New costumed in feathers, netting and sparkling green glass, Umeko leaves Sorcha's dressing area only to find the current dance class staring at her; a tiger Khatta, a petite Zerda and a lean Naga, along with their olive-skinned human instructor. "What is this, Sabah?" the instructor asks. "Have you been taking on students of your own now?"
"Aya aya!" Sabah replies, half-laughing. "Batya, this is my honored guest, the Lady Umeko Tsuguri of Jadai, who employs my youngest son and is eager to learn the ways of Abu Dhabi."
Umeko curls forward in a graceful bow to the human. "She speaks true," Umeko says as she rises. "She has brought me to be attired as one of the ladies of your land and I must confess I find the clothing very beautiful. We may add more to it later if time permits and the artist is available. But for now I am ... simply enjoying it. I hope we did not interrupt your lessons."
"Hmmm, come forward please, Lady of Gold and Green," Sabya says, with a come-hither gesture of her hand. It's hard to read her full expression because the veil she wears, but her eyes seem to sparkle.
Umeko saunters forward, her hips swaying from side to side in fluid grace with her tail sweeping in counter-weight. All the chain, from the veil to the neck-collar and arm-chains jingle as she walks. When she draws up before the human, her head bows ever so slightly, chin tilted down in deference to someone she sees as an instructor.
"May I touch you?" Sabya asks.
"You may do as you like," Umeko offers and her head even bobs once.
The woman places the palm of her hand, fingers downward, on Umeko's belly just beneath the navel-stone. "Please, breath in as deeply as you can, and exhale slowly."
Umeko draws in her breath slowly and her stomach follows suit as the muscles draw upwards to inflate her lungs. Once she reaches her limit, umeko slowly exhales in a soft hiss and the muscles relax and her stomach rolls down and back out in gentle pressure against the human's palm.
"Not yet a mother, I imagine?" the woman asks warmly. "But a dancer.. or a warrior, perhaps?"
"Though I was trained in classical Jadaian dance, my calling is that of a warrior," Umeko agrees and her head bobs once more. "I have not carried a clutch yet, so my shape has remained a bit slimmer."
"Your breathing shows you training," Sabya notes, giving a brief nod. "Sword dancing will be fastest for you to learn, and then fire dancing to complement your color." She steps back and nods to the Naga woman - a slender viper in black and yellow, wearing a headdress and a shoulder-mantle similar to Umeko's, but both with a gold and blue color motif. "Shatara, please demonstrate."
Umeko's muzzle skews up a bit and she looks worried. "I did not bring "Summer Tempest" with me into the market, my familial blades," she admits in a low voice as she steps to the side so that she can better-view Shatara's demonstration.
The Naga bows, and then slithers to the equipment rack to pick up two scimitars. The blades are shiny and polished, but neither metal nor chitin, but something smoky and veined, like.. perhaps.. pink quartz.
Umeko folds her hand together, causing her arm-chains to tinkle a bit as the move. Her head now tilts this way and that as she looks over the unusual weapons, trying to understand if they have any purpose outside of dance.
Sabya and the other girls pick up instruments - tambourines, a drum and two polished boat-pin clubs. The begin the music, which starts slow, with the clubs tapping out a beat. Shatara's movements mimic the music; slow and sinuous, but also freezing in a particular pose on the beat of the clubs.
Umeko's attention is now captured. Many things are used as focus when training in the fighting arts. Some moves are timed to the flow of water, others to wind. Being tied to music is truly no different; she can easily imagine a beat signifying hitting in combat.
The beat shifts, and the drums and tambourine become dominant as the Naga's torso spins and orbits above her coils, while her head often moves counter on the end of her long neck. And then, finally, her arms begin to move, spinning and sweeping the blades in tight arcs.
At no point does the dance seem like simulated combat, as the Naga's arms seem to be boneless in their sinuous paths. The stone blades slide against one another several times, before separating and spinning or twirling differently - as if lovers in a story.
Umeko's jeweled brow furrows now as if two aspects of her mind were in conflict over just how to interpret the movement. Eventually she manages to forget to look for how it could be used and instead watches it for the sake of its movement and the grace and skill behind them.
Meanwhile, Sabah sets out a wide, flat bowl on a side table, and fills it with oil. A long-wicked lamp is also lit, it's flame high. The dance begins to change again, becoming a bit more combative and closer to the sort of drills that Master Tooth put Umeko through. Sabah sidles away from the dance area, heading for a curtain against one wall.
