Young Writers Society

There's nothing I really could have done to stop this, but I'm super sorry about this whole thing. The multiverse is going on cool down again, and it's decided to kidnap a couple of people until it can fix itself again - I guess I'm kiiiinnndddaa guilty there, since I'm the one who's been making a lot of them lately. But don't worry! We hopefully won't be stuck here for long, and, in the meantime, we can try to enjoy it by having an impromptu pajama party. I'd try to claim it as my own idea because pj parties rock, but it's all the multiverse there. I guessed it just decided you guys needed a break from the chaos of your lives!

Currently I'm only here-here as this mysterious voice in your head. But if you need me, all you have to do is shout out my name! I'll pop right up next to you the moment you call. Magic, Personification of Magic and - I guess - Pom all work, so it's up to you to pick which one you want to use when calling me!

So, uh, enjoy!

Thytes noticed three things when he woke up - that he was sitting on a couch, it was still nighttime, and there was a voice in his head.

Altogether, not a terrible dream.

The lion blinked, absentmindedly picking up a pillow and wrapping his arms around it. The room he'd ended up in had a strange aesthetic. Not ugly - the soft grays and browns made it seem peaceful, if a bit dull. He wasn't sure what to make of all the lights, since they didn't appear to have any candles, or the giant glass pane to his right that didn't appear to look out over anything.

"Pom?" Thytes said, letting go of the pillow to take a flower from the table in front of him. He bent the stem and tied it into his mane. "Where exactly am I?"

Akilina Voronin had, overall, an absolutely terrible day. Engel had nearly gotten his sorry a** killed being stupid again and she'd had to go in to save him - past Boomslang, Sieben, and Taipan. That wasn't even counting the multitude of her minions.

It'd resulted in an ultimate success, if after countless injuries. Now she sat in a s****y hotel room that probably had bedbugs next to her maker. Engel himself was only really semi-conscious, and it looked like Boomslang might've had him more than twenty-four hours, if the lack of regeneration meant anything.

She sighed and leaned back in her seat. She wished he'd just feed like he needed to, but the g**d**** honor of his prevented him from taking care of himself. He left her constantly worrying about him and the bastard was in way over his head. If only she knew how to help him.

For now, though, there wasn't any more she could do. She'd already stitched him up and gotten some blood through his lips, and she'd gotten him out in the first place, so that was that.

She stood and changed into her more comfortable clothes to sleep in - a loose t-shirt and sweatpants, under which she strapped her daggers to her calves and her shurikens around her waist. Her wakizashi and other weapons sat next to her in easy reach in case she needed to grab them without warning.

Akilina climbed into bed and curled up under the covers. She wished, simply, that she could only have a break. Engel, too. He deserved it.

She awoke to the startled yelp that came out of her elder brother's mouth and sat up abruptly, reaching for her wakizashi...that wasn't there.

They were in the living room of a darkened house decorated in earth-tones, next to a...bipedal lion? Engel was next to her in what appeared the be light blue duck pajamas and she wore what she'd gone to sleep in.

Well, at least this confirmed that his regeneration had kicked in.

She stretched and gazed at the lion calmly. The look of surprise on Engel's face was priceless - the last he remembered, he was in Boomslang's possession, and here he was waking up next to herself and some lion-dude in his pajamas.

She chuckled and glanced towards the cat dude. "Well. Hello there?" she said, patting Engel's shoulder to get him to chill out.

Damascus wandered the park like he usually did at night. He walked through the leaves just to hear some noise, and when he wanted to sit still and think, he sat on the bench under the light of the streetlamps. It was times like this that he wished he could read well.

With a little sigh, he curled on the bench and closed his eyes, hoping to mimic sleep. At least he could think more vividly with his eyes closed.

Almost immediately after he had slid his eyes shut, he heard voices around him. With a start, he bolted upright, afraid that someone would ask him to leave again. That was when he found himself in a different place entirely.

Looking around in confusion, Damscus studied the room he had apparently whisked himself to. It seemed like a cozy, well furnished little place. Oh, and there were people, too. He blinked and studied the lion, the white-haired woman, and...

"Engel! Oh, I'm so happy to see you! Is- is this your home?" He beamed and stood to properly greet his brother.

With a half-realization, he resistered that he had also accidentally conjured some sort of old-fashioned red sleepwear. He pushed the concern over all of this down and focused on Engel.

Ravelen walked in, dressed in a shirt that was cropped slightly at the bottom and her tights were black. She still wore her black fingerless gloves with the bullet cuffs. She had two guns on a belt that she set down next to her, not really wanting to wear them, and she had another one strapped to her leg. She looked around the room, noting the people around.

