2019-10-04 - Refresher

Mae had texted Moses and asked him about touching up some of the work on her arm. It's been a while and some of it was fading and she just can't have that. She shows up in a tank top and a pair of short dancer's shorts. She carries a big hoodie with her to keep her warm after she heads off, setting that on a chair off to the side. "Hey." She calls out, glancing around, arms folded over her chest. "Hope you're looking forward to doing some work, I'm gonna order out to get some coffee sent down in about an hour. What kind of drinks do you like?" She asks with a smile, finding somewhere to sit. She's sure she has to fill out some sort of paperwork.

The shop may not be where Moses would prefer, and it may not be ran the way he prefers, but a chairs a chair and a shops a shop, right? That's what he keeps telling himself. It's clean at least.

The text comes as a surprise, not unpleasant, garnering it a return of 'sure thing'. When she gets there, Moses is busily occupying his time with game apps, hatching baby dragons and in one especially exciting level, crushing obnoxiously colored candies. The coffee comment gets a chuckle. "I just drink coffee, if I'm totally honest. My coffee skills haven't leveled up to coffee snob yet. I just appreciate caffeine."

"Black, like your heart?" Mae asks, pulling out her phone to tap on it. She orders two coffee, two donuts and a sandwich. "So how do you want to do this? Okay to keep my shirt on?" She moves over to his station, slipping into the seat. "Thanks for offering to do this, why don't you look over my arm, give me a ballpark on how much this is going to cost, and show me your work?"

"Not heart, soul. Get it right, woman." Moses smirks, but he stands and moves to the chair, starting the ceremoniously tedious task of scrubbing it down for a new ass to occupy. She is left with said paperwork. Standard forms demanding she pinky-swear not to sue the house if the window blows wrong. As for his work, he nods to a book on the counter near her, a portfolio of many, many pages. Mostly new school, some neo traditional, and oddly..water color. Because why not?! "Can leave your shirt on if you just want me on your arm, sure." It's said rather easily as he dries down the chair. "Touchups start at 50 for minor and go up from there. You look detailed so let's take a look and we'll discuss it from there, yeah?" Chair cleaned, Moses waits for her to dot i's and cross t's before he motions for her to slip into her seat...and ignore the snoring old guy in the back corner. Owners have special rules. "I'm assuming you just want the color touched up."

"Colors and the outlines as well." Mae says, scribbling her names on the forms, her lips pursed slightly. "Get it right woman. Really?" She rolls her eyes and taps on her phone a few more times. "Shit will be here in about an hour, I wanted to get the boring talking about what you're going to be working on stuff done before we're interrupted." She settles on the chair, handing him the papers. "You do good work, might get you to do something new on one of my legs sometime in the near future. It's been a while since I've had something new. I think it would calm me a bit, I'm always happier when someone is working on ink on me."

As she fusses him, Moses just smirks but once she's done with the paperwork, he pats the leather chair with an all to teasing wink. "Climb on." The rest he leaves to be unspoken, but the compliment is met with the flash of a grin. Someone's smug.

Once she's settled he takes a moment to inspect her arm, rolling away any fussy fabric to be out of the way, wiping everything down to make it easier to inspect. The cotton pad is cold, and the scent stronger than most would like, but that's the price you pay for sterile work, right? "I can pull your lines tighter and color, yes. We'll cut a deal since you bought me waffles. Never let it be said I don't fully appreciate a good meal....plus I need my name out, so lucky you." Again, a wink and he reaches to pull his station closer. "I love working on legs. The curves are predictable and the skin holds ink like a champ. Polar other end of the spectrum from ribs." Which he's pretty sure she has at least partially done by a glance. "Anything you want to focus on?" beat. "Also hi." Because he literally never welcomed her!

"I bought you waffles so I get a discount on my ink? Lovely. Remind me to buy you more waffles again sometime." Mae settles down, getting comfortable as she watches Moses get ready to work. "Lucky me." She agrees, laughing softly as he talks about working on legs. "I'd like to focus on the fading colors, the outlines can wait until next time if we don't get to them tonight." Her expression softens and she aims a smile at Moses. "Hey. I'm glad you had time to do this tonight, the event is coming up at the strip club and I want to look good. I get better tips that way, you know?"

