Caught on camera

Dancers swirled around the gold clad ballroom in their elegant masks and gowns, as the pastel pride bun dashed around the edge, who seemed quite out of place in the crowd, with just a large scarf and floating clouds covering their face, rather than a mask, snapping pictures of the guests as they glided around. 

Breeze had been hired to the fairy masquerade as a photographer, and they had no intention of ever disappointing a client, especially one as important as Angora. Once they were satisfied with the results, for now at least, they turned their attention to the many beautifully dressed buns as they socialised around the outskirts, and continued snapping pictures. 

Lune was lazily sipping on champagne in the corner. He managed to sneak in through the back doors when the catering staff left the door wide open. So far, he’s just been enjoying the wonderful champagne and food. He figured that later in the night, most of the buns would get wasted, which would make his job much easier. 

He had been silently observing the party for around half an hour. He glanced to his right. He managed to spot the perfect target: a blue pride bun who was extremely drunk… and extremely wealthy. They wouldn’t even notice a thing if their diamond necklace disappeared. Lune looked around. The coast was clear. He slowly made his way to the drunk bun. 

“Hello cutie,” Lune put his arm around the drunk bun’s shoulders and slowly started undoing the necklace. The drunk bun just smiled, unaware of what’s going on. Just as Lune was about to pocket the necklace, he saw a flash in the corner of his eye. He turned just in time to see a pride bun with a large scarf quickly retreating into the crowd. “Fuck.”

Breeze had finally mustered up the courage to talk with some of the guests, approaching a couple lavishly dressed in gorgeous flowing ball gowns, “Um, hello, your outfits are absolutely stunning…”. They asked if they were willing to pose so they could take a picture of their outfits. They were very eager, so they instructed them to act, and snapped the shot. Breeze softly thanked the two buns, before they disappeared off into the crowd, not wanting to get stuck in conversation. 

They scanned the outskirts of the hall, hoping to find a quiet corner to sit for a moment and review their work so far. They were completely oblivious to the scene that they had captured on camera, much too focused on their interaction with the couple to notice the theft that was occurring in the background of the shot. Once they found a suitable spot, they began scanning through the photographs, beginning at the start of the evening, to remove anything subpar, and make sure the rest was up to their standards. 

Lune quickly went into the direction he last saw the pride bun. He scanned the face of every bun he passed, but couldn’t seem to find that damn bun. He was getting more and more frantic and frustrated. He went around the entire ballroom three more times, but couldn’t find any trace at all. It was as if the bun simply disappeared. Lune was starting to panic, but he reminded himself to calm down. Panicking in this environment would lead to too much suspicion. 

Lune sighed. It would be best to get a drink to calm down his nerves. He quickly downed a champagne, then another, then another. He grabbed one last one, found a quiet corner, and sat down. He started thinking about the bun from earlier. 

Lune’s mind raced. The pride bun was dressed very informally for the ball. Could they have been an undercover officer hoping to catch him in the act? That would be the worst case scenario… but knowing Angora, she’d probably take extra care to make sure there were no cops at the party due to Angora’s back room activities. Maybe it was a photographer then? Angora does post magnificent pictures of the party every year. Maybe this is one of the photographers Angora hired. If that’s the case, did they notice what Lune was doing? 

Lune leaned back and sighed. This wasn’t a good situation at all. Where could that brat be? Suddenly, Lune heard a sneeze. He turned his head and saw the photographer reviewing their photos. 

Lune finished off the rest of his champagne, put down his drink, and got up. He had to get that photo back. He slowly approached the bun, “Hello! That’s a nice camera you have there! Can you tell me more about it?” 

“Oh!” Breeze jumped when they heard the voice, startled, as they were not expecting anyone to approach them. They looked up at the source of the voice, seeing a dark furred bun, two large, curling, silver trimmed pride horns atop his head. They pulled the scarf up further on their face, hiding in it, as their eyes continued to scan the well dressed, masked bun up and down.

“Umm, I'm sorry, can I help you with something..?” They mumbled, not really registering his question at first. “If you want your photo taken, it'll have to wait a couple of minutes. I'm a little preoccupied at the minute, important work for an important client, you know… Oh wait, that's not what you were asking, I'm sorry.”

They seemed to get even more flustered, laughing nervously. “Oh, the camera…” They looked back down at the grey device held in their hands. “Well, it's a Bunni E6 C, if you're looking to get one for yourself… Personally I prefer the E5… But Ang- I mean, my client, requested only the best, this works better in places like this, there's not a whole lot of a quality difference that's really noticeable, but well…”

They continued to ramble on about their collection of cameras, getting slightly louder and more confident as they went on, until they remembered where they were, becoming apologetic again.

“Oh, shit, sorry, probably not what you meant…”

Lune calmed down a bit. They probably have not noticed the photo yet. “No worries! That camera is genuinely amazing. I’ve never seen a Bunni E6 before! Can I try taking a picture with it?” Breeze mumbled, “No thank you... I really need to focus on my work.” Breeze started scrolling through the photos once more. Lune insisted, “Please? I really want to see the camera.” Breeze was reluctant. They really hated pushy people, but they handed over the camera because they didn’t want further confrontation. “Thank you so much!,” then Lune pointed off into the distance, “Is that Angora?!” Breeze turned to look only to see nobody there. When they turned back to confront Lune, he was already gone. 

Lune had run off into the crowd to try to lose Breeze. It took quite a while because Breeze was faster than they seemed. Lune’s horns also stood out, making him really easy to track. After a while, Lune finally succeeded and lost Breeze. He found an empty corner and started rapidly scrolling through the photos to find the one he was in… and it was deleted. That was an extremely close call. He was so focused on the task at hand the whole time that he didn’t even notice an exhausted Breeze approaching him with heavy breathing. 

“Sir… I require my camera back please… Otherwise I'll have to contact security…” they panted. They were very tempted to get them involved anyway, as behaviour like this was definitely not welcome at the ball. The only issue with that was having to explain the issue to the bouncer. They were nervous talking to anyone in general, not to mind say someone in their position. What if they reported the issue to Angora? That could lead to negative publicity to their business, and from someone as influential as her, that could lead to their entire career, all their work, crumbling with no hopes of being able to rebuild. 

They were surprised when he handed back the device with little hesitation. “Thank you… May I ask why..? Nevermind, doesn't matter, please tell me you didn't break anything…” They began to scan it for any damages. The hardware seemed to still be in pristine shape at the very least. They took a quick sample photo, and began scanning through the saved pictures, quickly noticing their most recent one of the well dressed couple to be gone. Did they forget to click? No, they remembered the flash. Faulty memory card? But everything else seemed fine.

 “Um, sir, did you by any chance tamper with-” When Breeze looked back at where the bun had been standing, he was already gone. “Sir?” They turned, and began to scan the crowd, but there was no sign of the dark furred stranger. “Huh…” Nothing really they could do now, and they would rather not try to track him down again. With a sigh, they walked back into the middle of the ballroom, and resumed their work, watching out for whatever they saw that would make for a good photograph. They didn't see the strange bun again, and had no further interuptions to their work.