And just when Umeko was watching the art ... the change brings her martial training back to the forefront of her mind. Her head nods once more as she watches the movements, the timing, to the body positions and how each could translate into a strike. She doesn't move away, having been in many combats now. Instead, she stands and the light from the tall flame dances across her golden scales and faux-emerald gem-work.
Sabah draws the curtain along its long track, isolating the dancing area from the well-lit section of the room and plunging it into darkness. This doesn't last, however, as the lamp flame suddenly bursts into two fanning arcs. The moving flames reflect off of the various shiny elements of the Naga's costume, including her eyes, and the contrast is such that it seems her body is invisible and outlined only by the reflections of the flaming swords. Swords that can't be real ones, since there are times when they must be spun through the air like batons, so must be specially balanced.
With the glowing trails of flame hanging in the air, the dance really is become a story, as two serpents twine and dance and then come together in clashes that seem to explode, only to separate and continue their dances around the half-seen figure of Shatara.
Umeko's eyes go wide, both from her eyelids opening and from her slit-iris spreading to allow in more light. "Xander would love this," the realizes as she keeps watch, "PErhaps if I danced like this for him he would accept that I have been ... submitting to him while in his lands?" Every movement, every curl, is caught by Umeko's eyes in fascination and awe. Even as skilled as she is, the Kiriga realizes that to learn this dance will take much effort and training. The Kiriga has newfound respect for the women of this land and their unique skills.
The dance comes to an end as the fuel for the flames is exhausted, and Sabah pulls the curtain back. The air has a bit of a lingering haze from the smoke (which also added to the effect of the dance) and the stone-bladed scimitars are set on a stone slab to cool. Shatara also looks a bit overheated, having to let her mouth gape a bit to vent excess body heat.
"Excellent, as always, Shatara," Sabya says, setting down the tambourine. "Once you have mastered knowing where all parts of your body and costume are in relation to the blades, this mode of dance is infinitely variable. You have a bit more freedom of movement than Shatara though, Lady Tsuguri. Do you enjoy jumping and leaping?"
Umeko now takes a few steps closer to Shatara so that she can get a better look at the reptile up close, from how her body is built to if she also allowed the vartan to adorn her body with special jewelry, including the suggested tongue-adornment since her mouth is open. "That was amazing," Umeko admits with a hint of actual awe in her voice. "Jadai often claims to have the pinnacle of dance but ... this was far more amazing." The Kiriga then answers the question by saying, "Yes, I do. I am quite agile."
Shatara has no decorations on her tongue.. but her fangs each have a tiny gold band around their midsections. Her gem placement is more subtle, since the glass 'stones' use on her match her body colors exactly - onyx over black scales, yellow over yellow. It is only when the light hits them properly do they shine - probably a decoration specific to the fire dance.
Umeko's head bobs in approval at the serpent's decoration. "It must take considerable time to learn that dance well," she admits. "Would you allow me the honor of learning the dance here during our stay? It may not be long enough to master it, but I wish to try anyway."
"It will be an honor to have our humble techniques taken out into the larger world," Sabya says, bowing. Shatara bows as well, after flicking her tongue.
"The honor is mine for being taught by people of such skill," Umeko counters and bows deeply to the women.
The women all giggle slightly at the flattery. But then, it is Dream Street, where the impression is what matters. "If you would, Lady Tsuguri, please share with us some of your Jadaiian style of dance?" Sabya asks. "Do you require finger cymbals or special instruments for accompaniment?"
"No, I require my fans," Umeko says with a knowing smile. Her head bobs and the goes to the bag that Nawar was carrying that contains the clothing she wore in. She pulls two long, bone-finned collapsed fans and rolls them between her fingers. "Music would help, but you would not know the proper songs ... so I will try to perform it well without the accompaniment," the Kiriga offers as she saunters into the center of the room. "When you are all ready?" she says.
The women take up their instruments, despite Umeko's claim to not need them. "We will watch and learn first," Sabya says, bowing.
