11769/Canus Aureus Containment

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Canus Aureus Containment
Date of Scene: 19 June 2022
Location: Dormitory 01 - The Midnight Mission
Synopsis: Lydia and Jon come up with a spell to help Cael control the jackal spirit inside her, and Cael decides on a tattoo. Hopefully she'll get it healed someday when they get rid of the spirit.
Cast of Characters: Cael Becker, Lydia Dietrich, Jonathan Sims




Cael Becker has posed:
    To say that Cael has been anxious is an understatement. She knows Jon and Lydia have Plans - that Jon has been working on some magical symbols from memory, and that the pair plan on coming over to work on it with her help.
    She tries not to think on it too much, though, or she'll end up climbing the walls. At the moment, she's distracting herself by jumping on the treadmill, and a thin sheen of sweat sparkles on her skin as she jogs, her attention locked onto some mindless action film that she'd found on Netflix. There are lots of explosions, and improbable physics. You know the sort.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia knocks on the door to announce her presence before poking her head in. "Hey, Cael. Me and Jon was going to work on your curse and see if we can find a way to get it under control. Mind if we come in?"

    Once Cael gives her assent, she comes into the suite laden with books and bags, all floating gently in the twinkling lights of her ectoplasm. She even has something that looks like an oversized briefcase in the lot. "I brought a /bunch/ of stuff just in case we found something that we can throw together that would work." She sets the briefcase down and points at it. "I even brought my tattoo gun just in case we end up having to go that way, though, that's kind of a last resort. I don't want to tatt you up permanently for something that we'll eventually get rid of."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon comes to the room with the notebook full of the sketches that he's been making, along with a box full of other things that might be useful, bits of things for making amulets, a couple of bricks of henna, colloidal silver, herbs and incense. "A tattoo isn't entirely out of the question," he says. "It's what the werejackals had, and protective tattoos were very common among women in Kemet. If we do that, I'd suggest we do it in the old way, just to be certain the spell takes. But... well... that's really up to Cael, I suppose."

    He looks over at her. "How're you doing? Feeling any better, with the moon waning?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    At the sound of the knock, Cael calls for the visitor to enter - simultaneously thumbing the treadmill to slow to a walk. She spends a few moments walking it off, smiling to Jon and Lydia in tense greeting. "I, uhh... A little better," she admits. "Jon, you can put the kettle on if you like," she invites needlessly. As if Jon wasn't allowed to simply make themself at home in her space. She knocks back some of her water, and uses a towel to dry off her skin, before stepping down from the treadmill.
    "So... what exactly do we have figured out so far?" she asks uncertainly. She picks up the TV - turning the volume down, but not off, before she joins the pair.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Well, Jon's managed to recall the runes that he saw on the other werejackals," Lydia says, setting down the books and other materials on the floor next to the table. "We just need to reverse engineer them at this point to figure out how they work."

    She sits down at the table and pulls out one of those artbooks, flipping it open to a page. "I've got an idea about using a wrist cuff, and I've jotted down some notes and a sketch. It'll be able to stretch if you shift so you don't have to worry about it falling off."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I recognize the use of the unilaterals," Jon says as he goes to put his box down and pulls out the notebooks. "It's definitely Elias' work, although I can't tell if it's direct or if it's second- or third-hand. But if it isn't Elias /directly/, it's someone who isn't a regular magic user and wouldn't have their own signature. Anyone who saw both of our work could surely tell mine is derived from his, but mine is /distinct/."

    He chews on his lip, pondering for a moment as he flips through the books, then holds them out to Lydia. "The spell, from what I can gather--and I will note I may not be seeing the whole of the thing--is meant to bind and control energy. A spirit, I /think/. But we're going to need to reconstruct the spell, and possibly figure out how to... I don't know... reverse engineer it, to figure out what's going on."

    A pause, and then he snorts. "Assuming someone doesn't just go shake answers out of the remnants of the pack."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Okay, so- not my 'spirit,' though?" Cael asks a bit uncertainly as she joins the pair, taking a seat with her water bottle, and having another drink. "It's the spirit of the jackal it's containing. Right?" She looks between the pair. "And we're sure that giving me a bracelet with this stuff, or tattooing it on my body - we're not... giving someone access to control or manipulate me? When I'm myself - or when I'm a jackal? That- that no one can use the spell to force the change?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Not sure," admits Lydia. "This is why we need to reverse engineer it and pick it apart. If we understand how it functions, and if it /does/ let other people to control you, theoretically we can edit that out and leave you in charge of the Jackal."

    She scoots her chair closer so she can look closer at the books. Her brow furrows as she tries to read them and she shakes her head. "I'm going to need your help with these, Jon. I can do ancient Hebrew texts, but I'm still learning my Egyptian."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon shakes his head. "Actually, I'm certain--we're not going to devise a spell and put it on you that would let anyone control you, Cael. In fact, to that end, I'm going to rather insist that you be part of this process, whether it's in construction of an amulet or a bracelet or mixing up tattoo inks. And that is a decision you will absolutely have a part in."

    He looks between them both, and says, "If this is an illness, a disease, then the patient makes the decisions about what to do with her treatment and has absolutely informed consent. If it is /not/ that, then I suspect the only person who /can/ reverse this would be Cael. That's why I've encouraged you to learn and understand magic. Anyone can learn this stuff. You can, potentially, put a bit of your own will and power into this spell, alongside someone else's. You do not have to be helpless here, waiting for me and Lydia to figure this out."

    He sighs and turns back to the books. "I can translate whatever you need."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael does not look entirely convinced by Jon's words - but she believes in their sincerity, and their intentions, so she nods in response, giving a small, tense smile. "I'll need a lot of help understanding all of this. I- I really hate feeling helpless," she says in a wry tone. "And the thought that something else can take over my body..." How can there be any feeling more helpless?
    She looks incomprehendingly at the sketches Jon made of the tattoos, offering only, "They do look familiar - from the fight."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia looks at Jon and nods seriously. "Agreed. We'll come up with options and let her choose." She gives them a curious glance though. "You think only she'd be able to break it if it's a curse? I'm sure we'd be able to help with that if that's the case. If it's an illness or a disease... then it's some kind of transmissible mutagen, in which case we may already be too late. Once it starts rewriting the genes, it gets /very/ hard to rewrite them back."

    She purses her lips thoughtfully. "We should draw a blood sample just in case. I know some very smart people who are very good at genetics, and they can take a look and see if this is the case. Leave no stone unturned, right?"

    Turning to the sketch that Jon has laid out. "Well, the placement of these symbols are pretty close to Ninoslav the Lesser's chains of...." hold on. I've got it here." She turns and starts sifting through the pile of books on the floor until she finds an old book bound by cracked leather. She carefully opens about halfway through the book and spends several minutes flipping through it until she finds the right place. "Ah! Here we go." She slides the book over for Jon to see.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon shakes his head. "I wasn't saying this /is/ a disease, Lydia. I was likening a curse to a disease. As in--if this is something that magic can fix, then we are the doctors and she is the patient, and we need to make sure there is informed consent and she is an active participant in her treatment program. If it /isn't/ something that magic can fix, then whatever the fix /is/, that's something that we'll only be able to advise Cael on. Either way, she needs to be advocating for herself and leading the way in her own treatment."

    He looks at the book Lydia's showing him, frowning as he looks the information over. "I can see... yes, they're in the same vein. I've never heard of him but I'd bet Elias has. But there's differences... like, this here is 'chains,' right? This is more... mmm. Ninoslav the Lesser looks like he was treating the spirit like... an ox to drive a plow. This," he taps the notebook, "is a little more... in tandem? Like a horse and rider. There's a, uhh... this, here, this word," he taps a cartouche, "it means 'taming.' Like a tamed animal."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Taming... the jackal, though?" Cael asks for clarification. She's looking intently at everything Jon and Lydia are pointing out, but the understanding just isn't there for her - and to say it feels frustrating is an understatement.
    At least it isn't the night before the full moon.
    She shifts in her seat - with a fidgety, anxious energy that Jon knows well. She'd rather be doing anything rather than sitting still.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia nods in understanding. "Ah. I see." She shakes her head and gives Jon something of a grin. "I just happen to know a mutant who's a werewolf, so I guess that's where my mind went."

    She leans over to look at what it is that Jon is pointing at. "So if /that's/ 'taming', then what's this one?" she asks, pointing to another cartouche.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon leans over to peer at the cartouche in question. "That's the one for 'spirit.' As in... well... another energy. The jackal spirit." He frowns at the paper and then just scribbles translations beneath each word. "Should've done that to begin with," he grumbles, "but I forget other people can't read... every bloody thing."

    He turns to Cael then and says, "Alright, why don't you start pulling things out of the boxes and sorting them. And tell me what you understand so far, so we can figure out what you need to learn."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Uhhh - sure," Cael agrees - turning towards the boxes and starting to unpack them. Did Jon just give her busy work? Possibly. Does she realize that at all? Nope.
    "I- fuck, I don't know what I know. But it isn't much. We fought werejackals. I was bitten and scratched - but other people were also bitten and scrathed. I was the only one affected. I turn into a slathering monster on the full moon that's willing to attack and kill my own family. It... makes me more restless and angry when the moon is full. But it's caused by some sort of... spirit that's- infected me? But that can be controlled. Or tamed. Umm - and it makes me like steak more than noodles, which is just- ...dumb. Am I missing anything?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia nods and purses her lips. "Well... that's one way to make a lycanthrope... to bind the spirit of a wolf, or in this case, a jackal to a body. I'd discounted the idea since that kind of lycanthropy typically isn't transmissible. But if it /is/ and it /was/ then it /should/ be possible to put that jackal spirit to sleep. Or, at the very least, keep Cael in the driver's seat." She looks up to meet Cael's eyes, "That is, in this case the jackal being a car. A very angry furry car. The trick is going to be trying to find the key that unlocks the door to let Cael out.... to extend the metaphor."

    She leans back in her chair and chuckles. "The answer is really simple, Cael. You put the steak /in/ the noodles."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon snaps his fingers. "No, that's brilliant! A car, that's perfect. If you don't know what you're doing a car is a terribly deadly weapon... but if you /do/ know what you're doing, cars can be amazing. Get you places fast, be a thrill to ride in. I just..." He coughs.

    "I don't know how to drive. So... I didn't think of it." A shrug.

    He looks to Cael then and says, "That all sounds about right. I... had forgotten other people were scratched too. Did they do something special to you? Did they do something /later/?" He frowns, thoughtfully. "That'll have to be tracked down. But, okay, so... the spirit's obviously affecting your amygdala response, making you respond with more anger than usual. The spell we're trying to pick apart, it... does what Lydia was just saying. Puts you in the driver's seat, instead of stuck in the back. Or in the trunk, unable to even be aware of what's going on."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Okay. Driving the car is better than... the alternative. Better than what happened on the full moon. And I'll always be in control - if we can get this spell to work?" Cael asks, looking between the two. "And we can either put it into a tattoo - or put it into a piece of jewelry? But if the jewelry gets broken, or taken from me... The control disappears, right?" she asks seriously.
    Because that's a worrying thought for her.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia nods to Cael. "Yeah, unfortunately. Nobody's going to steal a tattoo. I mean... you'd probably notice if they try, right?"

    She gives Cael a grin before turning back to Jon. "Okay. So. Now that we have an idea of what's going on, we can start laying the groundwork for the spell." She already has flipped her art pad open to a new page and starts sketching a diagram. "Jon, how up to speed are you on Kabbalistic magic? That's... pretty much all I know, aside a few things here and there. I should be able to calculate the right names to use fairly quickly since there isn't going to be much heavy lifting involved."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I'm... not, entirely," Jon admits. "I was thinking of just re-purposing this spell, though? If it's Kemetic, then it's drawing on that sort of power. It's..." He hums softly. "The spell is referring to things in a certain framework, a certain... mindset, I guess? And I think we'd need to at least acknowledge that mindset. I don't know how an ancient spirit that's used to being called on in a certain way and by certain names would react to being called on by something entirely different."

    He starts to pace a little, himself. "Normally the tattoos were used for things like... it was very common, for instance, to tattoo a mesh onto a woman's belly to protect a baby while she was pregnant. In other cases, female priests or avatars would have tattoos on them to help bind the gods into their bodies, or mark their status. The tattoos were /entirely/ female, though--to the point that if an Egyptian mummy has tattoos, it's assumed to be a woman regardless of physical anatomy. It's admittedly a /bit/ odd to see male werejackals with tattoos... but I digress."

    He waves a hand. "The /point/ would be... is there some way to work in cartouches or hieroglyphs...? I know it's calculations, but with Kemetic magic it's more, umm, calling on gods or making declarations. Referring to laws and rules. Regardless of what it is, exactly? And, Cael... what /would/ you be most comfortable with? You could help us make a bracelet, or you could mix up the inks for a tattoo."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "I-" Cael lets out a frustrated sound, and frowns down at the floor. "I'm not opposed to tattoos, obviously. But if this is just temporary..." Oh, God, let it be temporary... "I mean. How long do we think it would take to find a 'cure' for this mess?" If it's going to be weeks? A bracelet. If I'm stuck with this for months, then- well. A tattoo would be more sure. I just- I really don't want to lose control. You //know// how much that frightens me."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia sits back and thinks a little bit about what Jon said. "That's not /too/ dissimilar to how Kabbalistic magic works. It's just about calculating which name of God to use for what you want to do. Embedded in that are the declarations... the laws and rules that you want to have happen. It's... math. Magic math. Mathamagical."

    She gets a little thoughtful look in her eye and purses her lips. "Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has several meanings. Take alef for example," she says, drawing a kind of funky looking backwards 'n' on the pad. "It's the first letter of the alphabet. Since it's the first letter it's assigned the number 1." She scratches this in underneath the letter. "It's also associated with air, or the breath of God. There's... more to it than that because it could also mean the number 3 depending on context."

    "By stringing letters together not only are you forming a name, you're also putting in information /about/ the name, much like a cartouche." She looks up at them, "It's just more subtle and behind-the-scenes about it. If I knew the meanings and numerical values behind the symbols in the cartouche, I'm sure I could calculate new ones."

    Cael's frustration isn't lost on her. "I don't know how long, to be honest. Separating a spirit bonded to a person isn't as easy as getting a broom and scooting a cat outside. It /attaches/ itself to you and if we're not careful we could also scoot parts of /you/ out with the cat."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon frowns. "I know it's frustrating, love, but... look, we can always /remove/ the tattoo, with magic. Just heal the whole thing up entirely, force your immune system to reject it, whatever. So if you want a tattoo gone later... it'll be gone. Alright?"

    He goes over to start pulling things out of what he and Lydia brought--a mortar and pestle, a bowl, a brick of henna, some other herbs, a knife, the colloidal silver. "Here," he says, summoning up some lemon juice and handing it to Cael along with the henna brick and the bowl and spoon from what Lydia brought. "Mix these together. Think about your intent while you do it." A pause. "In ancient Egypt, /everyone/ did magic. It was a fact of life, even if it wasn't as powerful as it was in Atlantis. Heka was a known force in the world, and..."

    He suddenly snaps again and spins toward Lydia. "Would /that/ work? Umm, Heka, I know he isn't /God/ god, but he's a primordial force that gave all the other gods their power. Could you calculate that name in Hebrew? I mean, the word literally just means 'magic' but he was also the god of medicine. He bore the caduceus, that Ninazu and Asclepius also bore. I don't know..." He sighs. "I don't know if that works. But if it /did/... then you could put together a spell that draws on Heka for power, thus using a power the spirit would recognize as legitimate. I'd think?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael listens to Lydia's explination with a puzzled look on her face as she tries to imagine this sort of magic. It seems... strange to her. But then, all magic does, really. As Jon speaks, though, she shifts her attention towards them. "I'm just- I'm having a hard time getting used to this," Cael admits, flashing Jon a brief smile before taking the offered materials.
    "And the intent - for this spell at least - is control? And awareness?" she asks, before she begins the process of making the ink.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia nods at Cael. "Right. Control. Awareness. You want it to work /with/ you and not just you fighting it all the time so maybe a bit of symbiosis. That's the difference between riding a bucking bronco and tame horse."

    She looks down and opens up her tattoo gun kit and pulls out a small vial that has perhaps a thimble full of powder, and sets it before Jon. "This is the last of the orichalcum powder that I used for Phoebe's wings. If you mix a little bit in the ink, it should make it easier for Cael to channel her energy into the mixture. As an added benefit it'll give the tattoo an iridescent sheen. What do you think?"

    She sits back to contemplate Jon's suggestion, watching as Cael mixes the ingredients. "I don't see why not," she says after a while. "It'd be like... I don't know. Doing math in base 7 instead of base 10." She rubs her chin, thoughtfully. "It /should/ work, if you look at it askance. The resulting spell will be a little wonky though. It'd need something to stabilize it..."

    She closes her eyes as something occurs to her. "Wait. The cartouche in Egyptian was called a Shenu, right?" She leans over her art pad and starts writing things down. That's the letter Shin, and the letter nun, and those numbers are..." she starts mumbling to herself, and scratching out numbers and other symbols out on her pad and sits back blinking. "Well. If we put the name into a cartouche it should stabilize it."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon has gone to start mincing the herbs that he's chosen out. He peers over at the power and then nods. "That's a good idea, yes, that'll boost Cael's own will so we don't have to channel a bunch of our own power into the whole business. So... go ahead and put that in the mix, and mix it up, and add four drops of the colloidal silver. That should keep any regeneration factor from healing right over the tattoo."

    He chuckles. "Cael, think of it like... it's like Lydia said, in some ways it's like math. Really esoteric math, but math nonetheless. We're just... figuring out the exact equations to get the velocity right on your car, or make sure we're engineering the materials correctly, or whatever. Figuring out the, uhh, torque. Does that make sense?"

    He glances at Lydia. "I can pull on the memory of an ancestor to do the tattooing... I'm thinking near the mid-back, between about T6 and T11? That avoids all the major plexi, and that area's got the nerves that go into the gut and all of that. Not to mix the metaphors too much, but that's /about/ where the manipura chakra is, and the whole area's traditionally involved in fire, transformation, anger, that sort of thing."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "I don't do car math. I just drive," Cael replies in a dry, amused tone.
    Lydia's talk of working with it - symbiosis instead of //fighting// it earns a frown from Cael. That feels too much like... acceptance. Too much like giving up. "And what if I don't //want// to work with it?" she asks, letting out a sigh. She stops stirring for the moment as she stares down into the bowl with a small frown on her features. "Does that have to be part of it?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    And Lydia is off, hunched over her art pad, scrawling things out in Hebrew cursive, along with numbers and other symbols. She does /something/ with circles that groups them together, and /another/ thing with different circles to pull them apart. "Sure, sure," she tells Jon absentmindedly. "She's your girlfriend. That way if something goes wrong she can blame you."

    It takes a moment for Lydia to realize that Cael asked her something. She sits back, chewing the end of her mechanical pencil for a while before saying, "Well.... to continue the car metaphor, think of it like renting a..." She looks at Cael with a sheepish shrug, "like renting a really loud and fast car. While you're in it you want it to work /with/ you instead of against you, because if you're busy fighting the wheel you'll run somebody over. Then at the end of the day you give it back."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon nods, as he passes over herbs and murmurs, "Include those too." Then, a bit louder, he says, "You want to work with it and accept it while you have it. It's... look, Cael, sometimes you pick your battles, you know? You have this thing, right now. You can't just be rid of it /today/, and no amount of fighting or yelling is going to change that. This, though, will let you be in control of the process. It will let you keep this from hurting anyone you don't want to see hurt."

    He glances at Cael significantly. "Working /around/ a problem, working /with/ a problem, isn't giving up." He doesn't need to hear her thoughts to know what she's thinking. "Remember the Magician door? Water seeps through cracks and wears down the toughest stone. Water carves a path through mountains that sheer stubborn force will not break."

    A pause, and then after a moment he says, "...If you're fighting an opponent that's bigger than you, do you just run up at them at yell and whack them? No. You use their size against them, right?" He smirks. "Like you throw me, /every/ damn time, because I'm too big and gangly for my own good. That's all you're doing here. Using its own energy and nature against it, until you can defeat it."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael looks between the both of them - but it's Jon turning it into a combat analogy that finally earns a reluctant nod of sscent. "Alright," she agrees quietly. "I- it still feels a bit like giving up, but- I can see the sense in it. She gives the pair a small, tight smile before she continues with her stirring, adding in the herbs as directed.
    It's a //reluctant symbiosis - but it is a symbiosis.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia continues to work out the math of the thing, occasionally pausing to count on her fingers while muttering numbers and letters under her breath. The page of the artbook slowly fills up with more Hebrew letting, numbers and arcane diagrams until it all reduces down to four letters: Tsadi, Gimel, Zayin, Shin.

    "Hunh," she says sitting back. Looking at the letters, she chuckles. "Well, that's very on point. Well, Cael, your word is 'tsugizesh.' I know it sounds dumb, but the math works out, and the letters fit. Keep that word in mind as you mix as well as your intent. It'll help power it." She flips to a fresh page and starts drawing out the letters in a kind of blocky calligraphy. "Here's what it looks like," she says, showing it first to Cael, and then for Jon for when he has to ink up their girlfriend.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "'Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.' Sun Tzu." Jon smiles at Cael. "I know maybe you don't believe me, but it's /true/. Coming at everything head-on, as a battle, just tires you out in the end. Better to never fight the thing at all, to make it work for you and with you, until you can be done with it."

    They lean over to peer at the letters, making sure they get a /good/ look. "Hmm. The word itself has no meaning that I'm aware of. How is it 'on point'?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Yeah, well, it doesn't feel right to me," Cael counters Jon - but she gives him a brief smile. All of this made her uneasy, but she was trying to accept it. Trying to come to terms with everything that had happened. And trying to understand what Jon and Lydia were doing to help her - and she trusted inherently that they were helping her, as best as they good.
    "Tsugizesh," she repeats to herself. "Alright. I'll, uhh... add that to the mix, I guess."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "The letters themselves," Lydia says tapping her pencil on them. "Shin literally means 'tooth.' Generally it's interpreted as to chew or digest in a metaphorical sense, but I'd interpret this more literally." She moves down to the second letter. "Amongst other things, Gimel means balance. So I would say that this is indicating that you need to bring balance to the force." She gives Cael a grin and snickers, "You were the chosen one!"

    "Seriously, though. Balance." She continues onto the next letter. Zayin. It's a sword, or a weapon, meaning that there's a struggle present. And lastly there's Tsadi, which is Justice. Or hunt, since it's literally a fishhook." She looks up to Cael, so basically what it's telling you is that you're struggling to balance the beast with your sense of justice... with what's right."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon rolls his eyes. "Well considering there's /no way/ I'm pregnant with Cael's twins, she cannot /possibly/ be the Chosen One. Nor can it be the other way 'round. No Chosen Ones to be found here." A pause, and he shifts uncomfortably. "Not... anymore, anyhow." He technically kinda-sorta /was/ that, after all, with Gaea.

    "But, all that said... that makes sense." The herbs are well done, and Jon starts cleaning things up, then considers for a moment and summons up a set of bronze needles in a wooden tray, along with antiseptic liquid and other implements for tattooing. "Alright... that should be just about done. Let me get set up over here and bring the ink over. It'll be a little thicker than modern tattoo ink, but the /oldest/ memories used to rub soot into wounds made by the needles. We're... not doing that." A brief smirk, and Jon goes to arrange a spot to do the tattooing.

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael snorts at the Star Wars talk - you have to be a real heathen not to get those references - and she rolls her eyes broadly. "At no point in our relationship did I compare Jon to //sand,// I'm no Anakin, for fuck's sake." As Jon starts to get prepared for the tattoo, she shifts uncomfortably, and turns her back on the pair, as she pulls off her shirt, and drapes it over her chest. "Jon... can you undo my bra?" she asks. It's certainly the first time she's asked //that// question.
    Once the bra is undone, she'll lay down on her stomach, her face turned towards Jon, but her eyes closed.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia just grins at everybody's reaction to her Star Wars reference, and scoots out of the way to give Jon room to work. She starts gathering up her things, but leaves the art pad there for Jon to reference if he needs it.

    "Looks like you've got this well in hand," she tells them. "I'll leave you two to it." Once gathered, she lifts everything up with her ectoplasm and leaves the room.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Thank you, Lydia," Jon says. "Really. Thank you." He goes over to help Cael with her bra--taking a moment to figure it out, because he's not exactly an expert on bras--and then settles down to begin the tattooing, starting by cleaning the area with antiseptic solution that should help numb the area as well.

    "This'll hurt," he murmurs. "And I'm sorry for that, but I can heal it up after." He closes his eyes for a moment, summoning up the knowledge he needs from the Archive, so he can let one of his ancestors--an expert in the magical tattooing of ancient Egypt--guide his hands.

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Thanks," Cael says as Lydia prepares to depart - a large amount of her uneasiness fading when it's just her, and Jon - but not all of it. She doesn't like any part of this process - but what is her alternative?
    "I know," she answers Jon. "It's okay." There's a brief pause before she adds, "I love you." Translation in this case? I trust you.