Welcome to Gaia! ::

Fifi lounged on one of the chairs, sipping an iced tea. A blue bikini had taken the place of her usual uniform. Glancing up, she noticed Saya had entered, still in her own red trainee garb.

Fifi realized Saya wasn't just stripping down to a swimsuit when she saw a flash of bare skin peeking from the zipper instead of a swimsuit top. She bounced up and darted over to Saya. "Hey, there are changing rooms over this way. Come on, grab your stuff and zip your shirt up. Unless you were planning on skinny dipping, in which case...actually, even if you were planning on skinny dipping, that's more of an after-hours sneaky thing, I'm not sure you really want to give any of these people a thrill, and you know it would get back to the higher-ups, and that couldn't be good for promotion," Fifi babbled rapidly.

Fifi paused, trying to find a polite way to phrase things. Then she gave up and went for blunt. "You change into something like I am wearing," she said, keeping her voice down. "And you do this because allowing a male who is unrelated to you and is not an infant, toddler, or young child to see you wearing less than I am wearing right now is a mating display. While there are exceptions, like having a wound treated, in general, allowing males to see your uncovered breasts or crotch is an invitation for them to pursue you as a mate," she explained in the plainest terms she could, simplifying things as much as possible.

"And by thrills, I was using slang. I meant you would get the boys excited with your display. The higher-ups wouldn't like that because it would create conflict if they fought amongst themselves, and they really wouldn't like it if you had to maim or kill one of them to convince them you weren't interested in their attentions," she continued. Then she rolled her eyes and tossed a curl over her shoulder. "Besides, you can totally do better than this rabble, and there are much more classy ways to make it known you are looking for a mate than stripping naked in public," Fifi finished, the last sentence said in a girl-to-girl advice tone.

"Ah," Fifi said, starting to understand, though it didn't seem that she had gotten quite simplistic enough in her explanation. "That is a pool, a place to gather and relax. It isn't for bathing. It isn't plain water, it has stuff in it that can sting your eyes a little and make your hair brittle and skin dry. Swimming for a while is fine, the stuff in the pool won't actually hurt you, but to get clean and keep your skin from getting dry and itchy you have to wash off in regular water after."

She gestured for Saya to follow as she led the way to the ladies' locker room. "If you want to bathe, you can do so in here. This locker room is for women only, the other one is for guys only."

After leading them to the locker room, Fifi gave the explaining not being naked thing another shot. "Yes, bathing is usually done naked, but you need to do it somewhere boys can't see. If boys see you naked, they get stupid and might attack. Then you might have to hurt them, and the bosses would get mad. So don't get naked where boys can see. Wear a swim suit when you go in the pool. If you don't have one, I can get you one. A swim suit is made of special fabric, and is meant for swimming. Don't just wear your bra or undershirt and panties, that makes boys get stupid too." Hopefully that had been simple enough, Fifi thought.

Oh good, it seemed that had been clear enough! Though, how to explain..."Girls are safer to be around than boys, usually. People are all different though. But most boys get stupid around naked girls, while most girls don't. And you probably don't want to bring your knife in the water, it could rust," Fifi said, following Saya to the showers and turning one on for herself.

Wetting down first kept the chlorine from sinking into her hair as much and making it feel like straw. And...it couldn't hurt to stick close to make sure Saya didn't need anything explained. "Liquid soap, shampoo, and conditioner are there. Soap is blue, shampoo pink, and conditioner white," she said, pointing to the dispensers on the wall. Most people brought their own, better quality, stuff, but the provided stuff was perfectly usable and even smelled pretty good, a light fruity/floral scent.

"And if you want to swim, I have a spare suit," Fifi offered. "It shrunk when I washed it, so it's a little small on me. Since I don't use it, you're welcome to keep it, if you want it."

Fifi worked a handful of conditioner into her hair, to further protect it from the coming chlorine encounter. "Hmm, if you don't know how to swim, you should probably try to get someone to teach you. And you can still splash around in the pool if you want, one end is shallow enough you should be able to stand and touch the bottom. You could try just trying to swim, since this water is pretty safe, still and shallow? Most people can manage some sort of doggy paddle instinctively," Fifi suggested.

Fifi turned her own shower off, though she didn't wring her hair out, wanting to keep as much of the protective clean water in it as possible. "Well, swimming is a useful skill to have. It can keep you from drowning if you fall in water, are caught in a flood, or end up stuck in water some other way," Fifi said. "Also, it is a really good way to work out, since the water supports your weight and is harder to move through than air. And it is good for recovering from injuries, since your joints aren't stressed as much, and the water can even be heated to relax muscles while you workout. And, you know, it's fun!" Fifi finished, with a bubbly smile. Spinning a combination lock, she opened one of the lockers and pulled out a two-piece suit consisting of a pair of aqua swim shorts with a white belt and a modest teal and white vest top.

"Here, if you do decide to swim, this suit should fit you," Fifi said, holding out the swimwear. (I'm imagining the suit to be the Zodiacal Pisces shorts and the Lovely Maritime top, though the Maritime top is color-swapped to the Zodiacal colors.)