Books And Covers Thereof (1.23)

Kitty decides to follow Kiplin into the room, rubbing her arm nervously as she does so.  Annie, of course, quickly follows, as does Mindy.

Haruka and Diana follow in behind, blocking the exit from the room.  Kitty turns and looks at them, gulping.

“Don’t worry,” whispers Mindy.  It’s not comforting.

The room is dark.  A flat screen television hangs on a corner wall, presently featuring a news reporter prattering on at about insipid, repetitive romantic gossip pertaining to Annie’s parents’ harems’.  At the end of the room is what Kitty suspects is a one-way mirror overlooking the ballroom’s floor.

On a couch overlooking this floor, the figure of a man - Kitty’s pretty sure it’s a man, anyway, from earlier comments - sits, a bottle of an alcoholic beverage clutched in his hand.  The top of his head is outlined by a small mask that appears to represent the upper half of a green lizard snout.  A thick but well-maintained mass of black hair hair flows down to his shoulders.  The lower half of his face is clean-shaved, his light olive skin covered in understated but slightly pale makeup, common among the upper class males of the city.  Kitty spots a light shade of lipstick on his mouth.

His head turns to Kiplin, then the rest.  He sits, up, looking around.  His eyes meet Mindy’s, and he sighs.  “Hello, Mindy.”  His voice is tired, unenthusiastic.

“Heeeeeeey, Dante!” says Mindy, waving, her orange nails and lipstick glowing slightly in the darkness.  “I see we came in the same costume.”

There’s another sigh.  Dante glances at each of the girls in turn.

“Annie, hello,” he says abruptly.  Annie opens her mouth, and shuts it, looking at Kitty with confusion.

“Did you know him?”

“No...” says Annie underneath the shark mask, clearly trying to force herself to remember.

“You probably don’t remember me, but I’d know you anywhere.  How are you?”

“Um...Good.”

“Life treating you well?”

“Um...”

Dante suddenly reaches out, takes Annie’s hand, and gently pats it.  “I know we didn’t know each other well, but I am sorry about your loss.  It must be hard on your brothers and parents.  I wish I could have been there to commiserate, but alas...”

“I...Um...Um...” Annie’s voice suddenly drops to a tone with which Kitty is unaccustomed.  It’s shaky and unconfident.  She awkwardly twists her hand out of his grip, taking a step back and rubbing her arm.  Kitty hears a quiet sniffling.

“Annie’s, what’s...”  Kitty begins, but she’s interrupted as Annie suddenly slaps open the shark mask.

“It’s all right,” she pleads.  “Nothing you need to worry about.”

“Did something happen?  I...”

“It was a really long time ago, okay?  It’s not important!  I don’t even know why he would know or care.”

“Annie...”

“Sorry, just wanted to say it, didn’t know if I’d get another chance,” interrupts Dante.  “And you’re...” Dante shuts his eyes, snapping his fingers a few times.  “Ah, yes!  The Librarian.  Your sister is a lovely woman, by the way.  I’m not her type, of course, but still.  Very genuine.  A little cranky.  Don’t get the names, though.”

“Er, my mother and grandmother were both really uninventive with names...Um.  Speaking of, the reason why I’m here...”

“And who are you?” Dante asks, turning to Officer Kiplin.

Kiplin abruptly sticks an arm out.  “Officer Aoife Kiplin, Lord Ilucis.”

“Aoife, eh?  That’s a good name, if a bit unusual.”  He shakes her hand with both of his.  There’s a definite difference in hand sizes.

“It’s Irish, lad.”

“Ah, of course.  I’m sorry if I seem a little subdued, it’s been a long day and I...”  Dante looks back at Diana and Haruka, and shrugs.  “Was not expecting company.”

“We figured,” says Kitty.

“What did you need to talk to me about?”

“Erm...”  Kitty clears her throat.  “You have an overdue library book,” she says, quickly.  “Two weeks ago, you checked out a book called the Zoinomicon, and, um...I would...Appreciate it if you would...Return it...Immediately...”

“...Zoinomicon, Zoinomicon...Hm...I don’t recall heading down to the library two weeks ago.”  he taps his chin.  “Hmm...Don’t even recall the last time I went to the library...I have quite a large collection of my own...Hmm...No, I’m afraid I don’t remember checking out a book from the Library.”

“But,” insists Kitty, wishing Pamela was here.  “You, um...You...THere’s a record,” pleads Kitty.  “It’s written down.  It says you...Checked it out...”

