[Episode] Mink-staken Identity

The days were starting to blur together. Each time the sun's rays bled down into the waters around Notice it seemed a like more commonplace than the last. Where the streets once held the thrills of the unknown and the chaos of untrodden paths, they now faded into a monotone swatch of boring background.

Even the joys of people-watching and leaving newly painted works for others to discover had gotten stale.

Fits of yawns seemed to be plaguing a certain invisible onlooker with ferociously adorable tenacity.

Just this morning she had caught herself yawning midway through nabbing her breakfast, alerting a half-awake man to the stack of pancakes now floating above his plate. It only took long enough for him to rub the sleep from his eyes in disbelief for the breakfast to disappear completely.

Weaving her way through the streets to chase the tails of gossip among the locals was a welcome reprieve from boredom any day, but today's tones made the red panda's oversized ears twitch to attention.

The crowds teemed with hushed panic about recent run-ins with a familiarly-furred individual. The word 'Mink' lingered like sour fruit on the sneering lips of Lesser Minks so often that Aya could spot it from blocks away.

She would have been happy following any hints of excitement at this point, despite the chances of this being another example of Lesser Minks mistaking every strange animal that washed up onto their island for a furry fiend.

Still, the arboreal artist couldn't resist the mystery of another lone Mink wandering out there in the open.

And fortunately for Aya people around Notice didn't know how to resist blabbing about the interesting stuff. It was just a matter of sorting out the truth from the exaggerated hysterics of frightened humans.

Her first lead fizzled; the alleged altercation was simply a misremembered bar fight that had landed a rather hairy Lesser Mink in a heap in an alley outside a dive that smelled so strongly of alcohol that Aya almost mistook the burn for the scent of paint varnish.

The second story took her on a walk that merely alerted her to the uncanny silhouette of a sack stacked on top of a barrel just barely visible from the outside of a dilapidated building closer to the outskirts of the city. She had to admit that from a distance... if you kind of squinted... it did sort of look like a scruffy old canine Mink she once knew.

Despite the disappointing refuse there seemed to be something in the air that held promise. With a few deep draws of breath, the tiny investigator tried to focus.

A growl broke her concentration.

She set one paw on her stomach and gave a tiny squeak of a yawn. Maybe it was time for a snack.

Instinct brought her to the top of a gnarled old willow. The transparent climber scrambled up the boughs and sent a small cascade of leaves falling in her wake.

With a new perspective, she could now truly enjoy her scavenged lunch. Aya wasted no time in getting an eyeful of the trickling creeks of roads that the roaring city streets had waned into the closer they dared to get to the more natural parts of the island.

She only managed a single bite of apple before a noise in the distance quieted her munching.

The dusty pall following an oncoming stampede of frenzied ferreters was a welcome sight for perhaps the first time since Aya had ventured away from home.

It meant she wasn’t too far off in her search… or she was just as confused as the humans hunting down this alleged Mink.

Either way, she wasn’t going to let them have all the fun.

With one last forlorn look at the sandwich in hand, Aya cut her losses and left the remaining half tucked in the crook of a branch. At least the birds would get a good meal out of it.

Aya followed far enough back from the would-be trappers to keep pesky dust from littering her fur. It wasn’t like she was going to lose track of the noisy bunch.

It seemed odd to her that they were heading back in toward the more populated areas, but this was certainly the easiest trail to follow.

Their sudden stop up ahead of her was even more curious still. It seemed her hopes for a competent lead were dashed quicker than she expected. Disappointing, but not surprising. At least it was worth a silent snicker to watch the frustrations build, especially knowing that there was in fact a Mink just out of sight of the scrambling searchers.

Aya kept a bit of distance between herself and the now-fractured posse, wracking her mind for a new idea to fight off the boredom and beginning to meander off herself.

Then, as if by some sort of divine intervention hellbent on keeping the little red panda’s attention, a pile of trash seemed to be given a breath of life.

Upon second glance and first reality check, a grin pulled across the invisible woman’s maw. She froze momentarily to assess the situation.

This didn’t seem to be someone simply causing havoc for the Lesser Mink population on Notice. There was a certain air of desperation required for most to bury themselves in garbage. Though she knew Minks with some unique tendencies, the trash-loving types were often rather unmistakable.

That was all the confirmation Aya needed to turn tail and head toward the kindred stranger. Her pace picked up as her excitement redoubled.

