Embarrassed? That's an Understatement [Eliza/Tino]

[Tino Väinämöinen]

“Why must this be so mortifying? Oh, that's right. Because its my life.”

One could never properly estimate the appreciation of a hot shower on a bad day.

Tino spent exactly 14 minutes undressing; his dragonskin took time to unzip and unhook, plus the casual hoodie and jeans that he wore overtop to conceal it. Sandwiching the black material in between his clothes, Tino shoved his robes into his gymbag and hung it on a hook along with his towel and fresh undergarments. He quickly pulled the generic soap and shampoo from the side pouch as he impatiently hurried into the shower room. The Underground was cold as hell, especially the tiled floors (and Tino had forgotten footwear for the shower).

Quickly selecting a spot, Tino twisted the handle and a gurgling noise rumbled through the steamy room before cold water spat out of the tap in spurts. Tino hissed and stepped back in annoyance. It took a few seconds for the hot water to come through, and Tino wasted no time in moving into the stream. Hot water, on the edge between hot and scalding, blasted against his skin, leaving it red and tingling. A sigh erupted past Tino's lips as he stood there, relishing in the moment, as if the water could wash away all his troubles. If only it could... however, it would do for now. Tino could let the frustrations with his coworkers and prisoners slide. He had been bullied once again today and someone had stolen his lunch. The fuckers. Next time, Tino would spike his sandwich with Salmiakki. Then they'd see who the real asshole was.


Tino puffed another sigh before reaching for his shampoo, pouring a palm-ful of the liquid into his left hand. His eyes lingered on the tattoo below his wrist, if just for a moment. Anniversary was coming up soon... he'd take that day off. Dismissing the thought as quickly as it entered his mind, Tino mushed the thick detergent into his hair, scrubbing hard enough to remove a layer or two off his scalp. Dousing his head back into the water, Tino lathered his soap and gave his body a quick wash. Once free of any and all suds, he turned the handle and cut off the shower. He felt considerably more refreshed than before, and the warmth relaxed him. Maybe he'd sit in the sauna tonight... some alcohol would be nice. He yawned as he picked up his things and trotted off back to his clothes.

Except...

Where the hell were his things?! Tino's brow creased and any relaxation gained from the shower was instantly vaporized into seething hate. He was positive that he had hung his bag in this particular spot. He glanced along the wall of hooks. His was the only one in use when he entered the shower, and now the entire wall was barren. Vicious animosity began to bloom in Tino's chest when he heard faint laughter from what sounded like the hall.
 

Those.

Fucking.

Bastards.

Tino had had enough of this bullshit. He was going to break fingers to teach them not to touch his damn things once and for all, innocent act or not. They were all about to find out how much of a storm could be contained within the Finnish man and it was an action that they'd soon regret. Icy venom dripped off of Tino's glare as he stormed down the hall. His posture, he stride, everything about Tino screamed murder as he threw open the door and charged into to the corridor. But his pranking coworkers weren't standing there, nor were they anywhere to be found. Instead, the Head Guard was.

He had just strutted out nude in front of the Head Guard, who was not only a major figure of authority, but a lady.

He. Was. Stark. Naked.

Tino's furious scowl was instantaneously replaced with a look of pure, utter horror. His eyes went wide as he froze like a deer in the headlights, but only for a split second. His hands shot down to cover himself as the heat rushed to his face, nearly boiling the droplets of water from his skin. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!! Shit what do I do?!?!? I just waltzed out commando in front of Elizaveta Héderváry, my goddamn boss of all bosses! Tino shrunk back a few steps, praying for someone to kill him right now. His action resulted in bumping his backside against the surface of the door, which had conveniently closed because he had flung it open with so much force. If Tino's face could have grown a deeper shade of red, it did at that moment.

"Ohmygod, I-... I'm so sorry, I-..." He what? Tattling to the head guard would be like crying to a teacher in a schoolyard. Tino had more pride than that, but mentioning pride at this exact moment in time was not exactly applicable. "I forgot my towel!"

ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

[Elizaveta Héderváry]

INFINITY (n.) the state of being limitless Work, work, work. Elizaveta was frustrated. It seemed like that was happening increasingly often these days. The mutants were restless, the guards were difficult to work with and often underhand...really, the Underground as of late had been a mess. It was time for Elizaveta to step in. Elizaveta had to have a word with her senior guards at some point. They had been slacking off, lazing around, not kicking the newbies into order. Things were not going to work if they continued down this line. Elizaveta knew it, and she was certain other people did as well. It was time to kick things back into shape, remind the guards that they were here to work, not to play. It was up to Elizaveta to try to make up for the mistakes of her predecessors. She knew some of the senior guards, particularly those who had worked in the Underground before her, slacked off considerably. They bullied the newer guards and didn't keep them in line. Unlike the more recently promoted senior guards, such as Aleksander, these guards were much more difficult to deal with and held less respect for her. Elizaveta's expression darkened at this thought. They didn't know how to deal with anything except for with brute force. The Underground had always been a show of power until Elizaveta stepped in. She recognized the need for a change. But it was unbearably difficult to do so in a short amount of time. She had to speak with Aleksander. Fucking Aleksander who wasn't picking up his radio. And who knew what any of the other guards were up to? Turning the corner, someone nearly crashed into her. The man stumbled and looked up at her, eyes widening in recognition and mild fear. “Miss...Miss Elizaveta!” he gasped. “I...well...” Someone looked guilty. "Is there something you'd like to tell me?” Elizaveta said sweetly. Too sweetly. Her patience was reaching a limit. The man seemed relieved. “Ah, no, I...” “You're a liar and I'll remember. Leave,” Elizaveta snapped. The man straightened and nodded before running off. There was laughter down the hallways and Elizaveta wondered exactly what had happened this time. Probably pranks. Usually Elizaveta wouldn't mind...but she was in a pissed off mood. And it sounded like there were some people she could take out that annoyance on in the showers. Elizaveta rarely went into the shower room for obvious reasons. Even on long shifts as a newbie, she had always preferred to shower at home, in peace in her bathtub. Better than being surrounded by stinky men who wanted nothing more than a chance to get a peek under the towel. Of course, they learned rather quickly when Elizaveta dealt with them properly, but Elizaveta still preferred privacy. It turned out most of the men were in the hallway already. But one look from Elizaveta and their laughter had faded. The snickering was replaced by audible silence as each man looked at her. She watched as brief fear flickered on some of their faces. Not that she enjoyed it...but she enjoyed it. "If you have nothing better to do," Elizaveta said, words dropping from her mouth like honey, "then get the hell out of my hall and make yourself useful. I won't ask nicely again." The men nodded, all stunningly obedient as they scurried off to their respective duties. At least half of them should be standing guard if Elizaveta remembered the number of guards the Underground had correctly... Suddenly, the door flung open. Elizaveta's eyes widened, her body immediately tensing. Already her hand was at her hip, just next to her gun and ready to confront whatever threat was in front of her. This threat took the form of a short blond with burning violet eyes, face contorted in rage and mouth half open with words undoubtedly on the tip of his tongue. Elizaveta blinked. He was also naked. The realization seemed to occur to the man as well as the his face paled and then slowly began to turn bright red. His eyes widened at the sight of Elizaveta and he seemed to subconsciously step back, only to slam into the door that he had just swung open. Amusement coursed through her. Elizaveta only just barely held back a grin. What was his name? Elizaveta usually didn't bother to learn the names of new guards (and she hadn't seen this man walking around that often so he was definitely new), but something struck her as familiar. Tino Väinämöinen. His application...Elizaveta remembered it had been odd. Very clean. Not the sort they typically saw around here. Moreover, it had been received in an odd manner. Perhaps that's why it stuck around. He worked night shifts a lot. Sometimes Elizaveta saw him on the monitor. "Ohmygod, I-...I'm so sorry, I-..." The man was stuttering. She was probably making him feel uncomfortable. ...Mhm. "I forgot my towel!" Väinämöinen finally squeaked. "I can see that," Elizaveta said calmly as the man stood before her. Her hand eased off her gun, instead resting on the rim of her belt. She wondered if the laughing guards in the hall had anything to do with it. "You should've thought that through before stepping into the shower," Elizaveta said. There was no lecturing in her voice for once. He looked so embarrassed it was hard to. "Or perhaps made better friends." She paused for a second. "I don't think we've met. Elizaveta Héderváry. And you're...Väinämöinen. Correct?"

