Private Eastern Brisshal Heroes Do More Than Kill Goblins and Drink Ale

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Hot water ran over the giant like a river of thawed snow down a mountain in spring. He let the steam and water wash over him as the last bit of the crones curse was routed. The Hot Spring sourced shower alone was enough to make the trek out here worth it, and the Giant would relish in the moment. Running a hand through his hair, he did his best to knock any dirt, mud, or grime from his locks. He would then rub his face and work his way south, rather futilely trying to manually scrub his body with his hands and water alone. he'd forgotten to get soap even though he'd lamented not having it the last time he was here, but then the Rabbit called out.

"Uh, Soap?" He paused and debated it for a moment. He wasn't the type of guy to balk at floral scented soap, in fact he much rather preferred those scents over things like Axe Brand "Fuckination" scents that were a random hodgepodge of weird smells and spices. He'd rather smell like vanilla over leather, and the only really "Macho" scent he enjoyed was sandalwood and campfire smoke.

"Sure, I forgot to grab some last time I was in town."

He took a deep breath, letting his nostrils fill with steam. Soon, in perhaps a few moments, he would submerge himself entirely and let everything relish in the absolute bliss of warmth.

Soon.

@Toko

 

[Toko]

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"Naniii~?" There was a teasing tone to the spoken words, a mischievous grin pulling at the corners of Toko's lips before she chuckled lightly; a part of the rabbitfolk couldn't help to be amused by the situation given his attempt at scolding her for spring etiquette just moments before. "You weren't about to just rinse with just hot water and then jump into the spring, ne?"

A second bar of soap was procured from her UI inventory then, before the Lepus pondered for a moment if she should just call out and have Brutus catch it from across the room. Iya... that'd be a little bit too mean I think... After all she rather liked the fellow beastfolk thus far, no need to suddenly toss a perfectly good friendship down the drain if the soap toss went foul.

"Haaai, here you go Brutus-nii... san."

There was a momentary and unintended pause before she finished her words, having just gotten the first look towards Brutus without any of the armor he'd been wearing for the day. Aramaa...! Did he got chiseled out of stone or something?! Toko cleared her throat then to catch Brutus' attention—and snap herself out of her own thoughts in the process—as she held the soap out towards the Felis.

"Y-You can keep this one..." She glanced sideways as she spoke, a finger scratching at her cheek awkwardly—Majika... is it even possible to be that fucking ripped in real life?!—before continuing with her words. "... and if you like them I can introduce you to the obasan that makes them in Honeyhome~"

Like sure, Nao had somewhat toned muscles int he real world, and even Toko had some well defined muscle structure to herself, but this? Brutus was just a mountain of muscle with a few scar peppered in for additional spice...!

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Eh?" He turned around to find the Lepus holding a bar of soap out towards him. His eyes snapped to her gaze, using every ounce of self control he had as he reached out and took the bar of soap and gave her a slight smile.

"Ay, thanks." He would take the bar and give it a light sniff, his heightened senses reveling in the sensation of Lavender and Vanilla. He was in quite the precarious position, if he turned to her she would find out that he'd been a little too generous with some of the sliders, and honestly it would just project the fact that he was compensating.

"This smells great, by the way."

The glimpses he did manage to catch painted a...nice picture. She was toned, not absolutely ripped like him, but she was definitely well into muscle girl territory. He scratched the back of his head, waiting for her to return to her shower so he could get on with lathering himself up and rinsing off.

@Toko

 

[Toko]

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Once the soap was out of her hands the Lepus bounded back to her side of the changing room, lightly giving her cheeks a few pats to ground herself once more. "Y-Yeah... I love the scent of lavender and vanilla, it's very soothing and relaxing." Honestly if the rabbitfolk could have lavender everything she probably would... both in game and in real life.

She finally got to try out the shower herself, a low and happy hum vibrating from her vocal cords as the warm water finally had contact with her skin. After the brutal day they both had experienced a hot shower felt like the perfect thing in the world, and TerraSphere sure delivered in realism here as well... this might even be best than any shower she'd ever had back home.

The hair was first, the long strands had certainly picked up a lot of undergrowth and dirt while rolling around and fighting goblins, and Toko was surprised about the good quality of the soap—it certainly produced more than enough lather for the rabbitfolk to feel content and clean. Her face, limbs and body were next in turn, before the Lepus grunted as she struggled cleaning her back to her satisfaction.

"Hmmmph... hrrrrng...!"

