Blessed ink (Psyche/invite)

[Zodiac]

She had resisted far longer than most would have.

Others had done it. Little on some, and yards upon others. It was always a fascination to her eyes but like everything else in her life she tried to weigh out her choices well. She had no desires to be buried in the stuff at all. Such things had to have meanings beyond a simple whim. She had seen many who discovered the original 'OMG! THIS IS SO COOL FOREVER!' having second thoughts in less than a week once the deal was done.

Others encouraged her, tempted her, but she ignored them. In her moments of private time, the list of options began to shrink as she studied, compared and chose from among them. Two choices were simply 'no brainers' at all. She would have them. Oh yes. They suited her perfectly, but one would almost a brand rather than an accent so it had to be perfect. Of course, she reasoned, if she willed her gift of Dysepulosm to stop, anything she would be displeased with would simply fade away in due course. But could she rid herself of one, perhaps two, and keep a third in place for example? Zodiac imagined it was an 'all or nothing' deal when it came to those quirky powers some of their kind had while others did not. Whatever she finally settled on would be it.

Next was the harder part. Who would assist her?

There were more and more of them as time went along it seemed and she had no doubts of their talents at all, but she wanted someone she knew and felt comfortable with. Considering she would be revealing herself in ways she literally refused to do in public, she was quite particular who would see her in such a state of undress. "Oh, if only I was like some of these hoochies out there," she laughed to herself. Sometimes what she saw some women wear totally barely added up to the amount of material in her corset alone. Granted in private for one special soul she had no issues, but this would not be private at all actually.

That narrowed her list down to two possible artists. Nothing against the others at all, but she had needs that had to be met or none of this would ever happen.

The woman was new, at least to doing business at large in the town. She saw her once at the Mardi Gras party at the Met, but she did not know the person. She was not sure the woman would be willing to allow her to get comfortable around her and to know her to allow her to work her own form of magicks. The other was time. This had been a on again/off again flirtation with herself and each time she put it off it took longer and longer for her to consider it again. By the time she got comfortable with the woman, she could grow cold feet yet again. No, if she was going to do this, she needed to do it now, and left only one person on her list.

She left her dwelling within the fort and began to walk the hallway. Under her arm was several rolled sketches and Ginny followed along behind her. In her hand, of all things, was a claw hammer. . She stopped in front of a familiar door and knocked.

And knocked.

Louder and harder each time. Finally she took the hammer and pounded as if she was driving a nail into its last bit of lumber.

"WAKE UP!" her mind shouted out to the owner of the place. "Time to put that undead self of yours to work!"

[Psyche]

The resonant sounds of hammering pounded in the depths of his subconscious. The faint familiar voice reverberating from a whisper ascending into an ear-piercing scream. His eyes sprang open as he laid within his coffin and concentrated on her location. Why in the world would she believe he'd be staying there? He smirked, and crept up to a sitting posture. Lately he'd been feeling a lack of his usual vigor and had spent more time sleeping than usual. He couldn't quite place the reason behind it; but could trace it's beginning to when he'd returned from the Fade. He was beginning to wonder if perhaps it had swallowed a piece of him in his time there...or maybe it had been killed off too.

Concentrating on her consciousness, he reached out a placed his voice within her mind, "I'll be there shortly, my dear gypsy."

Rubbing his face with his hands, he attempted to conjure the will to rise out of the marble coffin. The torches upon the wall danced their warming lights upon his tattooed face as he looked about the expanse of the lair. He could feel Aphyon in the other room, occupying her usual space. That girl needed to get a hobby. Maybe he'd need to get a library put into the place for her. Or maybe new hbbies could be introduced entirely. He pondered it for a few moments and then decided that'd be something he'd have to feel out over time.

Patting around the edges of the coffins his roaming hands finally found the Lucky Strike cigarettes he'd been searching for. Extracting one of the white sticks from the soft packaging, he placed it between his lips and leaned into the fires of the nearest torch. With the cigarette effectively lit, he swung his legs out over the edge of the coffin and dropped down to the stone floor, exhaling a plume of smoke as he landed. He loved the feel of his bare feet against the cold stone below him. He was grateful to have this lair, his very own fortress of solitude that he could escape from the noise of the world.

Grabbing the studded-leather vest and black combat boots, he finished dressing himself before heading down the nearest hallway covered in a forest of vegetation and flowers. Psyche brushed his palms against the flora with one hand as he offered the cigarette to his lips with the other, eventually coming up to the fade portal.

...

