Young Writers Society

This was going to be a long day.

Pride hadn't intended to be discovered - he hadn't even known other people were present in this strange structure. He had been searching for Lust and Gluttony; if he had ended up here thanks to some higher power, he expected that the two siblings he was traveling with would have, too. But the place was filled with people, and he hadn't even had a chance to check all of it: just the things in the near vicinity. Lust and Gluttony could be out there, somewhere, and he was stuck here trying to explain to a chimera the idea of alternate realities.

He let out a mix between a groan and a sigh.

"There's something called the butterfly effect," Pride said. It was Lust's idea, but he didn't have her here right now to explain her theory in depth. "According to the idea, choices as minor as picking a different thing to wear can trigger an entirely new sequence of events. It's thought that this creates alternate realities. Some likely don't have major differences. Others involve people who are good in one becoming evil in another. We don't know what the trigger was for the difference, but we do know that our stories began the change the most when we left our Father."

He raised a finger and pointed it at Kaito and Apophis. "In their reality, they've heard about my counterpart in a story. They don't think I'm him because I don't act or look right. I might have the same name, and the same basic appearance, but I'm not treating them - or anyone here - with the same disrespect that he would."

"Oooookay," Lunis said. He started to pull himself up, slinging Mal over his shoulder - the lion quietly grumbled. "You're going to have to explain what that says about me, because I don't remember ever hearing about you, your evil self or otherwise."

Pride thought for a moment.

"It says that I'm not going to murder, despite appearing to be a stereotypical creepy child you would find in a horror story," the homunculus replied. Now that the main conflict was over, he fiddled with his cloak. He might not have been evil like his counterpart, but he did take pride in his appearance.

"Me," Lunis said, pointing at himself as he edged towards the otters, who he hoped had a better idea of what was going on than he did. "If different choices make different worlds, what kind of choices made a world where, as far as I know, you don't exist at all?"

"I don't know," Pride replied, exasperated. He hadn't even wanted to know about the alternate reality business in the first place - the only reason he had gained the knowledge of it was because Jean and Roy were convinced his sister was a murderer who should have been dead long ago. "Maybe we're not even from the same world - there are other planets."

He studied the group present for a moment, then marched over to the man with the shirt that had the evil counterparts of his siblings. He easily spun the man around, even though the man seemed fairly surprised by his strength. His container might have been that of a child, but he was still strong despite that. Frustratingly enough, he had to stand on the tips of his toes to reach the two he wanted to point at.

"Have you seen this man or this woman?" he asked, pointing at Gluttony and Lust. "They're my younger brother and sister."

"I think I'd know if there were things living on other planets," Lunis grumbled, before feeling something grab onto his leg.

He looked down to see Aegeas glaring up at him. "What are you doing?" Aegeas hissed.

"Talking," Lunis shot back, crossing his arms.

"Are you trying to make him angry?" Aegeas said.

Lunis readjusted Mal before responding. "Don't you want answers?"

For once, Aegeas hesitated. The panther decided to hammer in his point. "We're not sure where we are, we don't know how we got here, I think we both saw what's coming this way, and I can just barely hear the rumbling, so we need as many answers as we can get."

After a few tense seconds, Aegeas let go and stepped back. "Fine," he said. "But don't get us killed trying to do that."

Lunis ignored the comment, instead turning to the kid and the man with the detailed shirt. "I wasn't awake half of the time," he said, "But I didn't see either of them."

"I haven't seen them, either," the girl with the short black hair replied; she had a regretful tone to her voice. "I'm sorry, Pride."

"I've been with Ari the entire time," the shadowy person added. Aquarius clung to Kaito even more tightly before at the sound of their voice. Janos hadn't used a voice like that, but it was hard not to see a shadowy creation without thinking of the other god.

Apophis shook his head. "I've just found the other people here so far," the god said. Aquarius was scared of him, too - Kaito seemed to know who he was, and seemed to be pretty scared of him from how he had been acting since the god's name was revealed.

"Aquarius and I haven't seen your siblings," Kaito said. He was still scared, hand shaking as it held onto him. Aquarius wished he could hug Kaito right now - the player definitely needed it. But Aquarius didn't think it was the right time to be giving something like a hug, so he just stuck with clinging to him instead.

And then there was the conversation he had overheard.

"Um..." he hesitantly whispered at the man who had threatened him earlier. "I, uh, heard what you just said. What did you...did you see?"