Damn it, if only she had the backscrubber she owned in the real world here this wouldn't be an issue. Unleeeeeess... The option was considered for a moment as Toko glanced back to the stall where Brutus was, weighting if this was a good idea or not. He'd already seen her naked here anyways, and they were gonna be in a mud spring together too... plus he seemed like a kind enough guy, and lacked any creepy vibes.

"Hey, Brutus-niisan..." The request was super normal in her culture, but she knew outside of Japan it might seem like a weird request. Still, she really hated not being able to properly clean her back... and in the end that was the biggest priority. "C-Can you help me clean my back... onegaishimass?"

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus was in heaven, between the hot water and soothing soap he was almost ready to skip the mud altogether.

Almost.

There was only one slight problem, these muscles were too big and he wasn't flexible enough to get his back properly. He would grit his teeth and sigh. "Mother fu-"

He would hear Toko call out to him, and he would lean back looking over in that direction.

"You okay Toko?" He called back., her question would ring through the air and he would wait for a moment, his heart skipping a beat as he contemplated her question. I'm fucking sorry, what? Olivier interjected slightly panicked.

Bruh, Chill. Brutus would quip back. She just need's help with her back.

He would lean back, turning his shower off and took a deep breath. "Your back?" he would ask, taking a couple careful steps not to slip and fall, or drop his soap.

"Sure, I can help you with your back if you can get mine." He found himself lingering just outside her shower, unsure of how to proceed. "Though I've never really gotten someone's back before, so you're gonna have to like, walk me through the process?"

@Toko

 

[Toko]

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Kuso...was that too weird of a request? This was probably too weird of a request...

"Y-Yeah, my back... I can't reach it well."

There was another pause, the rabbitfolk about to take back her request, when Brutus voice carried across the room again as he accepted... with a condition. "Pffft, of course! Friends got each others' backs always~" Easy request, one Toko could certainly agree to without thinking twice on it—after all, she had done this for a whole lifetime with her own grandmother.

"Sure, it's super easy. Just take this cloth, I've already lathered it up, and scrub my back with it. Easy, ne?"

Once he was over the rabbitfolk would hand the aforementioned cloth over, standing just outside of the shower head’s range as the hot water continued to run. The long white strands of hair were gathered up and held to the front by her hands, leaving Toko's backside exposed to the Felis to make his job a little bit easier maybe.

"Scrub away~"

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Easy peasy." Brutus replied.

The giant was torn in twain mentally in this moment, twin factions fighting over how to handle this situation.

Jesus christ, look at that Ass. Olivier would bluntly declare.

Bro, calm down. We're just washing her back. Brutus would shoot back.

How the fuck can you be so calm about this? This is the spiciest thing we've gotten into since we got "a reward" from the princess for helping her find her lost tiara so the Troop leader didn't kill her.

That was fucking sick, but still, we've thrown hands with Goblins, Gnolls, Giant Frogs, the Duhameron, the Hemomancer, that fucking witch. How can you be so flustered by a nice butt and toned back?

Because we don't get ourselves into situations like these!

Well we can sure as shit do so now. We're a hero and a badass in this land, we can be everything we want and more. Chill, take a step back, and let me do my thing. Jesus.

The Giant took the sudsed up rag and gingerly pressed it against her back. He would carefully begin to work it along her back, treading a fine line between enough pressure to dig into her muscles and feel good, but not so much that he would send her tumbling forward. He would work it along her shoulders first, then down around the small of her back working his way to just above her buttocks', a nice mix up of clockwise and counter clockwise motions until she was nice and lathered up.

"There we go, how's that?"

@Toko

 

[Toko]

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She was completely unaware of the internal turmoil waging inside the Felis' mind, the rabbitfolk simply content to actually get a good back scrub after scuffling with goblins inside someone's house and later in the forest... not to mention whatever the fuck that witchy orc was.

"Aaahhh, kimochi ii..."

It had been months since the last time Nao had shared this experience with someone else, and she couldn't help but be reminded of fond memories that the woman had buried away. A low melody unconsciously vibrated in her throat, the hummed tune one of comfort that she had always shared with her grandmother while bathing.

To Brutus credit the man was doing a pretty good job, the pressure applied with every pass being pleasant enough to the touch without feeling forceful. "For your first time scrubbing someone's back you're doing really good... could be a masseuse here in TerraSphere if you ever get tired of monster slaying~" She could feel the knots in her muscles slowly giving way with each pass, thankful as the tension was slowly released and removed most of the lingering discomfort from the fight.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"You see, I've been good at giving backrubs for a long time. I learned how to do all sorts of recovery and sports medicine shit." He would work his thumbs into her back a little deeper, keeping the towel between them to preserve a certain sense of propriety. "My troop members call me Mr. Magic Hands, because after drills and practices I would give rub downs for sore muscles."

