Young Writers Society

According to the canon timeline, Schadel and Damascus were supposed to meet as children in a strange pocket of reality and then go their separate ways. But the multiverse is mysterious, and often plays out in ways that it isn't supposed to. In the case of Schadel and Damascus, in a reality quite like the true one, they find that they have not become separated. By some random change in fate, Damascus--a young daemon who has run away from his home--has ended up in New York City of the 1920s, and the only person he can possibly turn to is Schadel, a young grim reaper who has a love of humans and the human realm.

And when Schadel realizes that one of her honorary brothers has ended up coming back home with her, she decides that it's time to make things a bit more permanent.

When she came to, she was sitting in an alleyway in a human city. It only took a few moments for her to realize that she had returned to New York City, and another few moments for her to realize that she needed to change her form. Humans weren't supposed to see what she looked like in her true form, but one could never know what a reaper was like. So she popped up from behind a few trashcans, looked around and tried to figure out what the best form to use was.

She really like the idea of being John Watson again. The pants had felt nice. And that teenage girl had been fun, too, but she wasn't supposed to wear pants looking like that and no one would ever take her seriously at that age. She mulled over the options. There was a third one she could use--the young woman that she used at Blanx's shop. Out in the open would require pants, but she liked the idea of being someone who wasn't all that different than herself.

She let the change come over her, then fully emerged from her little hiding spot in the alleyway. She smoothed down her dress (yuck!), fixed up her hat and the handbag that she had made for good measure, then peered down into the street. Where exactly was she, and how far away from Blanx's house was she right now?

Damascus

Damascus blinked from where he lay, curled next to a container that was eminating a foul smell. His nose wrinkled, and he sat up carefully, looking around. Where in Paradise was he? It was somewhere relatively dim, compared to the forest, and yet the light still stung his eyes at first.

Standing to his feet, he peered around the corner of the container and barely concealed a gasp. There, at the end of the stretch, was a human. An adult human. He darted back around to hide behind the container, hoping that she hadn't seen him yet.

Oh no! And he wasn't wearing a human form right now! The human was going to be scared of him, and he didn't want that. He thought quickly. Maybe he shouldn't go back to his shape that he had been using- usually adults always assumed that a child wandering around alone was up to no good.

Concentrating hard, he started to shift, holding the figure he had been using before in mind and aging it as best he could through pure imagination. When he was finished, he smiled a little in pride and glanced down.

It worked! He was much bigger and taller! Now he just needed clothes. But... what should he wear?

The toga he was wearing around his brothers didn't seem to bother them, but it was definitely different than what they were wearing. And- he peeked out at the woman again- the human was wearing much different clothing as well.

Oh! Schadel had been wearing a nice suit when she was John Watson- the jacket she gave him felt nice. Maybe he could wear something like that! He conjured a similar suit from memory. Though the color scheme was slightly questionable, it accomplished his purpose well enough.

He felt suddenly shy, but there was no time for it- he had to find out where he was! Stepping out from behind the trash can, he walked up to the woman, his shoulders stopping ever so slightly. Being tall was fun, but he still wasn't used to it.

"U- um. Hello." He started with, coming to a stop a few feet away. Now what was he supposed to say?

She froze when she heard the man's voice, then slowly turned to face him.

He didn't look that intimidating, but humans rarely did. He was wearing a very nice looking suit, though the colors were a little bit weird. She briefly let herself wonder what such a nicely dressed human with a really fancy mustache was doing in a place like this. Maybe he was back from the war? Blanx said that threw a lot of adult men off, especially the young ones. They just didn't really know where to go afterwards, and a lot of them ended up on the street. The only scary thing about him was how tall he was compared to her current form. She could easily tower over him if she looked like herself, but she had made herself smaller so she wouldn't stand out as much.

"H-Hi," she managed to get out, trying her best to hide her very distinct German accent with a posh British one--just like Blanx's. She didn't want to upset the man if he turned out to be a soldier. She was great at faking her death, just like Blanx had taught her, but it wouldn't be fun to be knocked around by someone so tall and powerful looking.

She tried to figure out what she was supposed to do now. She interacted with very few people that weren't reapers these days; it was only on the rarest of occasions that Blanx let her play assistant in his shop.

"The weather's, uh, nice today, isn't it?" Schadel asked. It was only when she glanced up and saw all of the dark, heavy clouds that she realized that probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.

Damascus

He tried for a friendly smile and followed the woman's gaze to the sky. All of the mixtures of roiling greys were beautiful, and whatever the moving things that caused these shapes were, they intrigued him.

"I'm not sure about the... weather," he tested carefully. "But the sky sure is lovely."

Shaking his head, he cleared his thoughts to get back on track. He had to find out where they were, but he couldn't be too suspicious about it. What did normal people start with in this situation? Right! Introductions.

