"Yakuza, that's the mob over there isn't it?"

"Yes," she said still admiring herself in the mirror. "Are you familiar with the Yakuza?"

"I saw an article about them in a tattoo magazine. Some of the work was beautiful, whole sleeves and torso murals but nothing as stunning as that."

"That's because none of the top men that can afford this quality can be photographed."

"How much did it cost? If you don't mind me asking."

"250,000 dollars."

"No shit, that's serious money."

"I suppose so," she said, lighting the cigarettes.

"When did you get it done?"

"Right after I turned eighteen. It took about two weeks," she said, putting down the lighter. "Do you have any tattoos?"

"No.”

"Well what do you think of this design?" she asked offering a cigarette in her right hand so the Embe symbol was toward me.

"I could live with that one," I said, smiling as I took the smoke.

She turned the wick of the lamps down until there was barely enough light to see her face when she laid down next to me. There was a long silence before she spoke. "You'll probably be very popular with the others at first."

"Why, because I'm new?"

"That's part of it. You are new to us, but you're also young. More specifically you act and think young, and most of them will find that very attractive. You see most of them are creatures of habit and old habits at that. Someone as young as you will remind them of what it was like to be normal, and we were all normal once.

"It's not a bad thing but I've seen it happen before and I want you to be prepared for it," she said.

"You mentioned normal earlier, but I don't feel normal at all. I walk around this town and see crowds of people all the time. Each time I look at them and wonder if any one of them is like me and each time I feel so different, so un-normal that I can't help but see myself as an alien, some kind of stranger among them. The thoughts they have, their motivations, fears, and desires all seem so contrary to my own. I always saw them as normal."

She drew in long on the cigarette, the dull orange glow highlighting her face. "Maybe you're not as young as you seem."

Silence.

"Are you a creature of habit?" I asked.

"Yes." I felt her roll over next to me. "But all my habits are bad," she said in a husky voice before biting me on the shoulder.