Umeko's head dips low as the rest of the Kiriga stands tall and straight. The tines of the collapsed fans slide through her fingertips as if they were growing from her very hands. Her hands snap, perhaps as if there were a beat of a drum and the tines spread, forming a half-moon of colorful zolken thread that has been embroidered with some scenes of celestial reptiles from the mythology of the long past. She raises her arms slowly and with them her head also rises. Her right arm then draws in sharply, concealing her face behind the artwork of its vanes while her left arm remains straight out to her side and the tines snap shut. Again, the movements look as if they would be timed to drumbeats. That's when the real dance begins. The Kiriga's left arm now draws in and she twirls around, one leg drawn up and her tail curling around her as if it were a separate serpent dancing with her. And then she start stepping in smooth circle after circle, her tail twirling around her as a ribbon of scale and
sheen.
The dancers are rapt as they watch, perhaps taking in more than a typical audience would. Even Nawar watches in fascination, although her eyes generally follow the fan itself.
When Umeko stops her fans snap wide, gracefully sweeping her own tail away as if refusing the advance of a lover. The fans then fold with a snap and she lets them slide back along the insides of her arms. Again her tail snakes in, drawing close as if it were about to steal her away. Umeko's arms snap forward, sending her fans up into the air high above while the Kiriga herself dips slow, sweeping under her own tail as it tries to close its coils about her. She catches one of the fans in her right hand and with a fluid, yet snapping, strike hits the other fan in mid-air. It snaps open wide as Umeko twirls once more. When she comes around her gracefully plucks it from the air with her legt and ... just in time to catch the tip of her own tail as it once more tied to coil in upon her. Her head snakes from side to side as if chiding her tail, her 'dance partner', just before she pushes it away with a gentle trust of the zolken vanes. And so now her tail snakes away and coils backwards, resuming i
resuming its place behind her. The Kiriga then flips the spread fan back into the air where she catches it on the folded tines of the other.
This show of tossing and use of the fans themselves in the process causes some jaws to drop, although Shatara leans in slightly to watch even more closely when the fans rebound and deflect off one another.
The fans then become a blur in her right hand, the spread one twirls and rolls with amazing speed as Umeko's wrist tilts and snakes about. Its shifting movement and color almost looks as though she is crafting a flower in the air before her. Soon the Kiriga is actually switching which fan is closed and which is spread by subtle adjustments to the way her wrist and elbows move. Soon they separate and once more she holds two fans spread wide in each hand. Her body begins undulating and rolling from side to side as if to hidden flutes; her fans chain and feathers now all flowing together. She almost looks like a creen with all the color and grace of movement as she steps, twirls and glides around the center of the room. On what may be the last beat of a drum, she lifts the fans high, tines spread, then snaps them closed loudly as she drops low to her knees, arms spread to her side.
Then as if bowing to some unseen lord, her chest and chin lower to the floor in an act of submission. Her arms remain spread to her sides and there she holds her posture for a few seconds before drawing herself back up and her arms in. The closed fans are placed before her, their tines in perfect parallel. Umeko draws in a slow breath and apologizes, "Forgive my poor rendition of 'The Seduction of the Creen'. Music helps time it more properly and in truth, it is usually danced as a pair. I had to compensate with my tail."
"You dance with a partner?" Sabya asks, surprised and impressed. "How long must you practice together?"
"They sell creens on the Street," Nawar suggests, thinking that is the partner required by the dance, since it's right there in the title.
"Some takes years of practice before a public performance is allowed. The timing must be perfect," Umeko says as she folds her hands into her lap. Her head nots towards the fans themselves. "The edges are quite strong and if you hit your partner with it you may do some serious injury."
"The fan dances at the Harem Club are.. not so poetic," Sabah notes. "I do not think you will find a suitable partner for a duet here. But I think you will not have a problem learning our style in a short time."
The fans can be thought of as the spreading wing, you see," Umeko adds, "an extension of your hands and fingers. You must learn them until they feel as if they are a part of you, else the movement may not be correct." She then smiles as she says, "You honor me with your belief I will learn your style quickly. May the ancestors make it so."
Snapping out of her daze, Sabya stands and claps her hands. "Well then, we must resume our exercises, so that Lady Tsuguri may join us," she says.
"I would be honored to join you for lessons this afternoon," Umeko says with all smiles. Perhaps she will learn enough to at least be passingly capable of the sword dance by evening so that she can practice more alone...
For the next few hours, Umeko learns the basic components of Himaatian dance such as the belly-roll, torso and shoulder turns and the tricky chest spin (which is probably more impressive on mammals, but still difficult to do while keeping other things level). Things begin to wind down just as someone shuffling through the door - and almost elderly looking Khatta, hunched and carrying a doctor's bag. Calvin greets him and shows him to the back room.