The memory was nice, though in all honesty he'd learned the ability to grow more popular. He'd had a hard time making friends at first, but the skill had come in handy for people complaining about how sore they were from drills. Soon, he was one of the most popular members of the Troop, even with some of the prettier members giving him the attention he craved.

After working his thumbs deeper into her back, releasing a knot with a bit of pressure. He would pull his hand, and the towel back, setting it aside.

"There you go, should be all squeaky clean."

@Toko

 

[Toko]

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"Mmm...? Was your work really that straining?" She remembered him mentioning something about acting as a noble knight in real life, but outside of it Toko didn't really have a lot of context as to what that entailed... and how the job actually was. She'd never seen, much less gone, to a renaissance faire after all. "Obaachan was really good at massages too, I always loved getting them from her."

There was a change of intonation as she spoke of her grandmother, a faint sad smile pulling at Toko's lips... the wound was still too raw, a little too recent, but a part of Nao supposed she was slowly working over it—at least her speech hadn't broken through the words this time around. Eventually the massage was completed, the Lepus taking a moment to stretch her arms and shoulders as she relished the new feeling.

"Thanks, Brutus-niisan, that was wonderful." A look was given around then before the rabbitfolk noticed a stool not too far away, her foot hooking over one of it's legs before Toko dragged it closer. "Your turn now, but you're gonna have to sit... otherwise there's no way I'll be able to reach up that high properly."

Well, she might have been able to reach... but she worried that would cause certain grapefruit sized features of hers to get inappropriately close to the man in the process.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus would casually plop down on the stool, cracking his neck as he listened to her story of her grandmother. "To make a long story short, I'm...an actor for a living. I do what's called renaissance faire, basically historical recreations of old European history. My troop specializes in things like knighthood, we do melees, battle reenactment, and jousting." He sighed. "While we use prop weapons, we do kit up in mostly realistic armor. A lot of our training was just running around in full suits of armor and doing pushups to build endurance."

IRL he might not be very tall, but his constant training had worked up a very large amount of endurance and muscle. "My main role I end up doing is a heroic squire. I work with a guy named Thomas, he's a fucking Champ and he goes around saving the day. Sometimes we do a bit where the bad guy beats him, and I rise to the moment and save the day and end up a knight myself."

@Toko

 

[Toko]

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Ah, right... that's a lot of back.

She took a moment to assess the expanse of muscle mass that she had to work on now, a soft chuckle escaping the Lepus as she rinsed the cloth Brutus had handed back before lathering it up once more with soap. "Eeeeeeh, you guys have those type of shows available?" She had to admit that sounded quite interesting, the Felis providing enough information that Toko could create a vague mental picture of what one could probably expect... kinda.

"That's quite the rigorous training, I can't imagine working out in full armor to be enjoyable in the slightest."

The cloth was worked against his skin steadily, the Lepus making sure to use her knuckles and thumbs to generate pression in certain points as Toko worked on scrubbing Brutus' back. "I don't have as much experience massaging backs as you, so let me know if I'm putting too much pressure ookeei?" After all most of the people Nao had ever washed the back for were of the elderly variety, and in those cases a soft and gingerly touch was preferred since their skin could bruise quite easily.

"Ah, that sounds like a very cool role... it's always exciting when you think the bad guy might actually get away with stuff, before the sidekick swoops in and saves the day~"

Her hands continued to work as they spoke, following the natural layout of the muscles and eventually stopping whenever a knotted section came up. Breaking those down sometimes took more effort than she expected, but little by little Toko continued to make progress.

"Mmm... I wonder, do you think some places here might do similar shows to those you were in, Brutus-nii?"

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"My troop travels all over the country. I'm not looking forward to our stint in Texas coming up, that's always hot as sin. Can you imagine trying to work out in 100 degree heat in chainmail? If you're out in the sun too long the shit gets hot enough to cook bacon on."

He rag touched his back, and the giant did his best to repress the urge to flinch at the touch of another. He wasn't used to having his back touched, but he simply took a deep breath and let her going about her work. She would work her fingers into his back, eliciting a grunt from him as she dug in. "I don't think you could press to hard honestly. These muscles are pretty fucking sturdy."