words 917 tags #Tino notes This is so late. Also accents. I swear this was gonna be short.

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[Tino Väinämöinen]

“Why must this be so mortifying? Oh, that's right. Because its my life.”

Tino could have strutted out in front of anyone really. Normally, he didn’t care all too much, at least, in front of men. Tino was raised in a male environment and there was hardly any room for prudes. The shared shower room was nothing the Fin wasn’t used to; in fact, he had been in far worse.

However…

Tino was not used to women. In fact, it had always been an area he was critiqued on. Women just didn’t come naturally to the man, perhaps from lack of exposure in his teenage years. He didn’t like dealing with them, in all honesty, and he absolutely hated when they were his assignment to take care of. A psychologist once informed him that it was due to his bond in his childhood to his deceased mother, but Tino called bullshit on that and sent the ‘specialist’ off. Perhaps they were correct, but Tino moved past the block long ago during training.

Women were just… different, uncommon, and unpredictable. They didn’t think like men did and it was incredibly hard to attempt to put himself in their shoes. Once he thought he mastered a woman’s viewpoint and thought process, another one would act completely different. They were manipulative, which conflicted with Tino’s own sly techniques.

At least they weren’t adept fighters, at least in most cases.

Elizaveta was one of those women that Tino couldn’t understand. Slamming a door and parading into the hall with absolutely nothing on should have warranted a response of some sort, which he got. She tensed defensively, hand ghosting to her side to what Tino assumed was some sort of weapon, probably a gun or tazer (however, she was the head guard, so the former was more likely). Although absolutely mortified by his current predicament, the action was noted by Tino, albeit in a very small portion of his plate of thoughts. Most were concerned with somehow concealing his privates.

However, Tino expected her to turn away, or redden like he had, or do something other than stand there with her posture lax, staring him without any sense of restraint or hesitation. The twinkle in her eyes screamed out her silent amusement and Tino only cowered back further. Normal women didn’t stare like she did, and yet, her eyes were on Tino’s face (at least she had the decency to not scan him up and down like a product on display). He couldn’t decide if that was worse though; it made his skin crawl as he reached behind him and fumbled for the handle.

Her intense green gaze didn’t falter when Tino’s gaze did. Was it a sign of dominance? Power? Tino didn’t know as he averted his eyes away, opting to stare to the left as his hand grappled for the doorknob.

She of course, commented on his ‘poor decision making skills’, like they had anything to do with this. His ears burned. He was stupid, of course he would have ‘thought of that before washing’. He couldn’t bring himself to glare though, at least until she finished her comment. Ah, so she wasn’t just a pretty face with an empty head. The Fin’s gaze slid back up when his hand clasped onto the door handle. As hard as it was to think straight, he needed to be careful with what he said around her.

Great, something else he needed to focus on. Screw it, he was hiding in the shower room until she left and he could hunt down his clothes.

“I don’t think we’ve met.”

Really? Really?! Was this situation appropriate for introductions?! Tino internally groaned as his face remained flushed. He didn’t want her to know who he was, but he was sure that she wouldn’t easily forget his appearance after staring him down for so long. He wanted to crawl behind the door and rightfully ignore her, but she was his ‘boss’ here, at least if he were to keep the guise of a rookie guard (if Tino wanted, he could push his thumb on her and flip the tables as an agent, but that was not his job).