Dante watches Kitty for a moment.  He sighs.  “Floor 12 by the VIP elevator.  It’ll take you right to my private room.  Feel free to take a look around, but go alone, and try to put everything back where you found it, okay?  And don’t tell anyone.  It’s probably in my room up the stairs, if it’s anywhere.  Three floors down and on the left.”

“Can’t I go with her?” asks Annie.

“No, I’d rather not.  Sorry.”

“I’ll be fine, Annie,” says Kitty quickly.  “It’s just a hotel room.”

“Can I g-” begins Mindy.

“Absolutely not.”

***

Kitty steps out of the elevator into a dark room, dark shapes illuminated only by the window to the blue sky outside. She can see couches, chairs, a television, lamps...She turns and flips the light on.

She looks out at the room.

She flips the lights off.

“Okay, Kitty, you probably just imagined it...” she murmurs.

She turns the light on again.

She looks around at the massive, lovingly decorated, and presently strangely trashed apartment.  Pictures frames lay broken on the floor.  Chairs have been overturned.  The only area that appears to be relatively untouched are a set of stairs in back, leading up to the second floor.  ...Or perhaps technically Floor 13..

Someone has written MOTHER LOVES YOU in big, red (hopefully just painted!) letters on the side wall.

The elevator door shuts behind Kitty, and she listens with mounting horror as the elevator leaves, moving to another floor far away.

There are stairs in the corner.

There is pretty much no other choice, well, aside from hiding in the bathroom.

Kitty moves up the stairs.  The upper floor, Kitty quickly realizes, probably didn’t always belong to Dante.  it appears to be a normal hotel hallway converted into a single massive apartment.

She opens the third door and walks into...a small but very comfortable looking apartment, which she quickly realizes is now a large bedroom.  A big, comfy looking, luxurious bed dominates the room.  There’s...A medium sized bathroom, small kitchen, and small living room off of side doors.  This is really too much for anyone.

Nevertheless, Kitty begins to move about the room, trying to hide her terror and looking through the drawers.  No books...She keeps finding underwear and other clothes, some of them...Obviously belonging to women, Kitty assumes, unless Dante has decided to wear bras.

Something on the top of the drawer catches her eyes.  She looks up.

There are two picture frames standing up.  One picture features...The bartender that took an interest in Kitty earlier, standing next to a short, pale woman wearing a police form.  Her facial features are very similar to the bartender’s and her hair appears to be tied up in a bun behind her.  Neither one of them looks particularly happy to have the photo taken.

The second, though...Kitty doesn’t recognize them.  Two identical twins, strawberry blonde hair, one arm around each other.  One of them looks extremely happy and cheerful, and the other...Still looks happy, but more subdued.  They...look like Annie, around the face and skin tone, though they both clearly haven’t tanned as much.  They appear to be teenagers.

And right next to that is a ring on a ring holder.  Curious, Kitty picks it up and looks at it closely.

The ring looks like red and white serpents, entwined with one another, biting their own tails.  A marriage ring of the Dragon tribe, symbolizing the union of two families.

A ring Kitty has seen before.

“Told you not to trust her, mon ami.”

Kitty twists around.

There’s the French woman, sitting on the bed, cross legged.  She’s taken off the skull mask, which is presently lying on the bed.  She smiles warmly.

“Um...No, you just said she was crazy,” says Kitty.

“Did I?  Oh, well.  You shouldn’t trust her.  Crazy, though.  Everyone’s pretty crazy.”

“I’m definitely...Very confused.  In a number of ways.  Erm.”  Kitty gulps, shakily putting the ring back down.  “Errr...”

“You look tired.”

“I do?”  says Kitty, backing up and glancing towards the door on the other side of the room.

“You should rest.”

“I, um...I don’t feel like resting.  I...”  Kitty glances at the door again.  “I should go.  And keep looking.”

The woman smiles again.

“Sleep.”

Kitty couldn't remember anything after that.

Books And Covers Thereof (1.22)

“Maybe you could bore him with in-depth literary analysis?” whispers Annie.

“What?  But that's not boring.”

“I know, I know!  But there’s a lot of people who disagree.”

“Fine.  Sir?” says Kitty, raising her voice.  “Do you like books?”

The thug considers this.  “I love books.”

“Damn!” Annie hisses.

“Ah, good, good...Uh...”

“Hold on, Kitty,” whispers Annie, pulling her back.  “Let me try something.  I’m going to use my feminine willies.”

