Surveying himself in the floor length mirror of his little hotel room, Kekipi smiled at his reflection. A bag of tools and ink he’d salvaged from the tattoo shop lay opened on a nightstand nearby. In the bathroom, a tiny, portable autoclave hummed away as it sterilized needles and the septum ring he’d selected for himself. He’d already sketched out the design he wanted on his face and wondered how hard it would be to do this himself.

Granted, he’d managed to do most of his neck and chest piece on his own and it had turned out quite well. His arm had been his late co-worker’s work. But, he reasoned as long as he could see what he was doing and not have to contort his body to do it, why bother going to anyone? Surveying his face, he decided to simply work around his bridge piercing. And as for the septum... He would do that once the inking was done. He knew how much septum piercings hurt during and after and had no desire to make things more difficult for himself. After a few more moments, he heard the autoclave shut off and went to retrieve his needles and set them into his tattoo gun. Then, taking a chair, he sat before the mirror, loaded some ink into the needles and went to work.

As he drew out the lines of the design and filled them in, he had to keep from smiling. He couldn’t remember much of his own heritage. His life before the Dark Kingdom was a strange blur. He knew he was Hawaiian. That was really all he knew. And he thought he might have some cousins out there somewhere. He vaguely remembered cousins. But the faces that had been disturbingly vague before had faded as he’d fully embraced his new life. Perhaps this was what Ate had meant when she’d ordered him to say goodbye to his human life. He thought he’d done that when he’d left Rin his house. When he’d murdered Blush and set the shop ablaze. Now though… He was suspecting that letting go of what he couldn’t remember was also a part of it. They were memories he would never get back. So why worry at them like a dog with a bone? He’d entrusted himself to Metallia this far. So why not give himself over fully? He didn’t need those memories. Even his heritage didn’t matter so much anymore, except in that it gave him an outlet to express his pride in himself and his service to Her.

And the facial tattoo would be intimidating, he was sure of it. All the better to un-nerve those who followed the White Moon.

He felt tears spring to his eyes as he filled in the lines around his eyes and then the lines that trailed over his lips. Oh yes, he was very glad now that he’d chosen to wait on doing the piercing. Still, he kept at it until the last of the ink was set and the tattoo gun turned off and set down. Breathing heavily, Kekipi blotted at his eyes and tender skin. Then, he reached for the Tattoo Goo and slathered it on. Only once he was sure that he was ready to continue did he fetch the bone jewelry from the autoclave along with the forceps and piercing needle.

This required him to set up small mirror on either side of the large one, but once he was done, he could see his nose and set the forceps. Wincing as they pinched, he took a deep breath and lined up the needle. Then, as he exhaled, he drove the needle through his septum and bit back a yelp. After a few moments fumbling, he drew the needle out and had the jewelry in.

Only when it was secure did he set everything down on the nightstand and wobble over to the bed and lay down carefully.