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Art by injuotoko
Author's Note: I was inspired to write this after reading some old Weird Tales stories.
A man entered a nightclub in Symphonia’s Landing, the capitol city of Vega Prime, which was the capitol world of the Technocracy of Vega. He did not fit in with the other customers. He was fat, his hair was unkempt, and his shirt and pants were covered in old stains and had never known the touch of an iron. He had also never known the touch of a woman, and all the men at the local university mocked him for it. He couldn’t take it anymore. He swore that on this day, he would take a drunk girl home with him and lose his virginity to her.
Techno music blared in the background. Lights flashed on the densely packed dance floor. The bar had rounded edges and bright neon lights splashed vivid colors onto the polished white surface. The walls were much the same. He looked around and saw that the building was packed full of beautiful women and even some catgirls. There were also a nearly equal number of men and catboys who were flirting with them. Competition would be stiff, but he was hopeful there would be at least one woman who would go out with him.
His attention was immediately drawn to the girl closest to him, a short brunette in a black dress. He walked up to her, but when he opened his mouth, his mind froze like a malfunctioning computer. He couldn’t think of a way to naturally introduce himself. He couldn’t think of anything interesting to say. His only pastimes were anime and video games, and he knew from personal experience that no woman wanted to hear about that. She turned and gave him a look that told him he was making her feel uncomfortable. He frowned in embarrassment and walked to the bar.
The man had suffered from social awkwardness since childhood. Whenever he tried to ask for advice, everyone would tell him the exact same thing: “Just be yourself.” He tried doing that for years and it only brought him shame and embarrassment. The latest turn of events reinforced his notion that he was lied to. Since he was at the bar, he got the idea that perhaps some liquid courage would help him talk to women. He ordered a martini, chugged it down, and went back into the crowd. He walked up to a cute young woman with a blond bob cut and a striped black and white dress.
“Hi there,” he said. “What’s your name?”
“I’m sorry,” she replied, “but I have a boyfriend.”
The next five women he tried gave him that exact same response. He remembered potential dates back in high school telling him the same thing. He knew they didn’t actually have boyfriends. They would tell him that just to make him go away. He felt annoyed and frustrated. He went back to the bar for another drink, a cosmopolitan this time. Shortly after he finished it, he heard wild laughter off in the distance. Stumbling to the source of the noise, he found a heavily inebriated woman in a tube top and miniskirt sprawled out on one of the white cushioned booths next to the wall, hooting and hollering.
“Which one of you boys wants to have a good time with me?” she proclaimed.
He approached her with a giddy smile.
She pointed at him and said, “Not you.”
His smile instantly vanished. He ventured back to the bar and ordered himself a white lady. After drinking it down in one gulp, he remembered that catgirls had a reputation for being sexually promiscuous. He looked around and found two of them whispering to each other and giggling. They wore matching white dresses, had the same white bob cut, the same deep blue eyes, and their furry white tails wagged in unison. They were twins. Thinking he could get a two for one deal, he waddled over to them.
“Hey there, pretties.” His words were beginning to slur. “How’d you like to come back to my place for some fun?”
They looked at him as if he were wearing the skin of their mother. They both replied, “Ew, no.”
The constant rejections made him feel hopeless. He returned once more to the bar and ordered a Black Russian. He then realized he remembered wrong. Not all catgirls behaved the same. The white-haired ones were more pure than the others. It was the black-haired ones who were the most promiscuous. He scanned the crowd once again, and despite his vision becoming blurry, he found one. She was tall and slender. Her silky black hair went past her shoulders. Her outfit was the same color as her hair and consisted of a tank top, tight leather leggings, and stilettos. He didn’t care if she appeared to be of the dominating sort. At this point, he just wanted a woman, any woman, to take his virginity. He slowly approached her, struggling to keep his balance, but before he could even say a word, she quickly turned her head and hissed at him. Struck by fear, he returned to the bar and ordered several shots of vodka to drown his misery.
He slumped forward, laid his head upon his forearms, and stared at the neon-colored shelves behind the bar. He wondered if this was what the rest of his life would be like: rejected by women, mocked by men, destined to die alone and forgotten. He felt a horrible sense of isolation despite being surrounded by so many people. He wished someone would come along and magically fix his broken life.
Someone behind him giggled and said, “Hello, handsome.”
He spun around in his stool. Standing before him was the most beautiful catgirl he had ever seen. The world around him was blurred beyond recognition, but he saw her as clear as day. Her shoulder length blond hair looked like liquid gold. Her blue eyes were like sapphires. He was in awe of her smooth white skin and her almost divine face. He became even more excited when he saw what she was wearing: a tight pink latex dress.
She put her hands behind her back and tilted her head slightly. “Are you lonely?”
He lowered his head in confirmation, then looked back up at her.
She leaned forward and made her cleavage more prominent. “I can fix that.”
He stared at her chest as though he were in a trance. She winked at him, stood upright, turned around, looked back at him, and started wagging her tail.
“You like what you see?” she asked while caressing her butt.
He rapidly nodded his head as he got up from his stool.
She giggled. “I’ll let you do whatever you want to me. I’ll make your wildest dreams come true. Would you like that?”
He kept nodding as he walked towards her.
“Well, you’ll have to catch me first.”
She ran to the door and beckoned him with her finger. He started running towards her and they both exited the building. Pedestrians gave him frightened looks as he crossed several busy intersections. Despite being completely wasted, his all-consuming lust for the catgirl in pink enabled him to keep his balance and dodge all the traffic. He pursued her across a dozen city blocks, but no matter how fast he ran, she remained just out of reach. She entered a tall apartment complex and he went in after her. Startled patrons moved out of the way as he chased her up 50 flights of stairs and onto the roof. She stopped at the ledge and turned to face him, smiling seductively.
“Well, you caught me.” She put her arms forward. “Now come take me.”
Breathing heavily from exhaustion and lust, he rushed forward and reached out to grab her. He stumbled, passed through her body, and fell off the ledge.
He realized too late that she was a drunken hallucination. As he fell, time seemed to slow to a crawl. In those final moments, he became filled with regret. He wished he had ignored all those mocking comments people made towards him. He wished he had never gone to that nightclub. He wished he hadn’t drunk himself into a stupor. He wished he hadn’t let himself be blinded by lust. He wished he could do so many things differently.
A few seconds later, he splattered onto the sidewalk.
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