Private Eastern Brisshal Gunnin for Gold

[Brutus Dahlgren]

The giant initially froze up, fearing the thing that hooked his foot was actually Plantera having feigned being dead to get them to drop his guard. Then Ilya's exclamation would banish that thought as she tackled him, wrapping her arms around his torso as the two sank into the sludge. Between her leg sweep, his stumbling into a vine, and her momentum, he sank face first into the mud. Closing his eyes, he would land with a splat.

He would scrabble for a second, trying to right himself, but it would appear that Ilya was thrashing about, not ready for their plunge (despite initiating it). Her legs kept smashing against his knees and weaving in with his own, her arms scratching and clawing at him seeking purchase to free herself upwards. The giant would pivot in a 180 spin, wrap his arms around her, clutching her tight to his body to keep her from floundering, and once she was properly contained he would struggle to his feet, dredging both of them from the surface.

He would cough up a mouthful of mud, grimacing at the taste, he would wipe the mud from his eyes and look down at her. "You okay? The bottom of this pool is pretty slippery, I guess I fell and took us both with me."

@Ilya

 

[Ilya]

☀𓆱𓃬

​

lion's pride...

Coughing and sputtering, that's all Ilya could do as she was brought up to the surface of the mud. Funny thing was, if she had just stood up, she probably would have been fine. With Brutus restraining her, she couldn't move. Spitting mud out, squinting her eyes up at Brutus. "Yeah- You totally fell..." Thankfully mud was covering her face, keeping her expression away from the attention of Brutus. "Y'know.. You can let go of me now."

She began to wiggle until she was released from her restraint, now that she could breathe without being squeezed she realized just how funny everything had been. Her laugh ringing out, she clutched her stomach as she laughed, realizing how much it hurt. Must've been the belly flop... She'd have to take a look later to see if she bruised or not.

"Are you okay though?" She had finished her laughing episode, now concerned for Brutus. After all, his face first smack had been rather loud. "Does your face hurt?" Ilya shook her right hand to free it from the mud, once again. Using her left hand she gripped Brutus' arm and used it as leverage to push herself up, reaching with her right hand. She wiped Brutus' face and inspected it, getting a little too close for her comfort. "Your face is red, I'll have to try and make you a rub for it later...." To be fair, she also wanted to make one for her sore stomach.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus let go of the woman as she wriggled free, grinning slightly. He'd known she'd knocked him down, but there was something silly about letting her think she'd gotten away with it. He listened to her laugh, and soon his bellowing laugh followed hers into the air. The whole adventure seemed to be so rediculous. He'd started the day thinking about groceries, and here he was, covered in mineral mud having just finished fighting a giant tentacle monster.

The woman rose up on her tippy toes to inspect his face, and when that failed she gripped her arm to raise herself up. He'd opted to meet her halfway, lowering his face so she could take a look. Her face grew incredibly close to his as she wiped down his cheek and chin. His face grew flush, if he'd slipped or tripped he would end up in one of those silly rom com moments where he would accidentally kiss her.

"Yeah..." he realized he was staring into her eyes and broke the gaze. "I uh, smacked it on a vine under the muck, it doesn't hurt too much though..." He would wade a few steps away, using his foot like a sounding pole to find the creatures head. "Found the bulb, you wanna help me lift this up? I imagine if we get the body out we can tug on all the vines and drag them like hoses away from the muck."

@Ilya

 

[Ilya]

☀𓆱𓃬

​

lion's pride...

Just how close had she been, her gaze had locked with Brutus and she found it impossible to look away. He broke the eye contact first, enabling Ilya to clear her throat subtly. Her heart skipping a beat as she let go of his arm, letting her body drop back down. With her feet back on the ground she would watch as Brutus took a few steps away, relief flooding over her as he changed the subject.

