3rd Floor Boys' Bathroom, Monday Night

[not_every_mage]

After he visited Alluka, Anders had gone back to his room to tidy as a way to stop him from thinking so bloody much. And, at the bottom of a pile of papers dating back to the summer before, he found the heavy gold earring he hadn't worn in ... it had to have been at least since before the spring cruise. Maybe longer.

And when he went to put the thing back in, he found his earlobe had sealed clean over. It was almost as if the hole had never been there at all.

Having a nice hoop earring and no pierced ear to wear it in was a sad state of affairs, wasn't it? Clearly it had to be remedied. The first time he'd pierced it, an older girl in the Circle dorms held the needle. This time ... he didn't know who to ask. He suspected his friends would tell him to go get it done in some shop, which seemed vaguely excessive. So he took the supplies as he remembered them -- rubbing alcohol, needle, and block of ice -- to the boys' restroom and set up to quickly put a new hole in his head.

He had forgotten that the first time he'd had it done, they'd used whiskey instead of rubbing alcohol, and he'd been fortified by three or four generous pours before the needle touched his flesh. This time, he was sober as a stone. Anyone walking past the boys' bathroom tonight would get quite the education in rude comments that could be made about the Bride of the Maker, her underthings, and her personal proclivities.

[OOC: IDEK, man. I thought of this and it made me giggle so I posted it. Open, though.]

Comments

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

Dipper had been walking by the bathroom when he heard the commotion. He hadn't heard that kind of language since Grunkle Stan's pyramid scheme fell through.

He poked his head into the bathroom to see what was going on. "Are you okay?" he asked. "What the heck are you trying to do?"

[not_every_mage]

"Pierce my ear," Anders said, glancing away from where he was scowling at the mirror. "I swear the damned thing got thicker than it was last time."

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

"You pierce your own ear?" Dipper said in amazement. "Dude. That's hard core. Shouldn't you like be wearing rubber gloves or something? You're going to get infected doing it like that."

[not_every_mage]

"I didn't the last time I had it done," Anders told him, mainly to convince himself. "And I'm using alcohol to rinse everything. And I can heal. I just need ... steadier hands, that's all."

His un-steady hands had given him a tiny constellation of hesitation wounds on his earlobe.

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

Dipper looked at the earlobe and winced. "You want me to try?" he asked. "How big does that hole have to be?"

[not_every_mage]

"Big enough for an earring. No thicker than the needle," Anders explained, glancing at him. "What, have you done it before?"

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

"Well I just have to jab it straight through, right?" he asked. "Can't be that hard. Well, I mean if I'm not doing it to myself. That would freaking hurt, dude. You sure you want this?"

[not_every_mage]

"...don't take this the wrong way," Anders said slowly, "but I think I'd rather take my chances doing it myself."

He didn't know Dipper, and, as a general rule, he did not let people he didn't know and who had never done it before permanently scar his flesh. The principle seemed logical to him.

"Who are you,anyhow?" he added, as an afterthought. It was a relief to turn away from the piercing supplies for the moment.

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

Clearly Dipper didn't take it the wrong way because he instantly looked relieved at not having to poke a hole in anyone.

"Dipper Pines," he replied with his voice cracking on the first syllable. "New student around here since Saturday. And do you have a name or should I just call you pierced ear guy?"

[not_every_mage]

"Well, if I don't get the earring back in calling me that won't make any sense," Anders told him. "I'm Anders."

A pause. "Dipper? That's a name?"

Not that he was judging!

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

Dipper let out a nervous little chuckle. "Uh. Yeah. Kind of a family nickname," he said quickly. "So are you from around here or some weird version of Earth or something?"

[not_every_mage]

"Weird version of earth, I suppose," Anders shrugged, with a smile of his own. "Ferelden. It's in Thedas. The only other person here from there is a girl named Cassandra."

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

"Oh?" Dipper said suddenly looking very interested. "Do you mind telling me how you got here? Was it intentional?"

[not_every_mage]

"Sort of," Anders said. "I opened the portal on purpose. I just didn't know exactly where it would take me. Why do you ask?"

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

Dipper let out a little sigh. "My sister and I fell down a hole which brought us here," he explained. "I was a little freaked out when we found the school and learned we were already enrolled. How would anyone know we would fall down a hole and end up on an island in an interdimensional nexus?"

It also should be noted that Dipper seemed more freaked out about already being enrolled in school than falling through a dimensional portal.

Gravity Falls was a weird place.

[not_every_mage]

"Magic?" Anders suggested brightly. "I don't know, honestly. Try to think about why things happen here and you'll just give yourself a headache."

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

"I guess," Dipper said running his hands through his hair with a sigh. "I just don't like the idea of my future being out of my control. Plus it's a mystery so part of me just wants to dig in and figure out how this happens."

[dwarvenswagger]

Thorin was not on his floor. Thorin was a little... turned around. The floors all looked exactly the same, alright? It wasn't his fault.

At least the odd cursing would be a decent enough distraction from his dilemma. "Are you well?"

[not_every_mage]

"I'm fine," Anders said, petulant. "Apparently I have no idea how to pierce an ear, but I'm fine."

[dwarvenswagger]

"I think it involves sharp metal and flesh," Thorin replied helpfully.

[not_every_mage]

"So hitting my ear with this onion isn't going to work?" Anders joked. "No wonder I'm having problems."

Spoiler: There was no onion there.

[dwarvenswagger]

"I would not be able to tell," Thorin replied, trying to look innocent. "Perhaps men have softer flesh than dwarves."

[not_every_mage]

Anders smiled at that, and,in a more conversational tone, explained, "I took my earring out a few months ago and the thing healed over. It's not as easy to fix as I'd hoped."

[dwarvenswagger]

"Ah," Thorin replied, peering over at the supplies. "Are there no tradesmen who practice this art?"

[not_every_mage]

"Oh, that's probably what I'll end up doing," Anders admitted. "It just seemed like a waste of money for such a tiny thing. A friend did it the first time."

[dwarvenswagger]

"Is there meaning behind it? Or for decoration only?" Thorin asked, eyeing the gold hoop critically.

[not_every_mage]

"It's a marker of extreme sexual stamina."

It was not.

[dwarvenswagger]

"I will be certain to inform my sister of this when I return home."

They were just going to be delightfully sarcastic at each other, weren't they?

[not_every_mage]

"You can, but I would never presume to judge a man's sister's pastimes."

Sarcasm was the best way to bond, wasn't it?

[dwarvenswagger]

It totally was!

"Far from judgemental. I can tell."

[not_every_mage]

Anders chuckled aloud at that.

"I know, it's terribly obvious," he said, and added out of curiosity: "Are you from a large family, then?"