Something shifted. Some unknown force made everything, just for a quick moment, stutter before moving on normally.
Two pink eyes opened and glanced up at the sky as reality staggered for the briefest of moments.
Asmodeus made a face as the birds flying above her paused in place, reversed, and then restarted to continue on their proper way.

For the briefest of moments she swore that, perching on the edge of the roof of the building across from her, was a figure with six massive wings that stretched out across the sky and blocked the setting sun's rays.
Then everything was moving again and the figure was there as if they'd never even existed.
They hadn't.

Reaching out with her hands, Asmodeus watched the single feather fall through the air and land squarely in the palms of her hands. She looked down at it for a moment before it glitched out like some sort of graphical issue and disappeared in her grip. She closed her hands, narrowing her brows and looking up once more at the sky above, grand and open and free.

Perhaps..

She cut off that train of thought and began the short walk back to her shop, humming softly to herself the entire time.
If that was to happen, then there was no point worrying too much.

[hr]

Elsewhere, Illusion hummed to herself softly as she stared out the window. The brief stutter in Reality had caught her by surprise, but in a world where there was an entire organisation devoted to covering up portions of history itself in one large fabrication there wasn't too much to be surprised by. Instead of worrying about it, the vampire turned on her heels and opened a small hole in the air before her.
Into a rather quaint airplane. With a cough she stepped through it and Reality shifted once more.
She couldn't have her target running away now, and her own personal Boundary was the most efficient way to make that certain.

The engines stopped, the people around her stopped, except for one.
A girl sitting on a plane with no ticket. How naughty.
Illusion, closing the portal behind her, crept through the middle of the plane with a silent grace that not many beings could match. It wasn't at all long until the girl had arrived at the row in which one Monica Dansbury had seated herself. She licked her lips, cleared her throat, and gave the girl the warmest, kindest smile she could manage.
Which, despite the fangs, was very warm and kind.

"[color=#FF0000]I mean you no harm, Monica Dansbury. I'm here to take you somewhere safe. You can choose the easy way, or you can struggle and choose the still easy but much more bothersome way.[/color]"
Illusion, quite aware of the frank absurdity of the situation, offered her hand to the girl with a small smile.
"[color=#FF0000]And yes, before you ask, I am indeed a vampire.[/color]

[hr]

Jojo was tired.
All day he'd been working in the cafe and all day the customers had been more and more 'UGHHHHHHHHHHH'.
Seriously, he wasn't even kidding. One guy had asked for his latte remade [i]twice[/i], a woman and her family had claimed the chicken parmigiana wasn't 'parmigiana-y enough' and a kid had decided the best place to spit on his kid brother was in the middle of the lobby.
And the kid brother then promptly threw up all over the floor and turned into a living car alarm that Jojo swore could almost shatter the glass in the cafe's windows if he really wanted to.

It didn't help the place was understaffed today and Jojo was currently carrying 500,000,000 orders to the tables like he was trying to do his best impersonation of the Flash except he was a waiter and not a superhero.
Except, unfortunately, it was understaffed.
It didn't help that the chef was currently coked out of his mind and making a bunch of really wacky orders that Jojo refused to serve out of terror of even touching them.
He cooked burnt eggs and called it 'Crispy Bacon and Eggs' for one and that was a no-no and probably a health hazard. He kept raving on about something called 'fond' but Jojo was frankly not very 'fond' of whatever 'fond' was.
He was also pretty sure it had nothing to do with burning eggs until they were like some sort of pitch black mutant cardboard.

Sliding a pair of plates onto a table and giving the couple as warm a smile as he could, Jojo practically skated his way back to the kitchen and looked up at the clock.
His shift was almost over and, damnit, he was glad.
He sincerely hoped that the chef wasn't going to explode anything in the kitchen.

He needed a better job with less health hazards.

As soon as twelve hit he was out. That's how he'd always done it- "Hey can I work here until twelve and then do uni stuff the rest of the day?"
"Sure thing, dude, just don't kill anyone."
"I.. I wasn't considering it, honestly. Kinda worried you mentioned it."
"No need to worry, friend, it's only happened twice."
"Oh."

Midday hit a little while after Jojo's little exposition flashback and he practically leaped out of the doors of his workplace and jammed his earphones in. Pulling his phone out of his pocket he swiped it unlocked and tapped a couple times before tapping rapidly a couple more times.

'[color=#CC0000]Yo Dawn it's ya boi Jojo
I think my chef is gonna bomb himself tbh
How's work at an actual job going?
Help

JJ.[/color]'

With a few more taps and a small smile Jojo strode down the street and messaged another one of his friends;

'[color=#CC0000]Yo I'm free, we still good for Saturday night or not?
I'm keen to bring pizza if you guys want. Just text me your orders and I'll rock up with the food.

Dat Boi.[/color]'

Shoving his phone into his pocket after putting on some appropriately weeby tunes, Jojo hummed along to the lyrics as he moved down the street. It wasn't surprising that he was so chipper this time of week- when he got home he'd have a brand new episode of-

Reality stuttered and Jojo paused in place, eyebrows immediately furrowing in concern as he reached up to rub his eyes and blink. by the time he was done the world was moving as per usual. Shrugging it off as tiredness, Jojo kept his pace down the street.
He couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, however. He couldn't see anyone that seemed too out of place, though, but he caught a flash of a cute girl with vibrant green eyes eyeing him up as he walked past her. Neither of them stopped but Jojo couldn't help but smile as he realised she was totally checking him out.
Nice.

Shame he didn't stop but by now she was probably lost in the crowd and, well, whoops.
All he'd have to do is catch the subway to the station closer to his house and he'd be fine. No creepy people could walk into his house and spy on him, could they?
No, they couldn't.
Besides, Jojo was well versed in anime fighting techniques and fung koo.
Just don't ask him to actually show them off.
Please.

Slide down the railing on the stairs that nobody seemed to actually use, buy a ticket, slide down an escalator, arrive on the platform, spend approximately five minutes awkwardly sandwiched between a really muscular dude wearing a wife-beater who hadn't worn deodorant in twenty years and was covered in sweat like he'd just exited a pool and refused to dry off and a much smaller girl who gave him a venomous look every time he even slightly bumped into her like he was a man with lizards for eyes and FINALLY JOJO WAS FREE AND WHOO BOY DID HE ENJOY IT.

He practically pirouetted out of the subway and into the fresh air- well, kinda fresh air- of the streets and began his trek to his lovely two-bedroom apartment shared with an equally lovely friend of his by the name of one Dawn Memoli.
Or, as Jojo liked to call her, Don Memeoli.

And soon enough ya boi Jonathan Black was at home, sliding his keycard across the front door and stepping inside to hear it slam behind him. Up to level 8, out the door, down the hall..

He paused, looking over at the door next to his. Those guys had been on vacation for a long time..
Ah well, maybe they'd decided to leave permanently. Surely there'd be another resident soon. He only knew those guys since they'd helped him move in- they were pretty cool dudes from what Jojo gathered of them.
Unlocking the door with the small key he always used, Jojo slid inside and immediately heard a certain little doggo scrambling along the floorboards towards him. Jojo pulled his earphones out and grinned as the one and only Iggy Iggerton skidded into view and over to him.

Needless to say, Jojo gave the good little doggo some ample pets before going on with his chores.
And by chores I mean 'play video games until Dawn reminds him to do actual work before deciding to hog his Gamestation 5 for the rest of the day'.

And so it was that Jojo spent the rest of his day until Dawn got home.
He still had that awful feeling of being watched, though..