[EP] Research - Pro Aris Et Focis (OTA)

[st_artingpoint]

Some of Jane's memories were returning, thanks to Molly, and she had some intense conversations with Alex about her possible military background. All of this had her looking at her tattoos differently. There was one that was barely visible on her arm underneath a black patch of ink. Molly had done a glamour spell that was able to remove the ink cover but it was still faint. It was clear enough so that Jane could research it and she'd learned it belonged to the Navy Seals.

That got her even more motivated as she sat at a table with a scattering of books around her that had military images, a notebook and a mirror. Jane was in the process of trying to look at a smaller tattoo on her back and try to sketch it. Neither was successful and she was getting frustrated. She needed a way to catalog all of her tattoos so that she could start to see if anything related to any of the memories that were emerging.

Comments

[st_hotflashes]

Liz was out looking for some inspiration for her next project for Piotr when she noticed Jane at a table. She paused to watch for a second, not meaning to be nosy. When she noticed the woman was frustrated, Liz quietly approached, hugging her sketchpad to her chest.

"Do you, um.. Do you need some help?"

[st_artingpoint]

Jane glanced up at the familiar voice and smiled when she saw it was Liz. "Hi, yeah I do. I thought I'd start making a list of all my tattoos and not just describing them. Sort of a catalog. Unfortunately, I don't have artistic talent and I don't have a camera."

Which left her frustrated and a doodle that looked more like Picasso than Still Life.

[st_hotflashes]

Her eyes widened a bit. "Oh! Um. Well, I mean, I've been learning how to draw. Maybe - Maybe I could help? I'm not that great, either though... oh! But I do know someone with a camera. I could, probably ask him if I could borrow his phone if you'd like?"

[st_artingpoint]

"Oh you know someone with a camera on their phone? That would be great if he'd let you borrow it." Jane smiled. "I'm not sure that I'll be able to find anything on the tattoos but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have them cataloged."

[st_hotflashes]

Liz wanted to help and her body lurched a little forward in excitement. "I'll - I'll be right back!" and without quite running, she made her way towards Peter's room. It took about ten or so minutes for Liz to return, maybe 15 as there was some blushing and stammering between her and Peter, but she came back with a phone in hand and even the charger.

"So, um. He said it was okay as long as we don't delete his other photos." Liz smiled. "I thought maybe... maybe we could take photos and have Piotr sketch them so you can have copies with you all the time?" Since the phone would eventually have to go back to Peter and Liz's limited knowledge of phones with cameras was... well, very limited.

[st_artingpoint]

"Thank you, I'd like that a lot." Jane was pleased with the idea, but then added, "my tattoos are all over my body." She emphasized the all for Liz to understand. "Is your friend Piotr an artist that's used to nude models?" She assumed that he was.

[st_hotflashes]

Liz was the one that blushed at this. "Um. Well... I'm sure he'd be okay. I mean, he's really good and a professional." And gay, though she told herself immediately after that thought that that didn't matter if someone was comfortable looking at naked people. And then she thought about Peter having naked photos on his phone and she made a big mental note to find out how to delete photos before she handed the phone back to him.

"Piotr's really nice. If it'll help you learn stuff, I'm sure he'd say yes."

[st_ackeddeck]

Of course Emma had noticed the woman with all the tattoos around the inn. Emma might hermit, but she wasn't completely locked away from the rest of the people here. They hadn't talked, but she thought her name was Jane. While trying to pick out a book, Emma saw her studying a design on her back that had to be hard to see, and took that as an opening to approach. On the table she saw what looked like attempts to draw the design Jane was focused on.

"Is there something I can do to help? It's hard getting a good look at something on your back. Even with a mirror or two."

[st_artingpoint]

"I'm trying to catalog all of my tattoos." Jane admitted. "And I'm not having much luck with the harder to see ones. If you could help with that, that would be great."

[st_ackeddeck]

"I have a camera on my phone," Emma offered. "But I'm not sure if there's a way to print them out here." The technology at the inn was out of date compared to what she was used to. Not by a lot, but she'd watched the progression from when she was little, and this reminded her of the beginning of that.

"I could take pictures with my phone and then draw them for you." That way Jane wouldn't have to sit for each drawing so Emma could be sure it was accurate. "If it would help, and you want me to."

[st_artingpoint]

"That would be great." Jane said, "it would help a lot. I don't really expect to find anything in the books here that might connect to the images, but even a small trail is more than I have now."