It took a few moments after Thytes had spoken for the Personification of Magic to appear - they were just a bit annoyed that the lion had chosen Pom out of all the names (thanks Levi Quinn) but, when they finally did, they were dressed in the comfiest outfit they could think of. A warm, fuzzy shirt and pants, thrown together with a matching robe and slippers. They even added one of those sleeping masks in for kicks, because why not go out when they were given the opportunity to?

"Sorry about that," they apologized, popping into existence right next to Thytes. "I was trying to figure out what I wanted to look like. I think the best way to describe this place as a crossroads between realities - they all meet in random little places, and this is one of them. Only not everyone ends up here, because that would be really confusing and I don't like to think about what that would do to the multiverse."

Magic disappeared with yet another pop, appearing instead beside Damascus. They tapped him on the shoulder. "So this place isn't your friend Eng-er, Kratzer's home. You got the message, right?" They tapped their own forehead. "You should have heard it when you arrived, unless the messaging system is a little faulty..."

Ravelen slipped into a long velvet shirt that was her pajamas. She sat down, watching.

Damascus blushed a bit in embarrassment as the woman who had appeared next to him mentioned a message. In truth, he had heard a voice, but had been too scatterbrained to pay attention to what it was saying- he assumed it was some sort of Siri program, but for houses.

"O- oh. That was you?" He tilted his head. "Uhm... what did you say again?"

"Damascus...?" he blinked, looking around the group in confusion and utter bafflement. "Di...what...."

Diamond smiled up at him. "You owe me a life debt, three times over, brother dear," she informed him in a singsong voice. "Also, your son is fine. I just knocked him out. This time I brought tranqs! Annndd we just woke up here. You know that guy?"

It took him a few moments to process this. He glanced down at his arm to see the stitches. Damn. She really had gotten him out of there. Again. After a moment he turned back towards Damascus. "Ja, I do...How you doing, brother?" he asked with a small smile, though he still looked a little disoriented.

Thytes looked over at the two people to his right. Beyond the strange clothes and hair colors, yep, they looked fairly volatile. Something in their eyes and tone of voice told him as much. He scooted away.

Never one to let a conversation die, though, he cocked his head. "Why did you do that? It seems like a rather rude thing to do to a nephew."

Damacus smiled at Engel and toned down his aggressive exitement a bit.

"I'm doing wonderfully. And yourself?" He brought out his default answer without a thought, and turned his attention to Diamond. "And who is this?"

Ravelen smiled to herself as she went through her bag and pulled out a knife to sharpen.

"Doing vell, danke," he said, even though it was pretty obvious by the long gash in his arm and the lack of regeneration that he wasn't. "Zis is Diamond. She's, uh..."

"His sister, comrade, companion, frenemy, friend, savior, guardian angel, take your pick," Diamond grinned. "You must be his demon friend. Pleasure to finally meet you, Damascus." The white-haired woman extended her hand.

The moment James appeared in the room, he was neither surprised nor upset. The only resonating feeling in his gut was that of resigned acceptance and mild annoyance at the fact that this was happening again.

At the very least, it only took him a second to deduce that it wasn't a hostile environment. And at least this time, he was still in his own original body. Allegedly.

He glanced down at himself, having suddenly appeared laid out on a reclining chair at the corner of a circle of cushioned seats of various sizes. Unsurprisingly, the seats were occupied with strangers of various backgrounds, none of which he knew personally. Though the lion did seem familiar. That, and everyone seemed to be in some sort of lounge or sleepwear. Which left him to assume that he was as well - something he'd quickly concluded the moment he felt the soft silky robe around him along with the matching silky pants.

Not in the mood to converse, he leaned back into the seat and kicked out his legs onto the little extension of the seat that popped out. He had to admit he was secretly pleased with the mechanics of the seat, but he wasn't going to comment on it.

He took one last look around the room before he planned to close his eyes, and that's when he did a double take.

Damascus was there. Kratzer was there.

Oh. Well. Figures.

Kratzer, however, looked wounded.

"You're not regenerating," he said, skipping over greetings without giving it any thought. "Do you need to feed? If I remember correctly, that is the term, yes?"

Diamond draped her arms over Kratzer and rested her chin on his shoulder, answering before he could. "He does, he hasn't in a couple weeks, but his main issue is that his regeneration can only focus on so many big wounds at once and someone broke a load of ribs. Sunlight ain't killin' him yet."

Kratzer rolled his eyes, but nodded. "Zat."