The tiny red panda appeared out of nowhere. If greetings were an art, Aya was a pioneer in Fauvism.

Like a cannonball of fluff and tittering laughter wrapped up in an oversized tropical-print shirt, she threw herself with open arms toward the other woman.

Where most might expect a vicious mauling, there was only the delighted nuzzling of fuzzy crimson cheeks to dark fur.

"GARCHUUUU~!!"

It seemed like much too long since she'd shared the greeting with another Mink. It was almost enough to bring tears to her eyes.

"...Youteia have no idea how happy I am to see you!"

And see her Aya certainly did. After the blindness of the initial excitement, she gave a few thoughtful blinks as she looked the other woman over.

"...Are youteia.. uh, some kind of naturist?"

" And... why are you wet?"

The awkward tone of the embrace seemed completely lost to the delighted artist, but the attempted cover-up was not. Aya’s head tilted to one side, fluffy ear twitching.

“Stole your clothes? Who would do something like-”

The irony of the mink dressed in fully ‘borrowed’ clothes questioning such a thing was cut short by the inebriated alleyway intruder. Instinctually the red panda’s paws lifted as if she’d been caught red-handed.

“...Oh, great. “ Aya’s shoulders sunk along with her mood. “Let’s not be too hasty now, alright?”

Being perceivable was such a pain.

Not as much of a pain as being riddled with ammunition would be, though.

With a sheepish grin and a few cautious steps away from her new furred friend and closer to the hick at the end of the path, the red panda blinked out of sight. The already wavering aim at the four furred visions now searched desperately for the missing half of the targets. The sounds of footsteps bounced off the walls of the grubby alleyway.

“What in the-”

As the backwater assailant tried to cut his losses and settle on the remaining prize, his gun seemed to have a sudden change of heart.

The barrel jerked towards the sky, the drunkard’s trigger finger aligned shoulder suddenly slumping following a crackle of static.

With half of his grip now slipping from the firearm, Aya’s nimble paws liberated it fully from the hunter’s grasp.

“..Gimme that. These things aren’t toys, youteia know.”

With all the practiced tone of a disapproving older sister, the little red panda showed herself again and turned the barrel towards its stammering owner.

“...Now scram.”

Hoping desperately that the man would be too confused and overwhelmed to recognize that Aya had very little idea how to handle a weapon like this, she took a quick glance back towards Yumiko and gave the man time enough to make himself scarce.

“Let’s find a less conspicuous place for introductions, shall we? Are those big claws youteia have any good for climbing?”

In a surprising show of tenacity and a significantly less surprising display of skullduggery, Aya’s thoughts reduced to dazed nothingness as a nearly empty bottle made contact with the top of her head. Broken glass and cheap booze littered her hair and dribbled down her face.

The tiny mink stood stunned as the laughter of a drunkard who thought he had the upper hand rang through her ears. With a little huff, she tried to blow sopping wet strands of red out of her face.

“...Ow.”

Stars.

A whole miniature galaxy at her feet.

Aya's bleary eyes and the rough-edged glint of the shards of glass that lay scattered around her boots collaborated to fill her sight with indistinct points of light.

A shake of her head made the other glass particles twinkle down to join the others. She might have been lost in the artistry of her own misfortune, had a growl not perked her ears.

When she raised her gaze, she was still convinced her brain was too shaken up to make sense of what was going on. The Mink's striped tail wrapped around her frame as she tried to understand where the sudden surge of wind and rubbish had come from.

Her maw opened to question aloud but before she could form the words she was lifted by the weasel woman. Clinging was practically second nature to Aya at this point, so the stranger's instruction was certainly not lost on her.

Neither was the smell of trash and old alcohol, unfortunately. It certainly wasn't helping her dizziness.

Aya had been silently considering whether this was all some sort of strange, cruel dream egged on by loneliness when her heroine turned her attention back to her. It took a few absent-minded blinks before the red panda reached both paws up, one to adjust her shades and one to run her claws through scarlet strands of hair.

"...Me? I'm sure it looks worse than it is. Don't worry about it too much..." Aya seemed to take heart suddenly, grinning and motioning lightly bloodied hands at her savior.

"But look at youteia!! That was- I mean, how did youteia-" The excited little fluffball circled, taking the chance to get a good look at her.

"They really make 'em different outside of Zou, huh?" She tittered, staring up to marvel at the mustelid madam.

