OOM: Christmas dinner with Pyrrha and Egil

[ostro_goth]

[[Ctd. from here.]]

Teja opens the door, laden as he is.

His usually comfortable, creatively untidy room is still that -- there is even Ferdinand the cat, sprawling all over Teja's bed, fast asleep. There are simply two new doors, one of them leading to a kitchen that provides all the modern comforts and appliances as well as a space to comfortably sit and eat, the other leading to Egil's room in Loki's apartment on the 12th floor.

One better should not think about how that works.

Comments

[ostro_goth]

"That is..."

Teja is at loss for words.

"It is perfect. It is who we are. This is who we shall be on our wedding day, for all the world to see. It is family. It is to take into dark times."

[scarred_grin]

"I hoped you'd like it," she says softly. "At first I was gonna do a more serious picture, you know, like people go to get family pictures taken, but I thought about it, and... are we supposed to be that serious and formal around each other? Are we all supposed to put on family-picture-face and fake smile at the camera? Among ourselves, we can be ourselves. No having to look formal, just because it's what's expected."

[ostro_goth]

"We are not formal," Teja says. "We are both shocking, in our own way, and very private, and not what they saw coming, and very emotional, and fierce, and about what we consider 'our people'. This fits us. Down the years, this will show who we were at the beginning. Egil shall be grown one day, and see his roots in the picture."

[scarred_grin]

"I think it might need to be an ongoing series," she says. "This is the first entry: here we are, a family. We may not be everybody's image of a family, but we love each other and that's what counts."

She likes paintings better than family photographs, anyway, for capturing their collective spirit.

[ostro_goth]

For Teja, photographs are strictly useful tools to keep track of his work after it left his hands, nothing more. Anything worth keeping is worth art.

"And you would paint us every year, as we are then, Yule by Yule?"

[scarred_grin]

She likes photographs, to remember particular moments here and there. But those capture moments, not people, unless they're done by a good photographer. Which she is not.

"I think so," she says. "I think I should. And they'll all be pictures for the family, but not this one. This one's all yours."

[ostro_goth]

"May I make a copy with a machine, so I can put it up in the forge?" Teja asks.

He would not expose it to soot and grime.

[scarred_grin]

"Like you did with the book?" she asks. "The copying, I mean, not the hanging it up. Sure, you absolutely can. Just don't get it wet, or the paint will run."

[ostro_goth]

"Of course," Teja says, nodding. "I shall take good care of that art; it is precious to me."

Pause.

"I would give you a gift now; would you first have one that is personal, or one that is for all the world to see?"

[scarred_grin]

"Whichever you prefer," she says with a smile, and gets up to pour Egil his own little cup of horchata (his cup has a lid, and a cartoony monkey printed on it).

"Here you go, puppy."

[ostro_goth]

Teja takes out a small leather bag from his belt pouch, and holds it out to her.

[scarred_grin]

"Oooh, mysterious."

She takes the bag, shakes it a little, and then opens it.

[ostro_goth]

Out falls a contraption, made of several hues of fiery-coloured gold slightly tinted by copper, in a knot-work pattern reminiscent of flames. When she spreads it out, she will see that it fits exactly in the piercings on her lips, of which he still has the measurements.

[scarred_grin]

Why is it that whenever he makes her something for her lip-piercings, it makes her smile too much to try it on?

Because that's what she's doing right now. "This is... absolutely perfect. I'm gonna wear it all the time--at least, all the time when I don't have to talk."

And when she's not holding Egil, because he likes to reach for things.

[ostro_goth]

"I made it to resemble fire, for the sake of Loki's element," Teja says. "There is another thing, for when you cannot wear this."

He takes out another small pouch. This one will contain a ring, made of the same materials, in the same pattern, in a pattern that flows up her finger for half an inch, and down the back of her hand in a tendril of flame.

[scarred_grin]

That, she can try on--and does, proudly.

"You do the most amazing work, you know that? It's just perfect."

He's getting a kiss for that. And for everything else.

"I'll be wearing this to the wedding. Since I can't really wear the other one then."

[ostro_goth]

Teja nods. "This is for the world to see; the other is more personal," he says.

He leans in to kiss her back. Egil and the cats seem happy enough for the moment, so they can linger with that.

[scarred_grin]

"I kinda want to find a photographer, a good one, you know. And get some pictures of me showing off your work, and mine too. I'm gonna have to make an outfit to really suit these."

Loki will be pleased.

He already is, actually.

[ostro_goth]

"I know not who in this place would take good photographs," Teja says. "We might put up a notice?"

[scarred_grin]

"I can do that," she nods. "If I'm gonna be doing a clothing line here like I want to, I'll want good pictures--"

She stops, and does the speechless vague gesturing that generally accompanies her sudden ideas.

"This--this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna trade off inspirations. You make jewelry, I'll design clothes to go with them. I'll make clothes, you design jewelry to go with. We'll have a full collection together."

[ostro_goth]

"That will work," Teja says. "Jewllery will not only be bracelets and rings and the like; there might be clothes that call for chainmail over one's shoulders, or pieces of plate armour upon the chest."

[scarred_grin]

"Masks, headpieces, belts, anklets--you put jewelry on whatever you feel like decorating, and I'll design something for it," she grins. "I love the idea of collaborating. As good as we are just being together, we'll see how we are at working together. We're gonna make some art."

[ostro_goth]

"Art that will fit well with who wears it, that brings out their nature and connects to their traditions," Teja nods.

[scarred_grin]

"Maybe we'll get clients. I know people can just get whatever clothes they want from the bar, and when holidays come they're bound to get something strange, but we can make them something special. People will want to wear our designs."

[ostro_goth]

"Also, one day, we shall be out in the world again, in Vinci," Teja says. "Or in Philadelphia -- wherever we end up, because one is your door, and the other mine."