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“Damn it…” Boggles grumbled. Orbiting the wet and crumbled paper towel pinched in her fingers. It was the last piece on her roll. Right between wiping off her makeup from today, too… She wouldn’t be able to pester Stocky for more until tomorrow, either. Lest she want to find herself with a whole new body to grow…
Staring at her half marked up face in the cracked mirror. Boggles ran a hand over her nude cheek. Squinting a bit at the tender feeling of a bruise beginning to form under her eye. She could go to bed with half a face of makeup, sure… It would just be extra laundry for her when wash day came around. Although she wasn’t a huge fan of the idea of her makeup getting into her hair. Maybe someone had some paper towel to spare…
Mari’s bathroom was nothing special, truly. None of HEPs were. It was the same old for each and every one of them. Cracked walls and all. The only thing that really set Mari’s apart was the water damage that continued to eat at the tiled floors from the melting bags of ice she dragged in.
Ice baths were a sacred thing for Mari-Anna when she found time for them. A brief distraction from the aches and pains her damned gear put her through. A brief lifting of the albatross around her neck before having to go through the same rigmarole of tests and missions. Today’s mission had been a bit harder on Mari’s ‘legs’, the persistent running and throwing had just been a bit too much for her that day. The metal digging the joint pieces and occasionally pinching Mari's skin didn’t help the pulsing ache either.
Slinking into her freshly prepared bath, Mari couldn’t help but give a sigh of relief at the ice water flooding into the crevices of her braces. Her eyes shutting at the brief bliss of the torturous pinches she had experienced day in and day out.
Though Mari would find her brief daydream interrupted by a shave and a haircut, two bits knock at her bathroom door. She shifted to sit up in her tub, head turning to the door.
There was only one person who knocked like that in this place…
“Boggles?” Mari-Anna called, the door cracking open at the announcement of the visitors name.
“Hey Mari… you busy?”
Mark shook her head. “Not particularly. Do you need something?”
The door opened a bit more so Boggles could let herself in, slinking in through the small crack so as to not swing the door open entirely before clicking it shut behind her.
“Ice bath?” The clown inquired, taking in the sight of the 3 empty plastic bags beside Mari’s tub full of… well, Ice, of course. Mari nodded in response, leading Boggles to finally asking about what she needed. “You got paper towels?”
Mari thought for a second. “I believe so…” pointing a tendril over to her sink, Mari motioned to the mirror.
“I keep a pack in there.”
“What? How?” Boggles raised an eyebrow. A bit confused at how Mari could keep a whole roll in her mirror. Although her bubbling questions would soon be answered upon checking for herself. “Marbles, these are baby wipes.”
Mari watched Boggles through the entire assessment of what was in her mirrors shelving. Was that not the same thing? Humans had too many different kinds of towels and wipes for her own standard. But they were all different at the same time. How did they invent so many with allegedly different purposes.
“My apologies…Will those still work?” The half apology-half question was met with a nod from the clown. Clicking the mirrors hatchet shut and plucking a few from the small blue packet to continue her makeup removal.
“How’s ‘yer bath?”
Mark dipped a bit deeper into the tub at the question, allowing the water to go past her shoulders as her gaze fell to the familiar ceiling that Mari’s sights knew far too well. “It is fine… It serves it’s purpose.”
Boggles knew far too well what it’s purpose meant for Mari. It always formed a bit of a pit in the clown’s stomach to think about the physical toll missions had on Mari. The only physical reaction she’d give was a brow furrow, wiping away at the small star painted under her eye.
“I hope they give ‘ya breaks from that armour of yours, Mar.” Boggles herself wasn’t too familiar with Mari’s whole… suit fiasco. She knew that underneath, according to the extraterrestrial, that she was mostly tentacles and slime. Which… sounded about right.
Mari’s gaze remained unmoved. Her ears twitching a bit at Boggles’ inquiry as she wrapped her tentacles around her own torso as a futile self soothing gesture. “Not often… I am only out of this gear for medical or testing reasons.”
Mari herself was unsure of how much bodily autonomy she had truly lost during her time in captivity. The humanoid frame that she was forced to acclimate to certainly stood as a towering answer to her own questions. ‘No’ wasn’t a word that existed in her interactions with SaFel’s medical or research teams. If they wanted something from her, they did it. The most she could do was just wait it out and hope it wouldn’t hurt. Though most times, her own cautious hope proved wrong.
Silence fell between the two as Boggles processed Mari’s response. Her nails digging into the wipe she clasped in a small spurt of frustration. With a huff, Boggles lifted the wet wipe to her chin, dabbing off the last blotch of makeup on her face. It felt better to change the conversation rather than continue to ask Mari for details of her torture. She didn’t want to overstep more than she felt she was, anyways.
“How about your folks?”
“My folks?”
“Y’know! Your family. What're they like?” Boggles followed up, her eyes caught on a stool by Mari-Anna’s sink, dragging it over beside the edge of her tub and sitting herself down beside the alien.
“Ah.” Mari-Anna brought a tendril under her chin, her razor teeth scraping against her skin in thought.
“I hope they’re well…” The follow up was more to just get it out of her mind; a brief comfort to Mari herself rather than a response to Boggles. “They are nice, but I might just be biased.”
“Ha! Why? ‘Ya think they’ll make me a prisoner if they met me?” The question made Mari shoot up bug eyed, shaking her head furiously.
“G-Goodness no! My people are peaceful. We would never take you captive!” Mari sputtered, bringing a wet limb up to wrap around Boggles’ arm. The sudden cold caused Boggles to shiver a bit, goosebumps forming over her exposed skin. “Besides! I would vouch for you heavily!”
Boggles couldn’t help but give Mari a little chuckle at her joke flying over their head. She shook her head a bit at Mari’s obliviousness. The clown’s demeanour seemed to bring Mari some ease knowing Boggles wasn’t taking her assumptions to heart.
“…My mother world is filled with fauna.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes… it is beautiful." Mari leaned her head onto Boggles’ arm close to the rim. Trying to find the words she wanted to describe her home. “Like a greenhouse, but… larger. Much larger giant plants and trees everywhere. It’s far nicer than this place.”
“It sounds a lot nicer than this joint.” Boggles hand came up to run a hand along the side of Mari’s hand. Running a hand over the back side of Mari’s ear with her thumb before trailing along one of the leather straps digging into her skin.
Mari’s mother world sounded nice, really nice. The thought of the vegetation filling the planet really made Boggles wonder what Home World could look like if there were more efforts to preserve the natural flora of the planet. There were some plants around, sure. But a genuine, thriving ecosystem was something Boggles could only imagine during a pre war era. Something far before her time.
“Guess you’ll have to show me sometime when we’re outta here, ‘eh?”
“Your optimism intrigues me, Boggles.” Mari commented, lifting her head to look at the clown. In a way, all the HEPs wanted to get out of this place. How they handled it was different from the others. Through Matador’s persistent smoking outside of missions to Diablo’s paintings, Boggles was a curious case to Mari. She spoke of her folks and freedom as if it was right around the corner at times. Something Mari couldn’t help but find useless seeing as the two were certainly going to be here longer than Boggles comments seemed to imply. But she appreciated the gesture. If anything, it did fuel her desire to go home when she felt a bit too down about her circumstances.
“Eh! Someone has to be. Those suits can’t drain all of us, right?” Boggles shrugged, her hand returning to her knee. “Besides! It’s not always that bad. Y’know. Diablo’s here, and you… and you’re pretty cool when you’re not rippin’ my arm off.”
“I appreciate that.”