Galactic Jollin
MissingNo
Ch. 1 - Welcome to the mortal plane, Zodiaks.
Zodiak grumbled and stared up at the brand new shop sign, hanging from coiled copper chains and swinging gently in the afternoon breeze. It was a beautiful sign, no doubt; the letters were both carved into the wood face and painted a bright seagreen colour, the ends of the letters curling into embellished swirls. The carver had done a fine job, sure. Except that it was obvious no one had enough wit to use proper grammar.
Rubbing her temples, Zodiak stared at the words “Zodiaks Mercenary Detective Agency”. The missing apostrophe in ‘Zodiaks’ would drive her mental. On top of that, she had hired the same imbecile to fashion all the wooden plaques inside, all of which missed the apostrophe.
“As if I didn’t get enough scrutiny from my peers.” She mumbled, kicking dust off the threadbare ‘welcome’ rug.
A flitter of sparks erupted in front of the sign, and Zodiak shielded her eyes protectively. A small lavender-coated body hovered weightlessly in front of her, almost laughably; the look on his usually smug face was a contorted with doubt, scrutiny and contained mirth. It was irritating, that look. She knew it so well.
“Zodiaks, huh…? Well, can’t say it sets a good reputation for us.” The small cat-fox rolled onto it’s back, still floating effortlessly amid a wave of tiny sparks. Anti, or Anti-gravity, was Zodiak’s (she nearly removed the apostrophe, but held it back—at least inside her mind she could be intelligent) companion and deputy-mercenary.
Though small, the little critter was soaked through with magick, and had saved Zodiak a fair-few times. Anti tended to have one, resounding, extremely irritating flaw in their nearly seamless relationship; his mouth was bigger than his brain, and he often talked himself into precarious situations, if not just pissing a large amount of people off all at once.
Exasperated, and too tired to counter his poignant opinion, Zodiak swung the wooden door open, reaching for one of the numerous boxes waiting to be unpacked.
Welcome to the mortal plane, she thought. Zodiaks incorporated.
Zodiak had decorated the place with trinkets of all her adventures. She wasn't sure how mortals would respond to them, of course; some of the more 'odd' bits of her collection included, but weren't limited to, decapitated, magically preserved heads that blinked and moved their mouths, a lantern that was illuminated by a miniature contained lightning bolt, the fin of a mermaid's tail, a caged skeletal songbird that was bound together by magic and a broom that swept the stone floor on it's own.
-- to be continued --
