#c luce

Her parents didn’t have to know about everything she did. Certainly they didn’t know about her fake ID and maybe one other thing, and so they didn’t have to know about this, either. Athena wasn’t planning on letting them see what she was getting anyhow. If her brother refused to come home, she’d make sure that he didn’t entirely break away from her. She hadn’t been apart from him for more than a few hours throughout their entire life, and so perhaps a tattoo of the constellation with his namesake would do the trick. She had a picture printed and folded neatly in her purse and enough money to pay in cash, unless the tattoo came out to over a thousand dollars. But what she was asking for was small, and so she figured it wouldn’t cost too much. Better to not leave a paper trail though, she knew her parents well enough for that. She pushed open the door to the shop and took in a deep breath before going up to the receptionist. “Hello. I have an appointment with Luce, I believe?” She gave a small tug at the edge of her shirt. She knew that in her white shorts, nearly new Converse, and pastel purple shirt she didn’t exactly look like she belonged in a tattoo parlor, but this was important to her, and after all, she was far tougher than she looked. Besides, anybody could get tattoos. To assume only one sort of person could probably wasn’t the best viewpoint to begin all of this with, but she had to be quick to judge in most situations. She sat down in a chair in the waiting area and pulled out her phone, only looking up when she heard someone else come into the room.

Taking a sip from her coffee cup, Luce glanced at the clock on her laptop and let out a quiet swear. Fuck. She had an appointment. After spending the last few weeks not coming into work, it was weird getting back into the swing of things. But, she had bills to pay-- big fucking bills from the extended stay in the hospital. So she needed all the appointments she could get. Adjusting her ponytail, Luce hurried out to the main lobby. Looking around the shop, she saw a young woman sitting down in the waiting area and approached her with an extended hand. “Athena, right? I think we talked a while ago about tattoos. I was surprised to see the booking-- in a good way.” She said with an easy grin she often used with clients, meant to set their mind at ease and help calm them down a bit. “C’mon back. I’ve got the design drafted up for you and we can see how you like it.” She said, escorting the girl into her room of the shop. “This is gonna be your first tattoo, right?”

When the woman stepped out and called her name, Athena shook her head for a moment, before nodding. “Yes! I remember now!” She took in Luce’s look, before looking back down at her lap. “Can’t say I knew how to dress for this occasion, but hey, doesn’t look like you’d kick me out for this, right?” She stood up, brushing her hands against her shorts and began to follow Luce to the back room. “Yes please, I think reviewing things can often be helpful!” Was her voice a bit too forced? Probably, but she wanted to make a good first impression, especially since this was important to her, and for all that she had no personal experience with tattoos, she did at least know that they were permanent and when having someone put something permanent on your body, being on their good side was the way to go. At Luce’s question, she offered her a small smile and gave a shrug, “that it is - though I can’t imagine what would’ve given that away.” She moved so that she was standing next to Luce. “I’d love to see what you have drawn up. I know it’s a fairly simple design, but hey, at least it’s not a simple wave, right?”

“Hey, we get all kinds of people in here. I’ve had people roll up in sweat pants and other folks who came in full business suits. Besides, if any of us gave a shit about what people thought about our appearances, we’re be in the wrong business.” Luce laughed as she gestured to the seat in the middle of the room. It had been awhile since she’d been back in, but her room was just as clean and organized as always. She needed to update some of her designs on the pinboard, but that was a continual work in progress. “Since it was a pretty simple one, I drew up a couple. Had a lot of time on my hands to really make this pop.” She said and pulled up the three different designs she’d made. One of them featured dotted lines connecting the entirety of the constellation, another had a backdrop of watercolors behind it, and the final was a very minimalist take on the constellation, with only the bow connected. “Eh, everyone starts out a virgin. In my experience, most people who get their first tattoo come back and get a second one in about a year. Once you’ve got the bug…” She shrugged and gestured to the dark sleeves on her arms. “So, what do you think of these?”

“That’s fair. Though the image of some of the businesspeople I’ve seen around town in here is one that doesn’t quite compute.” Athena gave another shrug, “but that’s totally true, it’s just still nice to see. Doesn’t always happen.” She sat down on the seat that Luce had pointed out and twirled the ends of her hair around her fingertips. How odd it was to be nervous about something like this and yet be willing to run and fight any sort of creature in a second. “I appreciate the dedication that you’ve already put into this. She looked at the different design choices, taking her time to take in the drawings. “You’re a great artist, I’m glad I was able to book you.” She dropped her hair from her hands and looked up at Luce. “I think I like the one with the little dots in between everything. It feels like just enough, but not too much - not that the one with the colors is bad at all, I just don’t necessarily want to be overly flashy right now.” Athena nodded, “well, that much is true. Can’t say I plan on getting more as of now, but hey, sometimes I surprise myself.” She bit her lip. “So, should I lie down? Sorry, as I said, I’m new to all this. Just tell me what to do.”