"My name is D..." he stopped himself, his eyes growing wide. Oh no! There was no way of knowing if 'Damascus' was a common name or not, but it if the difference in clothing was anything to go by, it was safe to assume the latter.

What should he call himself? He had to think fast. What was a good name for an adult male?

"J- John-Watson!" He blurted, saying the first thing that came to mind. He tried to compose himself. "Ahem. My name is John-Watson. What's yours?"

She was too flustered for his answer to initially register. Instead, she realized that she didn't know what to call herself. No one ever really asked about the quiet, observing assistant in the shop, and all of the reapers knew her as Schadel. Schadel wasn't really a good name for someone who looked like this; it was too weird and too German. But she didn't have a good name to give, so she panicked like she had done back in the forest. Maybe it was because the man's name subconsciously registered as something from Sherlock Holmes, or maybe it was because her favorite series was just a great place to take names from.

"I'm Irene Adler!" she exclaimed, blurting out the alias. Something felt a little funny about the situation, but she didn't want to make the mustached man suspicious of her. She took a deep breath and tried to be as human-y as Blanx was when he was dealing with customers. She absentmindedly straightened her hat and fiddled with her handbag. "I work at Baines Antique Shoppe--I went out to run some errands for my bro-employer, but managed to get lost. Do you know how to get there from here, Mr. Watson?"

Damascus

He smiled widely when she introduced herself, only for it to dim as she asked for directions to some sort of location.

"I'm sorry, ah, Miss Irene. I was hoping you could tell me.." he trailed off, planning to make up a location, but realizing that he wouldn't even know where to begin. So, he relented. The woman seemed nice enough, so maybe she wouldn't get terribly suspicious.

"...where exactly we are?" He inquired quietly, glancing around again at all of the humans and the strange machines and- he turned back to Irene, overwhelmed.

"I'm afraid I'm very, very lost." He finished, even more quietly.

"We're in New York City," she answered without missing a beat, then frowned when she realized that something like that should have been obvious. If she had been asking for directions, that implied that she didn't know, either. She tilted her head ever so slightly to the side and looked John over. He shouldn't have been so confused about where they were. Unless this was like the forest again, but there was barely anyone else here...

Huh.

Weird.

As she studied him, something suddenly caught her eye. Namely his eyes: both of them were red. They looked completely normal thanks to her knowing a couple of other reapers, but it didn't make much sense for a human to have that. And behind that mustache, didn't his face kind of look familiar, too?

Understanding suddenly dawned on her, and a grin began to spread from one ear to the other as her handbag was thrown to the side.

"Damascus!" she exclaimed, running over to her brother and throwing her arms around him. He was too big for her to easily to get them around his shoulders, but she tried her best. Their faces were so close as she hugged him that she could feel his breath on her skin. "You look so fancy!"

Damascus

He stiffened dramatically, his arms out to his sides awkwardly as Irene hugged him. His eyes widened, and he was even more disturbed when she used his actual name.

"Um. T- thank you.." he muttered at the 'fancy' comment, turning his face inquisitively to try to see hers, though it only resulted in bringing him closer and making it even harder to distinguish an expression. "B- but how do you know my name..?"

Significantly pale, he brought his arms around her. As spooked as he was, he figured that it would be rude to not return the embrace.

She looked up into his red eyes, the grin momentarily fading when she noticed how nervous he looked and sounded. It wasn't because she was wrong. She knew that much--he had asked how she knew his name.

Understanding dawned on her. Damascus had never seen her as adult looking like this. She had kept this form to a teenager one because she didn't want to stick out more than she already was, hadn't tried to hide the accent because there hadn't been a need to, and also hadn't worn a dress and a hat. And while his red eyes gave him away, she didn't have something like that when she changed her form--save for her soul, but Damascus probably couldn't see that.

"It's me, Damascus!" she said. "Schadel! Your sister!"

Damascus

He sighed in relief, his body instantly relaxing, and moved in to squeeze his sister tight. It was Schadel! Thank goodness! He didn't have to be alone in this New York City, and he could spend time with Schadel.

He rocked on his feet and closed his eyes, all of the terror he had been feeling earlier leaving him.

"Schadel! You scared me." He murmured into her shoulder. "I don't- I don't know how I got here, I just wished as hard as I could that I wouldn't go back home, and- and you're here too now."

Her face fell, and she gave him an even tighter hug than before. "I'm sorry for scaring you, Damascus!" she exclaimed, looking up into his red eyes. "I didn't realize it was you at first, and then I didn't realize you didn't realize that I was me!"

