After a few well-deserved hours of sleep, Mei woke up at 14:35. It took her a bit to get her head grounded in the present, and a bit more to become fully awake. Her first actions, as every other morning, as to go to the kitchen and take her breakfast, which basically consisted of her vitamins and blood.

In theory, vampires only need to feed once every two days. That is, if you actually drink the necessary amount of blood, which is around 3 or so liters. Mei, on the other hand, took a minimal dose of blood alongside vitamins, which had to be taken twice a day.

Her blood supplies were stored in the fridge so they would last longer. She needed to drink some alongside the vitamins; without it, they wouldn't have any effect. The amount needed was a quarter liter, enough to fill a glass of water. Or, in this case, a glass of blood.

Even after 2 years of being a vampire, the process of preparing the blood still felt... wrong. For a better taste, Mei had to warm up the red liquid on a pot until the temperature reached 37 degrees, so it was at human body temperature, the ideal state of blood consuming.

Performing this early afternoon had something upsetting within it: It felt natural to make this, to prepare this "breakfast", but a small portion of Mei's mind still considered drinking blood an immoral act. It went to such extent that the vampire felt as if her mind was on standby during this whole time, flying away to a distant dimension while her body worked on automatic. It didn't matter if she did this just after waking up and still not being aware of things, or if it was late at night and she'd been up for several hours; the state of dissociation followed her the moment she opened the fridge and picked up the kettle of blood.

While she was cleaning her bloody glass and pot, Mei's mind wandered off to Cas and the drawing she'd been doing yesterday. Cassey seemed to be fairly invested on her art, weren't they? Maybe it could be a good idea to send them a picture of the sketch...

Mei: Hey, Cas?

The screen was empty for a few minutes. Mei awaited Cassey's response, hopping she wasn't a bother for them

Cassey: Oi!

How ya doing?

Srry I didn't reply right away, I was cleaning dishes lol

Mei: it's ok

It's nothing important or anything, I just finished a sketch for a drawing and thought you may want to see it?

Cassey: OMG Yes!!!

Can I see!?

Mei: sure!

Mei had the picture of the sketch already taken, she just needed to hit send. She awaited expectedly, seeing the three dots jumping up and down in Cassey's contact

Cassey: IT LOOKS SO GOOD!?!!?

Mei: aww, really?

Cassey: YES!?

It looks great

/gen

Mei: what does "/gen" mean?

Cassey: oh, it's a tone indicator!

Mei: A what?

Cassey: yeah, a tone indicator!

It's used to explain better like- the tone or meaning of a text

Like- /gen for genuine, /s for sarcasm, /j for joking, /hj for half joking, um...

Those are the ones at the top of my head, but there are more

Mei: oh, cool!

Cassey: yeah! They can be helpful sometimes lol

Anyways, back to your drawing

It's so cool

Mei: thanks!

Cassey: altho, I got a question

What's the weird little color doodle thingy at the corner place?

Mei: that's the color scheme practice

It's to see how the colors would look in the finished piece

Cassey: OOooooOOOooO

Cool!

Yeah, that makes sense lmao

Very pretty colors!

Mei: I'm glad you like them

What now...? This was awkward, wasn't it? Mei had only planned on showing Cas the drawing, nothing else. And now, what was she supposed to say to keep the conversation on? She couldn't leave, but she couldn't think of anything else to add.

Something moved in her screen, which made Mei's focus strike again

Cassey: btw

I'll tell ya now so just so I don't forget later or anything

And so ya don't get weirded out

This Saturday there's a full moon so that day I'm not gonna be around, same goes for Sunday

I'm prob gonna be ok, but still, some moons are weird

Mei: Ah, I see

That was a bad response. "Ah, I see." Seriously, who says that?

Mei: is it painful?

The werewolf thing

Mei, please. Where did you interaction skills go?

Cassey: meh, u get used to it

To some fellas it's very painful and take pills and needa go to the doctor afterwards, but I don't get that often

Ya see, I've mastered the art of shifting

Mei: you can do that?

Like, master it?

Cassey: yeah!

It ain't that hard when you notice a few patterns

Ya see, the reason it leaves so many people drained is because it requires a buttload of energy

And if ya got some stored energy, the effects of this thing decrease by a lot!

Mei: I'm lost, do you eat a battery before full moons or something?

Stop trying to be funny, Mei. You aren't making things better.

Cassey: lol no

Idk if u noticed, but I'm not the skinniest fella

Mei: oh! Oh, I see

Cassey: yeah lmao

Body fat is good lol, it's basically stored energy

Also, another thing to make it hurt less is to be strong

If ya got muscle its better since when ya exercise u sorta push urself to the limit

So when ur body does that by itself, ur already used to it 'n stuff

Makes sense?

Mei: actually, it does!

Cool to know

Cassey: ye

Doesn't always work for everyone, I'm simply a lucky fella!

Mei: Mind if I ask something else about it?

Like, werewolf thing?

Cassey: yeah, go ahead!

Mei: Where do you do it? Is there like- a place where werewolves go?

I'm sorry if it's weird or personal I'm making this very awkward sorry

Cassey: stop apologizing, really, I don't mind lol

Mei: really?

Cassey: Really! There's too much taboo around non-human species and all, I don't mind giving some help to educate other fellas

Mei: ah, cool

Cassey: to answer ur question, ye, there is a place

Outside the city, not far away, there a lil forest place where we werewolves go and hang when we become doggies

Usually me 'n my pals get together in 1 car and go together there, it's fun!

U really don't feel bad until 1-2 hours after the moon sets, so we got more than enough time to get back home and rest

Ya already met one of my pals with whom I go with

Mei: have I?

Cassey: yeah! Remember Alex?

Alex... Alex, who was Alex... Oh! Oh, of course!

Mei: the waiter from yesterday, right?

Cassey: The one and only!

They're the best

Not as great as Haze, but pretty awesome

Mei: Haze...

He was your roommate, right?

Fuck- shit, no, Cassey said it was ze, not he.

Mei: *Ze

Stupid Mei, it's not that hard! Cas is now going to think you're a moron who can't respect people's pronouns!

Cassey: Yup, ze is!

We've been living together for... 4-5 years already?

Lol yeah, I love zir so much

Mei: it shows

Cassey: uwu

Anywayssss....

Mei: Hm?

Cassey: Haze is throwing me pieces of bread and telling me to come there 'n have lunch

Mei: oh

Cassey: yeah...

Gtg, bbl

Mei: bye!

Cassey: Cya!

Mei sighed and left her phone down. That hadn't gone too bad... At least, not as bad as it could've. Either Cas knew very well how to pretend not to be annoyed, or they were genuine. And for what she knew about Cas, they were a genuine person.

For now, or at least until Cas was available again, Mei had only 1 think left to do: wait until it was time for work.  

i totally didn't forget to update this, what r u saying....