"The Artmetal Man," Shatara hisses low to Umeko. "He gave me my fang-bands."
Umeko nods to Shatara. "Sorcha mentioned he does amazing work with jewelry and I believe set Sabah's belly-stone for her," the Kiriga whispers to Shatara. "Your bands are also lovely. I am going to see what work he may be able to do for me. Sorcha suggested a tongue-stud, which would be quite eye-catching." To the others, Umeko now speaks up, "If you will all excuse me? I would like to go speak to your visiting artist."
The dancers take a break, since the light is beginning to fade a bit as afternoon slides towards evening, and Umeko is free to return to the back room. There, the Khatta is set up with some stools and a table, which is covered with a cloth, upon which rest various odd looking tools and several stoppered bottles. Sorcha waves Umeko over to the open stool.
Umeko slips into the back room and bows to Sorcha deeply. "Thank you again for your dress, I have found it quite comfortable and lovely. She even jingles her chains in emphasis." The kiriga then quietly moves over tot he stool and settles down lightly upon in. "And a good evening to you, sir," she tells the older khatta. "I have seen some of your work and I find it quite beautiful. I was hoping that you may be able to practice some of your art upon me," she says in a quiet voice to keep from distracting the khatta too much.
"Hmmm," the Khatta purrs. He isn't as old as he appeared on first glance.. the hunch must be from something other than age. "My Standard is basic," he says apologetically. "Please open mouth, yes?"
"As you wish," Umeko says as she dips her head once. She eases her mouth open wide to allow the man to see her upper and lower teeth, and her long, forked, tongue.
The man places a large reflector on his forehead to shine light into the Kiriga's maw. She can also feel him tapping at her teeth with a tool, and even tugging slightly on her fangs. The Khatta remains silent the whole time, finally lifting Umeko's tongue to look at the underside. "Good teeth," he finally comments. "Tell me what you crave, yes?"
"Sorcha thought a well-placed metal stud in my tongue would work well for my dance-dress," Umeko explains now that she can speak again, "And such did not seem as if it would be too painful to have placed" She folds her hands in her lap and she asks, "What can you do and what do you feel would be attractive decoration for my mouth?"
"You want something that come out?" the feline asks, looking thoughtful. "Or always in?"
"It depends on what they are," Umeko admits, "Can you show me examples of each?"
"Hmmm, hawww..." the man goes and puts on gloves before carefully removing some items from a small box, and laying them out on the cloth. All of them are of silver or gold; studs of various shapes and sizes, from flat reflective ones to holders for something else (perhaps a gem) to rounded and spherical studs. "Cannot show.. ah.. tattoo," he apologizes.
Umeko looks over each carefully. "Silver, I think," she suggests, "A silver-tongued serpent. Are the studs removable typically? Could I buy a couple different styles and change them now and then?"
"Hssss.. do reptile tongues.. ah.. rejuvenate?" the Artmetal Man asks, his gloved fingers plucking away the gold pieces and returning them to their box.
"It would take a week or so for most to heal over," Umeko says as her ear-fins flick a bit, "So changing to leaving out for a few days should not cause anything to close. I know because I bit my tongue more than once as a child." Umeko looks over what remains and rubs her chin thoughtfully. "Is my tongue long enough for two?" the kiriga actually asks.
"Yess," the man says, "but not too close." He holds up his hand with the thumb and index finger showing a space of about an inch.
Umeko nods at that. "Do you think it would be eye-catching to have two?" she asks as her head tilts a slight bit.
"You stick out tongue lots?" the man asks seriously.
"Enough," Umeko says, equally serious, "And I like to tease a good friend of mine now and then by licking him." She reaches out and taps two of the spherical ended studs and asks, "Would two of these work, with two flat ones for replacements when I want something less noticeable?"
"Hmmm, licking," the man says. He chooses a relatively flat stud, but when it's turned a bit the light shows ridges on it. "Good licking stud, like Khatta tongue. Good for scaling fish too."
Umeko eyes that stud, then dips her head. "Those as the secondary ones instead of flat. I want the regular ones to be the spherical or round-tipped," the Kiriga says. Umeko is nothing, if not a bit rebellious given what she is talking about.
The next stud shown is flatter than the ridged one, but still slightly curved.
"Do you have one with a slight more curve than that one?" Umeko asks after she peers at the stud.