“Eh, sometimes they’re people who are just passing through. Don’t judge a book by its cover and shit, you know?” Luce said as she let Athena look over the different designs. It really wasn’t a big deal. The design was super minimalist to begin with so it was easy for her to come up with a few different ideas off the top of her head. Besides, she didn’t think the tattoo would take much longer than a half hour. “Thanks. I do good work.” She nodded at Athena’s choice. “Sounds like a good call to me. Nothing wrong with colors, but I personally prefer black and white myself.” She gestured to her own arms once more. “You can hang out for a second-- Gotta print a stencil. Then, we’ll figure out placement, that might take a couple tries to get it situated. And then we’ll get started on it. You mentioned in the booking you wanted it on your ribs, right?” She asked as the stencil was printed out.

“Of course.” Athena nodded. “Well, if it’s good business for you all then I am glad you are able to have it.” She continued to listen to the other woman, “yes, I don’t want anything too flashy - at least not for a tattoo.” Not when it was as special as this one was. Besides, it wasn’t like her brother was flashy, and honoring him should be similar. Subtle, but well thought out. Or at least she hoped so. “Of course, and yes! I see that!” She glanced down at Luce’s tattoos. “Well, you pull it off well. Can I ask, what made you interested in this? Both getting your own and having this as a profession? If I may ask, of course.” She nodded at Luce’s words. “I’ll stay right here, don’t worry about it!” She nodded, again perhaps with too much enthusiasm, but she didn’t think Luce would mind too much. “Sounds good - and yep! Sort of on the side of my ribs,” Athena pressed her hand against the outside of her shirt. “Though you know best, so once we get to the positioning, I’m open to advice.”

“Thanks.” Luce nodded in response as she looked over the stencils that had printed. One was slightly larger than the other-- one would cover most of the girl’s ribs, the other probably half. Then again, she was guesstimating. “How big we going?” She asked holding the two up for Athena to look over. “It’s totally your call on placement. At the end of the day, it’s your body, your tattoo. I can give you an idea of what would look good in my opinion, but you get the final say. That said,” She said “You’re also going to need to take off your shirt soon. Depending on how high up on your ribs you want it, I can give you pasties.” Luce said, no stranger to nudity when it came to her work. It was part of the job. Lots of girls wanted rib tattoos, or sternum tattoos. And more than a few guys wanted thigh tattoos for some fucking reason, which meant she’d been way too close to way more dicks than she ever wanted. Circling back to Athena’s question, Luce shrugged. “I was an art student at UMaine for a bit, but I dropped out after I got my first tattoo. Figured out that tattooing was more my speed and Ulf offered me an apprenticeship. Never really looked back after that.”

“Of course.” Athena bit her lip at Luce’s question. “I think the smaller. I like them both, and it’s not like this’ll always be super visible, but I think a bit smaller is more what I’m up for.” Smaller was more intimate, more connected - her brother was hardly one to make a big statement about anything, and if she was doing something in his honor, it should represent him, shouldn’t it? “I’d like advice on placement, but I think on the side of my ribs might be good. Up to hearing your thoughts on the matter. When in doubt or in experiencing something new, I’m of the belief to refer to the expert.” She gave a small shrug. “I sort of expected as much.” Luce was pretty, and she wasn’t fae at least, and if this was the way tattoos worked, it meant that she’d likely be able to hide it easily. She pulled her shirt over her head, brushing her hair over one shoulder as she looked over at Luce. “Oh, I’m at UMaine now - Senior come fall. Hey, I know someone else who’s going to trade school, I think that you should do what you want, and clearly you do a killer job here.” She offered the other girl a small smile. “Ulf’s the owner?”

“Sounds good to me on all counts.” Luce said as she tossed the other stencil in the trash and waited patiently for the girl to get herself situated. With an analytical eye, she mapped out the positioning with the space available, taking into account how the lines would draw the attention of the casual observer. “Yeah, you’d think more people would take that approach right? But, for some reason, people think they know better than me. Who cares about my experience, huh?” She said as she applied the stencil to the girl’s skin. “Hm. Check it out in the mirror and let me know what you think.” Luce said with a nod before leaning back against her desk. “Thanks. And yeah, Ulfric. He’s a good dude. Owns the shop, gave an apprenticeship, does tattoos too.” She said with a nod.

