unfinishedlibrary | The Laundry Mingle

Entry tags:

The Laundry Mingle

Who: Anyone!
What: LAUNDRY.
When: Anytime after the return from Woodhurst. Can also be forward dated! Basically this can be anytime between the last and next Story
Where: The living facilities, or anywhere else characters might attempt laundry related stuffs
Content warnings: Include as needed in comment headers

At this point, a number of the Library's inhabitants had been here (for a nebulous definition of 'here') for over two months now. Others were newly arriving, still getting their bearings. But the thing was, at this point something was clearly becoming a bit of a problem.

Laundry.

No one had anything other than the clothes they brought on their backs. There was one singular clothes washing machine, and it was, quite frankly, complete shit. It made weird noises. It leaked frequently. It never seemed to actually finish washing the clothes.

So, cleaning clothes was...an issue. But humans - and sentient organic beings, and even - ugh - constructs needed to figure it out, because if they didn't they were all going to be fucking disgusting.

(Well, more disgusting than organic bits usually were, anyway.)

[[ooc: so yeah! How is your character dealing with The Laundry problem? Are they even doing laundry? Are they dressing themselves in bedsheets? Finding other creative ways to get more clothes to wear? Basically, this is just a general catch-all mingle for everyone to detail characters dealing with some basic hygiene.]]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

SecUnit had been putting this off for as long as possible.

It could manage that for a while, because thankfully, as a construct, it didn't get disgusting at the same rate humans did. There were a number of gross organic excretions that it just didn't make at all, and the ones it did were at much lower frequencies. But the fact was, it was partially organic. And that meant it clothes did get dirty, eventually. It had to clean them. Wearing them was going to soon become unbearable.

But...it didn't have any other clothes. It would have to be - ugh - naked, while the stupid fucking clothes washing device did its thing.

So, it had grabbed one of the bedding fabrics. Wrapped it completely around itself, so that none of it could be visible. Not its torso, not its arms, not its legs. Certainly not its feet. The only thing visible was its face, although it was very tempted to hide that too, and just become a unidentifiable mass of soft fabric.

And now it sat in front of the stupid useless clothes washing device, glaring at it with its onboard eyes. Three drones were on surveillance duty, positioned in and around the laundry room so that it would warned in advanced of anyone else coming in.

WASHING
The machine spirit of the laundry device was very unhappy, and someone really needed to see to it. That someone, alas, was not Sanguinius. Among his many gifts, appliance repair was not on that list.

However, like others, he does need to occasionally wash his bodyglove that he wears under his armor, because cleanliness is good and maybe he will provide a good example for Curze. The People of the Pure Blood on Baal didn't have these machines: they did laundry the old-fashioned way: he found an old laundry washboard, scrubbing the black fabric along it as it's propped in the prep sink.

It's also cathartic!

He's wearing a sheet tied around his waist, but scrubbing is very energetic so there's a decent chance it slips off. Avert your eyes!

DRYING.
The washing was the easy part. The hard part was waiting for it to dry, but he's found the vent the dryer uses, and now he is fully naked, letting the warm detergent-scented air fluff his feathers, and maybe get the last of the glitter (FINALLY) from the downy bits.

Human though he was, he did give a sound like a chirr of pleasure.

ARMOR.
He doesn't neglect his armor, taking some time to murmur the correct litanies as he cleans the seams of his armor, still filthy from the dirt of Signus Prime. Some of the dirt, he knew, was the blood of his Legion, so he treats the procedure with reverence, pausing now and again, murmuring the names of those he knew he lost. "And how many I do not yet recall."

This was not an insurmountable task. Rakia simply returned to his Granute form, which did not necessarily need clothes in the way a human might, and tossed the clothing he was wearing in his human form into the washing machine. Simple enough. He'd be buck naked if he transformed into a human again, and so waiting around the machine for his load to finish, as well as waiting for the dryer to finish when the time came, seemed prudent. Sure, there were other nonhumans here, but he was aware that his appearance could be alarming to some...which sucked but whatever, he'd deal with it.

He did not bother throwing his floppy hat into the wash--that could be washed by hand easily enough if needed--and had it covering his face, taking a nap with his back up against the machine as he waited for it to make some horrible screeching noise that would undoubtedly demand a bit of percussive maintenance so that the cycle could continue.

