(ง'̀-'́)ง (hairbender) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-08-18 21:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, asami sato, kitiara uth matar |
Who: Asami and Kitiara
What: Asami gets a tattoo
When: recently
Where: Kit's tattoo parlor
status: complete
Rating: PG-13
Asami had never gotten a tattoo before, but she’d considered it in her dreams. The Water Tribe symbol mixed with her own. But that would be silly to put on her body here, in a place where Korra didn’t seem to exist.
But she wanted something of Future Industries. So much of her life had been tied to the company, and she wanted a variation of her favorite logo. She supposed it brought a whole new meaning to the term ‘corporate branding’. But that was neither here nor there.
She parked her motorcycle outside the tattoo parlor, and pulled her helmet off. Miraculously, her hair remained as perfect as her make-up was on point. It was probably her one super-power besides her brain.
She stepped into the building, and looked around. “Hello?”
Kitiara had put quite a bit of work into turning the location she’d purchased into a tattoo studio. She’d painted the interior walls black with blue trim. A few of her own paintings hung on the wall, though the majority of the art work were prints from some of her own favourite tattoo artists, and while her tattoo station did sit openly in the room, she had a Japanese style standing partition, designed with a cheery blossom tree, standing nearby that she could pull over if her client wanted or needed a little extra privacy.
It was her first day open, and Kitiara was kind of bored. Of course, it was her own fault for not spending any real money on advertising the grand opening. It wasn’t necessary to pour any money into this venture outside of location costs and the costs of supplies. Maybe she might hire some other artists in the future, but for now this was okay. It wasn’t like tattooing was her main line of work; it was simply her most public.
Kitiara looked up when she heard the motorcycle, and through the large front window she spotted the woman - probably the same one from the user pics on the Network - getting off her bike, and eyed her up, a little jealous that somehow that long hair still looked styled. Kitiara had cut her own hair short. The woman seemed well-put together, and walked with some confidence. From the state of her bike and her clothing, the woman was potentially wealthy, though that was more subtle.
“Hey,” Kitiara said, kicking her feet off from the counter where they’d be resting. “You must be Asami.”
Asami sure wouldn't have heard of the place, if she hadn't talked to Kitiara on the internet. It had just happened to coincide with a desire on her part to put something that was personal to her on her body.
In her dreams, she'd dragged Future Industries out of the pit of bankruptcy and the disaster of her father's alignment with terrorists. She had redesigned the city's infrastructure, and after the destruction caused by Kuvira her company was sure to have a large part in rebuilding. It was personal to her in a way that she doubted she'd ever be able to explain to anyone except possibly Korra.
She smiled, and if she was nervous it didn't show. "Hello. Yes, that's me."
“I’m Kitiara,” Kit said, offering a hand and a lopsided smile. “I suppose I should thank you for being my very first customer in California.”
Asami took Kitiara’s hand, her cheeks coloring just a little bit. She swallowed a momentary ‘oh no she’s hot’. “This is going to be my first tattoo, so I suppose that makes us even.”
Kitiara’s fingertips brushed lightly against Asami’s palm as she released the handshake. She rarely mixed business with pleasure, though that didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate a good-looking customer. “Virgin blood. My favourite.” Kitiara winked. “Let’s take a look at this design of yours.”
“I’m not that innocent,” Asami joked. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a carefully folded piece of graphing paper. She unfolded it, tossing her hair over her shoulder before spreading it on the counter. It was a half a gear, with 5 spokes, shaded dark red, and set in a light red, almost pink background, with a third shade of red for a border. Asami liked the color red. “I was considering a pair of lightning bolts above it, too.”
How did this woman’s hair look so flawless? Kitiara both hated it and wanted to touch it. Her own short hair normally hung in tight curls, and was nearly impossible to do anything with. Putting aside the whole hair issue for now, though she’d be sure to find out what, if any, product Asami used later, Kitiara took a look at the tattoo, frowning thoughtfully to herself. It was a good design, simple and bold. A few years ago, Kitiara would have recommended against having it so red, perhaps even suggesting a black outline to prevent the colours from bleeding too much, but they’d been such strides in tattoo ink that red was hardly a problem anymore. “It looks good. I might recommend a black outline to keep the edges from growing fuzzy, but that’s hardly necessary. “Red lightning bolts as well, I take it?”
Her dream friends had liked to joke that she was a hairbender. “A black outline is probably a good idea. And yes, unless you think blue would be better for them?” While red was her favorite color, she had a soft spot for blue. She hoped Kit didn’t ask why, on any of it. It was hard enough to explain to herself, she wasn’t sure she had the words, it was all feeling.
Luckily, Kitiara rarely asked what people’s tattoos represented. If she was designing it herself, she may ask so she could get the proper tone, but tattoos were personal. Whether someone was getting a swallow because they’d actually travelled 5000 nautical miles, because the swallow was their dear dead granny’s favourite bird, or because they just thought swallows looked cool was none of Kitiara’s business. If they wanted her to know, they’d tell her. Besides, Kitiara rarely cared that much about the people who walked into her shop.