Moses chuckles, nodding as he gloves up, and again, cleans her skin. "Well, that and despite my strong and rugged exterior, I actually like having friends." He smirks, but he keeps working, diving out his ink and checking his gun before finally, he turns to let her relax. "You'll be healed in plenty of time, though I'm sure only a portion of your success is attributed to being pretty. Being a somewhat decent person who isn't boring as fuck probably plays a little into your success." He pauses, but he laugh sighs, "Then again I suppose no one wants to have a conversation with a troll doll either."

Mae turns her head toward Moses, grinning as she starts to relax herself, her eyes blinking slowly. "Having friends makes the world a lot brighter place. I need them, you need them, we should try to be friends." She pulls her feet up, curling up a bit. "I'm glad that I'll be healed and ready, but it's more than a portion of my success. Being pretty and shit is pretty important when you're a stripper. I have to take care of myself, it's part of my work." She tilts her head and exhales out of her nose. "People don't see if I'm decent when I'm dancing. They just see that they can offer me money and get me to give them a lap or table dance." She winks and adds. "Nobody pays me for conversation though."

"Maybe there's a reason I suck at strip clubs then." Moses certainly doesn't call her a lair. She's absolutely right. "Then again it could be my glowing social skills," or lack thereof. "I'm told I'm a sarcastic, intolerable git." Clearly, he's pissed off at least one British woman. "We are friends, Mae, or I wouldn't spend this much time talking to you." The gun fires up and he starts on the flushes of blue across her forearm. "If it starts chewing you up, let me know and we'll take a break."

"It's really just like a bar. You come in, you drink and sometimes you see a naked woman. Sometimes you pay to see more of a naked woman." Mae tries not to grin, watching Moses get prepared to work on her arm. "You're certainly sarcastic. I wouldn't call you intolerable, and I don't think you're a git." She beams in his direction. "I'm glad we're friends, I don't have many of them, especially of the male variety. I either seduce them or I piss them off, you know?" She takes a deep breath and relaxes as he starts to work. "Break in about thirty minutes maybe? So I can eat my sandwich."

"That the thing. I'm not so hard up I'm willing to pay to see a naked women." He chuckles again, but she gets an encouraging wink. "I can see a naked woman for free if I really want to. Like you, I'm not exactly a troll." The break is noted with a nod, as is much of the rest she says. "The git thing came from a girlfriend. The same girlfriend that tried to run me over. Can't say that I didn't deserve it, but I feel like it would have been more beneficial to use her words, ya know?" he chuckles. Clearly there's more to the store, but he keeps mute on that. "Why seduce friends? Why not just keep them friends?" He's careful as he words, not to press too firmly. Blue isn't a heavy pigment, no need for harsh lines.

"You're not paying to see naked women, you're paying to get a drink. You can choose to pay for a dance or not, if you don't, you just sit there and drink." Mae smirks over at Moses, wiggling her finger in his direction. "You could see one for free, several if you wanted. I get naked all the time, I don't mind it. I like my body. We could go skinny dipping sometime." She narrows her eyes and smirks slowly. "She tried to run you over, what did you do to her, exactly?" She frowns and nods her agreement. "I don't seduce my friends, unless they want to migrate from friends to friends with benefits. That takes some talking though."

Moses just nods and chuckles, but there may be the faintest hint of disbelief in his expression. "I don't know him, but my respect for your boyfriend means no naked Mae time for Moses." Beat. "You and homie break it off, give me a call but till then you keep your happy ass in those shorts." His eyes lift for just a second before he laughs and looks back to her arm to wipe away a smear of blue ink. "As for why she tried to run me over...we'll just say that I didn't always make the best life choices."

"You should meet Dylan. He's younger than I am, which .. makes me a little nervous." Mae smirks at Moses and turns her hazel eyes down to watch him as he works. "I wasn't going to take off my shorts while you were working. Silly man." She rolls her eyes at his explanation. "So basically you frustrated her until she thought murder was the best option? I can see you doing that."

