The Beginning Of A New Piece I Started Let Me Know If Ya'll Like It At All! - Tumblr Posts
Louis loves his work. He loves the gentle buzz of the tattoo gun in his hand, the way it goes slightly warm after a long session and heats his hands like it's alive. He loves the adrenaline of piercing skin, the trust that comes with marking someone permanently.
So, on Friday morning when he’s been open three hours and the shop is still completely empty he’s disappointed. Lately his work has developed quite a fan base and, though he’s often too humble to admit it, it's been a long time since the shop was empty on walk-in day.
It must be the god awful weather he thinks, signing, as he looks out the long windows at the front of the shop. He watches as rain and sleet pour onto the empty streets outside. There isn’t a single person in sight.
Dejected Louis moves back to the front desk. Situating his feet as close to the small space heater as he can get he leans over the tall wooden desk and goes back to work sketching a design he’s promised to one of next week’s clients. They'd requested an anchor and Louis had had to pretend to sneeze in order to keep them from noticing his eye roll.
It’s just that anchors are so overdone he thinks, as he forces his pen down onto the paper in front of him. He attempts to draw with some of his original flair but it’s a little hard when he’s so frustrated in the piece in front of him. Recently he’s well enough off that he could have turned away a client like this but the man had said he was a friend of Stan’s dad and Louis had immediately felt too guilty to send him away.
Louis furrows his brow and tries to keep his frustration from distracting him for his work. He’s finally getting to the groove when the bell on the front door tinkles.
Louis flinches at the unexpected noise fumbling with his pen and almost dropping it. When he gets himself under control he looks up to see a tall man standing in the entryway of his shop. The man looks like he’s lost a fight with the storm, he’s dripping water onto the shiny wood floor beneath his feet and his coat looks soaked through. The hood of his coat is pulled up but it looks like it’s done little good because the strands of brownish hair peeking out are soaked through and cling to the stranger's forehead. His appearance is completely normal given the state of the weather outside yet something about him seems sort of… off. Louis can’t quite place it.
“Welcome to Elysium! How can I help you?” Louis calls to him using his best customer service voice.
“Elysium?” The man asks as he moves towards the front desk. Louis looks up to meet his eyes before realizing that he can’t because the man is wearing dark sunglasses. Aha! So, that had been what seemed so weird about his appearance. Who wears sunglasses on a rainy day? Louis wonders, before coaching his face neutral.