Taking off the itchy cloth top would ordinarily have felt very freeing to Sera, but the difficulty of doing so with the pain in her right arm, combined with how purely worn down she feels ruins her usual mood. She wonders why she hadn’t tried to wash herself, since she technically could since about yesterday morning. Or was it the day before? Sera is beginning to feel like a large part of the problem is just how ambiguous life down here in the dungeon feels. She doesn’t even know if her sleep cycle matches the actual day-night cycle of the surface anymore, or if what she considers ‘days’ are only 3/4s of one, or maybe even that they’re longer than an actual ‘day’.
She manages to get the rest of her clothes off with significantly less difficulty, and she examines her body in the reflection of one of the buckets of water. She looks more… gaunt, but that was to be expected. She probably isn’t eating enough, and the food isn’t of nearly a good enough quality for her to grow healthily. She recalls that her body was finally starting to grow into the shape of her mothers before… That day. Now, though, she thinks she might be too lacking in food variety for her body to grow beyond the half-child half-teen gaunt abomination she sees in the water. Her hair looks worse too, probably because like Vey said, it hadn’t been getting washed or cleaned.
Sera picks up the rag she uses for washing herself, and begins. The fountain’s water is the same as ever, cold, but not freezing, and she reacts the same way she always would out of instinct, recoiling briefly from the chill. Except, even when she runs the cold water over her breasts, shoulders, and neck, usually the areas most sensitive to the cold, she doesn’t find it nearly as uncomfortable as before. She doesn’t think it is in a ‘numb’ sort of way either, but in the time it takes her to finish washing every part of her body in the water, she never shivers, bumps never form on her skin, nothing. Cold, but no physical reaction to the cold.
Sera finishes washing herself by dumping the bucket of used wash water into the drain and hanging the rag to dry. She doesn’t put her clothes back on just yet, favoring wringing her hair out while letting the air dry her body. She walks around the ritual room naked for a while, and even decides to sit on the altar, the same way Vey sometimes does, but decides to get up quickly. While the water hadn’t felt cold, the stonework against her bare butt and the memories of how much dried blood had been there before she’d cleaned it got the better of her almost immediately. She eyes the ritual dagger Vey had left behind the altar, for some reason. It usually keeps all of the weapons with the undead out in the hall, so her confusion at the presence of the wicked looking knife is considerable.
A dark thought crosses her mind. As long as Vey never notices that she has this, she could always choose to do the deed herself rather than waiting for the skeleton to kill her. The moment the thought passes through the elf’s mind, she drops the dagger and takes a few steps back. That is the exact feeling desecrated altars try and propagate, don’t go near there Sera. She reminds herself as she circles to the far wall. She wondered why the living chamber was off to the left when you enter the ritual room, with nothing on the right to mirror it. In fact, that entire wall is completely smooth stone, with no fancy inlays or murals that would even suggest importance. Just like me… She occupies herself with thoughts like that, as she traces her left hand along the stonework, completely oblivious to her surroundings.
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She turns, and freezes in place when she spots Vey standing in the doorway to the hall, though clearly not looking at her. Sera has gotten better at discerning where Vey is focusing since the discussion about the blue dots, but she has not gotten any more comfortable with the idea of the undead seeing her naked body. She knows that objectively(or at least, she’s pretty sure) Vey doesn’t see it that way, as has been proven many times by now.
Actually, that's probably why it isn’t focusing on her, she thinks, because Vey has taken an active interest in trying to not embarrass Sera in that way since she asked Vey not to. Sera quickly begins putting her clothes back on, throwing the itchy, baggy shirt over her first. It was clearly fitted for someone with a far larger frame, and far, far larger breasts, but the spaciousness is the reason Sera wears it instead of her old clothes. Because for situations like this, just the shirt keeps her technically decent.
“I think I’ve come up with something for you to do.” Vey starts, but shows Sera no signs of being forthcoming with what its ‘something’ is.
“You think?” Sera asks, her incredulity creeping into her voice in a way that almost definitely constitutes ‘talking back’, and she internally chides herself for this.
“I don’t know if you would like it or not, but I want you to come up with a list of things you want, or like, and such. Food, books, play, stuff like that.” Vey pauses for a moment, and takes a few steps closer towards Sera as she finishes putting the last of her clothes on. She watches the pinpricks of light focus on her eyes, and Vey continues only once she looks back. “And once every few days, I will pick one that seems achievable, and try and get it for you, via magic or otherwise. If it is easy enough, I wouldn’t mind adding a few to what you call your ‘routine’.”
Sera stands still for a moment in silent shock, staring into the skeleton’s ‘eyes’. Did it really just say it wanted to try and get her things that she asks for? Why? And play? So are you going to finally officially acknowledge me as a pet?
“I… I can do that. But why? Why are you doing this? Am I a pet or a prisoner? What am I here, when are you going to kill me, why do you seem to care about me? Why can’t I have a normal life!? Why did I get… Why didn’t this happen to someone else? How long until you have had enough of me!?” An outburst of emotion she hadn’t expected explodes forth from her, and she feels the tears begin falling. Ah. I’ve done it now… She sees Vey take another step closer, the skeleton is so close now that she has to tilt her head as far as she can to meet its gaze. She sees Vey’s shoulders and arms move out of the corners of her watery, blurry vision, and her breath stops for a moment when she feels two hard, awkward limbs pull her into a sort of uncomfortable boney hug.
“The last time you cried, you calmed down much faster after doing something like this. Is it helping this-” Vey stops as it feels Sera’s head move slightly against its ribcage. It wonders how this could ever calm any fleshy creature, as Vey’s bones are probably colder and harder than would be comfortable when pressed against the soft skin of Sera’s face, but it doesn’t question what works. “I will answer the questions I can, one by one. But not now. Not until you are calm. Should I carry you to your bed again?”