"How much younger? Why's that worry you, other than a lack of life experience or understanding that sometimes a birds gotta be a bird?" That gets a second glance, but her next words get a snort. "Not that it's any of my business. And no, I did not /frustrate/ her until she tried to run me over." Moses smirks. He totally did! A few more passes and he moves on to her bicep, turning her arm to rest, palm up. This part of the flesh is a bit more sensitive, so he goes slow. "Ouch though, you hit me right in the feels with that one."

"Four years." Mae tries to stay still, she wants to shrug, but she holds it back. "I mean, I've always went for older men. I don't want to have to train one to behave the way that I want them to act, you know?" She smirks at Moses and sighs. "Until she tried to run you over. You antagonized her after she tried to run you over? Christ. You've got balls." She tilts her head, her estimation of a shrug. "Eh, you've got some sarcastic behind you. I get fussy at that sometimes, people trying to be a smart ass, you know?"

"Oh damn, that's a walking talking human." Four years, Moses means. Duh. Her assessment just gets a laugh as he moves on with his touching up. I fact, it's several breaths later when he actually bothers to speak again, "There's being a smart ass, and just talking. Not everyone is trying." This is said lowly as he works, his head down and attention focused. "Sarcasm a defense mechanism just anything else. It's usually pretty obvious when someone's just doing it because it comes naturally or because they want to look confident. I don't try, it's just how I communicate, I guess." He's quiet a second longer before he pauses, "Also you don't /train/ us. That's just sexist. We /choose/ to put the seat down or not."

"Yeah it is. Don't make me feel worse." Mae chuckles softly and nods, breathing slowly so that she doesn't jerk away from contact. "Pft. I don't train anyone. Freedom is very important to me. It's why I wouldn't get into a relationship. Then this man just pushed right through all my shields and here I am, dating someone. Being good." She rolls her eyes and lets out another sigh. "I can't even defensive mechanism in this situation."

Moses laughs, but he does ease back as he feels her tease. "As long as your happy, there's not reason to." This is an attempt to ease her, just a little. "Relationships don't have to be forever, there's always an ejection latch, so just enjoy it while it lasts, yeah?" He smirks again, but he does at least seem to be trying. Moses is not a therapist. "Hell, sometimes we allow ourselves to get into odd situations because we need to grow a little. Otherwise why would I be /here/?" More laughter, and he pulls away to clean her arm. Blue down, red to go.

Mae nods, wrinkling her nose as she focuses on Moses. "I keep telling myself that. If I'm okay with it, who cares what anyone else things, right?" She makes a noise at the ejection hatch, sticking out her tongue. "I doubt Dylan will ever give me a good reason why I would leave him. He's such a nice man. He doesn't talk much which is the best part." She clears her throat, smirking toward Moses. "No offense, when you talk it's usually funny. Most of the time though I have to deal with shitty come ons."

Moses laughs. "There was a time when /I/ was told I didn't talk enough. I started talking, and now I talk /too much/. There's never any pleasing the fairer sex, is there?" This is mostly a joke, but after cleaning his machine again, he sets to work on the red. Red is a little less gentle than blue and takes the faintest hint of pressure from the man. At least he seems conscious off it. "And you're exactly right, by the way. The only thing that matters is your happiness. Opinions are like assholes. Everybody's got one. It's not really very smart to get too invested in other people's opinions. As for shitty comeons, I've witnessed some doozies so I can imagine. I acknowledge that I have no idea how to flirt so I just don't. we all come out better for it."

"I just said it's fine when you do it, and Dylan doesn't do it. You're not talking to get into my shorts. You're talking to talk." Mae rolls her eyes and holds up her other hand. "Break time?" Just a few moments later the coffee dropoff comes in with a bag. "I'm happy. Dylan makes me happy." She chuckles and when Moses backs off of her arm she quirks a brow. "What is the worst come on you've heard?" She asks, swinging her legs around. "I got two sandwiches, two donuts, and two coffees, they're both the same so we don't have to fight over them." She gets to her feet and moves to tip the delivery man.