“Wiles.”

“Willies.”

“It’s pronounced wiles!”

“That’s a stupid way to pronounce it.”

“No it isn’t!”

“This isn’t going to work, you know,” says Mindy.

“Says you.”

Annie clears her throat, adjusts herself, and sways exaggeratedly over to the thug.  She plays a hand against the wall and speaks in an incredibly deep voice.

“HELLO!” she says seductively.

The rest of the group just kind of stares.

“Is that where you learned seduction from?” asks the French woman, who Kitty realizes still hasn’t told her her name.

“...Yes.”

“I can’t imagine how you could have messed up with the bartender, then.”

“Shut up, miss Grabbyhands Mcspaceinvasion.”

The thug has mostly failed to respond.

“YOU LOOK, ahem, you look real tired.  Why don’t you and I go some place and-”

“I’m gay,” says the thug.

Annie continues smiling.

“What a coincidence!  So am I!  We’ll have so much to,”she drops into her seductive voice again.  “TALK ABOUT.”

The thug’s mouth twitches.  “Ma’am, I did not mean happy and enthusiastic.”

“I’ll make you so gay.  I am filled with gaiety.”

“Ma’am, I like guys.”

“Guys are boring.  Try girls!  I do!”

The thugs eyes are wide and incredulous.

“...So you’re a lesbian.”

“Yep!”

“Trying to seduce a gay man?”

“How am I doing?”

“Marry me,” he says dryly.

“My goodness, this is all moving so fast, I-”  Kitty grabs Anilin’s arm and pulls her back.

“That’ll do, Annie.”

“I told you,” says Mindy.

“Anyone else have any good ideas?”

“I do,” says Officer Kiplin.  She walks up to the thug.

“Official police business,” says Kiplin.  “Let us in.”

The thug smirks.  “That’s funny, ‘cause I’m guarding this door on official Ilucis business.  Guess which one I care about?”

The thug stares at Kiplin.

Kiplin watches the thug thoughtfully, through the helmet.

“Back o-” says the thug, interrupted by a helmet to the face.

The thug’s mouth shuts.

He stares at Kiplin.

He opens his mouth to make a smart comment, and promptly collapses onto the floor.

***

Pamela walks into the ballroom looking around through her mask.

“Where’d those dames go?  I should’ve made them promise to meet me somewhere...”  She sighs, putting her hands in her pockets and looking around.

“Pam?”  says a familiar voice.  “Pamela, is that you?”  Heels clack against the floor, rapidly approaching Pamela with all the predatory skill of a...

Pamela turns on her heel.

She looks into extremely familiar eyes.

“Oh, no.”

***

“...Did you kill him?”

“Nah, he’s still breathin’.”

“He almost looks peaceful,” says the French woman.

Kiplin steps over the body, walking straight into the VIP room.  The French woman follows.  Mindy does too, but kneels down and pats the top of the thug’s head.  “Sorry.  Though that was pretty funny,” she says, before following.  Annie follows too, but Kitty pauses at the body.

“I am so, so, so sorry.  Um...”  she takes out a notepad and scribbles down a long-winded apology and some notes she once read on how to treat a concussion.  And a broken nose. She gently rolls him over.  “...Oh god I hope you don’t die I am so sorry about-”

“Kitty!”

“Coming!”  Kitty gets up and hops over the poor fellow, walking into the VIP room after them.  The group has stopped in front of a small side room overlooking the ballroom floor through glass.

Inside a figure sits in shadow, sipping from a glass.  He seems mostly unaware of the intrusion.  Unfortunately for the group, the rest of the occupants of the VIP room disagree, surrounding them.

Somewhat more surprisingly, they appear to be four young women.  All of them share vivid green eyes and pale skin, their faces both beautiful and yet too symmetric, subtly off.  Two of them, one black haired and the other blonde, are wearing french maid outfits, though - mercifully, Kitty reflects - they are at least mostly covered.  The third, a short haired, more teenage-looking redhead, appears to have recently walked out of a Victorian novel judging from that long black dress and boots.  The fourth one has vivid blue hair, a hairstyle not particularly common in this particular reality.

“Hello,”  says the black haired maid, cheerfully.

The group collectively murmurs out a series of indistinct and uncomfortable greetings.

The maid turns her attention to Mindy.  “Hey, Mindy.”

“Hi, Mindy,” says the blonde maid.

