Young Writers Society

"Oh, well, good for you," Kate said, pulling her sweater back on. If this was that fucking barnyard duo again she was going to loose it. She was never going to use that funky little ax-key-thing again, no matter what the hiccuping mutt said.

She finished adjusting the sweater. "I'm so fucking sick of being yanked from my nice, comfy, home by glitter-sniffing bootlickers with no respect for the fact that I'm done with this shit."



Daisy frowned. She really didn't think they'd be here if they weren't invited. She didn't come here intentionally, so someone here had to have brought her here. Maybe they were the human guests of the vampires or something, made into vampires for a little while so they would be more comfortable in this environment. Sort of like that costume party the Matthew's threw where they provided little hats and things to the people who didn't have costumes so they wouldn't be left out.

She perked back up a little with that comforting thought. She still didn't know who the thank for the dress, though. Oh boy, that was going to bug her.

"Perhaps they did send invitations in advance," she offered, "I didn't get a chance to look through my mail this morning, I'm sure it was there."

There was a short pause wherein she looked dejectedly back down at her dress, "I'm really sorry to keep bothering you gentlemen about this, but I don't even know who lent me this dress. I would feel awful to give it back stained, so I think I'll have to head off in search of a restroom or something to clean up in."

"I can go with-"

Now it was Télos who was doing the stomping. Kaito had the exact same reaction that Télos had to the sudden interruption - a wince, a startled yelp and a step back. It took Kaito a second to realize why Télos had cut him off, but then he realized the implications of what he had been about to say.

"I can try getting it out," Kaito offered. "I meant what I said earlier - I'm the chosen of Aquarius, god of water. I'm not sure if that name means anything to you, but..."

He gave an awkward smile.

Then he focused on the blood on her dress, feeling the little bits of water within it and trying to pull it out. Kaito's smile grew when the blood suddenly popped out of the dress and went back into Daisy's wine glass. He hadn't been entirely sure that would work.

From the look on Télos's face as he braided his hair - substituting a strand of very thin gold for a traditional hair tie - he hadn't expected it would work, either.

Daisy stared at the glass. Oh. She had been about to ask if he meant 'Aquarius' like the zodiac sign, but she guessed not. Either that or Nancy had been keeping a pretty big secret from the rest of the neighborhood. Daisy couldn't really see her doing that.

It wasn't too strange, she supposed, given the context. She left her glass where it was, however. No need to risk another spill.

"Thank you," she said to Kaito and looked down to admire the dress, noticing the complexity of the pattern near the hem of one of the layers, "You really did a wonderful job." She gave a little spin.

Kaito smiled.

"I'm glad I could still do that," he said, "and I'm glad I could actually manipulate blood. I, uh, haven't really done that last part before..."

Télos watched as Daisy spun, studying the designs of her dress. He hadn't ever really seen something like that on his world before. Still, it looked beautiful even when unrecognizable. "We probably need to figure out what we're going to do," Télos commented, gaze still on Daisy's dress. "It's probably safer to pretend that we're vampires."

"But how do we pretend to be vampires?" Kaito whispered. Télos finally looked away from the dress, his braid bobbing a little on his back as he glanced over at Kaito. "We don't even know how vampires are really supposed to act."

Télos mulled it over.

"...You and I should probably get glasses of blood," he guessed. "To fit in. We already have the fangs and the outfits, so we just need to avoid drawing attention to ourselves."

Télos grinned - he had been told that this specific grin looked just a little evil, but he always remembered after he gave it.

"We'll figure out what's going on in no time," Télos said.

James wouldn't have said it in those words, but he could understand. He felt quite the same, though perhaps considerably less spiteful about it. Well, at least, outwardly. For the most part, he was just tired - in every sense of the word. Tired of being ripped out of his world. Tired of being thrown into trouble in other worlds, as if he didn't have enough in his own. Tired enough to take a year-long nap, but he couldn't sleep normally anyways if he tried.

He hummed in agreement.

"Same here. Except my home is probably not as, uh, comfortable as yours, it sounds."

