[open]

[ofinspiration]

Would someone like to tell me why my friend and I found ourselves with surprise tattoos? I'm fairly certain they weren't there before we returned to Liminal Space - mine would have been... noticable.

Second question: how do I get rid of it? They're pretty, I'll give you that, and points for appropriate symbolism on her, at least... but I do have an aesthetic to maintain.

Comments

[howexciting]

... "dude"? Er-- never mind. As I said, your secret will be safe from my lips. But please regard my advice. Do not dismiss it until it is too late to do anything about it.

I would not know, I have never seen it. My inventions, you say? Which ones do you mean?

[Please not the war machines, no whammies, no whammies, no whammies!]

[thornsofmalkav]

Oh, stuff like your ornithopiter and the self-propelled cart and the airscrew! Oh, man, and your parachute. Some guy, like, finally built one based on your sketches, like, fifteen years ago and he said it worked better than modern parachutes.

[The war machines are okay, but they're just guns and stuff. Giant crossbows and stuff. You know.]

[howexciting]

[OH THANK GOD. Thorne can visibly see him relax his shoulders as all the tension vanishes from his body.]

Grazie. I am honored that they are still revered after such a long time. I only meant to further the cause of science, and I seem to have done that. I can rest a little easier now.

[He's assuming the guy who built the parachute was a modern-day Assassin, okay, he made those for the Assassins anyway.]

[thornsofmalkav]

You totally furthered science, dude. You'd probably have furthered it even more if anybody ever paid you enough to make the shit you drew plans for, like, half the time, but you furthered it enough anyway.

[SHE WOULD HAVE NO CLUE IF THAT WAS THE CASE. I mean, shit, in her world the Assassins are basically the Assamites.]

[howexciting]

Well, that is... a different matter entirely, yes. My time with Cesare Borgia was not... entirely pleasant. I was paid well for some side projects from... another investor, shall we say, so it turned out pleasantly in the end. [And he'll shift a little uncomfortably. Not cryptic at all. Totally not hiding anything, nope.]

Was that all you needed from me, Charoite? Er, is your name truly Charoite, or is it something else?

... and what does "dude" mean? You keep using it.

[thornsofmalkav]

It's not truly Charoite, sorry. I've been calling myself 'Thorne' for the last couple years. With an 'E' at the end, like Caine.

[... why do you keep explaining it that way? Nobody's gonna get the reference, Thorne. Oh right. Malkavian. Sigh.]

'Dude' is, uh, a thing we say in my time. Like, it's a way of addressing someone? You could say, 'Dude, where's my car?' like someone from an earlier time period might say, 'Sirrah, where is my horse?' But it's also a way of indicating someone, like, 'Look at that dude over there' or 'This dude is awesome.'