Welcome to Gaia! ::

Malodore opened the door for her and bowed her through; though its head felt disconcertingly naked without the hat on, it allowed her to keep it.... for now, anyway. "I agree. I... don't even care if you see me without my bandages on. These, as they are now..." It squirmed uncomfortably. "They are worse than being uncovered. Much worse."

Ugh, it felt like there was grit in the sockets of its backblades, too... "Let's hurry," it said, gesturing to the stairs leading tot he next level. "These should be the cleanest. The lower showers are sometimes a bit... gooey."

"Grazie," Malodore said, opening its beak in a smile. It closed the door firmly behind her and headed up the stairs. The bathrooms were fairly close to this set of stairs. The plague doctor picked one at random.

There was nobody in any of the stalls, and it hurried back to the showers to see with relief that nobody was there, either. There were curtains to be drawn around the various 'stalls', but the showers weren't terribly private regardless. Still, it did cordon off a few showerheads with an array of curtains, just for its own sake.

Thus, with its fortress of shower-tude complete, it turned to Riley with another bashful duck. "Will this suffice?"

Malodore quickly turned on the shower heads it had cordoned off - two of them, side by side. The water jetted out immediately, steaming hot; Malodore gently plucked its hat off of Riley's head and held it under the water. That particular article of clothing had been through a lot... and it would make it through this as well. The plague doctor set the hat aside for laundering, hanging it atop the tap before looking at Riley.

"... You are an excellent example of your species, anatomically speaking," it said, after a moment.

Malodore tilted its head to one side, opening its beak in a smile. "I confess to some envy on that front. I don't even have a complete set of muscles, let alone such a meticulously well-tended physique." It ducked away at that - knowing that Riley would have to truly see its undead form now, as opposed to just the bandages.

Ugh. The bandages. The plague doctor took off its coat as quickly as it could, working it slowly over the backblades before dropping it to the ground. Its form remained wrapped in bandages... very very clearly overused bandages, no longer tightly wound but drooping and showing vgaps in places, thickly stained by sea, sand, and the usual blood. The plague doctor made a noise of disgust and stepped under the shower's spray, sighing in relief as the water hit it. "Foolish, isn't it? Earlier I was so concerned about you seeing, but now... all I can think of is getting this grit off of me." It shook its head and worked some of the bandages out from under its mask, wincing as bits of sand dug into its flesh.

"I usually take sponge baths to avoid having to use the public facilities," Malodore admitted, tilting its head up to run water just behind its mask; for a moment, its voice garbled and its vision flickered as the mask shifted. Beneath the bandages, its neck and head were actually in the best shape of any of its body - there was no skin anywhere, true, but there was also no bone visible and the musculature seemed complete.

Which was far from true for the rest of it. Half its ribcage was bereft of organs and muscles both, and its arms were largely fleshless, only a few tendons and strands of musculature here and there. The plague doctor had, out of a last fit of modesty it had to maintain, draped a towel around its hipbones. Its upper thighs were fairly well muscled, but below the knees its musculature again dropped to almost nothing. This all became quite visible as the bandages sloughed off, puddling at Malodore's hooves.

The plague doctor sighed with relief. "Candlejack, that feels good." It tensed oddly for a moment, and its backblades fell out with a series of clinks, giving further relief as water washed away the sand that had become embedded in the sockets. "Remind me never go to to the beach again?"

Malodore closed its eyes and pulled the mask back from its face a bit; it parted momentarily, the band stretching as it would only do for Malodore itself... or an elder plague doctor exerting its own will. For an instant, the plague doctor went blind; the mask dulled, all signs of life departing from it as sensory input was severed, lower beak hanging uselessly open in a parody of a smile.

And then, once all the sand that had worked its way under the edges was gone, it put it back. Sight and feeling rushed back in an instant as the mask sealed itself to Malodore's flesh once more. "I hate doing that," Malodore muttered. But it was worth it to not feel the grit rubbing into its flesh. It carefully rinsed under the band, too, then grabbed the soap. The sense of needful cleanliness was so great that it didn't even care that Riley was there watching it.

... Besides, she'd been inside its head. What more was there, really? (Still, the towel around its hips stayed firmly in place. Some things were, at least psychologically, important.)

Once it felt clean, it stood under the water for a bit longer. Just relaxing.

"Ah - si..." Malodore quickly handed over the soap, though it carefully kept its gaze averted from her unclothed form. "The towels are outside, once we are done."

First, though, it would need to dry off, put its back-blades in their sockets once more, and then wrap itself up in its bandages. The thought of clean bandages, really really clean bandages... oh, that was almost too good to be true.