"How this?" the man asks, offering up one that is rounder, but not quite as wide as the previous one.
Umeko nods approvingly and brushes back her mane. "Two of these to start, spaced like you showed," The Kiriga says. "Then two of the ridged licking ones I can put in later when I want to change the style. Is that a ... deal?"
"Hnn," the Khatta goes, nodding as he sets aside the selected pieces and puts the rest away. He also shows Umeko the small clip that holds the studs in place under the tongue. "Hold under tongue please," he says, offering up the bit of metal. "Roll around. See if irritates."
Umeko carefully takes the bit of metal and places it under her tongue. She closes her mouth and rolls her tongue to see if the metal bit bothers anything. Her bejeweled brow rolls this way and that and even her ear-fins spread and fold a few times. She finally opens her mouth and carefully picks out the clip and offers it back to the Khatta. "It feels unusual, but it is not unpleasant or irritating."
"Okay, we try then," the man says, and then asks, "Tattoo? You know what is that?"
"I do. Skin-coloring," Umeko says and nods. "Are you suggesting I get one?"
In answer, the man sticks out his tongue. There, in gold and silver, is.. a drawing of a Khatta sticking out its tongue. It shines in the dim light of the room.
Umeko can't help but giggle a little. "If I like the studs, I'll consider that for next time?" she offers the khatta.
"Yesh," the man says, and produces a silver metal mirror - very expensive, but not prone to misting from one's breath - and gestures for Umeko to open her mouth again.
Umeko takes the mirror and is rather delicate about it since even she recognizes how expensive the mirror is. She holds it up and to the side a bit and then opens her jaws wide. A few more adjustments on the mirror and she can see well into her mouth.
Carefully, the Artmetal Man lays the studs on Umeko's tongue where they would be attached after the spikes are connected, so that she can see how they'd look.
Umeko finds the sight to be, well, rather odd and quite different; two silvery studs in the center of her tongue, spaced about an inch apart along the center. She feels a twinge of nervousness about what she's about to do since it is rather unusual. She certainly hasn't seen a Kiriga with such adornments before. But ... it is still not as strange as the things Hakuu did to his 'women'. And with this, well, it is her choice. She reaches over and pat's the Khatta's shoulder to confirm she approves. She doesn't dare speak or move her head with the studs just sitting there.
The man removes the studs puts them in a small cup, which he pours some clear liquid into from one of his bottles (which smells strongly of alcohol). He then takes up a tool that look a bit like measuring calipers but have wide, curved cups over the tips, and some sort needle-and-gauge attached. He motions of Umeko to open her mouth and stick out her tongue again.
Umeko eyes the rather scary looking tool and that nervousness returns in force. "It's just a wound and it will heal if I turn out to dislike it," the Kiriga tells herself. She swallows deeply and then opens her jaws and sticks out her tongue as far as it will go. HEr tail, also nervous, snakes and curls around the legs of her stool.
The caliper presses down gently, once in each implant spot.. so that the Khatta can gauge how thick Umeko's tongue is! Using this, he cuts two pieces of silver wire. These go into the alcohol cup, and the studs come out.. all four of them. Each is flipped over and examined - Umeko can no see tiny holes in the backs of them. What happens next is a bit more of a surprise, however, as the man unfolds a new piece of cloth.. with a magic circle embroidered into it!
Umeko's eyes go wide, then she blinks. It actually takes her a moment to pull her tongue back in. Now her head tilts this way and that as she looks at the magic circle along with the bits of wire. It doesn't look like the magic circles Xander uses, certainly. "What is that for?" she finally asks, unable to resist the curiosity.
"Pins," the man says, as he places the four studs in the middle of the circle, bottoms up, and then retrieves the fresh-cut pins from the alcohol and uses pliers to set them into the holes in the backs of the studs. The don't set in them straight, however, hinting that the studs are hollow to save on metal. He then adds other things to the mix - some rock that may very well be raw silver ore, a vial of rust, and other things which don't have any logical connection, but still have to go in exactly the right place on the circle. Once this is done, the Khatta begins to chant, showing that his voice can actually be quite pleasant when he's speaking whatever language is used for his magic.
Sorcha excuses himself and slips out through another door. While he has admirably suppressed the Vartan reaction to shiny things, he still apparently doesn't like to be around magic.
