[Riverfall Ink] The Finest Canvas (Saib)

[Razkar]

40th of Fall, 512AV

Razkar had discovered that Riverfall was a city that demanded fitness from those that lived there. The Sea of Grass and the beaches surrounding it were as flat as it got; aside from that was a warren - no, a labyrinth - of alleyways, roads, buildings and levels that were best navigated with a well-made pair of shoes, not a horse. The second tier especially, carved into the cliff overlooking the Suvan Sea, was an endlessly complicated maze. Easy to get lost in, even for lifelong citizens.

But if you wanted the best, you had to work at it.

Explaining why the Myrian was traipsing through the narrow alleyways and staircases making up most of the second tier. Store and shops selling every kind of service trooped past him. Fortune telling, weapons sharpening and making, tailors, tanners, furriers, jewelers, artisans of all kind, lawyers, accountants and professions Razkar didn't even know the words for.

He'd already confused a barber for a temple to Myri. Well, who else would have bowls of blood in their windows?!

But he persevered, following the instructions given to him. A left, two rights... then four streets up... and... next to the apothecary...

Razkar stopped in front of the storefront and sighed.

"Finally." Then he leaned a little closer, brow furrowing as he read the foreign scribble emblazoned above the door. "River... fall... Ink..."

This was the place he'd heard about. He'd asked ten times who was most skilled with the ink when it came to skin, and nine times, he got the same name. He gathered his cloak closer to him and walked through the entrance. Herrlock Ethu was waiting for him.

[Saib]

Saib sighed a bit and leaned against the cold wall, blushing a bit as one passing Akalak's eyes ran over his body and odd attire. He knew that most people here actually wore clothes but he was much more comfortable and used to wearing just his loincloth. He had left Spot at the stables but, as always, Fluffy went with him. At the moment, Fluffy was sitting on his head, almost making it look like he had a fuzzy, purplish wig on. Saib reached up to pet Fluffy and he, or she, he was never entirely sure which it was, licked his hand. He smiled and patted the fluffy creature then started moving again. Saib climbed a set of stairs and kept his eyes glued on the signs as he slowly wandered down the street. He turned into a tattoo parlor, hoping the owner would guide him in the right direction. "Hey, um, do you know where..." he trailed off as he noticed the other customer. His face was filled with piercings and he had several tattoos. "Oh!" he exclaimed, "Another Myrian! At least now I don't feel so alone!" He smiled at the man and reached up to pet Fluffy.

[Razkar]

Myrian! Fluent, familiar Myrian! It struck Razkar's ears as he was halfway through the door to Riverfall Ink and he turned to its source, cloak flapping as he did.

In retrospect, that was his first mistake.

No dark, broad-featured native of Falyndar greeted his eyes. Instead there was a grinning man with purple skin who towered a whole head over him. Not unusual, considering he was an Akalak. He was also nearly naked, muscled body bare save for a loincloth that did, Razkar admitted, look very Myrian.

And it got weirder from there.

The speaker wore a wig. Razkar was sure that's what it was. A fluffy, purple wig... that growled and snuffled when the stranger petted it. He'd never seen a Riaam that color before. It took Razkar a few seconds to take all this in, resisting the urge to pinch himself. Then his mind got back around to what was actually said. He cocked his head to one side and answered in his native tongue.

"Another Myrian?"

Beyond them, observing their exchange with his usual sardonic air, Herrlock Ethu finished another brushstroke and decided the sketching could wait a few moments. He didn't often get two Myrians in his store...

... especially when one was an Akalak.

