Young Writers Society

James wished Nen hadn't carried him the entire way back to the others, but it happened anyway. By that point, James was resigned to his fate as a travel accessory and waited longingly to be put down.

Leo was among the others, still looking like a wardrobe amongst all the other miscellaneous pieces of furniture and household belongings.

He really lucked out getting put as a human character.

It did suddenly strike him though, that if they were to stop being objects, James would probably have to convincingly follow the storyline enough and 'fall in love' with Nen's character so that the curse could be broken.

He wondered... if the curse would actually be broken. He sure hoped so.

Kendrik stifled a snicker as Nen, with his tail, carried a man into the room . He had to bite back a curse as his teapot whistled - the stupid thing did an awful job of hiding his emotions. It was the only downside to being a teapot, honestly.

Turning to Kendrik, Aegeas rolled his eyes. "Like you wouldn't want to pick up Jaron with your tail."

The spout hissed as Kendrik turned away, making it that much easier for anyone to realize he was blushing.

Nen plopped James down on the ground in front of Leo, pointing accusingly at the former with a clawed finger. "Don't go anywhere," he said. He wasn’t sure if he was talking to James or the character James was playing, but it made sense to say the line anyways.

He turned to Leo and put his arm down.

"Can you make him an outfit?" he awkwardly asked, not quite sure how to word a request like that in a situation like this. "Something that has pants."

As an afterthought, he added with a stage whisper, "We're trying to act in character with some creative liberties."


It took another minute before Bleffles finished her part of the song, and in that time Levi realized just how unprepared he was for the task. He knew the words - or mostly knew them - but he wasn't sure he could pull off the act. Looking smug was one thing; acting like Gaston was another.

And then suddenly, in the middle of his internal dilemma, it was his turn to sing.

He awkwardly stood up.

The fans fell back, sensing that something more important was coming. He took a deep breath and started to sing as quietly as he could, stumbling over a few words. The fans - and others present - didn’t look convinced by his act.

"I don't think we're watching this for your brother," he said, raising an eyebrow when he saw just how much the TV had her attention. She was singing the words under her breath - quiet but confident. When she heard his comment, she nudged him in the side - not too hard, but hard enough to get the point across.

He rubbed his side.

She knew all of the lines. It was really incredible, when he thought about it. How long had she tried memorizing them? How many times had she watched this movie?

"You should sing," she said.

"Huh?"

"You should sing," she said. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow of her own. "Or are you too scared?"

"I'm not scared," he shot back.

"Looks like it to me," she replied. "If you're really not scared, you'd sing."

He thought for a moment.

"I'll do better than that," he said, hopping to his feet. "I'll out sing you!"

"Oh," she said, a grin dancing across her lips as she followed suit, "it's on."

He didn’t know when it happened. One moment, he was barely singing. The next, it was like he was transported back into the memory - belting out lyric after lyric, trying to sing louder and more passionately than the ghost of a girl he would never be able to see again.

Bleffles and Levi swung around, arm in arm, and jumped up onto the nearest table, gesturing dramatically at each other, with surprisingly few bruises to show for their performance up to this point.

“-And now that’s he’s grown he eats FIVE dozen eggs-”
“-So I’m roughly the size of a BAAAAAaaAAaaaAAArRrGGEEEEEEE!”

“Nooo ooone shoots like Gaston, -shoots the goots like Gaston?- then goes tromping around wearing boots like Gaston!”

Levi jumped off of the table, landing with a loud stomp.

”I use antlers in all of my deEEHHH-cor-rating!”

“My, what a guy! Gast-”

Wait. How did the song end again? Oh, Jove. No. Oh, no. Maurice was supposed to burst in about now. Where was he? She waited, she sang a couple rounds, but he still didn't show up. Things were getting awkward. It was time to act.

“-Everybody!” Bleffles shouted, sweating. “One more time! My, what a guy, GasTOOOOOOON-”

Bleffles stole a sock from a drunkard, and kept the rounds of ‘my, what a guy’ going, while she ferociously worked at sewing some buttons onto its sweaty, sweaty face.
After about seven such rounds, she ran out the door, ran back in, brandished Sock Maurice in the air, and yelled-

“Oh no! A beast has stolen my daughter! We gotta rescue her, you guys!”

Damn. That dialogue wasn’t right at all.

“Mon peopelle?”

God, no. That was a hundred times worse. The American-sounding French villagers stared at the puppet, scandalised.

“Maurice, bruh, that’s crazy talk.” Bleffles said to her hand.

She turned to the wearer of the sacred jacket, and looked expectantly at him.
“Haha, old people, amiright, Gaston?”

"Can ya make somethin' for me too?" Kendrik said, looking over at Leo.

Aegeas frowned at Kendrik. "You don't even need to wear anything," he said.

"An' I don't have to like it," said Kendrik, spout starting to hiss again.

James had to keep himself from rolling his eyes at Nen. "I don't think he can make an outfit," he said. "He's been turned into a wardrobe. There might be clothes in his drawers, though."

Janos, seeming to (reluctantly) realize that this was his time to shine, slipped out of the room. Levi felt a wave of relief wash over him when Janos opened the door a second later - the sock puppet really hadn't done the job, and Levi hadn't figured out how he'd salvage Bleffles' act with his own performance.

He pushed back his hood.

The room immediately fell silent, and all eyes turned to Janos.

"A monster stole my daughter," Janos said, mostly emotionless. "Someone needs to save her."

The tavern all turned to Levi.

Levi scoffed and crossed his arms. "That's crazy."

All it took were those two words for everyone else in the room to start talking - all muttering words of agreement.