Dueling Dragon's

[Thalia]

"Jaxen Marveet?"
Thal laughed, distracted from her inspection of the shop's interior. She didn't really follow the celebrity media, but she'd worked with enough of Moscow's rich elite to recognise the name and apply the appropriate rumours. A pretty, petty playboy. Into fast cars and fast women. Not quite what she would have imagined as Rune's type, hence the amused giggle as she spun around to wink at Sergei. "That's some competition you've got there, Sergei."


Aria had taken a break, and Lucas was fussing with his tattoo-gun and other bits of equipment, so she took the opportunity to sate her curiosity by going over. "Can I see?"
The question was hopeful but not intrusive, her interest more artistic than delving for meaning from the choice of image.

[Rune]

Rune braced herself the moment before the needle touched her skin. She'd never been a fan of things like shots or bee stings or injecting anything into herself. But this was.. oddly different. She couldn't really feel the needle jabbing in and out, it was more of like taking a piece of sandpaper with the teeth of sharks and scraping it up and down her arm until the skin was raw as ground meat.

She internalized the pain. Yeah, it sucked, but it could be worse. In fact, getting a ninja knife stabbed in the gut was worse. but part of that was the fear. Now, she wasn't afraid. Hell she wasn't even nervous. She just sat back, kept her eyes shut, and focused on Serg's voice.

"My uncle says I'm about as deep as a puddle, but this tattoo has lots of meaning. My mom died before I was born. And I dont mean like in childbirth, but like I was still in her a few minutes after she was dead. Long story. But her name was Violet. She's the flowers. And she's with me eternally. Thats the snake. The tree is the tree of life, right. Cycles of life and death. Eternity."
Rune let Serg work. She tried to imagine what it would look like all colored in and done. But that was probably two or three sessions from now. Maybe even four depending on the complexity of the colors. Today she assumed she'd only be getting the outline.

After a while, Aria called over. There were phases where Serg would work on one place or another that although inches apart, hurt more or less than others. He was in a difficult area when Aria brought up Jaxen. Rune could have slapped the stupid out of that girl for bringing him up in a place like this! Didn't she know the police reports had him missing?! And pegging RUNE as an unusual person to be hanging out with him was just plain dumb.

She shot Aria a glare that said they'd talk about it later, but for now she had to respond somehow. "I don't know who you've been talking to, but the only things i've been rubbin' elbows with have exoskeletons. He someone famous or something?"
She responded between clenched teeth, but that coulda easily been the tattoo talkin.

[Aria]

[[First off Aria isn't stupid, she'd not have mentioned him if Jaxen were still missing. That thread started back in May, at the beginning of December in game, this one was started well afterwards, so closer to then end of December I hope anyway. We don't know the outcome of that thread yet. We both made assumptions that don't apparently agree lol. I'll go with it, but wanted you to know that Aria isn't careless. Timelines suck!]]

Aria tried to keep her smile from showing, it was amusing knowing what others were feeling. Aria couldn't imagine what was making Lucas 'smile' inside. Thoughts she wished it was much more than the feelings, knowing their thoughts. But that would probably be way too much to handle. Feelings would do. It was a unique ability. One that was a burden, but made her life interesting.

Rune glared at her for bringing up the topic. Aria shrugged and muttered "Musta heard wrong then. He's in the tabloid as much as the weird things that supposedly go on around here."
Aria dropped it. Whatever. It wasn't a big deal. She'd catch up with her later and they could talk, and probably get chewed out. Typical for Aria she supposed. No one was ever happy.

Thalia was curious about the drawing. Aria turned her forearm so she could see the drawing Lucas had made. He was still working, and it was no where near finished, but it was coming along nicely. Aria smiled. "Lucas' work."
Aria really liked the dragons, it depicted the struggle very well. Light and dark, right and wrong, good and evil. It was a reflection on everything she'd been going through, including doubting the cause she'd been trained for - killing gods didn't appeal to her. Not only was it dangerous, but they were just men and women, normal people who just happened to get this extraordinary gift and the Atharim hunted them out of fear. She'd read the stories, she'd dug deep into the findings as far as she could go. And yet Aria still didn't want to kill them, much less kill anyone else.

