(Subverting gender since the world was born)

[scarred_grin]

[OOMs: Night One, in which Loki plays bingo and Weyland decides to stay for a while (which is a euphemistic way of saying the story's nothing but sex and drugs), followed immediately by Loki's School for Wayward Girls, lesson one: gender and strength (no warnings there, much to Skaði's disappointment), and immediately following that: action is go]

But Pyrrha doesn't know about any of that, and she's the shape in which Loki comes down to the bar tonight. She's more subdued than usual, but you wouldn't know it to look at her--between her ridiculous boots and the crimped-and-teased-and-AquaNetted big-goth-hair she's got going on, she hits just over seven feet tall today, and that's not counting the feathers she's got stuck in her hair (that admittedly look a bit like a bird lost a fight with her hair, but she's okay with that). She's also got her usual tiny shorts, a faded Love & Rockets shirt (band not comic) and a small backpack she'd made to look like a cartoonish cute stuffed zombie doll (the zipper's in its neck).

Anyway, she does her drunken-marionette-runway-stomp up to the bar, to order herself a cherry coke slushie (with an umbrella) and a chicken sandwich with fries. She's very hungry for some reason.

Botherable.

[open until forever but slows are <3]

Comments

[ostro_goth]

"Good," Teja says. "This place is a respite for many."

He fetches a mirror, and a small box; and then, he brings forth a thing wrapped in thin leather, from his belt pouch.

[scarred_grin]

She starts taking her jewelry out. She's pretty quick about it, at least--lots of practice.

"Yeah, it's like--I think it may be the most stable place I've ever lived. Of course, I missed the apocalypse."

[ostro_goth]

"It was truly memorable," Teja says, offering her the leather-wrapped ornament, and a mirror.

Kate. The horses. The moment of pause, when all was made anew.

Teja had changed deeply with that. He would not sit here with Pyrrha, the unwitting avatar of Loki, without it.

[scarred_grin]

"I think it's for the best I wasn't here," she says as she pockets her jewelry and starts unwrapping what he has made for her. "I think you only get something like that once, and it's not my time yet."

[ostro_goth]

It is the one that she had chosen, that will look like barbed wire gripping her mouth shut, made of surgical steel (as all such things are), but artfully corrodes in grooves and corners so it appears like rusted barb-wired.

"Do you see how it is meant," Teja asks, "or would you wish for my help, putting it in the right direction, and putting it in, for the first time?"

[scarred_grin]

"I wouldn't say no to some help," she says with a nervous smile. "You'd be surprised how I can get myself tangled up in things when I'm not careful, and the potential for me to hurt myself is pretty high. But I will say, while I can still talk, it's beautiful."

[ostro_goth]

"I shall be gentle," Teja says, "and remember: I have worn ornaments in holes upon sensitive spots of my body, also, so know how thread them in and not hurt. See here."

He awkwardly tries to turns his hands so she may see how the links connect, and where the rings go through her piercings, then, he asks, "It would be easier and clearer for you to see how it goes, if I stood behind you: - may I?"

[scarred_grin]

"Of course," she says. "Watch out for my hair though, it's been known to attack people."

And pick things up that she doesn't find until later. AquaNet is a powerful force.

[ostro_goth]

Teja (who is long-haired as well and knows how to handle that, also) gently reaches behind her and strokes her hair together so it won't be in the way. Then, he stands behind her before the mirror, his hands from the left and right now holding the ornament as her own would, and shows her one by one how the links of the thing smooth out and move, and which ring goes into which hole in her lip, reaching out to touch them while looking at them in the mirror.

Then, he lifts it to her face and begins to put it in.

[scarred_grin]

She watches, fascinated. The fact that he could take something from an idea all the way to a finished project--well, it's probably not all that different from how she makes things, but it always seems more impressive when someone else does it, and especially since working with metal is a mysterious thing to her.

Staying as still as she can, she studies his movements, trying to memorize how her new jewelry goes in.

[ostro_goth]

Teja does it very gently, prepared to let her take over whenever she might feel this is too personal; after all, he has his arms around her, and is touching her face.

[scarred_grin]

She's perfectly happy to let him handle it; she doesn't really have much in the way of personal-space boundaries, she's enjoying the closeness, and anyway she's not entirely sure she wouldn't accidentally stab herself in the eye or something.

[ostro_goth]

Gently and slowly, Teja threads the rings through all nine holes upon her lip.

Then, he takes his hands aside so she may see herself in the mirror.

[scarred_grin]

She doesn't smile, but it takes a lot of effort not to--she's not sure how much give she has, and doesn't want to tear anything.

But she almost-smiles plenty, tilts and turns her head to get a look at different angles, and even gives her reflection a bit of a Kubrick stare just to see how it looks.

This is one pleased Pyrrha.

[ostro_goth]

"Is it to your liking?" Teja asks, still behind her, even though he has let go of her.

He would only ask questions now that she can answer by nodding, or shaking her head.

[scarred_grin]

Is it ever.

So much so, in fact, that if he doesn't dodge or deflect her he's about to get an enthusiastic hug.

It's perfect, and she has just the thing to wear it with.

[ostro_goth]

No, he does neither dodge nor deflect at all.

[scarred_grin]

A hug it is, then! She's careful not to catch her new ornament on his hair or her own, but she is clearly very enthusiastically happy with his work.

[ostro_goth]

And Teja hugs her back, also careful. "I am glad it pleases you," he says.

[scarred_grin]

If only all the things she'd recently learned how to say in sign language weren't really obscene... but then practicality has never been her strong suit.

Either she's going to need a plan, or not wear this around other people very often.

For now, she continues almost-smiling.

[ostro_goth]

"You may put a straw for drinking through here, if you wear it for some event," Teja says, touching her lip with his little finger between the barb-wire.

[scarred_grin]

Oh, that should work just fine. She'd hate to pass out from dehydration; she loses enough of her days as it is, and passing out would mean falling off her shoes and that never ends well.

She nods in understanding, and gives him her best over-the-top demon impression, which is no doubt more funny than scary.

[ostro_goth]

"I am sure the children of my people would be truly afeared if they saw you," Teja says, which may be a polite way of saying that indeed, he is not.

[scarred_grin]

Well, in that case--

Yeah, she makes it worse by adding pretend-claw motions, which mostly make it look like she's doing an impression of sloth hands.

She can laugh at herself. In fact, she's doing it right now. She's just in too good a mood to be a scary demon right now.

[ostro_goth]

"The little ones would run screeching," Teja says, gravely, "and Alaric and Witichis would maybe even fetch their weapons."

Yes, he is amused by that.