“Mindy,” says the redhead.

“(Fornicate your life with a spoon,) Mindy,” says the blue haired one.  Kitty gasps in horror.

“Thank you, Haruka!”

“(You don’t even know what I’m saying, idiot.  You are a cucumber!  Half off diseased foodstuffs.)”

“(I speak it too, you know,)” says Kitty, suddenly.

“(Fuck),” says Haruka the Blue Haired.

“Why are you here?” says Red Hair.

“We’ve come to see the wizard,” says Annie.

“...The wizard?” asks Blonde Hair.

“Yes, the wonderful wizard of Oz.”

“...What?” asks Red Hair.

“Sorry, she’s always wanted to say that.  Um, we’re not actually looking for a wizard,” says Kitty.

“Or are we?”

“We are not, Annie.  We’re looking for-”

“Father,” interrupts Mindy.

“Ah, of course,” says Red Hair.  “I thought so.”

“Wait, they’re all Dante’s robots?”  Kitty gasps.

“We are our Father’s children,” says Blonde Hair, failing to reassure anyone that this isn’t creepy.

“But you’re so...human.”

“We’re a different line from our Brothers.  Far more expensive and complicated,” says Blonde Hair.

Kiplin yawns, bored.  The French woman remains quiet.

“I am the First, Diana,” says Red Hair.  “My sisters were all built from my initial design.”

“The rest of us were built on commission to wealthy patrons, but were all returned or rejected.   I was the Second, Fiona.”  Blonde Hair curtsies.

“I am Maria,” says Black Hair, “And my owner didn’t want me.”

“...So what’s up with th’ blue haired lass?”  asks Kiplin.

“I was commissioned by a weeaboo,” says Haruka.

“...Oh.”

“So...Can we meet him?” asks Kitty, hesitantly.

“Father doesn’t want to be disturbed.  He is thinking.”

Mindy clears her throat, stepping forward.  “Really?  He’s too preoccupied for a small horde of attractive fan girls?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, right.  I know Dante, he’s not exactly going to mind.”

“He is busy,” insists Diana.

Kiplin begins to walk forward, pushing her way past Diana.

“You cannot go in there,” insists Diana, getting around in front of her.

Kiplin pushes her aside again.

Diana walks in front again.

Kiplin pushes her aside.

“Um,” says Kitty, as the other androids move in on Kiplin.  “Incidentally I believe the room’s guard needs medical attention.”

“He’s hurt?” says Maria, a certain amount of uncertainty even through her slight monotone.

“Yes. He’s unconscious.  I think he got hit in the head.”

Maria suddenly rushes out of the room.  Fiona follows.  “Maria, wait!”

Mindy turns and whispers to Kitty:  “That elevator will take us right to Dante’s penthouse.  Just say the word and we can try and take it.”

There are now only two obstacles: Diana and Haruka.

Kitty has a few choices here.  She can either attempt to follow Kiplin into meet Dante, or she can try to get into the elevator and bypass him entirely.   Either way, she’ll have to get past Haruka and Diana, whether or not she take her friends.

What will she do?

Books and Covers Thereof (1.21)

Kitty looks at the invitation.

Kitty looks at the bartender.

Kitty looks at the nearby invitation.

Kitty looks at the sultry bartender.

Kitty looks at the important invitation.

Kitty looks at the vamping bartender.

Kitty looks at the very-easily grabbed invitation

Kitty looks at the seductive bartender.

Kitty looks at the seductive invitation.

Kitty looks at the very-easily grabbed bartender.

Kitty soon finds herself fleeing out of the bar entirely.  In one hand is the invitation.  In the other is Annie’s hand, which Kitty figures she must have blindly grabbed at some point shortly after running out of the bartender’s office screaming.

They pass Mindy and Kiplin on the way.

“GETINTOTHECARNOW!” shouts Kitty, running around it, opening the back door, and jumping in.  Annie follows after sliding in as far as she can go.

Mindy and Kiplin slide in after.  Unfortunately they climb into the backseat, necessitating Annie to move to sitting on top of Kitty’s lap, causing Kitty to lose most of the feeling in her legs.

“What’s happening?” asks Mindy, as she and Kiplin calmly buckle up.

Kitty glances out the window, watching impatiently as Pamela hobbles along with the french woman and the man behind her, carrying an assortment of costumes in their arms.  They pile the costumes into the trunk before entering the car.  Kitty is not entirely surprised to see the woman sit on the man’s lap in the passenger seat.

