Closing Time

Emily shivered, "Yeah, don't do that," she agreed.

There was a pause, then, "Hey, uh, my mass protection spells have been a little...okay, a lot lacking lately, and they're a little important. So, uh, I guess I'm asking if you know a way to help with that...maybe?"

Gods, it had been forever since she'd had to ask for instruction. Usually, a library or something took care of that for her, but not in this case. Mass protection spells were kept under secure lock and key after some psycho decided to use one to barricade themselves inside one of the Thalassiellan palaces with the royal family inside, effectively holding them hostage.

Because someone always had to ruin it for everyone else.

"I wouldn't worry about that possibility," Nubes said to Magic. "You seem like an exceptionally kind and friendly person. I can see why reality might be hesitant to accept the authority of someone who is capable of manipulating it, but you appear to know what you're doing."

Out of the corner of his eye, the leopard caught Lunis pulling up one of the storefront gates and slipping inside. Nubes rolled his eyes; it was probably the panther finding some other clothes so he could get Kane to wear his shorts.

Magic was silent for a moment.

"I don't," they admitted. "And it's not because I can't say it - I'm not as in tune with the magic of the multiverse as I used to be, and most of the magic I do is from memory. That version of a mass protection spell is one I never really used before because of how powerful it is - I always thought I'd get punished if I did use it."

A short distance away, Kane and Leon watched as Lunis slipped inside one of the stores.

Kane grabbed onto his necklace.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" he asked.

Emily glanced back and realized what was happening.

"I've gotta get that moron a leash," she muttered and jumped down to the floor.

"Lunis," she called, "If you do anything as mind-bogglingly stupid as I know you're capable, I'll magically bind you to Nubes until we figure out how to get out of this gods-dammed mall!"

"What?" Lunis growled. The panther pulled the store's gate up yet again, letting it crash down behind him as he walked over to Emily. He was now wearing a pair of blue pants, his shorts slung over his shoulder. "You're not binding me or leashing me to anyone," he said, glaring at Emily. "I just wanted to see if I can get Kane to look like me, alright?"

Nubes, in the meantime, did his best to ignore the panther. "Erm, since you happen to be the personification of magic, should I be concerned that you are not as connected to it as you used to be?" he said, frowning slightly as he looked over at Magic.

Emily gave him a hard look, "You fooling around in worlds you don't understand has created problems before," she said in a controlled tone, "I don't want to have to deal with another of your screw-ups today."

It felt a bit like talking to one of the more irritable children. She was never good at that. But the words were said, and she'd meant them. If she had to fix another mistake made despite her warnings she was going to lose it.

To Nubes's surprise, Lunis actually dropped his voice - was he actually intimidated by Emily? Had he somehow learned anything remotely like a lesson? "Okay, what's the problem with getting someone to put on pants?" the panther said. "If you know so much about messing around with other worlds, can you tell me what's the worst thing that could happen?"

She gave an exasperated sigh, "Magical objects can be unpredictable. Cross-worlds magic is incredibly dangerous, no matter how harmless you think it should be. I once saw an Egyptian tracking spell that, when used on a Nedifaean object, proceeded to level a building. I don't think I'm being overly cautious when I tell you that experimenting here may not be the wisest plan."

Lunis mumbled something about how funny it'd be if the whole building collapsed because of a pair of shorts, but stepped away from Emily.

"Fine," he finally said, staring at the ground. "But these new pants feel nice, so I'm keeping them."

Throughout the entirety of the conversation, Magic, Leon and Kane had been silently following all of the points made. Magic knew the necklace wouldn't have caused any physical problems for Kane if he had put on the shorts, but they also knew that Kane would be more than a little uncomfortable changing his form again. Even his current one had been a hard one to sell, and they had actually needed it.

Leon glanced over at Kane before looking back at Lunis.

"If you want to see someone look like you, I could do it," he offered, raising his hand a little. "I don't have a necklace, but I can change my form to whatever I want it to look like."

"You could do that?" Lunis said, ears perking up. He glanced over at Emily and immediately restrained himself, voice dropping slightly as he stepped back. "If it doesn't destroy this place or anything."

He nodded.

"It won't," he promised. He gave him a grin. "I can do other forms, too, if you're interested!"

"What's the weirdest thing you've ever looked like?" said Lunis, now sounding a little more excited. He was used to people who had a couple different forms, but Leon sounded like he had a lot more - Lunis couldn't help but be curious. Shapeshifting not being dangerous was also a plus.

He thought for a second.

"...I'm not really sure," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I've done mostly human ones lately - it's been awhile since I did anything that didn't look a little normal. But my dad used to say that I changed into a lot of strange, random forms when I was little. I...I never asked him what, but..."

He faltered and trailed off.

Magic and Kane both sent him worried glances.

"But I can do basically anything you want," Leon cheerfully said, bouncing back into his earlier attitude. "I'm not even limited to my gender. And theoretically I can do objects, too, but I haven't ever really done those before."

Emily decided that she wouldn't need to be intervening in anything reckless anytime soon and hopped back onto the wall.

"When you change your shape, do you get the abilities of whatever you shift into? Like, if you turned into me could you do what I'm doing now with the gravity?" she asked curiously.