Within mere moments, the affectionate runt was upon her in another thankful fluffy frenzy.

"GARCHUU~! Youteia really saved my fur down there! "

"...Oh! Speaking of..."

After a couple of steps back, Aya removed her backpack. She rustled through the artist's tools, holding a few articles of clothing up one after the other in the other woman's direction.

A bikini top adorned with strawberry designs. A small pair of shorts. A glitzy but slinky party dress.

Each time she paused to consider, then set the apparel to the side.

"You're welcome to these, Miss-... Uh..."

Hesitating, Aya turned back to quirk a round brow.

"...What's your name, friend? Mine's Aya."

The short panda's ears twitched at the question.

"Of course Zou is far away!" With a snicker and a shake of the head, Aya turned her attention toward the direction of home. Her focus lingered there momentarily.

"...Youteia can't feel it?" Her voice hushed as she thought about it. Was it because this Mink wasn't from Zou? In her mind, that was the only probable answer for all this confusion. The idea of being so cut off from the welcoming arms of so many other Minks was almost enough to bring a tear to her eyes behind those dark lenses.

She resolved to simply try to pack all the Minkship she could into the cuddly thank-you hugs.

The way Yumiko hesitantly accepted the gifted clothing did catch Aya's attention, but perhaps not for the right reasons.

Instead, the young woman was convinced it must have been because her new friend was feeling embarrassed about not having her own clothes available to trade in return. It was a show of amity, after all.

"...Don't worry about it! I trade most of my clothes out when I visit a new place anyway. Youteia can keep them if you'd like."

Aya tucked the dress back into her bag, watching as the other seemed to struggle with the clothing.

"Ah... It's called a 'bikini'. There's usually a bottom piece, too, but uh... the one with it didn't have tail room. Lesser minks don't consider that sort of thing."

" Here, let me help youteia. It's a wonder you can do much of anything with claws like that."

She cautiously swiped the top back from sizable claws and circled to step behind the weasel.

"... Recent change in occupation then, Yumiko?" A soft sigh came from behind as Aya pulled the top into place on the taller woman. " We're in the same boat there."  That change was why the little thief had ended up back in Notice in the first place.

Nimble little fingers worked to tie the bikini on securely.

"Wandering itself isn't anything to be sad about though," Aya paused to consider her choice of  words, "...New perspectives reveal the beauty in the unknown."

She stepped back around to admire her handy work with a tilt of her head and the discerning eye of a creator, then gave a delighted double thumbs-up.

"You'd almost fit in with the tourists now!" Something about her discomfort told Aya that this wasn't quite the style the weasel woman would have preferred, though.

With her hands now free, the Mink fished a booze-dampened cigarette from one of the pockets of her backpack, lit it with a spark between her fingertips, and took a breath of the clove-spiced smoke.

" ...What kind of selfish jerk would go and steal your clothes, anyway?"

Aya's fluffy noggin nodded as she listened to the melancholy summary of Yumiko's recent bad luck. Though curious, she was polite enough to bite her tongue and not poke into what was obviously a sullen subject.

Instead, she focused on the ill-burning smoke between her teeth. The uneven smolder and the sound of the Lesser Minks below made her scrunch up her nose distastefully.

When her new friend's little wish graced the artist's ears Pikasso nearly choked on stale smoke as she gave a sputtering snicker.

"...Is that right?"

The tip of her sharp canine decorated a delighted smirk.

"Sounds like youteia are about to end that run of bad luck then, my friend."

Finally, a decent puff. A thoughtful look overtook the red panda as she considered her next words.

"...I'll lend youteia just that and help youteia find your belongings. In return, all I ask is that youteia help me with my more creative talents."

Aya recalled an earlier offer and rested a paw on her chin as she pondered it.

"...Maybe over sake? Modeling tends to make people a little rigid anyway.  It's always easier with drinks."

She let the other Mink have the moment to consider, using that time to display her side of the offer more transparently. She held up the dark cigarette for Yumiko to view before it vanished briefly. Smoke still trailed from the place where the ember once glowed.

"It works as long as I'm touching whatever needs to disappear. Helping youteia out would be no problem."

The excited grin on her face nearly divulged the fact that Aya would have likely helped just for the fun of it, but with this deal she'd get mystery-chasing and inspiration.

This was just too good to pass up.

"...What do you say?"