second towel and held it to my chest before turning around.
“Ready?” Lynn asked with a smirk and an arched eyebrow.
“Let’s just get this over with,” I mumbled.
MARV: I sense a spike in your anxiety, My Lady. Take heart. They are your friends. They will not judge you and will respect your modesty.
CLAY: Thank you, Marv.
Lynn pushed open the door to the next room and we were all hit with a blast of warm steam. I took a deep breath and followed the girls into the next room.
Inside was more or less what I had been expecting, there were showering stations with stools and buckets lined up on both sides of the walls to the left and the right. Each station had a detachable showerhead and a row of shelves with various shampoos, body washes and soaps. Luckily, Lynn and I were big enough weebs to know how all of this was supposed to work. Mary on the other hand, had Lynn there to quietly coach her on how to prepare to enter the bath.
Speaking of, the bath was a fairly large one, lined in rough-cut stones and lit with lights in the water and ceiling to fully illuminate the pool. Toward the middle, water flowed constantly out of a groove carved into a large rock and created a soothing murmuring as the flowing water met the water of the bath. The whole bath itself appeared to sit inside a small naturally formed cavern, with a large canvas divider on the right of the cavern that likely separated the men’s side from the women’s side while dividing the pool of water in half.
I wonder if we’ll be able to hear the guys talking.
Sighing, I neatly folded my towels and placed them on the shelf. I took out my hair ties and placed them on top of the towels then tried to get some of the tangling and filth out of my long hair using my fingers, all the while wishing I could have found a brush somewhere. Then I remembered I had picked up a lot of stuff, maybe Beatrice had enough wherewithal to pack a hair brush. While I wasn’t crazy about using someone else’s hair brush, she was dead and it would be better to get these tangles mostly out before I wet my hair.
I had noticed earlier that our inventory had a search bar so I mentally clicked on that and searched the term ‘brush’ and came back with two results, the first being the brush in Marv’s grooming kit, and the second being a Mason Pearson Large Bristle Nylon Brush which I popped out into my hand. It looked clean, practically new even, so I set about brushing my hair. I would need to dry my hair after I washed it so I looked around on the shelves as I brushed and found a cute compact Conair hair dryer on the top shelf.
Once my hair was all brushed out, I wet myself down and then soaped up, making sure to keep my back to the other girls. Working around my breasts was interesting. They were really sensitive and distracting, but I managed. Soon I lost myself in the ritual of cleaning myself and washing my hair. Feeling a sense of satisfaction in my hair and body’s cleanliness, I rinsed off well and glanced behind me to see the other girls doing the same, then as a group we headed to the steamy waters of the bath.
I was submerged up to the top of my hips before I realized I had forgotten the towel I had planned on wrapping around my waist to keep my lifelong friend covered. Panicked, I started to head back out to retrieve it when I realized the issue with that, it would just be exposing myself again. Instead, I sunk down into the waters, until it came up to my chin and moved toward the divider which was in the opposite direction of where the other girls had gone.
I found a stone I could sit on that was near the edge of the waters where the temperature was a little cooler and more comfortable. The rock was also positioned in such a way that I could lean back and rest the back of my head on the stone that surrounded the bath. I closed my eyes and tried to empty my thoughts, hoping for a moment of relaxation. Instead, when I closed my eyes I saw Tommy falling into a burning inferno while Jenn slowly exploded bit by bit behind him.
I opened my eyes and stared at the high ceiling instead.
“Dude, I can’t believe he just went in there with them like that.”
The voice cut through the divider. It was Matt, presumably talking to Aaron who, just a moment later grunted noncommittally in reply.
“I mean, I wouldn’t blame him if it was just him and Lynn, in fact, I would say more power to him, but Mary is my girlfriend. I was going to propose to her before all this insanity happened,” I heard him say. “I even had a reservation for a romantic dinner at The Trellis Room for next Saturday where I was going to do it, and now she is naked in the bath with her ex and somehow Lynn is perfectly fine with it.”
