Young Writers Society

Marizol Vuolez wasn't in the habit of kidnapping people. Usually, she killed them. It was the family business, you see. Or, well, the family business on the maternal side, seeing as her father was blissfully oblivious and thought his spouse worked as a nighttime museum security guard, displaying artifacts from ancient civilizations of the prime plane. Anyways. It was her first kidnapping, so she wasn't entirely sure what to expect. There weren't exactly guides for dummies on how to kidnap someone.

She stared at Ilias Ravioli, who was still unconscious. Short black hair in a fade style, light grey eyes that were currently closed... Yes, he looked like a more real version of the celebrity who appeared on billboards and movies, and he weighed about as much as she expected. The only difference was the scars. Mari pondered that for a moment. An accident? There were other inconsistencies about all this. He'd put up a good fight back in his home. Perhaps he'd gotten some combat training for stunts, but still, that didn't explain...

Ilias came to with a jolt. His gaze flicked around the room, and Mari tried to imagine how he'd see it. The walls and floor were made of cold cement, although there were some diagrams of chemical compounds on the walls. There were also no windows. She estimated it was almost noon.

As for Ilias's immediate surroundings, his wrists were bound by a purple gel-like material, and so were his ankles. He tested the strength, finding them irremovable. He was seated in an armchair that was actually one of the more comfortable ones Mari owned.

"Your chemical tolerance is pretty impressive," she noted. He turned his head. He regarded her with an inimical look. "Was it built up through repeated exposure? If so, that must've been pretty painful."

He processed things for a second. Then the ungrateful armchair user spat on Mari. Well, perhaps that was to be expected, as she had kidnapped him and all. Maybe she should be the one to make the guide on kidnapping people. On second thought, she wanted this to be a one and done.

She casually wiped the spit from her shirt. "Hm. Thanks for the spit sample, I suppose. Although it's been contaminated, so no thanks, actually. And I already know who you are." Well, she knew he was Ilias Ravioli, celebrity and member of one of the ruling families. She suspected there was more to him, however, so being vague could be worthwhile-- if people thought you already knew their secrets, they were more likely to give them away.

Food was also an excellent way to get others to open up, in most scenarios. Was kidnapping included in that? Couldn't hurt to try. Mari walked behind the curtain at the front part of the room to get to the kitchen, then returned with a plate with a squoba on it. The cylinder of purplish-blue squo meat calmly complemented the brown of the fluffy ba, which surrounded the meat in a U-shape. "Hungry? This isn't poisoned, by the way. I'll have some to prove it." She cut a slice off the squoba, popped it into her mouth, then offered the rest to Ilias. He shifted slightly, eyeing the squoba as if it had an internal bomb.

"And how do I know you haven't just built up a tolerance?" His voice was raspy, a side effect of the compound she'd used to knock him out.

What would give him that idea? Interesting question for a celebrity to ask. She shrugged. "Fair enough. I just thought it'd be the courteous thing to offer you some refreshments. I kidnapped you before breakfast, after all."

"What is it that you want me to do anyways? Dance on top of a table and recite a few lines from some movies?" He asked demandingly, gesturing at her table.

That was oddly specific, and rather funny. Mari brightened, her dark eyes dancing humorously. "Oh, could you do that? That'd be very entertaining, although that's not the reason you're here."

"Then why am I here?" He waved his bound arms around.

Mari stared at him for a moment, debating how much to reveal. "Well, I kind of need access to the asteric plane."

He stared back for a good second. "And you couldn't find anyone else."

"You're special!" She smiled, not that he could see it behind the mask. "Take it as a compliment. Not everyone gets to be exposed to my latest chemical creations. Thanks for the extra data, by the way. It's good to know that tolerance for syenic kor-mabide and syenzeu doesn't render one immune from the effects of the compound I used on you."

"Why don't I expose you to enough caffeine to deteriorate your liver and give you a heart attack?" He replied. "Also I held my breath."

"Yes, but unless you're a holding-your-breath professional or had a mask like mine, the gases would've still had somewhat of an effect. Anyways. Back to the asteric plane. You do have a guest pass crystal, yes? There was that time you brought Napa to the asteric plane to show off- I mean, to show him around." Mari had done her research on which ruling family members had guest pass crystals and would be the easiest to kidnap. Ilias had a tendency to make unexplained disappearances every so often, so him being missing wouldn't cause too much concern at first.

"They did have some effect. If they didn't you'd be dead."

Mari narrowed her eyes at him. "Killed by you?" Was it normal for a celebrity to be able to personally kill intruders? She didn't generally follow celebrity gossip, but she wasn't certain about that.

"I'm from a ruling family. It's not surprising to have assassins after me, or kidnappers. I took classes. It is law that I can kill someone if they trespass, and threaten me in my own home." He held his head slightly higher.

"Hmm." That sounded like a threat, and a rather plausible explanation, and yet... Well, she wasn't here to figure out Ilias Ravioli's backstory and hidden talents. "Whatever. I just need to get to the asteric plane."