[Saib]

Saib frowned at the man's reaction then quickly realized the reason. He sighed at the reminder of what he was and looked down, rubbing his arm as though he could somehow get rid of the purplish color of his skin if he rubbed hard enough. "Oh...I guess I don't look like a Myrian, huh?" He scratched his head and tried to think of a way to prove himself to this man. He pulled Fluffy off his head and set him on his shoulder then turned to the side so he could see the body length tree tattoo along his side. "See?" Saib said, turning again so he could see his back tattoo. "I'm a Myrian too. Just...different." He turned back around to face the man and looked over his body, doing his best not to stare at him, then looked back to his face, blushing a bit and hoping he didn't realize that he had been looking him over as if he were a female. He nodded to him and ran one finger down his tree tattoo. "I am Saib of The Lost Grove" He said this last thing in common, so that he could introduce himself both to the man and the owner of the tattoo parlor. OOCSorry that my posts aren't very long. I'm trying my hardest to make them long!

[Razkar]

"I am Saib of The Lost Grove"

Razkar looked down and studied the... well, art was the only word for it. Herrlock actually stood up and walked around his desk, eyes fixed on the tangled, towering spire of black foliage reaching from the small of Saib's back to his neck. Another, thinner tree snaked up along his side.

Razkar frowned minutely. This was... familiar. He stepped closer and traced one finger along the black inched, by now so old there was hardly even a ridge to it. The designs, the etchings, even the healed scar tissue, they were... they were just like those he and his brothers and sisters had. He would know Myrian body art anywhere, and this purple giant had it in spades.

He looked up into the big man's eyes and scrutinized him with those dark, bleak coals. After a moment, he held out a hand.

"I am Razkar of the Shorn Skulls." He touched the tattoo in the middle of his forehead. "Myri be with you, my friend."

"Ahem!"

Herrlock announced himself clearly with that one sound, and the two Myrians (well, one way or another) turned to find him tapping his foot impatiently.

"Not that I'm not overjoyed at this cultural reconciliation," he said, voice as crisp and deadpan as his face, "This ain't the Taloba Wanderers Society."

Razkar blinked. "They have that here?!"

"My point being, why are you here?" Then the tall Akalak, bigger even than Saib, flicked a glance to Saib himself and jutted his chin towards him. "And where'd you get the ink, mate?"

[Saib]

Saib blushed and smiled shyly as the two men examined his tattos, shivering slightly as one ran his finger along the one on his back. "Myri be with you." he said, nodding and shaking his hand. Saib jumped at the other man's interrupption, causing Fluffy to growl a bit. He giggled at Razkar's reply to the man's comment. Saib shrugged and lifted his foot, pulling off his boot to show the paw tattoo. Unfortunately this, of course, unbalanced him and caused him to fall on his rear. He smiled sheepishly and lfted his foot as he sat up. "I got all three in Taloba. Don't really remember where specifically, I was pretty young when I got 'em." He said as he put back on his boot and stood up. "Anyways, I came in to ask if you know anyplace here I can get piercings?" As Saib absentmindedly reached up to pet Fluffy, he realized that the fuzz ball had gotten dislodged from his shoulder when he fell. "Shyke! Fluffy?!" he dropped to his knees to look under chairs for the brightly colored Riamm.

[Razkar]

Razkar's head shot downwards to follow the toppling fall of the big Akalak. Evidently he didn't pick up too much Myrian agility during his upbringing. But he did see the slve tattoo on his ankle, one he had seen before in Taloba.

"I got all three in Taloba. Don't really remember where specifically, I was pretty young when I got 'em."

Razkar rolled his eyes. The man could at least have made a note. But before he could turn to his own business, Saib had bounced to his feet again, quick and eager as his Riamm.

"Anyways, I came in to ask if you know anyplace here i can get piercings?"

Herrlock opened his mouth to reply but before he could Saib was on the ground again, scrambling on hands and knees for his beloved (and vanished) Fluffy. Razkar moved out of his way, finding himself standing next to Herrlock. The much, much taller man and he watched for a moment.

"He's... er..." Herrlock began, jutting his chin at the scrambling figure, "er..."

Razkar smiled. He hated this kind of social awkwardness. It was a distraction he did not need.

"Yes. He is."

Now please, for both our sakes, don't ask that next seemingly logical question that-

"... are you-"

-damn!

