Young Writers Society

He nodded.

"It's not," he said. "I wish I could do something like that, but my power is pretty limited."

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck - quickly being reminded of his missing braid.

"Can I change my form back now?" he asked. "I miss my braid."

He paused.

"...Unless you want to give me requests for my form," he said. "I don't have any limits. Age, gender, what species I am - I can do anything you want, if you just describe it."

He grinned, clearly enthralled by the idea.

Any gender? Any species? Any age? Anything?

Avery was thrilled. Then he waved his hand. "Take your braid back. Sure. No one's gonna be weirded out seeing a man with golden eyes and long braid here."

Then he realized something.

"You can be woman too?" he laughed. "Oh gosh, speaking of woman, I had invited my mom and dad for lunch today. Or tomorrow... Today." he said, checking the time. Six thirty five.

He gladly made his hair and eyes turn back to normal. The dog disappeared into nothingness as he plopped down on the couch - he could make it appear again if Avery wanted him to, but for now didn't want to keep it there.

"I can," Télos confirmed. "I don't even have to look like a play-human."

Then the second part registered.

"...That's going to be a problem, isn't it?" he asked. "Something tells me they're not going to believe me like you did."

"They'll probably call the cops." Avery said. "They know every one of my friends, and they don't know you. So..." he flinched. "It might even get worse."

He sighed then ran his hand through his hair. Then he snapped his fingers.

"Can you make them forget that they have to come?" he said, proud of his idea.

He shook his head.

"I can't do things like that," he said. Télos rubbed the back of his neck. "All I can do is make gold and shapeshift."

Avery slumped in his seat. "Oh."

Then he jumped up. "You could shapeshift into something that's invisible? Or you could distract them with gold in the house." he laughed at the thought. "I could introduce you to them. And then I guess they'll consider you harmless."

He was reminded of the sword. "Maybe."

He stared outside the window where the leaves on the branches were dancing. It was almost fall, so the multicolored leaves were scattered on the ground.

He mulled over their options.

"You can say I'm your new friend," Télos suggested. "We only just met, but we really hit it off. That would work, right?"

Avery considered it. Télos was right. "It should." he said, leaning back into his recliner.

"What happens if-" he started, but interrupted himself, knowing that it was stupid to ask if they didn't believe it. This God could change his form! The braid and eyes he changed pretty easily, which was pretty cool, so Avery didn't see why exactly his parents wouldn't believe.

Télos grinned.

"Do you want me to change my form back to my earlier one when they get here?" he asked. "I can make more changes to it, too - I can look younger, change the colors, change my outfit..."

He trailed off, letting Avery fill in the rest.

Avery smiled. This was great. "Anything!" he chirped. "Anything, anything, anything!"

He was bouncing on his heels now, "Do whatever! But look like a human. Not a God." he smirked. He noticed his already empty coffee cup and glanced at Télos's. "Done your coffee?" he asked.

"I'm good," he confirmed. He still had more than half of it left, but he was too distracted with the idea of coming up with a new form to use. There were so many possibilities - he could do whatever his heard desired, though he definitely wanted to do more of what Avery desired. Changing forms was more fun that way.

"Are you sure you don't have a specific idea?" Télos asked. "I'm having a brain fart and I really could use ideas. I can definitely come up with one if I try hard enough, but it'll be more fun for both of us if you make some suggestions!"

He mulled it over.

"We could make it into a game!" Télos suggested. "You can tell me what to do with my appearance, and I can try my best to do it. You can do it in groups or with single parts of my appearance. When we're done, you'll have one friend all set."

Avery rubbed his mouth again. Then cracked a knuckle.

He grinned.

Going for his phone, he opened Firefox and searched up "Tom Cruise". Smirking, he tapped on a picture of him, and said, "Can you by any chance make your face look somewhat like this?"

Avery showed Télos the picture.

"...I can," he reluctantly said, "but seeing the picture ruins the fun."

"Ahh, I see." Avery said, frowning slightly.

Mum loved Tom Cruise, so she would've loved it if Avery's "new friend" looked a lot like him. And if he did, then Mum would never say a single negative word about the god.

"How about you take that braid away? And... brighten your eyes maybe to, like, green?" he said.

Télos grinned - he vaguely remember Hero and Oracle saying it looked evil back when they were kids, but they hadn't brought it up for awhile.

"I can do that," he confirmed. With a snap of his fingers, the braid once again disappeared and his eyes went from gold to green. "Do you want me to make any other changes?"