He thought about her words for a moment, stewing on them before answering. "Our troop master is a bit of a...scholar of the arts. He loves to tell all sorts of stories, but most of them have happy endings. The sad ones are usually to add an air of tension, the slightest chance of a bad ending for the audience. As for shows here?" He let that hang in the air. "Those would probably be more like plays, hard to reenact something that's the normal for the world eh?"

@Toko

 

[Toko]

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"Wait, could it get hot enough to burn you if you're not careful...?" She was sure Texas was on the southern part of the United Stats of America, and if Nao was remembering correctly it tended to be quite hot and humid... probably similar to the summer heats and temperatures Nao got in Japan, perhaps? "Regardless that sounds like a terrible time."

A soft chuckle erupted from the Lepus at Brutus' comment, her hands working through another knot on his shoulder. "That almost sounds like a challenge~" This knot in particular proved to be a stubborn one, the Lepus frowning before eventually resorting to use her elbow instead.

Honestly, the man's large back made her hands look so tiny one would think they were kid sized.

"Mmm, that's true... Landers probably wouldn't enjoy those reenactments due to possible bad experiences and memories, and Travelers already live it whenever we head out to hunt monsters, bandits and whatnot."

Eventually she reached the lower back, the Lepus adopting an Asian squat posture with ease as she settled to work on one final knot not too far from his spine. "That orc hag really did a number on you, huh?" It was the first time Toko had even seen one of those around Eastern Brisshal, usually the most common threats were wolves and bears with the occasional goblin sprinkled in for flavor.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"I've heard horror stories of dudes singing themselves by putting on chainmail they left out in the sun." The giant replied chuckling. The bunny swapped to her elbow and he let out an appreciative grunt. "Fuck that feels good." It felt like the pretense of a back scrub had been dropped, and now they were just getting massages.

"I think its less about the content of the play being traumatic, and more like the stories are so commonplace. Tales of heroic theatrics are just another Tuesday for most of these people. Though, you do bring up a good point, trauma could be a motherfucker too."

She readjusted, getting rather close to his rear as she began to work a knot by his spine. "That Orc hag sapped all the strength right out of my body. Didn't even touch me but it hurt so fucking bad. Last time I felt like that was dealing with another magic user, but that was just because he took so much to kill. Ironically I did roughly the same thing to him that I did with the witch, a good ole case of pyroslicing." Fighting the Hemomancer reminded him of his first days on the game, how much had changed since then. He was much, much stronger now.

"I think," He drawled, stretching a bit to test out his relaxed muscles. "That it might just be time to spray off and get in the water now, ne Toko-chan?"

@Toko

 

[Toko]

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"That sounds... painful."

A faint shiver run down her spine at the thought of sun heated chainmail on her skin, before her ears perked up as Brutus grunted when her elbow managed to hit a particular sweet spot. Considering all the shit they have been through in the past four or five hours the rabbitfolk figured he'd earned the extra service, a smile pulling at her lips as she continued.

"Yeah, dealing with magic users seems to be quite a pain... I might have to start thinking of masteries that can help me with that after this fun experience."

With a final good kneading the last knot was undone, the lepus finishing wiping Brutus with the cloth before standing, blowing a raspberry upon hearing the last words of the Felis before slapping his back lightly with the same cloth.

"Hai haaai, niisan!" She chuckled in good humor, turning back towards her shower. "Go get rinsed first, baaaka~"

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Haaiii." He chirped back chuckling.

The giant would rise from his stool as she smacked at him, a goofy grin plastered on his face as he grabbed the soapy rag, gave it a twirl and then snapped it playfully at her. He would take a couple lumbering steps, crossing the gap back to his territory and his shower. He would spray himself off, feeling borderline godly as he stepped out freshly clean and having all of his knots worked out by Toko. He would take one of the towels left for guests and wrapped it around his waist, marveling on how a towel meant to be wrapped around an entire body barely covered his waist enough to leave him from being scandalous.

Lumbering out into the open air, he would take in a deep breath. The air smelled slightly of sulfur standing near the mud pit. The main mud pool was large, circular in shape and roughly in the diameter of an Olympic swimming pool The last time he'd set foot here, he had just finished fighting a large plant creature that spanned the width of this entire thing.

Further back was a secondary pool, raised up about five feet or so with a small waterfall feature that fed into the mud pool. That pool was about a quarter in size, but featured slightly cloudy greenish water.

"So, Toko." He would turn back to face her. "Hot mud or hot water?"

