That Space Spa That Summer Never Shuts Up About; Dimension FH-001, Thursday [02/10].

[somethingwithturquoise]

Breezing right past some sort of blow-up at reception with a small group of Gromflomites that seemed to have had an issue with their reservation that clearly had absolutely nothing to do with Summer at all, "~WinterBlade~" and her party of four were welcomed into the Luxureon spa that definitely knew your face, Summer, you weren't fooling anyone with that alias, but also, Summer did bring them pretty good business and they dealt with a lot weirder (even today, in fact, they were handling a situation with a mostly-liquid entity that kept merging into one of the soaking pools on accident by expertly modifying the viscosity so that it didn't keep just dissolve into it), so whatever.

And thus, the moddable and extensive facilities of said space spa were open to the group entirely, everything from your standard massages and pedicures, to special space crystal treatments and space seaweed wraps, tentacle treatment for those willing to take a very particular risk, and bioluminescent manicures.

Summer herself would be spending a ridiculous amount of time in the strawberry-scented mineral soak, because honestly? Still her absolute favorite, and she can relax while sipping space drinks and making any last minute changes to her plans for jello for the party tomorrow.

Sure, she was supposed to be relaxing, but you could relax and work at the same time. M U L T I T A S K I N G!

[[ for those dragged to the space spa for all that sweet space spa goodness! ]]

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

Rey had gotten back from her trip home about an hour before it was time to leave for the space spa, and was feeling more rushed than anything. So she let herself get talked into the soak because the onsen had been nice last time, even if she was still never really sure what to do once you were in one of these.

Yeah, relax or whatever, but like, it was still weird to not do anything. On principle.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Not doing anything was important, though! It was good for the body! It was good for the soul!

Said she who was literally planning two different jello catering orders for two seperate events/orders in her head right now, but that didn't really couldn't, it's not like you could just stop your brain!

Well, you could, but it was typically frowned upon.

Either way, Summer knew at least one thing you could do during a soak was gab, and so she cracked an eye open and grinned over at Rey after she'd gotten settled a little.

"How're things back home?" she asked.

[thatwaslucky]

"Busy," Rey answered, giving up on trying to feel relaxed now that she had an excuse to talk. "Or at least, they're keeping me busy on purpose. I've been on a couple missions this week."

They were totally keeping her busy on purpose.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer snorted a little, amused by the idea that she was totally throwing a wrench in all their plans by keeping Rey the opposite of busy for at least a few hours of her day today.

"Busy's good, though," she allowed, considering, yeah, hi, she had two jello catering orders to do this weekend, one of which was needed tomorrow, so...not nearly as important kind of busy, but busy all the same. "To a point. You think you jump right into it when you're done here, too?"

It was Rey. Summer was pretty sure she already knew the answer to that.

[thatwaslucky]

"Not until Sunday. I have training tomorrow, and then I should actually work at my job-" Far cry from Jakku! "-and then I'm skipping the holiday."

She was not shy about that. She wasn't doing it.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You should get a massage, if you haven't," Annie recommended, making her way over to sit with Rey. "My hip flexors have been screwy for weeks and I think I'm cured."

All hail space spa!

[thatwaslucky]

"I don't like people I don't know touching me," Rey admitted. "It sounds like a good idea but I can't guarantee they make it through unscathed."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Very fair," Annie acquiesced. "Maybe they have, like, something with water." Like a better version of those water massage coffin things at the mall! "How are you doing? I haven't seen you in a minute."

It had been kind of a busy minute, from what she'd gathered.

[thatwaslucky]

"I've been okay," Rey said, and for the most part she was. "I spent the week at home. Pretty much came back because Summer threatened to drag me."

She also wasn't sure if Annie hadn't heard about the breakup, or if she had and just hadn't said anything for some reason, so she wasn't exactly sure how to proceed.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie had gone ahead and treated herself to a much-deserved massage, a seaweed wrap (which she felt was overrated, but was glad she tried), and was now admiring her nails as she chilled in the onsen.

Yes, sure, they were her usual pale pink, still -- but they shone in an almost-glowy way that honestly was still pretty on-brand. (Her toes, on the other hand, were a bright, iridescent red, because Valentine's Day. And the list of people who'd see them was also pretty limited, so she could be bolder.)

"This was such a good idea," she sighed. Was she addressing anyone in particular? Probably not. Maybe just, like, the spa itself. Thank you, spa, for existing.

[somethingwithturquoise]

This spa was truly a gift.

And so was anything the bordered on praise directed her way because, after all, it was her idea, so she was going to take that, thank you, as a testiment to her accomplishments as a Very Good Friend.

"Space spa," she murmured happily, "is always a good idea."

