Young Writers Society

Well, so much for that plan. They'd been caught, Puck was in the body of a zombie, and Evion didn't feel like ratting the others out. Not that he could do a good job explaining the truth himself.

Evion stepped behind Arthur, closed his eyes, and shifted into a rock. A little rude, but if the rest of his group found out that he was here, they'd ask him questions, and he didn't want to answer them.

Puck cast Evion a brief glance as he shifted into a rock; he didn't bother to point out that everyone still knew he was there, since they had seen the change occur. He was much more focused on the situation with Wren. They barely knew each other, and hadn't talked nearly much as Puck and Evion had. But they had shared a moment back in the cave, and it felt wrong to lie to her.

Arthur looked like a deer in headlights as Wren stared expectantly and worriedly at him; he didn't even know her fake name, much less who she really was. He moved a little closer to Puck, leaving rock!Evion behind as he tried to bridge the distance between him and his boyfriend.

"Hi," Puck finally said.

Wren blinked, gaze slowly traveling over to him instead.

Then she went as pale as a ghost, and the start of a scream began to leave her lips. With superhuman reflexes - it was nice to see those were still there, even though he probably shouldn't have had them - Puck darted over to her, slipped behind her, and slapped a decaying hand on her mouth before she could get a full-blown scream out.

She squirmed in his grip.

"Wren, it's okay," he whispered into her ear.

She went surprisingly still. "...Puck?" she whispered back, now trying to look back at him to get a good look at the zombie behind her. "You-You're the zombie now?"

He nodded. "Exactly."

"I-I don't get it," she said as he let her go. She still looked a little pale, but it wasn't as bad as before. Her gaze briefly traveled over to Arthur before returning to him. "How? And if you're not over there, then who is?"

Puck briefly met Arthur's eye.

"That's my boyfriend," he said, stepping back. "His name is Arthur Croft. Pres, meet Adrian Black. Adrian and I fell down a hole together, which is apparently a great way to make friends."

Arthur awkwardly held a hand out, and Wren awkwardly shook it.

"Arthur's a necromancer in the story," Puck explained when the handshake ended. "I'm supposed to be a ghost, but I couldn't keep control of his body for too long. So I hopped into Ru instead, and it looks like I can stay in this one longer than I can with his. It feels almost...homey."

She slowly nodded. "But if the story is copying what happens in real life, or some of it, doesn't that mean that there's something that led to you possessing him in here...?" When Puck froze at the question, she nervously rubbed the back of her neck. "I...um....overheard you talking before I joined the conversation. I didn't realize you were the one talking then, but now I do..."

He could follow Arthur and Evion's advice and give a partial lie. He could follow his original idea and give a completely different explanation than the truth. Or he could tell her everything - including the thing that he hadn't told Evion. Puck wasn't his real name; it was just a nickname and an alternative one.

He took a deep breath. "To start things off, it involves evil scientists who want immortality. I'm actually quite the skilled sorcerer, and I made my wonderful boyfriend over here look old and intimidating. He's actually only eighteen, just like yours truly. Then he snuck in, and volunteered for an experiment they were running - they wanted to channel the power of the gods, but gods are more like regular people with immortality than anything else. So they had to go for an nontraditional one, and one that Arthur knows very well."

He gestured down at himself.

"Me," he said.

Wren stared. "...You're a god?" she managed to get out, dark eyes widening as she stared at him. He gave a nod in confirmation. "But I've never heard of a god named...oh. That was what you meant when you said that Puck wasn't your real name..."

"Yeah," he confirmed. "I like going by Puck better, sometimes - people still might not like me, but it's not because of my name."

She stared at him. "...So you're important?"

He nodded again. "People like telling stories about me, even though I'm not really sure why - there's far more interesting people to talk about, even though I hate most of the other gods." He gave a little bow. "Loki, at your service."

She gaped at him.

His shoulders slumped. Once the words registered, he knew what would follow - she wouldn't trust him. She might even bring up Baldr. This couldn't possibly end well, but when did it ever?

"...I thought you said you were eighteen," she finally commented.

Now he was the one doing the staring.

"If you're Loki, you have to be older than that," she added. "Not that being old is a bad thing! It's, um, totally fine..."

He briefly met Arthur's gaze again; his boyfriend was giving him a smile. Puck couldn't help but return it - it was nice not to be hated for once.

"Technically, I'm older than eighteen," he admitted. "But I've been stuck in a cave for years in a self-induced sleep, so I'm mentally and physically eighteen."

"Whoa," Wren whispered.

Then she paused and started to rub the back of her neck again. "I've...um...been keeping a secret of my own..." she admitted. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. He would have guessed that it was the whole "I'm actually a girl thing" but she was looking at him. Not Arthur, and not rock!Evion.

