Art by  fauxlacine
Story by  Defiance

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I rushed up two flights of stairs to my apartment, giggling as I began haphazardly ripping the top off the envelope. Jingling my keys as I got there, I finally found the right one, but almost stumbled face-first into my own abode as I grabbed at the knob and the door swung open. I had left it unlocked to let Eflasia in when I went to check the mail. In my excitement, I had forgotten that she was even coming over—I hastily stuffed the envelope behind my back.

"Hello Nyx-Senpai," The pink chinchilla looked up from her laptop, "Oooh, whatcha got there?"

I grimaced, eye darting back and forth. "Nothing."

"I wanna see, I wanna see!" Eflasia was short, at least a head shorter than me. She reached for it as I backpedaled to my bedroom, the sacred introvert sanctuary holding no meaning to this raging Pandora.

"No, go away Eflasia, just give me—" Using the bed to gain three feet, she snatched the half-embedded card right out of the envelope.

“Oooh, it’s all shiny and gold! Unidentified Disease Research Spppp—oh my God Nyxis you sent them your Prince Lear cosplay?!” She burst into squeak-pitch laughter as I snatched it back, my blush a full red that I was glad I could hide behind most of my luscious lion-like locks.

"Hey! Might as well enjoy life to the fullest while I can, right?"

Her ears pricked as she heard the crack in my voice, the mix of feelings that I couldn’t hide for the possibilities this card held for me. "Hey, hey!" She deflected, sounding like she was the one I had hurt. "Daddy only networks with competent doctors."

Eflasia and I met at a summer art camp in elementary school. We had grown into soul sisters. Our treasured relationship was reflected the clearest in our collaborated works: I brought in the themes: the pathos and symbolism, and she brought the form: the composition and anatomy. We dyed our fur pink together, an emblem of rebellion against all the things wrong with modern-day society. We were going to be revolutionary girls; our characters and stories would be symbols of hope and change for the world. Good prevails. Love conquers all. Wishes do come true.

And ideas do not die. In them, we would be immortal.

Eflasia’s father Kade is the mayor of the city, and with his support, Eflasia can "work" as an artist, as little or as much as she pleases. There is a little resentment, a dash of jealousy from me there, as I am not so lucky. I was a sickly child and still am: lethargic, short-winded, with a fragile immune system... These are some of the less alarming symptoms of my condition: CGD, a crystalline growth disease that has already claimed one eye and is expected to do me in before I turn thirty. To survive as an artist who does not starve in the modern economy, one must be willing to pour boundless energy and time into a full-time-plus job: energy, time, sleepless nights, energy drinks, missed meals, and more questionable pills that would inevitably land me in the ER (again.) Thus, I kept art as a hobby and pooled my career resources into being a private detective. Kade sends most clients my way and they pay well for my services, God bless that man. Of course, a job is a job, and I still have long hours, and the smell of cheap spray-on brown fur dye when I’m actively on a case, but this is passive, do-able work. Unfortunately, it is also far less fulfilling than I expected, as I go into each new case hoping that people are good on the inside and whatever drama I am checking into is all a misunderstanding, but the evidence rarely proves that notion correct.

"Lighten up, Nyx!" Eflasia changed the subject. "Come on, tell me about something good that’s happened to you this week."

"Well," my laugh came out as more of a cough as I sat down, "there is this guy—"

Eflasia overemphasized a gasp, placing a hand over her breast as she swooned into my lap, "Oh Nyxis, Darling, you're breaking my heart!"

"What? What? I just met him! Always—always with the teasing you silly girl! Get out of here!"

I didn't expect for her to take me literally. Eflasia put the new ID by my business cards on the nightstand and scurried from the room. She promptly returned with two of my wine glasses and a surprise two-liter bottle of strawberry soda. I found myself being handed a fizzy drink. "To curing your CGD!"

I smiled and let the tears come to my eye as my trembling wing met her outstretched paw for a toast. "To breaking my curse."

PART II (NSFW)

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 Fauxlacine created the art and wonderful ID badge for Nyxis, and  s0b first wrote about Nyxis in a modern, realistic setting, so I decided to write a short story that's a fusion of the Dog-Eat-Dog world, the Eflasiaverse, and s0b's world to experiment with what kind of person she would be in such a setting! =')

Thank you both for opening your worlds as a writing space; this was really fun!