"It's not like we're serial killers or anything," he whispered. "And I damn sure ain't getting a tattoo or a tally mark put on me for every person I've wasted. We just do what we have to to survive. I'm not a big fan of the whole 'roll over and die' thing."

Ty silenced as they spoke with the girl behind the counter, and he looked when Noel tapped him on the shoulder. "Yes. Exactly like that, but with a fish," he answered with a smile.

Aaand then there was the yelling. That girl screamed for Drake with an intensity that made Ty favor the headaches he got from using his power on antiques...However...he didn't nearly expect who this 'Drake' would be. Sure, he knew it was a mutant-friendly joint, likely run by a mutant. In these times, you hear about stuff like that.

Ty'd imagined a large muscular dude, maybe covered in tattoos, and of course a mutant. What he didn't expect was 'Drake' to be a chick. Not that it mattered, she still struck him as the best option.

"Hey. I was wanting a tattoo to sort of...spruce up one I already have." He pulled his shirt up, showing the pink hummingbird on his collar. "Think you can put a skeletal fish right there next to it? And I think she was wanting something, too," he added.

"Not so dramatic that I want tally marks, no." In fact, she was okay forgetting that part.

So maybe not angel's wings then.

It was only after Ty repeated his request to the artist Drake that Noel had turned away from the pretty wings. And saw dragon wings.

"Holy-!" She reached for her... what was she reaching for? She wasn't even wearing a belt on her hip. And beside that, Ty was so freaking casual about the dragon standing in front of them that Noel felt really, really ridiculous for looking for a weapon at all.

She cleared her throat and coughed (which she had to wince at because of the ribs). Smooth move, Noel. Smooth.

"Sorry. Sort of paranoid?" Really there was no good excuse for her reaction other than the fact that she had seen something out of the ordinary and had thought this Drake threatening at first. Well, she was certainly still formidable, but threatening was not the right word. The dragon woman was not standing in a way where she could easily reach and/or disembowel them and that was accounting for super strength. Maybe not accounting for super agility.

Holy cow, was she assessing how a fight would go here? Noel shook her head to just stop that train of thought and then collected her long hair over her shoulder.

Two mental mutants were going to get eaten alive by a dragon. End of story.

She cleared her throat which was a safe alteranitve to coughing. "I just want my name. Maybe... here?" She pointed to the inside of her wrist where it could be covered by a watch band or something if need be, but other-wise accessible to her.

Kiva's smile became more prominent at the young man's reaction, or rather lack thereof, to her appearance as he simply answered her question. She tilted her head to one side slightly as he showed her the hummingbird, studying it. Wow, whoever had done that was talented beyond belief; it looked like it was ready to leap off of his skin and fly around the room. The fact that it was a little pink hummingbird on a guy was something that did register in her mind, but not something she considered worth giving much thought.

Gender stereotypes were for losers.

The idea of doing a skeletal fish, which she knew was one of the few things not covered by the numerous designs she'd filled the books with, practically made her giddy on the inside. She loved doing custom designs. She didn't get a chance to reply, however, because that was the moment the young man's female friend promptly freaked out.

The outburst made one of Kiva's wings twitch in a very understated expression of a flight reflex, but then she just gave the long-haired woman an exasperated stare, right up until she apologized. She didn't normally get apologies, and the dragon-like mutant's expression softened as she forced a weak chuckle. "Don't worry about it, hun. I'm used to it." She gave a little casual wave of her clawed hand for emphasis, more than willing to pretend it hadn't happened.

A certain other person in this parlor had had roughly the same reaction when they met, after all; Raven was making a valiant attempt at looking like she was fully engrossed in the book in front of her and not noticing anything going on, lest she make eye contact and it be considered an invitation to mention said event.

"Anyway..." Kiva looked at the redheaded guy again. "I'm assuming you mean something more 'killer skeleton'--" One of her wings jerked in the direction of the skeletal dog image on the wall. "--Than an accurate set of fish bones? Did you want it to be doing anything it particular in relation to the hummingbird?" If he wanted it to be facing toward, facing away, trying to eat it, fleeing in terror of it, or whatever, she needed to know ahead of time. Not that she wasn't going to sketch out some images for him before even starting to put ink to skin, of course.

As for the woman, Kiva looked back at her and asked, "Did you want anything fancy with the lettering? I can do a pretty cool pseudo-medieval style, or a pointed-edged goth one...or, well, pretty much anything." She didn't get to do words all that often, and it was fun when she did.

