Anywhere the struggle is great

[piercetheheart]

Who: Gladio, residents of Isle 1, and anyone else that shows up
What: Guys, GUYS.... shower time
When: Evening of May 8
Where: Just offshore of the Cove on Islet 1
Warnings: Gratuitous use of a wet Gladio

Over the last few days, since arriving really, Gladio has been doing his damnedest to keep track of all the things he needs to do, keeping track of all the projects that need tending to. It really is something of a miracle that they've gotten by for so long with so little.

His very first project is to make tanks for fresh water. There are two and it does not take terribly long to build the actual tanks. Prompto helps him gather wood and in those first few days he has enough animal fat to melt down and protect the wood of the base for the one he means to be an actual storage for drinking water. Both tanks are squares, roughly 4x4 cubes built on the edge of the grassy area that slopes down to the beach so he did not have to build them on frames. The first lined with clay and filled with sea water (for now at least). The second was split in half, the lower compartment for filtered water, the upper awaiting layers he was still working on.

Both had bamboo pipes that fed out, the shower tank already set up so that one could stand at the bottom of the hill, beneath the the output above and... well... shower. Gladio had already moved a few baskets of gravel and stone over so that the area beneath the shower was no longer sand and would not wash away as easily. The bar of soap that had come to him in his knapsack was sitting on a rock he'd dug into the hillside as something of a shelf. Now that everything was assembled it was time to test his work.

The first moment under the spray had him cursing, the water far colder than he'd have liked. Which had him marching back up to the top of the hill, poking around at the violently smoking, extremely hot mound of mud where he was making charcoal to collect a few stones. Makeshift wooden tongs to pick them up, far too hot to handle with his hands, and immediately upon dropping them into the shower tank the water began roiling around the stones, spreading the heat into the water.

"Perfect!" And then he was running back down to the base of the hill to bask under the spray of warm water, leather pants and boots long since cast aside and now his boxers sticking to him but he wasn't quite ready to scandalize anyone yet.

Comments

[want_to_belong]

Prompto would have been willing to help either way, but after many months of roughing it he was ready for any modern convenience. He watched closely and tried to file away how it all went together, though his grasp of it was still fickle. At the very least he had knowledge of the land and some clue where to get everything, and he could still run around like normal. Once he had clear instructions what to do following it up wasn't too much of a problem.

There were tons of little things he wouldn't have thought of. He figured it would have to be cold showers. He knew nothing of melting animal fats. Gladio might have discovered he had a bit of a shadow, Prompto watching with more curiosity than he'd had at home. After all, at home there had been fancy hotels to stop at. He didn't need to learn this. By the end he has at least a rough idea of how it went together, though he wouldn't be confident about doing it by himself.

Once done, he was fairly pooped, but wanted to get in on some of that action for sure. He was up by the tanks and quickly ran down while stripping off his clothes. With how long they'd been camping together it wasn't as if he'd never seen the other guy's butts at some point. He didn't care that much that they were down to their undies. He kept a pair of stitched together underwear on - made from some clean loincloth fabric, he did get something done, Gladio - and hopped down to get some water on his hands and scrub them off.

"Man, when did you learn how to do this?"

[postictal]

Tim doesn't spend much time on the islet he doesn't actually live on, but lately he's been, uh. Needing to get away. For various purposes. To forget the shouting. To forget the wreck that's been made of the nascent garden. To forget the hole that was recently gaping open in his gut.

He takes walks without any real destination in mind, and he's fortunate enough to run across some fucking ingenious work of jerry-rigged island engineering, which is enough to draw his eye.

He folds his arms, watching the whole contraption at work with something like admiration, until he finally turns to the alleged constructor.

"You build this?"

[alittleditty]

Guess who else lives on Island 1? Guess who comes out of her house to do some gardening, sees this work and... well she's seen it in progress over the past few days but today, today she can see what it's all amounting to.

And oh does that seem wonderful.

Six months, it's been at least six months since she's been able to do a proper clean.

"Twelve preserve," she breathes, staring at the shower like it's the most beautiful thing she's ever seen in her life.

[scourgingstars]

"Good heavens, someone's been busy." Wherever he'd come from, Ardyn tilted his head at the whole setup in what might almost have passed for interest if it didn't come with that empty smile he so often wore. Beside him, a small adolescent black chocobo ruffled her short little wings and stretched her neck to get a better view.

"And here I thought you all brawn and no brains, as they say. I confess myself genuinely surprised."

[shatteredlenses]

When Ignis found all that ready-to-harvest wood with Mira, it hadn't been something he really focused on too much. Not when they also found the mystery vines that may or may not have been attached to some kind of Malboro in the area too. Now, he can't help but be fascinated at how quickly Gladio has taken the raw materials and turned them into something useful. It's just a shame he can't do more than provide food for Gladio and Prompto as they work. His garden might be something he can figure out with trial and error, but building proper structures? Well, his and Prompto's poor attempts at a corral for the birds show just how badly that went.

The sound of falling water slows Ignis' steps for a few moments, before he harshly reminds himself that it isn't rain and this isn't Altissia. On his shoulder, Rory coos softly--something meant to soothe him--and he reaches out to run his fingers gently over the firebird's feathers, before continuing along to where Gladio is happily enjoying the test run of his shower.

"From the sound of it, I'm missing quite the show. How unfortunate."

[nightcure]

Noctis is impressed, but not necessarily surprised. Gladio's been damn hard at work, and he has always been the best of them at this kind of thing. He's not surprised, but he's extremely glad that his friend's gone to all this hard work.

"Look at that," he says, grinning a little. "You're gonna make a lot of people happy, big guy."

[encircling]

She's just on her way to deliver some herbs to Ignis--as well as a few vegetables that have grown quickly--when she hears the water. She follows the sound, and before long, Mira comes upon a curious sight. It's... running water, warm, from what she can tell. Mira has hardly seen anything like it; back home, she had access to only washbasins and rivers and lakes. This, though, it's--

"Incredible," she breathes, eyes wide. She turns her head to see a man, heavily muscled, with an intricate tattoo. "Excuse me!" she calls out to him. "Are you the one who did this?"