And then she said his name with shocking clarity in articulation. The redness in his cheeks faded for a moment as he stared at her. Was she… Finnish? No, her last name wasn’t one he had ever heard before, but her accent was not Russian, so she was likely a foreigner like he was. Did she know Finnish was perhaps the better question. Things would get hard to explain if the seemingly innocent rookie kid with no record had the words ‘Fuck the Police’ scrawled across his back in his native tongue. He had to hide it from her. He bit his lip and refocused, forcing his mind onto his embarrassing situation to force his blush to relapse.

“Ah, y-yes. My name is Tino. S-Sorry, not many people pronounce it right off the start. Are you Finnish?”

ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

[Elizaveta Héderváry]

INFINITY (n.) the state of being limitless Elizaveta wondered if she'd humiliated the guard enough yet. So maybe she wasn't exactly being kind. She blamed it on the shitty day she'd been having and sadly, Väinämöinen was her solution. Still, enough was enough. The poor man's face was the precise color of a tomato. His ears were pink too. She supposed she should do something about it. She could find him towels, she supposed. It wasn't the first time this had happened—men were rather predictable. Then again, he was just a rookie guard. No need to trouble herself. Make her seem almost too kind perhaps. It all came down to having a balance of sorts. Elizaveta would simply leave him be after this. A few minutes, partially out of curiosity, partially out of...what? Spite? No, not towards him at least. Amusement? Perhaps... At any rate, he could probably find his clothes and towels fairly quickly if he was truly desperate. There really weren't that many good hiding places in the showers. The man seemed concerned as he bit his lip, his blush resurfacing back to a deep red. Odd, when had it faded? Perhaps his mind had wandered slightly, though to what Elizaveta had no idea. It wasn't too important though. People had their own private thoughts. Though what could possibly pull someone's mind away from the situation at hand, Elizaveta could hardly imagine. "Ah, y-yes. My name is Tino. S-Sorry, not many people pronounce it right off the start. Are you Finnish?" ...He was almost cute in his stuttering. How in the world he'd made it this far as a guard, Elizaveta had no idea. She thought back to his clean application. No prison time, no felonies. Not even a parking ticket. Too clean. Almost suspiciously clean. Perhaps he was here for the money? Then again, Tino seemed like a man who would keep a clean nose, who would have gone to college and gotten a suitable job. Elizaveta didn't recall reading that he went to college though. Perhaps he was paying for someone else in his family. It would make more sense that way. Why a kid (he did look rather like a kid, didn't he?) would choose the Underground as their option for earning money, Elizaveta had no idea, but circumstances did push people to do unusual things. As for his question... "No." Clear cut and simple. That was all there was to it after all, and Elizaveta had no desire to elaborate. She wasn't here to make friends. She was here to do her job. Elizaveta knew Finnish, along with several other languages that she had been trained in from a young age, but that was not the question and even if it was, Elizaveta had no obligation to answer. "It would seem that you are though." Elizaveta kept her gaze steady on him. "Why did you come all the way to Archadia? Seems like an odd place to relocate."

words 489 tags #Tino notes ~

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[Tino Väinämöinen]

“Why must this be so mortifying? Oh, that's right. Because its my life.”

What a terrible woman. Eliza Hedevary was a terrible woman.

Had the positions been reversed, Tino most certainly would have granted the woman privacy and allowed her to remove herself from the hallway without staring her down as she did so. This remained the same even if Tino dropped the gentle act and let his bitter self show. It was simply courteous, and perhaps she refrained from such a kind motion to test the Fin.

However, battling his embarrassment and feigning it at the same time without mixing the two was difficult, especially when he struggled to shield his regions with only his one hand. Hs other clung to the handle, ready to make his retreat into the shower hall but this damn woman decided to continue conversing with him like it was a goddamn interview for the job.