Ty noticed quickly where he and his fellow mental mutant were different. But Ty understood that this was technically her first encounter with a visible mutant--that she could remember, anyway. Ty on the other hand, had interacted with enough where the mere sight of, let's say, a dragon, didn't bother him too awful much.

He gave a nod. "Yeah, more like the dog on the wall, there. As far as pose, I'm not sure. I was thinking maybe teeth bared or about to eat it. My friend here had suggested a cover job, but...I don't know the little guy's kinda grown on me." The ginger chuckled. "As far as why I have a hummingbird in the first place, I sorta ticked off an ink manipulator." Giving a smile and a small shrug, he looked to Noel as she explained what she wanted. This was kind of cool, getting tattoos together. One might go as far as to say it was almost oddly 'romantic,' in its own weird, awesome way.

That... could have gone worse. Noel was glad she didn't offend the bigger and much, much scarier mutant.

Drake spoke to each of them in turn. Ty still sorta liked his pink hummingbird. Whatever. Noel shot him a quick glance. Ink manipulator. She'd seen it, but it just didn't click until he'd said it. Huh.

"I don't need anything fancy, really. I just need something to hep me remember so it mostly needs to be legible." Of course, that wasn't what she wanted. What she wanted was something to help her remember to be good and to remember what she wanted to be like. That just didn't translate to pictures terribly well.

"Uhm. I don't have any money." She cringed. First she'd insulted the woman and now she was uh... begging? "Um, but I'm not asking for much and I'd gladly sweep or take out the trash for a few days or... something." Noel shrugged. The last thing she wanted to do was put herself more in debt to Ty.

Kiva was grinning as the young man described what he wanted. That was fairly hilarious, particularly as he said the hummingbird had grown on him. It had grown on him, so he was going to sic a killer undead fish on it. That made a wonderfully twisted sense, and she was more than happy to oblige.

His mention of an ink manipulator made her blink in surprise, but then she cracked another grin and looked over at Raven. "Let's not tell Rex there's one of those in town, huh? He may try to give 'em my job."

The goth girl's lips quirked in a smirk and she snorted a small laugh. "Nah, he'd kick my brother to the curb long before he'd replace you."

"Yeah, I guess I'm too pretty to fire, huh?" The muscular, dragon-like mutant let out a deep laugh at her own joke.

The woman's reply regarding what she wanted, however, rapidly drained the mirth from the scaled artist. Help her remember? Was she...afraid she'd forget her own name? The admission of not having money caused Kiva to wear a very distinct frown, for the first time really, honestly, looking at the woman who she'd dismissed as simply jumpy and unused to visible mutants.

She hadn't assumed the two people in front of her were mutants, but she hadn't assumed they weren't, either, and now she was honestly wondering what had happened to lead these two here. It wasn't any of her business, though. She didn't know these guys. Still, Drake took an involuntary step forward, one of her hands twitching slightly with the very beginning of a thought to place it on the woman's shoulder in an attempt to be comforting.

But, no, she was a big, scary monster, remember? Intimidating, not comforting. Kiva took a step back again. Two, in fact. Then she shoved her clawed hands in her jeans pockets and glanced away, feeling awkward. "Sweeping and trash-taking would be Rex's call, and he's not here right now," she said, "But it's cool. I can do it and then we'll see if he'll take you up on that or if you can just come by and pay later when you've got the cash."

The scaled woman gave a shrug, her wings stretching slightly and relaxing again. "Like you said, after all, it's not much. Boss can yank it out of my paycheck if he really wants to, but Rex's not that kinda guy." Maybe her being so nice to a stranger wandering into the parlor for the first time could be considered strange, but that was just who she was. Even if they turned out not to be mutants, it didn't matter to her at all.

Ty looked over at Noel, and wanted more than anything to tell them both he'd take care of it. But looking at her face and body language...he didn't think she'd agree to it. So, he let the two of them work it out, practically biting his tongue in half from doing what he so badly wanted.

Well, at least it resolved really well. The redhead brushed his hair aside with his hand. "Well, since everything's settled now, I guess only one matter remains," Ty said, looking at Noel. "You wanna go first?"

Shoot. Now she was charity. She didn't want that either. "I'll just have to owe you, I guess." Noel tried not to look sulky about that because it wasn't that she minded owing a visible mutant. It was more about the fact that she hated owing so many people all at once. At this rate she would end up an indentured servant for the rest of what she could remember.