“I’m glad.” Athena kept glancing over to Luce, trying to take in the entire room, It was a natural habit that she’d had for as long as she could remember. Survey the scene, make sure you know what you can use in case you run into trouble. It was why she’d survived that werewolf attack on her and her brother’s eighteenth birthday. Quick thinking and a knowledge of what was around her. “You’d think, but people are idiots a lot of the time.” She rolled her eyes and let the woman place the stencil against her skin. “You don’t have to worry about me thinking I know better than you. I’m decent at interior design, but I’m not super great at other forms of art, but hey, we can’t all have it all, right?” She held onto the stencil and hopped off of her seat and went over to the mirror. It looked good - situated just on her ribs. She hadn’t had an exact placement in mind, just within a certain area - and this fit the bill. Good enough to keep hidden even in the couple crop tops she owned, and personal, private. Nodding at Luce’s comments, she turned to walk back over. “Seems like a nice combo of things to have and be. By the way, placement’s perfect. Just tell me what to do next. I can pull my hair into a ponytail if need be, I know it’s a bit long.”

“If that isn’t a fucking mood.” Luce laughed and grinned. “Glad to hear it. That kind of thinking will get you far in life. Sometimes it pays to watch and learn and let the professionals do what’s best. I mean, like… from a learning perspective.” She said as she prepped her tray of tools, grabbing fresh gloves and supplies from her rolling toolkit. “And hey, who knows. With practice, you could get better. No harm in trying, right?” She said as she gestured to the chair. “I think your hair should be fine. If you could lie down on your other side, we’ll get this thing started.” She said, snapping on the gloves with a smile. “A constellation, though, huh? Any particular meaning behind it?”

“Such a mood,” Athena grinned. “Right - I mean, I want to be a doctor. It’s a pretty huge yikes if I don’t listen to what others want to teach me. Especially given that I might want to do surgery. No amount of books will teach me that - I need to learn from those who understand the field. I have respect for those who know more than I do.” She gave a shrug at Luce’s next comment. “Very true. I think trying is always of use. Maybe I’ll go pick up a sketch pad sometime soon, we’ll see.” Athena nodded at Luce’s request. “Alright, I’ve got scrunchies and hair ties just in case.” She moved to lie down on the opposite side and bit her lip at Luce’s question. Saying yeah, it’s for my twin brother who sort of might hate me but who is my other half might not fly so well. “I’ve got a friend who meant a lot to me who was super into astronomy. Plus, there’s sadly no Athena-specific constellation, and so this one suits me well.”

“A surgeon? Smart girl. That’s pretty cool.” Luce replied as the machine in her hand began to buzz. “Alright, let’s get this thing started. If you need to take a break or something, just let me know.” It was a small tattoo, with hardly enough detail to warrant all that much time to get what Athena wanted, but you could never be too careful tattooing virgins. She’d had a girl pass out on her once while doing the tiniest fucking scribble of her life. As the tattoo machine buzzed in her hand, Luce continued to talk while she worked, “Ah, that’s cool. I don’t know much about astronomy, so I wouldn’t know if there was one or not. This is the hunter guy, right? Orion?” She asked.

“I like to think I am at least sort of smart. Thank you.” Athena took in a careful breath as Luce began the tattooing process. At least the scars on her body were faint and primarily on her legs.”I’ll be sure to let you know, but I played field hockey in high school. I doubt this’ll hurt more than any of that did.” She did her best to stay as still as possible. “I’m hardly an expert myself, but well, when you have the sort of name I do, you kinda have to know at least some other Greek mythology, and by default you get thrown into astronomy. Especially when you’re like me and sometimes just read textbooks for fun. Or if you get too caught up in curiosity.” She took in another deep breath as Luce continued, the buzzing on her ribs feeling stranger more than anything else. “Yes. One of them. Placed into the stars by Artemis in some stories of mythology.”

“Ah, don’t sell yourself short. You thinking about med school soon? What with senior year rolling up and stuff?” Luce asked as she continued to follow the stencil. It was a pretty easy tattoo and hey, at least she was getting paid. Field hockey. Weird fucking sport, considering it was a rough and tumble kind of deal and yet all the girls had to wear skirts and shit. Not that she’d ever minded. She’d been with a few different field hockey girls before. “Makes sense. The default Greek myth stuff. Can’t relate to the textbook thing, though. I’m not big on books.” She said as she dipped the tip of the machine into the ink once more. “Artemis…” Luce nodded, “That’s the moon lady, right? I did a tattoo of her a while back-- something with her like, turning a dude into a deer and making his dogs eat him? The lady who wanted it was metal as hell. Turned out to be a cool tattoo.”

“Yep! Planning on taking the MCAT and applying this year. We’ll see where I end up.” Athena continued. “At present, I’m interested in otolaryngology, immunology, or medical genetics, but I suppose I’ll have to see.” She felt her cheeks grow a bit warm - it wasn’t even as though the other girl was giving her any sort of big complement, but there was something incredibly satisfying about having someone who was a mostly stranger still compliment her. “Yeah? I think Greek myths can be super neat - an interesting way of understanding the way they understood the world. Oh? Well, hey, not everyone is. I’ve got a -” she scrunched up her nose, not wanting to bring up Ariana, not really properly knowing what she was, “I know someone else who’s not big on reading, but they’re into audiobooks.” She glanced down at the tattoo as it was forming under Luce’s steady hands, “Yes, she is the moon lady,” something I wonder if I would’ve been named after her in another life, “oh? That’s super interesting! You really do get all sorts of fascinating tattoos around here, don’t you?”

