PART I - WHO IS THIS PERSON

“Of course it is, Callie?” Xin said again.

“What?”

“It’s normal for Gnome hair,” Lena said.

“What do you mean?” Callie asked.

“All Gnomes have bright, colored hair. Pixies and Sprites, too.”

“They do? We do?” Callie pushed Lena and Xin out of the way. She marched, still dripping wet covered partly by soap, over to Lena’s mirrored changing stall. Suddenly there she was, an unfamiliar face looking back to her with big round eyes and bright pink hair.

“What the hell,” Callie whispered as she walked slowly up to the mirror, now truly seeing herself for the first time in this strange, new body. If she didn’t know better at first glance, she’d think she was just looking at a normal Human, but quickly she started to notice the differences. The ears were long and pointed, which she had already known from feeling them, so that wasn’t a shock.

What was a shock was how different her eyes seemed than a Human’s. For one, she had purple eyes! And those eyes were just a little bit larger than one would expect, maybe half-again what she’d seen on her own face growing up. They made her face incredibly emotive. A smile, a frown, a sense of confusion, all were magnified tenfold by those big eyes.

Without a reference, the height difference between a Human and this new body didn’t show, but as Lena stepped into the reflection, the difference was immediately obvious. Lena’s slim, muscular Elf-form towered over her, nearly twice her height, and Callie looked like a young child standing next to an adult. Well, a short, mid-teens child with adult hips. She traced her finger back along the image’s face. Those big, bright, strange eyes staring back at her in wonder … purple eyes. Of course, there was also the hair, which was roughly shoulder length, tied back into twin ponytails, a piece of thin twine holding each together. And, just like down below, it was blazing hot pink!

“All Gnomes have bright colored eyes and hair?” Callie asked. “What colors are we talking about?”

“They do. So do Pixies and Sprites. Blues, greens, reds, pinks, yellows, and purples like your eyes, and others I’m sure,” Lena said walking into the stall and standing next to Callie. “Any bright color you can think of. It’s completely random, even children don’t seem to necessarily inherit from their parents. What color eyes and hair do people on your Human world have?”

“For eyes, browns, blacks, blues, and a rare gray or blueish-green. Mine were brown. Hair colors are basic browns, blacks, some are various shades of blonde. My hair was a dark brown, too. A few also have hair that is a reddish-brown, but nothing so brilliant as this.”

“So nothing bright like that at all?”

“I suppose a few people do, but it’s not natural. They might dye it a color like this, but usually just on their head, not … down below. Most don’t even keep hair down there, or if they do it’s trimmed really short. Heck, I’ve kept it shaved since I was in ninth grade.”

“Why?” Lena asked.

“I like it that way? It’s a … clean feeling for some? This is weird to have it back.”

“Was this done to attract a mate?” Xin asked.

Callie thought for a moment before answering. Was it? For some people, one could reason, depending on the point of view. “Maybe not directly,” Callie said, “but it’s how I liked to keep it.”

Callie twisted sideways, looking again at this new Gnome body, half-covered in soap. With Lena so close, she suddenly felt so very tiny. In some ways they looked alike, with Lena being obviously taller. Also, comparing the shape of Gnome ears to Lena’s, the points on Callie’s ears were a little more rounded; nothing like the sharp points the Lena and Vanis had on their ears. Callie then realized something was missing. “This sucks,” Callie said, finally figuring out what was missing. ”All my tattoos are gone.” She quickly reached up and touched her ears again. “And my ear piercings, too.”

“Tattoos? Were you a Sailor? Or were you … you know …”

“What?”

“A criminal,” Lena whispered.

“No! I was not a criminal! Or a sailor! I had them because I liked them. On my thighs and my belly, on one of my breasts, and a few others.” Callie absently brushed her fingers over each location on her new and unmarked body as she spoke. She turned to see the one on her shoulder blade was gone, too. She touched the spot inside her right wrist where a date was missing. The date her dad died.

“Just … because you liked them?” Lena asked, quizzically.

“Sure, lots of people have tattoos. It’s pretty common. We get something personal for us. Something meaningful. Some can get really creative.”

“Did you also do this to attract a mate?” Xin called out.

“What? No!” Callie said. “They were just images special to me. You know, memories and things with meaning.”