The thoughts that had been fluttering about seemed to not leave her mind. Even when she pinched her arm or tried to use what Brutus said about the plant as a distraction. In the real world, Mia was used to doing things with people, after all she had enjoyed her own fair share of boyfriends and the like. So why was she so caught up on being mere inches away from this man as they locked gazes. Perhaps it was due to the fact that in Terrasphere she was able to bring out her real self. In the real world she had invisible restrictions due to being a public influence.

Despite her mixed emotions, Ilya knew it was time to be serious. Pushing anything and everything to the back of her brain as she waded over to stand side by side to Brutus. "Sounds like a plan." She would duck back down under the mud, grabbing one side of the bulb. The heat causing her face to grow even hotter than it already was due to her nerves. She focused on the hot mud as she waited for Brutus to assist her in lifting it up, letting it ease over her muscles and help relax her. Ultimately succeeding in lowering her heartrate.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus would heft the bulb up with the aid of the Lioness, getting it about halfway out of the water, being mindful of the teeth. "Careful with the mouth, it's got lots of sharp teeth. The spittle is probably acid too." With her help, he would lug out the bulb to the edge, oblivious to her own internal turmoil as he would schlup the creature onto the edge and roll it out. He would turn to Ilya and give her a grin.

"Good job Illy!" He would raise his hand to give her a highfive. The woman would reach up and smack his muddy hand. "You know, we make a pretty solid team! We should do this again some time!" He would lift himself out of the muck and offer her a hand to lift her out, lifting her out of the mud like a sack of flour. "Now we just gotta roll him over to the forest so his body can propperly decompose..."

@Ilya

 

[Ilya]

☀𓆱𓃬

​

lion's pride...

With the help of the giant, lifting the bulb of the plant was medium difficulty. The two had successfully pushed it to the edge, which wasn't perfectly easy, due to the suction of the mud wanting to keep it in the pool.

High fives were exchanged and Ilya offered a toothy grin, "We're like two peas in a pod!" She was then lifted out of the mud by her hand, which made her realize just how light she probably was in comparison to the chad. "We'll definitely have to team up again sometime, I'm down for that."

Only mere seconds later he explained the next step, and Ilya would position her body to begin rolling the plant over, utilizing her strength and fitness. Though by the time they had successfully managed to roll it to their destination, Ilya was out of breath completely. She wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead, the mud now dry and crusty against her skin, save for her forehead. "God, I feel gross. But nothing better than this feeling after a huge accomplishment!"

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"I definitely love the rush of a job well done." Brutus would reply, patting her on the shoulder. "As for gross..." he would look both of them over. "We definitely are in desperate need of a fucking shower, that's for sure." His eyes would dart past her to the changing rooms, then to the steaming hot pool of fresh hotspring water.

"And honestly, I think that can be arranged. Look!" He motioned to a sign that seemed to depict a shower. "I figured there'd be something like this, most springs require you to spray yourself off before you go soak. We can rinse off in one of those, and maybe if you're feeling it we could take a dip in the hot water and relax a bit eh?" he shot her a toothy grin. "They're probably not expecting us back until nightfall anyways, so we can burn a little time and treat ourselves to a victory soak, no?"

@Ilya

 

[Ilya]

☀𓆱𓃬

​

lion's pride...

"ACK!" Ilya began to have a coughing fit, she had made the terrible mistake of quite literally take a sniff of Brutus when he said they really needed a shower. Her senses had been flooded with plant goo, sulfuric mud, some other weird nature scent she couldn't discern, a hint of a subtle-attractive manly sent, and unfortunately a whole pound of sweaty body odor. Reeling away from him, she decided to give herself a sniff. Instantly smelling pretty much the same thing, save for the manly scent. She reeled backwards, "God, we both stink. Shame-"

A quick glance at the clock on her UI let Ilya know that she had more than enough time for a soak before she had to log off for the night. Ilya agreed with Brutus and made a comment about heading that way. Looking at the outside of the building, Ilya didn't notice a sign despite scouring it for a few minutes. "Where the fuck- Where's the ladies showering room..." Brutus had gone in one, while Ilya had been lost in thought trying to look.