Moses chuckles, but moves to empty his gun out, and clean it. Habits. Habits stay forever. "Yeah well..I like my own voice I guess, and that's good. That you're happy." He smirks, but he also pushes up a second later, freed of the ink stained gloves. "I'm not to picky." But he does seem more than happy to up his dosage of caffeine for the time being. "But if you don't stop feeding me, I may not go away."

"That's fine. I like it when my friends do not suddenly disappear." Mae says, unwrapping her sandwich and pulling half free. "I am happy, happier than I thought I might be. I'm not sure why I decided to do this relationship thing, but.. here we are." She takes a bite of her sandwich and opens the top of her coffee, sniffing at it. "You got any sugar in here?"

"I try not to /suddenly/ disappear," he allows simply. Her question cause shim to wander back toward the counter where he ducks and rummages for some time before he returns with sugar. It's handed over, but his coffee is taken as it is.

It's late afternoon and the shop, located on the outside of town not far from the club, is mostly empty. An older man can be seen in the far back, sleeping while Moses stands near a chair and Mae works her way through a sandwich, her arm shiny and partially reinked.

Mae rips open her sugar packets to dump it in her coffee, stirring it with her middle finger. "Hopefully you don't get killed then, that's one way to suddenly disappear." She takes another bite of her sandwich, setting it down on the parchment paper that it came on. "So what got you here. What made you want to work at a tattoo place? Obviously you like and do art, that's part of what brings someone to this place, right?"

Outside, a shiny black 66 Mustang pulls up, parks, and out hops a tall, leggy tattooed woman with waist-length grey hair. Love reaches up to drag down the frames of her mirrored aviators, eyeballing the shopfront with silver eyes. She's wearing a pair of black rubber flip flops. So very chic. She bends to scratch the back of her knee through black skinny jeans, and makes her way toward the door of the shop. She wears a plain black hoodie over a low-cut tank top and a bikini top.

If the door has a bell, it dings when she enters. If it doesn't, she just brings in some cool air in from outside. She slides her sunglasses up and tucks them atop her head. "Well, well, well. What do we have here." It's a tattoo shop, Love. It's a tattoo shop. She grins to Mae & Moses, and even gives an eyebrow lift to the old dude before she heads over to join the former pair.

"Love. C'mon over here and share my sandwich." Mae murmurs, holding out a half of ham and cheese on wheat. Swiss is the cheese. She gives the other woman an up and down gaze, taking in her attire. "You look good, and you got your car moving again? Guess who's going to be riding me to work when it starts to snow?" She winks and takes another bite of her half of a sandwich. "He's been working on my arm today. I'm trying to get some touch ups done."

Moses lingers near the chair, even as Love slips in. The new approval gets a small nod and a wink, but for the moment the man settles back into his seat again with his own sandwich...which he does not offer to share. They've covered food and its power, Loves just late to the class.

Love makes her way over a little faster at the sight of a sandwich. Never a half-a-ham-sandwich will she refuse. "Girl. Yum." She reaches out to take the sandwich and looks out at her car when the question comes. "Sort of. Still need the dent banged out, but it runs. I'm between mechanics." Again. "I can tell," she glances back, gaze going to the ink along Mae's arm. "Looks good, babe. How many hours you sitting today?"

"Hey, Mo. Looks like your work really is pretty good." She already saw his portfolio, so she knew that, but it bears some teasing anyway. She nudges his chair with her foot.

"As many as I can handle." Mae murmurs, gazing down at her arm before she grins over at Love. "We're taking a lunch and caffeine break. We need it." She takes another bite of her half of the sandwich and chews slowly. "When are you getting some work done, hmm?" She hip bumps Love as she moves to take a seat, crossing her legs as she munches on her sandwich.

"Of course my works really good. You knew that." Love gets answered first, but Moses doesn't forget that Mae asked him something earlier, and eventually he does touch base with it. "I had a shop in La. My step dad opened it. I took it over when he retired and moved here. After everything happened I needed a change so I sold and moved....here." Redundant, he realizes, but he shrugs through it. "Like I said I make bad choices."