Umeko sits back to watch. She also can't help but look for Sabah, to see if she is watching the procedure, or like her daughter, is a bit too ... squeamish. She also realizes that Xander would have found this interesting. Perhaps she should bring him by sometime. He could use a nice earring in the shape of a dragon, after all.
Sabah is there, near the door and being inconspicuous, but smiling all the same.
Umeko waves Sabah over to whisper to her while the mage is busy. "You approve?" she whispers to the older doe.
It takes about twenty minutes of chanting and gesturing, but suddenly the pins in the studs stand up at perfect right angles and any gap between them and the studs vanishes, as if the pins were always part of the studs.
"I would not be so bold myself," the Lapi admits. "Such things are for the younger, unmarried women to try."
"Well, I wished for something since I do not have a navel like you do," Umeko admits. Her attention, though, shifts back to the now fused studs. Her head bobs and then tilts as she examines how well it joined. "Wow," she says softly.
The studs are set aside, and a new tool is brought forward. This one is quite clearly made for punching through flesh, as the Khatta removes the spike from it and places it in the alcohol bath, then fetches a small jar full of a greasy substance, and a small stick with a puff of cotton on the end.
Umeko spits the new instrument and swallows again and then draws a deep breath. She can't help but lick her lips a few times and then open her mouth again and stick out her tongue. Her tail coils about her stool legs once more as she waits. Umeko has one thing, an iron will. Lots of girls would have run by now...
"The numbing stuff," Sabah comments. "It works.. well. I don't know what it will do to your sense of taste though."
Umeko's brow ridge arches and the Kiriga shrugs. She looks both scary and a bit silly sitting there all teeth and ... tongue.
More elements are produced, including something made of ironwood that had a lot of worm-gears in it. The artisan makes some adjustments to it, altering its size, and then turns to Umeko. "Go awwwwwwww please," he requests.
"Ahhhhhhh," Umeko half-hisses with her jaws wide and tongue sticking out. She can't quite figure out what this device is. But .. she suspects she'll find out soon.
And soon she does, as the man fits the contraption into Umeko's mouth.. and now she can't close it! A leather strap is used to hold her tongue as well, keeping it outstretched. "Uncomfortable, I know. But be bad to get bit, if you feel pain," the Khatta apologizes, and then Umeko can feel the anaesthetic goo being applied to two spots on her tongue.. and then two others on the bottom.
"Mrrrgph," goes Umeko. If she really wanted, she could easily clobber the man and pull this device out of her mouth, but ... for some reason she doesn't want to. Maybe it's because she chose to have this done. So, she reaches over and lightly pats the Khatta's shoulder instead and gives him an understanding nod. The goo, well, she can feel it already stat to tingle on the two spots he just applied it, both above and below. She can't move her tongue much in this contraption, but the two little forked ends waggle up and down a bit.
"Forked tongue good for this," the man comments, making small talk as he cranks open the piercer - which must have a lot of tension in it. As he puts the spike back into it, he says, "No big tubes in middle, but off to side. No want to poke those, no no no." The piercer has a tab to hold it in place as well, and Umeko can feel it pressing her tongue into a flatter shape, despite the numbing. "I count, okay?" the man says. "Flap ears for nod, yes?"
Umeko listens to the small talk and actually finds it disturbingly interesting that a forked tongue is a prime candidate for studding. His reasoning makes sense, though. Her fingers start to tap on the rim of the stool when she feels the tab flattening out her tongue, but she is determined to do this. So, at his request, her finned ears flap once to indicate a nod.
The man begins to count down. "Three, two..." KACHUNK! The shock from the piercer vibrates Umeko's lower jaw, and even with the numbing she can feel it - it just doesn't hurt yet.
Umeko actually lets out a loud snort of breath from her nostrils and her claws dig into the stool seat (and will likely leave gouges. She stakes several deep breaths now, slow and controlled. As she does, she doesn't quite feel pain but she feels something thought her tongue and a soft throbbing around it.
through, not thought Bah.
"Very good," the Artmetal Man says, as he cranks his device back open. "No loose bladder. Silly trivia; this was once torture device!" he chortles as he repositions the thing for the second stud placement.
"How are you doing dear," Sabah asks, noting Umeko's death-grip on the stool. "Waggle your ears if you want to stop, okay?"
Umeko can't help but snort-laugh about that. She had her entire body twisted by a madman and that was some pain. This can't be nearly that bad, even when it wears off. To answer Sabah she lifts her hand and shakes it side to side, then reaches over and pats the doe to try and indicate she's fine.
