Gloyd and Cocoa spent the rest of the work day hanging out in that Maple tree just talking. She would relate to him Vampire Clans' game mechanics and how much it sucked whenever you didn't die instantaneously during gameplay. Much to his surprise, the comment Cocoa had made earlier about planning to stake him upon meeting him was actually quite merciful and well-meaning on her part. Lloyd, the werewolf Gloyd had had the pleasure of meeting earlier, was from the Winter Clan, which apparently was not the most direct whenever they were faced. Of course he should have expected this, he reminded himself in hindsight; this was a creepy, Halloween-esque game. Cocoa also told him all the embarrassing stories from Clan get-togethers; particularly ones where Maple kept restricting her captains' booze consumption as well as limiting their partying.
"This Maple chick sounds like she's got a twizzler up her ass."
Cocoa stared blankly. "A what?"
"She sounds uptight."
Merely shrugging, Cocoa responded, "Yeah, well it's in her programming. It's not like she can help it. At least, you know…not the first week we're plugged in." Though she didn't voice it, Cocoa kind of hoped Maple would grow out of her programming in that way.
In other conversation, Cocoa got to hear all about Sugar Rush. About Gloyd's best bro ever, Rancis, about how annoying people like Crumbelina and Minty were, about how he was kind of suspicious that Sticky was pretty intensely and obviously crushing on Swizzle, about how Taffyta was mean but very loyal, about how Candlehead was not smart…like, at all. And definitely about how the President was a bullied pauper turned into a concerned dictator.
Naturally, he also mentioned how night never came and it was always bright and sunny.
"Sunny? ALL the time?!" Cocoa raised her voice and eyed Gloyd with skepticism. She had only had a few blips of sun on occasion out near the Summer Clan's fortress. It hadn't felt good at all. "How do you not get burned and stuff?"
"Burned?" Gloyd was a little taken back by the question. "I…I don't think I've ever been burned. At least, not that I remember." He may have crashed and been burned in that way, but death was always so quick on the racetrack.
Her clear, blue eyes narrowed and she blew a raspberry at the notion. "Yeah, right! The sun hurts like Drac! You wouldn't be alive if it was sunny ALL THE TIME, everywhere! How would you stay alive long enough for players to use you?"
It was Gloyd's turn to give Cocoa a look of disbelief. Had this girl never been in a sunny environment before? "You haven't gone outside your game, right?"
Cocoa chewed on her lip with a downcast look and shook her head. Chewing on her lip whenever she was unsure seemed to be a nervous trait. It was kinda cute.
In Gloyd's mind it was decided; moreover he wanted to prove to her he was absolutely right about this. "Well then! You're coming with me to the station! Outside your game!"
"What?!" Her head snapped back up. Her face morphed into one, big smile before quickly fading back into a look of concern. "But…well…Maple…"
Gloyd didn't have a difficult time guessing the reasons for her hesitance. "She doesn't allow anyone in your clan outside your game, does she?"
Shaking her head she replied, "She doesn't allow anyone outside the game; not even if they're strangers."
Well, that was odd. It seemed like this crazy lady had no boundaries at all. "Why? That's not her business right?"
"Well…I mean, you heard Lloyd earlier right?"
"Lloyd?"
"The werewolf?"
Ah. Him. "Well…I was kind of indisposed sooo…nope."
Cocoa smiled apologetically before continuing. "Well…someone did venture out. They never came back though." Her brows knit together. "Luckily it wasn't anyone I knew personally—wait," her face snapped back up to look Gloyd right in the eye. With a slightly horrified look, she shakily persisted, "Y-you say it's bright and sunny all the time out there, right?"
Gloyd's eyes widened. Oh, shit. "Y-yeah, that's right."
An uncomfortable silence followed. Gloyd had to admit, if he was a vampire and had just stumbled onto this realization, he would be a little-extremely horrified as well. But the strange thing was, he didn't care. He wanted his new friend to see the worlds outside of her own—she wanted to, desperately; he could perceive that much. Articulating why he wanted her to share the things he did in his everyday life and show her the things he saw on a regular basis was difficult; he, himself, was not entirely sure why. All he could really determine was that living in the same world for her entire existence would be pitiful. And Cocoa was not a pitiful creature by any stretch of his imagination.
She stood up to leave with an announcer declaring the arcade closed, but Gloyd didn't hear the announcement. Her eyes looked down at him with a resigned, weary expression as if she had resigned herself to Maple's imposed fate. "You should probably go back home." Her voice pulled Gloyd out of his thoughts and he looked up at her. "It's safe now, with no gameplay…But, maybe come by again sometime?" She transformed into a bat and began to fly away. The only reason she halted in her endeavor was the call of a desperate, "Wait!"