"First. Sure." She even managed to sound casual about it, though she did give Ty a look that clearly pegged him for the wimp he was being. "If that's all right with, Drake."

After that there was nothing to do but follow dragon lady to her fate. She'd had broken ribs recently. So really. How bad could it be?

To Kiva, this wasn't really charity. It was giving somebody a little credit. Better to get the tattoo done than wait around until she could get a hold of her boss. Sure, this did require a little trust on her part, but the big dragon mutant was not lacking for trust in others. Well, regarding some things, anyway. She still tied up her motorcycle in a Gordian Knot every time she parked it. Still, someone who didn't seem keen on owing someone was likely someone who would keep their word to pay it back.

"Yeah, sure," she commented, regarding the woman going first. "It'll be the quicker one to do." She gestured for her to follow as she headed for the curtain. The woman's friend could follow, or he could stick around out here and make small-talk with Raven if he wanted. Neither bothered the artist any.

She paused briefly to look at Raven. "Hey, shoot a call Rex's way, wouldja? See if you can get him away from the Lady Porcupine long enough to see if he'll take the offer of sweeping the floor."

Raven nodded, expression fairly neutral as she pulled out a fancy cell phone and tapped on its touch screen a couple of times, before pulling out its full keyboard and starting to thumb-type furiously. "Still don't know how you get away with calling her that..." she mumbled, clearly half-thinking aloud, earning a chuckle from the scaled artist.

Once they were properly out of sight of the lobby, Drake gestured for the woman to take a seat and went about preparing her needles with practiced motions. If particular attention was being paid, however, it would be clear that she didn't hold things exactly like an ordinary person. The hooked claws on her fingers made it so she couldn't touch her fingertips to her thumb, and so she gripped objects by wrapping her fingers around them and holding them to her palm instead.

Maybe that wasn't the best thing to inspire confidence in her skills, but maybe the fact that she never fumbled or dropped anything would counteract it, she thought. "I take it you just want plain black ink, since you said nothing fancy?" she asked, before adding with a little smile, "And, y'know, I also have to know your name to write it..."

Ty was by no means being a wimp. He shrugged at Noel, returning her look with one that clearly said he was merely being a gentleman, letting the lady go first, and she had the easier of the two. Besides, when they got done, he was considering paying for hers too, in secret, of course. She didn't have to know every time he did something nice for her, right? Granted, she probably would.

When Drake took Noel back, he went with them, just so it would be quicker. And just in case she needed help remembering or something. Okay he didn't really know why. He just wanted to go with, maybe it was just him being protective. Maybe it was because he was growing fond of her company. Who knew?

Oh well, it really didn't matter, did it? He sat in an available seat while he waited, idly tugging at his gloves and looking around as he patiently waited his turn.

He was totally being a wimp. But that was fine because Noel was brave enough for the both of them.

"Black's fine." It was actually kind of interesting to see all the stuff. Better, actually, that she got to see it first so she knew what she was in for. It didn't look all that bad, really.

>"And, y'know, I also have to know your name to write it..."

"Oh." How silly. Of course she needed to know her name. "Noel. N-O-E-L." Last name... Uhhh. She looked at Ty slightly bewildered. "Fisher? It's not my last name 'cause we're not really siblings..." Well crap. Maybe this would just be the tiniest tattoo after all. Those four letters were just about all she had left. It seemed kinda rude to just... take somebody else's.

Well, she swallowed hard. There was no point in getting all broken up about something she couldn't fix. And also no point in forcing a fake last name. "Just Noel then." That would have to do.

Kiva glanced from one not-really-sibling to the other as Noel spoke. Huh. Well. That was...interesting. In a 'this is clearly not my business and so I'm going to keep my mouth shut' way. Her entire life as a visible mutant, people tended to prod her with questions about any number of things. She liked to not be one of those people, even if the curiosity was getting to her about this woman.

No money. No last name. Afraid she'd the forget the first name that she did have.

Drake felt kind of like a bit character in a larger story. That passer-by who turned to gawk when they heard the main characters discussing something blatantly bizarre completely out of context. Only she wasn't just passing by and was instead inking these two and did have the opportunity to ask. Which she wasn't going to take. No she wasn't.

Mouth shut. Not her business.

"Noel," she repeated instead. "That's a nice name. Not all that common," she complimented. She did have a weak spot for french names, even if she thought her own two middle names were horribly, horribly girly. Her real first name was girly, too, but more tolerably. She really did prefer 'Drake,' at least while on the job.