Welcome to paranoia-town, because here's Nyla, unfolding herself from one of the ceiling vents.

AS ONE DOES.

It's laundry time and she's wearing a pillowcase like a minidress (Balenciaga? Eat your fucking heart out this is STYLE) with her coveralls and undies ready to go. Listen, sometimes being tiny has an up side!

"Aw crap." Someone's here. Someone who had been spookily quiet, so quiet she had thought that no one was here (OBviously!).

Or wait. No? Was it a person? Or just a really tall pile of laundry? Huh. She'll circle it from behind, picking up a wire hanger someone had discarded and using it to gently poke the pile of sheets that may or may not be a person.

Kai does not know what a washing machine is. The one in the Library has probably been pointed out to him, but with all its various failings he doesn't see the point of it. He's fine with handwashing. There's just... the whole issue of not having another pair of clothes.

He doesn't consider himself overly modest- his veil is to not freak people out, not for anything else- and though he wasn't born in this body it's still his now. But still, parading around in a public space naked is generally frowned upon in most places. So he's just going to have to make do.

The cleaning of the clothes is simple enough- when he bathes, he just takes his clothes with him and washes them off best he can, wringing them out and putting them aside to dry while he washes himself. (Showers are also new, but it turns out they're great for this- he doesn't have to try and bathe in already dirtied water.) Then he dries himself off, attempts to pat his clothes dry, and just... puts them back on. Look, he's already wet, so them being wet isn't a problem.

He'll just... stay in the kitchen or bathroom area until his clothes stop dripping. It's fine. He's dealt with much worse.

SecUnit needed to use the machine, but it had to make sure no one else was using it first. So it sent ScoutDrone2 to check the laundry first.

This is a move it regrets immediately.

Sanguinius is in there. Sanguinius is fucking naked.

The drone spins around and leaves, at a speed faster than Sanguinius will have yet seen one of the little devices move. And then SecUnit deletes the memory of the terrible, terrible thing it just witnessed.

Okay, she's lived on a ship long enough to know that mysterious dripping liquids are never good. Coolant, slavering drool, alien ichor...listen, there were dozens of options and all of them sucked.

Which means of course the puddle coming from under the bathroom door? ALARMING, yeah?

*bang bang* "You good in there?" It's not that she has to pee, shut up. It's concern. She'll bang on the door another two or three times. "Don't make me try to kick this door in!" Because the 'try' would probably fail miserably and then she'd look stupid. Let's...not.

It is a number of cycles later before SecUnit - or any of its drones - encounters Sanguinius in the laundry again. Mainly because it was not fucking going in there while there was any risk of it encountering the Terrible Thing again.

ScoutDrone2 cautiously creeps into the laundry, and is about to fucking book it when it spots that feathered asshole again...oh, but Sanguinius isn't naked this time. It's safe.

He's talking to his armour, though. Which reminds SecUnit that Curze's armour was actually a bot.

It sends Sanguinius's armour a greeting ping, just in case it is too.

Nudity is natural, SecUnit. Under their clothes, EVERYONE is naked. Think about it. Naked, ALL the time, as close as possible to the Emperor's perfect image of humanity.

Minus a mutation or two. Or three.

His armor would resent being thought of as an abominable intelligence, though, but it did answer the ping. It was probably just as friendly as its wearer.

What a coincidence; SecUnit's also a long-time resident of paranoia-town. Because on of its drones, hiding away in a corner of the ceiling, immediately clocks her arrival and starts watching her closely.

What the fuck was this human doing in the vent? They shouldn't be in there. Ugh, it doesn't want to fucking deal with this. It just wants to wash its stupid clothing, and stop being naked as soon as possible.

Maybe if it just stays still, the human will get bored and go away.

...The human does not get bored and go away. Even worse, they're trying to touch it

Before the wire hanger even gets close, the pile of sheets is recoiling away. "Don't touch me!" says a muffled, faintly panicked voice emerging from within.

