stealth_moose

Now what we've all been waiting for. I've got the photos developed!!!!

hmmmmmm there are a lot of them soooooo go HERE and give em all a looky. I shall remain here and tell the story ^-^ (this way you can have the picture thingey off to the side and massive blocky images of doom are not crowding the space of story)


Malice and I left this Hamilton place at 9 am to head into the Toronto. Appointment was at noon so yes this was a horrendously early departure, but there are things to do in Toronto so it was all good.

We arrived in Toronto at around 10. Business-ey type people were wandering EVERYWHERE. We passed by a building I did some security at one time (memories). Then saw some random business-ey lady in high heels fall flat on her face. Tripped on the sidewalk/curb or something. She was part of this big tour of business-ey people, some of them did not even stop to help. Malice and I laughed

Parking was easily enough located and the wandering began (there was time to kill) (((TAKE THAT TIME *KILL KILL KILL*)))
Anyways.... there were garbage monkeys wandering around yelling stuff, and important looking people doing important looking things on their cell phones (I dun like those things). We went into the Eatons centre and looked at some videogames (opiate of the masses) surprisingly we were both able to resist. Inside the Mind Games store they were having a spooky sale or something, I got a wicked glass chess set for 30 bucks *DANCE*

After the chess item was obtained we started to head back. Arrived with half an hour to spare so we went and got pizza. Chicken bruschetta with parmesan *drooly* I would build a small shrine to honor pizza pizza but the squirrels would only knock it down again.

Pizza-ing complete and just minutes from the shop opening. And then we were in.

Blair is a cool guy; He was cool when I talked to him about all this way the heck back in...... *thinks* February I believe was when I went in for the initial consultation. There was a bit more talk about aftercare and what to expect. No real new information, but it was nice to go over it again.

Before anything was started there was paperwork. "I'm over 18" "I knows what's going on" "I'm not drunk" that sorta thing. A little strange, really would not want to be drunk during such a thing. Booze would probably not mesh well with the process. Knowing what's going on I figured as a given. It'd be real strange if after the first strike some guy was all "WOAH WOAH WOAH, THE HEL ARE YOU DOING or something silly like that.

I had some sketches/scribbles that I brought in on an old work timesheet I've no use for but we really just started from scratch. Started with the pointy teardrop thing in the centre because I knew what I wanted that to be and just went randomly at the drawing of the branches. Got some half decent ideas from some tree books Blair brought in with him. Gave a real solid idea of how to form the flows.

Getting everything right took just about three hours. The beforehand of the drawing was really kinda funny "I'm going to have to shave your arm" "VERY NO!!! Um duh. People don't actually go like that do they?" "Youd be surprised" "all like NOOO not that hair, I've had him FOREVER" such fun

With everything all down all that was left was a last cleaning and going over with the surgical markings marker.

More tea was made and I got myself comfy on the bed-thing. Unfortunately the fire does not show up that well in the heating of the tool images. The first strike was a single shot, let me know how it feels, kinda thing. I compare the pain to jabbing your fingernail really hard into your skin. What I was not expecting was the feeling of all the water in my skin at the point of contact flash boiling. So I could feel these little bubbly's and it was SO FRICKIN WEIRD. The bubbly's are the focal downside of the whole procedure, they just feel too weird.

All the strike runs after that initial were done in three or four parts. I wiggled around a bit. It is difficult to describe. Like all the sensory parts of me FOCUS intently on the point of branding and the rest of me sorta not knowing what to do.

With each set of strikes I tried to focus on a single item, Malice and her keen observing, Photographs on the walls, patterns in the ceiling. My internal reaction to the strikes was the most interesting to observe. Breathing was consistent of course but on the strike it was like everything was drawn in and released at the same time.

I decided to get the right branches done first because of the seemingly more sensitive underside of my arm that they reach over to. There was a small amount more in the way of pain with those ones but the underside reach is a very small portion so it did not throw off my experience.

In between strikes I was flopping back and forth. Talking a lot to silent and concentrating. Usually dependant on how the effects of the previous strike were lingering. Some of them decided to hang around longer than I would like so I thought them away. It worked well.

It moved fairly fast and by the time he was finishing on the last branch I had looked at the clock and was surprised that it was nearing 4 pm.

I was very happy when everything was done. It was a "thank you it's finally over" kind of happy, but not in the way one would think. I've wanted this for a good length of time, almost a year by this point. I'm so happy that it's finally done; I was devastated when I had to cancel my appointment the first time around because of the car crash. Now I have it and I am so damned happy.

I can't really put it into complete words but I can't help but smile when I look at it or when it twinges slightly as I move around. I'm just so glad that it's over, I've got it and I don't have to worry that something will get in the way of me getting it anymore