Young Writers Society

Oh, no wonder Lunis hadn't responded to Nubes's comment. Nubes could almost hear Lunis's stomach rumble as the two of them looked around at all the stalls in the food court. It didn't take long for Lunis to walk over to one of them - selling some fried something on a stick - and hop over the counter.

"I am not especially hungry," Nubes said, looking over at Leon and Kane. "Is there anything you might be interested in?"

Emily tore into the soft cookies with reckless abandon. Number one upside to being a walking, cursed corpse, calories didn’t count.

She hoarded all I the chocolate chip ones, stuffing a few into her magically extended pockets as she ate one in one hand and gathered up the rest with the other. She was not going to risk running out of snacks again.

"That's no fair," Magic said, joining her by the cookies. "You have to leave some of those ones for me-"

They stopped.

There were more chocolate chip cookies in the place of the ones that Emily had taken.

Magic eyed them for a second, then decided to just go with the flow.

They grabbed several and began to eagerly devour them.


Leon opened his mouth to say that he really wasn't hungry, either, but then he saw how Kane was eyeing some of the stalls. Understanding dawned on him, and he grabbed his best friend by the rest. "I think we're going to get a little bit of everything," he said, grinning. He glanced back at Kane as he started to lead him towards nearest stall. They stopped underneath the golden arches, Leon letting go of Kane's hand and slipping behind the counter.

Kane hesitantly moved closer to the counter.

"Welcome to McDonald's!" Leon said, snapping his fingers and changing his form so it was an older one - appropriately dressed in the right uniform. Light brown hair thrown back into a ponytail, a slight stubble, and bright blue eyes - it was one he had used for more than a year, and it was hard not to instinctively go to it. "What can I get you?"

Kane stared at him for a minute before letting out a little laugh.

"Would you like a badly cooked burger, awkwardly fried fries, and the biggest, best milkshake you've ever had?"

"A chocolate milkshake and fries sound good," Kane agreed, "though nuggets are more appealing than the burger."

Leon did a mock salute. "The customer's always right!"

He could hear Kane trying not to laugh again as he turned back to the array of unfamiliar machines. He had no idea how they did something like this; he rarely was paying attention when he went to McDonald's. His gaze swept across them. There had to be some sort of guide to explain how they worked-

He stopped.

...When had that food gotten here?

It was exactly what Kane had asked for - a large chocolate milkshake, nuggets and fries. This place had already seemed strange, but the sudden appearance of the food should have set of warning signs of some kind.

...But he was too grateful about not having to cook anything to worry about that.

He turned around.

"Here you go," he said, sliding it over the counter. He imagined himself a coke - it appearing beside him a few seconds later - and slurped on it as he joined Kane on the other side of the McDonald's counter with his form still the same one as before.

Emily paused.

"Are you familiar with the tale of Nerna?" she asked, grabbing Magic's arm to stop him from taking anything else.

She didn't really expect him to be familiar with the religions of her world, but this situation was too close to a certain parable under the cult of Lovlay. She didn't much mind getting even more cursed than she already was, but giving the others a warning of her suspicions was definitely in order.

They shook their head.

"I haven't heard of it," they said. They raised the cookie they had managed to snag before Emily grabbed their arm and took a bite of it. "I'm guessing it's a story about not taking magical food - I've heard plenty of stories like that.

They took another bite.

"But this feels different," they said. "And I'm immortal again, so I'm not that worried about side effects right now."

Emily was still cautious.

"It's a story about getting super cursed for taking something that wasn't enchanted for you. Lovlay looks down on that, and considering she'd my chosen deity of worship, I have to recommend you not take any of this."

"I understand," they said, giving a small nod. "But I'm hungry, and it seems like it knows what I want - the cookies only appeared after I was lamenting that you had taken them all."

They eyed the counter.

They imagined a turkey and cheese sub.

A second later, the sub appeared.

They turned back to Emily.

"It's doing what I want it to," they pointed out.

Well, that was, odd. Nubes had followed Leon and Kane over to the stall, and had found their routine pretty entertaining. Leon had clearly been having fun, if the uniform and the bad acting was anything to go by, and Kane had been more than happy to join in. But the leopard hadn't smelled the food that Leon had passed over to Kane. To say nothing of the drink that had popped into existence next to Leon.