Not even sure which one he had gone in, she would just enter one at random and hope that he wasn't in that room. If he was, hopefully there would be a door or curtain of some kind...

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus found himself trudging inside the changing room and quickly discarding his soiled clothing. It felt great to peel the mud soaked fabric from his body, he imagined it was what shedding your skin must feel like. He would leave everything piled in the corner, and trudge into one of the stalls. He didn't bother with closing any of the curtains or the stall, after all the only other person here was Ilya, and she'd watched him enter here, so obviously she would go to another one of the three changing rooms to shower. He would turn a faucet and let the warm water spill over his body.

"Ah fuck," he would grunt, the water washing over his skin and blasting away the much, leaving muddy rivers trailing down his mountainous body. "Jesus christ I've never needed a shower more in my life..." he would mutter to himself. It wasn't like it was weird, he was all by himself, there was no reason to feel self conscious about himself, because of course, there was no way anyone was going to walk in on him.

Right?
@Ilya

 

[Ilya]

☀𓆱𓃬

​

lion's pride...

Her footsteps couldn't be heard over the sound of the shower water, though Ilya barely noticed as she was more focused on reliving the moments of the day. It had been rather eventful, and she was grateful she had randomly pestered Brutus. He turned out to be a good friend, by the time Ilya had stopped moving she was standing in the locker room. She began to hum one of her songs as she stripped down to bare skin. Her clothes now piled in her arms. I ought to take them with me to get the muck off... She held it tightly against her bosom.

Her footsteps matching the tempo of her hum, walking past the locker-type room and into the shower room. She hadn't been too focused on the noises around her, and her humming stopped almost faster than it had started. Her clothes dropping to the floor as she flew her hands to her eyes.

Brutus was standing a few paces ahead of her. In the middle of a shower stall, curtain wide open.... Oh my god.. WHAT THE HELL. Thankfully Brutus hadn't been facing her, at least not while she had her eyes covered. Ilya was too stunned to move, her body tensing up out of embarrassment. Completely forgetting she was stripped down, "WHA! W-WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE IN THIS ROOM?"

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus, leaped out of his skin, slamming the curtain shut behind him to cover most of his modestly before turning, realizing she was also naked, and then turning right back around.

"ME? I WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!" He yelped. "WERE YOU NOT PAYING ATTENTION WHEN I WALKED AHEAD OF YOU?" His face was beet red as he kept his eyes glued to the wall. "ALSO, HOW IS THIS MY FAULT?" He would ask, before realizing that yelling would only escalate things further. "Did you not see the big fuck off pile of my clothes by the door?"

He would twiddle with his thumbs a bit nervously, trying his best to delete the glimpse of her naked form from his mind. I mean, she'd seen him naked, but only from behind, and honestly he wasn't even sure what he looked like from behind.

"Either way, this is occupado, so unless you want some light shower conversation a few stalls down I would recommend trying the other side."

@Ilya

 

[Ilya]

☀𓆱𓃬

​

lion's pride...

Ilya let out a noise of embarrassment, "I DIDN'T MEAN TO WALK IN.... I... I... YOU COULD TELL I WAS LOOKING FOR THE SIGNS." Ilya slowly uncovered her eyes, seeing Brutus had closed the curtain. She reached for her clothes, instantly covering her body. She wasn't sure if Brutus had seen anything.... Brutus pointed out his clothes and Ilya looked down. His feet visible, and to the left... A giant pile of clothes. Ilya's eyes widened, "I wasn't lookinggggggg..."

He continued talking, and Ilya would start waddling over to a stall a few ones down. She turned on her water, first soaking her clothes. As she stared at them in her hands as the mud started to wash off she would quip up in the awkward silence. "You didn't see.... Right?" She bit her lip as she tilted her head to be under the water. It began running through her hair as dirt and mud and whatever in between rushed to the drain.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"I saw nothing." Brutus would declare after a moment of silence. He would work his fingers through his hair, trying to unmat as much as he could through the reddish brown locks. Gods this was annoying, he'd desperately wished he had some of his shampoo from the real world.