After a few varied stops and re-routed pathways, he slowly faded into existence within the Fort. Making his way up to the desired floor, his boots offered a heavy thud across the wooden floors. He felt bad that he'd not been visiting the gypsy near as often as he'd like. They'd discussed the prospect of potential tattoos and talked designs, and with his...incidents... that'd been the last of it. He was sure this undoubtedly had something to do with it. In any case, it was a long overdue visit.

Coming up to her door, he knocked and waited for her to grace him with her pretty face.

As he waited he smirked to himself and mumbled, "Will you walk into my parlour? said the spider to the fly."

[Zodiac]

When she heard his voice in her thoughts, Zodiac wandered back to her own space and went about her normal affairs. Time was too unstable for some, so she could not say when Psyche would actually show up. An hour? A month? Anything was possible when it came to 'Mr. Bones' (her pet name for him) He was among the few males in the town she actually respected and trusted, and considering she could name the list off on one hand with a finger to spare that said something.

When the knock finally came, it was as if she knew. Water was simmering, heating a pair of blood packs slowly. A small gift for him waiting on the counter. She peeked out the door and then opened it wide as she saw him.

"I'd have grey hair waiting on you. That is if I could get grey hair again." she laughed in his thoughts as she hugged him and invited him to enter and have a seat. She tossed him the bag with his gift as she went to prepare them a cup.

"Make yourself useful and fix us one. So what's up with the long naps now?" she asked in concern. Vampirism was still an unexplored subject as she saw it. Most of them had barely scratched the surface of their new condition of existence, so if by some chance this was due to being turned, she wanted to know and learn all she could. She returned to the table and sat a warm cup in front of him and took a seat.

"Well, I think I have finally found the courage to do this," she took a sip of her own cup now. "Got my designs picked out to show you so you can tell me how hard or easy they can be to do. Plus how much you would want for your time, of course." Zodiac reached for the roll of sketches she had assembled and laid them on the table.

[Psyche]

Opening the door for him and greeted with a warm hug, he reflexively raised up his hands to her back to return the gesture. He had to admit, it was good to see her face and her company usually tended to be closer to an environment of levity between the two of them. Walking into the room, he noticed the customary array of regal purples and calming blues that tended to accent the gypsy's domiciles. He imagined it helped with readings as the combination of colors often seemed to provide a relaxing yet focused atmosphere. The various symbols and ritual items scattered amongst the decor of the room offered an appropriate flare of the occult, which of course added additional interest to the tattooed carnie. He'd always liked the scene of mysticism when he was human...even if the fortune-teller had been, what he believed to be, the usual hack-job Madam Zelda type lady. Gypsy Lady never gave him that impression though.

Once offered the his gift bag, Psyche's eyes perked up and he pursed his lips in a silent 'Ooooo' fashion. Collapsing onto one of the sofas, he immediately began to set the rolling paper onto the meaty portion of his thigh and add in whatever herbal delight his alabaster partner-in-crime had decided to bless him with. As he delicated spread apart and divided the appropriate amount of herb across the thin paper-square, he listened to her thoughts that spoek to his mind. The mention of his common tendency to disappear into spells of 'sleep' of course amusing him. She knew it wasn't anything new for him. Hell, the first 3 months of his life had been spent in a telepathic coma.

Maintaining a telepathic hold of concentrated communication was near effortless compared to how it had been when he was first turned. It seemed more akin to speaking itself now. Without turning his attention away from his current project at hand, he projected his own thoughts into her mind, "I'm not even going to ask where you collect your little crops at. I always imagine you have some little farm hidden away with crops tended by your own green thumb hobbiest ways." Smirking a bit, he began to tightly roll the paper in methodical folds around the botanical filler.

"Naps....naps would be nice. I don't believe I've slept a minute since the day Scorpia made a party favor out of me.", finally finishing the tighly, but amply filled, joint and leaning in to light it with one of her variously placed candles. "I dare say it's been a bit of an adventure since we last sat together. I had been walking the street and was suddenly shot by some over-paranoid officer of the law. I felt I needed to make an example of him....and a few of his fellow law enforcers. Tytonidae did not like this." he smirked. He didn't know why, but Zodiac was one he felt he could always speak to honestly, even if he knew she may not have approved of his actions. He felt...beyond judgement with her.

"I lost a bit of control at that point. Behaved a bit....unwisely towards Micah and Velveteen, and eventually bought myself a week vacation to the Fade. Since then I feel as if I've regained self-control....and have even began dreaming again. I'm in a much better place than I was before." he nodded as he puffed on the joint, kleaning back and crossing one leg over the other while offering up the drug to her.

"But that's neither here nor there. Let's take a look at this artwork shall we? See if we can't design the perfect mural for that pretty canvas."