“Calm down, you know Clay would never do anything with her while they aren’t dating. You know him better than that,” I heard Aaron reply.
“Do I? Heh, no, I don’t. He still has a dick which means he’s a man and all men think with their dicks, myself included.”
“So, this isn't about Clay. It's about what you think you'd do if you were in there with your ex.”
There was a moment of silence before Aaron spoke up again.
“Okay, let me put it this way, then. Do you trust my sister?”
“Of course, but…”
“No buts. You say you trust her, then what are you so worried about?”
“Because they have been together, dude, like sexually. She knows what it is like to have sex with him. What if he was better than me?”
I heard Aaron sigh.
“Why are we talking about you and Clay having sex with my sister again?”
“Because he is currently naked with the girl I was going to marry.”
There was silence from the other side of the divider for several seconds.
“Then stop being a fucking idiot,” Aaron finally said.
“Excuse me?”
“Mary is alive. She's right over there. You still have the chance to marry her, assuming you don't fuck it up because you're jealous of one of your best friends.”
“Dude, I know that. I just... you don't understand.”
Another silence.
“Yeah,” Aaron said quietly. “I do.”
Matt didn't respond.
“Jenn and I were engaged.”
Even through the divider, I could hear Matt shift in the water.
“What?”
“I proposed a couple weeks ago. She said yes. We hadn't told anybody yet.”
“Fuck, dude. I didn’t know.”
“Nobody did. We were going to wait until we went to visit her parents in Chicago in March before we revealed it, but that’s all fucked to hell.”
“Bro, I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is, and nothing can change that now,” Aaron said with a bit of bite in his voice. “So yeah, I understand, and I'm telling you to stop being a fucking idiot. Mary's still here.”
At that, the two grew silent and I decided that now was a good time for me to ease away from the divider, lest I hear more information to add to my library of self-loathing.
I slowly made my way toward where Lynn and Mary were relaxing on the other side of the bath, while doing my best not to think about what I had just overheard. Aaron and Jenn had been engaged. They had been planning a future together and none of us had even known about it.
I pushed the thought away before it could drag all the other thoughts about how I had failed my friends, out into the open.
“You okay?” Lynn asked as I approached.
“Yeah,” I lied.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
“I just tried closing my eyes and relaxing,” I added. “It didn't work out so well.”
Understanding crossed her face and, thankfully, she didn't press me for details.
“Then don't think,” she said, reaching out and taking my hand. “Just sit here with us.”
I let her pull me down onto the submerged stone beside her. Mary was sitting on Lynn's other side with only her head and shoulders above the water, her eyes closed and a contented expression on her face.
“This is amazing,” Mary murmured. “I don't think I've ever appreciated hot water this much in my life.”
“Almost makes getting chased around by monsters worth it,” Lynn said.
“Nope,” I replied.
Mary opened one eye.
“Not even a little?” she asked.
“Not even a little,” I replied, then after a short pause continued. “But, ask me again after I've eaten, depending on the food, my opinion is subject to change.”
My stomach apparently agreed with me because it chose that moment to let out a long, angry growl that echoed through the cavern.
Mary giggled.
“See? Even my stomach thinks you're full of shit,” I stated dryly.
“That thing sounds like it's about to become a boss mob,” Lynn said.
“Please, don't give the AI ideas,” I whined.
NEW ACHIEVEMENT!
“Nope!” I said out loud. “Not gonna do it.”
I mentally swiped the notification away before it could open.
“That was an achievement that just popped,” I explained, seeing the girls perplexed looks at my sudden outburst.
Lynn burst out laughing.
“It’s not that funny,” I grumbled.
For the next several minutes, we simply soaked. Nobody said anything important. Nobody talked about the people we had lost or what might be waiting for us when we went back outside. Mary and Lynn chatted quietly about nothing in particular, and eventually I even joined in. For a little while, sitting there in the hot water with my friends, I could almost pretend everything was normal.
