Ink

I lose track of time, and we only stop playing when Kara points out the time. I give a jerk as if emerging from a dream world and glance hurriedly at the time, even though I already heard Kara say it. We've been playing for four hours.

'Oh my god. I'll have to edit four hours of footage now.' I groan.

'Good thing I pointed it out.' Kara laughs. 'Okay, we should wrap up.'

I do my usual outro and stop recording. We stay on the call for a few more minutes, talking about the experience, and then count down to end the call at the exact same time. I grin to myself once I leave the call and kick back in my chair, disconnecting my headphones before swivelling around. I had a lot of fun, and I'm pretty sure Kara and Amelia did too. I have a warm feeling in my chest from talking to Kara for so long, and I'm sure no stupid thoughts can take my happiness away. It's been only a few days since I've felt this happy, but it feels like an eternity. At least I'm feeling happy.

I jump off my chair and whirl around, swinging my arms, laughing and feeling the weight in my chest dissipate. It would be awesome if my mood stayed like this until the rest of the week, but that's probably not going to happen. I don't care if it will stay for a long time or not, though. I plan to enjoy my mood as long as I can.

I recall one of our conversations from the video. We were trying to hunt down squids to get ink sacs for black dye, and the conversation topic suddenly shifted to tattoos. Amelia asked us if we ever planned on getting tattoos, and while Kara said no, I replied with a yes.

'That's cool!' Amelia had said. 'I wanted to get one, too. What tattoo would you get?'

'I don't know. A vine. Or a skull. Or both. I don't really know.' I answered.

'That's boring. I'd want a tattoo of a phoenix. You know, to symbolize infinity or something.'

'Why don't you just get a tattoo of an infinity symbol?' I asked.

'That's more boring than the skull thing. Most people can't really identify phoenixes, so I guess people will ask me about the tattoo, and I'll be able to tell them about the meaning. Whereas if I get an infinity symbol everyone will know what it means.'

'So you just want attention.' I said in a bored voice. 'Gotcha.'

Kara giggled, and Amelia sighed really loudly into her microphone. 'Close-minded people can't understand.'

'Yeah, whatever.' I dismissed the topic. 'Did you find a squid yet?'

We'd just been talking in passing, but now I really want to get a tattoo. I glance down at my forearm and pull my sleeve back, holding it out. Maybe I'll go with a tattoo of a skull. Or a dragon. A dragon would be cool too.

I sit down on my bed, placing my palms over my eyes to cool it down a little. My eyes hurt after all that, but the ache doesn't really affect my good mood. In fact, I feel like I'm floating, fueled by my happiness, and even though I know the fuel will run out eventually, I intend to power myself as long as I can.

I remove my hands from my eyes and hold out my forearm again. Maybe instead of a big tattoo, a small one would be good. I rotate my hand slowly, like a 360 view of a 3D model. There, under my thumb. A small tattoo there would be cool. Deep black, against my pale white skin. I can already see it. The symbol for Virgo, my Zodiac sign.

I'm not really one to believe in zodiacs and all that, but honestly, the symbol for Virgo is kinda cool, and it would look really good as a tattoo. I smile to myself. That would be great.