awesmazings | ;Ic Inbox

Maurice had been out of his box for maybe two hours tops just staggering around, trying not to pass out again, and also attempting to look busy. He noticed that the cast on his arm was gone, small miracle it was, and just...hated how much he huffed and puffed when he was afraid.

He wondered if he would have done that all throughout his vampireness if he'd needed to breathe then.

But even with the pain in his chest and the grit on his clothes it was so hard not to feel like he was stumbling through a dream. He stood face to face with a telephone pole trying to pin the flyer for the carnival to it, forcing his thumb against the old brass tacks. He thought of Butters and his coin and nail trick. That was so smart. But if someone that smart could get snatched up, what hope did he have?

Jimmy had been prowling the streets for some time, trying to visit the carnival as much as he could while it was around while getting some fresh air at the same time (and also keep his mind off the gnawing hunger he couldn't quite appease), when he notices someone unfamiliar putting up some fliers nearby. It piques his curiosity, prompting him to walk over to where Maurice is with his claws clicking against the sidewalk.

"Hiya!" Jimmy chirps, a little squeak of an actual chirp on the end of his tone coming out naturally. "Do you need some help?"

Maurice stared, dead-eyed, at the flyer. No state or country information. It was so weird. You were supposed to have a hard time reading in dreams, right? He hadn't thought to find a clock. Or stumble around yelling HELP POLICE. He'd just...followed orders. That was what he was good at.

When Jimmy interrupted his self-pity party, Maurice shook himself and turned around. HE TOTALLY WASN'T CRYING.

But if he wasn't before, he just might now because what in the good goddamn is that? At first the thing that spoke to him looked like one of those pet cheetahs fancy ladies in magazines had but it...was talking to him. And it had people hair. And had almost-wings. Maurice dropped the tacks and flyers he was holding and backed away.

"Uh--uh! Nice kitty! Good boy! Shoo! Please!" He made a feeble waving motion and started to feel light-headed again. Sure he had been a monster mere HOURS ago but...nothing like this! And not out in broad daylight!

Maurice's fear startles Jimmy somewhat, causing him to take a step back and tuck his wings against his back, thinking maybe those might have freaked him out. They freak him out most days, honestly...

He raises a brow and tilts his head at Maurice, lifting a claw to scratch the furred side of his face. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to scare you! I'm not gonna hurt you or nothin', if that's what you're worried about. You must be one of the new folks here, right?"

You are correct, Jimmy.

Maurice was not entirely convinced that Jimmy wasn't going to leap on him and tear out his throat with his teeth. He kept backing away but what the cheetah monster said caught his attention.

"New folks? Do you--do you know about why I was shoved in that box? Why all of us--what are you! An d where is THIS! WHERE IS AMERICA?"

"Ah....merica?"

The cat boy echoes, his ears flicking forward and then back as he tries to come up with meaning for the word. "I...I dunno where America is, but it's nowhere around here, at least not that I know of. And that's terrible, who would go around shoving people into boxes?"

Who would go around burying them underground, Jimmy?

"I don't know!" Jimmy's ignorance of the situation only made Maurice panic more. At least now he was more upset about where he was and what happened to him than the cheetah boy in front of him. He dragged his hands down his face and mumbled a few unintelligible things into them.

After a few deep breaths, his hands fell limp by his sides. "Me and this other dude...and a bunch of other dudes were all crammed in these crates full of junk and those gross orange circus peanuts and then we got yelled at because we weren't putting the carnival together and the last thing I remember is leaving a Wendy's and now I'm talking to a Thundercat. I need a drink."

"Oh..." Yikes. That...does sound like a lot. But Jimmy isn't one to ever leave someone in need of help, and Maurice obviously needs it.

"Well...I know of some places in Bavan where you could get something to drink, if that'd help? And I'm not a Thundercat- I'm Jimmy! Jimmy Two-Shoes!" And he's definitely here to help and not eat you, Maurice.

"That'd...yeah. That'd help a lot."

YOU KNOW WHAT? YOU KNOW FUCKING WHAT? HE'S JUST GONNA. ACCEPT THIS THUNDERCAT BOY. After everything else that's happened to him today (in his perspective, today is also part of last night), this is the least bad thing.

