Body Language (closed)

[Obuzeti]

Leonard checked the clock absently; hung crooked above a full-wall painting of the Black Forest by firelight, it predicted his next appointment in three minutes. Clicking his tongue, he set out his full range of paints and thinners; the client hadn't specified what she wanted, which meant he was probably going to spend a good fifteen minutes painting samples first before getting down to work.

From where he sprawled in his lounge chair before an easel, he kipped up to his feet, all six foot five of his slender frame snapping to as he careened around the subject's stool, snagged a glass of coconut water from where it leaned against a stack of backdrops, and downed half of it in a gulp. The studio was kept at a lazy eighty degrees, so that no one'd get chilly, no matter what they wore. The artist himself, wearing a loose overshirt over his bare, lean chest to expose a sprawling work of flying swans on his skin, was no different.

Absently taking a towelette and wiping off a spot of indigo blue paint on his forearm, he almost missed the doorbell. Leonardo raised his eyebrows - a client, on time? - and tossed the scrap of fabric across the small studio to drape on the couch across the small apartment. Ignoring it, he ambled to the door and opened it, raising a thin black eyebrow at his visitor.

"You're right on time, miss. Come on inside. If it looks like paint, don't sit in it, everything else is up for grabs."

 

[Ldy_Sea]

"Oh hey, hi yeah uhhh, where can I put my gum?" she asked twriling the pink mass that was in her mouth around her finger.

 

[Obuzeti]

Leonard blinked lazily at the girl before him, her gum spun about her finger in obvious boredom. "As greetings go, that one was unique." he replies. "There's a wastebasket on your left as you enter."

He took a generous step back, gestured her into his studio, and turned around to immediately exhale softly. She was going to his patience in more ways than one, he could already tell. A voluptuous figure contained in a sweater and a thigh high skirt did nothing to keep him on point.

"So, basics. Is this your first body art, and if it's not, what are you looking for?" he asked, swinging about as he slid onto the stool, legs crossing in front of him.

 

[Ldy_Sea]

She peeled teh gum off her finger with her teeth and spit it into the trash can. Turning to follow him into the studio, she said "I was palying truth or dare with my sorority sisters, and I was dared to do this so here I am." She tells him. "So do I need to change, or is this outfit okay for the portrait?" she asks putting another piece of gum in her mouth.

 

[Obuzeti]

Leonard laughs, the sound spry and lilting in contrast to his lazy movement, as he aims a tilted smile back at the girl. "You have no idea how many times I've heard that. That's probably a quarter of my business, honestly: dares."

He raises a finger. "I should point out: this is a body art studio, not a portrait studio. I don't paint portraits, though I have done that by special commission - what an appointment here means is that I am to paint you, and not a canvas."

The artist tilts his head as he takes in the sorority sister's figure, taking in her long calves and thighs through half-lidded eyes. "You've got fantastic skin - it'd look good on you, especially in warmer colors. But I understand if the thought's a little bit frightening, especially if you hadn't come here prepared for it."

 

[Ldy_Sea]

"I was like, given this phone number, and like told to call. I had to like be painted and junk, then bring the painting like to this party at like the coolest frat house on campus. There's this like dreamy guy from the swim team in this like frat, and he's soooo cooooollllll, so I'm like reeaaallllllyyyyyyy excited. I was like planning to like give the painting to him. So I like dressed all sexy and junk so he would know that I like-like him and like wanted him to like totes ask me out." she was saying. "So like where should I like pose?" she asked picking up some of the brushes on the table and looking at them.

 

[Obuzeti]

Leonard's smile flattened.

Oh god, she really is this dumb.

"Tell you what. Let's do a simple one." He said, straightening up and spinning the stool out from behind him with one foot. He placed it in front of the ditzy girl. "Lean over - both hands resting on the stool - and look back over your shoulder. Yes, like that, that's perfect."

With a gentle but firm touch, he guided her into the teasing, coy pose, and then stepped back to reclaim his easel and brush. Dipping the bristles into his water daintily, he considered her tanned and bronzed skin tone, and then decided on a light red undercoat first. He knelt down behind her and, touching the brush to a dab of crimson paint, began the first few strokes on the back of her calf. The bristles tickled their way down her legs as Leonard asked, conversationally, "So what's your name? You haven't mentioned yet."

