Young Writers Society

"Oh, vamp is short for vampire. You know, people infected with vampiracy, functionally immortal except a few select weaknesses, like garlic. That stuff is painful." She scrunched up her nose, "A friend of mine was tricked into having some one time by this worthless cur of a human as a prank. He almost died."

She looked down into her lap for a second.

"Anyway," she said, regaining her cheerful demeanor, "Your former line of work? If you don't mind me asking about it."

No, he didn't know about vampiracy, but he wasn't sure how she'd react if he said that. Functional immortality caught his attention, but he didn't feel like it'd be all that worth it if he had to watch out for a plant for the rest of his (hopefully) endless life.

Might as well talk about something he did know - his job. "Oh, that's quite alright," he said. "I was an assassin. Specifically, I targeted the other assassins who tried to leave my country's military. My last target proved exceptionally hard to kill, and I strayed rather far from my country, so here I am."

"I don't think you going extra far from your country has much to do with you being here," Emily said, remembering to be relieved that he wasn't freaked out by the whole vamp thing.

"Due to my country likely considering me a liability for wandering halfway across the world, as well as the civil war it became embroiled in not long before I left, I was trying to say I lost my job, but that's true," Nubes said.

During the time that Emily and Nubes had been talking, Kyou and Takano had been up to some very different things. It had started as Takano getting up and quietly sneaking out of the store - something that Kyou hadn't expected in the slightest. He had gone sneaking after her, too, and they had stood off to the side of the makeup store for a good few seconds before she finally explained what she was doing.

"I saw him come around the corner," Takano said. She pointed at the corner in question. "His lips were moving - I think someone else is here."

Kyou stared at the corner. "Do you think that someone's good?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "I just know that there has to be a reason for one to stay there while the other came over here."

Kyou crossed his arms. "So either they don't trust us, or we shouldn't trust them."

She nodded.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"You want to check it out?" she asked.

Now he was the one who gave the nod.

Leaving behind the makeup store, the two carefully made their way over to where the other person had to be lurking.

Once Lunis pulled himself off the mesh, it took a depressingly short amount of time to figure out how the gate opened. All he had to do was stretch, crouch down, grab the bottom of the gate, and slowly lift it up (he didn't want to draw any attention to himself). But at least he could open it; if Nubes was still alive, the panther would have to brag to him about it.

Trying to figure out what was inside was a bit more of a challenge. Next to the contraptions were a wall of helmets, so Lunis guessed the helmets were probably important. But they obviously weren't made for someone with his ears - he had to pick one just small enough to fit on his head without crushing those ears, and the straps were a little too hard to shove together, so they dangled down by his chin. Good enough.

As for the contraptions, he could drag one out easily enough, thanks to the handles. The seat was a bit small for him, but it let his tail swish behind him. And, once he kicked the little stick thing that stopped him from moving, he started to make his way towards the open gate.

Only to realize that this machine was a balancing act he wasn't quite prepared for. He kept his paws on the pedals and handlebars, leaning one way or the other to keep from toppling over as he slowly lurched forward. Lunis knew it'd be better to set his legs on the ground, but he wasn't sure how much that'd help, as high above the ground as he felt. More importantly, it wouldn't look dignified or intimidating to the people he could hear coming, and he couldn't have that.

Emily suddenly noticed her companions had gone missing. "I, uh, sorry, there were others here," She looked around and glimpsed them turning a corner, "My apologies, but if you'll excuse me, I have, uh, something to do."

She then got to her feet and scampered up the wall and onto the ceiling, seemingly unaffected by the laws of physics. She left the store and hid herself behind a storefront logo for a clothing store.

Ugh, Nubes didn't know who he wantes to follow more - Emily, who had decided to walk on the ceiling, or the two people who were obviously moving to intercept Lunis. Well, he had no specific reason to believe they were harmful - they'd sounded more suspicious than hostile - and Lunis had gone through worse.

So the leopard followed the vampire to the sign. "Is this a vampire ability?" he said, looking up.

She kept her eyes on her first set of companions as she responded, "Kinda. Most vamps get some kind of power-up from the turn, this just so happened to be mine. It's different for everyone."

Nubes followed her gaze to watch the two people, but choose to keep up the conversation. "And do you like it?" he said. "Does it serve you any particular purpose, or do you just find it entertaining?"

She shrugged, "It's been pretty useful. Like, this one time, in, I think France or something, I was in this castle. I wasn't supposed to be there, but that's another story. Anyway, there were these hunters, because vampire hunting was a pretty big thing a while back, and they didn't know I could do this, so they neglected to look up most of the time. Made killing them a lot easier, because that was back when I still did that. I don't kill for food anymore, or at all really, but I used to have to."

"I used to have to as well," Nubes said, nodding. "Also, I feel like assassins or hunters who fail to look up are asking for death, harsh as that sounds." Well, he had no problems saying it, but most anyone else would think he was being a bit harsh.

She laughed, "This was a bit before technology caught up to the whole 'your enemy could be above you' thing, but you're right."

Nubes smiled. "I like you," he said. "People tend to find me strange or off-putting, and I don't especially mind, but it's always nice to meet someone who I can relate to, and vice versa."

She glanced down at him, "I'm used to weird stuff. When you're as old as I am you kinda desensitize to a lot of stuff." She laughed, "I mean, I was once besties with this three-hundred-year-old witch. He was this 'edgy' kid, kinda a softie under the spikes and leather though, who was super into this really good 'lost' poetry and spells and stuff. Lots of animal sacrifice. He went missing once and came back with a warrant out for his arrest and a boyfriend. My point is...yeah, I forgot. I had a point though."

She laughed again and twisted a strand of hair around her finger, "You'd think I'd've learned how to organize my head at my age, but nope, I gotta be a teen in every physical way."