L'oreal, because he was worth it.

Getting mud off his body without a sponge or loufa of any sort was also proving the be difficult as well. Geez, he'd really hadn't gone into this very well prepared. "Man..." he would state after a while. "I can't believe I'd ever find myself taking soap for granted."

Man, this tension was thicker than the mud they'd just been fucking around in. He didn't want to even risk gazing her way for fear of making her upset with him again. This one awkward situation had put a huge damper on the entire mood of the afternoon. Their whole soak was going to be awkward if he didn't figure something out.

"I mean, did you see anything?" He would ask, turning slightly to her and raising an eyebrow.

@Ilya

 

[Ilya]

☀𓆱𓃬

​

lion's pride...

Ilya let out a sigh of relief as Brutus said that he hadn't seen anything. Ilya was finding it difficult to clean out all the mud, even though the hot water was melting a lot of it away. She didn't have any modern tools, although she wasn't super concerned about her hair tangling, it would most likely just tangle again in the spring... She still wanted to get the mud off however, and found herself opening her inventory to try and find something that would be useful. She saw the loofa type object she used when she washed her headwraps and armor. It wasn't the best, but it would do. She rinsed it with the water and began to use it to scrub away at all the mud on her body.

Her back arching, arms sore as she tried to get all the hard to reach places. She gave up getting the super hard spots, it would come off later. Overhearing Brutus speaking of how he had wanted soap, or that was Ilya's take on it. Assuming he was having the same difficulty as she was before, Ilya took a step out of her shower spot.

She would tentatively begin to walk forward, "You better listen to me. Grab your towel and cover your, yknow.. Lower half. And pinky promise you won't look." She grabbed her towel, wrapping it around her body and tucking it in at the top to keep it securely in place as she began to take slow steps forward, staring at the floor so she didn't see something she would get flustered about later.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus raised an eyebrow as the woman approached, avoiding looking right at her as if she was some sort of gorgon. He could hear her approaching, and given her instructions he took a deep breath. "Not look? You're the one staring at me right now." He would weakly protest before pointing to a stack of towels left on a rack nearby. "Toss me one so I don't accidentally flash you?"

The blonde blushed and grabbed a towel, tossing it to him. The Giant would find himself wrapping it around his waist and marveling at the scale of it all. A towel meant to be wrapped around the body of most people barely managed to fit around his waist and keep him decent.

Stupid sliders tempting him to max them all out.

"So, what are you going to do eh? Use some sort of...cleaning magic or something?" He would shuffle slightly, uncomfortable with this situation.

@Ilya

 

[Ilya]

☀𓆱𓃬

​

lion's pride...

The lioness would reach down to grab his towel, "My eyes are on the floor, dummy." She muttered it out with a soft voice before walking a few steps closer. She tossed it at his direction using her senses to pinpoint his location without looking. She then turned around after she tossed it, "I'm turned away, so don't worry about flashing me... I won't see." She waited till he announced that he was ready.

She looked up from the floor, seeing the sight of Brutus with the towel barely covering anything. Her face turning beet red once again as she struggled to keep her composure. Why is he.. so tone.... Holy smokes... Ilya bit her lip as she took a few hesitant steps forwards. "You complained about soap, and while this isn't soap.. It should help you get rid of a lot of the mud and muck... And by the looks of it, you need all the help you can get... Plus I still need to use it on my clothes, so I can't just give it to you. Can you crouch down a bit for me? Or sit..."

He would follow her directions and she would begin her "sponge-bath" on him, first starting at the base of his neck, trailing her loofa downwards as she scrubbed. When she was satisfied with how his shoulders came out, she would move to his back. It didn't even process what she was doing and how it could come across. Nor was she thinking of the fact that she should be freaking out. She was simply focused on helping her friend.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus shivered as she first set the sponge adjacent cleaning implement to his neck. Fucking A, why'd she have to start with the most sensitive spot in his body. He tensed slightly at her touch, and had to force himself to relax as she idly went down his back, scrubbing the various nooks and crannies along his muscles. "Ah, fuck." He would mutter as she hit a particularly sore spot.

