Young Writers Society

november 17

november 18

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november 23

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november 25

november 26

• Our Heroes arrive in Toledo, Ohio, where they hope to investigate Wizards Inc. Megan and Zafira take a walk and have some happy smooching time in a waterfront park. It took me a full week to write this short chapter lol, although it went super fast once the election was called.
• Our Heroes go to Wizards Inc but don't make it past the front desk and get creepy vibes from the place. Cap is disheartened by how badly he thinks this this whole quest is going.
• Our Heroes plan to return to Wizards Inc for some snooping under cover of night, but Megan is distraught when Cap tells her she's not going: she doesn't know how to use any weapons and knows hardly any magic, so it's safer for everyone if she stays behind. I enjoyed writing Distraught Megan far too much. It only took like 3 days to get this far haha. Clearly I am better with angst than fluff.
• When the fellowship fails to return from Wizards Inc after several hours, Megan panics and decides to go after them, taking some precautions, such as enchanting the doors of their room to open only for members of the fellowship and enchanting a cup of coffee to be super, super hot, because even if she doesn't know how to use any weapons...she figures she can at least throw some boiling lava hot coffee at someone.
• Oh no! Wizards Inc is in flames. The fellowship is nowhere to be found - except Zafira, who's alone and scared and bleeding horribly from a gash in hir stomach. I attempted an intimate tend-wounds scene, but between Zafira's injury being so bad and Megan being so panicked...there's less comfort and more actual wound-tending. Megan stitches Zafira up to the best of her ability and freaks out a lot. There's at least half a moment of comfort. <3
• Taman returns to the inn, unharmed but worried because she doesn't know where the others are. Her initial relief at seeing Megan turns into anger when she realizes Megan used magic when healing Zafira: Zafira has a magic allergy that could endanger her as much as or more than hir initial injury. Cue tons of panic from Megan.
• Rafe returns with AJ and Cap, both injured but alive. There is general despair and panic between all the injuries, the fact that they got separated, and the fact that Charlie stayed behind to fight so the rest of them could get out. AJ tells Megan that Taman's anger isn't really about her: Taman has a Tragic Backstory™ involving an unknown magic allergy and a dead child. Megan panics more and more until finally she resolves to go out and bring Charlie back herself.
• Megan makes it to Wizards Inc, but a business bro standing guard brings her in before she can do literally anything. She finally confronts Chip Edgeworth, head of WI and the man who cursed her, but he doesn't even remember her. He introduces her to WI's newest member: Charlie.
• It's okay! Sort of. Charlie has been mind-whammied; he and the missing members of the Council of Wizards are under Chip's magical control. Megan manages to lift the enchantment for a moment, but Chip immediately puts it back and threatens her. Charlie can't quite break free but keeps fighting the enchantment.
• Lots of fighting, all of it sucky. I'm going to have sooooo much work to do during revision.

november 27

november 28

november 29

november 30

Zafira grabbed Megan’s hand and pulled her through the market. It was loud and crowded, and normally Megan would’ve felt overwhelmed, but today the crowds felt like a party. A good party. Not that Megan had ever been to a party she had felt remotely good about, but that’s what the crowds felt like. She and Zafira didn’t say anything to each other as they wound through the market, examining the marketwares, but every time she caught Zafira’s eye, Zafira gave her that small, crooked smile. Megan felt giddy.

At last they came out the far end of the market stalls and wandered up and down the short boardwalk siding the little creek that ran along the side of the parking lot. Megan turned and leaned on the railing, gazing at the tangled greenery across the creek. A breeze picked up and ran through her hair. She laughed, for no other reason than that she was deliriously happy.

“So,” Zafira said, leaning beside her. “That burger was the actual love of your life.”

“Yep,” Megan said. “Tragic it died so young.”

Zafira picked at a splinter in the railing. “I hate to be outdone by a burger. But I take comfort in thinking I was in the running for love of your life until that burger came along.”

“Oh—”

Megan hadn’t even thought about it, when she’d said love of my life back in the room. She’d been too focused on the burger to overthink her words. So she’d said it, and she hadn’t thought about it, and she hadn’t panicked about it afterward.

And miraculously, the world had not shattered around her.

“You’re still in the running, actually,” she said.

A slow smile unfurled across Zafira’s face. Megan blinked at hir. Ze had dimples. Zafira had dimples.

“Good,” ze said, and ze stood on hir tiptoes and wrapped hir arms around Megan’s neck and kissed her. Megan kissed hir back, forgetful of the fact that they were out in public and that anyone walking by could see them. She wouldn’t have cared if she did remember.

At last they pulled apart, sort of, and stood there with their foreheads pressed together, which sort of made Megan’s neck ache, but she didn’t care.

“I think I saw someone selling ice cream back in the market.” Zafira’s fingers twined in her hair. “Do you want to get an ice cream cone?”

Megan smiled so much that tears just barely squeezed from the corners of her eyes.

“I would fucking love some ice cream,” she said.

THE END