introductory mingle: CARNIVALE

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: overflow post for the Carnivale celebration
when: July 1st - July 9th
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

This is not the Carnivale post. This is just a tribute.

Optional overflow post, since the Carnivale log has hit Captcha. If you don't mind Captcha, feel free to continue using the previous one, or put up a top-level on this one with links to your previous threads and continue here, free of being put to the robot test with every tag.

Comments

[nikolaievich]

“It is not something I would choose for myself.”

He admits, because it’s true. He doesn’t mind pain at all, may even enjoy it in certain occasions and he isn’t ashamed of that fact. But piercings and the sort… they just never called to him. He can see the aesthetic appeal, but just like Re-L he’s a little confused about the payoff being worth it.

“But I figure some people actually enjoy the pain. While others may simply enjoy the aesthetic of it. That is also not the most painful place to have pierced, incidentally.”

[realimperfect]

"At least I'm not alone ..." though she's curious in an odd way. Not enough to have hooks passed through the skin of her back or anything extreme but ... body art or expression hadn't been an option for her in Romdeau. These things made her even more curious than she'd ever been - other people outside had had earrings and such, though it hadn't ever been an option. As the regent's granddaughter many things had been strictly off limits to her in terms of representing herself. She makes a mental note to investigate later on her own.

Still, she's more than slightly intrigued as he tells her that's not the most painful place. It's hard to train down the way her brow wants to arch, watching what they're doing for a moment longer as a way to distract her mind from the thousand directions it's trying to go with that kind of knowledge.

"It would make sense that some do I guess. I've met people who enjoy simpler things even." Still, curiosity killing the cat here -

"You said it's not the most painful place, though. Do you know from experience, or...?"

[nikolaievich]

He shakes his head. No piercings or tattoos for this one, that would make it easier for people to describe him which is the exact opposite of what a spy ones. Plus he’s never had the urge to have either to begin with. But Re-L’s apparent confusion is amusing to him. He looks from her to the piercings, wondering if they are going to leave it at that or maybe put some lace through the piercings. It’d probably be very uncomfortable to even sit with a corset piercing, but he’s seen them in some people in this place. He figures for those people the aesthetic appeal makes it worth it.

“But it stands to reason that getting a piercing in most sensitive areas would hurt more. And I know of people who’ve had their genitals pierced.”

As always, he sounds kind of awkward when talking about specific things- but it’d be silly for him to feel self-conscious in the middle of what is basically a kink festival.

[realimperfect]

If she hadn't been in the middle of watching this strange exhibition, the idea of it might've given her a little bit more of a shock. Even being there, though, she tosses a look back Illya's way that's... partially that she finds it hard to believe, and partially a facial expression that makes it seem like she wants to squirm at the idea but won't for pride's sake. She quit simply just.. can't even process it in the moment, other than a rather emphatic :

"But why? Is the aesthetic worth the pain and... disuse while it heals?" Ah, classic Re-L, too impatient for her own damn good even though she knows well and truly that she heals much faster than other people anyway. There's no real need to advertise that, though. At least not here and now. "I suppose I may just be over thinking, as well. Grandfather would've never allowed me to do anything like that anyway."

[nikolaievich]

Illya should probably not be this amused, it’s probably going to bite him in the ass later on but it is honestly refreshing that she seems to be so unafraid of asking direct and blunt questions, even considering the subject matter.

“It’s obviously worth it, as ar as they are concerned. If you’re interested in seeing how it’d look, though, there’s temporary ones.” A bit of a smile at her. “Saves you the pain, and the waiting.”

[realimperfect]

"I'm not worried about healing times with much of anything. I heal quickly." It's a bonus of her cloned heritage, she knows that, probably shouldn't bring it up so flippantly just in case he decides to pursue it further. But at the moment she's a little wrapped up in watching the demonstrators lace the new piercings together, head slightly tilted and clearly debating what the hell the point was in that, too.

"It was just.. not even an option to be considered, in Romdeau."

[nikolaievich]

“You’re not in Romdeau, though. And Grandfather isn’t here.”

He isn’t sure how he ended up playing the part of a bad influence on Re-L when he doesn’t have any particular interest on piercings but somehow here they are. Probably because while he understands wanting to follow the rules to a T, he’s also become really familiar with what following them blindly can do lately. Burning the tape felt good, maybe getting the piercing as a sort of rebellion would be good for Re-L as well.

“Do you want to get closer? See all the options?”

[realimperfect]

"Oh, I know. None of this would be happening if we were and he was." And she was clearly taking it all in as much as she could possibly force herself. It's all very out of her comfort zone, if she's truthful about it, but she's not exactly complaining (all that loudly) about it either. Breaking out of where she'd grown too comfortable was a part of life, really, now that she was no longer in the dome. It was more so when dealing with others that she had a little bit of an issue.

