Around the worlds 1 - A tale of vampires

Neos smiled at her, and gently bumped her arm. "Aw, you're cute, getting all concerned about me. It that'll make you feel better, we won't get near any of this stone before tonight, ok ?"

Michela smiled at him, bumping him back playfully. "I am already taking my job of bodyguard seriously, see? And that makes me feel a bit better, yes. Oh!" She looked suddenly at the bottle she still was holding in her hand. "The priest gave me this. To... cleanse my body and soul", she said in a mockingly high tone. "I wonder what's inside. I will not drink it, that's for sure."

Neos held back a laugh, but looked carefully at the bottle. "Want me to study it ? I mean, that's basically holy water, who knows what it'll do to you," he joked.

"It will burn me from the inside and make me explode, purifying the world from my unholy presence", she said in a low and serious voice, before grinning and giving him the bottle. "Yeah sure, study it."

"... You're quite gore-y when you want," Neos said before he laughed. "Alright, I'll look into that. Do we get back to the inn then ?"

Michela smiled, sticking her tongue out. "I can be way worse, but I'll save that for another time. We can go back, if you don't want to go around more!" She had opened her umbrella again as they had arrived outside the big church building.

"I'll be going back inside to study the stone and you liquid, but if you want to keep going around, that's fine by me. It might be boring for you anyway," he said as he gave his pendant another long look.

"Hmm, I'll go around a bit then I think. I'll explore this city around a bit more. I'll reach you later!" Michela bid her goodbye at Neos and took a different road, playing around with her umbrella.

The city in itself, aside from its cult surrounding the green stone, was pretty normal. There were a lot of people living there, a few parcs, and so on. Nothing special to see. Except that... due from her nature, Michela could spot a young, tall and slim man with short hair and grey eyes walking with a groceries bag in his arms. For the man had no pulse, no blood in his veins. In fact, he was one of a kind in the whole city, and nobody seemed to notice this, but he was in fact a machine. A really advanced machine walking and looking like an actual human being.

How other people could not notice that someone with no pulse was walking among them was a wonder to her. Michela was well aware that, due to her nature, she paid attention to things that no one ever thought of, but still... ! Was that another traveller, like her? Another of her kind? Or maybe, more likely, an anomaly entirely belonging to this world?
As usual her curiosity got the best of her, and she found herself following that... man, without even noticing. Keeping some distance, of course.

The man moved in a really natural way, so it seemed like he was an actual living being. He kept walking, and went down through narrower and narrower streets, until he stopped, and calmly turned around to look for Michela. He had sensed her.

Michela froze on her tracks. She looked back at the man, at first a bit scared, but then, seeing that he didn't look aggressive, she lifted her chin. She pointed an accusing finger at him. "You. You aren't human, are you?" Well, they say attack is the best defence.

The man remained still for a few more seconds, before he answered. "So aren't you," he said in a calm, low voice. Since her hearing was better than any human's, she could probably hear that his voice sounded...Fake.

Michela assumed a confused expression upon hearing his voice, which sounded almost artificial. Oh, he wasn't human, alright. But then, what was he... ? "Well, I know for certain that you aren't like me now. But then, who... or what are you?", she asked, more herself than him.

"... I cannot answer your question", said the man, clearly a bit... lost. As if he didn't know exactly what he was supposed to say in such a situation.

The door in front of the man suddenly opened, and a small, plump woman with neatly tied long hair came out. "Karl, please don't tell me your door program is broken again," she said, coming to him to get the groceries bag. Then she froze, and looked at Michela. She held back a nervous laugh as she adjusted her glasses. "Oh, errh. Hiii."

Michela was about to press further to have an actual answer, her expression much irritated.
Then she snapped towards the newcomer, her eyes narrowing. "... hello", she answered, crossing her arms. "Listen, I'll be brutal here. I know your friend here... Karl, is not a human being. I'd like an explanation."

The woman opened her mouth, and frowned, as Karl put a hand on her shoulder, and looked at her. "She's not human either," he said, as if it excused Michela for asking so straightforwardly. But this seemed to peek her curiosity, so she finally gestured the vampire to come inside with them. "Come in, but quick. I don't want the neighbours to hear about it," she whispered quite hastily.

Michela looked around, then she glanced at the woman, as if deciding if an answer to that mystery was worthy of the careless decision of trusting a complete stranger. Well, after all, she had been the one to ask... "... alright." She followed the woman inside quickly.

The woman lead the way inside of her home. After a narrow corridor, she took Michela to a large living room, which was neatly tidied, aside from a few papers laying around here and there. The man (?) named Karl went through that room to get to a kitchen, so he could put the groceries where they belonged.
"My name's Cathy", said the woman as she offered Michela to sit down. "What's yours ?"

The vampire followed the woman to the living room and accepted a bit reluctantly her invitation to sit down. She awkwardly shifted in her seat, following the strange man with her gaze until it was impossible to do so anymore. Then she turned back to Cathy. "... I'm Michela." She felt compelled to say sorry about her sudden intrusion there, in their lives. She had been pretty nosy, after all. She mumbled out a trail of excuses, averting her eyes, scratching her neck.

Cathy smiled at her, then sighed. "It's ok. I... I don't know what made you think that Karl isn't human, but since you guessed right, there's a few more things I need to tell you to convince you not to spread the word. If that's ok."

Michela rested her elbows on her knees, leaning forward. Oh, damn her curiosity... She was starting to feel her eyes burn from mantaining them of their greenish colour. But she didn't care. She nodded at the woman. "I am listening."

Cathy held back a small laugh. "I hope you won't be disappointed, but... Karl is, well... a machine," she said as she gestured to the robot to come back to them. "He's capable of reasonning, and taking decisions on his own, though."

Michela widened her eyes, head turning to look at the man - er, android. A machine? Now, that was the last thing she was expecting. Not that she had been expecting anything at all, but well. "A... a robot? He is a robot?" She was looking at him, now squinting her eyes as if she was trying to spot wires, or batteries. Then she turned back to Cathy. Staring was impolite after all. "Why should I be, uh, disappointed?", she asked then, confused.

"...Well, there's nothing much special to him aside from that," she said with a laugh. "And from the little I guess, you're not from this place, are you ?"

"I sensed unusual bacteria on her," the robot calmly said. "She has washed most of it off as soon as she arrived, but it still remains a bit on her." Karl was oddly human-like, actually. In the way he moved, talked, and looked at both of them.