Chapter 1 (Vic)
“Fuck!” Vicardium cursed as he landed hard on his knees, painfully hitting the grey-black pavement. It wasn’t hard enough to break skin, but it sure as fuck hurt, and probably damaged the thick hide of his pants. But that was the least of his concerns. The biggest concern was finding the fucker he jumped into the portal after. Sadly, he first he had to figure out where he was.
He looked around to find he was in a strange alleyway with large metal boxes overflowing with some ungodly smelling large black lumps, and there was who knew what splattered on the walls and ground. He stood up, his knees and hands still throbbing from the impact, but no more than that. It would pass.
First he sought out the light at the end of the alley. It seemed wherever he was, night had already fallen, and the moment he’s bombarded by the immense amount of flashing lights, someone shrieked at his mere presence. Vicardium looked down to find what appeared to be a small male of an unknown race. As soon as the initial fright wore off, the man let out a breath of relief and smiled at him, shaking his head. “Woah! You scared the crap out of me! Cool costume, bro. I don’t think the ladies will dig it, but the guys are gonna love it. You heading to the convention over there?”
The man jerked his thumb over his shoulder to aim at a very tall, black building with several large windows. All different types of people were going in and out of the building, looking to be of several different species. And from what he could tell, it was mostly families leaving, towing screaming children behind them. He had never seen such discord among children, not unless they were fighting for rations or trying to usurp their enslavers.
“You can probably still make it to the costume contest if you hurry,” the small man continued.
Vicardium furrowed his brows, and the man’s breath hitched. He could scent a wave of both nervousness and excitement coming from him. “Wow dude, that makeup is so cool, I gotta say. Looks like the real thing. That’s your OC, right? I’m so jelly, man. I swear some people can make some pretty awesome stuff. Nothing at all like my thrift Wizard costume.”
Vicardium flinched and looked down at the small man. He was a Wizard? No, that couldn’t be. What did he say before? That he thought he was in a costume? That also meant that the other beings gathered nearby were not of different species, but rather many of the same species in various disguises. The upside was that it would allow him to blend in, but the downside was that… it meant that they didn’t possess the ability for portal travel, yet. Surely one of his subordinates would find a way to get him home, but in the meantime, he had to not only blend in, but find his rival that was the cause of his current predicament. He didn’t hear any mass hysteria, so it seemed that the bastard must have ended up somewhere else.
He looked down at the little man, who was apparently pretending to be a Wizard, but he had never seen a Wizard dressed in pointy hats and long robes. The fuckers were masters at escaping dangerous situations, and needed to move about rather quickly, so wearing heavy clothing like the male before him would surely hinder their movement.
“Would you show me to this… costume contest?” Vicardium asked.
The man grinned and nodded. “No problem! And after that I’ll introduce you to the guys and we can go to our favorite haunts.”
He didn’t know why they needed to haunt places, and wasn’t quite sure how the living might do such a thing, but he just nodded and started to follow him as soon as he began to lead the way.
“So what’s your name?” The small male asked.
He pondered for a moment if he should reveal his identity or not, but figured there would be no harm caused by it in a place where no one knew of him.
“My name is Vicardium Nunveshkal, Heir to the throne of Nunway, The Sanctuary of The Fallen.”
The male let out a long whistle. “Dang! You really get into character don’t you? I respect that, but how about I call you Vic for short? There’s no way I’ll be able to remember all that,” He let out a sheepish chuckle and shifted what appeared to be a staff, which actually seemed quite well made, with intricate designs curving at the top over a large gemstone.
“My name is Alvagus Dunderland, but you can call me Carl.”
Vic nodded. “As you wish, Carl. And yes, you may address me as Vic.”
Back home, it was unheard of to shorten the name of those above you, but in this case, he opted to go along with it, if only just to appear more like Carl’s species.
They made it to the entrance and the larger male at the door asked for their tickets. “Ticket?” Vic asked Carl.
Carl furrowed his brow in confusion for a moment, but then shrugged and looked back to the other male. He handed the man two pieces of paper, then winked at Vic with a grin. “Whoops, looks like I forgot I had your ticket on me, Vic.”
Vic nodded, understanding that the male had just covered for him. “Yes, thank you. I also forgot that was the case.”
The male before him looked at Vic suspiciously for a moment, the tension in the air thick with his untold accusations, but then he nodded smiles, stepping aside for them to pass.
“You must really get into character. I gotta say, that accent is out of this world.”
“Is the way I speak that different from the locals? I should watch how others speak and attempt to match them.”
Vic nodded and he and Carl walked into the building. After going down a few white hallways and many windows, it opened up to a massive area with two levels, the one above being an overlook with what smelled like stalls with many different types of food. Some of Carl’s people were sitting at tables scattered around the area, but when he looked over the rail, he was blown away, his eyes widening a bit to show his surprise. It was as if there was a massive town market place below them, and there were many more of Carl’s species. Was this a bazaar? Their village square? No. Judging by the large buildings outside, this was merely a fraction of what these people had built.
