Private Talk is Cheap

[Corazona von Ascania]

"You have one on the inside of your foot? Why?"

Her reaction conveyed surprise, and genuine curiosity. Cora thought she'd seen all of Makko's ink—the markings etched into the skin of his chest and neck—but she'd been wrong. That made her almost a little angry at him, in a silly sort of way.

"What's it of?"

He posed his question to her as she was taking another sip from her glass, which earned him a half-heated glare.

"I'd not get another one." Cora scoffed, as if she'd just gotten a tattoo for moral and pious reasons rather than out of a stroke of pure rebellion. Idly, she wondered if she'd come to regret it. Maybe it was the alcohol, but that thought didn't inspire a wave of panic.

"I suppose if I absolutely had to pick...hmm…" Her eyes rolled upward in thought. "Not somewhere too visible. But also, not somewhere too scandalous." Her nose wrinkled.

"Maybe...somewhere on my upper back? Oh, but then I wouldn't be able to see it..."

Cora leaned back and frowned, surprised that she was even putting this much thought into such a hypothetical idea.

"Where would you suggest?"

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"It's a chain code," he said with a wry smile.

It had felt quite artistic to him, in a way.

"Most chain codes are like, a way for the government to put it's stamp on you. A digital identity you can't hide. But this one I've encoded four times over. You'd never know it was the location of the place I grew up without the secret.

In a way, it was the opposite of a government chain code. A secret instead of the truth laid bare.

He supposed even at the angle where he might have expected her to catch a glimpse of it, the code would have been just inside the arch of his foot.

"Not a neck tattoo?" he laughed. That amusement stretched out towards her through the Force. A beam of light in the darkness. Makko had grown to read her feelings, but hadn't realised how seamlessly that had transitioned to an empathic link through the Force too. One not so easily broken by distance.

"Collar bone?" he asked.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"The government...marks you?" Cora's brows knit together as she took another sip of wine. That didn't sit right to her. "Like you're an item?" She scoffed in distaste for the idea. Maybe now she understood a little better why Makko was violently against authoritarian rule and any sense of being controlled.

"So it's sort of symbolic—the one you've got on your foot, I mean."

Cora thought that maybe she got it, if only a little bit. It was a symbol of defiance. She had no idea how encoding worked.

"I'd like to see it sometime."

It would have to be sometime soon, but another long sip of wine was enough to keep that dark cloud from covering her thoughts. The color of their bond helped too, shifting from dark greys and blues to something more vibrant and alive.

Her nose wrinkled at the mention of her getting a neck tattoo. "My collar?" Cora thoughtfully traced a finger along the prominent bone that ran the length just below her shoulder. "That might work. Only if it's low enough not to be visible with most necklines. But not low enough to make me look like a trollop."

It was a delicate balance, she was finding out.

"Maybe somewhere on the lower leg? Would that hurt much at all?"

A brief flush colored her cheeks at the notion that she might actually be considering this a little tiny bit.

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"The government...marks you?" Cora's brows knit together as she took another sip of wine. That didn't sit right to her. "Like you're an item?"

"Lots of governments do," he said. "Some just call it an Identity paper. Some work the damned code into your genes. Be glad if Utakis doesn't use Chain Codes at all," he said.

Fractal state had one tried to hit the servers of a company that stored the chain codes for a whole sector, but they'd been foiled.

"I'd like to see it sometime."

"I'll show you later," he promised. "It's not so interesting to look at."

"Maybe somewhere on the lower leg? Would that hurt much at all?"

"Might be seen in a skirt though. Upper thigh would be hard to see. Anywhere soft and fleshy can hurt, or where the skin is like...thin. Leg wouldn't be so bad."

"If you could add a tattoo to me, where would you put it?" he asked. Her distaste for gaudy tattoos had him wondering where she would have him inked next.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"It's not so interesting to look at."

"Other parts of you are far more interesting to look at."

Cora was prone to blushing, but a noticeable flush colored her cheeks faintly from the wine. She'd nearly finished her glass—her single glass—but a lightweight was a lightweight.

She giggled, hiding the teasing smile that twitched her lips behind the rim of her cup.

Makko's question inspired a look of genuine thought. Perhaps brazenly, Cora allowed her gaze to roam over the man across from her, eyes tracing the various designs inked into his skin at his neck and arms, drawing from her memories the parts that were currently not visible.

She liked to think she'd committed them all to memory by now. Cora was far more fascinated with Makko’s tattoos than she'd ever readily admit.

With one brow cocked salaciously, Cora leaned across the booth and whispered something lowly in his ear. The blonde retreated just as quickly, giggling to herself from behind a demurely raised hand against her mouth.

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

He soaked up her gaze readily. Cora didn't spend enough time openly looking at him like that. He was vain and spent far more time working on his appearance than others spent admiring it.

What he didn't take in his stride was the hushed whisper. Makko rocked back in his chair as Cora leaned away. She looked pleased with herself, instead of aghast at breaking protocol.

Makko regathered himself, basking in her self-satisfied amusement. He could look past regretting all the little things he would miss and just enjoy them while he could.

"I think... If you have a second glass of wine that might not be on the cards," he said.

Pushing his empty glass into the middle of the table was a clear statement of intent.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora pouted, sipped what was left of her wine, then slid the newly empty glass towards his. Their cups made a small clink upon contact.

Cheers.

"My suggestion was made based on the fact that there's much less canvas to work with."

Cora wasn't sure if she believed that, and suddenly she was worried about forgetting every curve and angle of his ink.

She reached out and pressed her hand into his own, winding their fingers together as if she’d forget what warmth felt like.

"Should we head back, then?"

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

For once he didn't leap at the opportunity. The smile grew slowly on his face and he squeezed her hand gently. His thumb slowly ran across the backs of her knuckles.

Makko wanted to spend time with her, without wanting time to progress. He couldn't have what he wanted. The theme of the week.

He looked up to meet her blue gaze. Makko tilted his head to one side. No one else in the bar mattered. No one else mattered at all. Not right now. It would have been simpler if there one no one else interfering in her life.

"Let's."

A single word. A dividing line.

He'd made his mark on her life. The tattoo was simply a reminder.