maxine_bastet (maxine_bastet) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2017-06-21 13:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | ares, bastet |
Show Me Your Teeth
Who: Max and Daniel
What: Self Defence Instructors setting up a class that will be anything but ordinary.
Where: Pax Letale’s Gym
When: backdated to May 29 2017
She wanted to cancel the class; first Daniel was out because of his injuries, and now...this? She thought about taking BB’s advice and getting a mouth guard to hide her new fangs, but she was sure that wouldn’t work. They’d probably poke right through it anyway, being somewhat sharp because of the points on them. So that left nothing but to keep her mouth shut until she absolutely had to open it, and then do her best to explain it away once she had no choice.
So instead of thinking too much on it, she busied herself on setting out the mats, taking extra care to make sure they’re perfectly in place and won’t slip under someone’s feet, going through her plan for the class over and over in her head.
Daniel was not making the task particularly easy. With his leg and arm both out of commission -- the latter less so than the former -- he had adopted the role of director of the class. Each mat Max put down was met with some criticism, however minor. From his perch atop a bench at the front of the makeshift classroom, he pointed to each mat and to its proper place in turn.
"Man I thought I broke my leg," he grumbled, "not my voice. Are you even listenin' to me?"
She looked up at him with a slight glare, but kept her mouth closed tight, shifting the mat the slight amount he’d indicated and miming ‘happy now?’ She knew it was only a matter of time until he saw, and she was only delaying the inevitable. But then she had an idea. She pulled out her phone and wrote out a text ‘how about you instruct today and I’ll be the assistant?’ it said, and she sent it to him. Seconds later, it buzzed in his pocket.
He withdrew the phone, looking down at the screen with a little sneer. "Yeah, I'm in perfect shape for that," he called across the room. "What's goin' on with you, Max? You lose your voice at a concert or somethin'?"
She shook her head vehemently, but then finally sighed, resigning herself to the fact that she’ll at least</a> have to show him. After BB’s freakout this morning though, she wasn’t really keen on letting other people in on her new...look.
She headed over to him and then stopped a foot away from him, writing another text. “Promise not to laugh...or scream?” she sent him, her expression almost begging him to be cool about this when she looked up and caught his eyes. He glanced up the moment the text was sent.
"I make no promises," he admitted aloud, "but I'll do my level best. How bad could it be?" He leaned forward, his leg moving long after the rest of him had. "Fess up, Max. What's wrong."
She whimpered slightly, clearly hesitating again at revealing her big terrifying secret, wincing with the effort to force herself to get it over with. Finally, she unclamped her lips and smiled, showing off her brand new fangs. “I woke up like this this morning,” she whined, clamping her hand around her phone to prevent her from covering her mouth. “I can’t work like this! I look like a vampire!!”
Daniel's eyes went wide, lashes batting as what he saw attempted to sink in. Though he had not promised, he did as she asked; he did not laugh, could not, as he was far too surprised. For now. He leaned forward on his little perch, studying her open mouth. Then, at last, he cracked a broad grin. "Well," he said, "that's sure gonna make you more popular with a certain kinda crowd. I imagine it'll be a little more intimidating when it comes to work. You gotta admit, it's pretty fierce looking."
She watched his face carefully for his reaction, searching for any sign of the fear or amusement that she was worried about, and finding only shocked curiosity. That was something anyway, and she felt her muscles relax just a little. His last observation actually made her smile widely on reflex, but then she remembered and quickly covered her mouth with her hand. “I guess it is,” she said with a grin, still shielding her teeth from him, more out of recently acquired habit than any sort of shame.
“But what do I do about it?” she asked him, “people are gonna notice. And this is definitely,” she pulled on her two top fangs for emphasis, “a forever-type thing. And don’t even get me started on how weird it is eating with these…”
Daniel only shrugged, as if this were a perfectly ordinary problem, easily dealt with. That his dark eyes could not keep from wandering back down to her pointed teeth, though, was another problem. He tried to focus on her eyes, to show her he shared her concern on some level.
"Look," he said. "Get 'em filed down. Dentists do that all the time, don't they? For chipped teeth and, I dunno, aesthetics. Just find one who'll do that for you, without askin' too many questions about how you ended up lookin' like some jungle cat."
“Won’t that hurt?” she asked, suddenly protective of the sharp foreign objects in her mouth. “Besides, who could I find in LA that wouldn’t ask questions about weird cosmetic changes…” she paused, realizing what she just said and then just shook her head with a smirk. “Nevermind, I see your point. But...it’s not just fangs though...ALL of my teeth have changed...I don’t think any dentist can get them back to normal.” She paused then, pulling back her lips to show him her freaky molars, that have somehow fused into a few long teeth that also ended in sharp points, fitting perfectly into the teeth above like shears. Her top and bottom teeth between the fangs had also shrunk into two rows of tiny front teeth.
His eyes went wide once more. viHis lips parted, but every word he found felt woefully insufficient. He started, stopped, and started again. "Well I… uh. There's always fallin' in with the cosplay crowd. You'll never be outta place there…"
Daniel leaned back against the wall, his cast clanking heavily against the floor. "You want my honest advice?" he asked. Giving her no opportunity to respond, he added, "Just embrace it. It's too much to get filed down, too weird to explain… if people ask you about it just tell 'em it's none of their business. You've got that look, Max, nobody's gonna question it if you tell 'em not to. Own your weird fangs and don't stress out too much. Not like worrying about 'em will fix anything, anyway."
Her brows furrowed as he spoke, but he was making a lot of sense. There was really nothing she could do about it, so she might as well just accept it. Only there was the worrying fact that it had happened to her against her will. Still, as weird things go, this was definitely not...the worst she could think of. “At least I don’t have whiskers or stripes or something. And eating Count Chocula with these is all kinds of funny,” she said with a grin. “You’re right though. They’re not going anywhere, I might as well go with it, right?” Cheered, she pulled another mat off the pile and dragged it into place. He watched her, nodding vigorous agreement. “So how’s the leg doing?” she asked casually, “any word on when I’m getting my star practice dummy back? I think Nish is getting tired of being picked on for demonstrations…”
Daniel chuckled. "July or so," he said. "Depends on how well it's healin' on my next visit. I'm tryin' to stay off it and do all the right shit so I can get out of it sooner. We'll see how well it does." He grinned down at the stickers and glitter caked onto the cast, I'M WITH STUPID only slightly faded with time. "Regardless, just gettin' the cast off doesn't mean I'll be back in class. I'm sure I'll have to take it easy a while after that, too. I got some friends I can ask in for guest instructor spots, if you want somebody worth a damn to spar with."
Max shrugged, “might be an idea,” she agreed. “Ohh right, you weren’t here last week - we have a new student, Jocelyn,” she said, pulling the last mat into place. “She’s Nish’s friend from when they were kids; sweet girl, but she had some...trauma a while back. Half of her face is burned,” she said with a frown. “Lots of scar tissue. She hasn’t been active in a while, so I told her we’d keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t overdo it.”
"We always do," Daniel said, shrugging. "She'll be fine. You're a good teacher, Max. She's in good hands at least til I get back in full swing." He chuckled, winking teasingly over at her.
Max grinned slightly but accepted the compliment with a nod. “Thanks,” she said, “I still want you around when you can though; if I can’t abuse you physically, at least I can verbally,” she joked, wandering over to her water bottle and taking a swig, taking care to not dribble on herself as the new teeth made drinking from a bottle a little awkward. She glanced up as some of their students started to wander in. “Well, here goes nothing,” she said, taking a deep breath and waiting for the group to gather around them.