Love takes a huge bite of the sandwich. Seems like she hasn't eaten, because she hooks a chair with her leg, drags it over with a little hop, then drops down to eat. "I only have a few places free, have to be sure the artist is gonna be able to blend it with the others." She crosses her legs and tips back. "If you made good choices, you wouldn't be here. I think the same could be said for all of us." She grins, takes another bite of the sandwich. "Not bad." The sandwich, she means.

Mae nods at Moses, finishing off her sandwich with a big bite. "I came here of my own free will. I'm staying because I have children now." She takes a drink of her coffee and sets it down. "So you're going to get more work done?" She grins at Love, moving over to try to find a clear space on her body for ink. "Woman.. how much of you isn't uninked?"

Love smirks behind her sandwich at the children thing. She shakes her head and takes another bite, just a few left to go before she finishes lunch. "Oh, not much." She jerks a thumb toward herself. "Some on my back, some on the backs of my legs, lower belly." Not a lot. "A couple small gaps on my legs." Some of her older work could probably use some touching up at this point.

Moses chuckles as she listens to the woman talk. From his seat behind the chair, Moses is free to separate his attention between the food in hand and the conversation. Food mostly wins, until his phone buzzes in his pocket and he's forced to pull it free. A glance, and he sighs. "Speaking of children.." this is mumbled toward the woman as he stands and begins toward the front door. The remaining sandwich is handed to Love as he passes, "Mae I'll be right back, I need to take this. Let me know when you're rested and ready and we'll get that knocked out." Love just gets a wink.

"We should get naked again and go skinny dipping so I can actually study you without looking strange." Mae settles on the chair again, readying her arm for inking to resume. "Touch ups have been my life for the last two years." She nods at Moses when he goes to take his call, wiggling her fingers at him. "Are you going in to work tomorrow, Love? I'm in for seven, and I'm gonna need some strong drinks."

Love glances over as Moses finally gives his attention to his phone over his sandwich. She watches him go, then looks back to Mae. She laughs when skinny dipping's mentioned. "That swim was so good. I bet we can find a heated pool. Or a hot tub. You wanna check my ink, I'll show it to you sometime." A hot tub in the chilly PNW weather sounds like an excellent idea. "I think so, yeah. Finally feeling human again. That flu..." Was the worst. The worst. "I'll double down the drink strength. Did we ever find out if Tony caught it?"

"I think he might have been okay. Maybe. Ico was down with it. He sent me a ton of texts the other day trying to get me to come get him soup... I think." Mae aims a look at Love and sighs softly. "I can't cook, I'd end up burning down his house and he'd be really pissed off at me after. You know?" She rolls her eyes and slumps in the chair. "I don't need that karma."

"Tony didn't come to our shindig, so maybe he was spared." It's a miracle that happened, because all of her friends in town caught it within days of each other. The texts Love got over the last week. Lord have mercy. "Are you sure he wanted you to bring him soup." There's a significant look to Mae as she finishes off the sandwich's last bite, chewing, her eyebrows ticking up. "I can only cook about twelve things, otherwise: disaster." She brushes her hands together. "Where does he live anyway?"

"Right next door to Dylan. He was texting me that he hadn't ate in lord knows how long. I was going to send take out over to him because.. again.. I can't even boil water. He kept apologizing for bothering me." Mae wrinkles her nose and eyes Love back, a grin forming on her lips. "I don't know what he wanted exactly but I was not going to guess at it. Hopefully he's better, because that flu was the worst and I don't want to catch it again. No way."

"Oh, what? I didn't know that at all." Love laughs. "Small town." She rubs her hand down her outer right thigh briefly, before resting both in her lap. "They make little microwave packets — you just nuke a cup of water and stir. He really needs to invest." She sits back. "Dude you are not joking. I am avoiding everyone sick. Somebody sneezes, peace out. I will not be catching that shit again either. No." She shakes her head for emphasis. "To that end, I'll be drinking at the bar tomorrow so anything that tries to get into my bloodstream has to fight the vodka."