“Dope. Good luck with all of that. Sounds like you’ve got a lotta cool shit in your future.” Luce said, the specific fields that the girl rattled off going right over her head. She’d gotten through high school with a solid C grade and lasted 8 weeks in college before dropping out-- medical shit, outside of tattoo aftercare and specifics on how to avoid blood poisoning were completely out of her wheelhouse. Which suited Luce just fine. Let doctor people do doctor stuff, she’d stay in her lane with her art. “Yeah, myths and stuff like that are pretty cool. A lot of art draws from greek myth so I’ve studied some of it, but eh. That was a while ago. I’m not exactly interested in being the next Raphael.” She said as she wiped away some droplets of ink with a paper towel. “Around here? Depends on the day, but I’ve got a few cool ones under my belt.” She tilted her head to one of the framed art pieces on the wall, an intricately woven black and white mandala that featured motifs of flowers, circles, and other geometric shapes. “That’s my preferred style. I had a client who came in, didn’t know what he wanted, saw that, and had me turn it into a stencil. Got it done on his calf then and there. It was pretty cool.”

“Thank you.” It was nice, how easy it was to talk with Luce. Athena had never been someone who found talking to others difficult (heck, she’d been the one to initiate conversations for others, even), but it was still nice to fall into a balanced conversation with strangers. Especially ones that at least seemed human, for all intents and purposes. “Eh, being the next Raphael is overrated anyhow. He’s neat, he made some great art, but trying to be him? Overrated.” She grinned at Luce, before following her gaze. “That’s amazing!! Sorry to have mine be a bit boring, but it’s just something I’ve thought about for a while, and for all that I can sometimes be bright and bold, I also appreciate simplicity. Hence the sort of minimalist tattoo.” She glanced down at Luce’s work. “Thanks for being so careful. I was sort of nervous this was going to hurt more than it has been. But again, maybe all the sports prepared me for this. What’s a tattoo compared to an elbow in the ribs?”

“Oh, big mood. I’m not exactly interested in being some repressed painter. And besides, portraits and sculpting aren’t my thing anyways.” Luce said as she wiped the tattoo clean. It was such a simple design, it really wasn’t going to take much longer. Leaning back, she took a look at her handiwork with a critical eye. It was exactly what Athena had requested, so hopefully it would go over well. “It was a fun time. And hey, it’s meaningful to you and that’s what matters. Doesn’t matter if it’s minimalist or something more intricate. Art’s art.” She replied. “I’ve got a light hand, which helps for this sort of thing. But yeah, you’ve been taking it like a champ.” Luce said with a grin of reassurance.

“Right? That’s so fifteenth century.” Athena grinned. “I think it’s good to know about all sorts of art. It’s wonderful how skilled you are.” She glanced over to Luce again, watching the woman as she stepped back and began examining the tattoo. Athena glanced down at it. “Well, from what I can see, it looks better than I expected, so I think this is a win. Thank you - you do have a wonderful and steady hand for this, and I appreciate the endorsement. Means a lot.”

“Exactly. I’m a modern gal, I’m not about that old shit.” Luce smiled in return before shrugging. “A lot of people say that tattooing isn’t art. Those people are wrong, it’s an art, it’s just a different kind. Which is why I look into other stuff outside of just tattooing. Acrylic painting, oils, charcoals, stuff like that.” She said before putting a small wrap over the tattoo. “No worries, I’m glad you like it. It’s always nice to do something that people appreciate, you know?” She said before grabbing one of the aftercare kits from her work station. “There’s a little hand out in there that has information for you to look back on, but keep the wrap on, wash it with unscented soap every couple hours, and no baths, pools, or hot tubs for two weeks until it’s healed. Other than that…” Luce peeled off her gloves and tossed them in the trash before offering her hand to Athena. “I think it turned out really well.”

“I can appreciate history but I don’t want to be like that, right?” Athena gave a small shrug. “Same class of people who say cheerleading and dance aren’t sports. I never did them, but they are valid sports.” She allowed Luce to wrap up her tattoo and flashed her another grin. “I agree. It’s best when someone’s able to appreciate what you do, and I know I super appreciate this.” She glanced down at it. A way to have a part of the most important person in her life next to her always. With her, always. “Thanks!” Athena grabbed the kit and nodded along to Luce’s description. “I’ll be careful and so long as I can still shower, I’m all good.” She grabbed Luce’s hand, pleasantly surprised at the lack of rash the silver rings caused against her now bare skin. “I agree. Should I decide to go wild and get another, I know which gal to call.”