So what could it be?

"I'm actually a superhero," she admitted. Her clothes suddenly switched from high fantasy to the classic superhero ensemble - though the colors were noticeably darker than expected. And the longer that he stared at her, the more he realized that he recognized the outfit.

Arthur gave a gasp. "You're the Actor?" he managed to get out.

She nodded.

Evion had slowly been shuffling away - Adrian had been taking this about as poorly as he'd expected - but then the conversation had changed. The others had started talking about their ages, identities (of course Puck wasn't a real name - Evion had never heard one like that), lives. Loki had even gone for the partial lie, and had done a nice job explaining it. Suddenly, Evion felt a little bit stupid for wanting to run away. Not that shifting back to his usual self would be any less embarrassing.

"I'm nineteen," Evion mumbled, staring at the superhero outfit. He couldn't relate to that (he wasn't even sure what a superhero was, much less what it had to do with acting or those clothes), so he might as well jump into the previous conversation. And maybe they'd all just think he was hiding behind a tree or something.

Wren gave a small smile.

"...I'm actually seventeen," she admitted, rubbing the back of her neck again. Arthur gave another surprised gasp from beside Puck, but the god promptly tugged on his sleeve to get him to stop.

"You-You're younger than me?" Arthur whispered.

Wren nodded.

"Wait," Puck suddenly realized, glancing between Arthur and Wren, "didn't you start doing the whole hero thing three years ago?"

"...Yeah," she said. "I did."

Arthur gaped at her. "You were only fourteen when you started? That's-That's incredible!"

Wren blushed, her gaze dropping to the ground as she fiddled with the bottom of her shirt. "...Thank you..." She hesitantly peeked up at Arthur and Evion, though she just had to look forward to get a glimpse of the latter. "I, um, have another secret. My real name's Wren. I'm a, er...um..."

"A girl," Puck helpfully finished.

Wren gave him a little smile.

"You made a fake identity?" Arthur whispered. Something told him that his boyfriend wasn't going to stop fanboying over Wren in the near future, so instead he turned to rock!Evion and watched him for a moment.

"Are you planning on changing your form soon?" he asked.

Evion stared down at Puck (not that Puck would notice). The tiger internally sighed - Puck was right. Since Wren had a couple secret identities of her own, there wasn't much point in hiding from her.

Concentrating, Evion felt his muscles and bones shifting, color splashing back into his fur as he turned back to his regular self. "No," he said to Puck, grabbing his tail and wringing it in embarrassment.

Puck raised an eyebrow, but he didn't comment on the shift - something told him that Evion would prefer if it didn't come up in conversation. Usually, Puck ignored people's preferences on something like that, but Evion may or may not have managed to worm his way into his heart already.

(It was hard not to get attached to the other teen.)

Trying to avoid Puck's raised eyebrow, Evion stared at the ground. "We should probably get back to the others," he whispered.

Wren and Arthur's conversation suddenly ceased when the suggestion - quiet as it was - was made, and Puck realized he'd have to pick a convenient story sooner rather than later. He turned to the others. "We have two choices: we either admit that we're all teenagers, or we pretend that Pres is twice his actual age."

Arthur gave him a look.

"I don't look that old," he said. "I looked like I'm in my late twenties, not my mid-thirties."

"The facial hair says otherwise-"

He was interrupted by Wren clearing her throat. He snapped his attention away from the argument and focused on what was being suggested. "...I'm not sure I'm comfortable with sharing the truth yet," she admitted. "I don't know the other people here, and I don't know if everyone's as good as they seem."

"That's fair," Puck agreed. "I'm probably going to do the same thing - the fact that I'm Loki is going to remain a secret."

"We don't have to lie about our ages," Arthur pointed out.

"Yeah, but then everyone's going to treat us like we're kids!" he protested. "I hate being treated like a kid. I was around during the time of the Vikings. Being eighteen doesn't mean I can't handle myself."

"...And you don't want anyone to realize how talented you are?"

"Yeah-" He paused. "Wait, no. Definitely not. I'm perfectly fine with people realizing I have magical potential, but-"

He stopped when he saw how Arthur was looking at him.

"Let's be truthful about our ages," Arthur suggested. "Then we don't have to pretend to be more knowledgeable about the world than we really are, and we won't feel as bad when we lie about other things."

Puck mulled it over for a moment, ultimately letting out a sigh.

"Fine," he agreed. "I'll do it."

Huh. Evion felt the fur on his cheeks; if facial hair made Arthur look so much older, maybe that had been why so few people had realized he was nineteen.

"Everyone in my group already knew I was that young," Evion whispered, walking up next to Puck, "And nobody bothered me for it, so yeah, let's be honest about it."