@Toko

 

[Toko]

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One moment the rag was in her hand... and the next second it wasn't. Surprise crossed Toko's face before she turned to see Brutus had snatched it, and the grin on his face easily warned the Lepus about what was coming "Ch-Chotto matte, Brutus-nii—gyaa!" She was a little too in reacting, the tip of the wet cloth snapping against her side and startling the rabbit, before she stuck her tongue out at Brutus before disappearing into her shower stall for one quick rinse.

"Mmmmmmm~!"

She delighted herself in one final stretch as Toko stepped out of the showers, the Lepus taking a moment to quickly braid the long strands fo hair before pinning them upwards in a hopeful attempt to keep them out of the water... and the mud. A towel was grabbed, somewhat used to cover her front while being held, before the rabbitfolk stepped over to the open mixed bath spring area.

"Sugoi... this is a really impressive spring."

She hadn't quite been sure on what to expect when Brutus had first mentioned the existence of the place, but the Lepus certainly approved of everything she had seen so far. "Definitely mud first, then hot spring to rinse it all out." It was a very easy decision to make in her opinion and, without waiting for our dear #GigaChad the beastfolk took the last few steps to get her by the edge of the chosen pool.

The towel was folded and dropped close by, but not so much that it could run the risk of falling into the mud, before a foot was gingerly outstretched as the Lepus gave the mud spring a temp check—her tail comically flickering in response when her toes dipped into the substance.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Sounds like quite the plan." Brutus replied, nodding his head.

The giant nodded along as the woman approached the pool. He watched as the Lepus tested the water with her toes, hesitating, lingering on the edge of the pool. He could tell by the fact that her toe had not immediately darted out of the water that it wasn't too hot, and from personal experience in the past he knew that his next, delightfully devilish plan, would cause her no physical harm.

Carefully, he snuck up behind her and in one swift potion raised his leg up, planted his foot on the small of her back, and gave her a forceful shove forward sending the bunny woman barreling straight into the mud. He watched with a mild amount of amusement, the splish of the muscular woman being perhaps the most satisfying sound he'd heard in this game, before he would gently slide into the mud himself, leaving his towel discarded by the edge. Close enough to get to it if needed, but not too close to be in the danger zone of being splashed by a particularly vengeful Lepus.

The giant let out an appreciative grunt as he sunk into the warm muck, letting the heat soak deep into his sore muscles and tired bones. He could practically feel his bars beginning to rise back up, and a quick glance confirmed that fact. Whilst waiting for the Lepus to rise to the surface, he removed his bottles of booze from his inventory and set them to the side. When Toko rose to the surface, he would greet her with a hearty chuckle.

"I mean, I know the seasons might be different in japan right now, but it's spring not fall Toko."

He would give a waggle of the bottles in her direction, in one hand Sake, the other would be Rum. "I've got a little cask of ale too if you're feeling that."

@Toko

 

[Toko]

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Honestly, she should've known better... especially after having been snapped moments prior by a damp cloth in the showers.

There was a split second, a sudden pause in time, when the rabbitfolk suddenly became very aware of a rather large and warm shape pressing against the small of her back. It caused a faint shiver to run up Toko's spine as the Lepus slowly turned her head. She just managed to catch a glimpse of the shit eating cheshire grin tugging at the Felis' lips, the mischievous glint in those blue eyes already telling Toko everything she needed to know.

"I-Ima wa niis—aaah!!!"

SPLOOOSH~!

"Moooh...! That wasn't fair, Brutus-nii!"

What emerged from the spring was a little mud monster with elongated muddy ears, letting out a little cry of frustration in the direction that Toko could hear the bottles of alcohol clanking. The Lepus took a moment to use her hands in an attempt to remove as much mud from her face as possible—futile as the task was—before finally waddling over to the spot where the hot spring water overflowed into the mud spring.

With her face now clean the rabbit proceeded to glance at her companion as he delivered his joke, dramatically rolling her eyes in response before Toko stuck her tongue back out in a childish response. The hair was undone from her pin, allowing the water from the spring above to essentially function as a quick emergency shower as she rinsed the earth and minerals off the long strands... while unconsciously providing an unexpected visual treat for the Felis too.

Once the hair was mostly clean the beastfolk would tie it back up once again, waddling back through the mud to hang out at the edge of the pool besides Brutus. "Your apology sake has been accepted and received." The words were spoken just as a hand rose to take the sake bottle from his grasp, taking a nice swig straight from the bottle before Toko relaxed by the edge of the mud spring...

@Brutus Dahlgren