 

[Ldy_Sea]

"

"I'm Dayna," she says as something tickles the back of her calf. Suddenly she realizes he was putting paint on her body. Jumping back, she said "like what the H-E-double hockey sitcks! I saw Gold Finger. I'm not like going to let you cover me in paint so I like suffocate to death." she looks at him. "Make sure you like leave my lower back unpainted so I can like breathe," she tells him "Okay?"

As she says olay she realizes that if she was being painted, she was goong to hav eto show off her painted skin at the party...

She stood there her mouth open, the gum falls out and lands on the floor and several seconds later she says "umm like how much of me are you going to like paint? I wont be like naked, will I?' she asks in shock

 

[Obuzeti]

Leonard cocks an eyebrow as he readjusts and continues painting, not even slightly disturbed by her outburst. "Shirley Eaton didn't actually die in Goldfinger. She was in other films after that too, I think Around the World and Under the Sea was one. Moreover, you don't breathe through your skin, only sweat. You'll be fine."

He arcs the crimson paint down the inside of one knee, the brush turning delicately to apply its payload across the tender skin, before coiling about her right ankle in a flare of brilliant plumage. With a smile, he taps out the brush and adds a bright dash of yellow to the lower tips, making the tail fire-bright.

"I'm thinking a phoenix over your back, with its wings over your shoulderblades." Leonard says, as he carefully fills in the image of the tail over Dayna's ankles and calves. "Very dramatic and impressive. You'll have to leave your back bare for a bit, but we can skip over the bikini lines if you want - if you get far enough for him to see that, I don't think this other guy is going to care too much about three inches of interrupted paint."

He carefully ignores the gum. It'll just piss him off if he looks at it right now.

 

[Ldy_Sea]

'But...like are you for real sure. I mean I'm like too hot to die. Besides I have this like tae bo class tomorrow and if I like miss it i'll be like so mad." but she doesn't move away. After thinking for a minute or so she says "So wait... the tail will be like on my legs, and the wings like on my shoulders? Doesn't that like mean you'll have to like paint my ass to? she asks her nose all wrinkled as she tries to figure out why she didn't have any gum in her mouth.

 

[Obuzeti]

"I am very sure." Leonard replies patiently, as he details one of the claws on the back of Deyna's lower thigh, clutching at some object unseen. "If being fully painted killed people, I'd never have managed to keep a job doing exactly that, now would I?"

He pauses for a moment to pinch the bridge of his nose, and answers her other question after a moment. "As I just said, unless you actually want to get that painted, I'll skip over it. I'll do everything else first, and then I'll let you look at that, and then you can decide, okay?"

He prays she doesn't have any more gum. If she litters on his pristine floor again he might have to do something drastic.

 

[Ldy_Sea]

Still poking her tongue around her mouth trying to figure out where her last piece of gum went she replied "but like soliders and cops kill people and like they keep thier jobs." she says starting to chew gum even though there's nothing in her mouth.

"I guess it's cool if you like paint by butt. It's not like anyone's watching n junk right?"

 

[Obuzeti]

"True." Leonard said patiently. "They are, however, expected to perform duties that may place them into conflict with other people, and are explicitly expected to perform those duties in spite of those people. They're expected to get into fights and maybe kill others in the way. I paint things. Killing people is not part of my job description, and my clients would get pretty upset if I did that."

He finishes the claw, reaching high up onto her left thigh, and pats her leg almost fondly. "Done here. Follow me for a second, yeah?"

The painter stands and indicates a padded table, much like a massage table, set aside in one corner. "I've done as much as I can with what you've got on. If you want to keep going, you'll have to take something off. That said - look."

Leonard holds up a hand-mirror, opposite a full-length mirror set into far wall, and angles it so that Deyna can see what he's painted. "You like how it looks so far?"

 

[Ldy_Sea]

"It looks." she cocls her head loke a dog trying to understand a human, "red!" she says with pride that she camp up with that answer.

"So I like get naked now? she asks as she takes off her shoes.