One of the few patterns of life that had stuck with Illarion into undeath was caring for himself and his gear. Not staying clean invited rot, and rot would worsen his effectiveness. So he's a regular in the laundry room, albeit often at odd hours.

wash --

Illarion's also in the naked laundry crew, though he's polite enough to pick hours he's not likely to disturb anyone to do his laundry. He'd made a token effort to try the washer and dryer, but -- much like other Editors who were from worlds without those conveniences -- he's back to hand-washing and line-drying his uniform. Whether it's the laundry room sink or the bathrooms, either does for scrubbing out his wash.

While he's picked a time -- hopefully -- without disturbances, he does keep an eye on the door, and should anyone he knows of a ... gentler ... temperament appear about to walk in, he casually wraps a towel around his loins.

Doesn't do anything to hide the very obviously fatal stab wound on his right side, though.

& dry

Laundry dries better outside, and Illarion's still got desiccated instincts to seek wilderness, so he's gotten accustomed to taking his washing to the garden to dry it. He does wear a loin cloth -- and nothing else -- while on that errand, padding barefoot through the Library with his wash over one shoulder and his boots slung around his neck.

It often takes him three or four patient tries to find the right door, but then he can hang his laundry and spend a few hours puttering around the garden while it dries. Check on his plots of fruit bushes. Polish his boots.

Rub salt into his deathwound to keep it dry.

Those kinds of things.

make your own!

All of Illarion's attempts to make himself a veil in the week he'd had before getting pulled into the Story had paid off: He'd found a knack for keeping anything he made from vanishing from the Library, as long as he left just a little bit of it imperfect.

That means he can now supplement his scanty wardrobe -- or anyone else's, should they ask. And he makes himself easy to ask about it, sitting in the laundry room itself with his scissors, thread, and stolen bedsheets to work on his first of what he suspects will be many tunics. Come request something -- it might not be pretty, but it will be a change of clothes.

(He might even offer other Editors some without their asking, if they look sufficiently uncomfortable about the idea of laundering their only outfit. That's why he's posted up in the laundry room.)

Edited 2025-12-29 02:24 (UTC)

(No. It is absolutely not thinking about that, not now, now ever.)

This armour bot's much friendlier than Curze's. And SecUnit's curious, so it sends another message.

Query: function?

It's asking what the armour bot does, because it can't figure that out. Why wouldn't you just have a combat bot, if what you wanted was a bot in armour?

He is very unfamiliar with these machines, though he’s heard that there are things called ‘washing machines’ that are used in one of the places he’s come to visit frequently.

Even still, there are two sets of clothes that he needs to wash. Keeping them in the aetheric pocket in the job stones helps… to a degree. Eventually he has to wash them, and the bits of the armors that aren’t leather or some other material that resists washing gets some hand-washing in the sink. Sinks he knows how to deal with - they’re just small fountains in some ways.

Unfortunately while he’s washing those clothes, he’s stuck in his armor, gleaming silver and blue with a sword and shield on his belt and back. He’ll have to wash the armor eventually too, but that can wait. So instead he’s just sitting and waiting in the garden, watching as the sun dries his clothes out. … He’s so tempted to whack the fence with his sword out of frustration, because while he’s reasonably sure the library won’t lose his clothes he’s… also not totally sure.

Listen, buster, when you're pocket-sized and unarmed, you get used to being looked at as prey, so you get good at hiding from freaky stuff.

And like...90% of the people here qualify as 'freaky stuff'.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" Is a perfectly natural reaction to getting yelled at by a sentient laundry pile, so that's what her reaction is. Her grip on the hanger tightens, like it's an actual weapon. She can go for, uh, mean welts with this thing or something. "Back off, weirdo!" Because if it's not some sort of eldritch laundry monster, it's clearly a weirdo trying to see naked people. "I bet you're into weird stuff like FEET!" Related news: It's really hard to cover your feet when you're standing and wearing a pillowcase like some Temu edition of Twiggy.

The drone that enters the laundry is immediately confronted with an SOB SecUnit has never fucking seen before.

No, seriously. Who the fuck is that? It keeps track of everyone here. (And why the hell do they look like that?)

Unless this was one of the new people who'd been showing up? Weird, though, for them to be doing laundry already.

The drone continues to stare.

