Zakiri Facemarks

 

Zakiri Facemarks: 

 

 

(01:18:34 AM) kali the mad: Oh, one thing I was gonna say is I was thinking that those facemarks are Zakiri. >>;

(01:18:54 AM) kali the mad: Tess's dream, the Zakiri often had elaborate facemarks, and I was doing some worldbuilding as to their uses.

(01:19:09 AM) kali the mad: I'm wondering if they were placed on her as a condition of her service.

(01:19:21 AM) kali the mad: Sort of a Scarlet Letter, although not ENTIRELY based around censure.

(01:21:35 AM) Jenn Dolari: The face marks are just temp placeholders for "Physical markings."  I already do that in AWFW and The Long Rod Home.  It feels like repeating itself.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do anout that, honestly.  So if they'e Zakiri, they'll probably have to go.  Maybe a UPC code on the neck, or hand, or something else that's hard to hide.

(01:21:45 AM) Jenn Dolari: Scarlet Letter might work, though.

(01:21:54 AM) kali the mad: I meant metaphorically. >>;

(01:21:58 AM) Jenn Dolari: The physical MArkings were meant to say "HEY, I'M A RINC"

(01:22:08 AM) Jenn Dolari: But that works just as well as "HEY, SHE'S A RINC."

(01:22:16 AM) kali the mad: I do like the idea of facemarks. 

 

The braids, maybe a tattoo?

(01:22:38 AM) kali the mad: A highly-visible unit tattoo perhaps. The braids look good on her.

(01:23:34 AM) Jenn Dolari: I love those braids. :D

(01:23:47 AM) Jenn Dolari: I also love that she throws Thayla off by saying they're regulation....and in the end, they're not. XD

(01:24:00 AM) Jenn Dolari: Unit Tattoo would do!  Yes...

(01:24:04 AM) kali the mad: ^^

(01:24:24 AM) Jenn Dolari: ...although the scarlet letter kinda has me thinking.  I dunno if the Zakiri would do that to her AND poison her.  

(01:24:40 AM) kali the mad: Well, I don't quite mean "Scarlet letter" so much as...

(01:25:14 AM) kali the mad: Basically I'm seeing Facemarks as a very common thing in the Zakiri Conferences. They're kind of like...maps and life stories and group-affiliation markers and personal cartouches all at once.

(01:25:31 AM) kali the mad: If you grow up in the Conferences, you know how to read them by sheer experience.

(01:25:49 AM) kali the mad: They have to have those because a lot of the traditional markers one might infer from aren't present.

(01:26:17 AM) kali the mad: Anatomy can get weird, when you're pantropic. Skin color too.

(01:26:50 AM) kali the mad: But human morphology hasn't fundamentally, radically changed so much that everyone looks genuinely alien, either.

(01:27:11 AM) kali the mad: Your appearance will suggest something about your home environment, which to the observant will allow them to put your facemarks in context.

(01:27:25 AM) kali the mad: But to outsiders it looks like somewhat cryptic facial tattoos.

(01:27:46 AM) Jenn Dolari: ::nods::

(01:28:49 AM) kali the mad: I'm thinking that someone who read Dana's facemarks would see the straight up information: "Serving as community defender -- Outsider -- Trusted". 

 

From her body they'd infer she's an unmodified human, not one of the city-adapted variants. 

 

From her mode of dress and presentation, that puts the Facemarks into context:

(01:29:04 AM) kali the mad: "You agreed to do this, but you used to be a soldier from the other side."

(01:29:09 AM) Jenn Dolari: Oooh, I like.

(01:29:32 AM) kali the mad: It's not made explicit, so it's not like a scarlet letter, but in this culture everyone can infer what they need to know about her from the way her facemarks intersect with the rest of her.

(01:29:41 AM) Jenn Dolari: I was thinking the face marks would be her marker that's she's an outsider, but this, where it's "read" into her, I like.  

(01:30:24 AM) Jenn Dolari: And the braids we'd use as more of a cultural identifyer.  She's not just an outsider, she wants to go BACK.

(01:30:27 AM) kali the mad: Well, it says she's an outsider, just...

 

That doesn't necessarily mean POW pressed into service, or turncoat. 

 

She could just have been someone who joined the Zakiri from another community after all. >>

(01:30:30 AM) kali the mad: *nod* Exactly.

(01:31:02 AM) kali the mad: Your marks say you're a trusted outsider...but your appearance says you're not happy to be here, and you'll abandon us for a chance to get home.

(01:31:20 AM) kali the mad: If they call her traitor, it's not because she betrayed her own side...

(01:31:25 AM) kali the mad: They expect her to betray THEM.