Can't Keep Your Eyes Off It

Styga seemed almost disappointed by Lucian's comment, but he quickly recovered. There was a brilliantly mischievous light in his eyes as he answered.

"It hurt like a bitch," he laughed, "Thought my dick was gonna fall off! The burning for the next week was worse though."

Lucian's brows furrowed as he stared at the intricate tattoos. It was baffling to him why someone would go through all that effort, but he'd realized long ago that Styga's entire MO was baffling. Still, he couldn't help himself from wondering aloud.

"Why go through the effort."

"It's got you staring at me in all kind of ways hasn't it? I'd call that a win."

Lucian didn't deign to respond. He lifted himself up and began cleaning himself off. If there was one thing he'd learned, it was that the ice elf liked riling people up and garnering attention for better or for worse. Rarely was he serious and less so were his answers straightforward and honest. Yet if Lucian took a step back, Styga would just about topple over to catch his attention again.

As if on cue, the elf sighed theatrically. He leaned back against the bed frame and stared long and hard at Lucian.

"Now you can't tell a soul, alright Luci?"

If he knew Styga less, he would have been concerned by the gravity of his tone. Instead, he folded his arms and waited.

Styga pointed at his chest and tapped at one of the numerous runes etched into his skin. Its pink glow was brilliant in the darkened room.

"These here are ancient elvish ruins. Each of them work kinda like your cute little magic circles. They're like the father of all elven and human magic theory. Most the bastards who used them in the past are long dead. Doesn't mean there aren't people like me who're half-way smart enough to read 'em," Styga pauses and a genuine grimace tugs at his lips.

There's a debate going through his head and Lucian imagined this subject was a lot more serious than he had first imagined. Guilt tugged at the back of his mind. He was about ready to change the subject when Styga continued.

"The knowledge of some runes shouldn't see the light of day. Well, not like I give a shit really, but I'm selfish. I like power but like hell I'll let anyone else have it, so the only place to put the really bad stuff is somewhere no civil person's gonna wanna see."

A grin spread across his lips and in a flash, the somewhat serious Styga was replaced by the one Lucian so often interacted with. In the most irreverent tone he'd ever heard, the elf whispered, "And isn't it funny as hell to think some hot-shit noble got his ass handed to him by a magic dick."

Did I do genuine world building for Styga's dick? Yes. Yes I did.

In all seriousness, Styga's one of the last ice elves that was taught directly by a practitioner of ancient elvish magic. It makes him one of the very last to use a dying art and as much of an insane man as he acts, he takes it very seriously. He'll do almost anything to keep the art alive, but also protected. It has a long and very troubled history to it and he intends to keep history from repeating itself. In a way, the runes he has tattooed are a way of making sure the art stays alive. He's the living embodiment of its legacy and that weighs a lot on him. It says a lot that he would even show them to another person. It's funny to think about a glowing dick, but it also means he considered every placement of every rune and considered which were the most important and dangerous. Which ones would conflict with the other, which would be too dangerous to put on himself even when he's a reckless bastard, etc. 

I love this crazy man a lot and I don't even know when I'll be able to get to him, let alone if he'll be all that popular in comparison to some of the others.