Young Writers Society

Mage considered the options.

He knew they needed to get new clothes they could use on their world, but he also really did want to try on other clothes. And if there was no rush for them to go home...

"Can we go to the store that James wanted to go to?"

Harry frowned ever so slightly at that, before deciding it was better to ask "Are you saying that to be polite or do you really want to go?"

Mage shook his head. Soul gave a small smile underneath his helmet. It was a concern he had, too. It seemed like Harry knew Mage as well as he did in some ways.

"I want to go," Mage replied. "I want to see different kinds of clothes."

"Awesome!" said Harry, flashing him a smile. "Now arguably the most important question. I can call a couple of people who know way more about clothes than either of us do to help us figure out the best stores, or we could all just wander about and hope for the best."

Mage thought for a moment.

"I'm okay with either one," he said. "I don't really have a preference."

"Okay then I better call in reinforcements," said Harry, with a smile. "Oooh, well I think you'll finally get to meet my sister in that case."

After Harry called his reinforcements with devices that Soul still didn't quite understand, the group went to a shop not that far from the bookstore. It was filled with a variety of clothing and materials that seemed so different that what they had back on their world. Soul knew that was to be expected. He had seen all kinds of people with all kinds of outfits in the street on the way here.

It was just...hard processing it all.

Mage looked at everything in the store with wide eyes and a grin on his face. Soul honestly couldn't remember when he had ever seen Mage so happy. Mage was a teenager, but this was one of the very few times where he came across as younger instead of older.

Harry looked at Mage and Soul with a small smile on his face. It seemed like they would enjoy being here. Vankous and James had proceeded to run off right as they'd arrived at the store mumbling something about pyjamas and pelicans. Harry didn't question it as he waited for his "reinforcements" to arrive.

He'd just about thought of that when there was a call from the entrance to the store.

"Sooo...who convinced you to go shopping?" came Jennifer's voice, sounding entirely too satisfied with itself.

"And to bring us in, this must be serious," added Shania, coming up behind her.

Harry rolled his eyes at the two of them and pointed at Mage and Soul. "Here are the two culprits."

Mage straightened when Harry pointed at him and Soul. He was excited to meet Harry's sister, but was also secretly (or not so secretly, depending on who was trying to read his expression and tense body posture) a little nervous. He didn't know if Harry had mentioned him after the last time they met. He also hadn't meet the other "reinforcement" that had just arrived before.

"Hi," Mage said.

Soul gave a tiny little nod of his head. "It's nice to meet you."

Jennifer immediately measured up the two that Harry pointed at. He was never one to make friends so she'd naturally assumed this was either a prank of some sort or Harry had run into one of the temporal crews on vacation, or maybe The Phantom or someone. What she hadn't expected was two rather random and startlingly normal people. That is until something clicked in her and she realized one of the two was the kid that Harry had mentioned quite a while ago. That must have been an interesting reunion She guessed the other one was a friend of this id who was...what was it now? Malo, Mario, Martha, Magat aha Mage.

Identification complete she nudged Shania who seemed just as curious as she'd been. "Its the kid from that one day with the portal thing."

"The day Stean babysat a ghost?" asked Shania.

"Yup," said Jennifer.

Jennifer then proceeded to smile warmly at the two and give a little wave. She was tempted to go hug Mage, he just seemed entirely too adorable not to, especially considering how Harry had described him to be like earlier, but she figured being hugged by a complete stranger wasn't something a person like Mage would appreciate so she settled for a "Nice to meet you."

After Shania had echoed the same. Jennifer fired off a few questions.

"Where is Stean, Vankous and James? Why are you wearing a very badly created pirate costume? Why do two of you smell like fire?"

"Stean is getting bedsheets," supplied Harry, "and the other two answers have to do with more bedsheets."

"The Haiku spitting kind or the iguana conjuring kind?" asked Shania.

"Thankfully, the haiku ones," said Harry.

"Phew, then where did the fire come from?" asked Jennifer. "Please tell me you didn't set the two poor kids on fire."

"They set themselves on fire," said Harry, "I promise I didn't do that, and no it wasn't Vankous either."

"He's not lying is he?" asked Jennifer, turning to Mage.

The conversation kept going back and forth. Mage was struggling to keep up with it all. Then Harry's sister suddenly turned her attention to him, and Mage tried to remember everything that Harry had described.

Not that Harry would have lied about everything in the first place.

"He's not," Mage said. Next to him, Soul's body posture loosened. He had to be giving an amused smile underneath his helmet. Mage wasn't sure if it was from the back-and-forth conversation or the implication that Soul was Mage's age. Soul was probably younger than everyone except Mage if the two newcomers were like Harry, but he was more like he was in his twenties.

"Good. Okay then enough chit chat on that. I assume you two are the ones wanting clothes. Getting Harry to buy anything knew is a futile endeavor," said Jennifer.

"That is why I called in the experts," said Harry.

Soul shook his head.

"I don't need to buy anything here," he quickly clarified. "Mage is the one who wants to try things on. We're also planning on buying clothes that fits our world later."

Mage gave a nod. He wished Soul could try on clothes, too. He knew that he wanted to; he wasn't against it because he thought it was silly. He just didn't want to share what he looked like underneath his armor.

"Okay, cool. Then hmm, you can brood along with Harry like he always does with this sort of thing. I think that will be better for your sanity than going looking for the other three, well Stean probably but certainly Vankous and James," said Jennifer.

"Agreed," said Shania, nodding along. "So Mage, what sort of clothes do you want to go for first. This is..."

"...not the best," finished Jennifer, "but it has quite a bit of variety which is why I assume Harry.."

"...yes," said Harry.

"Right, so, yes. Let's talk some choices here so we can focus, going for everything at once, while tempting usually doesn't end particularly well," said Jennifer.

Mage frowned and looked over at Soul when Harry's sister mentioned Soul and Harry brooding together. Soul shifted awkwardly. Mage couldn't tell if it was because of the comment or because Mage was staring at him so intently.

Then they asked what kind of clothes he wanted to explore first.

He quickly turned his attention to the others.

"...Anything that fits me?" he hesitantly said, not quite sure it was the answer they were looking for. "I just want to try on clothes that I wouldn't wear on my world."