Era of Madness

Photographer

The group finally arrived where Erica wanted to get. Penny got out of the floating car with even more energy than before entering it, truly refreshed by the shaky ride, while John and Tyler were simply grabbing their stomaches, surprised to be still alive and resisting the urge to empty their stomach on the ground.

"Oh, come on guys, aren't you ashamed to be unable to take a little action even half as good as a girl that's not even half your size?" she asked while stroking Penny's hair. "I knew you guys better than that"

Without giving her unfortunate victims the time to answer, she entered a rustic little shop, waiting for them to follow. Tyler and John looked at the shop's name: 'Londris Little Souvenirs'. Was it a photography shop or something?

Indeed, when they entered, they saw a lot of ancient photography equipement. The manager, also being the person taking the photographies, was an old woman, quite short, who seemed to exude kindness.

She installed all four of them in a spot, offering each of them a candy. John politely refused, but not the other three. Tyler, seeing Penny eat her candy in a single bite, wondered how, as an android, her taste buds worked- and more importantly, how could she digest it... transform it into energy... whatever she was doing?

He wisely decided to abandon the question as they got into position for the photo:

"Alright youths, please choose the position you want to stay in for the photography, you have twenty seconds" the old lady said as she calmly started to work with the equipement.

After the five first seconds, John sneezed and accidentaly hit Tyler with his shoulder. Annoyed, the latter pushed him back, and this time john bumped into Erica. Rapidly, she and Tyler started bickering as they each used one hand to try pushing the other out of the photography spot.

John tried separating them, to no avail, giving birth to a ridiculous scene. Hearing the bickerings behind them, penny turned around, and couldn't help but laugh at the scene while holding her stomach.

"Aaaaand now, don't move lads" the old lady said.

The four of them froze on spot, and did all they could not to move despite how uncomfortable their positions were. After a few minutes, the photography was ready, and they could finally get back into correct positions.

"Argh, I feel like I'm going to have cramps" Tyler said, stretching his arm.

"Me too, and I blame you for this" Erica said.

"I hate you"

"Same. You wanna go grab the champaign I told you about now?"

"Sure"

They quickly paid and left, leaving the task of waiting for the photos to be ready to John and Penny. The latters looked at them in slight disbelief, seriously starting to wonder how their brains were working.

.

.

"Fiou, I had some doubt but you really now this part of the city like the back of your hand, it's definitely better than the one from the Party Hall, and probably a lot cheaper too" Tyler said as he drank a sip directly from the champaign bottle he had in his hand, having already emptied the first third of it.

"Yeah, people often think that the price depends on the quality, but in truth that's only one of the variables" Erica agreed. "Anyway, maybe you shouldn't drink all of this right now?"

"Yeah, yeah, you're right, then I'll give you the pleasure to bring it backto the ship for me"

"Bastard, where are you going anyway?"