Young Writers Society

The idea of meeting Alex before she met them hurt Kirux's head, but he gave a nod and sniffled when Bo gave his quiet explanation.

He still kept hugging Skull, though. Kirux needed a hug right now.

"We're okay," Skull said. When he gave Kirux a hesitant pat on the back, Kirux beamed - completely ignoring the tears that were still on his cheeks. "Confused, but alright. Do you have any idea where we are right now? All I know is that I've been put into..."

He glanced down and grimaced.

"...this," he said, "and that I definitely wasn't in the middle of all of these people earlier. I was with Natty boy and Asmira earlier."

Kirux opened his mouth to say something, too, but then he realized Skull couldn't understand him. He reached into his pockets of his clothes - they were different now! - and found what he had been looking for: his notebook and pen.

He flipped it open to a new page and quickly wrote down something in really messy handwriting. He would have been neater, but he wanted to tell them before the conversation moved on.

He held up his notebook.

I was with Naminé! he had written with a simple but big smiley face. I was using her crayons. Then I ended up here. And my clothes are different, so we have to be on another world!

Queenie led Julian to where Kirux was showing the other two boys something on a piece of paper. While she was focused on the people, Julian read the note.

"Another world?" he asked as they joined the little group.

Queenie sighed and pulled her hair over her shoulder to fiddle with. They could deal with explaining this.

Mary scooted over so that the man could take a seat next to her. Then, she handed him the acid. "Thanks for keeping me company," she said. "Not going to catch the show?"

She took an acid tab out of her pocket and handed it to him. "I'm Mary, and you?"

Bo looked down at the note, and noted the girl and guy coming close. They looked like they knew Kirux and Skull or something.

"Kirux is right!" he said, before turning to the new guy. "You guys are in my world, just before my time. It's the 70's, and we're in California if that means anything to you. I don't know how familiar all of you are with time travel and traveling between realities and universes, and it's all really wild especially if it's your first time, but the sooner you accept it's real and it's happening, the easier things will be."

He paused. "I mean, that's way easier said than done, so like, if you need to freak out, I totally understand. That's okay. But also, fortunately, I at least know a little bit about this world and the 70's, so we're not completely lost. We'll figure out why we're here soon enough. Usually, there's something we gotta do, someone we gotta meet, or something like that."

That was in optimistic cases, of course, but it wouldn't be helpful to list all of the awful possibilities.


Carter looked down at the little square of paper. He didn't know what it was, nor what he was supposed to do with it. All he knew was it was a "fix." But logically, of all the things he could've been offered, he was pretty sure it wasn't money, it wasn't a ticket, and it wasn't like the little square had any useful information.

Was it food? Was it supposed to be ingested?

He held it in his hand.

"Carter," he said. "And no, I was just saving a spot in line for a friend, but it looks like they ditched me." He shrugged, then looked down at the "fix" in his hand. He looked over at Mary. "You got some for yourself too, yeah?"

"That's too bad about your friend," Mary replied. "And oh, I'm good." He saw her staring at her blankly. "What's the matter? Never done acid before?" Then, Mary instinctively licked her lips.

She imagined Carter was speaking her in Orson Welles' voice, and that made it entertaining.

"This is a lot like our world too," Queenie sighed, "1970s, star wars premiere, Earth. We got it."

Julian turned his puzzled look on her, and spoke in an equally puzzled voice, "Have you been to other worlds before?"

She ignored his question, "We should get out of the way of the crowd-"

"Queens," Julian said slowly, interrupting her, "have you been to other world before?"

She eyed him, "Yes, alright. Now could we please get out of the way of the crowd?"

It clicked. Acid. It sounded like a drug. It had to be. What else was the little paper suppose to be? This was how people spoke of nightshade back on Nye. It wasn't something you consumed, it was something you did. Maybe the paper had the drug in it? He couldn't begin to guess how it worked, but considering he was on another world, already far, far out of his element, being under the influence of a drug might just give him the cover he needed for acting strange.

It would also give him an excuse to do things that would otherwise not be permissible.

Granted, he didn't know how heavily it would affect him and his mind, but if it was anything like nightshade, he could probably handle it.

He pretended to be bashful, averting his gaze when Mary asked the question.

"Ah. Yeah. Sorry, it's my first time," he said, pausing to look back down at the "acid" before gingerly plopping it in his mouth. It stuck to his tongue and started to dissolve. That felt right. He figured he'd look weird if he tried to chew it.

He plopped down beside her. "But there's always a time for everything! So what about you? What are you here for, if not the show?"

Kirux had been ready to explain other worlds - he could sign his explanation, now that Queenie was here - but Bo beat him to it. He frowned a little, growing visibly deflated when he realized he didn't get to teach someone what he had learned about other worlds.