With Leon and Kane preoccupied, Nubes walked up to the counter. He stared at the milkshake that Kane had been given. It looked like a rather strange drink, thanks to its thick texture and odd brown color, but something he could see himself -

He felt something against one of his claws. Looking down, Nubes saw the exact same milkshake in front of him.

A couple seconds of hesitation later, Nubes picked it up and sucked through the straw. Well, at least it was sweet.

Leon pulled himself up onto the counter, looking down at Nubes and Kane as he continued to drink his soda. It was almost done, but he wasn't going to get seconds - there were just too many things for him to have here, and he already could see a terrible stomachache in his future.

"I hope my cooking tastes good," he said.

Kane gave a little laugh. "It does."

Leon beamed. "Are you ready to move onto another stall?"

Kane sipped his milkshake, a smile beginning to spread across his face. "I think so," he said.

Leon hopped down from the counter and stopped beside him. "Well," he said, "there's a lot of stalls to pick from, so where do you want to go to next?"

Kane surveyed the stalls.

"...Dunkin' Donuts," Kane finally said.

Leon grabbed him by the wrist, snapping his fingers and letting the McDonald's uniform be replaced by a Dunkin' Donuts one instead. He lead Kane over to the stall and hopped behind the counter, ready to pretend to be an employee again.

Kane stood in front of of the counter once more, turning back to look at Nubes over at the stall they just left. "Do you want to come to this stall, too?" he asked.

Emily hopped onto the counter to get to the ceiling, where she walked along the various signs until she was above the others between Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s.

“Hey guys, just a heads up, I’ve a theory that this stuff is super cursed. Just so you know.”

Magic followed her out, opting to stay on the floor instead of using up magic by casting a spell that would let them do the same.

"I don't think it's cursed," they hurriedly added, noticing how quickly Kane and Leon's faces fell at Emily's proclamation. They didn't need to have been out there to figure out what Leon had been trying to do for Kane - he wanted to make up for lost time.

And from the way Kane had looked before Emily suggested that the food was cursed, Magic guessed that Leon's plan was working.

Leon glanced between Emily and Magic.

Then he turned back to Kane, a smile returning to his face - a face that, Magic noticed, looked absolutely nothing like Leon Thorne's. Either the two hadn't realized what the change could do or just didn't think it was an issue, because they found themselves looking at their partner from Perseus instead.

"So, what can I get you?" Leon said.

"Do you have any chocolate chip muffins?" Kane asked.

Leon glanced back - three magically appeared behind him as Magic joined the two. "The magically enchanted, potentially cursed food stall says yes," Leon replied, spinning around and handing a muffin to all three. "One for you, for me, and one for Magic - who didn't ask but loves them anyways."

They grinned and took a bite out of it. "You know me well."

Sitting on the counter, the leopard took a few seconds to realize that Kane had said anything to him. Nubes looked down and realized he'd already had half of his milkshake. Whoop - he'd forgotten how he responded to sugar.

Egh, it didn't look like anyone else was in the mood to make good food decisions. The leopard hopped off the counter and went over to the neighboring stall. "And could I have one?" Nubes said, smiling.

Leon turned back to the counter, grabbing a muffin that appeared out of thin air and handing it off to Nubes over the counter.

Emily rolled her eyes. If they were cursed they’d be cursed together apparently.

She hopped down from her perch, rolling to her feet once she landed, more out for the fun or it than for necessity. The force of a fall from Thai height would result in at least a twisted ankle for anyone who didn’t know how to land properly, but she would have been fine without rolling. But drama was her calling, after all, and nothing was going to get her to pass up an opportunity to show it.

It was ten that she realized that she could probably do a superhero landing without hurting herself.

Her eyes widened along with a grin.

“Hey guys,” she said, skipping over to stand among them, “Do you think I could pull of a superhero landing without completely throwing my knees out of wack?”

Taking the muffin in his spare paw, Nubes leaned against the counter and took a sip of his milkshake. "I don't know what a superhero landing is," he said, "But I could probably do the same. I am supposed to be rather flexible."