Which, you know, easy for the two of them to say, as very much the undumped members of this party, but, hey, they were still in volitile territory, anything could happen, and with that in mind, that just meant Summer had to enjoy the hell out of it in case the other shoe dropped in the next coming days.

Pre-emptive therapy, dammit!

[defenderofdesmoines]

Hey, the way Annie and Diego rolled, literally anything could happen. He could get turned into his thirteen year-old self and they'd have to break up. He could get stranded in the past for three months. His sister could kill him while blowing up the moon, again. They could be shot on Valentine's Day, because tradition.

And that was just them. God only knew what kind of risks Barry was taking on a daily -- nay, hourly -- basis.

But never mind that. Annie was also feeling like a pretty good friend (or at least as good a friend as she could be in terms of providing an ear and something that felt good in the wake of a breakup), and she was also really starting to take stock of how ragged she'd been running herself the last couple of weeks. Maybe this spa trip would have been a good idea regardless of anyone's relationship status.

"Are you and Barry planning on doing anything fun for Valentine's?" she asked, piling her hair up a little higher on her head. Blowouts were a pain to maintain.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Even hourly felt...generous.

Summer, who had definitely not been avoiding broaching the subject of Valentine's Day with her boyfriend because why tempt fate like that, shrugged. "Nothing set in stone or anything yet," she said, oh-so-blithely. "It'll probably be something EXTREMELY handwavey."

And she was tempted to blow it off at that, because she told herself she'd avoid most couple-y or relationship-y topics of conversation for the better part of the trip, buuuuuut....a little bit wouldn't hurt, right, especially since she was definitely feeling a lot of 'getting-all-up-in-everyone-else's-relationship' vibes lately.

"What about you and Diego?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

Look, Annie certainly wasn't going to broach the subject of any holidays (or upcoming parties, or three-minute dates, or even, like, the color red) with Rey or Stark, but it seemed safe enough territory with Summer! And then they could, like, get it out of their systems.

"I have to work during the day," Annie shared, making a face. "So he's coming to the tower to see me. I mean, it's a bullshit holiday anyway, but he's the first guy I've spent two Valentine's Days with, so that's cute."

And hopefully all the rest of her Valentine's Days, awww.

[stykera]

"I'm still not entirely convinced," Stark said. "But it's something different."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"What would convince you?" Annie wondered, because this all had seemed pretty compelling to her, personally.

[stykera]

Well, Annie probably had experience with spas and that probably helped.

"I'm still not sure what to do. Or what half the things you can do are." There were some odd things listed!

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Most of them, if you can't tell what they are from the name," Annie shared wisely, "are for skin." Like the mysterious seaweed and mud treatments. "And you just...relax. You let someone else do the work for awhile. And then you feel great when the trained expert is done...experting on you."

[stykera]

Stark was feeling very out of place at this fancy space spa, but at least that was a change from the usual overwhelming hurt/depressed feelings of recent weeks.

Spas were something of a mystery and he'd promised he'd try today, so he'd been looking over things he could be doing and trying to decide what he could handle. So far, the soak seemed fine even if he was self-conscious.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Even if both Rey and Annie hadn't already been here with her before, Summer's attention would be mostly on Stark and how he was doing, but, like, you know, in a very stealthy, hopefully non-obstrusive way, and honestly? So far? She was actually really impressed by how he seemed to be handling it, and that made her feel a small surge of confidence that it wouldn't wind up being a completely terrible idea that he'd kind of resent her for, and, eventually, she'd work around to poking at him a little.

"Sooooooo," she ventured leadingly, with a faint smirk, "not too terrible and awful or anything, right?"

[stykera]

He was trying, just like he'd promised!

"I didn't think this was going to be terrible," Stark said. "Just strange. And it is." And nearly everything involved strangers touching you and he was very much not up for most of that. He hadn't even had a hug in weeks. People he'd never met touching him probably wouldn't end well.

[somethingwithturquoise]

He was trying, and he was doing so well!

"I always like strange," Summer noted, confidently, almost proudly, as she sighed a little happily at this particular brand of strange. "Well, not always, I guess, there's definitely been strange that I did not care for, but this is the good kind of strange, I think. No weird goos or liquids or things all up in your business unless you want them there."

[thatwaslucky]

"It's a little strange at first," Rey said. She was right there with him here.

[stykera]

"It's odd," Stark agreed. "I feel very...odd is a good word, I think. For both. How are you?"

[thatwaslucky]

On one hand, Rey really was truly, genuinely tired of talking about her breakup. On the other hand, here was someone who was actually in the same boat.

"Up and down," she admitted. "You might have heard by now."

She hadn't been listening to radio but for others to find out it must have made it.