Setting aside the needles, she picked up a little sketch book, its pages more the size of an ordinary notebook. She flipped through it to an empty page and carefully sketched out a few letters with a dark art pencil. After a moment, she showed the page to Noel. "How's this? Nice and simple."

In front of her were the letters N O E and L, all in uppercase and looking like they'd been typed out in Times New Roman on a computer. "I can do lowercase, but I figured I'd see what you thought of all capital," she commented with a little shrug. She did want it legible, after all, and capital letters were generally easier to read.

"Yeah, we're just friends," Ty replied. Friends who've risked life and limb for each other, and done even crazier things than that... The boy had to laugh to himself at that. "Actually I never really got your last name. You never gave it to me." He sat idly, just to give any information the others may need.

He had to shake his head at how stupid he had to sound though. Here they were, getting tattoos together, they'd helped each other out of jams, and were living together right now...and he didn't even have her last name. Maybe it was stupid that he was growing attached to her. Or maybe it was just that he'd seen so much of her life, that he sort of bonded. Hell...he didn't know. But he'd blame whatever he could find, if necessary.

It didn't even matter, did it? They were friends. Ty finally had someone besides a sister. Even if the sister was permanent. He just had to find a way to hang on without pushing away again.

"Perfect. " Noel was not about to complain. Free tattoo like a permanent sticky note to guarantee that she wouldn't loose the only thing she owned. Well, okay. Ty had fronted the money for some clothes, but that was the sort of thing that didn't feel like it was "hers" because she had nothing to do with earning it. But she would earn it someday. Just like she would earn this tattoo and keep what little honor those four letters maintained.

Noel held out her wrist at the ready for sterilization and eventual inking while she chewed over the idea of debts and talents and payment.

"If you ever needed something different from sweeping, Drake. I do have other talents." Because, really, who claimed "sweeping" as a talent on their resume? "I can see memories off of items, tell truths from lies and even erase memories." The last one especially explained her predicament.

"Ty, I'd offer the same to you. Not that I saw much that you'd want to forget."

Erase memories.

Kiva, in that moment, completely froze in the midst of sterilizing Noel's wrist. She mentally logged away the fact that Noel's friend there was named 'Ty,' but largely remained focused on the particular bit on information that had frozen her. Her wings spread and stretched slightly, then folded again shakily, as if a shudder were running through them instead of the rest of her body.

That was creepy as all heck.

"I, uh, appreciate the thought, but no thank you." Despite her hesitating voice, the appreciation was genuine. She was even a little bit touched by the offer, if also extraordinarily creeped out by the fact that someone had just offered to casually pluck memories from her head. Still, part of her felt the need to elaborate, given the strange circumstances. "There's nothing I want to forget...Even the bad stuff, well, it's...important to me, I guess?"

That's the best way she could verbalize it, at least. It wasn't like she had all that many painful memories in the first place--her life as a big, scaly monster was shockingly boring when it came down to it--and the few that were just felt like something she shouldn't run from. She could forget the pain of her original change into her current form. She could forget the many times her heart had been broken as a teenager as she learned the hard way that Beauty and the Beast was a nice story, but not something that happened easily in reality.

Would that change the truth of the here and now? Of course not. Forgetting didn't make it go away, and remembering why it was there was...important.

She shrugged and focused on finishing the sterilization, and spoke up when she withdrew, "Actually, maybe I'll keep the lie-detecting part in mind, now that I think about it. Maybe mention it to my boss, if you don't mind?" She made a point to try to make brief eye contact at that last question. People didn't lie as often in a tattoo parlor as they did in, say, a liquor store, but they gave pretty much the exact same lie. Still, if Noel preferred Rex not know, that was fine.

Drake got the needle ready, and paused to try to meet Noel's eyes again. "Okay, I'm gonna tell you what I tell everybody, from the teenage kids who just got their parents' permission to the big biker guys already covered in ink." She looked over at Ty briefly. "And this goes for you when I give you yours next, too, hun." Back to Noel. "It's not a big deal if you want me to stop the needlework for a second. Not even because of pain, but for whatever. Alright?"

Noel would know that she meant every word of that, too, if she was telling the truth about knowing if other people were telling the truth. Drake didn't bother to dwell on the idea that someone could lie about being a living lie detector--and how would you even tell?--and instead got to work as soon as she had an indication that Noel was ready.