Young Writers Society

Casey twisted his cap's brim in his hands, glancing over at Endine and not quite meeting her eyes.

"My- my DNA was tampered with. It was a... long process. I still don't completely know how it was done." he said quietly.

Hero turned to look at Sevy with wide eyes. "You must tell me everything about your magic, Sevy Dawner," he eagerly said. "Télos has told me that you come from other worlds than what I am used to, but our world only has limited magic. I have not encountered new magic in quite a long time."

Télos sighed at Hero's insistence, but didn't butt in. He just stood there and watched the exchange between him and Sevy.

Lexal, meanwhile, had all of their attention focused on Casey and Enide. It was Lex who took particular interest in what was being said; Aleks could barely understand it, thanks to him growing up in Minecraftia - though he did have some idea of it, since he had Lex's memories. Lex looked over at Enide. "DNA is like the building blocks of a person - it's the instructions that tells your body to run the way that it needs to, and is why you look the way that you do. Mutations are changes in that DNA."

Aleks turned their mouth into a frown. "B******, your memories only say that major mutations like that happen before a kid is born. So why the Nether is Casey like that now?"

The frown was quickly turned into a look of contemplation. "Maybe genetic science is more advanced than it was before my, you know."

"How curious," Enide said, tapping her chin with her finger. "A reason behind the differentiation between humans and animals such as myself. And it seems this is controllable?"

A flush rose to Sevy's cheeks, and he rubbed the back of his neck.

"I- I don't really know everything to tell you." He mumbled, "I'm new to all of this- kind of just learned the basics myself. All I can really do is illusion magic, and even then-"

He paused and cut himself off with the clearing of his throat, about to say that his mom usually helped him with his illusions.

Casey shook his head and rested his face in his hands. "No, no it's not usually supposed to be controllable. At least, it goes against nature and ethics to try to control it." He addressed Enide, his voice quiet but steady.

"And I have no idea what they did to me." He looked up at Lexal with a pained expression, "all I know is that I'm a freak. At least I'm a lucky one, though. There were some kids that had been experimented on before birth, some that were created."

Letting out a breath, he tried to calm himself down, trying not to think of the glass girl he left behind, among all of the others.

Ah, she'd stepped out of line. This was clearly a sore point for Casey, and Enide was all too familiar with experimentation. "Apologies," she said. "I hadn't considered the immorality of such genetic manipulation, especially on children. Would it be rude to hope that all of the ones who coordinated the experiment met grisly ends?"

Bo decided to interject. "As someone who was also a victim of experimentation as a child, though a slightly different kind, and with different people, I think it can be normal to emerge with that mindset. I know my captors ended up meeting grisly ends, but it was at my hand. And though most people would consider that a victory, I do mourn the circumstances under which it occurred. It is... a complex situation. For dear Casey, it may be different," he said, looking down at the boy. "And... do not feel you have to explain everything, bud. You don't have to if it's too hard. I know it was for me for a very long time."

"If it makes you feel any better," Aleks said, "the idiot and I are freaks, too."

"We're not-" Lex sighed, seeing the point that Aleks was trying to make. Casey seemed incredibly self-conscious about something as minor as his hair changing color; compared to what they had been going through, that was relatively normal. "Aleks is right. If you're a freak, then we definitely are one, too. How many people do you know that share the same body?"

Casey's face was pale and his hands shook. He looked in turn at the three adults, who we each trying to reassure him in different ways. With a shaky sigh, he nodded.

"Thank you, Bo." He said quietly. He cracked a small smile at Lexal's comment, "I guess you have a point."

Bo chuckled at Lexal. "I think most of us here aren't normal by some standard. Which just makes us all the more interesting!"

Hero gave a solemn nod in agreement, only to grow quite startled when Télos suddenly clapped his hands together right beside him. Though he didn't jump or make any sort of surprised noise, his eyes momentarily widened and grew brighter.

"Now that we've gotten all that sort of stuff out of the way, we should probably go back to checking this place out!" Télos said, giving a grin at the other people present in the hallway. "I say we figure how big this building is, and if we can find any clues to what happened to it."

"That sounds good to me," Bo said with a nod.

"Sure thing. Light the way, Casey." Sevy grinned at the boy after his attempt at humor. He hoped that it might at least make Casey crack a smile.

Casey's face flushed at he glanced over at Sevy, caught between a glare and a hopeless expression. His hair faded accordingly to a soft blue. It took him a few moments to gather a response to this, and when he did, it aired on the side of graciousness.

"Please let that be your last glowing-hair reference." He murmured quietly, somehow finding the courage to voice this. "But yes, it looks like it's only going to get darker in here. If I can help at all, I'd be happy to."

"And, if that should not work," Enide said. "I see rather well in the dark, so I could lead the way. In any way, I would love to inspect this strange building, particularly if my husband should be somewhere in it, so let us go."

"I am also the god of light," Hero added, a small smile gracing his features. "If neither of those options work, I can always create a light source to guide our way."

"Right then. Onward!" Sevy, in a seemingly good mood, bounded forward with Gordon, trotting forward into the dark despite all the talk of lighting resources.

"Wait, but-" Casey gasped, quicklying following after Sevy and trying to keep a mood that would offer the brightest shade for his hair.

There came a dull thump, and then a slightly muffled "'s all good, guys!" from Sevy, who had managed to gain several feet before face planting.