[st_ackeddeck]

Emma pulled her phone out of the bag she almost always carried, and pulled up the camera function. "Do you...," she frowned, taking a picture of the design Jane had been trying to draw. "I don't know how to ask this without it sounding bad. You don't have to answer if you don't want to or anything, but did somebody do all this ink without you knowing what it was?"

[st_artingpoint]

"I don't have any memories." Jane began her tale. "When I arrived, I didn't know who I was or even my name." She smiled slightly, "I still don't know my name, I go by Jane Doe." And to be honest, Jane Doe felt more like her than any name that might surface in her memories.

"I'd like to think it was done with my consent, but that would bring up just as many questions I think."

[st_eelyourself]

Piotr watched as his student left the woman at the table and smiled. He couldn't hear what they had talked about, but he had little doubt that Liz had offered to help. That was just the kind of person she was.

But the woman still looked like she was struggling and Piotr wasn't one to sit ideally by either. Walking up slowly, he nodded politely and held up his sketchbook. "Hello, would you like help with your drawing?"

[st_artingpoint]

She had got offers to help, and she was grateful, but she could always use more. There were more tattoos than people realized and in places that she wasn't comfortable showing in public.

"I would like that a lot, thanks." Jane smiled at him and indicated for him to take a seat if he'd like.

[st_eelyourself]

"Spasibo," he said with a nod, taking the offered seat. Looking down at her attempt at drawing, Piotr couldn't help but wince. "Is this supposed to be little one on your back? I can make sketch very quickly. How true to life would you like it to be?"

He flipped to a blank page in his book and started laying out the rough shape, making the drawing the same size as the tattoo.

[st_artingpoint]

Jane chuckled a little, "yeah, it's supposed to be but it didn't quite turn out like that. And, as true to life as you can. If you'd rather not, as long as it gives an impression of it, that's fine, too."

Really, Jane wasn't all that particular.

[st_eelyourself]

"Realistic is my specialty." It took care and close observation, and a detachment that most Russian's excelled in. "If you would rather focus on your reading then you do not need to hold the mirror."

Now that he'd been given direction, his lines became more solid and precise. Tattoos lend themselves to simple designs but these were deceptively detailed. "Can I ask why you would like record of your tattoo?"

[st_artingpoint]

Jane watched him draw, more out of fascination than anything.

"I don't have memories of the tattoos." It wasn't a secret what had happened to her, but she hadn't told many people. "I woke up at the Inn with no memories. I don't know my name though Jane Doe feels more me than whatever my name might be. I thought if I cataloged them maybe they'd lead me to why or even what they mean."

[st_rangepalette]

Since Zahra arrived, Lillith had ceased disguising herself most often. She found the extra spell energy not spent on veils odd and oddly freeing. Today, she went to the library in her Tiefling form.

There she spied a young woman with very many tattoos on her who seemed to be looking at a tattoo on her back. "Would you like assistance with that?" she offered helpfully. Either a sketch or an illusion would be simple for her to do.

[st_artingpoint]

"I would..." Jane began to speak and then glanced up. The pause was from surprise but she quickly recovered before it got too awkward. "Yeah, I would. Sorry." She smiled shyly, "I'm trying to figure out what these mean and I can't draw them very well. At least not enough that I can figure out what they are." She turned her picture around for her to see and it sort of looked like a cross between Picasso and Salvatore Dali - not in a good way but in a five year old could draw it better way.

[st_rangepalette]

"There is no need for apology. My appearance, it is startling, yes?"

Lillith did not yet glance at the drawing. Instead, she picked one of the images on the other woman's arm. One that was in plain sight. She placed her clawed hands together in front of her and then opened them. When she did, that same image appeared in black outlined in faint but sparkling silvery-blue luminescence to make it visible where it hovered in mid-air.

[st_artingpoint]

"I'm sure my appearance is as startling to others." Jane knew that she turned heads and not necessarily because of her face.

She was about to say more when suddenly an image of one of her tattoos magically appeared. Jane was used to seeing magic but to see something like this, this was amazing.

"Wow, that is so amazing." She leaned closer toward it, able to see it really well for the first time.

[st_rangepalette]

Lillith gave the woman a patient smile, one that only barely showed her fangs. She did not wish to give reason for fear.

"Is only illusion. Very simple. If it helps, I can do more." For this, she needed only cantrip. She could perform all day without exhaustion. But more powerful illusion, it would be better. "Also. I am called Lillith."

[st_artingpoint]

"Jane." She introduced herself to Lillith. "Thanks, it would help a lot, especially the ones that I can't see. I know there's one behind my ear, there's also quite a few on my back."