Young Writers Society

Enide, who'd been right behind Lexal, stopped in time to see the cat jump onto the winged man. Or, she was reasonably sure it was a cat. She wasn't familiar with something changing size and color like that, especially when neither form appeared to be sentient.

"'Where he came from?'" Enide said, raising an eyebrow and smiling. At least she could fake a smile.

"Oh- um." Sevy sat up, still chuckling as Gordon nuzzled him, "he's from the underworld. He has a habit of travelling around through portals- that's probably how he followed me here."

The demon cat opened its mouth to yawn, a few tendrils of flames escaping his elongated teeth. He turned to gnaw at Sevy's hair.

"He's friendly, though, no worries." He looked up and gave a reassuring smile toward the group, who were handing the cat's presence fairly well. He guessed that most of them had had experience with things of strange nature.

Casey, who had been following in the back aimlessly, kneeled down next to the winged man and the cat. Both reminded him of his dormmates back at the labs he had escaped from- they seemed to be close to his brand of peculiar.

"May I touch him?" He reached a hand toward the creature, who sniffed it curiously. Sevy nodded, and Casey let the cat examine him before he stroked its head.

Télos stared at the cat with wide eyes, his golden sword abruptly disappearing as he hurried over to it. "Can I also touch it?" he asked, much to Aleks' chagrin from the sound he made behind him. "And how can I get one? Because this is definitely the type of pet my wife would love, and we've been wanting to get one for ages now."

"Sure." Sevy raised himself to his knees, glad that some people had finally taken a liking to Gordon. He would have to gloat to Tamika when he got home- if he got home.

"Well, I didn't exactly find him, he found me. I guess you could take a trip to the underworld?" He grinned.

Bo stayed a good distance from the cat, content with not petting it for fear that he'd have an allergic reaction - which he didn't want.

"Where's the... underworld? Is it as literal as it sounds?"

"Pretty much." Sevy shrugged at the tall man, "it's in another realm, though, and can only be reached through portals. Or, y'know, teleportation." He stood, and Gordon licked his palm once before laying on the floor happily.

"Is that where people are able to spoof here and there?" Bo asked.

"Oh, hey," Télos said. "That kind of sounds like the Nether!"

Well, at least the cat looked friendly enough, despite its odd and ominous origins. Enide kneeled down and petted it. "It seems to be quite comfortable around people," Enide noted, standing back up.

"Spoof..? Nether..? Um, sure, whatever you say." Sevy dusted off his clothes, which with covered in a fine layer of dust and dirt.

Casey stood, frowning a little to himself. So, he had been mistaken. Both the winged man and the demon cat had a natural place and reason for their oddities, just like the rest of the people here. He was the only one who had been grotesquely altered to be the way he was.

"Hey, Lexal, how much gold do you think it'd take to pay an enderman to teleport me to this underworld place?" Télos questioned, hopping back up to his feet and looking over at his chosen.

Lex - it had to be him from that look of defeat on their face - sighed. "Télos, you can't go paying people in gold when you can create it whenever you want to. Besides, the common currency that people use these days is emeralds-"

"But I'm a god of gold, Lex," Télos protested. "Not a god of emeralds. And I really, really want to surprise Oracle! What if they sold the gold and got emeralds?"

"Then you have to be prepared for inflation because that's what happens when you don't take certain things into account-"

"But-"

Aleks suddenly slammed Lexal's foot down, causing Télos and even Lex to jump in surprise. Both fell silent; the point had been successfully conveyed. He wanted them to shut up. "You can pay them whatever they want, Télos, and deal with the consequences later. Now can we just keep moving?"

"Oooooh-kay. Sure! Let's keep walking, then," Bo agreed, leading the way with a little wave for the others to follow.

Sevy stood and looked down at Gordon.

"Okay, go home now." The cat rubbed against his leg in reply, "I mean it- you don't need to get mixed up in all of this."

Casey went up ahead, shoving his cap down around his ears. He noticed that it only got darker up ahead, and sighed. Pretty soon, his hair would start glowing, and he really didn't want to hear the comments that he knew would come with it.

Télos wasted no time in joining Bo at the front of the group, giving a little stretch as he looked the man over. "So, Bo," he asked, "what's your world like? You've already gotten a good taste of mine from what me and Lexal have said, but you've been pretty quiet on yours. Got anything interesting there?"

He thought for a moment, then perked up. "Got anything magical?"

Bo looked down at Télos with a little grin. "Got anything magical?" he repeated. "Yes. Yes I do." He drew a quick squiggle of blue electricity in the air with his finger, letting it spark for a second before it faded. "Can't exactly show ya everything inside, but I've got lightning magic."