Ty blinked at the offer. He knew Noel could do that; she'd told him. But...he never thought of asking her...that is, never thought there would be a way.

"I...I might take you up on that when we get home. I mean, I might have a thing or two...that maybe I'd be better off not knowing. Actually...I have something. Something that's seen the past eleven years of my life." He silenced, not really wanting to say too much, but then turned his attention to Drake. The man nodded at her, but turned back to Noel, deeply thinking on her offer.

There was one thing in particular that still ate at him. But did he really want to forget it? Would it really be better if he did? He didn't know...

Heh. The response that the physically intimidating mutant gave to hearing Noel's mutation was deserved. Especially after Noel had been so worried about getting squished earlier. "Don't worry. I won't do it on accident." At least, she would try. Pain was one of those triggers that was hard to fight off. Noel would just have to keep her eyes closed if it got bad then.

"Right." Noel nodded, but was relatively confident she could be a man about this. Or at least, she could be a man until she could afford to be a girl about it. "I'm ready when you are."

The alcohol felt cold against her skin as it dried. Should she... not flex? That was her best guess here. Also, she wanted to watch. That, in her experience, made things so much more tolerable.

Accident? Drake had not even considered the idea that Noel could do it accidentally. After all, while familiar with the idea of involuntary power use, her own mutation was simply what was obvious. Her wings twitched uncomfortably, though she didn't give another shudder this time.

However, despite the first impression, and current information, she found that she sort of liked Noel for some reason. Maybe because the woman really did seem to be a decent person.

For now, though, it was time to get to work. It wasn't exactly like a brush and a canvas--this canvas could feel pain, for one thing--but she took pride in her work just like she did with her paintings. Every piece of art had to be her best. Despite the simplicity of the tattoo, she was going to make every last of these four capital letters look as close to perfect as possible.

To that end, she fell completely silent, concentrating on her work while still keeping a bit of attention on Noel just in case she said something. She had just said that she could ask Drake to pause if she wanted, after all...

(ooc: Ty gave skip permission)

It hurt, but it was surprisingly not that big of a deal. The sensation was, in a word, intense. More like sensory overload than straight up pain. As she suspected, watching made it that much easier to bear. If Noel focused purely on the sensations, it felt like Drake was drawing a line straight up her arm. In reality, she was very prescice and kept to the plan with incredible finesse. Noel could almost pretend the artist was just doodling there on her wrist. Almost.

How much time passed, the brunette couldn't even guess. After a time the sensations just seemed to echo and build up and clash against each other. But Drake was almost through so, despite the moisture collecting in Noel's eyes and despite the permission that Drake had given her to call for a break, Noel decided to tough it out. If she could just get through it, it would be over. Stopping would just drag the whole ordeal out and make it worse.

Drake, while still paying attention just in case Noel spoke up, certainly had all appearances of having completely tunnel-visioned, focusing on the other woman's wrist with clear intensity. Keep the area clean, keep the needle steady, follow the plan, make it perfect...

"Done."

She gently wiped down the area where she'd written the four letters for the final time, then pulled away to let Noel examine her no doubt sore wrist. The dragon-like mutant was a rare artist who had no ink of her own, thanks to her inhuman skin and its incompatibility with needles, and so she had never found out what the process felt like first hand. Still, you didn't need that good an imagination to know that getting repeatedly jabbed with something sharp would hurt.

Now it was clean-up time, disposing of what needed to be disposed of in the proper manner. Even more important than the artistry was making sure everything was clean and sterile. Then, once she was ready to ink again, it would be Ty's turn.

Okay, in all honesty, Ty being a gentleman was only part of why he let Noel go first. But mostly, though he'd never admit it, she was right. He hadn't had a tattoo the 'old-fashioned way' before. And to be honest, he thought it'd be a good idea to see it before having it done to him.

Now, Kiva was cleaning up and his time drew nearer as sweat began to bead on his forehead. Well...his time had come, and he had to be a man and bite the bullet. So, when she finished, Ty took his spot, removing his shirt as he did so.

Wait...he'd been shot at, beaten up, and dodged explosives regularly. Bitten by dogs, stared death straight in the face. So what was a tattoo?

Nobody congratulated Noel on being a bada** so she silently rectified that as she inspected her new tattoo. "Perfect." The skin was red and starting to puff up. Totally bada** It looked slick under it's fresh wash of petroleum jelly which was not cool, but protected it... or something?

Noel hopped out of her seat and made room for Ty. "It's not as bad as you might think. Besides, there's not too much that's really sensitive on your chest." She offered him a little smile for reassurance before she got into the teasing. "I could hold your hand if it'd make you feel better." Just... probably not the tattooed one.

They swapped seats and now it was Ty's turn to be a man. They were really putting Drake through her paces.

Drake managed to keep a straight face through Noel teasing Ty, though it wasn't that hard since she gave that little 'you can ask me to stop' speech before every tattoo for a reason. There was no shame in not liking being jabbed with pointy needles, or being nervous about it.

"So," she said as she fetched the book she'd drawn the sample letters in for Noel's tattoo and found an empty page. "Killer skeleton fish. How about..." She trailed off, having been more-or-less speaking to herself as she rapidly got to work, occasionally glancing up to look at the hummingbird on the young man's chest and where the fish was supposed to go.

"Hmm...This?" She showed what she had so far to Ty.

In front of him was a creature that could have once been called a simple set of fish bones, but now was a fearsome undead beast. The ribs were viciously sharp, and the vertebrae of the spine more resembled spikes running down its length, leading to a pair of longer, slender spikes in the place and general shape of tail fins. Its mouth was open, ready to strike, and was crammed full of teeth that brought to mind an exaggeration of an angler fish, and the eye sockets had a slant to their shape to suggest angry eyebrows.

Hopefully, he'd like it, but, like always, she was happy to sit here and tweak it until it was perfect.

Ty chuckled, sticking his tongue out at Noel. "Thanks. But how do you know I wouldn't take it as an excuse just to hold your hand?" Because the twenty-one year old troublemaker more than likely would try just that.

As Drake worked, Ty just waited, finally smiling when she showed him the finished drawing. "Heh...that is perfect. Just about exactly as I pictured it." He gave a nod, then took a breath. Now it was time for the fun part.

How would she know? "Because I have cooties." Straight faced, she delivered that gem. "You wouldn't want to risk it without a reeeeally good reason." With a teasing wink, she took her seat.

Yeah. He'd be fiiiine.

Noel poked gingerly at her tattoo. It sorta itched and sorta still hurt.

And he was going to get that on his chest? "Don't forget it's permanent..." Not that the art wasn't good. It was impressive that Drake pumped that kind of quality out in the time that had passed. Just... it was his body... Noel didn't really get a say.

Well, so much for keeping a straight face; Kiva let out a loud, very ungraceful snort of laughter at the word 'cooties' that dissolved into a few snickers before she managed to quiet down. The grin she was wearing stayed for a while afterward, though.

Ty using the word 'perfect' certainly didn't hurt, and Drake didn't hide the fact that she was proud over that. She looked between the sketch and the place where he wanted the tattoo, forming a proper mental picture, then set the book aside and grabbed what she needed to sterilize the spot on his chest.

Noel's comment on its permanency didn't offend Drake any; she gave a small nod. "She's right. If you want me to tweak it in any way, go right ahead and say so. You're the one wearing the ink, after all." Her eyes flicked to her own bare arms very briefly. "I know I'd be picky as all h*** if my skin could be tattooed."