Horizons Tattoo & Piercing Studio, Alexandria, VA: Saturday Night

[needsaparrot]

"Did I mention one of the duties of Moral Support is to make sure I actually go in this place?" Xander asked as he peered in through the glass doors.

[OOC: For the roomie-in-law, NFB due to distance.]

Comments

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders shoved his hands deeper into his pockets, which resulted in the crinkling sound of paper -- and the tips of his ears turning red.

"I'm totally Moral Support Guy," he insisted, and reached over to pat Xander on the shoulder. "And Moral Support Guy, to prove that it's going to be okay, even offers to go first if he has to."

[needsaparrot]

Xander looked back over his shoulder at Anders as he pushed the door open, a bantha cow-bell clanging to announce their presence. "Yeah? What're you getting done?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders cleared his throat and pulled the crinkly paper culprit (http://pics.livejournal.com/futurebucs_star/pic/0000g2zd) from his pocket, holding it out to Xander. "Still not sure where exactly, though."

[needsaparrot]

Xander tilted his head, squinting down at the paper. From up at the counter, he could hear the bald, bearded guy at the till giving aftercare instructions to the poor sucker in front of them.

"That's, uh. Pretty. In not sure what the hell it is way. A... black flamingo?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Aw, frak," Anders groaned. "It's a bad idea, isn't it? It's, um. Initials? You still haven't told me what exactly you're getting, though."

[needsaparrot]

"No, it's---" Xander studied it again. "P, S, and C? That's pretty cool, actually."

The previous customer passed him, the door-bell clanging on his way out, and the bearded guy started heading towards them.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"I hope they like it," Anders muttered, and glanced at the shop's proprietor. "Uhhhhhhh. Does Moral Support Guy need to do his Moral Support thing now?"

[needsaparrot]

"What was that you said about going first?"

The guy looked big enough to benchpress both of them, but he was giving them a friendly smile as he approached. "Hey there - I'm Ray. Can I help you guys?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders gulped -- possibly audibly -- and lacking Ray's impressive bulk tried to compensate by drawing himself up past his six foot three inch height.

'Tried' being the operative word because lolfail, pretty much.

"Yeah, hi. My r -- friend here and I wanted to get tattoos."

[needsaparrot]

Ray's eyebrow quirked for a second like he was trying to figure out what "r--" could possibly stand for, but then he nodded. "Got something in mind, or did you want to take a look through our flash-books?" He pointed towards a hanging rack of poster-size pages. The walls of the place were covered in sample art as well.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"I know what I want," Anders said, half-waving the crumpled design in something approximating Ray's direction. "I think he does too. Uh. Right, dude?"

[needsaparrot]

"Yeah." Now that he was inside, Xander wasn't so much in need of the 'stop me from fleeing' kind of moral support. Mostly just the 'don't let me feel like an idiot alone, kthx?' kind.

He pulled his own design, a lot less crumpled, due to being folded in quarters, from the breast-pocket of his flannel shirt, and smoothed it out.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders had thought of doing something like that. He'd just been horribly inconvenienced by not having any shirts with pockets that hadn't already been packed up and shipped off to Neptune.

Really.

"I was thinking this, maybe on my back, below my shoulder," he blurted out, having picked the location at random.

[needsaparrot]

Ray nodded at Anders. "That size? Shouldn't take too long. What about you?" He turned to Xander.

"Uh. This?" Xander handed him the paper. "Kind of on the back below the shoulder too, just, ah, really far below?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

And boom, there went Anders's left eyebrow, hurtling toward the stratosphere.

[needsaparrot]

Xander looked over at him nervously. "Too much?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"No no no no no," Anders assured him hastily. "You've got more guts than me, though."

[needsaparrot]

"Well I wasn't thinking it'd be actually this big," Xander said. Considering it took up most of a standard legal size page.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"I am not," Anders was quick to say, "trying to picture that in my head, just so you know, but I kind of hope not, because ow."

[needsaparrot]

Xander craned his neack to look around behind himself. "My ass is not that big, I don't care how many twinkies I've been eating."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Just be glad it's a tattoo and not the real thing," Anders said dryly.

Procrastinating? Just a bit maaaaaaaaaaaaybe, yes.

[needsaparrot]

Ray snorted. "We don't do that kind of work here. There's an architect down the street...."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders turned and gave Xander a deadpan look. "See?"

He actually wasn't sure what point he was trying to make.

"Well . . . I guess I can go first."

[needsaparrot]

"I'll need to see some ID to show you guys are both of age - that cool?"

Xander gave him an incredulous look, but reached for his wallet. "I'll just take that as a compliment, I guess. Especially considering I'm like, a hundred and two or so depending on how you count."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't counting," said Anders, grateful for fake Earth ID, and hey, who knew? Maybe in relative time between Earth and the Colonies he was old enough. He handed it over, hoping like hell it would pass muster.