by Katarina Karkov » Mon Feb 14, 2022 4:22 am
"You're saying that because it's 24 carat," Katarina demurred. "But I suppose there is one final test to see if it will hold up."
Taking a deep breath she technically did not need, and shutting her eyes, Katarina concentrated. From her fingertips on back, gold slowly turned to flesh -- much slower than she normally did, as if she was taking extra-special precautions to make sure everything was OK. A pulse started and breathes began as the statue became a girl once more.
As the gold receded up her torso, the line of difference in luster became a line of difference in skin tone. Katarina had always been moderately pale, but this was like a tan-line of epic proportions, as if she had never been out in the sun before. And, I suppose, in a way, she hadn't. That would probably be fine with time. There was also a clear delineation in smoothness, much like the patch on the back of her leg. I suppose even the best sculptors don't do some of the fine detail work for the hairs or pores on the human body -- perhaps that would repair itself in time as well?
And the gold continued to shrink, over her shoulders, up the back of her neck. Golden masses became scarlet tresses of hair, loosening and shaking out as they transformed. She may need a trim, as bits of hair stuck together unnaturally, but that, too, was an issue that could easily be solved; a crisis for a hairdresser and not for a medic.
And her face...
Centered around points of the initial damage; the sledgehammer to the face from Prince Alex's rough guards, ran rivulets of gold. Some of the damage, the scars, the imperfections, spirally radially out from Katarina's eye socket, remained metallic and shining, not reverting to flesh and blood. The Golden Girl remained, in parts, golden.