Once turned to face his voice, she could see Gloyd's right hand outstretched for her to take. "Come on! Better to ask for permission than forgiveness!" His smile was practically devilish. "I know you wanna see it!"
"But Gloyd, HOW?" She moved back to the branch and took her human form once more. "I'll die if the light hits me too strongly!"
"Stay a bat then!"
"Huh?"
"I mean…" he was racking his Sugar-Russian brain, "Hide in my jacket! And then we can go get some protective gear from another game! It's perfect! You would be able to see everything, and not get hurt."
Coca's face remained unreadable for a short moment. Then that adorable, impish grin reappeared. She retook her bat form before Gloyd's brain could even process what had happened. "C'mon, then! What are we waiting for?!"
"That's the spiriiiiAAAAHH," was all Gloyd could get out before Cocoa yanked him off of the branch and headed for the game's exit.
"You ready?" he looked down into his now zipped-up racer's jacket at the little bat that was quivering with excitement.
"Ready ready!" Cocoa chirped back.
Zipping up his jacket all the way, Gloyd boarded the train. It was ready to take off immediately, it seemed. Gloyd reasoned that it was because it was used so infrequently that it must be as excited as they were to get out of there. It had been the same way when he initially boarded it to get into 'Vampire Clans'. He often wondered if the trains weren't somehow alive, bearing some consciousness, much like the Surge Protector was. Cocoa's little chirrups were constant, asking: "Are we there yet? Can you see the entrance? Oooh, this is so exciting!" She kept pestering him to describe the railway to her, but he reminded her that she would be able to see it soon enough—they just needed some protective covering and sunglasses.
The train finally dawdled to a stop and Gloyd, carefully so as not to harm his precious cargo, hopped off and entered the station. It was a lot busier now, with game characters bustling to and fro from every port. Well, except Vampire Clans. There were enough central station travelers to be creating an abnormal amount of noise which, Gloyd could feel from his shirt, was making Cocoa nervous. That, or very, very excited. About that time, Gloyd suddenly became acutely aware of something that was missing.
"Whu…My cart!" A few curious characters glanced at Gloyd but continued on with their routines.
"What's wrong, Gloyd?" Cocoa's voice was barely a whisper in contrast with all the other noise about.
"I…my racer's cart is…gone? Huh. Maybe the Surge Protector moved it or something…"
"Oh…should we go looking for it?"
Gloyd thought for a moment with Cocoa squirming underneath his jacket uncomfortably. "…Naw. It's probably back in Sugar Rush. And even if it's not, I can always make another one."
"Woah, really?!"
Gloyd had a small smile as he continued, "Yeah. It didn't have sentimental value or anything, so it's fine. It just means it's gonna take us longer to get you clothes." They were now on the move, and as Cocoa grumbled Gloyd was struck with an idea.
"Hey, well, it might not be so long after all. I was gonna take you to Fashionistas 4 but now I'm thinking…this'll work better."
"What will?" Cocoa could feel Gloyd turn.
"You'll see! Get ready for some Street Fighter 3!"
"What fighter?"
Visitors weren't unusual or anything for Makoto, but she was genuinely surprised when Gloyd Orangeboar made an unexpected stopover at her dojo.
"Gloyd! Hey little man, I was worried about you!" Makoto ran and scooped Gloyd up in a sudden hug. It wasn't difficult for Makoto to note something was off, however. "…Um what've you got in your shirt?"
"I'm not little. And I have a friend from the new Vampire Clans game!"
Cocoa managed to speak out a muffled "Hi!" as Makoto looked on, confused. "Well, that…okay? What what is it?" She couldn't think of anything scary that size.
"Wellll, she's a vampire. But she can't get hit by the light."
"Like at all." Cocoa's voice was still muffled, but distinguishable.
"Oh," Makoto responded. "Then…why come here?"
"We need clothes to cover her up."
Makoto's face exploded with a raspberry-like color. "She's naked?!"
"NO," Gloyd rubbed his face. Cocoa gave a muffled, "Yes."
Makoto was silent for a moment, mulling over something. Finally, she said, "Alright, I'll help. You're little friend has to tell me all about their game, though." She smiled when Cocoa responded positively. "Great! Let's go raid Q's closet—he usually has good cover-up stuff."
As they began to exit the dojo, Gloyd tilted his face toward Makoto. "You said you were worried about me…why?"
Makoto looked directly at him as they continued walking to Q's. "Dude, you went into a scary game and didn't come out for hours. AND you went there during gameplay." Gloyd opened his mouth to retaliate, and then thought better of it. He simply glanced away, seemingly not paying attention to Makoto. "On top of which, Vanellope and Rancis were looking for you…I think Fix-It Felix got involved, too."
A realization began to bubble up in Gloyd. "So…did they…?"
"They had your cart."
Damn it.
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