Who: Donna and Lisa What: Exploring Japan When: Afternoon (march 20) Where: Streets Rating: low - brief mention of nudity
To say that Donna ever expected to go to Japan was an understatement. She had always been interested as it seemed like a pretty neat place to visit, but it was far away, expensive, and really she had enough supernatural things to hunt and deal with in America without having to worry about language barriers too. The fact she was now in ancient Japan was even more strange to her. Strange, but exciting.
“So I got this Japanese phrases book for travelling from the library, but it just occurred to me that ancient Japanese might be different from modern Japanese.” Donna looked at Lisa as if Lisa might know for some reason.
Despite the language barrier, Lisa was looking forward to their trip to ancient Japan. She’d never been to modern Japan and she’d thoroughly enjoyed the cherry blossom festival in town a few weeks ago. The thought of experiencing those cultural differences in person was exciting despite her underlying fear that they might not be able to actually communicate with any of the locals.
“Well, I mean maybe some phrases are similar? Or close enough that they will be able to pick up on what we are trying to say?” Lisa offered. “It’s better than us walking in there with absolutely no idea how to say anything.”
At least they had a starting point to try and communicate. If it failed, they could always just point at something and gesture a lot.
She nodded. Lisa's reasoning was at least reassuring so she could appreciate that. " You don't think I'll have to end up working while we're here, do you? Pretty sure there's tons of Japanese spirits and the sort, but I'm kind of hoping the Rome's giving us a month off from all the whackadoo, you know?"
Donna could hope, anyway.
"Are you going to come back here with Dean? Maybe on a date? We could scout out some picture perfect places to awe him with if you like."
“I guess it depends on how restless those spirits are,” Lisa replied with a small smile. “I kind of hope we catch a break, but if not, I can try to be a good backup.” Lisa had never actually done any hunting and aside from being possessed and her son being kidnapped, she didn’t have much experience to assist Donna with. Dean hadn’t exactly been forthcoming about that kind of thing and Lisa was okay with it. She always wanted to be the part of Dean’s life where he didn’t have to think about that kind of thing or at least, not too much.
“And maybe? I feel like if Dean and I come, there will definitely end up being some kind of hunt he has to go on. But I wouldn’t mind scouting out some spots just in case.” Their trip to Maldives had been normal after all so it wasn’t exactly impossible for the two of them to have an ordinary, hunt-free existence.
"You could tell him Donna orders him not to go on a hunt." She sent Lisa a faux serious stern look like she was a mom laying down the law. "I don't know how much good that'll do, but it might help." Dean liked to march to his own beat though, so who knew?
"Oh! Oh!" She grabbed Lisa's armed excitedly and pointed out in front of them "Is that one of them On-sun thingies?" Donna didn't pronounce onsen correctly, but she was correct that there was a hot spring place up ahead.
Lisa laughed. “I’ll give it a try.”
She really enjoyed spending time with Donna and was heavily considering making her a bridesmaid at their wedding. She was fun and light-hearted which made her a lot of fun to be around. She was so glad she’d run into her that one day when they’d all been seriously lacking in caffeine.
When Donna grabbed her arm, Lisa immediately turned in the direction the blond was pointing towards. On-sun? Oh wait. Onsen. Hot spring. Lisa connected the dots, but it had taken a hot minute. However, most of her embarrassment was extinguished at the thought of indulging in a hot spring. They were supposed to be very rejuvenating and relaxing.
“I think it is,” Lisa replied, grinning at Donna. “You want to check it out?”
Donna was beyond excited. She also had that Minnesota issue where she could be loud and excited and not know that everyone else was a decibel or two lower than her - sorry Lisa. Still, she meant well and she excitedly led the way to the Onsen. She tried several times to pronounce it correctly to the very patient owner and she got as close as they realized she would get before they were shown to the bathing area. It was explained they batedfirst with soap and then went into the hot spring. Donna wasn’t sure about the whole naked thing especially since she wasn’t as slender as Lisa, but she managed to use the towel-like cloth they were given up until the part where you went in and then hurried into the water. She did appreciate it was gender-specific.
“Oh wow. This is so much nicer than a hot tub!”
