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[b]//O4 - Main Streets[/b]

Sebi and Sumiye left 'Sunchy' to his dreary position as they departed -but not without a delicate wave on Sebi's part, to add another final seal to Sunchy's even more delicate psyche. The two ladies left the wall partitioning the Royal Road and made for the 'Onyx Sardine'; a terrible name for a bathhouse if ever there was one. Who would think to give their establishment a connotation of saltiness and fishy smell? Sebi hoped dearly that it was some sort of historic joke to the place, and not any genuine descriptor.

Leaving the Outer Layer via the Royal Road's underpass, the two kitsune delved into a dark, perhaps even seedier stretch of the city wherein their foreign appearances earned them no less of a staring audience. At least there were no guards here to make comments on their race. Poverty appeared even more rife down in the tunnels, and Sebi's mood turned sour.

It was not a feeling of revulsion, but of helplessness.

In the city she lived in for most of her life, poverty was not an alien concept -but the depths of it she saw here cursed her with a kind of eldritch knowledge that threatened to drive anyone suitably unaccustomed mad. In the city of Tairyo, she was [i]priestess[/i], and for all of her unaccountable behavior after defending the city, her responsibilities never quite went away. It was perhaps when the needy were in need that she was most attentive. Tairyo was so loveable in part because of the tiny fraction there who suffered in ways like she was seeing here in Oratorio. A great amount of the pleasure she took in playing priestess was in the happiness she saw in those starving given food, and those cold given shelter. These were the things she loved the most herself -a warm cushion, and hot food- and so in giving them to others...

But here... how could she even begin to fix something like this?

"It will take time," Sumiye said sagely, eyes forward amidst the shadowed suffering. Sebi's worried expression was yanked away from the source of it, and she blinked. Had Sumiye once again read her mother's mind, or was it merely coincidence? Sebi knew her daughter shared similar values, and so it was just as easily that she was feeling the same things. She said nothing to her daughter, but the silence spoke volumes.

[b]//A5 - Adventurer's District - The Onyx Sardine[/b]

As a distraction, Sebi relayed her "plan" to Sumiye under whispered words, earning a smile and a sigh from the more pragmatic daughter. She went with it, nevertheless. Their first step of course was to get a bath, and approaching the Onyx Sardine as they made it out of the underpass and into the Adventurer's District, that first step was at hand.

Here in the Adventurer's District, things were considerably more quaint and sturdy, but still maintained that deeper nature of Oratorio Sebi and Sumiye were only still getting used to. A large building of stone stood before them, with clouds of water steam billowing out of chimneys and ajar windows. Inside was an army of workers -and an army of smells. Oils and perfumes saturated the interior giving Sebi a moment of nostalgia and Sumiye a developing headache.

Excited for a proper bath, the two ladies' hopes were to be dashed by the scaly, intimidating, bouncer-receptionist heading the front counter. The baths were closed until evening, and all that they could be offered was buckets of water and malnourished slivers of soap.

They'd take it, of course.

Unfortunate, but not a total defeat. Sebi would accept the lesser bath with a disappointed demeanor, but nevertheless make the most of it. She and Sumiye would make the buckets and soap work between them efficiently, given that the buckets themselves were some change-per-fill. The truly awful part was finding a spot to even do the cleaning in private. That, and Sumiye leveling several complaints about the length of her mother's hair and how much water it was taking to properly wash out. By the end, though, Sebi and Sumiye had rid themselves of dirt and smell and were as pristine as they'd ever been in some time. The two couldn't help but exhale in deep satisfaction as they stepped away from the Onyx Sardine.

Next on the list for Sebi's plan was to buy some innocuous items -specifically a carryable crate or box of some kind. Along the way through markets in the district, Sebi engaged in a very [i]specific[/i] gossip with whoever might lend her an ear.

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