Solo Ink and Water

[Taurina]

Morning of the 21st of Fall 516

Rain beat down on a tired world. The humidity and oppressive heat had been interrupted by chaotic storms that were answered by a pause in the usual routine of the Drykas people. Since the hot, humid weather had been so unbearable, the storms had been welcomed at first. At least by the Ethaefal they had. And then they turned violent and temperatures had dropped. Taurina had not seen a string of storms lasting so long since her fall not many years back. Everything was wet and cold now when it all had previously been the opposite. Such a strange way the world worked. One chime and it was thought no one would ever find relief from heat again and then the next chime it was like no one was ever going to be fully dry or warm again. Two sides to the same miserable coin.

The darkness the stormy weather brought with it blocked both the light of Leth and the light of Syna too much for the Ethaefal’s liking. To be parted from her god by night made Taurina restless and more irritable than what was usual for her. Even though the heat had caused her frustration and discomfort, she had still been able to get as close to her god as she could in this form. The last two nights she had lost that comfort, the cloud coverage taking over the majority of the sky. To go outside was to be met with a darkness that starved the world and Taurina of Leth. She had only gone out to check on her mare, finding the world too dark, too wet, and too depressing to stay out in for long.

It was morning now and while Syna had risen, the sky still thundered with storms. Now Drykas in form, Taurina had not left her tent more than once and that had been simply to ensure Melody had made it through the night and to take care of the mare’s needs. Now, with a torch propped and lit to battle the darkness trying to overwhelm the tent, the Drykas had pulled out some of her different tools. The day need not be wasted, even if she was cranky and lacked the desire to do anything but waste away on her bedroll.

Journal in hand, Taurina studied the various, simple sketches she had drawn on the page when she very first started. Most of them were simple line work meant to help her learn how to have steady hand along some basic shapes. Swirls created by boredom covered the corners of the pages. Little wisps of semi-smeared black marks curled at the corners of the pages creating a sort of frame for her practice work. Down in the crevasse of the right side of the page she had intwined several curved lines to come together in the shape that resembled a sort of braid. It had relaxed the hand she frequently put too much pressure on and had just been a lazy sketch that appeased an idle mind.

The other shapes and lines on the page were boring, Taurina preferred her lazy little doodles created in the times when her creativity was starved and her imagination was fishing for anything it could use. The Drykas was not ambitious enough to try one of her more detailed and more recent sketches, she knew she did not yet have the skills. The tools she was going to use were clumsy in her hands. She had spent many days now watching Jarorra, Injal and even Keil work with the skill and knowledge she lacked, but wished to earn. It could not be achieved by starting big though. She would have to work up to it and one of her lazy little doodles would be easy enough to use as a beginning base for her work.

Pavi | Thoughts

[Taurina]

Sketch chosen, Taurina put down her journal and picked up her small wooden box of tools that had the basics of what she would need. Needles, inks, and pieces of pig skin were drawn out by the Drykas’ hands. She had her journal bent in half so she had easy access to the simple sketch she planned on copying in ink. Everything was caste in the orange light of her flickering torch, but she could see it all easily enough. Only the most basic of colors sat before her and she did not have the chisel the others at Lilacwind used. Only various individual needles attached to handles were in the box. Taurina was fine with it, determined to just make it work and get out of the head space the rain was causing her to be in.

Black was the color chosen first, though Taurina planned to use a little of all the colors. It would make the braid look of the design stand out more. The Eth chose the smallest of her needles, a simple one made of some sort of bone with a thin slit at the tip for the ink to rest in. The handle it had been fastened to was short and easy to grip with one hand. Unlike human skin -which needed to be pulled taunt by another’s hands- the pig skin was tough and did not need to be stretched. Taurina could work with it on her own.

The Eth bent over her small canvas of skin, the rest put away for safe keeping. Taking a breath, the tip of the needle was placed and drawn out of the ink bottle so that the tip of it filled with ink. It seemed easiest to start at the top, so that is what Taurina did. Small dots, that is what she was going for. The tough skin did not want to let her in, she had to press hard to puncture it. The needle went in and left a bubble of ink when she drew it out. Taurina did not mess with the droplet of ink at first. Instead she moved her needle down just next to the first dot. With effort, she got the tip of the needle through again. This time the bubble of ink was not as large, there was not much ink left in her needle.