Lisa didn’t mind that Donna was loud. In fact, she found it kind of endearing as the two made their way to the Onsen. After a few tries, the owner finally seemed to understand what they were trying to say and led them to where they bathed first before venturing into the hot springs. Despite being slender, Lisa also buried herself behind the towel-like cloth they gave them. She was grateful for the cover and she sensed Donna was too as they made their way to the hot springs finally.
Carefully, Lisa peeled off the towel and joined Donna in the hot spring. The water was wonderful! It was miles above a normal hot tub and Lisa let out a sigh of contentment before responding to Donna’s exclamation.
“Completely. This really soothes those aching muscles,” Lisa added with a smile. “It was a great suggestion. Though I could have done with a bit more cover.”
She nodded towards the towels on the rocks.
“A bathing suit too, maybe.” She nodded. “I wonder if all Japanese people are just entirely comfortable with being naked around other people.” To Donna, they’d have to be considering she understood and Onsen to be an integral part of culture. Still, it was hard to picture a mass of people just alright with so much nakedness. It was impressive, really.
About twenty minutes into the soak, there was a sudden shrill cry from the bathing area. Donna opened her eyes and locked onto Lisa as if to first make sure Lisa was alright. Keeping her voice low, she asked, “You don’t supposed that’s normal from time to time here do you?”
Lisa nodded in agreement. “I would have loved a bathing suit.” While it was possible the Japanese were fine with being naked around each other, Lisa knew, outside of a few select people, she wasn’t. At least they were concealed beneath the hot water though there was no way she would be able to conceal much when she stepped back outside. That cloth hardly provided necessary cover.
Despite that looming over both their heads, Lisa attempted to relax. In fact, she’d just closed her eyes when the sound of a loud cry jolted her awake. Looking around, she met Donna’s eyes just as the woman glanced over at her, clearly making sure she was okay.
Lisa moved closer to Donna. “As much as I want to say ‘yes,’ I feel like it’s not.”
This left Donna with a dilemma. Did she race in naked? She would never live that down, especially if it was nothing. There was definite hesitation. It didn't last long as Donna's instincts to help were stronger, but she did quickly grab the cloth and wrap it around her body. Time to see what it was half naked she guessed.
She didn't even get all the way to the door before a creature appeared. "What in the world is that?!"
Though Lisa was inexperienced and just as naked as Donna, she decided to pull herself out of the water to help. There was no way she was just going to let Donna go in there all alone. Just as Lisa reached for her towel, a hideous creature appeared. Lisa let out a startled yelp and quickly moved to pull herself out of the water, shaking hands tugging the towel around her body.
“I have no idea,” Lisa replied, trying to keep her voice steady, but failing miserably. By this point, she’s moved to stand beside Donna. Despite being freaked out, she did take note of the small dish-shaped indent on top of its head.
“It has some weird dish thing on its head.”
Now Donna had seen some ugly before, but this took the cake. She briefly wondered if Sam and Dean ever dealt with one of these before, but the thought was gone quickly when it was obvious the creature had its eyes on the two of them.
“What I wouldn’t give for my side arm right about now, I’ll tell you what..” Donna did take notice of its head though - it was such a weirdly shaped head that it had to be something. Donna had been doing this long enough to know that most supernatural creatures were a lot like animals - their features all had functions. It wasn’t just useless bells and whistles like some of the aliens in movies.
“Lisa, I know this is going to sound like a terrible idea, but do you think you could draw it to you? To the left, over there?” She nodded just enough to indicate where without hopefully being too obvious. “I’ll climb up that rock from behind.”
Lisa was in complete agreement: she wished Donna had her sidearm too. However, that wasn’t going to happen and they would have to come up with something else. Lisa would be lying if she wasn’t wishing Dean would show up right about now and give them a hand, but that, like the firearm, was completely wishful thinking. Neither of which was going to get them out of this jam. No, they would have to come up with something else.
Lucky for her, Donna was quite capable of that and had a plan. Granted, it sounded like a terrible plan, but right now? Lisa was willing to try anything and, despite just starting to know Donna, she did trust her. Besides, what other choice did they have?
“Definitely sounds like a terrible idea, but I trust you,” Lisa whispered back. “I’ll get its attention.”
