Young Writers Society

Levi quickly decided that this situation took the spot as the weirdest moment of his life, and, considering that he had spent the majority of the last few years lurking in a computer, that was quite the accomplishment.

There was nothing like hearing a bunch of people spontaneously break out into song, and nothing like being the center of attention. He had been in a play or two in middle school, but there had been months of practice before something like this could be pulled off. It admittedly made a chill run up his spine - which was more than a little ironic, given the secret he was hiding. At this point in his life, he wasn't supposed to be getting startled by a group of people spontaneously singing.

Now all he could do was try to look smug and wait for the moment where Gaston was supposed to start singing.

...And try not to make eye contact with Janos, who was looking vaguely amused underneath his makeshift cloak's hood as he watched the scene unfold.


Nen faltered when James stepped into the cell, just as clueless as the other man was on what they were supposed to do next. The cell made sense, but he couldn't figure out why the Beast would suddenly let Belle out. It didn't seem to fit with the character. And Nen knew he was supposed to be acting, but he couldn't act when he hadn't even heard of the story before today.

"I think you can come out?" Nen hesitantly said after awkwardly closing and opening the cell door. Aska lingered behind his leg, grabbing onto it with little hands. It was a sensation that made him feel like there was a spider there, but he resisted the urge to freak out when he realized that Aska would have been there.

James frowned at Nendros, but made sure his expression was more pleading than angry. Nendros wasn't trying to play his character either, was he?

"Am I not your prisoner?" he asked. "Will you not treat me in the same way you treated my father?"

Nen froze.

"Um..." he said, throat going dry. James really was trying to stay in character, wasn’t he? He sent a nervous glance down at Aska, but his best friend was just as clueless as he was. Neither one of them knew the story. What were they supposed to do?

"I'm not good at the whole prison guard thing," he weakly said. "It was more of a formality than anything else...?"

He gave James a hopeful, awkward look. That was good, right?

"And even though I have a lot of talking furniture here," he added, "it can get a little lonely being all by myself."

James slow-blinked at Nendros with an unimpressed expression. His lower lip quivered slightly as if he were fighting back tears. With a scoff, he walked out of the cell, turning away from Nen.

"Fine."

Even though he knew that he should have probably been leading, he fell into step behind James. He didn't know what he was supposed to do in a situation like this - Az had expected him to be evil when she got trapped at the Castle of Blood, too, and he had treated her the same way as he was acting now. He had to be nice - he didn't know how not to be. But James seemed like he wanted to keep in character, and he didn't want to upset him by failing to do that.

Why couldn't this go better?

He absentmindedly grabbed onto Aska with his tail, lifting the his best friend up as said best friend gave a startled yelp. It was only when his tail deposited Aska in his arms that he calmed down - even if he did seem a little restless.

"Am I doing things wrong?" Nen whispered. "I know I should be more mean, but I can't help it. It reminds too much of, you know..."

Aska did the best impression of a nod that a clock could do. "I-I think y-you're doing good," he replied, just as quietly as Nen had spoken. "I-It's hard to be m-mean when you're not. And-And you know what it's like to b-be the B-Beast, so you...you can't not act like that."

James didn't know where he was going. It felt wrong to lead the way, but Nen clearly didn't know where to go or what to do either.

Must James always be the initiator? Did he have to carry both their roles himself? He sighed and looked back at Nen and Aska.

"I can hear you two whispering you know," he said, even though it was only a half-truth. He couldn't understand what they were saying at all. His hearing wasn't good enough for that. But he did hear something faint like them talking, before he'd moved out of range. He didn't know. It just seemed like the right thing to say.

He stiffened when James spoke. He should have guessed that James would overhear them, though he still didn't know if James had just heard them talking or actually knew what had been said. "...Sorry?" Nen hesitantly replied. This was getting worse with everything he said! He really needed to figure out how to get a hang of this role, even if he couldn't play it the way he was supposed to-

Understanding dawned on him.