Aria sat back and nodded to Lucas. "You can start again when you are ready."
Aria focused on the flame and drifted into emptiness, she didn't want to think on anything.

[Lucas]

Aria showed her design off to Thal. She was commenting on the dragons so he smiled briefly. He knew she thought they looked good but still felt funny when people praised his stuff in front of him. Maybe it was a hold-over from his dad, but he still looked down on his stuff. It was negative thinking, though, so he rejected the thought and finished filling up the inks. There was still a fair bit of tracing yet to do. Then the shading. Then the colors. And then the touch-up. Yeah, a lot to do. He wondered if Aria wanted to space this out over days. He didn't have a problem with that. Whatever she needed. Even people without her ability (or was it curse?) sometimes did that. Not just because a piece was complex but because it got too intense.

Not for him though. He loved the intensity. The euphoria buzz that getting inked gave him was like nothing he'd ever experienced. Well, that wasn't strictly true. It was like the drugs. But it was a completely natural high. And it satisfied. He'd not had too done many yet. But maybe it was time for another. He'd have to think about that, about what he wanted to do.

Aria's eyes turned on him and strangely, an emerald city flashed into his mind, walls and buildings and spires of greens ranging from the deepest and blackest to nearly transparent glass, glowing in the distance. Interesting. Probably not for him. But maybe something in that vein. He'd give it more thought.

"You can start again when you are ready."
He smiled at her reassuringly. She knew herself. He trusted that.

"Alright."
And with that, he snapped the gun back on and got back to work.

[[Lucas and Sergei will both work until Aria and Rune indicate they are done or want to stop.]]

[Aria]

Aria leaned back in the chair and let Lucas finish. She started feeling the pain again and she'd stop. Aria had to stop several times in order to gather herself. It was looking good. Watching Lucas was almost as enjoyable. He got in the zone and he his emotions reflected his state of being. It was the first time really that Aria had paid that much attention to someone while they did something they actually enjoyed doing.

There was idle chat. And by the time Aria's control was lessening to the point she had to sleep it off, the tattoo was still not done yet. She sighed, but she'd come back at a later date and let Lucas finish. She apologized but he understood and smiled back at her.

Aria made arrangements with Lucas to finish the tattoo and then scribbled a note on a piece of paper for Rune. "We should talk soon." She left it vague, if she got with her great, if not oh well. It was just one of those things, she wanted to discuss Jaxen and what had gone down. She handed the folded paper to Rune with a smile.

Aria left the shop and headed home. It was almost around the corner. Sleep sounded good, Aria prayed it recharged her after the day she'd had.

[Rune]

For Rune's part, there was no tension personally between her and Aria, but for some reason every time they got together, drama sprang up. What was that girl's deal? You'd think Furia'd stick together. But apparently not.

The conversation died soon after. Thankfully. Not because Rune didn't want to chat. She could chatter along all day. In fact, she soon picked up talking with Serg again. He had a great talent for distracting her from the discomfort of the tattoo. But she was relieved that they weren't talking in secrets and code. It was too much to think about. And Rune always kinda sucked at being subtle like that. She preferred bluntness when she could get it. Just made things easier all around.

The tattoo wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be. There were moments when Serg hit a spot that was exquisitely more tender than others, and it would make Rune's jaw tighten, but between that it wasn't too bad. She could take it. If she could take a road trip with Uncle Seth's singing along with the music she could endure something far less painful.

By the time they were done, Serg had finished the majority of the outline and had started some of the shading. He explained that there'd be at least one more session to go. They hadn't even started the coloring yet, and like the way rune used to do her hair, she liked color. it made up for the super depressing morbidity that was her life.

She meant to track Aria down after they were out of the shop and catch up proper.