She took the original to the copy machine and made a couple of copies. Then, taking the black and blue washable markers she kept in her shop, she quickly and skillfully outlined between each new shad of red with the black marker, and then drew in a couple of lightning bolts in blue between the outer rim of the tattoo toward the gear. “Something like this, perhaps?” she asked, turning the image so that it was facing Asami.
She looked at it carefully, the way someone who was used to design work of her own might. Asami was a meticulous study. It was an innate gift that had let her become a top designer at her father’s company and then had helped her turn it around after he’d been disgraced. “That’s perfect!”
Asami nodded, grinning from ear to ear.
Maybe Kitiara hadn’t done the design itself, but she was pleased that her modifications had gone over well. “Excellent. Where were you thinking of placing it?” Kitiara said, moving to start tracing the stencil.
“I had a couple of places in mind. My back, between my shoulder blades. Alternately on my arm.” A tramp stamp would be a little hilarious to her but it was also an option. “I like the idea of my back the most though. Unless you think that’s a bad idea?” Really, the only people who’d ever see it would be her doctor, any lovers (not that she had much long term luck in that area), or people at the beach. That was fine by her.
“There’s nothing sexier than a girl with a tattoo between her shoulders,” Kitiara said. “And I think this tattoo in particular has a great shape for the upper back. Let’s get that shirt of yours off and make some art.”
Asami grinned. “Honestly my dating life needs all the help it can get.” It was a bit of a fib. It wasn’t like Asami couldn’t pick someone up, she just had some awkwardness when it came to that - and bad luck actually keeping someone around. She pulled her shirt off, leaving on a nice, lacy red bra.
“I find that hard to believe,” Kit said. There was nothing skeevier than your tattoo artist checking you out before you got a tattoo, so she refrained, though she could admit to herself that it was one of the nicer backs she’d have the pleasure of tattooing.
She applied the stencil and allowed Asami to check it out in the mirror, and once it was positioned to her clients liking, she set up the inks. Once she’d donned a pair of vinyl gloves, she was prepared to start tattooing. “So, you said you’re an engineer? What kind of work do you do?” Kitiara asked, preparing to set the needle to the skin once Asami started talking.
Asami expected it to hurt. She'd done research of course, and it had proven to be inconclusive. But she'd been blown up, electrocuted, beaten up by a magical maniac, and that didn't even include her dreams. She could handle it! "All kinds of things. I started with electric cars and motors, but I love gas engines too. And inventing things. Coming up with new ways to do things and new ways to help people."
“Electric cars, hm?” Kitiara said, pressing the needle to Asami’s skin, careful to put enough pressure with her other hand on her that if she did jerk on the first contact, she wouldn’t screw up her own tattoo before it even started. “I saw you ride in. You do any work with bikes as well?” she asked conversationally.
Hissing, Asami grit her teeth, then forced herself to relax. “Yeah...Anything with a motor really. I designed my company’s airship too. Put a lot of the parts together myself but had a team for most of the build.” She hadn’t expected that kind of pain, but she forced herself to remain still.
Once Kit was sure Asami wouldn't be too twitchy, she eased up on the pressure with her spare hand, smiling slightly to herself. She seemed to be taking it well so far. She opened her mouth to comment on how she was something of a motorcycle enthusiast when Asami continued on. Her eyes widened slightly. “An airship ? If all you mean is a simple Zeppelin, I will be very disappointed.”
“Oh, its much bigger than a Zepplin. I’ll probably take it around the country now that I’ve got the permits settled.” Asami turned her head, resting her cheek on her hands. “Its big, basically a luxury cruise liner of the sky. I have a cargo ship on the drawing board.” The dreams had given her the parts for the first one, and the knowledge. She just needed to replicate it, and maybe she could reinvent transport. Her ships put out a lot less harmful toxins and gases than seagoing ships or a fleet of trucks.
“That sounds amazing,” Kitiara said, and she actually meant it. She was a rough and tumble kind of girl, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t love the idea of a life of luxury, and she couldn’t imagine anything much more luxurious than a cruise liner of the sky, looking down at all the people on the ground as though they were microscopic ants. “I can’t believe no one’s thought of something like that before. You could make a killing with an idea like that.”
“If I can get it to take off, yes. I thought the hardest part was getting government approval, but it may be getting people to pay for it. Luxury trips are probably the easiest, but if I can prove I can ship cargo faster, cheaper and more safely, with less impact on the environment.” The conversation made it easier to ignore the pain. Kitiara’s hand on her back also helped.
