A penny gets you in, but it won't get you out

[scarred_grin]

...so long story short, Loki had nothing to do with that chalk graffiti in the hallway upstairs, doesn't even own a pair of roller skates, and in any case will not be going near the tequila again anytime soon. Mistakes were made. Jeez, that was like ten hours ago. Can't we all just move on?

In any case, here she is stretched out on the couch in a look that radiates 'off-duty goth barista, probably also an art student': twentyish, crayon-red streaks in otherwise black-dyed hair, lip-rings through her old scars, big headphones, a t-shirt that never fails to amuse her, tiny shorts, and platform boots that if she were standing would make her six and a half feet tall, but right now just help her take up the whole couch. Oh, and fishnet, since after all she'd invented it TRUE STORY

So yeah, there she is, half-drawing half-writing in a notebook, now and then singing along to the music on her headphones, totally botherable if you're feeling brave.



[tinytags: loki (that norse one)][open forever, though slows will happen at some point]

Comments

[scarred_grin]

"Oh, I don't know," she says with a chuckle. "The leaves outside are calling me, and it's awfully warm in here, and who am I to deny nature? But I won't be naked. I'll keep my shoes on, at least."

Barefoot on twigs and gravel, no thanks. There's a reason people invented shoes.

"I want you to wire my mouth shut."

[ostro_goth]

Uhoh?

"Like Loki's mouth was sewn shut, in the myths," he says. "You already have holes and rings in it; you would just wish for wire to be passed through?"

He knows better than to ask for a reason.

He looks at her shoes.

[scarred_grin]

"You can do it any way you want," she says. "Like a series of fish-hooks, maybe, connecting on the outside but separate on the inside. Or as one continuous piece of metal. Any metal you want, and in any style you want. Grotesque, beautiful, industrial, simple, anything. It doesn't even have to be painless... it just has to be removable."

Her shoes are knee-high boots with eight-inch platforms, lots of buckles and a flame design. It would be impressive if she could walk around off the paths outside without falling or twisting an ankle.

[ostro_goth]

"One piece, that would make your mouth seem wired shut," Teja says, nodding.

Now it makes more sense.

"That you can put in or out. I would have to measure your lips and the holes very precisely, for that."

Indeed, those shoes are impressive; and he hopes she can walk in them outside, should they need to go to the forge now.

[scarred_grin]

"You can measure anything you want," she says. "If you can leave enough room somewhere for me to fit a straw in, I'd like that too, but it's not a requirement. Being able to drink is always a plus."

[ostro_goth]

"Indeed," Teja says, "I can take that into account."

Pause.

"Would you follow me to my smithy, where I have measuring tools and my notebooks?"

[scarred_grin]

"Of course," she says, sliding her pen into the spiral-binding of her notebook before hoisting herself to her feet. With her ridiculous shoes and the already tall, lanky build of this body, standing up makes her seem a bit vertically stretched, but what is shapeshifting for if not playing with proportion?

"You're not going to brand me, are you?"

[ostro_goth]

"Only if you ask me to," Teja says, before he can stop himself.

He seems to have some problems stopping himself around her, as it is.

He stands, over six food tall, so no truly dwarfed by her height, and leads the way towards the back door.

[scarred_grin]

"Mmmm... whatever you feel inspired to do," she says, clopping along beside him with a walk not unlike a drunken marionette. "I defer to your instincts."

There's just something about fire. She can't help it.

[ostro_goth]

"I shall measure the holes upon your lips, and then suggest ways that a mouth-piece may be made, so they would seem wired shut," Teja says. "I do have ideas for that, to look scary and fearsome while still letting you drink through a straw."

He turns to look into her eyes.

[scarred_grin]

She's got pale blue eyes under all that makeup, and she meets his gaze with a smile.

"I am happy to be your canvas," she says. "And I can't wait to see what you come up with. Not that I'll be wearing it all the time, of course, but for... special occasions, you know?"

[ostro_goth]

"It would be truly uncomfortable, all the time," Teja says. "It is not like a ring in your ear, or one upon your breast."