He didn't have to play it exactly right. Whatever had brought them here couldn't possibly expect them to all know the story; most of the people hadn't. That meant that most of the small things - dialogue, little actions and choices that didn't affect the bigger picture - was left up to interpretation. It was almost a choose your own adventure style of book, but with a predetermined ending.

And Nen knew a thing or two about empty, magical castles and uninvited guests.

He looked James over again, this time with a newfound confidence. He had done that with Az - she had an injury at the time, and that had been part of the reason he had made the suggestion that he had. But while James hadn't injured his ankle, he did have a problem that needed solving: the fact that he was wearing a dress.

(That was, of course, assuming he didn't like wearing dresses.)

He strode in front of James, just as clueless about the castle's layout as before. "We need to get you new clothes," he said, grabbing onto James's wrist with a now freed hand. He could have gone for the wrist with his tail, but he would save that if James protested. "Pants, a shirt, new shoes - or a dress, if dresses are more your thing."

Everything within James wanted to agree and just say yes to anything besides the godsforsaken dress but his godsdamned first reaction was to pull away. He wished he knew more of the character to be able to tell is Belle would care what she wore, but he had none of that knowledge. He just had to make up the details as he went along.

The only thing he did know was that she would probably protest to being grabbed.

"Let me go," he said sharply.

"Nope," Nen declared. He kept his grip firm on his wrist; part of him almost wished James would break free, so then he would have an excuse to use his tail instead. "Not happening. You're my guest, and I'm not letting my guest walk around in dirty, uncomfortable clothes."

James pulled away, yanking his wrist from Nen’s grip.

“I’m not your guest, I’m your prisoner,” he spat back. “And I’ll do what I want.”

"You were the one who tried to imprison yourself," Nen pointed out. He was starting to get the hang of this! "I don't even think your dad was here for that long - I was just going to ask him some questions about he was doing in my castle, but you were the one who jumped the sword."

After a moment passed, he decided he couldn't resist the temptation any longer. "I guess we'll have to do this the hard way," he said, right before wrapping his tail around James's waist. It was hard keeping track of him and of Aska, who was currently clinging to his arm, but he could manage.

James frowned in a stubborn fashion. Nen did have a point, but at the very least... he seemed to be trying to own his role more.

He tensed as Nen's tail wrapped around his waist and had to actively stuff down the instinctual urge to fight. He opted for kicking his legs in the air, letting the annoying dress fabric catch air and flutter around.

"Put me down!" he demanded.

This really was like with Az.

"Not happening," Nen declared. He lifted James a little; that should stop the struggling, if his experience with Az was anything to go off of. Trying to escape was less enticing a few feet off of the ground. "If you can't care for yourself, someone else has to. And it's not like magical enchanted furniture is a good candidate - they're a little limited by the whole being furniture and kitchenware part."

He hesitated, then looked down at Aska.

"...Sorry," he guiltily apologized.

"It's-It's alright," Aska quietly replied, burying himself further into the comfort of Nen's arm. "I-I can't do much wh-when I'm a clock."

Nen gave him a reassuring pat on the head with his now free hand before turning his attention back to James. "So, back to the outfits - what exactly should we be looking for? The castle is at your disposal. As long as it's here, you can have it!"

...He just hoped the castle had the same type of enchantments the Castle of Blood did, or else this was going to be a very long search.

James kicked for a little longer before realizing that Nen really was serious about not letting him down and changing his current outfit. At that point, he considered, it would be in character not to argue, and profitable for his comfort.

He let out a frustrated sigh and flopped his arms down in defeat. He let a small pause transpire before speaking in reluctance.

"Pants," he said curtly, before adding. "Or a nice suit. With pants."

"Pants?" he repeated. "I can do pants."

That was assuming he could find where the clothing was. He probably could hit up Leo, too - actually, that was a really good idea. Leo was the closest he had to a magical closet/wardrobe/dresser at the moment, and he presumably could make clothing appear.

He started to head back to the room they had gathered in earlier.