Young Writers Society

"He thinks he can punch the machine," Nubes said, not taking his paw off his forehead.

She shrugged, "He can try."

"I will try," Lunis said, pushing away from Nubes's shoulder before unsteadily biking his way in the direction Emily had gestured to.

Nubes sighed, watching him leave. "Apologies," the leopard said. "He has a one-track mind sometimes. Now, about where we are - should we be inspecting these stores more carefully?"

Emily shrugged, preoccupied with her chocolate, "Yeah, probably," she said, "might wanna stick as far out of sight of the cameras as you can though. I cast a notice nothing spell earlier, so we should be fine for a bit, but I can't say how long that'll last."

"Cameras?" Nubes said. He didn't quite like the sound of it, especially considering the spell Emily had cast, but he needed some confirmation. "Could you explain what those are?"

Emily shrugged, "They're like...eyes? I guess? They see things and record them for people, usually security guards in cases like these, to look over later -or live- to see crimes being committed and stuff. You know, to catch the bad guys or whatever. I mean, they exist in different contexts too, but that's how they matter here." She continued to munch on her candy bar as she repeated her notice-me-not spell one-handed, knowing it would be extra weak and would probably only last a minute or two, but deciding that an extra layer of protection couldn't hurt.

"I have generally been considered the bad guy, so that doesn't bode well for me," Nubes said. "Still, knowing how unreliable eyes can be, I hardly imagine a second pair of them would be any more effective."

She shook her head, "Naw, these capture everything, and then you can go back frame by frame and see individual images and stuff. It's pretty cool, actually."

Nubes frowned. He didn't quite understand what frames or capturing meant, but he figured it had something to do with recording and being able to see what the cameras had seen later. How odd.

"Well, don't tell Lunis that," Nubes said. "The last thing he needs to hear is that anyone can see him running his bike into a wall."

Emily laughed, "Yeah, I mean, no one would NOTICE if they watched the footage because of the spell, but then, that's not going to last much longer, and casting it again would be a bit pointless because of the magi-gap across worlds. Nerdifaean magic isn't really compatible with this world, so all the spells and stuff I cast that didn't originate here are gonna be a whole lot weaker and work less and less every time I try it. Kinda like when you trick someone once, and it works, but then you try again and it'll work less, and if you do it a thrid time it's just pointless."

Glancing around to see if could catch sight of any of those cameras, Nubes scowled. "Should we really be standing here?" he said.

She shrugged, "Probably not."

"Well, we'd best let Lunis know," Nubes said, starting to walk in the direction the panther had gone.

Emily followed, climbing back onto the walls.

"How many people have you killed anyway, if you don't mind me asking," she said, getting bored with the lack of interesting conversation.

Nubes stared ahead, not noticing the storefronts around him or Emily walking up the wall. He drummed claws against his temple and tried to think of an answer. "I would say about a dozen," the leopard said at last. "It, isn't something I've felt very motivated to count. Even when I had my job, I would report the death to my superiors, accept the bounty, and carry on. They know the exact number, assuming any of them are still alive."