Down below, a vampire exits a fairly unobtrusive building and sits down on the steps outside. Without thinking about it, he pulls out a pack of cigarettes. Before he can get much beyond that, he sighs as he remembers that this no longer does anything for him. He had just been turned a couple weeks before, and old habits die hard. Instead, he leans back against the wall behind him and looks up at the sky.

It's only been a couple weeks since he was turned, but in that time a lot has changed. Sitting outside a bar aimed at various supernatural creatures, he debates where he wants to go from here.

A somewhat short man, with dark green curly hair and a green smoking jacket, riding a rather large cloud leopard, bounds down beside him from some inexplicable direction of 'up.'

No one else seems to notice the man, who's grinning and looking at Alek.

"Hello!" the man says, brightly.

Alek startles when someone suddenly appears near him. He's never been the most observant person, but he thinks he should have noticed someone approaching on a leopard. He takes a quick look around and is surprised to see no one else reacting. Somewhat suspicious, Alek stands up.

"Hi," he says hesitantly. As he does, he his eyes flick to the leopard, and then around to see if anyone is staring at him. Based on the initial lack of reaction, he can only assume the man's invisible. If they can't see him, will they still notice Alek talking to thin air?

"You seemed rather at a loss. Directionless, one might say."

People seem to be instinctively avoiding the leopard but no one's really acting like Alek's behaving oddly.

"I...guess you could say that," he said, confused and kind of concerned about what was going on.

He was in some ways relieved other people were not reacting like was standing here talking to himself. At the same time, it scared him a bit that this person could make them both either invisible or at least inconspicuous.

"How would you like to go on an adventure?"

"What kind of adventure?"

He probably shouldn't even consider taking him up on this offer. He knew nothing about the man except that he was magic and decided to appear to Alek for some reason. At the same time, he really didn't have much of a sense of direction at the moment, and this could at least be interesting.

"One to somewhere quite strange, full of strange people and strange happenings - and full of opportunities, too."

"Will I be able to come back if I say yes?" He was also tempted to ask if saying yes was likely to kill him, or if he even had that much of a choice in the matter, but he was also unsure how many questions he could ask before the man got annoyed.

"Of course! Staying's the hard part."

"How is staying hard?"

"Things like to be where they belong, usually."

"Oh...okay," he says, although he has no idea what that actually means.

He looks back at the building behind him, and considers whether he really needs to be here right now. His friend might be sad he left, but they aren't that close. He doesn't really have anyone else he both gets along with and talks to regularly. This could be...interesting, at least. "Well, if I'll be back, I guess I'd be okay with going on an adventure."

"Excellent!" the man exclaims. "Well, the quickest way we're going is upon Cloud Leopard, if you'll climb up behind me."

"Sure," he says, not sounding entirely certain about this plan. Despite his uncertainty, he climbs on the leopard and holds onto the man in front of him.

And off they go! The world zooms past, until they're over the ocean, clouds spraying around them.

Alek may let out a small squeak when they take off, and he tightens his hold on the man in front of him. He assumed traveling by leopard would be weird, but this is much faster than expected. Still, if it takes a few minutes, he eventually manages to pay attention to his surroundings and can actually appreciate the view.

They come to a set of pillars, rising from the ocean, like they're flanking a massive invisible gate.

Well, that's new. He briefly wonders if he's going to Atlantis. Would that look like this though? He wishes he remembered more of the myths, fairy tales, and legends he heard as a kid. He feels he should have been told at some point when he became a vampire which of those were actually real, but that hasn't happened.

"So...does the place we're going have a name?"

"Fairyland's what most people call it, though that's not entirely accurate as of late," the man says, cheerfully.

"Oh, why isn't it accurate anymore?" He tries to remember what he's heard about fairies, but really it hasn't been much. He knows he's heard about fairy circles, and he thinks you're not supposed to eat things from fairies. He has no idea how this interacts with drinking blood, from a fairy or from Fairyland in general. Fortunately he's fed rather recently, but that'll still come up if he's here for more than a few days.

"Not so many fairies, especially in the ruling positions."

"Who else is ruling Fairyland?"

"Currently no one in particular; we have a Queen only half the time - not a fairy, though - and a ruling council the other half. If there's an emergency the Queen's sister steps up, but I believe she's monarch of Fairyland-Below, which can make things complicated, and the Princess is half Marid, so her ruling would be quite complicated."

He tries to commit this to memory, but he's missing some major concepts. "What's Fairyland-Below? And also a Marid? For that matter, what are you?" After a brief pause, he adds, "Sorry if that's rude."