"This is..." he winced as she hit another bruise from where the vines had wrapped him up on the trail. "Not where I thought this was going, not gonna lie." Ilya would find that along his back and body where several ropelike bruise patterns from where he'd been grappled. Nothing serious, but some light discoloration.

"Can you.." he paused. "Be a little careful, I'm a little tender." Some of it felt rather nice, but honestly as she uncovered more and more of his body, the more apparent it became exactly how beat up he'd become.

@Ilya

 

[Ilya]

☀𓆱𓃬

​

lion's pride...

Ilya pressed the sponge from two sides, letting the water wash over Brutus. "I swear, I'm barely pressing..." She muttered to the fellow lion, her arm moving gently across Bru's body. "If only I could use my magic..." Her free hand lightly touched his back where some of the bruises were. Her fingertips lightly trailing across his body. Her thoughts taking her to the vision of Brutus fighting hard, he always fought hard... At least during the three fights she had witnessed.

Ilya finished scrubbing his back, "It'd be easier with soap, but your backside is all done." She maneuvered around his body, crouching down on her knees as she pushed his back against the chair (gently). Spreading his legs she would inch her way forward until she was a few inches away from his body. Her hands now pressing the sponge against his.... built chest. Her brain wasn't really processing much as she kneeled there lightly running the sponge against his chest to get rid of the mud. Her hair falling in her face, she set the sponge on Brutus' thigh and put her hands to her hair. She tied it in a low bun, thankfully it being long enough to stay up before she continued to wash Bru's body.

Moving from his chest to his stomach, "Where did you get this scar?" She pointed to one of the many ones that laced his skin, being careful about the bruises on his front torso.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus would slightly grit his teeth as she danced her fingers along his bruises. It didn't hurt per say, but it left his body tingling in a way that he wasn't comfortable with. She seemed to be in some sort of trance, or maybe just cool and collected. For all he knew she could have been some sort of professional masseuse or something IRL. He couldn't tell.

Then she went to his front and his eyes widened as she began working on his chest. Oh fuck Oh fuck Oh fuck. This was like, some shit out of porno, she'd even touched his thigh. Oh fuck Oh Fuck Oh fuck

Dude, calm the fuck down.

The voice broke through his mind like a sledgehammer.

What the fuck? Who are-
I am you, and you are me.
Really? We're doing a Persona reference?
No seriously, I am Brutus and you're Olivier.
I'm sorry?
Yeah you are, gimme the reigns and quit shitting yourself. We have a hot blonde woman scrubbing our pecks, get the fuck out of your own way.
Excuse me what the fu-

Brutus shoved Olivier out of his mind for a moment, banishing him to the cold recesses of his unconscious. "This scar?" He cocked his head to the side and craned down to look at it. "Ah, that was a Goblin. Little fucker got the drop on me and shanked me." He chuckled. "Hurt like a motherfucker, but needless to say he won't be getting any cheeky stabbings off on anyone else."

@Ilya

 

[Ilya]

☀𓆱𓃬

​

lion's pride...

Fucking goblins... "Goblins are pretty difficult to death with for me when they're in large numbers..." Bru's story would cause Ilya's memories to flash before her eyes of the time she ALMOST died to a big group of goblins closer to when she first returned to this world.

"Sounds like he got what was coming for him. Your body is full of scars and bruises from battles... I can only imagine the stories of all the others..." Her eyes trailed up to Bru's before she quickly glanced away... Focusing back on removing the mud from his front skin she began to hum again, though it didn't last very long as Ilya felt a question pop up in her head.

"Sooo.... I don't know that much about you, what's your favorite color?" She would occasionally glance up at Bru before focusing back on her scrubbing, only to look back, and look back down. She was taking all of this pretty well, though her mind was elsewhere....

@Brutus Dahlgren