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 Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:14 pm
Body modifications had never played a role in Maritza’s life. Her brother, Rivyn, proudly decorated himself with a variety of metallic baubles that changed with his mood. Several members of Uquin’s family had piercings and the man himself sported a pair of fine earrings. So it came as little surprise that after a day with her father as a young girl Zadia had appeared with a little pair of pink flowered earrings. She’d been excited, thrilled even, to surprise her mother with them and ever since the girl had scarcely gone a day without something in her ears.
As Marcella started to grow she expected much the same, but found her hesitant. She worried about the pain and in a moment of impulse Maritza decided to pierce her own ears. At the time it seemed like just the trick to calm her youngest’s nerves; now, however, she was swimming in regret. Marcella was in her classes, Maritza had some down time before her next deployment and this…this was the day.
“If you’re too busy I can wait.” Maritza tried to casually lean back in her seat at the table, but her posture was too stiff. “Or I can have them done when I get back.”
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:18 pm
[Scar via Discord]
When Maritza made the decision to pierce her ears, Uquin hadn't thought much of it. His wife was fierce, absolutely fearless, and bold - so why would she be nervous about some piercings? Of course, when Zadia first got her ears pierced, it had... admittedly led to quite the row between her parents, as many things did back then when their relationship was fraught and fragile.
But... now? He turned to regard his wife with a raised eyebrow, sweeping his good eye up and down as if searching for something. He was gathering his tools, still, and... was not busy. He hadn't been busy when she asked him to do it an hour before, and waved him off to get some lunch first. "Hm. Are you nervous?" he asked, bluntly, as he casually rotated the sharp, needle'd end of the earing over a candleflame, watching as the metal heated and sanitized.
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:22 pm
Maritza snorted. “Of a needle? I’ve had worse.” Her tone was outright judgmental, but her eyes never left the instrument in Uquin’s hand. How long was he going to hold it over the flame like that? And how hot did the metal need to be? Memories of molten beams bending under intense temperatures paraded around her mind causing the engineer’s heartrate to spike. Who was to say if her skin paled just by watching the display?
Averting her gaze, Maritza shifted a bit in the chair to ‘get comfortable’ when she on the verge of bolting. “So, what’s the fire supposed to do? Cauterize the wound?” Her eyes flicked back to him once more, fingers flexing and clenching on her lap.
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:23 pm
[Scar via Discord]
Yes. She had. And yet, there she was, basically squirming in the chair as he got ready. Uquin was fascinated, and wanted to tease her, but had a feeling he would regret it. Instead he finished and moved to stand beside her, holding the front part of the earring carefully between his fingers. The earring was rounded metal, molded to the needle, which was still far too hot for him to use. On the table was a small piece of wax, which had already been rolled into a small disk.
"No. Cleans the needle." He answered, idly stroking the fingertips of his other hand over the short, shaved hairs of her head, cupping her small ear. "I've heard some mages summon ice to help numb the ear. That would likely help ... Marcella to not be so anxious. Hmm?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:28 pm
Every step he took closer was met with a not-so-subtle scoot away. Martiza had pressed herself as close to the table as possible without going under by the time Uquin got into place. Even when he raised his hand she leaned out of the way before forcing herself to stay in one spot. Too much and he was going to know something was up even if there wasn’t anything to worry about in the first place. Her child pierced her ears and had been happy for it! So it wasn’t a bit deal, right? Right.
“Why does it need to be numb?” Maritza popped off. If her sharp tone was a little too loud near the end who could notice? “If it needs to be numb then the needles too hot and we should wait.” It was that simple.
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:29 pm
[Scar via Discord]
She was scared. There was no arguing it, she was recoiling as if he would plunge the needle into her at any moment. "The metal is already cool. See?" He held it up and, indeed, the metal wasn't glowing anymore. He would have let her touch it to ensure it wasn't hot, but that would defeat the whole purpose of sanitizing it in the first place. Instead, he picked up the wax in his other hand, and went to set it against the back of her ear lobe - if she would let him.
"We both know your pain tolerance is better than mine, and I've handled this! There's nothing to be worried about."
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:30 pm
So it is. The brat in her wanted to pinch the metal so he’d have to repeat the process. Instead, she chose to slouch down in her seat with the thought process being that if she couldn’t move to the side then she could go down. It was just enough to avoid having the wax touch her ear and instead she felt it brush against the stubble that was her hair.
“I’m not worried! I just have questions and if they’re that upsetting to you then we shouldn’t be doing this at all!” Maritza griped. If not for his presence directly infront of her the woman may have slid out of her chair completely. As it was one of her thin legs had moved between his while the other was drifting somewhere to the side.
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:33 pm
[Scar via Discord]
Questions. Uquin murmured the word under his breath, but obligingly pulled his hands away, setting the wax back down so he could, instead, lean back to look at her properly. Once, such closeness would have utterly disarmed him, but after being married to Maritza so long he'd been forced to desensitize himself to her casual touches. He did shift a knee to nudge one of her own then, because he was an old man and didn't have the best balance, he set his unencumbered hand on her shoulder, the other carefully holding the needled piece aloft, and out of the way where he might accidentally poke her.