"Why are the stars fighting?" he signed, turning to Queenie in confusion. He knew he should be getting out of the crowd, but he was really confused. "And what's a p-r-e-m-i-e-r-e?"

Skull suddenly grabbed onto Kirux's arm.

"We should go there," he said, gesturing away from the crowd. "I really don't like him."

Kirux looked away from Queenie. He didn't really get why Skull wanted to go near someone he didn't like. He grabbed his pencil to start writing a response, but Skull saw the look of confusion on his face and answered his question without him even having to ask it.

"I don't like people for a reason," he said. "I don't know why he's rubbing me the wrong way, but that has to be some kind of hint."

He thought for a moment.

"Then again," he said, "I don't really like the only female member of our group right now, so that doesn't say too much."

Kirux glanced around their group.

An aghast expression appeared on his face. The only girl in their group was Queenie! He pursed his lips and pouted at Skull - crossing his arms for emphasis.

Skull faltered.

"...I'm not going to lie about it," he muttered. "I felt like it was important to get out there-"

Kirux kept giving him a look.

"...Fine," he said. "I'm...sorry."

He didn't really look like he meant it, but Kirux was satisfied. Giving Queenie a big grin, he started to head towards the girl and man Skull had been pointing to earlier - accidentally bringing Skull along with him because he was still holding onto Kirux's arm.

"First time?" Mary said to Carter excitedly. "Oh, this will be fun." Then, she paused. He had asked her a question. What she was doing here. "I just like to come and watch people."

Queenie snaked her arm around Julian's waist, "Can we please talk about this a little later, hm?" she said to silence the questions piling up behind his eyes, giving him that big-eyed look he never said no to. An underhanded trick, but a transparent enough one that he wouldn't get all hurt over it later.

She felt his chest rise and fall as he sighed, "Fine."

She flashed a grin and suddenly stepped into the crowd, her arm uncurling from around his waist and catching his hand just in time to yank him after her toward the group. Stick with the group. It was one of Father's rules for her. Not for Briar, of course. Briar didn't need supervision.

Queenie's expression darkened slightly at that thought. As far as she could possibly be from her father and yet-

Her eyes widened ever so slightly, and, the chaos surrounding her disguising anything odd about her behavior, her hand went to her neck. As her fingertips brushed her neck, her heart stopped.

Fuck.

Bo was pretty confused, but he followed after the others. Skull was being rude, but Bo was glad that Queenie didn't seem to take it personally and instead just followed after Skull and Kirux. Bo did the same. He didn't recognize the man on the bench with the woman, but Skull seemed to recognize him - or have a "feeling" about him.

With the way things were at the moment, it was either follow Skull's gut feeling or wait for Alex to come out of the movie. Maybe they'd be able to do both, but Bo wasn't sure of anything at the moment.



Carter hummed and nodded. "People watching, huh. Who's the most interesting person you've seen so far today, then?" he asked with a grin.

"Oh, there was this guy that looked just like Sid Vicious," Mary said. "Lock chain around his neck and everything." She saw the blank look on his face. "You have no idea who I'm talking about, do you? Man, I wish I had my stereo."

Her eyes drifted to a ragtag group of people. One really tall man. A younger couple. A boy with white hair and an average looking teen. "They're pretty far out too. Those people."

Carter followed Mary’s gaze to the group the teen he knew he hated but didn’t know personally was leading. Oh gods. They were coming for him. Why? Why him? But now was not the time to grumble or dish out a “woe is me” monologue. He was still pretending to not know them - because he didn’t, even though his gut had strong opinions about at least two people in the approaching group.

He raised his brows in curiosity and hummed.

“Damn. You’re right. That one is practically a giant.”

It didn't take long for us to reach the two sitting away from the line of people. Even when we were a few feet away, I still didn't have a good reason for why I didn't like the guy with the tacky denim outfit. I stopped in front of him and looked him over with a critical eye, trying to figure out why I hated him so much. Had I seen him somewhere before? A photo in a paper back on my original world, or wandering through the streets of my latest with Asmira and Nathaniel?

As I mulled over my question, Kirux cut right to the chase.

He gave the two a big wave. I didn't even have to know how to read lips or sign to get what he was telling them.

"Hi!" he enthusiastically signed and mouthed.

Julian trailed awkwardly behind Queenie as they went to add another pair to this group. He didn't even know why he was singled out for this group, or Queens, for that matter. They were - for the most part - ordinary people in a...weird situation. Queens, reliable Queens, seemed to know better than he did what was going on.

As they came to a stop, he put an arm around Queenie's waist and pulled her closer - a little hint of familiarity in the....this.

"This is Kirux," she said cheerfully to the pair on the bench, "he says hi."

The edge of Julian's lips twitched up into a little smile at that. Even being jarringly ripped from one time to another without warning or explanation could keep Queens from smiling.