One hand firmly clasping her cloth around her, Lisa raised her free hand and waved, shouting at the creepy, gross thing to catch its attention. It looked over at her and Lisa barely suppressed a shiver. Her heart was pounding so hard and fast in her chest that she swore she’d have a heart attack before the creature even took a step in her direction.
Gratefully, there was no heart attack and the creature did move towards her. Lisa started to back away, moving as carefully and slowly as she could towards the rocks. There wouldn’t be much time before that thing reached her and Lisa’s back was against the slick stone surface.
It was most definitely a bad idea, but it was all Donna had at the moment. When Lisa started to move, Donna did too. She was not about to leave Lisa vulnerable for any longer than she absolutely needed to plus she had a feeling she’d hear it from Dean either way for using Lisa as bait - she’d deal with that later.
Climbing the rock was harder than Donna expected. She had to hope her ‘towel’ would hold as she did. It was entirely awkward, but she managed to do it and just in time too. When she got to the top she saw the creature was far too close to Lisa for Donna’s comfort. Oh no you don’t!
She wished it would have been graceful like in an action film, but it wasn’t. Donna jumped down at the creature. It was a perfect hit, which was great. The part that wasn’t great was in mid air the cloth around her body decided to come loose and so a very naked Donna Hanscum fell on the Kappa and wrestled it to the ground. They rolled and tussled, but apart from a few scratches, she managed to avoid any of the biting it tried. In all of the skirmishing, more and more of the water that sat on its head slushed out until eventually it was dry and the supernatural creature let out a deafening screech before it stilled and then just… died?
Shocked and confused… and still naked… Donna paused from underneath the creature. “Well… this was relaxing…Lisa, do you think you could maybe get me the towel thing?”
“Donna…” Lisa trailed off as the creature crept ever closer. It was practically an inch from Lisa’s face at this point and to say she was sacred was the understatement of the century. Lisa was terrified. Her heart was pounding so hard that she could barely hear Donna behind her, scrambling up the rocks as quickly as she could.
Lisa closed her eyes, waiting for that gross, probably cold hand to touch her, but it never came. Instead, the creature gave out a shriek and Lisa’s eyes shot open. Donna was on top of it, wrestling it with everything she had.
Lisa winced as Donna’s towel thing slipped and a very naked Donna was now fighting with the creature. Oh boy. As they tussled, more and more of the water spilled out until the bowl was empty on its head and it just…died. Right on top of a naked Donna.
While Lisa was relieved it was dead, she felt horrible for Donna. Before Donna actually asked, Lisa was moving to retrieve her towel thing and together, somehow, the two women pushed the thing off Donna.
“Here,” Lisa said, handing her the towel and holding out a hand to help Donna stand. “That was…insane, but you totally kicked ass. Aside from the naked thing I mean. That didn’t look…great.” For a lack of a better word.
Well, at least they weren’t dead, right?
She took the towel though she was definitely going to take advantage of the bathing area after a moment because while there was no blood or anything - something for which she was grateful - she still felt gross.”Oh, well…. I’ve been described as worse.” She was making a joke, of course, as if Lisa was talking about the nakedness and not the kerfuffle. Donna was good at self-deprecation.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I think we should skip the onsun and head to that tavern we saw where we can get some beer and some food. How does that sound?”
Lisa quickly moved to clarify what she meant with the ‘not great’ comment. It had nothing to do with how Donna looked at all. It was about her stance of being under that thing. That looked horrible and obviously uncomfortable. Lisa would never criticize someone else’s body.
“No, I didn’t mean anything about how you look. I mean being naked under that thing looked uncomfortable and horrible,” Lisa assured quickly. “If it wasn’t for you, we’d probably be dead right now and that thing’s meal.”
Lisa hadn’t even touched the thing and she wanted to take advantage of the bathing area. She knew Donna would want to for sure. At the suggestion, Lisa nodded. A beer and a meal sounded way better than the onsen right now. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any creepy creatures to ruin their meal.
“Yeah, let’s get out of here. Beer and food is totally on me. I’ll help you clean up in the bathing area too.” On hand clutching her towel thing around her, Lisa put an arm around Donna’s shoulders.