“You are a visionary, aren’t you?” Kitiara asked, quirking an eyebrow though it was unlikely Asami would see it. “I’m sure so long as it’s more reliable than FedEx you’ll do a great job. Air travel is a good way to use a lot of fuel in short order, so it’s amazing you’ve found a workaround on that. I’ll take it you’re not just an engineer for this company?” And if she was, well, she deserved a promotion.
“My company is called Future Industries for a reason,” Asami boasted. And well, just an engineer? She supposed she didn’t want to lie. “At the risk of boasting, I’m the owner and CEO. I took over a few years ago after my father got into some legal troubles.”
“You’re kidding,” Kitiara exclaimed, clearly impressed. “You look far too young to run your own company. You’ve got to be younger than thirty.” And even that was a generous estimate. If she was even close to that old, Kitiara would be surprised indeed. “Though, it sounds like we’re in the same boat as far as father’s go.”
“Twenty-three.” Asami fought the urge to shrug. That would probably be really bad right now. “I was groomed to take it over eventually, though I usually spent my time in R&D.” She shifted her head a little to glance at Kit. “Dad’s in jail too?”
Kitiara smiled to herself. Her first customer at her new shop was a young, hot CEO from a well-known company? Well, that could only bode well for her. “No. He’s too smart for jail,” Kitiara said, trying hard to mask the pride in her voice from that. “He’s wanted though. Things got a little too hot for him, and he left when I was still a child.” Kitiara was sure he was dead, though she’d still hired Killian to track him down. Her dreams would allow for nothing else.
Official tattoo provider of Future Industries? Asami knew the power of endorsement and word of mouth, and she was always willing to help another woman in that regard. Society was already against them, they should stick together. She wondered what would have happened in her dreams, if her father had been caught sooner. She probably would have met Korra under other circumstances. She hoped. “I can’t picture my dad in hiding. He wouldn’t last that long. He’s tough, but that kind of thing? I don’t know.”
“Mine was a cop. He knew every trick in the book for staying underground.” Though, probably not for staying alive. Kitiara was sure that he must be dead by now, otherwise, why else wouldn’t he have found her?
Asami wondered if her dad had been a crooked cop. In her dreams she’d met a few. Mostly those who had issues with non-benders. Sometimes she wondered if the whole bender vs non-bender situation had only been buried, not actually resolved. “I’m sure he’s out there. If you want him to be, that is.”
Kitiara’s lips tightened into a thin line. Frankly, she’d rather her father dead than out there somewhere. Dead, he was still her hero of a father, who would have come and taken her from her boring humdrum life when he could. Alive, he was a man who abandoned his six year old with her incompetent mother and never came for her even though Kit made sure that her name would be known among the criminal underground.
Abruptly, Kitiara decided she was finished with the conversation about criminal fathers. She grabbed her green soap mix, and sprayed the tattoo to wipe away the extra blood and ink, knowing as she did it that the soapy water would also help sooth the tattoo. She’d spoken to plenty of people who claimed the spray was the greatest feeling in the world, though Kitiara herself didn’t have enough tattoos to attest to that.
It really felt amazing, and Asami couldn’t help the low groan that escaped her mouth. It was soothing, after the at times intense pain that her back had undergone. The conversation had helped, just not quite as much as she could have hoped for. “Oh that’s nice…”
Kitiara smiled lopsidedly, pleased. “A little pain just makes the pleasure better.” Which really was true in all things, not just tattoos. She finished wiping the tattoo and eyed it for a moment as she rolled her shoulders. So far, it was coming along nicely, and it really wasn’t too difficult with how well Asami was sitting. “Well, Asami,” Kit said, taking her position again and beginning to tattoo once more. “Why don’t you tell me a little more about yourself?”
“That’s….well you’re not wrong.” Though there were kinds of pain that didn’t help the pleasure at all. Asami closed her eyes again, bracing herself. “Like I said, I’m a gear head. I like mechanical things. I designed a lot of the tech we use to make our vehicles more efficient. I just like...inventing things. In my dreams there are people who control the elements. I designed a suit that allowed airbenders to fly. My company also built both the first cars and first airplanes in my world.”
She’d once stumbled onto an old design for an airbender vehicle, and she suspected that her dad had been inspired by it. “Obviously I can’t kickstart an industrial revolution, but...I’d like to make an impact, somehow.”
People who could control the elements. Well, didn’t that sound interesting. Kitiara wondered what it would be like to have that kind of power at her fingertips. The power to set her enemies on fire, or to literally leave them breathless. Of course, it didn’t sound like much more power than the wizards in her own dreams had. Kitiara had neither the talent nor the patience to learn magic, so maybe controlling the elements would be out of reach as well. Of course, Kit needed neither magic or bending to make her name known in certain circles.
“That’s incredible,” Kitiara said. “Of course, if you keep up with innovations like that airship you mentioned, maybe you’ll start a revolution of sorts. If you ever make a flying motorcycle, I’d be more than happy to test it for you.”