Taurina made another dot, below the second one, and this time there was no bubble because of her lack of ink. The mark she made was faint at best. Taurina frowned and put more ink into her needle before trying again. It seemed that the harder she pressed, the more ink that was wasted. The Drykas did not know what else to do, so she continued with this method of pressing hard to get through the skin, and dipping for more ink when the needle got low. She tried not to press as hard in order to preserve more of her ink, but it was hard to do when the needle did not want to go through.

The Drykas tried to curve her line so that it looked like the sketch, but this was a task she seemed to be failing at. In the sketch her lines looked as though there was a hill and then a valley followed by another hill and so on. They were all even in the sketch, low hills with shallow valleys, but her practice tattoo did not look like that. Instead some of her hills were shallow, some high, same with her valleys. The line was not straight either, it was all over the place and uneven in color. When she tried to wipe away excess ink, it just smeared and stained the pig skin.

There was a deep frown forming on Taurina’s face, unpleased with her work and the results she was getting. When she had been introduced to the art and had practiced before, it had not been like this. That day the pig skin had been fresh, lines had been easier to make. Her mentor had shown her some of the basics of how to work with her needles and the ink. He had told her not to press too far into the skin, to wipe the excess ink away, and to keep her needles clean so no one got ill from someone else. It had just been some basic instructions, but she had learned from the Lilacwind’s as well. Just getting to observe them was a good way of learning, but they gave her advice also when she asked for it. All that she had been told though was not translating into her work, the already irritable Eth began to grow more frustrated.

Pavi | Thoughts

[Taurina]

Taurina continued to try with the pig skin and the simple design. If she pressed too hard, she wasted ink and sometimes went through to the other side of the skin and when she did not press hard enough, ink spilled onto the surface from her needle and stained the skin with messy smudges. It did not take long before the entirety of the pig skin was smudged with black ink, a very thin ling of uneven dots weaving through the middle of the thing. Taurina’s hands were stained with the ink from running her hand over the pig skin while it was still wet with ink and she had made a mess of both her needle and its handle. Things were not looking up.

Groaning with frustration, Taurina blocked up her ink bottle and put it back in the box with the her other supplies. She picked up the mutilated pig skin and stared at it a moment before chucking it across her tent. It landed not many feet away from her, the bottom side of it staring up at her with the holes of black she had punctured into it when pressing to hard. Taurina wrinkled her nose in disgust, making a face at the ugly little thing. Today had not been a success.

The Eth ran ink stained hands through her tangled hair, pulling and twisting at the light brown and blond strands intwined with her fingers. She was angry and wanted to make it known, but also did not want to embarrass herself. It did not seem like it was within Drykas nature to just give up at the first sign of failure. Taurina sighed and stopped the twisting and pulling of her hair, noticing its uselessness. She made sure all her supplies were put away before she pushed herself up to her feet and headed towards the ugly little piece of pig skin. Shaky hands picked it up to bring back to her bedroll where she could study it under the light.

“What did I do wrong?” was the question of the bell and it was asked in a quiet mutter by the Eth to herself. She wished that she had someone to properly ask how to do these things, but she was embarrassed to ask at the Lilacwind Pavillion. Taurina had high respect for all their abilities and while she wanted to learn from them, she also did not want to embarrass herself. There was something in her that wanted to show that she already knew some of what to do. That she was not a complete beginner, but that was not really the truth. Taurina knew little of what to do and this pig skin proved it.

Taurina held the pig skin under the light, studying it carefully and noting what she had done wrong. ”Pressed to hard” that was an easy one to pick out, ”Medium depth needed.” Taurina flipped open to a back page in her journal, fetching one of her charcoal sticks before doing so. The Eth began to make notes for herself. Notes on what she had done wrong, what she thought would help her get better. The goal was to learn as much as possible on her own and then go ask for help.

More even distribution of ink needed. Taurina did not know how to accomplish the things on her list, but she was determined to try. The stubborn side of her wanted to figure this out on her own like she had with the sketching. More careful with the lines. How? Her handwriting was written with a sloppy hand in the language of those who were not Drykas. Questions mixed in with what she knew she did wrong. She knew her lines did not work, the way her ink had been applied had to be wrong because it had smeared everywhere and stained everything, and she had not figured out how hard or light to press. There were questions on how to fix those things, how to make it right, but Taurina had grown weary with this. A headache had formed under the strain of her anger and trying again did not seem like a good idea.