Lena had finished removing the last of the beads from her hair, setting them on the small table where a few rolled around. As she worked to remove any tangles, she said “Tattoos are very uncommon. Mostly it is a sailor thing.”

“And criminals?” Callie asked.

“It’s … a mark, showing what crimes you’ve done and how often,” Lena said. “Those with multiple markings can be subject to harsher sentences if they get caught doing something again. So unless you work the seas, or close to them, tattoos are not seen and not socially acceptable.”

“Not acceptable? Well that kinda sucks,” Callie grumped. Glancing up into the mirror, she noticed that Lena had removed her top. On her upper arm were three round, empty circles. Each was black, with a diagonal black line through each of them. Callie connected some dots and spun quickly

“Yes, Callie,” Lena said, holding up a hand. “I’ve done things in the past I shouldn’t, and I bear the marks for it. I’d prefer not to discuss it, though. At least not while sober.”

“Oh yeah, sure,” Callie said, barely resisting the urge to immediately discuss it while sober.

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There was an awkward silence, broken finally by Lena. “Come! Let us wash!” She bent, pulling her cloth pants down and off, before quickly walking to a shower stall. Callie looked back at the strange, pink-haired body in the mirror, still trying to take the image in.

“I will need one of you to help wash me,” Xin said flatly.

Callie gulped. Washing Xin, with her tall, scaled body and lizard-like skin. Just another thing that Callie couldn’t get her mind around.

“Um…,” Callie said, buying time.

“I’ll help,” Lena said. “Let me get myself washed a bit first.”

“Thank you,” Xin said. “Callie, would you like me to wash your back?”

“Um…,” Callie said again with a slightly-frightened tone, this time warily eyeing Xin’s clawed fingers.

“I think your claws will make her nervous, Xin. I’ll take care of her as well.”

“Ah, yes, I see,” Xin said, looking at her clawed right hand. “Although I am very careful and would not scratch.”

And so they washed … everywhere. Eventually, Lena entered Callie’s shower stall and scrubbed her back. While she was methodical and professional, Callie could only think back to a time when someone special washed her back after a hard day in class or at a crummy food-services job. Suddenly she missed that touch, that intimate, but not necessarily sexual, connection with someone dear.

“Is something wrong?” Lena asked.

“No, just an old memory,” Callie responded.

“Of a lover?”

Callie nodded. “It ended a while ago, though. Around the time my dad died.”

“I’m sorry,” Lena said.

“It’s okay,” Callie said. “Just … I just had a tiny twinge of homesickness for a moment. Strange, isn’t it? It’s only been a few hours and I miss home. I miss my mom.” Keep it together, Callie! You promised!

Lena finished washing Callie’s back, and pushed her under the stream of falling water to rinse off. “Today has been a lot for you, hasn’t it?”

Callie nodded, sputtering slightly. “Yeah. It has.” Lena pulled her out of the waterfall, the cooler air colliding with the warm cascade she had just been in. “Do you need me to wash your back?” Callie asked.

“You know, I think I will have Xin do it. I think the claws might actually feel good,” Lena said, a slight glint of mischievousness in her eyes.

“Okay,” Callie said, mechanically picking up the soap and stepping in again. She began to wash all the places she could reach. She removed the strings holding each ponytail together, and soaped up the hair two or three times, the constant rain from the shower rinsing the soap away. Occasionally, she held a bit of hair in front of her eyes, seeing the hot pink colors and still finding it so weird.

Callie peaked around the partition to see Lena washing Xin’s back. Lena had put on a serious face of focus and washed what was needed, trying to ignore how awkward all this was.

Soon Lena and Xin exchanged places, and Xin carefully washed Lena’s back in return. Callie glanced again and saw a series of old, straight-line scars on Lena’s back. More than she could immediately count, but none looked fresh. With Xin now washing Lena’s back, Callie expected to see streaks of red blood where Xin’s claws had ripped skin open. But the Lizardkin’s motions were deft, and it wasn’t until Lena said, “You can scratch a little” that Xin left a few light marks.

“Lena?” Callie asked over the wall.

“Hmm?”

“What happened to your back?”

Callie heard a sharp intake of air, before Lena responded, “Do you remember that thing I didn’t want to talk about sober?”

