News screens scattered throughout the station were filled with talking heads, concerned faces and "CRISIS ON THE C" scrolling across the bottoms of the feed.

Emergency workers and news crews alike began filling the station. Caim hoisted Alice a little tighter against his chest as he led Ruby against the tide, the crowd parting around them.

"Bookworms, this is bad," he grumbled, looking for the exit.

"Memetic infection. What the fuck is a memetic infection?" Ruby hissed, clinging to his gloved hand. Alice looked bad, shivering and ashy in Caim's arms. "She needs a doctor. A hospital. There has to be a hospital nearby somewhere, this is fucking New York and..."

"What do you do when you see a picture of a cat being upset by a banana?" Caim interrupted her, one heavy brow lifting. "Or a creepy clown on the subway?"

"I… I guess I reblog it?" she said, glancing back at where the news crews were rushing down to the platform. "But this is a little far away from 'Cat no Like Banana', man. And what has that got do with anything?"

Caim sighed. "The more people think about a meme, the more it spreads. The more people share it, the more people think about it and the more it spreads and so on."

"I don't see how this is gonna help Alice." Ruby's hand tightened on his as they forged their way up the stairs. Like before, she thought she still saw flickers of pallid greasepaint and faded rags in the crowd. "None of this makes sense and she hasn't moved, and I…."

"She's just taking a nap. A deep rest dart while you were busy flipping your pages," Caim scanned the crowd as they moved, keeping Ruby behind him. "It's a temporary fix altogether, but it'll heal her body," He paused to look down at Alice as they stepped out into the early evening. "The bleeding's already stopped and she's breathing normally. Sleeping will only slow the spread of the infection, though, she's going to need an anti-toxin for that and I don't really see a human hospital having that handy. You're going to need to summon Berith."

"You have a dart gun too? And do what with who? What's a Berith? Are you sure they're not following us? Are all those people on the train gonna get better?" Ruby almost crashed into him as Caim stopped dead, his odd, shifting eyes narrowing as they met hers. "What?"

"Break my spine, you're still thinking about it," he grumbled.

"I don't know what it's like in magical 'pop out of a cellphone' land, big guy, but first the clown at the coffee shop and then the shit on the train, and I don't really see how I can't be thinking about it!" Ruby shouted at him, ignoring the scattered odd looks from the passerbys.

Caim scowled down at her, then sighed. Alice still balanced in his arms, he marched across the street to a deli, and gently set the unconscious young woman down on a bench. "We need to get your mind focused on something else before they smell it and more show up," he said firmly, pulling off his sharply-tailored grey coat. There was a t-shirt beneath it, a pale grey-purple, stretched tight across his chest. Two heavy silver bracelets adorned his forearms and covered the tops of his dark gloves.

Ruby very clearly could picture one of them breaking apart and reforming into the gun he'd mowed down the clown-infested passengers with. She wondered what kind of arsenal he might be carrying in those silver bands.

While she was pondering, he draped his coat around Alice's sleeping form, then proceeded to peel off the shirt. "Right then. This calls for drastic measures."

"What the hell are you doing!?" Ruby shrieked as he set the shirt on the bench. All around them, she noticed people casting glances in their direction- both surreptitious and not. She yanked the shirt off the bench and then took a sharp breath as he started to undo his pants. "Fucking shit, man! Leave your pants on! No one wants to see your dick!" Her voice dropped to a shriek-whisper as a well-dressed woman gave Caim a lingering head-to-toe as she walked past. He gave her a wink then turned back to Ruby.

"Yes, yes, I know you're not 'Team Man', Author," he made a set of dramatic air quotes. Ruby shoved the shirt in front of his half-open pants with a screech. "I get that this would've been more entertaining for you if you'd manifested me as a woman, but this is what we have to work with. If it's any help, I have been told I'm a work of art."

"You are going to get us arrested," Ruby hissed, flailing at him until he pulled the shirt back from her indignantly. "Wait, woman, what?" she blurted out, still clinging to a sleeve.

Caim cocked his head, peacock hair sliding across his shoulders, and Ruby could suddenly picture exactly what he would have looked like as a woman. She made a thin, high noise in the back of her throat as she let go of the shirt. "Dear god."

"Someone didn't read the tutorial," Caim sing-songed, and pulled his shirt over his head.

Ruby stared at him as he slid the dust-hued fabric back over his chest. Then she blinked, startled, and reached out to stop him. "Wait, what's… going on with you?" Faint sparks of white light squiggled and danced under the surface of his chest and arms, tiny stars in a golden sky.