Kate rolled her eyes, "Allow me to shower you in pity," she said sarcastically. Could this moron really not tell that the word 'comfy' was sarcastic? How dense did a person have to be to miss that? It was the fucking potato sack all over again.



Daisy considered picking up her glass again, then decided against it. This was a very nice dress, and there was no point in risking getting it stained all over again. Besides, it was a party. She didn't see why fitting in at an event like this would require them to carry around a glass.

She stuck with the gentlemen, though. They were nice, and she didn't know anyone else here just yet.

Okay. He was trying to be nice. He was trying to pretend like the conversation wasn’t disproportionately rude on one side, but by gods, she was being insufferable.

He blinked slowly and sighed.

“Look. I want to get out of this as much as you do, and I’ll do it with or without your help. I imagine whatever brought us here probably intended for us to do this together, but I am not here to babysit or parent someone who insists on acting like a child. I’m sorry about your sweater, and I’m sorry about your attitude, but I’m here to get things done, and I’m going to try to blend in, since that seems the whole point of being dressed up like this.” He briefly gestured to himself.

“So don’t make a scene,” he said, before bowing his head, turning, and departing into the crowd.

Kaito was the one who went over to get glasses of blood for him and Télos. He felt a pit grow in his stomach when he saw the names and descriptions of the different kinds. He wasn't going to drink any of it. He couldn't. It belonged to actual people, and it just felt wrong.

He handed off a glass to Télos.

"Here," he said. "I grabbed us some Elizabeth."

Télos blinked. "...Did you get it as a joke?"

Kaito mimed sipping the blood. "...Maybe."

Télos gave a tiny smile at that. Seeing his smile made Kaito smile, too. He wasn't sure how he would have handled it on his own, but at least he had Télos here to help him through everything.

"We should probably talk to someone," Télos said. Kaito opened his mouth to say why doing that was a really bad idea, but a vampire had already caught his eye. The vampire was dressed in a suit with golden designs, so Kaito really shouldn't have been surprised when Télos walked over to him.

Kaito hesitated, then grabbed onto Daisy's wrist and led her over to where Télos was.

"Your suit looks beautiful," Télos said. He grinned at the man, his fangs glinting in the gentle light of the ballroom. "I'm Télos, by the way. God-"

Kaito let go of Daisy's wrist and gave a very loud cough.

Télos faltered.

"-I'm so glad I came?" he hesitantly finished.

Kate took a deep breath. She wasn't going to get anywhere if someone didn't at least tell her what was going on.

But she did not need help.

She just needed....meat shields. Like last time.

So she bit her tongue and walked up to the guy who was walking away. "I'm sorry." She grumbled it out like it tasted foul. It did.



Daisy was a little caught off guard when one of the men took her by the wrist and led her away, but she composed herself quickly.

"Hello," she greeted the man in the very ornate suit, and the seething girl behind him, "I'm Daisy."

James wasn't sure if he was pleased by the current developments or overwhelmed, but he didn't really have time to decide. Kate just apologized, and two men had come over (dragging a girl behind them?) to... compliment his suit? They didn't seem exactly composed enough to fit in with the rest of vampires surrounding them, and the moment one of them loudly cleared their throat to correct their friend mid-sentence from saying something about being a god, James knew immediately that he was right. They weren't from here either.

It seemed he'd somehow gathered more of the confused, lost people like a magnet without even trying. He supposed that made things easier.

Maybe. It depended on how competent they all were, and on first impressions, he wasn't fully assured, considering one of the men needed very obvious help with the art of lying and subtlety.

"Ah. Thank you," he said with a nod of his head to Télos. "It's good to meet you all. Daisy." Another bow of his head, towards her, before looking at the black-haired fellow who was yet unnamed. "I am Tiberius Hemming. And you are?"

Kaito didn't usually give a last name - mostly because he was afraid someone would catch on and realize it was fake - but he just felt obligated to give one when Tiberius did.

"I'm Kaito," he said. "Kaito Shion."

His gaze swept over to the girl who had joined Tiberius. She hadn't said much, and Kaito knew that vampires didn't age the same as humans. But she looked so young. He instinctively found himself scooting over a little closer to her. Not in a too noticeable way, but in a way that even Télos could pick up on it.

