Alcohol & Economics - Ashes & Wine - Part 3

After depositing him beside a door painted in an annoyingly bright shade of blue and commanding him to "Stay.", she backtracked to another annoyingly bright door, this time pink, located two halls over.

'Please let the Familiars all be out and about,' She prayed silently to whatever entity was listening. Somewhere, Joker laughed at such a request and Deciet's luck took a turn for the worst.

"Oh, hello 'Ciet- eww. Why do you smell like decaying people?" Joy asked, covering her nose and trying to bar the entrance to the room at the same time. She had never been very good at multitasking.

"A run-in with a particularly nasty Undead," She lied. Thanking Ku that the smell of decaying flesh covered the sticky-sweet smell of humans, Deciet's pushed past Joy with little difficulty and disappeared into the maze of clothing racks.

Joy bit her lip in frustration, and went in search of cleaning products. Alice would be particularly unhappy when she returned to a horrible smelling room, and Joy would never hear the end of it.

James was fidgeting. He hated strange places, let alone dark ones with rich ornaments and inhabited by strange creatures. He couldn't remember how exactly he had come across that underground tavern, and there were holes in his memory where all abuse took place at the hands and claws of harpies and manticores. The trip out was a blur, and this Deceit-girl had not explained anything like she'd said. At least, he thought that's what she said. He wasn't so sure anymore.

For the first time in the past few day, James realized he was shivering with cold. And for good reason, he figured. His shirt was in tatters, only held together by a handful of threads in key places.

'So much for my only nice dress shirt...' James found his jeans in a similar state of disrepair, only with many more blood and god-only-knew stains. He ached all over, and no longer was he graced with the pleasant numbness that had calmed him, when she was around.

Deceit. What an odd name. It must have been a nickname or something; surely her parents had not named her in such a way. Surely- "You look like you've seen a ghost. Come on, you need to get cleaned up before those wounds get infected." Deceit seemed to materialize from thin air, holding two stacks of clothes. 'How...?'

"R-right," he hated feeling unsure, but perhaps it was the lack of sleep paired with the excessive blood loss that was making him trust a complete stranger. He let Deceit lead him into what he assumed was a single bathroom. 'Wait a second...'

"Shouldn't you get cleaned up?" He stated in a rush, rooted to the spot and heat rising to his cheeks. Even covered in grime, Deceit wasn't bad to look at, but this...

Deceit smirked and shook her head, not even needing telepathy to guess his thought process effortly. She opened the door to reveal what he would call a bathroom suite, though such a title did not even scratch the surface. It was as if the public baths of times past had met modern day style on a private sector.

[Bathroom Description Here]

"You're going to catch flies," Deceit informed him while leading him over to an empty corner tub and twisting a dial for water. He snapped his mouth shut as she vanished again, before returning moments later with two oversize towels and a box with a bright blue cross on the front.

“What’s that?” James could not contain his curiosity.