Ink and Holes, Monday Afternoon

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's mind was maybe reeling a little bit, today. And not because of what was about to happen, but rather yesterday and... honestly, a lot of the last while. The last couple of months? Little things could do a lot to a person's sense of balance, it seemed, and now Octavia was actually hoping the tattooing session would help ground her a little. Give her something to focus on, bring her back into the present.

Rey finally checking in today had soothed some of her general unease. Wasn't enough, though.

But maybe pain would be.

She'd asked Duke to meet her out front a little bit before her appointment, so that was where she was now, just standing there with her hands stuffed in her pockets. Wondering whether she should've felt nervous, because she didn't, and also wondering whether not feeling nervous right now meant it would just hit her once she'd actually sit down inside the shop.

Guess only time would tell.

[ooc: For the emotional support smuggler!]

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

[everyone should have an emotional support smuggler!]

And there Duke was, right on time, with a small shopping bag slung over his shoulder. "Hey," he greeted with a smile. "You excited?"

[okteiviakom]

"Mostly tired," Octavia drawled, after the requisite tiny nod in greeting. Still, after a beat, she admitted, "But looking forward to this."

When was she ever excited to the point of saying it out loud, anyway?

[betterthanaplan]

That didn't mean Duke couldn't ask!

He nodded, then shrugged the shoulder carrying the bag. "I brought provisions. Water, juice, snacks. . . . No tacos though. Too messy.

[okteiviakom]

"I think I'll live," Octavia drawled, but there was an amused tilt to her lips. Possibly even fond, especially when she added, "Mochof."

Then she looked at the door, with the tiniest sigh. "Guess this is it."

[betterthanaplan]

"De nada." Duke was just going to start using phrases from random non-English languages at her to fill in for the Trig ones he didn't know yet.

"It is." He considered pointing out that she could actually back out pretty much right up to the point where the artist actually touched her with the tattoo gun, but figured that'd just rile her up. He gestured to the door instead. "After you."

[okteiviakom]

His instincts were pretty much spot-on there. And although Octavia tried to be subtle about it, she squared her shoulders before drawing one hand out of her pocket and stepping up to the door, and then entering the shop.

It was probably good that she'd already been here twice before, and not just for the sake of the design or the general planning. It meant she was familiar with the space, and looked it. She greeted the predictably tatted-up guy there, introduced Duke (just by name - she'd already said before someone would be coming in with her), and after a few more words, settled down for a little moment to fill in the paperwork, diligently ticking off boxes that said she was both old enough as well as not currently drunk, et cetera, et cetera.

While the guy's general vibe seemed immediately easygoing, he didn't try any small talk at her, which suggested he had good instincts, too. Or had just figured her out enough on their last two meetings.

[betterthanaplan]

They often did. Duke nodded to the guy upon the introduction, then looked around the shop while Octavia got settled in with the paperwork. He did make small talk, mostly about the art around the parlor and admiring the guy's ink.

The guy didn't even blink at Duke's not-actually-subtle checking out of the tools and work space, which was another point in his favor as far as Duke was concerned. Any artist who couldn't handle a little overprotectiveness from a first-time tattoo-ee's moral support needed to find another line of work.

[okteiviakom]

And all of that meant Duke was doing exactly the things Octavia had wanted him here for: to take on some of the burden of the talking she liked idly listening to but didn't much care for participating in, and looking out for her with the things she didn't have much expertise in.

She glanced up briefly, at one point, then hid her faint smile. Oso throu daun ogeda didn't always have to be literal.

The paperwork was just one slip, didn't take her very long. Eventually she handed it in, then went through the rest of the motions: ID, money. As the guy stepped away to get the stencil prints of her design, she stepped closer to Duke and, after a second's hesitation, gave his arm a little nudge with her shoulder as she dropped her voice low, conspiratorial. (And wishing she'd already taught him enough to do this in Trig, just for the hell of it.) "Do you approve?"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke gave her a little smile and nudge back. "Sha, gona. It looks like a good shop."

[okteiviakom]

"Dison laik stanop kofgeda," Octavia replied, with a small nod and a smaller smile. 'Trading post' was the best post-apocalyptic vocabulary could do for 'shop'. "Good."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke repeated the whole phrase softly to himself. "Stanop means 'good'?" he guessed. It sounded a bit like "stand up", which fit the whole pidgin-slang feel of Trig in general. Of course, kofgeda didn't sound like much of anything to him, so who knew in the end?

