Young Writers Society

Raiden had not known what to say when he was asked about London. He didn't know all that much about history, so the question about London flew over his head. But the words Boris used when he spoke of his London had Raiden intrigued.
"Neath, as in, underneath? In your time, do you guys live underground or something?"

'Deep underground, yes. I haven't seen the sunlight since I was young. It's hard to adjust to, admittedly.'

"Wow. Then... I think that settles it. We're definitely not from the same world, or time, or whatever."

'I wonder where the difference lies between the worlds of you, Mr Raiden and Miss Lucy, respectively, when you all seem akin in terms of speech and dress.
The discrepancies must be subtle. It may take very particular questions indeed to discern them.'

"For one, we've never waged war on Hell," Raiden spoke, scratching his cheek
"And uhm, other than the 'lost city of Atlantis'," he made finger quotes there, "I've never heard of cities sinking under. We had two world wars though, and a cold war, and more recently the internet has now entered the dank-memebrian era."

Lola looked worriedly between Aegeas and Oliver. Aegeas and Oliver both seemed deeply suspicious of each other. The tension made her skin crawl. She hastily tried to break the awkward silence.

"Well...his phone only shows the time of where he's from, so assuming we're in a different location, it wouldn't be accurate. I mean, I haven't seen the sun, or a clock, but I'm sure it's just a mistake with his phone. We could go see if there's a clock anywhere! It might give us an idea of where we are if we figure out the time zone, too."

"Sounds like we might be from the same place, Raiden," Bo commented. "We too have entered the age of memes. Or have been in it, rather."

He wasn't sure what a phone or a time zone were - and he only knew about clocks because of a certain mechanic and a few royals - but Aegeas recognized the sun. "I'm going to find out," he said, pivoting and starting to walk away. "You'd better hope it's a mistake."

Aegeas shot glances behind him, mainly to see if Oliver would follow.

'You said World Wars? Plural? That's... That sounds... like quite the event.'
I should have had a multitude of questions, but two globe-encompassing wars centuries ahead in the alternate future were so far from me, I could only muster one.
'Who... who won?'

"Ah, what kinda memes you guys got?" he asked Bo. Perhaps he was from around the same time as him- with a few years give or take. Or Bo was really far ahead. Like, a whole century or something.
He then scratched his chin at Boris' question.
"I don't wanna mess up any time flow thingamajigger here...so I'll say that after the first one Germany was salty as heck, and after the second one they were still pretty salty."

Bo was going to answer the question about memes, but the conversation flowed otherwise, so he moved with it.

"And just in case salty doesn't have the same universal meaning, he essentially means, they're bitter, angry and upset about it."

Oliver was quick to follow in Aegeas' footsteps. He didn't rush after him, as that would make him seem even more suspicious than he already appeared to be. He had been too startled by the revelation that Aegeas could change his form to even think about his reaction; now, as he silently trailed behind him, he realized how apparent his forced emotions must now be.


Lucy had never been one for "memes" and was grateful when the conversation shifted to a different topic; Oliver was the one who was more knowledgeable on those. She might hear of one from time to time, but it was never something she put much focus on.

"If we've established that Boris lives in a completely different reality than us, I think it's safe to say who won those wars," Lucy mused, crossing her arms. She glanced at the other two. "I'm guessing we're from the same one, anyways? We all seem to remember Germany losing both times."

She looked back over at Boris. "It's 2016 for me. I'm from a town called Rotville, in the state of Connecticut."

How big was this place? The corridor seemed to stretch forever, the monotony of metal walls broken only by the occasional door or crossroads. Aegeas hated everything about it. The dim lights and his poor eyesight meant he couldn't see more than a few feet in front of him, metal always smelled like blood to him, and his sharp ears (without anything else to hear) caught the obnoxious sound of footsteps on the floor and his fast heartbeat. The others were still following him, no matter how far he went. It only stoked his fear, particularly concerning Oliver. He desperately hoped he wouldn't snap.

He wanted to find someone he recognized. One of his friends or romantic partners had to have landed here, right? Maybe Oniyore, or Derrick, or Kellach. Aegeas would've even tolerated Kendrik at this point. On the bright side, the smell of the sea grew stronger and crisper, drowning out the metal. A small pinprick of light formed at the other end of the corridor and grew. Aegeas walked a little faster.

As slow as he was, thanks to his webbed feet, he eventually stopped in front of an open, sunshine-filled door. It blinded him, but he swore he could see the faint impression of the sea in the distance. Aegeas stepped out slowly, holding a hand over his eyes. When his eyes adjusted, he found that, to his amazement, he was in a city. At least, he was pretty sure it was a city. All the buildings were impossibly large and metallic, towering towards the sky without any signs of rust or damage.

In his awe, he almost forgot to notice the position of the sun. It was higher in the sky, partly blocked by one of the buildings. He couldn't tell if it was rising or setting. "Should we get a better look?" he said, half to himself.

"2016...man, I was off by a century. I'm from the start of 2018. I think," Raiden said in response to what Lucy had said.
"That is, provided we both use calendars using Christ's apparent death as the starting point."

"I do," she confirmed, though she felt just a tiny bit guilty at having to lie. It wasn't the complete truth - just part of it. She used that calendar during her time on Earth. And, for now, that was all Raiden needed to know.



He let a startled cry upon seeing the magnificent city laid out before them. He had never seen anything like it before, and he had seen a wide array of things in his past. He took in it all with a look of awe - the water, the city and the sun shining high above. He was trembling with excitement. What kind of secrets lurked in its halls? What would he discover-

He glanced back at the corridor that they had come down. The world came back into focus, and he suddenly felt horrible for what he had forgotten. Lucy must have been here, somewhere. And if she was here, then she must have been petrified with fear. As far as his eyes could see, there was water surrounding the city. Lucy may have been waterproof now, but that fear of just a little drip of water getting into her circuits stubbornly remained.

He needed to find her, and fast.

He suddenly recalled that he had his phone on him. He hurriedly withdrew it from his pocket. He almost dropped it, but he managed to catch it before it could fall too far. If there was a signal, he'd be able to call her-

There wasn't.