The pig skin was moved away to the side and Taurina took a long breath. In and out. A whooshing sound was made as the air exited the Eth’s lungs. Focusing herself, Taurina gazed upon her hands and frowned. The smeared ink had stained them too. Trails of black had found their way into the crevices of her scars and the lines of her skin, causing it all to be black. She tried wiping the stuff off on her pants, but it had already dried. Brow creasing, Taurina shifted her focus over to getting rid of the stains. It would not do to have them and the have to answer questions should anyone notice. That would be far too embarrassing. No, they would have to be cleaned off.

Pavi | Thoughts

[Taurina]

She had never tried to gather so much res at once, but Taurina did not want to waste the water of her waterskin and she did not want to go outside. The cold, wet weather would likely cause her to get sick in this earthbound body. Especially the way the rain was coming down now. The reimancy she still had yet to master seemed like her best bet for now. While she dreaded using too much, scared of overgiving and her general lack of control, it was another thing she did wish to get better at. So Taurina caused herself to focus.

Even in the orange light of her torch, her res looked moon colored and iridescent as it formed in that gel like constancy it always had. Taurina pooled as much as she dared to in one sitting into her hands. It took a long time to form, the process slow and in need of very careful focus. The res she stopped at amounted to what might be kept in a very small bowl. Taking a breath, Taurina willed it to turn to water. She did not fight for control this time because she actually wanted it to fall into her hands. Previously, she had lathered her hands in soap made wet by a few drops of water from her waterskin that she had been willing to sacrifice for this.

The Eth ran her hands through the water of her magic as best she could. The soap, which had become black from the ink on her hands, was washed away well enough. A tint of black still remained on her hands, a reminder of failure. Both at cleaning them and at the tattoo work that had caused the stain.

Taurina’s nose wrinkled in disgust once more as she looked at her hands. They weren’t clean enough, she wanted them cleaner. She wanted all traces of this miserable failure to be wiped away. So she did something stupid and while she knew it was stupid, that knowledge did not stop her. The Eth grabbed the soap once more and began scrubbing at her hands. It was not in a crazy or psychotic manner, but one born of determination and stubbornness. Her eyes were set on a goal and even though it was a small, insignificant goal, she was not easily deterred.

The soap on her hands turned a strange grayish color this time instead of black. Taurina had scrubbed until her hands felt practically raw from the effort. Another pool of res was sluggishly drawn out, the amount the same as before. Taurina repeated what she had done the first time. The res turned to water and fell into her palms where she used what she could catch of it to clean her hands of the soap and ink. The stains were washed away, only the faint trace of unidentifiable color remained hidden in the natural crevices of her skin. Taurina stared at that color though, the slight grayish tint it had caused her top lip to curl upwards. Why did it refuse to be washed away?

Taurina went to scrub again, the sudden desire to use more of her magic creeping up on her. She had never used so much at once. At least alone she never had. She had always too scared to dip into her magic so much at once. That warning from the one who initiated her always drew her away from playing too much with the magic she had once begged for. Taurina was in a state of being irrational however and if the signs of over giving had been taught to her, they were not remembered in these moments. She only remembered that such a thing existed.

The soap caused her hands to ache, her skin crying at her to stop. They had turned a red shade under the stress of her scrubbing. The soap on her hands did not change color this time. Instead it was the same off white color the bar was. Taurina frowned more, disliking her progress. The fear of casting more had somehow been washed away with the desire to do more. Taurina gave in easily, too focused on her task to realize the strange sensations that had overtaken her.

Her pool of res came out once more, this time smaller though she had wanted to make it bigger. A clap of thunder had distracted her though, the loud boom startled her out of her sort of trance over getting her hands pristine. There was confusion, but that desire to cast had not left. Taurina was just confused by it as it was abnormal for her and had never been there before. The Eth allowed her slightly larger than a miza sized pool of res shift to water and puddle in her palms. She washed the last of the soap away and dried her hands on the fabric of her pants.

When she looked this time, there was still dissatisfaction with her progress as the faint tint of dark grey remained, but Taurina decided against casting more. The desire to cast more scared her more than the possibly embarrassment of having to explain her hands to someone did. Lies could always be fabricated to hide what had happened with the ink, but what if something worse happened by creating more of the magic? What if overgiving happened? That it was already happening to a small degree was lost to the Eth.

Pavi | Thoughts

[Taurina]

Taurina placed her now significantly smaller bar of soap back in its place in her pack before she laid down on her mat. The Ethaefal was scared, not sure what had happened. The feeling of desire had not faded yet and she feared what it meant. Gripping the blankets in clenched hands, Taurina tried to focus on something else. Anything else.

