White box

Announcement

"Is there a rule of Aliens being beautiful, or--?" Jerry expressed the concern all of the humans in the room had.

But Marcus couldn't care less aiming to be a koala for as long as Bill was there.

"Maybe we can give them a room?" Stephanie asked and Purple flicked his fingers and two of them were no longer in the lounge with everyone else, but sitting on a white soft sofa in a room with glass walls and starlight stretching above them. But the only thing of it all Marcus did notice was that they were alone.

Not the case for Bill, who looked around in wonder, so Marcus too, slid his eyes over the stars and the otherwise almost empty room. Other than the wide and soft sofa there was a glass coffee table with a white menu on the corner.

He felt Bill's hands on his cheeks, so he looked up. "Your body was changing to something like this, right?"

His hands had matched up already, knowing how observant Bill was, it wasn't too strange Bill had noticed. "Yep," Marcus admitted. "The more I use magic, the faster the change."

"Yeah, it feels like I'm seeing a year older you just-- with color contacts and hair dye," Bill said.

"How--" Marcus let out a smiling sigh. "Tim's face was--" Nothing like his.

Bill was surprised to hear that. "If I had my phone here, I'd show how much your face has changed, actually."

It had? Although wait-- why would Bill's phone have his pictures, Marcus didn't recall Bill taking any. Okay, that wasn't a detail too important, but if Bill was right here, then - that might kind of explain how his Parents had recognized him so easily. Perhaps it had been a mistake to evaluate things by how his mirror showed him, gradual changes were not easy to spot.

Yet if Bill still saw him as himself, then-- Marcus let his hands trail up Bill's back, soon kisses followed and while they started slow, it escalated into rediscovering each other, almost like it really had been years not two weeks.

And afterward, they had a hot chocolate while Bill told of all that happened on his side. Bill knew Marcus would be working off Tharurun's debts, so he had been short in his calls and mostly just wished him goodnight in texts, but he had had a pretty wild journey of fighting off astrals and he had sold his spare aether in exchange for some potions that melted some mold thing that kept eating dustbuns before they could breed enough to form a barrier.

And one day after Bill could finally rest in peace inside a dustbun barrier house Stephanie had sent him a text to summon Purple and-- then he and his parents went on a spontaneous journey to the wilderness (the fact that convinced parents had been all equipment just teleporting in the room). Then they ate those mushrooms and had spent the last two days here.

If they wanted they could hang out in any available room. There was a catalog of sorts for those, you just had to press one and you snapped out in it, food was the same. The system was simple - if you started feeling cold - you had to eat or drink something otherwise you snapped out.

Main hall always had people willing to interact, Bill said they seemed excited every time a new face popped up. And he also told of three rules about this place - 1)what happens here, stays here, 2)leave real life behind when you come, this is a dream to be enjoyed, 3)if you want to ask about real life, you get permission.

So stuff like enemies sharing drinks or even a bedroom wasn't too uncommon in this place, some had told. The first rule was an oath you accepted when you ate the mushroom, if you tried to break it you got knocked out and Purple got a notification, which-- accidents aside, might even lead to a ban to come again. Starting fights and causing trouble would get you snapped out, same with asking stuff about real-life unless it was casual stuff.