He could practically feel the water on his face and scalp steaming off. Why couldn’t they continue this conversation, say, after he found his hidden clothes? No, no that evidently didn’t seem appropriate to Elizaveta. Instead, she scrutinized his naked form as she stared down at him from her damn high horse (she literally stared down at him; she was taller than he was and she had a slight heel in her footware).

“No.”

No elaboration, no extra words, no nothing. She pronounced Tino’s name with perfect enunciation on the accents and vowels, but denied Finnish ancestry. Tino’s mind shifted to other languages that shared the same root dialect. Estonian? Hungarian?

Whatever she was, if she could pronounce Finnish as is she was Finnish, then she might be proficient in the language and that meant that he couldn’t turn his bare back to her. In his uniform, he fit his resume and innocent looking face to a tee. Happy, cheery, naïve, and squeaky clean. A simple kid who couldn’t find a job in the poor economy and had had his uncle pull strings so he could work in the Underground as a guard. But that profile didn’t fit the older man with his tattoo covered body. Innocent didn’t fit in with the bear on his chest, or the cross tattooed chain around his neck. Clean record also didn’t mesh well with the dragon that crawled up is arm and connected with profanities that insulted the law enforcement. Tino didn’t look the same with his tattoos exposed, and he was sure that Eliza was focusing on that.

She obviously was analyzing him and picked up on his ancestry, though it wasn’t exactly a hard deduction. She then pushed the conversation along, like it were a casual talk. Tino paused for a moment, about to ask if they could perhaps do this some other time when he wasn’t standing in the nude before her, but he instead answered as he shifted his weight awkwardly between his feet.

“My family moved around a lot before settling in Moscow. I couldn’t get a job there, but my uncle was able to help me get a job here.”

ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

[Elizaveta Héderváry]

INFINITY (n.) the state of being limitless The man looked so awkward standing there that Elizaveta had to bite back a smile. Really, Tino Väinämöinen was little more than a child in many ways. Perhaps that was why it was so surprising to find him in a place like the Underground. Refreshing, but odd. She'd have to keep an eye on the man from now on. Something just didn't quite add up. Elizaveta briefly wondered exactly how old Tino was. He looked young, and if they had met each other on the street, Elizaveta could have easily mistaken him as a college student. What a pity, that someone like that should find himself in the Underground. As for how he got there...Tino spoke easily of his family in Moscow and the uncle that had helped him get a job in the Underground. Elizaveta's curiosity was piqued at that. “Your uncle, huh. What is his name? Perhaps I know him.” Part of Elizaveta's was genuine curiosity. Elizaveta hadn't overseen Tino's entrance into the Underground as far as she was aware, but it was interesting that the man had ties to the Underground in some way or another. There was also, as reluctant as Elizaveta was to admit it, that part of Elizaveta that was acutely trained in networking. People underestimated the value of connections; indeed, connections were what drove society. Then there was that hint of suspicion. Tino Väinämöinen was an anomaly, and in Elizaveta's experience, that was rarely a good thing. Even so, there was no reason to suspect Tino of anything at the moment. Sometimes people did get the short straw in life and their only connections were with an uncle that had once worked in the Underground. ...And besides. The man was standing in front of her naked. “You should probably get dressed before you catch a cold,” Elizaveta said, nodding at Tino. “Winters in Archadia are rarely kind. I doubt it will take you too long to locate your clothing...this sort of thing happens fairly frequently and there aren't many hiding places in the showers.” She paused. “Unless they hid it elsewhere and ran off before I got here, in which case you may have a little more trouble. There are a few extra towels in the showers, I believe, if you'd like me to unlock the cabinet in there. You should go see if your own are around before that though.” It was her cue for Tino to graciously depart, and if Tino was lucky, he would find his clothing and they could both go along their merry ways. If he was less lucky, he might be wandering around in a skimpy towel for a while (the Underground wasn't exactly a hotel after all). Tino just had to pray that his “friends” had been kind.

words 462 tags #Tino Väinämöinen notes has anyone ever been far as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

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