She wanted to say more to her brother, but then she heard someone moving from the front of the alleyway. She slowly turned her head--if she had a heart, she knew it would have been pounding away in her chest. She had rarely been outside of Blanx's place without her older brother in tow. She didn't really know how she was supposed to act when looking like this, but she was starting to guess it wasn't supposed to involve hugging her brother in the middle of a deserted alleyway from the way the man with the very nice suit, black hair and pretty blue eyes was staring at her-

Wait.

She knew those blue eyes!

All fear immediately left her when she realized she was looking right at Blanx. It was always really weird seeing him in a fancy suit as a human; he always kept it very casual when it was just the two of them. "Bla-" she started to say, then paused and scrambled to remember his human name. "Alexander! Hi!"

Her brother stared at the two. "What are you doing...?" he slowly asked, taking a somewhat intimidating step towards Damascus. Her grip on the daemon tightened in response. "Who are you? You're not one of the-" He studied Damascus for a moment, likely getting a good look at his soul.

His look of confusion quickly turned to a frown.

"What did you do to her?" Blanx demanded, folding his arms and staring right into Damascus's eyes.

Schadel wildly glanced between the two, then darted over to where Blanx was standing. "Alexander, it's alright!" she promised, tugging frantically on her brother's sleeve. "He's my new brother! His name is Damascus and he's really, really nice! And he doesn't have a place to go, either, so can he pretty please with a cherry on top come to live with us?"

That last part had been spur of the moment, but she was really coming to like the idea of him living with them. He needed a home, and now he was here with her. Why couldn't he come to live with her and Blanx?

Damascus

His eyes widened when the strange man came up to him. It seemed to be someone that Schadel knew, which was a good thing, but then he started getting mad at Damascus and he panicked, shrinking back and clutching Schadel even tighter.

"N- no, I didn't do anything to her..." he said meekly.

The last of his courage was taken away when Schadel left him to go to the man's side and explain what was happening, and he shrunk in on himself, wrapping his arms around himself to offer some semblance of comfort.

As shocked as he was by the man's sudden hostility, he didn't register Schadel begging to bring him home. Overwhelmed tears flooded his eyes suddenly, and it took all of his concentration to not cry in front of this man.

"I- I'm sorry, I didn't... I didn't mean to scare you." He stammered out. "Schadel is okay, and I didn't hurt her- I never would! So p- please, don't be mad!"

Blanx glanced between Schadel and Damascus, his gaze softening when he saw how upset Damascus was getting. "You're just a child," he realized. Schadel eagerly nodded, glad that they had gotten that terrible misunderstanding out of the way. If Blanx knew that someone was a kid like her, he wouldn't try to hurt them. He was too nice for that.

(Except if they bullied her. But Damascus definitely hadn't been bullying her, so they were good there.)

"I was being good and staying home like you told me to," Schadel explained, noticing that her big brother was confused by what was going on. "And then I suddenly ended up in a scary forest! There were a bunch of other kids there from different times and places, and Damascus was one of them. I think everyone else ended up back at their home, but he doesn't have a home to go back to. So can he pleeeeease come live with us, Bla-Alexander?"

His gaze further softened, and he glanced back over at the now almost on the verge of crying Damascus. "If he wants to, I suppose he can," he said, a smile on his lips and in his voice.

Schadel gave a victorious cheer and dashed over to her younger brother's side, grabbing onto his arm and tugging him in Blanx's direction. "It's okay, Damascus!" she reassured him. "Alexander's not mad at you anymore. He was just worried about me. But I'm okay, so he's okay with you, too!"

She turned her attention back to Blanx. "I came up with a new name for myself," she secretively whispered. "I think I'm going to call myself Irene."

"Irene Adler?" he guessed.

She gasped. "How did you know?"

He winked. "I have my ways."

Schadel gave Damascus another strong tug. "He's going by John. I sort of helped him come up with it."

Blanx smiled at this comment, and Schadel immediately knew that he would be able to guess the last name. "John Watson?"

She frantically nodded.

"Those are great names, my little soldier," Blanx said, rustling her hat and hair with his hand. "But you might want to call yourselves Irene Baines and John Baines for now, since someone might recognize those two names from Sherlock Holmes."

Damascus

Damascus blinked back his tears and cooperated, letting Schadel pull him closer to Alexander. His face had already morphed into an expression of hopeful joy, and he looked eagerly between Schadel and Alexander.

"You mean... you mean I can stay with you? For real?" He beamed, albeit somewhat uncertainly.

In a moment of impulse, he rushed forward a bit awkwardly in his adult form, and threw his arms around Alexander.

He wouldn't have dreamed of doing this only moments before, but he had taken comfort from the man's obvious kindness, and besides, now that he was going to stay with them, Alexander would become... whatever he was to Schadel to him too.

"Thank you! Thank you." He gasped, and pulled back a bit. "I promise you, Alexander, won't make you regret this. I'll be good, and- and I'll never do anything to make you upset at me."