While Umeko is distracted by Sabah, the Tooth of Cooperation makes its second bite, KACHUNK! "There, hard part over! Not lot of blood," the Khatta says, and sets the machine aside to pick up the first stud. "I do one of each for get used to them, okay?" he says, as he starts handling Umeko's tongue.
The second thunk doesn't startle Umeko quite as much, though she still very much feels the metal bit going through her tongue and the now two throbbing points. She draws another deep breath in effort to calm herself and focus on things other than the odd sensation. That lasts for all of a few seconds though as the remark about putting in one of each brings her attention right back. She considers it, then flaps her ears once as a nod for 'yes'. She also immediately realizes how strange it feels to have someone handling her tongue!
It isn't like that kiss Xander gave her once, that is for sure. But the inserting of the studs themselves is very quick, and the measurements from before mean the pins are long enough that her tongue isn't squeezed, but not so long that things would be loose or drag against the bottom of her mouth. There's some cranking and turning of gears, and then the mouth brace comes out as well.
Umeko holds her mouth open for a minute after the mouth braces eases out. It's then she finally closes her mouth and even that is slow. When it's finally closed Umeko's ears skew and twitch as she a rather odd expression on her snout. Soon her head is turning this way and that as she's obviously moving her tongue about and feeling the studs out, even though part of her tongue is still quite numb. The edges of her lops curl up into a smile, perhaps because she actually did it. She chose to do something different and simply did it. She looks around for the silvery mirror she was offered earlier.
The mirror is held up by Sabah, how warns, "Now.. I'm sure there's going to be some bruising from that.."
Umeko takes a deep breath and nods. She closes her eyes and sticks out her now studded tongue as far as she can. She then actually waits to see if Sabah says anything before she opens her own eyes to look in the mirror.
"The blue sort of goes well with the silver," the Lapi comments. The Khatta says, "Put ice on it! Or see Life Mage. Or wait, it go down in few days. Don't eat spicy food - no salt, pepper."
Umeko's eyes finally open and she sees two gleaming silver points neatly positioned in her tongue. They're mostly towards the front, but with two, well, it does leave the first three inches of her tongue studded. The edges around the studs are blue, of course and do look a little swollen. She flicks her tongue a bit and watches it sparkle. "I ... like it," she finally says. Her voice is tinged with a hiss as usual and that seems to be helping mask any major distortion of her voice from the swelling for now. She now reaches up to feel each one to determine which was the smooth and which was the ridged by running her fingertip over them.
The forward, flatter stud is the ridged one, with the ridges aligned so that the roughness is felt forward to back. The second one is the larger, hemispherical stud.
"Well ... I suppose we should pay the man and head home. I imagine this will be a bit of a shock, both the clothing and the jewelry," Umeko says carefully as she finally gets off the stool. "I must be insane to have done this ... but I wanted to."
The Khatta takes out a piece of paper that's obviously been pre-printed, and starts filling out parts of it. The sure sign that he is, in fact, a Mage is that he uses his guild ring to put an imprint next to his name.. and there is not even the pretense of haggling. The bill comes to 230 shekels, and the breakdown shows a quarter of that was just for the silver.
Umeko snorts and shakes her head, unsurprised by the cost of the jewelry. Umeko searches out her side-pouch in her back of clothing near Sabah. It takes her a minute to count out the appropriate amount in shekels for the procedure, but she does so, thankful that her stipend as one of the Curators as well as her family ties, affords her to be able to pay for this experiment. She offers the money to the man in exchange for the 'receipt'.
The Khatta makes a second copy for Umeko, complete with seal, and also includes a little pasteboard card for a Life Magic Clinic on Dream Street. "Pleasure, yes, take this also," he says, handing her the jar of numbing goo. "If still hurt, apply. Still hurt after swelling go down, come see me."
Umeko bows to the odd khatta. "I will do so, thank you," she says. She's about to leave but then finds herself stopping. She looks back and asks, "Do you know a Xander Lightfoot?"
"No?" the man replies, as he hands over the other two studs in a velvet pouch.
"Okay, he is a mage friend. I was curious," Umeko says as she takes the other two studs and puts them into her bag. She bows once more and heads towards the door, motioning for Sabah to follow. "Before we go home," she whispers to her, "I should go to the life mage clinic. Otherwise I fear Xander may not be too happy with the bruising..."