How Green Becomes Wood

The artist tried to joke with Emma to get her to relax, but was very used to this kind of thing.

"All things considered, you were kind to each other," Daizi mused, "Cooger and your father would've chosen something more offensive to each other's styles."

"Should I be concerned?" Dark asked dryly, although notably didn't refuse the idea of getting one.
 
The moment the tattoo was done, Emma popped up from her chair. "Thank you. You do very good work," she said in a bit of a rush. "I appreciate your art."

"Maybe," Xander said with a faint smirk.

"Nah, you'll be fine!" Alec assured him. "Ooo, Emma finished getting hers! I'm going to go see it."

"I think I'll show Ivy mine," Xander said.
 
"Ivy-Qadira," Dark said, turning and holding out his arms to his daughter, "Come see your brother's tattoo!"

Being called over, Ivy pushed herself upwards and toddled over to her father, who scooped her up and turned her outwards.
 
Xander showed Ivy his tattoos. "What do you think? Yes? No?"

Alec went over to Emma and smiled at what he saw. "Oh, Emma! That's so cute on you!"

Emma smiled, relaxing for the first time since this process started. "I'm glad you like it. I mean, it's not really me, but I thought if I was going to do it, I'd do it for you."

Alec leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Thank you, Emma. It's sweet."

Emma lit up in a smile and hugged him. "Happy birthday."

Peter indicated for Sloan to go next. "Your turn!"
 
Ivy's eyes widened and she reached out to touch Xander's arm. She was used to tattoos, obviously, but these were different because they sparkled.

"Do you like it, Ivy?" Dark asked, rubbing her on the back.

Sloan agreed to go next and gladly got into the chair. She would've preferred to get one on her arm, but she was watching how everybody else except for Becky had one on their face and she liked making everybody comfortable, so she decided to instead of getting the small dragon stencil on her hand as intended, she went ahead and got it done on her cheek instead. It still didn't take up nearly as much space as Becky's, but it was still on her face and she did, in fact, choose some glitter.
 
Xander stiffened but forced himself to hold still until she'd touched it. Then he stepped back carefully. "Pretty cool. But guess what? It's going to vanish!"

"Nice dragon," Peter approved. "Looks good on your cheek, too. Looks like you're part of some kind of not-so-secret society."
 
"Would you like one, Ivy?" Dark asked Ivy, bouncing her.

"Thank you," Sloan said, flipping her hair over her shoulder, "I feel very cool and very dangerous. It's your turn now, dude."
 
"Is it cool for her to get one?" Xander asked.

Peter sat down to get his, choosing an image that related to a video game he liked, picking a simple black and white color theme to go with the logo, and he asked for it right on his forehead. He figured he'd regret it later, but for now, it looked cool!

"What on earth is that?" Emma blurted when he showed the others.

"Is it a bunny?" Alec asked in confusion.

Peter snickered. "No, it's from a vintage game called 'Hallow Knight.' It's a bug. The whole character cast and world are themed off of and inspired by bugs."

"Ew," Emma said quietly.

"It's an intense platformer, and it's incredibly beautiful and haunting. The soundtrack is amazing," Peter told them.

"Huh. I didn't know you were into games, at least, not enough to get one like that," Alec said in surprise.

Peter shrugged. "It doesn't really come up in conversation with non-gamers."
 
"Cool. Lemme know what she picks out," Xander said, turning to rejoin his friends.

"Really?" Peter said in surprise. "No way! Have you tried out the sequel, 'Silk Song?' It's a lot harder, but just as good!"
 
"We should probably let the actual guests get theirs first," Daizi said, but glancing towards the line, Dark said he thought it'd be alright to get in line with her, it seemed like they'd have the time.

Milo nodded, shoving his hands in his pocket, "Yeah, it's fun. Actually, uhm, for Christmas my mom bought me a Steam Deck. So I get to play a lot more games now."
 
"If I'd known, I'd have invited you over for games a long time ago," Peter said cheerfully. "You could bring the deck. I've never actually seen one, myself. I've got a Switch, and I used to have a Playstation, but I sold it."

Austin stepped up bravely. "Could I get like a bear? Or an elk?" he asked the lady.
 
"It's kind of like a switch," Milo explained, "but it lets you play PC games anywhere, it's basically a mini computer. It's cool, I had wanted something like it for awhile."

The artist grinned, letting Austin take a seat, "I can do either or both, whatever you like. What colours would you want that to be?"
 
"Man, I wish we'd talked sooner. I'd have invited you over," Peter said with a grin. "I struggle to find gaming friends around here." He didn't mention he knew what a Steam Deck was and had only meant he hadn't seen one in person. That wasn't the important part. He brought up a couple of other games he liked and asking Milo about what he liked. He stayed silent when Milo talked, giving him all the time he needed, usually looking somewhere other than Milo as they talked since he sensed Milo wasn't big on eye contact.

Austin hesitated, conflicted. "Um. Both? And the bear could be... Green? This shade, that one, I mean, and the elk could be... Brown? With glitter antlers?"
 
Milo talked a bit awkwardly with Peter, but he was able to carry on the conversation. He knew a lot of games, and seemed to play a wide variety of them, but his favourite were RPGs and puzzle games---he didn't really enjoy most shooters and, understandably, he really only played single-player games. It helped a lot that Peter didn't stare at him the entire time they spoke.

"That sounds super cool, yeah, let's do that!" The artist said, "I've got this brown, and I can do the antlers in this bronze glitter? Or I could do the antlers in a gradient from the bronze to this true gold? I think that'd look really awesome."
 
Peter really enjoyed co-op games and would play shooters, but he tended to be picky about them. They couldn't be too gory, and there had to be actual tactics. Alone, he played a lot of metroidvania games, and he liked real time strategy games and tower defense games with others. He had played a lot of the games Mill mentioned and asked questions about them.

"The gold gradient thing sounds cool," Austin said. "Will it rub off if I put it on my shoulder under a regular shirt sleeve? I don't want to ruin it too fast."
 
Milo explained he had been getting into a lot of roguelike games, such as Balatro or, his personal favourite, Inscryption, which he felt was a really unique take on the genre.

"No, it'll last pretty well," To demonstrated, she rubbed the one on her wrist, "Once you want to remove it, it's very possible to do so, but before then it'll stick around for up to a week."
 
Becky came up as Milo and Peter were discussing games and stared blankly between them for a bit before saying, "Not to interrupt, but totally to interrupt, but do you guys want to come paint some pictures or something? I'm all by myself over there, and it's be great to have some company, even if you keep talking games. Or we could get the karaoke started!"

"I think between singing and painting, I'd pick painting, right?" Peter asked Milo, grinning.

"Okay, awesome." Austin rolled up his short sleeve and pointed to the area just above where the bottom of the sleeve would hit. "Right there? Please?"
 
Milo mumbled awkwardly, looking between the art booth and the face painting booth, but luckily Sloan saved him by saying, "We can't pull Milo away from all these great pictures he has to take of our new ink, but I'll go over to try my hand, not that I'm an artist. Singing we should probably save for when someone isn't careful painting our faces."

Assuring Austin it'd be no problem, the artist got to work, making polite conversation with him.
 
Becky's eyes widened. "That's right! You have pictures to take! Have you gotten Peter's? By the way, great bunny, Peter!"

"Thanks. It's a bug," Peter said, amused.

Austin awkwardly tried to make conversation, blushing the entire time.
 
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