Books And Covers Thereof (1.19)

Anilin: Somethin' shark-y, duh.

Kitty: Tiger. 

“Do I look all right?”


“You look fine, Kitty! Your dress is pretty!”


“It’s a variety of qipao, also known as a cheongsam, in particular a somewhat westernized variety popular before the apocalypse, around the years-”


“Pretty!”


“I thought about a kimono, you know, but it didn’t seem quite right I suppose.”


“You look fine! Is the tiger on it traditional too, or-”


“No, that’s just clan pride.”


“Ooh, like the mask.”


“Yeah. And it’s, you know, identity concealing”


Kitty looks herself over in the women’s bathroom mirror. It was just as she said; a short, dark blue qipao ending just past her thighs with a rather aggressive looking tiger on it, Long black stockings. High heeled tiger striped pumps. And, of course, a little tiger mask covering the top of Kitty’s face. She thought it was cute.


“So, uh, Annie,” she says, re-applying her lipstick in the mirror. “What’d you go with?”


“Oh, I just decided to go for a sort of magical girl manga thing.”


“...Really? I figured you were going to go, I dunno, sexy witch or something.”


“Eh!”


“Where’s Rhoda, by the way?”


“I tried to bring her along, but she freaked out a little too much at the last minute.”


“Oh.”

“I’m not looking forward to all the apologizing when I get home. It’ll be all night long, too. Maybe I should just stay overnight or something, eh?”


“Heh.”


“But then they’d probably think you’d kidnapped me or something.”


“Yeah. ...Where are you, anyway?” Kitty turns around to look at Annie, and stares straight into a shark mouth presently devouring Annie’s head from behind.


“YAAAAAAAAAH!”

*     *     *

Kiplin was staring at the sky outside the the garage when she felt a tap on her shoulder.


“I did something stupid,” says Mindy.


“Cool.”


“Let’s go before someone finds out.”


“What was it?”


“It’s between me and Dante.”


“Uh...huh.”


“Let’s hurry.”


“...Okay.”

*     *     *

“Why’d you scream, Kitty? Is my outfit that bad?” Annie frowns, visibly hurt and not by the two massive jaws encompassing her head.


“No, no, it’s...It’s great! You absolutely look like an old world Japanese school girl with a short skirt. Only,” Kitty adds quickly. “Why the Shark head?”


“Shark pride!”


“Okay, right, um...Okay. It just looks like something’s biting your head off.”


Annie shrugs and slams the jaws down. “Now I’m an anthropomorphic shark magical Japanese school girl from old world Europe!”


The door opens, and Pamela walks in. “Dames, we’ve got a-Ahh!”


“Hi Pam!”


“...Hello, Annie. Ahem,” Pamela readjusts her hat. “I was just gonna say, we have a problem. Well, good news and a problem. The good news is the fella’s woken up in the other bathroom. He’s not saying much, but he looks okay. The french dame’s busy feeding him food from the bar and water right now. He doesn’t seem to have any useful information related to Dante. Only...I think he’s a vigilante.”


“Why was he being chased by a police robot?”


“I questioned him for a little bit, but he didn’t say much. He must have pissed off someone in charge with his antics, though. I’m not even sure he has a home anywhere. Someone’s going to have to put him up for a while.”


Kitty squints at this, studying Pamela’s face closely.


“...You want me to put him up for a while.”


“You have a lot of unused space in the upper rooms, you know. And he seems like a nice guy. I can’t put him up, I live in the Dragon district. And you could use the extra help.”


“I don’t know, Pamela...”


“I’ll talk about it with Lady.”


Kitty sighs and shrugs. “Whatever.”


“Now, the bad news-”


“There’s more?”


“The bartender has an invitation, but she doesn’t want to give it up.”


“What? Why?”


“I have no idea. She’s just...Being a pain! But I have a plan. It requires you.”


Kitty sighs heavily. “All right, what is it?”


“I need you to talk to her. She seems to like you. Either convince her to give up the invitation, find out where the invitation is, or...Ahem.”


“What?”


“Or, you know, romance her a little.”


Kitty’s cheeks go red. Annie, surprisingly, laughs.


“Just as long as I can watch,” she says. Kitty turns and glares at her. “What?”


“However you want to do it,” says Pamela. “I don’t think we’re going to get it any other way.”


“Yeah, okay, fine. Fine! Fine. Annie, take care of Pamela’s costume, will you?”


“Aye aye, captain!” Annie salutes Kitty, her face scrunched up seriously. Kitty smiles a little at it and opens the door, walking out.


As Pamela said, the man is indeed up and about, presently sitting in one of the comfortable leather booths in the corner while the French woman attends to and sweet talks him. Kitty is in no way hurt by this shift in attention.


She takes a deep breath and strides up to the bartender.

How will Kitty handle this?