Body Art

Mars idly observed the various works that had been done by the tattoo artist, turning his head to one side as he thought. There were several really cool ones, but they were also really expensive. Sticking a hand in one pocket, he fingered the assortment of knuts and sickles there, mentally calculating how much he had. It wasn't much.

Something small but awesome, then. It wasn't like he had anything else to blow his slow-earned money on. Flipping to the next page, the teen continued his deliberation. What to get?

Karma bit her lip, pushing the door to the shop open with her hip as she tried to balance all six orders of chinese food in six equally gigantic bags piled in her arms. It wasn't the weight that was getting to her - six bags? please - more the irregular way each moved.

"Lunch time, people!" She called, coming to a stop to dump all six bags on the counter next to the register. She tossed it to the boy behind the register, ignoring his blush as she divvied out the rest of them, throwing easy passes to each member of the staff, both tattoo artists, the register, and disappearing breifly to give it to the three in the back office.

Moving back to the front she hopped onto the counter next to the register and kicked her feet idly, eyes running over the shop that had become like a second home.

"Oh. Hey." She said, noticing the boy checking out designs at the last minute. "Who's work is that? Jasper or Ezio?" She gestured from the lean Asian man to the buff Italian, each of which raised a hand when their name was called. "I like Ezio's, myself."

Mars sidestepped out of the way without a word, not bothering to look up at the girl bringing in food for the staff. He flipped another page, tilting his head in thoughtful consideration of one of the images.

"Hm?" Mars responded when she talked to him. He had heard her perfectly fine, though. He was just buying a moment to look at the front of the book. "This one's Jasper's." He'd already looked at the other book. In fact, he had been in the shop long enough that the staff had probably come to the conclusion that he was just looking.

"They're all good. Unique." Mars lifted his gaze from the book to the girl, the corner of his mouth pulling up as he appraised her appearance. "Hey, yourself, sweetheart," the American belatedly greeted, a charming grin crossing his features.

Grinning back, she hopped down off the table, approaching the boy with her unconsciously predatory gait. "You could always ask for them to draw something new, make it original, you know?" She looked down at the book, leaning closer to the boy to see what page he was on. She glanced up at him through her lashes, dark brown eyes flashing lighter for a brief moment before she was grinning again and looking back at the book.

"Name's Karma." She introduced, almost as an after thought. "I like this one." She tapped a tribal design thoughtfully, humming slightly as her eyes went to the price. The most expensive. Well that figured. Shrugging she wandered away again, hopping up onto a tattoo bench instead.

"You go to Hogwarts?"

Mars watched her approach intently, breathing in through his nose to assess her scent.

"Excellent taste," he replied without looking down at the picture. He'd just been looking at it, after all. "I like the tribal designs. I was considering a dragon, maybe, but that seems too predictable. Maybe a panther or some other large cat, instead. One of the great predators."

"Name's Mars." He closed the book and set it on the counter, leaning back against it casually.

"I will next year," the teen replied. "Will I be seeing you, then?"

Karma's lips twitched into a wider smile as he said the word 'panther', her eyes flicking to the counter beside him, where a tiny black kitten had appeared, before looking back at him. "You like panthers, then?" She asked, leaning forward slightly in a motion that belied her intrest. "Ever come face to face with one?"

Her half grin grew at his name. At least some people had creative names for their children. She'd begun to think that she and Arsen were two of a kind. "God of War." she noted, kicking her feet again as the black kitten sniffed at him before hopping onto his shoulder. "Are you human, then?" She asked interestedly, eyes lingering on the kitten for the briefest of moments before returning to him.

"That's Nightmare." She introduced as the kitten made its way to the top of his head, curling into his hair. The kitten had been overly affectionate to strangers, lately. Maybe it was all the human meat going to its head. "My..." she paused, thinking of a word for what exactly the kitten was. She went for the safest one. "...Familiar."

"Yes you will." She said, blinking as she realized what the kitten was planning. "I'm a Slytherin. Sixth year." She grinned. "You seem pretty cool, so you're probably one too." She looked back at the kitten. "Not to be, you know, alarming or anything, but you should probably get her off your head as slowly and gently as possible. Now."

Mars shrugged. "I like anything with lots of claws and teeth," he said, turning his head to glance at the kitten when her gaze flicked that direction. "Not recently."

"The God of War, human? Blasphemy," Mars scoffed. His eyes glinted a bit. "Aren't we all human?"

He allowed the kitten to make its way to his hair. "Familiar Nightmare?" he said, certain there had to be some sort of irony in that.