Because look. Télos was a great friend, and was also the older brother of Kaito's boyfriend, but the vampire was seemingly a teenager. Kaito would take hanging out with teenagers over adults any day.

"Hi," Kaito said, giving a little wave.


Lorcan didn't know what was going on.

The last thing he remembered was being in Charlotte's house. Charlotte was off at school, leaving Lorcan, Second and Herobrine to discuss what to do about Kartiel. He had just gone to lay down on her couch - Second was about to sit on the end of it while Herobrine raided the kitchen.

But then he suddenly found himself standing in a massive ballroom, dressed in clothes that vaguely resembled what he remembered wearing the day before. All of his senses felt oddly heightened. Besides that, however, Lorcan didn't notice anything too off.

It was only when he glanced around the room that he realized what everyone there - minus him - had in common.

He was in a room full of vampires.

Lorcan wasn't sure if he was supposed to sigh or panic.

Luckily, he didn't get a chance to decide - a second after his realization, and the realization that he probably shouldn't draw attention to himself when he was the only one there with human blood in his veins, a vampire came rushing over to him.

There was just a moment for the sight to register.

He saw white hair, red eyes, and an outfit fit for a king. Then the vampire was throwing his arms around his shoulders. Lorcan, not entirely sure what was going on, stiffly returned the hug.

"Lorcan," the vampire said, "you're here, too!"

The voice registered.

The hug became genuine when he realized who he was hugging. It only ended when his best friend wiggled free from his grasp. "I thought I was the only one," Second said, "but then I saw you."

Lorcan gave a smile.

"I didn't recognize you," he admitted. "You make a good vampire, especially with that outfit."

Second grinned.

"We're matching now," he said, pointing at his teeth.

He glanced back at the crowd of vampires.

"Which I guess is a good thing," he added. "We should probably try blending in, shouldn't we?"

Lorcan nodded.

"And we should make sure no one tries separating us," Second added. Before Lorcan could even ask what he meant, Second had grabbed onto his arm and was leaning against his side.

Lorcan didn't fight it.

He never did.

"Kaito. Great." James nodded politely.

As Kaito inched closer to Kate, James turned to Télos and Daisy.

"Now that we've all introduced ourselves, I figure it's easiest to skip to the obvious," he said, keeping his voice lower. "You're not from here, and neither am I. You all appeared here suddenly, and Kate and I are much in the same circumstance. It seems apparent that we should do our best to blend in, but there isn't a clear objective or goal beyond that. Yet. I'm sure we'll find out soon. I plan to do some mingling. Sound good? We're all on the same page?"

Paige barely spared the black-haired girl a glance.

At first.

The second she realized it was Minnie she tensed. Her entire being yelling at her to either punch her in the face or run. Or both.

"The drinks are free" She hissed, taking a tentative sip from her glass, the thought that it might be poisoned only just now crossing her mind.

"Oh come on," Minnie mused, allowing a playful smirk to cross her face. She leaned against the counter lightheartedly, tossing her head back and taking the whole glass down. She pulled her pale wrist over her lips, wiping off the excess blood, "humor me." She flashed a smile and a wink in the redhead's directions.

Paiges face turned quite brilliantly red. The nerve of that bitch. She pushed herself off the counter, sputtering a rather squeaky "Fuck off" before walking in the direction of a pretty strawberry-blonde haired girl, probably close enough to her age.

She wrapped her arms around hers. "Hello dear," she said, a loving tone enveloping her voice, she prayed to the gods she had chosen someone who would play pretend with her for a while. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Please pretend to be my girlfriend, I'll explain later,"

Minnie skipped up behind her. Tilting her head with a smile and bowing to the rest of the group around her. "You must be Paige's friends! Nice to meet you, I'm Minnie."

Before Télos could give an answer - or get over his surprise at the gold suited vampire being like him - a girl came over and asked Daisy to be her pretend girlfriend. Télos guessed they were going along with the plan Tiberius had come up with after all.

And then another girl had emerged.


Kaito was getting flashbacks to meeting Aquarius - it was like he was looking at two dolls. He was pretty sure he had seen similar dresses back in his mansion or Aquarius's former home. The dresses were beautiful, much like Daisy's was, but Kaito hated them on principle.