Ilias rolled his eyes and waved a hand around to the best of his ability. "Yeah, yeah okay. And for what exact reason do you want to get into the asteric plane?"

"Uh. To determine whether the myth of there being blood-sucking unicorns prancing around at the fringes of the asteric plane is true, of course." Mari made her voice sound absolutely serious. Yes, she'd be seen as a kidnapper now, but it'd probably be best not to reveal that she was an assassin as well, aiming for her target on the asteric plane.

"Well, I can tell you right now that is true. I had an encounter with an entire herd. It's not the blood sucking you should be worried about, it's the gas. Also, I'd like to eat that squoba." He nodded his head at the plate, which was still in her hands.

"Noted. But I need to see for myself. And here you go; it has a savory uash sauce on it." She passed the plate to him, then poured a liquid (a mixture of some good ol' khofu, or the element that was an "element-eater", and some other chemicals) over his handcuffs so he could eat. The handcuffs melted away into nothing. He checked his wrists, which looked perfectly fine. Celebrities and their obsession with their appearance. "I'm being polite and giving you the benefit of the doubt, but I have more of that goo, in case you decide to be stupid and try to escape."

He crammed the squoba in his mouth. "Of course I'm going to be stupid. You're not giving me the truth. You don't seem like the kind to go gallivanting off in search for unicorns."

Mari arched an eyebrow. "Oh? You've gotten a full analysis of my personality in the... let's see... whole five minutes we've been talking?"

"No, I've barely done that. You just don't seem very unicorn obsessed, even with your smiley face mask."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, Mr. Ilias I'm-a-therapist-now Ravioli. There's a different reason, but you don't get to know what it is. You've got to reach friendship level five for that. You're at negative one right now, for context. Helping me will get you up to four."

"Please, I'd rather try to fight you for the rest of my life in a never ending battle than become a therapist."

"Aw, that's sweet! I'd get the chance to test more of my creations on you." She made her voice annoyingly chipper.

"Secondly, you don't tell me what's actually going on, I don't give you help. I like to know how I'm going to die."

"No one said anything about dying." Mari tapped a finger on her chin. He was a stubborn one. Good thing her ability to nerd out was similarly stubborn. "But if you insist, I can give you a temporary pass to friendship level five. I'd like to go there for research. You see, the properties of crystals are somehow different in the physical plane and in the asteric plane. Why do crystals charge so much faster in the asteric plane? Does it have to do with their internal structures? The amount of rigidity? How does the freedom of movement of electrons in metals affect the..." She rambled until it was clear that Ilias was tuning her out.

As she was talking, he shifted into a more comfortable position, swinging his still bound legs so that he was sideways in the chair, his knees on the armrest, and his lower back at the other. He then tossed the plate upwards, and caught it as it came back down. Then tossed it up again.

"...And clearly you're not listening. Well. To sum it up, I want to go there for research. Satisfied?"

"... What?" He turned his head, allowing the plate to hit the floor, where it shattered.

Mari winced. "That's a hazard now. I may be the kidnapper, but you're the one who's being a rude guest. Do I need to spell out my reason for you to understand it? R-e-s-e-a-r-c-h."

"That sounds like gibberish, how about you speak in simple peasant language?" He picked up a shard.

Mari groaned in irritation. "Put that shard down. Now, in simple peasant language: science. Me plus asteric plane equals science. Will you take me with the guest pass crystal or not?" "Not" was not an option, of course. She had a job to do and a time limit to do it in.

He continued to test the sharpness of the shard with a finger, looking like he was pondering it. "Fine. As long as I don't have to hop around like an idiot."

"Oh, absolutely." Mari snatched the shard away. Lightness, he was like a child putting dangerous things into their mouth.

"It would raise red flags, don't you think?" He asked, inspecting his finger. It was fine, nothing but a shallow cut.

"I agree. What would also raise red flags is you telling your manager about being kidnapped. I know it's rather rude to make death threats on a first meeting, but I do need to warn you that I have a stronger version of that chemical that I'd love to test out if you make any hint about anything being off."

"You should also know that I do not fear death, and would happily greet him to escape from you."

"Ah. So you find death to be better company than me. That didn't hurt my ego at all."

"Well my ego didn't inflate or deflate so all is well." He picked up another shard.

Mari walked away without a word, then returned with a spray bottle. She gave the shard in his hand a good dousing, then turned the bottle towards the shards on the floor. Wherever the liquid hit the porcelain, it dissolved. Nothing else was affected.

"See? You didn't need to worry about cleaning up. After all, it's just a few squirts."

She rolled her eyes. "I still needed to walk a whole twenty steps to get the spray bottle."

"Please. Vigorous excercise is healthy." He snapped his fingers, and clapped his hands to the rhythm of a song.

Mari ignored him, instead thinking of her mental list of tasks to do. "Hm. Target has been kidnapped, death threat has been made... anything else to check off the list? Nope! Alright, let's go catch an astericplane to the asteric plane." She poured the first liquid over Ilias's legcuffs and dissolved them.