"No."

"Hey, friend, I'm not-"

"I say "no". Here for ink." To illustrate his point, Razkar unhooked his cloak from around his neck, pulling it free with a flourish to show his scarred, pierced, tattooed body wearing loincloth and boots. He turned and gestured to the middle of his back. "Want to get skulls. Like ones there."

Herrlock looked at the expanding circle of skulls half-covering the Myrian's back. He grimaced slightly, an artist and a tradesman sizing up a job.

"How many?"

The Myrian absentmindedly fingered the Zith-bone necklace around his neck and grinned. "Six. For now."

Herrlock didn't take long to shrug and give his judgement.

"Alright, we'll call it... ten gold."

Razkar shrugged and dropped the coins into the man's hand. He's in no mood to barter about an issue of such importance. "Done. Where we go?"

Herrlock jerks a thumb back to one of the stone slabs, this one lying on its side and providing a sort of table. Razkar doesn't need to be drawn a diagram, and lies on it, facedown, while Herrlock prepares his tools.

He casts an eye towards Saib, who's found Fluffy growling behind one of those same slabs. Razkar blinked a few times, then shook his head and readied himself. These things weren't exactly painless...

[Saib]

Saib sighed a bit at Herrlocks question, hating being looked at oddly for the way he was. "So what if i am?" he called over his shoulder, snickering at Razkar's response to the next question. He tuned out of the conversation as they stopped talking about him and crawled over to the slabs of stone. "Shh, shh Fluffy, it's ok." Saib whispered in Myrian to the growling ball of fur. "I didn't mean to drop you sweetie...that's a good boy...girl...whatever you are." He chuckled as he stroked Fluffy's fur and sat down on one of the chairs to watch Razkar get tattooed. He tilted his head and asked, "Whatcha getting that tattoo for?" He wanted to ask Herrlock again where he could get piercings but decided to keep his mouth shut until he was done tattooing, lest he break the man's concentration.

[Razkar]

Razkar didn't particularly want to swap words with this "Myrian", but he didn't see the need to be rude. By the looks of it, he was as clueless as Razkar had been when first arriving here.

And the tattoo on his back was proof enough for him. Whatever Saib was or looked like, he was a Myrian. He was a brother.

"Zith I killed." He said in their language, not to keep Herrlock out the loop but simply because he enjoyed finally being able to speak it to someone who could understand it. "I fought them with two others three weeks ago. It was... a good fight."

He smiled at the recollection, remembering the rush and the buzz and the warmth of the scalps her took, the flesh he prepared that was on their living bones merely days before.

Then Herrlock made his first jab and he winced. The Akalak rolled his eyes and kept working.

"Buck up, chief."

"Yes, yes, yes." Razkar sighed and settled back down, knowing his body needed to get used to feeling like it was being constantly bee-stung for the next hour. The talking would help. "I took scalps and made my offerings to Myri. All but one: the tally on my back. That needs to be updated and since I can't reach it... here I am..."

He looked over to the seated Akalak/Myrian/whatever, who was now petting the rediscovered and peaceful little Riamm. Razkar gave him a long look and then spoke again.

"What piercings are you going to get? I don't even know if this man does them."

[Saib]

Saib nodded as he listened to Razkar, looking down as he said he offered the scalps to Myri. He had never honored his god that way. "I...I've never fought or killed anyone or anything..." He answered in thier native tongue, looking to the side, to the designs on the wall, anywhere but the other Myrian's face. He was ashamed of himself and the fact that he'd never embraced this part of their culture. "I know how to fight, I've trained. I've just...never put those skills to use." Saib sighed audibly and Fluffy nuzzled his hand, sensing its owner's unease. "Myri must ashamed to have me worship her..." he muttered, half to himself. He ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head to get rid of the sad thoughts. "Umm, I want to get a stud in my eyebrow and a ring or bone through my nose like you have. I know he probably doesn't do them but I thought he'd know someone who did."