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[sandpaperbreath]

Since we're askin' questions...

What're tattoos used fer on your home world?

Found a book in the library t'day. Got a guy--[ugly chuckle.]--with a topknot and what looks like'a lurker shark on his back. Y'don't see nothin' stupid like that back home.

Comments

[yousoundblue]

Decoration!

I had one for a while when I was a student on Europa, but then I got bored with it and had it removed. It was out of fashion by then, anyway.

[sandpaperbreath]

What'd it look like, this decoration? An where'd y'get it?

...an' how the hell'd you get it off?

[yousoundblue]

Oh, it was just the standard abstract growing and shrinking design everybody gets up an arm when they decide they want a tattoo.

I went to a body mod clinic with the artist friend who helped me with the design, and they injected the nanomachines with the pigment. When I decided I was done with it, I went back to the clinic and they deactivated it. My body absorbed the pigments over the course of a few weeks.

[sandpaperbreath]

...that sounds like one hellova tattoo, there, lady.

Lemme guess--and it didn't even hurt.

[yousoundblue]

I liked it.

...Why would it have hurt?

he's not being nasty about this, I swear. It's the wording's fault.

[sandpaperbreath]

Because not every cushy world knows how t'work around that.

Or it's meant to. Sorry if that sounds barbaric.

I know, he's just gruff.

[yousoundblue]

Why would anyone cause themselves pain that they could avoid? I certainly wouldn't have gotten it if it were going hurt.

With a soft, gooey center

[sandpaperbreath]

No, y'don't seem like the type t'go into the military.

Back home, it's a rite of passage. First, y'tattoo your ears when you enlist, either at the base or the tip dependin' on if yer army or airforce. Then, after y'complete yer officer trainin' you pick a pattern.

Sun, Hellcat, Moon jus' t'name a few. All of them go over the face, the eyes especially, but those workin' for a high rankin' get ones covering more of their body.

Mine goes down t'my knees.

No anesthetic. You have to handle the pain.

I thought of about a dozen replies to that, and all of them were filthy.

[yousoundblue]

What about it hurts?

my work here is done.

[sandpaperbreath]

It's a machine with tiny needles that inject ink into the skin. Like...tiny stab wounds.

Also, Torn has just horrified Lika. Not that it's hard to do, mind you.

[yousoundblue]

[There's a long pause.]

What? That's-- I--

[She's completely at a loss.]

Oh, Torn's sorry. Kind of.

[sandpaperbreath]

Yeah, we don't have yer nanomachines or whatever.

An' if we did? You could probably bet the Baron would've designed them t'hurt, too.

I'm not from a very happy world. Y've been at peace for centuries, we've been at war for centuries.

Hell, if you wanna get poetic, pain defines us. How about that?

Lika is ~sheltered~.

[yousoundblue]

That's horrible.

Oh fuck, you got him started.

[sandpaperbreath]

That's life.

What do y'think people did before you got peace? Someone had t'fight for it, right? Put the evils t'rest so everyone could live happily like y'do in your time?

We're getting there, lady. Lika. It takes blood.

You're stupid and your world is stupid!

[yousoundblue]

It's not any one person's fault, but it's still terrible.

LIFE IS PAIN princess!

[sandpaperbreath]

But there were wars back home. People faught fer you, maybe even if it was before yer grandparents were born. Someone died so you could have painless tattoos y'didn't have t'keep.

A lot of someone's died so that you could think what they did was terrible an' barbaric an' stupid.

Yer a sweet lady, but I think yer a lil' ungrateful.