Carl stepped up beside him, a large happy grin on his face. “Pretty awesome, right? I never get tired of this view. I swear it gets cooler every year.”
Vic nodded and stepped away from the balcony. “Agreed. Now, you mentioned a contest?”
Carl had introduced Vic to many new things that day. There were moving stairs, apparently called an escalator that they used to get to the lower level. Then he showed Vic all the different types of vendors on the way. After a short while, Carl was becoming suspicious, and he had to explain that where he came from, the festivals were very different. It wasn't a lie, but he was certainly going to omit the whole truth. It seemed that Carl, the Human, as he learned via other "cosplayers", now believed that Vic was a foreigner, and that seemed to make it easier to explain his odd behavior. He would have to learn their ways very quickly if he were to have any hope of navigating their world without alerting the authorities. He could only imagine what people might do to him in a world where they were not yet able to mingle with other planets. While space travel was now extremely restricted due to the currently leadership on his planet, there were very many descendants of the ancient travelers, including himself. Those who only knew of their own intelligent species would probably have a difficult time learning of others out there. Perhaps if they were regularly visited by beings not of their world then they could get used to his kind faster, but they didn't have that option.
Though, he did notice that they had some decent ideas about what other beings out there might look like, but some were so bizarre that he couldn't tell what he was looking at. For instance, he had never seen any being made out of mechanical parts. He wondered how he looked to these people. Carl had said that he appeared like a fantasy character, and asked if he had played something called Dungeons and Magic, but Vic just shook his head. He didn't even know enough about the world to make a convincing lie in his response. It was better to just let Carl come to his own conclusions for the time being. He still needed to pay him back for getting him into the building. Though he wasn't quite sure how being there would help him accumulate to their world, he also didn't have any way to disguise himself once he got out of there, so he was keeping an eye out for various goods that might assist him later. Most importantly, according to Carl, having tusks, fangs, claws, horns and a tail was not the norm for Humans, so he would need to figure out how to hide those. That, and evidently his purple skin, but aside from something Carl called a spray tan, when describing some more orange looking characters, he wasn't sure how he could hide that part of himself. Dress from head to toe every time he went out? It may be a price he had to pay.
They were nearly to the stage that Carl was pointing to, when a blur of green crashed into him. Contact was barely felt as the person squealed, their arms pinwheeling backwards to steady themselves. Instinctively Vic used his tale to quickly steady them, and an electric shock shot straight up his tail, causing a quick full body shudder. Once those few seconds of shock wore off, he opened his eyes to see that It was a female that had run into him. Soft and luscious and smelling like the sweetest flora, she was dressed in a snug green dress with several seemingly unnecessary straps and tall brown boots with heals that were most assuredly did not help with her balance in the slightest, that went up past her knees, leaving about 6 inches of her glorious tanned and toned thighs visible between the top of the boots and the bottom frayed edges of her dress. Her hair was expertly braided and she wore a lovely, form fitting wooden mask with climbing green vines. He also noticed that she had pointed ears, just like him. But unlike him, upon closer inspection, hers were merely a prosthetic add on. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she had her green lips pressed tightly as she appeared to be bracing for impact. He chuckled, and that caused her eyes to pop open, revealing the most beautiful pale green eyes. "You're alright now," was all he said.
She blinked and twisted her body slightly to look behind her, no doubt spotting his tail holding her upright, pressed gently into her back. He saw a bow and arrows attached to her back when she did so, and he wondered briefly if she knew how to use them. Archers were highly valued among his kind. It took great skill to expertly slay your enemy from long distances.
She gasped and looked back at him, steadying herself to stand upright on her own. In fact... several people, including Carl looked very surprised for some reason. He pulled his tail back behind him, now that she was stable, but instantly missed their contact.
"How did you-" She began, but Carl cut her off.
"It's robotic!" He shouted, clear panic in his voice. Vic noticed that there was now sweat beading on his brow, and the atmosphere between them seemed completely changed.
The female looked up at him, having to arch backwards a bit as she looked up, pushing those plump breasts tighter against their already snug confines. He gulped slightly, and he watched as she bit her lip, a soft blush rising to her cheeks. "I-is that so? Well then um... thank you for-" Her gaze darted around her at the first sound of odd clicking noises that seemed to come from small tablet like devices, similar to what he knew as a Reader back home. He heard the quick intake of her breath, the sudden panic that was coming off of her in waves, and with tears in her eyes, she ducked her head down and ran off to somewhere behind him. He turned, watching her dart between people then disappear behind some booths. For some reason, his heart ached to see her go, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Her scent was already fading, and it seemed his presence had somehow caused her some distress, so he decided to back off. As curious as he was about the sudden spark between them, it was obvious she needed her space. Little did he know, he would never see her at that festival again.