They reach the forge, and Teja opens it up; he stokes and feeds the fire, opens the shutters, and gets out his notebooks, and some tools, both for measuring and drawing.

"Would you sit there?" he indicates, pointing at a chair by the workbench.

[scarred_grin]

"Would it hurt more than a suspension?" she asks, glancing around the forge on her way over to the chair. "I've done those, a few different positions. It's supposed to bring you closer to the divine, but what would I know of divinity."

She considers taking her boots off, but settles for just slouching into the chair instead.

[ostro_goth]

"I cannot well gauge the relative pain of either, having done neither, myself," Teja says. "What pain I have known in my life was ever for a purpose: - mostly battle-wounds."

And then, some other things that he would not think of.

"I would make two of these things," he says, getting out pencils and a pair of compasses. "One that looks bad, but allows you to drink and speak; one that is edgier, might hurt somewhat, but is closer to the true thing."

[scarred_grin]

"Mine's all been purposeless," she says, setting her notebook on the floor under the chair before reaching up to start taking her existing piercings out. "I've been shot, I've been stabbed, hit by a car once, and I've been in more fights than I care to think about. People just seem to like doing things to me."

Things involving snakes, and sharp rocks.

"I think that's why I do this. If there's gonna be pain, I want to say where and how much."

[ostro_goth]

"I have learned about these things, from that friend who no longer comes to this place," Teja says. "He had a large scar upon his chest, and had piercings along it, as a way of taking back his body from what happened."

[scarred_grin]

"Exactly," she says. "What other people do to you, what marks they make--you can either let them stay as they are, a reminder of your powerlessness, or you can reshape them, reclaim them. Make your body your own again."

She takes out the last of her lip-piercings, holding the bits of metal--nine in all, four top, five bottom--in her hand.

[ostro_goth]

Teja takes his compasses and measures the holes with them, from one to the other, top and bottom lip, very systematically, and makes markings in his notebook that become a map of her lips.

Are there even more scars than those piercings? He cannot truly tell, but something in her words suggests that something was done to her, or something happened, that made her add the piercings to her mouth.

[scarred_grin]

She's got other visible piercings--her nose, her eyebrows, multiple places in her ears, one on the side of her neck--but those are all cleanly done, where the ones in her lips are much more jagged. The dwarves hadn't been interested in aesthetics, after all, but in revenge.

She feels a bit naked, having her old scars studied like this. The other scars she wears in this form (and there are many, most covered by her clothing but some from cutting or burning visible on her arms and legs) are incidental to this form, but the ones on her mouth are hers.

Sitting still isn't easy for her, so after a while she starts to fidget, though she tries to keep her head as still as possible.

[ostro_goth]

"A craftsman's work will take its time," Teja says, noticing the fidget, "if he is to work to the best of his skills, and the result shall please."

Or hurt in a pleasing way.

[scarred_grin]

"I'm just excited," she says apologetically, moving her mouth as little as possible. "Eager anticipation to see what you come up with."

She slips her jewelry into a pocket and reaches down to toy with the buckles on her boots instead. Still nervous energy, but hopefully not disruptive.

[ostro_goth]

Teja calmingly pats her knee, which feels odd, flesh under that fish-net, so he stops doing it

"You shall soon see," he says.

There is a perfect map of her mouth and the piercings in his notebook now.

[scarred_grin]

"Patience doesn't come easy for me," she admits with a chuckle. "It never has. I try--I really do! But nobody knows what's in the future, we could all be here one day and gone the next. So if there's something you want to do, you do it, 'cause you may not get another chance. You know?"

She glances down at the notebook.

[ostro_goth]

Teja is sketching, some sort of spider's web.

"Indeed," he says, "and I have ever taken on chance when it came. You shall have this soon."

He reaches out as of to touch her again, but then doesn't.

[scarred_grin]

"Don't think I'm trying to rush you or anything," she says. "It's nice in here--I've never been anywhere like this before. And I get to watch you work. It's a big day for me, so far."

She hasn't been around a forge in a very long time, and even then, it wasn't like she was welcome to just hang out and watch.