"Hmph. Alright. Questions. What are they?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:34 pm
“What is the rate of infection? If something were to happen onboard it may be a while before I can have it looked at.” Which was a bold-faced lie. While their healers were busy they were also a plentiful group who looked after motion sick passengers as well as injured crewmates. She adjusted herself further down the seat, taking care not to knock into him too much as she went, though eventually she couldn’t go any further with his leg in-between hers.
The position may have been horrendous on her back, but Maritza didn’t much care. “What would happen if I knocked them onto something? I’ve heard the swelling can affect healing time.”
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:37 pm
[Scar via Discord]
"One in five." He said, watching as she slumped further in her chair, as if trying to ooze further and further away from the needle. This was... perhaps the cutest he'd ever seen Maritza, and deep down he was immensely enjoying it. To him, it didn't much matter if she got the piercing or not - she'd been the one to request it, after all. But Marcella had been excited at the idea her mommy would match, and now they were both pressured into it, unless the girl miraculously forgot about it.
"If you knocked it on something I imagine it'd be sore. Unless you go for some spirits-awful hooped monstrosities, you shouldn't rip the lobe." Was this helping? No. Was it fun to see her face as he said that? Yes.
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:38 pm
One in five?! Maritza’s eyes widened. Rationally she knew that even if something was infected it wasn’t as if it were a life threatening infection and yet her mind couldn’t help seeing massive, bulbous things oozing puss of the side of her head!
“The lobe can rip?!” Did her voice raise in pitch? No, not at all. It was just like a limb in a gear...First a piece of material would be caught, then the limb and suddenly the entire thing was crushed and that was going to be her damn ear-
“Let me up. Let me up!” Maritza didn’t care if she knocked him over, she was getting out of that chair right now!
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:57 pm
[Scar via Discord]
Uquin couldn't help it. He bit his lip, but when she began to shove at him he wheezed out a laugh, moving away from her to give her room to stand, while he carefully stabbed the needle into the cork, slipping it back into the little container he'd pulled it from, on the table. "Maritza. Love, come here." He reached for her elbow, holding his other hand up innocently to show his hands were empty, then carefully flicked the length of his hair behind his ear, turning his head so she could look at his own piercing. He wore somewhat heavy earrings, but they hadn't completely stretched the lobes of his ears out.
"Inspect it if it helps. I've worn these most of my life, with flailing patients, and haven't had that happen. Do you truly think I can manage something you can't?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:58 pm
Maritza was a flurry of panicked limbs as she hurriedly moved to the other side of the kitchen. She whipped around, at first looking down at the hand on her elbow before looking up to her husband. “…Yes, I do. You’ve endured a lot more than I have.” Her voice was uncharacteristically somber when she lifted a hand to lightly pinch his lobe between her fingers. Maritza kneaded the area around the piercing itself, lightly probing to feel the metal and how it sat in his ear. At one point she even angle her hand just so she could cup the piece of jewelry in the palm of her hand while she kept contact with his lobe so as to feel the weight.
“I’m terrified and I don’t know why. It’s so stupid and childish and I hate it.”
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 10:00 pm
[Scar via Discord]
Uquin was thankful his wife didn't pull away from him, but before he could ponder it too much she afforded him a compliment. It wasn't as if such a thing was rare, this far into their relationship, but at one point he would have happily died for any such credit. Still, he gave her a flat look, immediately thinking of the birth of their first children, and vehemently disagreed in his mind. Even the loss of his eye was nothing compared to that.
Still, she took his offer for what it was and inspected his ear, which was just a bit uncomfortable but not painful. He patiently sat, even as she started pinching it.
Her honesty was a surprise, but made him feel stupidly warm, considering they were discussing something as silly as piercings. "It will always be your choice. But if you wanted to try, we could start with just one. You don't have to wear anything near as gaudy as mine - some metal studs maybe. And if you don't like how recovery is going, we can take it out and it will heal soon enough. No worse than one of those burns you bring home from work."
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Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2023 10:02 pm
“They do look ostentatious.” She gave a little smirk, “but they fit you. I don’t think I could imagine you without them.” Certainly she’d seen him without the earrings and on occasion he didn’t wear this exact pair, but it was always odd. Like something was off about him that she couldn’t place until noticing the change.
Somehow burns on her body didn’t seem nearly as traumatic as this. She’d long since grown used to the tight, painful way her flesh tugged when she got up in the mornings. Until it was stretched properly it would hinder her movements, but this just…didn’t settle well with Maritza. She’d seen metal impaled in flesh and it shouldn’t be celebrated with colorful baubles.
Closing her eyes, the mother of four took a steadying breath and moved back over to the chair. She flopped down into it before adjusting herself. “Just get it over with.”
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