"Thanks. Uh, Jimmy." He couldn't help but stare at Jimmy's face as he spoke. The way the muzzle made those perfect human words, the way he could still read a human expression on his face. It was...kinda cool. Terrifying. But cool. "I'm Maurice and I've had a really long day."

Sometimes you just have to accept what life throws at you, Maurice. You'll be kept a lot saner that way.

"It's nice to meet'cha, Maurice! I'm sorry if I scared you...I know there's a lot of stuff goin' on here, but it doesn't take too long to start gettin' used to it. I guess I am cause I'm from a place with lots of monsters living there anyway."

"It's okay..." Maurice rubbed one of his arms and made a face. Some of the horrible orange peanut residue was still stuck on his fingers. Jimmy's words troubled him though. "What'dya mean getting used to it? Haha, I'm not stayin', dude. I gotta get home soon as I get my nerves under control. About that drink...?"

"Uhh..." Jimmy starts, unsure of how exactly to tell Maurice that he's been here a few months now, not only a day. And he's not even from here.

But being the soft boy that he is, Jimmy just nods and gestures for Maurice to follow. "It's- there's a lot of places up and down the street this way!"

"Oh thank God."

Maurice fell into step behind Jimmy, careful not to step on that long banded tail. His eyes strayed from his guide occasionally to the streets. This place was so...so werid! If his thumb didn't hurt so bad he could have sworn he was still dreaming.

"Hey, uh, if it's not a weird thing to ask...what are you? And how come you're not afraid of like...the FBI poppin out from behind that dumpster and locking you up?"

"Oh- s'not weird, don't worry. I'm a Manticore, but I didn't used to be," Jimmy explains, his ears flicking forward as they walk. His footsteps are silent thanks to his padded feet, though sometimes he wishes he could still wear shoes.

"I started changing into one when I got here...first my teeth, then the fur...that kinda stuff. It's the same with most everybody who shows up in this place. And all the people living here are just used to it, I guess!"

"Ooooh, okay, well that makes se--wait what?"

Maurice had almost been lulled into calmness by the promise of beer. He stopped walking.

"No. That can't--no! I just--I just turned back."

"Huh?"

Jimmy looks over to Maurice, eyes wide in that cat-like way a cat gets when they see something that's interested them. Big and round and curious.

"Whaddaya mean, you just turned back? Were you somethin' else before?"

Maurice started to run his fingers anxiously through his hair.

"I was--I was a vampire!" He didn't feel too weird blurting it out in front of a cat monster. "It was awful! People were hunting me and my friends down and got stabbed a bunch and it was this huge secret because if it ever got out that we were real the whole world would--I don't even know! And then I wake up in this BOX with another dude! And I'm alive again!"

The ex-pire was shaking, staring at Jimmy looking close to tears and listening to his pulse roar in his ears. He didn't want that to go away again! Not already!

"What HAPPENED to me? What happened to YOU!"

"W-woah, hey! It's okay, Maurice!"

Jimmy's wings flare a little when Maurice begins to tremble, his paws coming up as a gesture of both defense and a placating one. Or an attempt at one, anyway.

"I wish I could tell you what's going on, but I really dunno...nobody here seems to really know. All I know is that the Fog God brought us here, to help us. She has her reasons for it, and...well, being a monster here really isn't so bad, so long as you're in a place like Bavan here."

Jimmy's human-whispering abilities proved somewhat successful. Maurice didn't start crying or pulling his hair out but he was still pretty Upset.

"Fog God? There's no Fog God!" Maybe if he yelled it, that would make it so. He'd had shaky enough faith in his own god back home and he wasn't sure he was ready to learn about ANOTHER one. "How is this helping anybody!"

If he were to stay human he could get behind that...but if Jimmy said was true, that his humanity was going to be short lived, it was like his older brothers holding a toy over his head all over again.

Jimmy's ears fall back, his expression turning sympathetic. Maurice is just one in the long line of many others who just really can't understand what's happening to them, or why. Jimmy's used to the weird and wacky, so even though the human eating is the absolute worst, he's been relatively okay getting used to everything else.

"Hooow about we just...focus on getting you something to drink first, okay?"

Maurice opened his mouth to further his argument, but Jimmy spoke good common sense. Maurice sighed and nodded, falling into step again after the gangly manticore. In fact, he kept his mouth shut until they stopped at a Designated Forgetting Establishment because boy howdy did he want to forget today.