Almost.
Eventually, the heat started getting to me and I pushed myself upright.
“I think I'm turning into soup,” I complained.
“Same,” Mary said as she stood.
I immediately looked away.
“Oh, for fuck's sake, Callie,” Lynn said. “Reflex. You've literally had sex with both of us.”
“Lynn!” I admonished her louder than I intended.
Mary snorted.
“What? You have,” Lynn pointed out.
“That doesn't mean I need to stare at either of you while you're naked,” I said, then added, “Besides, I’m trying to be respectful.”
“That's actually kind of sweet,” Mary said.
“Thank you,” I replied.
“But, it’s also really stupid considering we're in a communal bath,” she said with a quick follow-up.
“Thank you considerably less,” I said flatly.
Mary laughed and climbed out of the water. I kept my attention firmly fixed on the opposite wall until I heard the rustling of a towel.
Lynn stood next and I stared resolutely at the water, waiting to hear her move away.
A few seconds passed.
Then several more.
“You know, you have to get out eventually,” Lynn said.
“I know.” I said simply.
Neither of us moved.
“Are you waiting for me to leave?” she asked.
“No, I’m just admiring the way the light reflects of the surface of the water.”
“Callie.”
I sighed and turned to her.
“I forgot my towel,” I admitted.
There was a brief silence, then Lynn started laughing.
“It's not funny,” I said with a pout.
“It is a little funny,” she said with a laugh.
“Could you please just grab my towel?” I pointed toward the neatly folded towels beside the showering station.
Lynn looked over at them, then back at me.
“No,” she said with a sense of finality.
I blinked.
“What do you mean, no?”
“I mean no.”
“Lynn,” I said with a sigh.
“Clay.”
“Please?”
“Nope.”
I stared at her and she stared back.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you're being ridiculous,” she said.
“I am not being ridiculous,” I pointed out. “I am trying to maintain a small amount of dignity.”
“Sweetie, I've seen your dick before,” she replied with an almost sadistic smile.
“That's not the point!”
“I've done considerably more than see it,” she said.
“Lynn!” I gasped, placing a hand to my chest as if in shock.
From somewhere near the changing room, Mary burst out laughing.
“Traitor!” I shouted.
“I didn't say anything!” she called back.
“You laughed!”
“That isn't the same thing!”
I turned back to Lynn.
“Please get my towel,” I said, my eyes pleading.
“No.”
“Why are you doing this to me?”
Her teasing expression softened.
“Because you're safe, Callie.”
That took some of the wind out of my sails.
She crouched beside the edge of the bath.
“Neither of us is going to stare at you. Neither of us is going to make fun of you. And neither of us cares what you have between your legs.” Her smirk returned. “Well, I care a little, but for entirely different reasons.”
“Goddamnit, Lynn,” I said looking away.
She giggled and stood.
“Just get out of the water,” she instructed.
I glanced toward the towels, back toward Lynn, then toward the towels again.
My stomach growled.
Lynn raised an eyebrow.
“Fuck,” I said, shaking my head as I stood.
I immediately slapped a hand over my crotch while using my free arm to cover my breasts and hurried out of the water as quickly as I could without slipping and cracking my skull open on the rocks.
Lynn didn't laugh, just watched with an amused expression on her face.
I made it to the shelf, snatched up one of my towels, and wrapped it around my waist before turning around while using the other one to keep my chest covered.
Lynn was standing exactly where I had left her with a smug little smile on her face.
“See?” she said. “You survived.”
“Fuck you.”
Her smile widened.
“Later, maybe. Right now, Sal's making us dinner, and I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.”
Despite myself, I laughed.
“Asshole.”
She walked over and kissed me on the cheek.
“You know it,” she said before turning. “Come on, Callie. Let's go eat.”
My stomach growled again.
For once, it and I were in complete agreement.