"You did forget the part of throwing me over the balcony into a pool that is conveniently located in the correct spot." He stretched his legs, and then crossed them at the ankles, still chilling.

"Well, we can do that later. Come on, I've gotta blindfold you and then get us to your house to get you some clothes that aren't pajamas as well as the guest pass crystal, and then get to the astericport."

"I'd rather be knocked out with something that doesn't mess up my voice, as I do sing. Plus it's amusing to think of you having to drag or carry me. Also, make sure it's one of your own makings, y'know, for research."

"Tsk tsk, diva." She rolled her eyes. "But I'll do as you wish, because I'm a nice person. More vigorous exercise for me. I'm getting all the health today, huh?"

"Whoo-hoo, getting exercise." He replied, his sarcastic tone returning to him. He closed his eyes.

Mari left and then returned a few moments later with a cup of tea and a bright pink drink. "Tea first, to soothe your throat. Then the other drink, to knock you out without affecting your voice."

"Great, thanks." He opened his eyes then drank the pink drink, then the tea. She bet he'd done it on purpose.

Ilias only made it partly through the tea before blacking out again. The cup dropped from his limp fingers and shattered against the floor, and Mari felt irritation permeate her bones. Dealing with this man was going to be highly inconvenient, wasn't it?

A few minutes and a good arm workout later, Mari was glancing back at Ilias, who was currently snoring rather loudly in the backseat of her car. He clearly had some self-defense capabilities, as the wound along her left upper arm proved. She'd managed to patch up the slash before he came to, though she'd have to change the bandages in a few hours. Mari hoped it wasn't obvious that she was using her right arm for most tasks.

Well, if he tried to say anything, she could "accidentally" trip and drag him down with her. Or "accidentally" push them out a window into a conveniently-located pool, as Ilias had so creatively suggested.

But honestly, she hadn't expected the target to be so... compliant. Sure, he was annoying and ruined her tableware, but he hadn't made any attempts to overpower her and escape. Was he just biding his time?

She pulled into street parking in front of his house and turned off the engine. Mari poked her head into the backseat and waved some salts underneath Ilias's nose, then tossed a makeup kit at him. "Cover those scars, yeah?" She'd adopted a cover as well; Mari was wearing a long-sleeved blouse and slacks, and had temporarily dyed her hair to be chestnut brown instead of its usual inky black. That combined with some skillfully-applied makeup should make her look different enough to not be recognized easily.

He still looked drowsy, but tossed the kit back at her. "I have my own stuff in my home."

She caught it. "Alright then." Mari got out of the car and opened the door for Ilias.

He stumbled out grumbling. "Whatever you gave me gave me a headache."

"Look on the bright side! Your voice sounds better!" She bounded up the walkway to his front door.

"Yes, it hurts to sing with a headache so I'll just say sarcastic quips very sarcastically when I get the change to bludgeon your skull in." He replied sarcastically, opening the door, which had been unlocked. Which meant she didn't have to shatter glass; she could have just walked into the front door. Eh, everything was clearer in hindsight.

"That's a security risk. Don't you have crazy fans who'd sneak into your house or something?" Mari looked around. "Oh, well, you have a security camera at least. So you can catch people after the crime."

"I got home late and honestly didn't care enough, as at that moment I was suffering from being hungover from the party before. It was an excellent party though." He replied, restoring power to his building.

"Ah, classic celebrity move-" Mari paused. "Why is there a wolf in your living room?" There was a life-size silver snarling wolf statue in the room. Shards of glass were still scattered around its feet.

"Well I once had a friend who liked stealing traffic cones on every trip we went, so one of them I found a silver wolf statue and that beat all his traffic cones. Now if you don't mind, I'll privately be in my room doing celebrity guy going to the asteric realm with his two-time removed second cousin stuff."

A silver wolf statue beating a traffic cone collection. Because of course. "Oh, is that my cover? I'm your second cousin twice-removed?" She wondered if she could take advantage of being related to a celebrity in the future, and then she remembered that she'd kidnapped him and he'd probably call the cops on her as soon as they parted ways and her threats became ineffectual.

But he was already gone, the door shutting. Mari shrugged, took out a bottle and sprayed the shards of glass on the floor, then walked around. Might as well snoop a little. She passed by the wolf statue, then backtracked. Hold on a second. A silver wolf... There was no way she was that lucky. She'd chosen Ilias because his frequent disappearances meant a kidnapping for a few hours would raise less suspicion than someone else of ruling-family blood disappearing for a while, but if he was related to him... No, she couldn't assume. She needed proof.

Mari scanned the room, noting the hallways that branched out. She padded down one hallway and poked her head into the first room she saw. Looked like a guest room. She looked into the next one. Musical instruments. Then Mari doubled back and knocked on the door of Ilias's room, just to make sure he wasn't trying to escape. Couldn't hurt to stay alert and careful.

< Prologue                  ~◇~                   Chapter 2 >