Edited 2025-12-29 01:40 (UTC)

Even though all he had was the one suit, X didn't have as much of a problem as other people. He frequently switched into his Hero persona, which actually acted as a kind of auto-washing trick but even that will hit a snag sooner or later. So X entered the laundry room, sporting a sheet like a toga, his suit neatly folded and stuffed into a bag he snagged from the crafting area.

"Oh, sorry, I'll wait."

Nodding with a smile, X adjusted his glasses before taking out a handcrafted book, the cover a masterpiece of craft markers and glitter. Patting a corner free, he settles down to read. After a moment, he snapped a cushion into existence to pad the corner a tiny bit better.

Fucking damn it, now the human is screaming. Ugh.

The mound of blanket shifts slightly, and suddenly there's a face visible. It doesn't want its face to be visible, but fine, humans like faces being visible for some incomprehensible reason. It's not going to fucking look in her direction, however.

"You back off. You're the one bothering me." It had just been minding its own fucking business, watching some of the media it downloaded from Woodhurst while it waited.

"And why the fuck would I care about your feet?" it says. Although if she didn't want her feet to be seen, well, she should have also gone with the 'completely cover self in blankets' methods. Its feet weren't anywhere to be seen. (Which was a necessity, seeing as its feet were completing inorganic, and didn't look like normal human augments.)

Shit. It didn't want anyone to wait. Because at some point, the stupid washing device would be finished, and it was going to have to put all of its clothes back on again. Something which would be really, really difficult with an audience.

At first it just sits there, quietly panicking underneath all of the blankets. Or at least it does until one of its drones spots the human fucking snap a cushion into existence.

"What the fuck was that," it says, after shifting to the side enough for it to stare at the cushion with its onboard eyes.

Wow, rude. The drone's caught Rakia's attention, and he stares back. "You suck."

Is he trying to bait it for some sort of reaction? He's trying to bait it for some kind of reaction. He's also resisting the urge to go at it with a tentacle, but maybe it would catch the hint and leave him alone. Goodness knows the drone's owner gets so touchy when the things get hit...even if he's just asking for it having them be so nosy.

He looks up and blinks before pulling the cushion out. It was round and a funky golden-ish color with a design like that of some kind of coin complete with a motto and all.

"This? A cushion. Want one?"

Wait.

It knows that voice.

Bring up its recordings of Rakia speaking, it runs a statistical analysis. And yup, it's a complete match. Exactly the same.

This is Rakia.

...Which means the drone immediately flies back, getting well outside of the Estimated Tentacle Range.

It would be a surprise if Sanguinius's armor was less friendly that the Night Haunter's famed Nightmare Mantle.

In response to the query, it runs a list of its attributes, including things from environmental control to ballistic and chemical protection, nutrient and medical stimms, communications, auspex, location, targeting and conversion field.

And then something that requires some sort of encryption. The armor seems almost apologetic asking for it.

It stares at the cushion. With its own eyes, and that of several drones.

"How did you get that?" it says. The human didn't bring it in here with him; it would have noticed that. (Also, it's running back its recordings. Yeah, that thing definitely just appears out of fucking nowhere. If it didn't know better, it would think its inputs had been hacked.)

X looks at the drones and frowns for a second or two, his fingers itching to see if he can change them. ( He doesn't that would be rude since they weren't his, but the urge was there. ) Then he looked at the hiding SecUnit and snaps his fingers. The cushion poofs into a small gold coin that he catches and rolls over his knuckles before flicking it up into the air. Another snap and the coin was now an umbrella.

"Oh, I wanted one, so I made it." Snap. Again a cushion. "It just doesn't work that well with any Library item unless it's fairly small. Like paper."

Edited 2025-12-29 04:15 (UTC)

Rakia studies the drone's movements. "What," he asks, you think I'm going to attack?" Okay, it's still tempting. He's pretty sure he could move more quickly than the drone expects. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 11

The Laundry Mingle

Murderbot | OTA

Sanguinius OTA

Rakia Amarga | OTA

hope this is okay if not lmk!

Kaiisteron | OTA

1/2 Drying

no subject

2/2 Armor

no subject

It's totally okay, go for it!

Illarion | OTA

no subject

Nara’a | OTA

I am so sorry.

no subject

no subject

Haha no need to apologise XD

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject