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From: Kali, Bryon, Lucille, and 'Cat'
Kali Indrani looked at the manta rays flying around the tunnel in which she stood. She rubbed her bare arms self-consciously and glanced around at the attractive faces surrounding her. She recognized a few from the Carnival she had gone to some 30 years ago, and they recognized her from the glares she received. She walked on, wanting to escape the area, which a sign had boldly proclaimed to be "The Undersea Adventure." Pulling up the front pleats of her skirt up a few inches to allow more movement and walked more quickly toward the main hall.
After a moment she glanced back at the others in her group and found the majority of the party either flirting, or admiring the fish. Bryon Endochrine stood apart from the small clumps those in the tunnel had formed into, moving through the tunnel and occasionally looking at a shark uncomfortably. He continued to walk until he was face to face with Kali at the end of the tunnel.
"So... this is an interesting spot for a party. Who arranged this again?" Bryon asked, glancing past her into the next hall.
Kali rubbed her arms, chilling in the presence of the water. "I'm not sure, some hotshot from Houston, I think."
Bryon glanced back over this shoulder at a shark that had seemed to following him, and it turned into a staredown between the two. Eventually he won and turned back toward Kali. "I must say I am happy to have a chance to meet so many clanmates. We have to know where we have our allies."
Kali nodded at him, still flustered under the hostile gazes of a few other occupants. "Yes, very nice to see," she swallowed heavily. "Other clanmates."
Bryon furrowed his brow at the sight of her reaction. "Can you... perhaps introduce me to some of them? I don't really know anyone, as you know."
"Eh..." Kali’s eyes rolled back slightly as she searched for an answer. She understood english quite well, but couldn’t always respond without thinking about it. "No... I cannot. Would you escort me to the other exhibits? Perhaps I will recognise some of it."
"Perhaps tell me about the ins and outs of such a party as this. I'm sure etiqutte is of paramount importance." Bryon steals random glances around the room, as he smiles to himself.
"I'm not use I understand, Bryon." Kali turned to look at the other section of the ball, where dancers circled a tube that reached the ceiling 3 stories above them. "Try to say only nice things about the art... the artist might be standing behind you." Kali tossed her hair over her shoulder and looked at the different tunnels leading away from the room, each labeled with a different style of art. Kali smiled and pointed. "Look, they have a whole wing dedicated or body art.
"Let's check it out. And a good point... I guess one's words are one's worst enemy in a crowd like this". Bryon sighed and started toward the tunnel, Kali close behind him.
"Most certainly… though I feel it would just be a colossal cat fight for the most part, considering what suburb fighters the toreador are known to be." She giggled slightly.
"Now it's you who have lost me. Cat fight?" They entered the body art wing even as Lucille rejoined them from her talk with Spencer and Claudius. "This is your specialty I understand?" Bryon asked.
"Indeed." Kali smiled and moved into the hall eagerly, which was alternated lined with exotic, spikey fish and photographs of elaborate peircing and tattoos. She pointed to a collage at the end of the hall. "Those would be mine… I wish someone had told me that they were to be exhibited…"
Lucille moved to them, more a form of animated marble than anything else, with her hands clasped behind her he leaned to inspect the image. "Amazing," she said, slightly bewildered.
Bryon made his one way to the wall. "Well, well... this is good work. I'm no connoiseur of tattoos, but I know talent when I see it." He turned to another of the images on the wall. "I like that one over there as well." After a moment he added "The living canvas is really a sensual and vibrant medium, I must admit". Bryon looked off and saw another picture and headed off toward it, obviously enthralled by it.
Lucille, however, continued her examination of the picture. "The Hibernians had their woads...and the Scots possessed a similar decor. But those were temporary dyes, at best. Is this like Houdini, where you cannot explain the process?" She turned towards Kali at the question. Kali chewed her lip, once again floundering for words.
"I can tell you how I made those images... but not the ink." She smiled, hoping this explained it to Lucille. A man turned toward the pair hearing the compliments and smiled through an intricate white mask.
Lucille continued, oblivious to the man who now approached them. "Please, if it's no imposition."
"Extremely well done, don’t you think?" The man stepped between them and smiled at the picture as he spoke.
"Truly, a viable medium in itself." Lucille responded as she repositioned a strand of errant hair.
Kali looked at the man, not quite recognising him with the mask, but almost remembering a name. It bothered her.
"The art of tattooing is an old one, it has come a long way through the ages and I feel that Kali has quite a knack." The man said, Lucille turned toward him, listening. "Is it a difficult process?"
"No, not at all, the talent is in the artistic influences." He looked at Kali as he said this, and she blinked at him oddly.
"Of all the myriad mediums to work upon, what draws you to this one specifically?"
"It has an effect on me, I suppose, knowing that something I do will be attached to someone permanently, kind of a sense of power, maybe?" She smiled at them both as they watched for her answer. "It's also a family tradition."
Lucille nodded in approval. "A noble institution to pursue."
Kali touched the Japanese Koi fish on her arm softly, speaking more to herself than anyone else. "This is my brothers signature tattoo... " She turned and leaned up to touch a picture of another fish that was swallowing it’s own tail. "And that's mine. Well... My sire's body, my ink." She smiled a little, and the gentleman chuckled.
"This dye can be used on Cainites then?" Lucille asked.
Kali nodded to her. "That's why I can't mention how I make it, it's my own... recipe. It's been very lucrative for me over the years."
"Indeed, Houdini would certainly be proud of such a feat."
"Houdini couldn't hold a candle to Kali's magic." The gentleman said, smiling, Kali’s mind twitched slightly at the smile. Lucille chuckled gently at them, causing Kali to blush slightly.
"How long has this tradition existed in your family?"
"Oh… It's my father's family's tradition. And I would have to say... at least a dozen generations... probably much longer." Lucille nodded a second time at this. "But I am the first female in the family to adopt it."
"Do you remember everyone you've ever worked on?" The man asked.
"Well... I suppose, almost everyone in the unlife, they make more noise."
"Noise? Is this experience unpleasant?"
"My machine is modified, it moves far faster than a normal one to keep up with me... The needle is longer too... ink has to really get buried in there." Kali smirked wickedly thinking of the specialized machine she had made herself.
Lucille began to examine each design again curiously, noticing the contours of the skin through the dye. Kali rubbed her hands together and glanced at the man, who looked back past the edge of his mask.
"This thing is very itchy, would it be breaking protocol to remove the mask before anyone else?" Kali shrugged, only having an intricate Henna design on her skin instead of a mask. Lucille looked at the man with mild interest.
Lucille looks over Cat's mask with mild interest.
" I don't think anyone would mind." Kali said, looking at a photograph of an intricate and difficult looking piercing.
The man slipped off the mask and shook out his blood hair, Kali glanced at him slightly, and did a double take.
The man, who she now recognized as Christian Stevens, looked at Kali while smiling at Lucille.
"Is there a problem?" Cat asked, smiling warmly at her. Kali’s face twitched lightly.Cat held out his hand to Lucille, and lifted her hand to kiss her wrist gently. "Christian Stevens at your service, they call me Cat."
"Charmed, I'm certain. Lucille Semingsworth."
" My pleasure, I assure you"
Kali looked at Cat, stunned, she pointed to the pictures, then to him, as his mouth opened and closed in her attempts at speech. "Did you... Umm..." English failed her from that point on. Cat chuckled at her reaction.
"I might have ." he said, understanding her words.
Kali laughed strainedly. "Ahhh... Ms. Semingsworth, this is my sire."
ooc: Any Toreadors attending should respond to this in story form, if they feel the need. The other exhibit wings emcompass most arts, so there is somewhere for everyone.