"Lucky me." Mars grinned. "And I am absolutely cool. It's in the genes, being a god and all that."

The teen didn't look the least bit alarmed at her advice, though he didn't follow it to the letter. Mars reached up a hand and gently scooped the cat from his head to redeposit it on the counter. There was nothing slow about the action, however. One moment the kitten was on his head and the next it was on the counter. All without so much as a blink.

"I only seem to like panthers, sadly." She grinned, ironically. "Not that I've got much of a choice with that one." She gestured to the fully grown black cat he'd placed on the counter, who bared her teeth at him and leapt from the space onto the floor, making her way toward Karma before turning back toward Mars, snarling in his direction.

Her eyes glinted darker in response, a smirk flitting across her face. "We all seem to be at least half, at the moment." Watching Nightmare in amusement, she gave a half shrug. "The amount of pure humans at Hogwarts seems to lessen every day."

"I'm sure the name hasn't gone to your head at all." She teased. "Being a god and all."

"As familiar as the rest of them... Nightmare." She called, patting the seat beside her. "Leave our resident god alone, would you?" The cat turned tail and padded over to the bench, hopping onto the cushion beside her. Walking in a circle, the cat changed again, turning briefly into a panther before turning back into a kitten, curling in a ball and closing her eyes.

"Have you decided on that tat yet?" Karma asked curiously, reaching over to rub her Familiar between the ears.

"Nice trick," Mars remarked to the panther. He was visibly amused when it snarled at him. "I wouldn't if I were you, kitty cat. I've got bigger teeth." He bared his own teeth, revealing a set that looked perfectly human.

"Really? Interesting." Maybe the next two years wouldn't be entirely dull, after all. The teen smirked at her observations. "Not at all. I'd be arrogant even if I weren't a god. This sort of perfection is hard to come by, sweetheart."

He gave a small frown, turning towards the tattoo artists. "I think I'd like for you to design something. Good sized." Mars used his left hand to indicate he was talking about something that would span his right shoulder back to front. "I like the tribal designs, but I'm not picky. Just something cool. I'd have to come back for it later, though. Right now, I've only enough for a small butterfly. Not really my thing."

Cocking her head to the side, Karma hopped to her feet, her eyes flicking to the clock on the wall before returning to him. "Oh please, you're impressive, but you aren't that impressive. I've seen better." She didn't clarify if she meant his teeth or just him in general, instead deeming to look over at the tattoo artist in question.

"Oh, don't worry about that." She grinned, ignoring Nightmare as she hopped onto her shoulder and stayed there, a kitten once more. "You don't have to pay for it." She shrugged the shoulder her Familiar didn't occupy as she made her way to the counter beside him, peeking over at the register, wondering where whats-his-face had gone. "Though, you know, I think you should get that butterfly. Throw people off guard." She looked up at him, frowning at the height difference, before sitting up on the counter beside him, faster than he could blink.

Mars smirked. He knew for a fact that he had a set of teeth every bit as able to rip and tear as the panther's, not that he was about to show them off. The teen really didn't care if she thought he was impressive or not.

He raised a brow at her. "By which, I take it to mean its on you?" Mars gazed at her a long moment, expression blank.

"What's the catch?" he asked.

Karma gazed back, cocking her head to the side slightly. "The catch?" She repeated, pausing the think. "Hmm... Didn't plan on having a catch. Maybe next time." She shrugged, reaching behind the counter to grab her knapsack and placing it on her lap. Flipping the thing open, she reached inside, all the way up to her shoulder, though the thing was nowhere near big enough to have that much space. With a grin, she placed what she was looking for - a small coin pouch - and set it on the counter next to her.

"There. Keep the change." Ignoring the fact that, should he open it, the boy would find roughly a thousand galleons - thanks to an undetectable expansion charm - she closed her bag and shrugged it over her unoccupied shoulder. Swinging her feet, she looked over the shop once more. "hmm... I should get going..." She frowned over at Ezio, who were looking over the drawing Jasper was working on. Slipping off the counter, she made her way past the boy, grinning at him.

"Welcome to Slytherin, by the way."

Mars watched her expressionlessly. She couldn't seriously be handing money to some stranger, could she? He waved at the girl as she left before expertly opening the mouth of the pouch one-handed.

"Looks like it's good karma," he joked, looking up at the tattoo artists. "Rich girl?" Whatever. Mars wasn't about to turn down free money without any strings attached.

Leaning against the counter to look at the drawing in progress, a rakish grin spread across his face. "Throw a wicked looking butterfly in there while you're at it."