Then he bumped her arm again, as the artist came back out with the stencils. "You're going to look awesome."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia nodded at his question, then huffed a vague noise of agreement at the statement that followed.

Then she moved from his side again, returning to the matter at hand, smile replaced by something more neutral, but still open and focused. Shrugging off her jacket, she followed the guy to the tattoo chair, where she also worked her right arm out of the tank top she was wearing so the strap wouldn't get in the way.

(There was no bra strap, because she'd thought ahead.)

And then, as she leaned back in the chair, and the artist got started on prepping her skin for the stencils -- Octavia was suddenly struck by how much it felt like sitting in medical, back in Arkadia. The only outward indication of that, however, was a tiny frown.

Obvious enough to anyone with experience reading her microexpressions, though.

[betterthanaplan]

Yeah, Duke spotted it. He pulled up a spare chair at her side opposite the artist's workstation and casually rested his hand by hers, just close enough to brush against it. And for her to take, without having to move very far.

"Check it out," he said, nodding to a stylized watercolor of a fish-like face hanging on the opposite wall. "What do you think, portrait of the original owner, maybe?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's gaze flicked up. The particular snort that ensued was a pretty ugly sound, so thank goodness she'd never cared about being ladylike. It was enough to disrupt the thought she'd been having, and that was good enough.

"I'm not sure if that's mean," she drawled, "or a valid Fandom question."

[betterthanaplan]

"Hey, one of my most enthusiastic students at the school is a bipedal shark. I assume nothing."

The artist finished setting up, offering no comment or clarification about the art in question other than his own tiny smile. He gestured to a handful of individually wrapped and sealed cartridges on his tray. "These are the needles I'm going to use. They're all sterilized and sealed. You ready to get started?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia breathed in a slow, deep breath before she nodded.

"I am."

There was something of the warrior in her in that, to no one's great surprise.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke leaned back in his seat (while keeping his hand still within easy reach of hers), and looked over the walls again while the artist opened up the first needle and set to work.

"So I'm thinking of doing a 'desert island survival' kind of thing for class this week. Because pirates are always getting stranded in the old stories. Any tips?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's eyes were on her arm for now, watching as the artist got started on the lowest part first, the triangular spiral-sun-eye thing. The outlines would all get done first, and those were what were now on her skin from the stencils. She was trying to imagine what those would all look like, filled in, when the needle first touched her skin.

She'd been pierced by arrows and cut by blades before, so while it wasn't necessarily a comfortable or a familiar feeling, it wasn't too bad. Yet, anyway.

"Earth Skills," she said. You couldn't actually hear the capitalization, but maybe some of it lingered in the way she said it. "How to make fire, build shelter, hunt."

[betterthanaplan]

"Mmm," Duke mused. "Boy scout shit. Never was great at that." He'd been essentially parent-less by the time he was old enough to be a scout. Nathan had been all over it, of course. "Finding shelter I'm great at. Building one?" He shook his head.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia managed to actually pry her gaze away from the beginnings of her tattoo to look over at him, this time.

"It's not that hard," she said. But then reconsidered, somewhat. "Well, depending on the island, I guess."

[betterthanaplan]

"If I go with the trope, it'll be tropical. Palm trees, tall grasses. Probably a small spring or waterfall in the middle somewhere -- desalination's a pain in the ass, and this is supposed to be a fun challenge kind of thing."

[okteiviakom]

"So they'd need shelter more from the sun, than from the cold from the ground getting at them during the night," Octavia nodded. "Really, they just need to find a good natural structure to build something against, branches or driftwood or something to build it, and then the grass to cover it up."

[betterthanaplan]

"Makes sense. Though if I wanted to be mean, I could throw a hurricane at them." He was not going to be mean. Probably. "Did you all have to figure this stuff out once you made it to the ground? I can't imagine you had to worry too much about sunburn in space."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's snort was very soft. "I wasn't being clever when I said 'Earth Skills'," she clarified. "That's what they called the class they made us take before we were sent down."

[betterthanaplan]

"Huh." Duke let that sink in for a few moments. "That must've been weird. They wouldn't have ever used any of those skills for real either, right? You'd been in space for a couple generations by then."