Road Trip with Vampires: one star, would not recommend.

Of social awkwardness. Oh, and vampires.

She strolled the city streets at night, a red scarf pulled over the bottom half of her face, thinking how much it clashed with the rest of her rather dull clothes. Well, there she was, being self-conscious again. But whether it was still self-consciousness when you were aware of it, she didn't know. 

Perhaps, that was the price of self-quarantining for an illness she thought she had. It wasn't exactly her fault, given that it started out as quite a mean prank by her fellow nymphs who lived in the river. But it had totally ruined the first half of her young life.

She shook her fist at the cloudy sky. Damnit, Zeus. Not that Zeus had anything to do with it, but it was easier to put the blame on him. It was quick, it was easy, and it was free. She lived by that principle.

A strong, heady smell nearly overwhelmed her when she turned a corner. Looking to her left, she saw one of those bar things Ceta was always so crazy about. Or was it Pyrene? No, Pyrene was the one who had brought her a bottle of one of those alcoholic drinks. Now that she came to think of it, that smell was quite familiar.

'What the hell,' she muttered. 'I could do with more of that.'

She strolled in as confidently as she dared, carefully stepping over the frozen puddle right by the entrance. She stood at the bar, facing the bleary-eyed bartender, trying to remember the name on the bottle she had stared at so many times before.

'A, uh, whiskey...' Her voice trailed off when the bartender looked straight into her eyes. But he heard her enough, and, grateful for something else to do, started sipping at her drink.

Only around half of the seats in here were occupied. She surveyed the people in the room, sitting at tables and doing, uh, people stuff. Hoping they didn't notice her looking, she turned back to her drink.

A prickling on the back of her neck made her turn around.

Seated to her left was a human. By the looks of it, a female human. The fingers of one hand were curled around her own glass, and her eyes were looking directly into hers. The nymph gulped and averted her gaze.

'Lovely evening, isn't it?'

She inhaled some of her drink. Coughing, she tried her best to meet the woman's eyes.

'Sorry to startle you. Just wanted to talk.'

The woman smiled. She didn't reciprocate it. Now that most of her initial surprise was gone, she studied the human. Dark hair in an elegant knot at the base of her neck, dark eyes, and pale skin. She hadn't been out and about long, but she was sure that she wasn't from anywhere nearby. One of those tourists, maybe?

'Don't worry. I'm definitely not a hitman. Hitwoman? Whatever.' 

She didn't know what that word meant, but it certainly wasn't good. She was too preoccupied with studying the woman's clothes to do any more thinking, anyway. A simple shirt and pants, with a long overcoat. Clothing had changed a lot since she last walked the city streets.

She decided that the woman was rather attractive. Not that she had known a lot of them, but she had developed certain standards after hanging around with Nereids.

'What's your name, miss?'

She jerked back to her senses. 'Umm...Tethis.'

'Like the goddess?'

'Well, I'm not the Tethys. And it's spelled different. With an "I".'

The woman chuckled. 'Hard to tell. Mine's Nix.'

Tethis looked at the single earring dangling from her left ear. It was in the shape of a claw. Interesting.

'Anyway, you looked pretty lonely from the back of the room.'