All Tanya could really do was sit and stare at the girl in front of her. Marcy's eyes were clamped shut, her fists shaking slightly in her lap. The entire situation felt incredibly strange. They weren't on the tattoo chair, and Tanya considered asking if she wanted to move just for familiarity's sake. With her body this wracked with tension, Tanya assumed she wanted it over as quickly as possible.

Do I need to clean the area?

She instinctively reached for the antibacterial wipes, and the fluttering in her chest became a roar.

What if I hurt her? What if it's like Adder's snake again—or even worse?

Tanya let out a long, slow breath and turned to Mrs Eceer. "Could you get me Ishita?"

Mrs Eceer looked surprised but obliged, standing silently and walking into the street. The only noise was the clapping of her heels against the floorboards and Tanya's own beating heart inside her head.

Marcy opened one eye, then the other. "What's happening?"

"Ah, sorry. I decided better safe than sorry. We are getting a healer."

Marcy gulped. Tanya watched her larynx bob up and down her throat. She was starting to look more and more grey.

"Just as a backup plan, yeah?" Tanya said.

Marcy's voice shook. "Right."

Seeing Marcy's discomfort flicked a switch in Tanya. She'd dealt with hundreds of nervous customers before.

"How's it goin' down at the Tesco?" She searched her brain for more specifics. Nothing distracted someone like specifics. "I remember you mentioning this manager Class last time? Sounds like a Class that'll either make you best friends or worst enemies."

Marcy brightened. "Oh my god, he's an absolute nightmare. He's one of those shop workers who takes the responsibility far too seriously. It sounds like they promoted him to manager as soon as they realised he had no plans to go elsewhere. The other staff who were in that day are all artist types or students trying to make ends meet, but he just dreams of being the branch manager, so obviously the boss hates him because he's so clearly gunning for his job. He isn't even subtle about it either—"

Tanya nodded and laughed in all the right places. She tried to keep her constant glances at the front door inconspicuous. Her thoughts kept wandering; to Ishita, to the transfer, to Ian—

Tanya looked down at the map on her wrist. His dot wasn't on her map still, so he must still be outside the wards.

God, I hope Ian is okay.

Each time her thoughts strayed too far, she'd wrestle them back in, challenging herself to ask just the right question to keep Marcy talking. As long as she was talking, she wasn't stressing. It must have only been ten minutes, but to Tanya, it felt like hours.

Tanya glanced over to the doorway yet again. It was more of a nervous tic than expecting to see Ishita's face there, but this time she did. Ishita's sunken eyes met hers, her mouth twitching into a polite smile that Tanya couldn't read the feelings behind.

The door was wide open, so Ishita looked awkwardly to either side of the door and then knocked on the doorframe itself.

Tanya laughed despite herself. "Come in."

She walked in, playing with her fingers in the way Tanya noticed she always did when she was nervous. Mrs Eceer was right behind.

Tanya met them in the middle.

"Can you help Marcy?" she whispered to Mrs Eceer.

That was all she needed to say. With a single nod, Mrs Eceer walked over and started loudly quizzing her on how her powers worked again. Marcy seemed startled, already pulling up her interface to check on whatever absurdly specific questions Mrs Eceer pulled out right off the bat.

I mean, it's not how I'd handle it, but I suppose at least she'd be distracted.

Tanya turned to Ishita, the conversation behind her almost completely fading out as the gravity of summoning Ishita here hit her.

"Hi," she said.

"Hey."

They paused.

"So, what am I…?"

"Oh! Yeah!" Tanya wiped her clammy hands on her dress. She stepped forward, lowering her voice. "I'm sorry for callin' you here on such short notice. I'm doin' me first tattoo transfer to this American girl, Marcy. I didn't want it to go wrong, so I wondered if I could get your help—barter for it, I mean. I'll pay."

Ishita looked over Tanya's shoulder at Marcy. "She seems sweet."

"She is." Tanya looked over too. "Absolute spitfire when she's not being bombarded by Mrs E."

Ishita's tone softened. "She's nervous, yes?"

Tanya nodded. "Yeah, understandably. I made the risks pretty clear. Well, clear as in I don't know any of 'em."

They both looked at the two on the sofas a moment longer.

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"So, uh, can you help? Just be here in case it goes wrong, I guess?" Tanya asked.

"Of course. One question."

"Shoot."

"Am I here to make Marcy feel better, or do you think I might be needed?"

Tanya scratched the back of her neck. "Both? You're here to make me feel better."

Tanya was convinced she caught the flicker of a smile.

"Oh shit yeah," Tanya started. "What can I offer you?"

"A tattoo," Ishita said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Tanya raised her eyebrows. "That I can do."

"Where do you want me?"

They did end up in the tattoo chair in the end. Any version of squashing on the sofa didn't give any of them room to turn and move. Marcy reclined in the chair, with Ishita on one side and Tanya on the other. Mrs Eceer had laid out her notebooks on the cabinet with the monster core in it, and even through the wood, there was a subtle blue glow to the pages on it.

Tanya had facilitated all of the normal introductions. Marcy had tried very hard not to stare at Ishita's appearance, but Tanya had noticed the long looks and raised eyebrows, and she was sure Ishita had too. None of them mentioned it.

"So I'm going to stand here, holding your arm," Ishita explained. "I'd like you to keep your Interface open and say help if your Vitality is dropping in any uncontrollable way."

Marcy's eyebrows were furrowed. "And if it's so quick that I can't?"

"That's why my hands are going to be here." Ishita placed both hands on Marcy's arm. "We fall unconscious far sooner than there's permanent damage. I'll protect you."

Those words may have felt hollow coming from someone else, but Ishita looked into Marcy with her earnest brown eyes, and Tanya knew she believed it.