“I panicked!”

“Eh?”

“I tried to seduce the bartender for the invitation but I panicked and grabbed it and I ran and she’s a very scary attractive lady who does knife tricks and she’ll probably throw a knife right into my eye and then I’ll be blind and dead!”

Pamela sighs, starting the car.  “I’m sure she won’t.  She seemed more lonely than violent.”  Pamela begins to calmly drive the car, taking a turn down a side street.  “I’m sure you can apologize to her and explain everything later.”

“Um.”

“Anyway, I’m making a quick detour.  We’ll drop...What’s your name again, fella?”

“Antonio,” says the man.

“...Really?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t seem like an Antonio.”

“Well, I am.”

“Well, Tony-”

“Antonio.”

“Tony.  Since you’re on the lam, we’ll drop you off at my detective company.  It’s probably the safest place for you to hide until we return.”

Tony glances back at Kiplin.  She grins at him with cracke lips.  “Don’t worry, I am incredibly incompetent.”

“...Sure.”

The car pulls up to a little two story building in a back alley.  The only indication that it’s anything special is a sign outside reading “AZALEA DETECTIVE AGENCY”.

Someone has added, in a note attached to the sign between AZALEA and DETECTIVE, “And Daughter”.

At the end of daughter, in small paper note attached to that, someone has added an S to the end of Daughter.

“Daughters?  When did that happen?”

“We’ll talk about it some other time, Kitty,” says Pamela.  “Everyone get in and out quickly, we can’t stay.  Use the bathroom if you need it.  Those Hotel bathrooms can be...Awkward.”

* * *

Outside the front door of the well known and venerated Dragon’s Den Hotel (known for technically being more of an extremely upscale condominium), the bouncers watch as a veritable clown car of women pulls up in front of them.

A group poured out of the vehicle; a woman in one of those...what were they?  Asian dresses, the bouncer thinks.  Yeah, that’s it.  Korean or something.  With a tiger mask.  Another woman appears to be dressed as a schoolgirl being devoured by a massive shark head, odd.  There’s another woman dressed in some kind of...weird, slightly offensive two piece leather ‘tribal’ outfit with a skull mask.  Another woman appears to have thrown the upper half of a orange dragon’s head over hers and put on some sort of weird scale suit,, and yet another individual of unidentifiable gender appears to have simply throw a European knight’s helmet over police body armor and called it a day.

Another woman in a fedora and wearing a trenchcoat and white face covering cloth mask pokes her head out of the car.  “You dames head on in, I’ll catch up after I find a good parking space!”  The vehicle drives off.

The woman in the tiger mask walks up to the bouncers, holding up an invitation.  The bouncers take it, looking it over, opening it up, inspect it for authenticity.

“Go on in, Miss Faust,” says the bouncer, handing it back.  “You and your entourage have a good time.”

The tiger mask woman smiles and nods, walk inside, followed by the rest.  The dragon headed woman gives a toothy grin.

“Does Meb usually bring quite so many guests?”

“She doesn’t usually show up at all.”

“Oh.  It’s nice to see her socializing.”

The bouncers stood in silence for about fifteen seconds.

“...Wasn’t that woman in the dragon mask Lady-”

“Yes.”

“Why did you let her in?”

“Because it’s funny.”

The inside of the Hotel’s club was...Big, to say the least.  Most prominently, a crowd of people dances slowly in front of a stage while a lounge singer who looks as if she is temporarily visiting from the 1950’s croons out a tune Kitty doesn’t recognize.  A large, multistaffed, well-stocked bar is visible from a large side room that also clearly features a number of tables, along with food, darts, and pool.

Nearby, a set of stairs leading upwards features a small sign in front of it.  VIP AND ELEVATORS, it reads.

“Dante’s probably in the VIP room,” says Mindy.

“So we should probably go up there, then?”

“Worth a shot.”

The girls ascend the dark stairway, in a fairly orderly fashion.  At the top, they find a young man waiting for them there.  He’s not very tall, but he looks rather lean and mean, with an apparent fondness for cracking his knuckles.  His skin is a bit tanned, and a small bandage covers his cheek.

“Hey, where do you wise guys think you’re going?” he asks, with no trace of amusement.

Kitty leans over to Annie.

“We should have brought Pamela.  They could have wise guy’d at each other.”

Anyway, this mook (tee hee!) is blocking the group’s  way into the VIP room and private elevators.  

How will they get past him?