[Zodiac]

"Helps to have one's own farmland," she smirked as she took the offered joint and took a deep pull from it. "And thank you. I give them all the TLC as I do my flowers and such. Of course, you can find this stuff in the gangster part of town if you try, but you have no clue on the quality or what else might be lurking in it, ya know?" She handed it back to her guest and took a sip from her cup as she held the smoke in her lungs.

Her mood turned serious as Psyche began to explain his recent 'vacation' to her. She had heard some of it, but she was always one who tried most of the time to hear both sides of an issue. She did not always manage it-some people in this place were guilty just because they had been mentioned, but the majority had their own tales to tell as well.

"If I had know you were going through such a thing, I would have helped." she finally exhaled, and barely any smoked escaped past her lips. "As a personal rule, I don't try to invade the minds of those I consider friends to see what may or may not be wrong with them. If I had, perhaps we could have found a less painful way to get you back on track. Sorry I wasn't more nosey into your affairs." in a way it sounded lame, but she felt he would understand what she meant. She did not like seeing her friends be hurt, unless there was no other answer to the problem.

Her mood suddenly brightened when Psyche mentioned the sketches. She unrolled her bundle and began to lay them out for him to view.

"First off, something simple I found." she handed the man the photo of an ear.

"On my left ear. Closer to the heart. You think you could make that look like the cat was walking along my piercing?" she brushed her ebony and violet locks aside to show him the seven various types of ear rings and studs that adorned her earlobe. "Something subtle, but once seen you won't forget it."

She laid her second picture out. "Something playful for my right ankle." She lifted her leg, allowing her skirt to slide up a bit to show off her bare foot and lower leg. The ankle bracelets slipping up her leg a bit as well.

"Is there a way to make it look like she is hanging on to my bracelets?" she asked hopefully before grabbing the last of her three pages.

"And if by some miracle I survive these, I might as well go for broke." she turned the page for him to see properly.

"Cosmically speaking, that's how I see myself. All Zen like and at peace with myself. Maybe silly, but I like it." she shrugged. "Right on my back all pretty like." She took another drink and looked at Psyche expectantly. "So, if you got any better suggestions I am open to seeing or hearing them." she smiled as she reached out for the joint again.

[Psyche]

As he looked over each of the sketches, Psyche would occasionally look up to the Gypsy Lady as to piece the portrait together. She had a marvelous physique and flawless skin that he'd been wanting to paint since the moment he saw it. The purples would look great on such white skin, and the mystic-yet comedic flare fit the woman's personality to a T.

"Oh, I think I can manage these easily enough, dear.", he said to her with a half-smile. Looking back over the back piece, he turned his gaze up to her eyes again, "We'll start with the smaller pieces first and let you get a feel if you still want to go the distance with this larger piece. Though, I must say, I look forward to being able to do this for you.", pointing to the large picture of the faerie creature.

Taking another pull from the joint, he handed it back to Zodiac, and let the smoke reside in his lungs as he stood and paced around the room, eyeing the various ritual oddities. He thought on the last few weeks and the expression of concern she'd just exchanged with him.

"In regards to the other matter. I wouldn't worry over it much. What's done is done and perhaps it is better that it was done. A feel a piece of me was lost there in that horrific place; and I think it's loss has been for the better." he said, offering a calm and collected smile before looking away.

Turning back quickly to face her direction entirely, he slapped his hands together and exhaled a tiny bit of smoke, "So! When you would like to get started on the artwork?"

[Zodiac]

"Dreams," she smiled faintly. She had recently learned how to enter other people's dreams as well as pulling others into her own and they gypsy could not stop wondering what went on in the subconscious of someone like Mr. Bones. So far her attempts had been as a silent, hidden observer- watching what other minds called to life while in the arms of Morpheus. "That's a good thing. Depending on what you dream as the norm, at least."

Her 'BS-O-Meter' (as Jennifer liked to call it) was twitching a bit. Psyche was not coming totally clean on the subject, but she forgave him that. Everyone was entitled to secrets and if he did not feel comfortable to share them all, so be it, but something was being left out she was sure of it. Even a man tattooed into a walking skeleton had hints and clues in their body language and aura, but it did not matter. She had offered sincerely to help if she could and he knew it was a sincere offer so she would not push the point.

His hands snapping together made her blink in surprise. She took another pull off the joint and handed it back as she considered his question.

"When would not be too much of an issue. I can adjust my schedule easy enough to suit yours. Past that, the rest is up to you. Where would be best to work on something like this? In this, you are the professional and you know what works and don't work for you so I will abide by your calls. Just as long as I don't have an audience when I strip down for my back." she smiled warmly. "You tell me where and when you'd have the time and I will be there." She felt excited now. After so long she was actually putting this idea into motion.