You're quite certain that, should you search the some total of humanity and filter out every last member of the fairer sex for comparison, you wouldn't find a more perfect exemplar of the words "Buxom" and "Curvaceous" then Czeslawa. Every part of her is round and soft, from cheeks that hadn't quite lost the girlish fat of her youth to a bosom that swelled against the tub's sheet-metal side like a tugboat's bumpers.
Strangely, she seemed almost unaware of her shockingly requisite figure. She thought as much of her chest as a racing yacht thought of the bumpers keeping it from scratching its paint against the pier. You're not certain how unusual that is, having never been this close to such a matronly woman wearing so little to cover herself.
"Um." You found your mouth suddenly dry. Even if you could find words to say—which you can't. At least not words beyond 'bouncy' and 'boingy', and you're not even sure that last one's a word—getting them out would be like walking across the Sahara in midsummer. You restrain yourself from speaking any further. You won't be reduced to a stuttering fool by the mere proximity of an unclothed woman!
"Captain," Czeslawa slipped back into her bath, using her arm as a makeshift bra to cover at least the proudest parts of her bosom from your eyes. Not that she needed to, you had decided the doorway was suddenly very fascinating. Maybe if you bolted you could make it there in a second or two. "You're hardly the first man I've seen naked."
What? Oh, right. She
was a nurse after all. You can't imagine she'd be very self-conscious around naked bodies, given her intimate academic knowledge of every facets of same. For a moment, you get an odd tingling in your neck. Like you can tell Czeslawa is studying you with the practiced eye of a jewelry appraiser. But when you glance in her direction, she's in the middle of lathering soap on… areas. You quickly look away, wanting to preserve at least some shred of her privacy.
"I should…" you crouched in the tub, keeping your unmentionables unmentioned, but coiling for a sprint to the door all the same. As you prepare, you struggle to find a good excuse. Nothing comes to mind, and you settle on "Go."
"Of course," you can't tell if your nurse is teasing you or not. It certainly sounds that way.
You decide to ignore the teasing and focus on vacating the premises. A breath in, and you bolted out of the water and sprinted for the hidden nook where you'd left your clothes. There wasn't quite enough room to hide yourself from both women, but at least Lucia was still solidly asleep—and seemingly even skinnier than last time you looked. The poor girl needed some cake badly, maybe a nicer dress than her grubby airship fatigues.
Ah, there you go. Focus on the mental picture of her
in a dress, rather than in a state of
un-dress. A much more wholesome image if you said so yourself. So long as you didn't picture Czeslawa in the same or similar outfit, struggling to close her bodice over her…
Okay, this plan wasn't working. New plan! Cake. You were going to get Lucia cake. But what kind of cake? Maybe something with fruit in it, that seemed up her alley so to speak. No, not
that alley.
Perhaps this whole sequence of events was irredeemably doomed to failure. You tied your tie a little tighter than usual, hoping the pressure would help ease the clouds impinging on your mental faculties. After a moment to make sure your clothes were prim and proper—even if you weren't—you ducked through the door back into the chilly expanse of
Caroline'skeel.
The air was stiff and bracing, and guy-wires climbed skyward like the buttresses of some vast cathedral in the air. It was a calming place. You could close your eyes and see nothing but the wide inviting sky.
And then what seemed like an animated ball of lint came bouncing down the catwalk, talking the steps three at a time with reckless abandon until it smashed against your side. Well, perhaps 'smashed' was a misnomer in this case. It more bounced against you with all the energy a creature one-part very small girl and twelve-parts quilted fabric could manage.
"Hello Elizabeth," you said to your petite navigator. You could just see her head poking out from under the furry curtain that was her hood's lining.
"Capt'n," Her voice was tiny and quiet, like the mewing of a kitten just starting to explore its new environment. Luckily she wasn't
quite as full of boundless curiosity as a kitten, given you'd seen her clamber through the superstructure like it was her own personal playground.
"What's on your mind?" You ruffled her hood in lieu of actually touching her hair. You can't actually remember what color her hair is, come to think of it.
"Come look at the clouds with me!" she said. Her voice was as quiet as ever, but you can tell there's no hint of suggestion in what she said. It wasn't a request, and it was barely even an order. More a… statement. You
were going to join her in the astrodome, and there wasn't anything you or the universe could do to change that.
Not that you really minded. After your ordeal in the bath, it would be nice to clear your head with a little skygazing. But it would be nice to at least
pretend you had some agency here. You
were the captain after all.
You clambered up ladders and catwalks, never quite catching up to the sprightly bundle of fluff returning to its nest. Elizabeth was always spending time up in her astrodome, and when you finally joined her you found out why.
She'd filled every surface of the already small room with blankets and pillows, turning what could be a spartan navigational appliance into a cuddly nest. Racks of maps were lovingly stowed against the wall, as well as a case full of what you could only assume were navigational instruments. A gleaming brass sextant had a place of honor just under the sky-sighting dome. But, for the most part you were simply struck by how cozy the place felt.
It wasn't huge either. Elizabeth had to shift some of her soft horde around to make room, and even then the two of you were almost cuddling as you lay on the floor looking up at the sky. You'd never seen Elizabeth this animated as she happily called out cats, puppies, and the odd slide-rule in the sky.
It was nice, relaxing. Much better than your bath. The time just melted away, until you heard a voice waft through one of the speaking tubes.
"Captain to the bridge, we're preparing to exit the aether."
You sighed, and gave Elizabeth a hood-pat as compensation for spoiling her time with your absence. "On my way."
@7734 will now take over, as you're gonna do ship stuff now.