He looked down, doing that exasperating head-tilt again, and tucked a few strands of iridescent hair behind his ear. "Updating. It's nothing to be concerned about," he said, his pretty face utterly neutral.

"What are you?" Ruby asked softly. Caim smiled like he had when he'd handed her the phone. "Wait. That actually did get my mind off the clowns."

"We need to get somewhere safe, Author." He glanced down at Alice. "Where is safe?"

"I just want to go home, Caim. I live in Brooklyn, but…" She fidgeted.

"We can't risk the train again. I'll call us a cab. You watch Miss Alice a moment." He patted her shoulder and strode out into the street, directly in front of an onrushing yellow cab.

Ruby thought she might scream as he caught the hood with a loud thunk. The cab's brakes screeched as it impacted with him.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, you motherfucker?!" the cabbie screamed out the window. Caim strode over to him.

He pulled one glove off and laid his hand on the cabbie's. "I know you've already got a passenger, but we have an emergency and need to get to Brooklyn. Can you help us?" he asked. Ruby wasn't sure what language he was speaking, but it still wasn't English, and she still didn't understand why she parsed it perfectly.

Ruby Jones, you are losing your damn mind, she thought, sitting next to Alice on the bench. She stroked her forehead. It was cold and clammy, but she seemed to be sleeping peacefully at least. "Don't worry. I'll make this right, Alice, I promise."

It was hard to tell from the curb, but when Ruby looked back up, she thought the cabbie might be crying. "Of course," he said, a tear still running down his smiling face. "I would do anything for you."

Caim shooed the passenger out, a fancy-suited and deeply confused-looking man, then marched back to scoop up Alice. "Come on then, I've got us a ride," he said now in extremely British sounding English.

"You speak English. You weren't speaking English before, right? And you weren't speaking English to the cabbie and…" Ruby jogged to keep up with him as he carried Alice to the curb. Her voice dropped to a low whisper. "What did you do to that poor man?" Caim just looked down at her. Ruby stabbed her finger into his chest.. "And I swear to god, if you say anything about the tutorial…."

"Get in." Caim settled Alice between them. "I didn't know what address to tell Yusuf. Could you let him know?" High above the skyline, it started to grow dark, sunset settling over the city.

"Caim," Ruby protested, then sheepishly told the cabbie where to go. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen someone look so purely… happy.

Caim didn't say anything until they were to the bridge, Alice sleeping nestled against his side. Then he pulled off his glove again and offered his hand to Ruby. "This is good way to explain some of it," he said. "Look around."

Ruby cautiously took his hand, then glanced out of the window.

She had never seen the city like this. The sky was a glorious cacophony of colour. The dark shapes of the skyline and the dawning lights became the outlines of a million stories. The sound of tires on the bridge deck sang a song with a rhythm she wanted to share with everyone. Ruby saw the light and dark and sound and shape and understood in that perfect moment that there were a thousand paintings and photographs and tapestries all waiting to be born from all of it.

Ruby yanked her hand free, right as she was filled with inspiration regarding embroidery and artisanal baking. Her heart was racing. "Oh my god you're a muse," she breathed. "Like, a real muse. I'm either hallucinating or in a real-life murder-version of Xanadu."

Caim laughed, his big body shaking in delight. "I love that movie," he admitted, tucking his hair back. "And it's true, we have been called muses, but the proper term is a daemon."

"A demon?" Ruby asked, her head swirling with three new novels and a collage project. "I'm not religious, but…"

"Daemon. Which you would have known…"

Yusuf was singing up front, a song from his youth that he'd forgotten a long, long time ago. Ruby rubbed her eyes.

"If I'd looked at the tutorial. I get it. I get it." Her hand tightened on the phone in her pocket and she squeezed her eyes shut. "This is too much."

"Author," Caim said.

"And what is with this Author shit? " She asked, eyes still shut. In her hand, the phone chirped mournfully.

"Author," Caim said again, an edge to his voice. 

"Caim, what the fuck?" Ruby muttered, exhaustion creeping up on her. She snapped her eyes open as the cab came to a sudden halt.

"Ruby," Caim said sharply and he leaned forward in his seat while Yusuf started to curse. Behind them, brakes screeched and other drivers leaned on their horns.

She followed his gaze out the front window to the gigantic box in the middle of the bridge.

"I'm gonna guess that's not good, is it," she muttered as the game trilled softly.

"No," Caim said in a flat voice. "It's definitely not."