Tanya nodded. "And I'll be this side, transferring the tattoo over."

Tanya added, once I've worked out how to, in her head.

"Are you sure you don't want one of us to grab Pete or someone?" Tanya still couldn't see his dot on her wrist.

"I could go and find him if you need," Mrs Eceer added, reluctantly.

Marcy shook her head. "He would just silently exude anxiety until we all felt way worse."

Ishita laughed. "My husband was like that."

Mrs Eceer shrugged with one shoulder. "That boy will have a heart attack from blood pressure that high. Well, if he lives long enough to worry about it."

"Mrs Eceer!" Tanya exclaimed through laughter. Marcy was in stitches.

"Too macabre?" Mrs Eceer replied, but she was smiling.

Tanya used the relaxed atmosphere to segue into the transfer. She lined up the cutout in her dress over her waist with Marcy's hip. Her best reference for attaching a tattoo to something was Ishita's Prosthesis, which had to be close and then latched on itself. This was obviously an incredibly different situation, but it was the best she had.

Ishita noticed and laid both hands on Marcy's arm, one flesh and the other tattoo. Marcy wriggled slightly like the tattoo hand was cold.

Before Tanya could ask, Marcy confirmed. "Ready."

Tanya summoned the cannon, focusing on controlling the way it felt to judder out of her flesh. All four of them stared down at it. She brought it out slower than usual, relaxing into the strange slipping feeling as it extended out, piece by piece. The bar inside her solidified at the same time as the main arm came out. That was the strangest sensation, like a thick needle being pulled out, but through a bunch of local anaesthetic so that it was more of a feeling than pain. As the rest of it came out, she could feel the vibrations deep inside her.

She stared down at the fully summoned resonance cannon. It reminded her of EVE from Wall-E, with smooth white plastic casings all over its arm and circular head. The resonance hole resembled an eye, with shutters over the top to dampen the sound, which appeared like giant eyelids.

Now what?

Tanya tried to remember what finishing a tattoo summon felt like. There was this rush of energy leaving her body—she assumed the last of the Vitality, but it could be other Attributes too.

I should watch how me attributes drop at the end of a tattoo at some point.

Tanya tried to recreate that feeling. She imagined making this tattoo. It had been on the old bloodied sofa, floorboards still on their way in and out as Olena built the new floor. She remembered the feel of the old linen against her exposed arm—she wore jeans and a cropped shirt back then, and the cushions pressed into the small of her waist in just the same way as she used to sit sketching as a kid. The tattooing was the hardest, staring into her floor-length mirror and trying to tattoo using the reflection. Her and Assistant had spent the whole afternoon beforehand practising with mirrors until Olena and Boris, and even Mrs Eceer, were trying it along with her.

Her mind jumped backwards and forwards from designing to practising and the final tattoo, as different memories caught her attention.

As the final memory of the last stroke in the mirror hit her, her body weary and eyes dry, the tattoo began to peel off her skin. It wasn't like summoning it, instead of crawling out as it transformed from two-dimensional to three-dimensional space, it came off like a sticker at the base. The end of the cannon twisted on its arm towards Marcy, seeming to know instinctively where it should go. Its head tilted upwards, shutters closing across the front of the cannon, then it melded into Marcy's hip. The rest of the tattoo came out soon after. Tanya shivered as the bar slid out of her body, ghostly and weirdly sensory in all the wrong ways.

As the last of the tattoo left her body, she had that same feeling of Attributes leaving her body. They escaped like an exhale, and she was suddenly aware of how tired she felt and how bare that spot on her skin was. It felt like something was missing.

Marcy gasped, eyes shooting open and body upright and rigid. Ishita and Tanya each took an arm, lowering her back down to recline.

"Is she okay?" Tanya asked Ishita, panicked. She looked between Ishita and Marcy. "Marcy, are you okay?"

Marcy's eyes were glazed over. She blinked over and over again, panting softly.

Ishita laid both hands on one of her arms. "There is no pain for me to take away," she said, but she sounded uncertain.

With another gasp, Marcy was back in the room. "Oh my god, I feel fantastic!" She jerked back upright again, twisting her body so her legs dangled over the edge of the large tattoo chair. "It's like I've had so many coffees!"

Her teeth were chattering.

"Marcy, maybe you should slow down a bit," Tanya said.

"No, no," she jumped to her feet, bending her knees and swinging her arms like proof. "I'm perfectly okay, I—" She staggered sideways, all the colour leaving her skin in an instant. "Uh oh…"

Again, Tanya and Ishita each grabbed an arm. Mrs Eceer walked over and helped lift her feet.

"She just needs to sleep it off," Ishita said.

Tanya looked down, and Marcy was already out like a light, head tilted to one side and a small line of drool dripping out the side of her mouth. Ishita opened the cupboard, surprised to see the alien glow of the Monster Core.

"I see that this is no longer a linen cupboard," Ishita said, deadpan.

Mrs Eceer was poring over her notebook. "It seems like this method takes all the drain at once, so it isn't as intense as a usual tattoo per se, it just gives the body more to adjust to."

Ishita noticed a cloth covering over one of the other side tables in the room and laid it over Marcy as a makeshift blanket. "And her feeling so energised?"

"I've felt that before," Tanya said. "Got this Boon making Assistant, and I got rushed with Vitality. I should have checked how much it was at the time—it felt mental. I did the entire tattoo in one go and then was so stiff and exhausted I couldn't move."

Tanya thought of Assistant. She wished it could have been there for this.

Ian's been gone an awfully long time…

As if by magic, a voice rang out through the main section of the shop. Tanya would know that voice anywhere.

"Hipster boy become hipster man! We bring monster dead—OH NO! IT DRIPPING ON MY GOOD PLANKS. OUTSIDE. OUTSIDE."

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