He tried to tap into all of the politeness and etiquette he had shoved away these past few years - he didn't like the idea of using it, but didn't this seemed like the sort of party that involved it.

He gave a bow of his own.

"I'm Kaito," he said, his voice suave and way more confident than he actually felt. "It's a pleasure to meet you too."

A short distance away, Télos seemed torn between following suit. Kaito knew that Télos was far older than him, and had probably been in more situations like this than Kaito had. But what Kaito didn't know was how wrongly his actions could be misinterpreted.

Because if someone didn't know Kaito had a boyfriend and heard him using that tone, it was very likely they'd think he was flirting with Minnie.

"I'm Télos," Télos offered from nearby. Kaito popped back up and gave Minnie a smile before glancing over at Télos. The urge to finish off the rest of his introduction was strong, but Télos somehow managed to hold back.


Lorcan and Second maneuvered their way through a sea of unfamiliar faces. Occasionally, a vampire would come to talk to them, but the conversations never lasted more than a minute. Something about Second hanging onto his arm made people want to stay away. Lorcan was okay with that. Even if Second didn't look the same, he felt the same. He needed the comfort of someone he knew right now.

They did notice a large group of people forming in one corner of the room. It wasn't the only group, but it seemed to be one of the more lively ones. Lorcan could see that Second was contemplating going over to it. He had that familiar, calculating glint to his red eyes as he studied them from afar. Then he abruptly turned away from them. With an equally familiar skip to his step, he led Lorcan to the very edge of the room.

"I don't think we can convince that many people at once," Second said. "I don't even know how a vampire is supposed to act."

He turned to see Second studying him.

"I don't know, either," he replied, but Second looked unconvinced.

"Everyone thinks you're a vampire," Second said. "So you have to be doing something that a vampire would do."

...He had a point.

Lorcan sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"I don't know what I'm doing," he admitted, "but it might be a good idea for us to get glasses of blood. Most of the people here have them."

Second thought for a moment, then nodded. "It would probably be good to have those," he agreed.

Lorcan pulled his arm out of Second's grasp. "I'll go get us glasses."

When Second didn't object, Lorcan started to retrace his path through the crowd. More people seemed to be interacting with him now that he was alone - maybe he should have asked Second to come with him. It just seemed pointless after they had found a perfect spot to watch the party from.

He tried to ignore the pit in his stomach when he saw the names underneath all of the different kinds of blood. Elise, Elizabeth, Vivian - those were all people. He tried his best not to imagine what they had been like, but then he saw one titled "Charlotte".

The last name was different, but Lorcan still froze.

When he finally looked away, he saw that the server was giving him an odd look. Lorcan hurried to come up with a request. Unsure of what was the best choice, and not wanting to stand there for too much longer, he blurted out, "Could I have two glasses of Charlotte, please?"

He could.

A few minutes later, he had returned to his spot on the wall with the two glasses of blood in tow. But Second was gone. No matter where he looked in the room, he couldn't find him.

The pit in his stomach grew stronger.

Kate scowled at Kaito, "What do you want?" she said no more cheerily than her apology.

She had no idea what about her made this cheerful cherub of a moron think she was up for small talk and pleasantries. Fucker probably thought she wanted to go skiing down mountains of glitter or something, too. She wished that, for once, someone would just get that she didn't want to chit chat. She wasn't some fluttering little pixy. She'd think that was clear.

xXx

Daisy blushed. She didn't think, or, she didn't expect this kind of thing. Not at such a high-class party! But people were supposed to help each other, so she fought to maintain her smile and wrapped an arm around Paige.

Looking at Minnie, Daisy realized that she must be Paige's ex. It was like that teen drama movie Hector's seemed to be watching every time Daisy came over. Minnie was someone Paige wanted to avoid, or maybe make her jealous?

Daisy shook her head, chuckling at herself. She was comparing real life to a movie! It didn't get much sillier than that.

"It's nice to meet you," she said to Minnie pleasantly. She didn't know if she wanted to play along completely, but she could stay in the middle ground for a little while so no one would end up upset.