"If I pass out in this world maybe I'll wake back up in my own."

Hopefully Maurice has an idea of what he wants, because Jimmy's quite too young to drink. Not that a lot of people in this town care about that too much, but Jimmy doesn't really go into bars much anyway. It's open to the street, so Jimmy is perfectly content with jumping up into a tree just by the entrance so he can still talk to Maurice when he goes inside.

"That'd be pretty cool if you did, wouldn't it?"

Maurice paused with his foot in the door to look up at Jimmy.

"...Yeah. It would."

The tiniest edge had appeared in his voice. He didn't come out for several minutes because the bar owner had to count out his bullshit Otherworld money and deem it convertible. Eventually, Maurice came back out with two simple brown bottles in his hands and sat down at the base of the tree.

He struggled with the cap, kicking himself for not utilizing the bottle opener afixed to the end of the counter inside but eventually managed to pry it off, winning himself a cut on one hand.

"But you don't bleed in dreams..." Maurice murmured as he watched the red seep into the creases of his palm. It was warm. He was alive. "How long have you been here?"

Jimmy watches Maurice silently, his tail flicking from side to side as he flops down on his front across the branch.

"Umm...s'been a couple months. I kinda lost track when I started changing."

He feels a little bad about that, actually...and he wonders how his friends are doing back home.

After staring at his cut a little longer he finally wiped his hand off on his shirt and brought the bottle to his lips. Months. Thaaaat didn't sound good.

"If you wasn't brought here in a box, how'd you get here? I mean...we both speak English so are we in Europe or what?"

Jimmy shakes his head, resting his head atop his paws.

"Well...I was underground when I woke up here. A bunch of us were trapped with a lot of bones n'junk. It took three days for other people to get us out. I'm not from Europe, or Japan, or Earth I guess. I'm from Miseryville."

Maurice tipped his head back so that he could look up at Jimmy. For a little while, he didn't say anything. And then he said,

"It's okay, dude, you can say New Jersey. I won't judge you."

Jimmy's ears perk, and he blinks slowly a time or two.

"What's New Jersey?"

Maurice's expression blanked like a broken window.

"You know what? Nevermind. Thanks for leadin' a horse to water."

He slumped against the tree and drained the bottle in one desperate gulp before prying open the other one. The ex-pire was good and quiet after that for a good while--almost long enough to suggest that he was done with this interaction. But finally he piped up again, not drunk but buzzed enough to stop worrying for the moment. He was alive. His soul, as far as he knew, was whole again. And, on top of that, he'd made a buddy!

"What should I do...?"

One of Jimmy's ears flicks forward when Maurice talks again. He'd been starting to doze a little in that tree up there, and now he peers down at Maurice again with a small frown.

"...ya think you'll be okay finding someplace to stay? That was kindof a problem I had when I got here...I was moving around a lot for a while."

Maurice tensed up again.

"Aw hell..." He just spent every penny he brought with him on the two beers. With a groan, he dragged a hand down his face. He wasn't going to be able to afford any kind of hotel...he didn't even have anything to give a random kindly soul. "If...if people like you and me showing up are kinda...kinda a thing, are folks willin to take yardwork for rent?"

"There's plenty of people here in Bavan that probably wouldn't mind! They like monsters here." He can't promise Maurice will be able to stay once he's started changing, but...he's got a good few weeks before that starts happening.

"Oh. Huh. Okay, cool, cool. And thanks again for, I don't know...keeping me from running into traffic or something. It's been a long day."

Maurice rubbed his face again. He'd go poking around for a flophouse later that afternoon.

"If they like monsters here...is there somewhere they don't like monsters?"

Jimmy rolls over to lay on his back on the branch, mulling over that.

"I haven't been there a whole ton, but people tell me to watch out for Vandare. It's not as...safe, I guess? I think I'd be alright since I'm faster than any human wanting to do somethin'."

;Ic Inbox

[Action]

...I really should update Jimmy's inbox info smh

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I made the worst noise

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WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, CHARACTER NAME/ALIAS. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 018.07.154.55 * JIMMY TWO-SHOES has joined 018.07.154.55 <TWO-SHOES> blake wuz here chis a nerd <TWO-SHOES> First sentence of message. <TWO-SHOES>** First sentence of message.