Lunis threw his paws up. "Makes sense a human couldn't hear it," he hissed back, leaning down to be on eye level with Aquarius and Kaito. Moving Mal to the other shoulder, Lunis whispered into Aquarius's ear. "But it's one of those dust storms. It's by the horizon right now, but it looks and sounds like it's heading right for us, and quickly. I was hoping to use it as leverage if any of you guys were being less than helpful in telling me what's going on. Guess I misjudged how loud I was being."

"It's alright," Aquarius quietly reassured him. "...I'm a god, so my hearing is a little better than most people, and you were standing right next to me..." He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say about the jab at his best friend; it wasn't Kaito's fault for being human.

"But...um....what's a dust storm-"

"What are you whispering about?" Kaito suddenly whispered, comically leaning down so he was a little closer to Aquarius's height. The combination of the inaudible whispers and change in posture caused the others to turn to face them, too. The shadow swiveled their head around, the girl stared with a surprising eagerness, Apophis studied them curiously, and Pride glared when he realized he had been left out of the conversation.

Eugh. Lunis didn't have anything in the particular against humans (though he was very afraid of a couple). Kaito, on the other hand, had just the right amount of curiosity and a nosy personality to throw a wrench into Lunis's plans. Now everyone was looking at them, and it'd be stupid to keep whispering.

"There's a dust storm on the horizon," Lunis said, rising back up to his full height. "For the people who somehow don't know, it's these massive clouds of dust that speed through the desert. They're big, they're dangerous, and one's heading right for us. Which isn't good news."

"Fun," Pride drily said. He folded his arms and looked up at the chimera. "So how are we supposed to avoid getting killed by said dust storm? I'd rather not waste the lives in my philosopher's stone on something that could easily be avoided."

Lunis threw up his arms. "That's the question, isn't it?" he said. "I'm not even sure there's a room safe enough when this thing gets picked up and thrown around."

"There has to be something we can," Kaito said, clinging a little more to Aquarius than intended. He looked at the faces of everyone gathered, but each one looked as worried as he felt. No one knew what to do? Come on! There were at least six adults between the four furry people, Apophis and Pride, but no one was suggesting anything useful.

Aquarius wrapped his arms around Kaito's waist, and Kaito wrapped his arm around Aquarius's shoulder. Kaito honestly had no idea how this was going to work once things were back to normal, but they could cross that road when they go there.

"If this ship is going to be tossed around," the girl with the black hair suddenly said, "maybe we should try finding a room in its center and clean it out - then there's not a chance of us going through the windows, and it wouldn't hurt as much if we were getting thrown around."

Kaito perked up - that was a great idea! "Aquarius and I could cushion the walls with our water, too," he added, grinning. "That would help with the pain!"

Aegeas walked past Lunis, waving for the others to follow. "Well, we don't have much time, do we?" he said. "Let's get to it."

Ari and Zion rushed over to Aegeas and fell into step behind him as they headed down the hallway. She couldn't help but glance over at Kaito as they passed. She knew that Kaito had the name and appearance of a vocaloid, but he definitely wasn't one. Kaito the vocaloid couldn't control water; this one could. That wasn't the only strange thing about him, either - he kept looking at her, almost with a look of jealousy. She couldn't really understand that. So she stored it into the back of her mind, knowing that the right time to address that would come up later.

Aquarius and Kaito quickly joined them, with Apophis/Alex leading the front of the group. Pride lingered to the back, but Ari quickly realized that it wasn't an intentional choice. The homunculi was small. His legs were incredibly tiny compared to even hers, and it made sense that he wouldn't be able to keep up with them.

She lingered for a second, turning back to Pride.

"I'm not that strong, but do you want me to carry you?"

Pride stared at her. "I'm not a child."

"I know you're not," she quickly reassured him. "You're just having trouble keeping up, so I thought it would help if I picked you up."

"I can do it, too," Apophis/Alex piped up from the front of the group. "I'm stronger than you, Ari. I can carry the weight of a homunculus."

Pride folded his arms and glanced between the two, but then he gave a reluctant nod.

"Fine," he said.

Apophis/Alex strode over to the homunculus. As claimed, he easily picked him up and brought him back to the front of the group. There was a little bit of a struggle to figure out just how to carry him, but Apophis/Alex eventually settled on putting Pride on his shoulders.