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]

"I've never really believed in heaven or hell, not the way the church teaches," she says. "I mean, you get one chance and that's it, then you're either sitting around all day singing about how great God is, or you're burning forever, no re-dos. So ghosts and reincarnation make sense to me; people have souls and those souls have to do something after a person dies."

[ostro_goth]

"Something," Teja says, "that may include making designs for lip-jewellery from the future."

[scarred_grin]

"What's the strangest thing you've ever made?" she asks. "And before you answer, you should know that whatever you say I'll take as a challenge, and see if I can come up with something stranger to ask for..."

[ostro_goth]

"A collar," Teja says, "to a very specific design, that was to signify the voluntary submission of one lover to another. Part for flying motor-cycles. And a very lovingly done crow-bar, that had to be just so."

[scarred_grin]

She gives a playful grin.

"Well, if you have some space on your work schedule in the future... I may have a need for something. I don't know what yet, though. Do you ever make claws?"

[ostro_goth]

"Weapons curved like claws?" Teja says. "I think I could do that."

[scarred_grin]

"There are dancers from like... Thailand, I think?" she says. "They wear these long metal nails when they're dancing, it makes their hands look longer and more graceful. And I know some people back home who have these armor things for their fingers, articulated, you know, and with claw-tips on the ends. But they're not sharp, they're just jewelry."

[ostro_goth]

"And you would wish for one of those little finger-armours, with a bladed claw-tip?" Teja says.

He does like the idea.

[scarred_grin]

She grins, nodding. "I mean, it only seems fitting--I'll have my mouth wired shut, and if I can't bite people, I should at least be able to claw them. A girl needs some defenses."

[ostro_goth]

"You do," Teja says. "And you shall have it -- both, indeed, made to fit each other."

[scarred_grin]

She picks her feet up, curling one leg beneath her on the chair and bending the other so she can rest her chin on her knee. It's a bit of an awkward position given her boots, but she doesn't seem to mind.

"I want you to know you've always got the right to say no to me," she says after a moment. "I know how I get. I know I come on real strong, especially when I'm attracted to somebody, and I don't pick up on all the little signs that the other person's not as into whatever I'm talking about as I am. You don't need to make anything for me if you don't want to, and if you do, you don't need to rush. I'm a big girl, I can take it."

[ostro_goth]

Teja nods.

"Attracted," he says, quietly.

It might be a question. Or a statement.

"I am a smith," he says. "I make things of metal. And I see the meaning of holes and rings upon one's flesh. I used to have one -- but I was killed over, and then, I did not feel the need to have it done again."

It had been something between Charlie and himself, something born out of curiosity about Xaldin, also.

[scarred_grin]

"I used to have more than I do now," she says. "Some were only temporary, they work their way out and you have to redo them. I stopped doing the ones on my back when I got that tattoo. And I had to let the one in my tongue close up 'cause I kept getting it caught on things."

Nothing like waking up with your tongue stuck to the inside of your lip...

"I never let anybody work on the ones on my mouth before. But there's something about you, makes me feel I can trust you with that."

[ostro_goth]

"I am Teja, and I have ever been trusted by many that knew me better, and feared by those that did not," Teja says.

[scarred_grin]

"I trust people sometimes when I maybe shouldn't," she says, and sips her tea. "And I don't fear them even when I probably should. I'm not feeling a lot of fear, here--I mean, I'm sure you could kill me pretty easily if you wanted to, you're stronger than I am and you've trained at fighting. But I can't imagine I could say or do anything to make you angry enough to do it, and..."

A pause.

"I'm sorry, that was a really weird tangent, wasn't it."

[ostro_goth]

"It was, but one that is not all that strange," Teja says. "Considering what we just spoke of."

He sips his tea.

[scarred_grin]

"I don't really have the best--"

She gestures vaguely. "The best filter between what I think and what I say. I try, but... yeah."

[ostro_goth]

"You have better filters than some," Teja says.

[scarred_grin]

"I may be exhausting, but I like to think I'm not boring," she says with a chuckle. "I've known some people who I think had too much of a filter, you never knew what they were thinking at all. I don't like that, it makes me nervous."

[ostro_goth]

"How am I doing, on that scale?" Teja says.

Many have often claimed that they could not understand Teja at all.

[scarred_grin]

"I think you're fascinating," she says. "I think you could open up a bit more, but then if I were stuck in a room with somebody just like me I'd go crazy. Anyway we just met, and some people take a while to let their guard down. You're perfect just the way you are."

[ostro_goth]

"That is good to know," Teja says.

He picks up his pencil again, and turns a page in his notebook.

"There are things left to discover over time."

[scarred_grin]

"Can you imagine if you met somebody and that was all there was to them?" she asks. "We've all got depths and multitudes and things, though I have met some people who didn't run quite as deep. I want there to be more left to learn, more to experience. There's no real long-term relationship potential with somebody who can be summed up one sentence or less, you know?"

[ostro_goth]

"No," Teja says. "One would run out of things to say after an hour, or two at the most. And then, when one would run out of steam for other things, one would have run out of each other."

[scarred_grin]

"I knew a guy once," she says. "He was sure pretty but he was dumber than a box of hair. All the girls went crazy for him, but there wasn't anything to him--he just floated through life, did what was expected of him, was his father's little puppet. I can't even imagine."