The Ethaefal’s mind was spinning. There was nothing to do in a storm drenched world. Everything was dark in cast in that horribly bleak light. Taurina wanted to sleep, but sleep would not come. No matter how much she closed her eyes and tried, it did not come. Her human form needed it, unlike her Eth form. The Drykas needed everything while the Eth only needed the moonlight to function. The past nights had caused Taurina to be slower and weaker than normal. Without there actually being a moon to sustain her properly, the effects were felt. Everything was felt it seemed.

Taurina’s knuckles that had previously been red from being scrubbed were now turning white from gripping the blanket so hard. It was foolish, her magic could not just escape her without her concentrating and actually asking it to come out. This desire though.. the fear was real. She was not at a stage where her mind was lost, she still had it even if it was frail under the strain it had been put under over the past several bells. In a way it was scarier to still have her mind, to know but also not know what was going on.

There was a need to do something, anything with her hands. Her desires called for magic, but the logical part of her brain told her to do anything else. Sitting in fear and trying to force sleep to come was not going to work. Taurina slowly made herself to sit up and fiddled with a strange of her long, messy hair. It always seemed to be a mess, it both forms. Though, it was more easily managed in the Ethaefal form, when it wasn’t wet that is.

Taurina pulled over her pack and fished for her brush. The Eth forced herself to be slow and keep herself busy as she pulled the brush through her tangled locks. There were varied braids intermixed with the locks, an attempt to be like those around her. There were also natural dreads and massive matts tangled in the hair. She took better care of her mare’s mane and tail than she did of her own hair sometimes. The thing just got so easily tangled with the wind and the constant shoving it out of her face. It was rarely important enough to Taurina for her to take care of it. Now though, it would provide ample distraction. At least, she hoped it would.

The braids she found were unwoven before being carefully brushed through, the simply tangled hair was carefully brushed through as well. The matted hair was left for last as it was going to take more effort. Taurina had to take out the comb to get through the matts, her brush being too much for the tightly woven matts that sometimes -when pulled on too hard- caused tears to form in her eyes. The comb worked better at unweaving to tightly tangled hair, but if she was not careful, it hurt. Taurina forced herself to be careful this now late morning, needing to occupy her mind anyway.

Taking care of her hair did not fully satisfy Taurina’s desires, but it did distract. She was able to take a long time in working through all of the tangles in her brown sun streaked hair and make it all smooth to the touch. Commonly found throughout the Drykas surrounding her, Taurina wove the hair in various braids. Hers were always sloppy and uneven, not the careful knot work of those around her and always lacking the strands of color most sported. She was still learning how to do it all and she had not yet become officially apart of any one clan, let alone pavilion.

It took the Eth awhile to finish, but when she was done her hair was mostly woven onto her head in various, uneven braids. It likely would not last long and would be a tangled mess again by the next day, but that would be a mess for the future. For the present, it looked nice and had been a distraction. Satisfied with at least one thing today, Taurina put out her torch and rested once more on her bedroll. Those desires were still there, but they were less and there was less fear. Rest could possibly come and then work later. She would make it through the day and it would be okay. Taurina was determined to see it all turn out okay.

Pavi | Thoughts

[Khida]

Taurina

Skill	Points
Cosmetology	+1
Endurance	+1
Observation	+1
Planning	+1
Reimancy	+2
Socialization	+1
Tattooing	+3

• Cosmetology: brush for tangles, comb for mats
• Endurance: distraction as a salve for temptation
• Overgiving: the temptation to cast more
• Planning: listing things to address
• Reimancy: a bowl's worth of res
• Socialization: the fear of embarrassment
• Tattooing: freehanding makes for inconsistent lines
• Tattooing: pig skin is tougher than human
• Tattooing: shallow and deep pricks both waste ink
• Tattooing tool: needles to prick skin

Overgiving (mild): Taurina will find herself tempted to rely on reimancy at every opportunity over the next day, as well as exhibit a tendency to fidget and feel the need to do something with her hands at all times. Using any reimancy during that period is very likely to intensify her overgiving.

Notes

Another solid little practice thread. A couple alternate approaches for inking tattoos might be to paint the skin first and prick through the ink, carrying it down with the needle, or else to prick 'dry' and then rub pigment in afterwards. Just thoughts that occurred to me while I was reading, and empathizing with Taurina's troubles.

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