“Yeah?”

“This was in part the result of that. Another time, please.”

Callie had nothing to respond with, so they all pretended everything wasn’t totally awkward and quickly finished. A bowl on the floor next to one of the partition walls was filled with partially used soap balls, and Callie tossed what she had remaining onto the pile.

“Hey! What’s taking so long in there!” a shrill voice called. “Your Ogre friend and his minion are already done! Let’s go!”

“Almost finished!” Xin yelled back.

“Well, hurry up. I have other things I need to get done!”

“Minion?” Callie whispered, smirking.

“Shhhh,” Lena said with a giggle, putting her finger to her lips.

Callie used the hook to make sure the shower valve was fully off and grabbed her robe from where it was hanging. She had left her towel in the changing area, so she streaked across the room, water dripping into small puddles at her feet. Tossing the robe on the bench, she used the towel to quickly dry off and put it into the large basket. She then double checked her bunkhouse identification was in the basket as well as her clothing.

Slipping the robe on, Callie cinched it up before tightening the belt so it wouldn’t drag on the ground, so now it hung roughly mid-calf. Over the wall, she could hear Xin quickly getting her own items in order.

“Okay. Clothes and towel into the big basket with my house ID,” Callie mumbled to herself, counting off on her fingers. “Wear the robe, keep the little basket. The leftover soap is in the bowl over there…”

“Don’t forget to keep the block that identifies your class with you,” Lena called out.

“Oh yeah!” Callie said, and she put the Ranger class block into the empty small basket.

Slicking her hair back, Callie realized she had lost one of the strings that was originally holding the two pigtails. Gathering everything into a quick ponytail, she used the string to tie a quick bow by feel. It would at least keep it out of her face, for now, but for some reason she liked the pigtails. It also might be just long enough to braid. Unlike Lena, she had no qualms about cutting it short if she needed to, though. She hadn’t had long hair since she was a pre-teen.

Xin poked her head around the partition. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Callie said, grabbing everything in her arms, and then remembering to pick up the bow as well.

Xin and Callie walked together to Lena’s stall, where she was half-in her still-untied robe, but was still trying to wring the water from her long hair.

“Don’t say it!” Lena snarled before Xin could open her mouth. “I’m not cutting my hair!”

“It would be quite practi…” Xin started.

Lena held up a pointing finger and glared.

Callie glanced in the mirror and watched the three of them. Three non-Human people just doing an everyday thing. Callie suddenly had a strange thought. “We look like cultists,” she said.

“What?” Lena asked, confused by the comparison.

“Exactly that, we all look like we’re in a cult. Plain, white robes, communal living. All of it. Tell me this doesn’t seem a little ‘culty’?”

Lena and Xin looked at each other and then at the mirror. “I can see it,” Xin said after an observational moment.

“I hope there’s no kool-aid,” Callie mumbled.

“Kool-aid?” Xin asked, slowly parsing out the word.

“Um..” Callie stalled, “Call it a poisonous drink cultists drink to kill themselves when the disappointment of being a cultist becomes too great.”

“I see,” Xin said. “We would have to see the alchemist for that.”

“Nobody is going to kill themselves!” Lena said with a laugh. “So don't drink this ‘kool-aid’ poison! Even if we do look like cultists.”

Callie helped Lena collect up a few beads that had scattered to the floor, placing them into her small basket, while Lena tied her robe tight and tossed her clothing and the towel into her large basket. She took another minute to collect up her hair into a long ponytail, cinching it with a piece of string she’d used before. Finally, the three walked together towards the rear exit of the building.

“Wait a moment!” Lena whispered as they walked past the pool of steaming water. She dipped her foot into it and let out a long, satisfied groan. “So hot! This is going to feel so good when we can use it.”

Xin looked towards the back door, and then to the front, before dipping her own clawed foot into the water. “Great Starshine!” she cried out. “You do not lie! I too am eager to use this bath!”

“Hey! Let me get in on this action!” Callie said, dipping her own foot in. It was the perfect temperature. It was hot, but not quite scalding. The kind of heat that would sap the ache from you and bring you a momentary world of tranquility. The only thing missing was a torrent of bubbles. “Daaaamnnnn!” was all she could say, drawing the word out. Nothing else was really needing to be said.