Her eyes flicker to him, giving him a look even if she doesn't turn her head. It's obvious enough what he's hinting at, and more than anything she has to debate her own willingness to defy a dead man -

Which is still pretty damn high.

"Are you volunteering for one as well, then?"

[nikolaievich]

Illya blinks, because that’s not the answer he had been expecting. Then he glances at the parlor. He’s always had… very little interest in piercings, but that’s mostly because any body modifications would make it easier for people to recognize him- and also because of the point in time he came from. There’s been a resurgence lately, but there’s still certain implications of wearing a piercing he’d rather avoid.

He frowns.

“It’d be… frowned upon, in Russia. It’s one thing for a woman to get one, but a man...” A beat. “But I suppose I‘m not in Russia either. There's no harm in looking.”

[realimperfect]

"... I was going to say." He could probably see that, though, even before she'd opened her mouth, just with the way her brows had drawn in and the intensity at which she'd whipped her head around to look at him. At the very least she'd definitely call him out on the problems with telling her that she wasn't in Romdeau anymore and then telling her it'd be frown upon in his home. Still, with that thought in mind she motions for him to go on ahead, lead the way, however he wanted to see it, as if not allowing him to slip away or chicken out, now.

"Lead us then, won't you? I don't even know what I'd do." She pauses, takes a look at the corseted, newly pierced person standing nearby, and then specifies :

"Definitely not that, though."

[nikolaievich]

Yeah, he’s smart enough to see his own hypocrisy. He still thinks it’s different, in a way- Russia is deeply ingrained in his own personality, it’s his identity, it’s who he is. But he also knows if he tells her that she would be free to say Romdeau is the same for her. There’s no one that comes from his same point in time and his same world anyway, this…

This feels a little bit like the rebellion he was trying to tell her she needed. Like getting a part of himself back. He figures... there’s no harm in looking.

“I don’t know much either, so maybe we should get someone to advise us.” He glances at her, then at the woman getting her back laced over so it looks like a corset. “But as pretty as that may look, that’s probably too much.”

[realimperfect]

"Provided they don't try to talk me in to something on my face I don't see how it could hurt." For all intents and purposes she'd like to keep anything she did able to be hidden if the need was there. The idea of decorum and what was acceptable to show and what wasn't hadn't quite had time to dissolve in her, just yet. Maybe it was that she wanted her own rebellions to be hers, even if it was only for a little while in a place that seemed to like bathing suits and parties so much. She's not too keen on exploring the mentality of why right now, and more keen on just acting on her own whims for once.

Well.. sort of Illya's whims, but if she'd truly been set against a piercing in the first place this wouldn't be happening anyways.

It would seem their prolonged standing and chatting has drawn someone's eye, though, and soon their approached by a relatively heavily pierced Quarantine Resident who's all too happy to chirp out a friendly :

"Can I help you two with anything?"

"Mainly I'm wondering what their is to be pierced that isn't on my head but is also not quite so... involved as that."

[nikolaievich]

Illya stays by her side, but he keeps on looking around. They have some pics hang up on the stand, showing former clients and the work they had done. Some of them are a little to out there- Re-L is right, there’s some of them who had piercing on their faces. Nose piercings and ear piercings mostly, and that’s… definitely not what Illya is looking for.

The resident shows them a couple full body outline where they point out all the different places a body can be pierced. Which is, incidentally nearly the entire body and while Illya apparently knew more about this than Re-L, he’s still kind of surprised at some of the things his hearing.

“I would not pierce my genitals.” He’s quick to say with a tone that invites to absolutely no question and the resident seems to get that.

“Maybe…” He draws an imaginary circle on the chest with his finger. “In this area?”

[realimperfect]

Really, there's no way in hell Re-L is getting anything visible with her normal clothing on. While she's crossing a line here that she wouldn't normally cross, there's still that line, clearly drawn in her mind in that proverbial sand. Of course it would mean nothing to the people here to have her ears pierced, her nose - she's seen many people with those kinds of body modifications in her time in the Quarantine, but... It just isn't her style, really. And a piercing somewhere that could be covered...

It left a little element of surprise, didn't it? Not that many people would ever even get to see it, but.. the idea of it wasn't too bad, even in her mind for the moment.

For some reason Illya's firm assertion is amusing in the moment, Re-L's thumb pressing beneath her chin while her fingers curve over her lips, feigning thought as she tries to hide her amusement. At least until she can't hold her tongue anymore, and -

"How are nipples any better?" It's an honest question, right? She seems to have her mind made up, at least, pointing toward one point in particular, the bellybutton.

"I think this, for me. It's covert enough."