awesmazings | ;Ic Inbox

"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'."

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