The council of characters
Yuan was sitting once again, doubting life, but this on a comfortable couch.
"Wait, let me get this straight" he held up a hand shakily. " so you're saying that all of you are awakened characters, just like me?"
"Yeah" the guy with the headphones nodded "except for that guy, he's the scriptwriter" he said pointing to the bookish guy.
Yuan's eyes snapped open, and he instantly sat up straight "he wrote the book?!"
Just as the headphone guy was about to nod again, the bookish guy interrupted impatiently "for the hundredth time, I am the script HOLDER! Not the scriptwriter. And I didn't write the book, I just get to know the plot points a little earlier. I'm Oryn by the way" he added looking at Yuan.
"Well, he always say so, but you know he's the one who got to do something with the script among all of us. Just so you know" the headphone guy said, in a much lower voice. "Oh right, I'm Kiro, and he's Kael" he pointed to the rebellious looking guy, who had been taking part in the convo.
"Hi" Keal gave an acknowledging nod "what happened to your face? I forgot to ask earlier"
"Um.." Yuan carefully chose his words to make it sound less pathetic "well.. everything happened quite fast, I knocked my head against a stone while awakening"
"Ooh" Keal raised his eyebrows "Do you perhaps need some band-aids or something? I got some here"
"It's okay, it'll be fine as long as it's not bleeding" Yuan declined politely "thank you though. What's your character?"
"No biggie, I'm the loyal sidekick" Keal scratched his head "your sidekick" he added with a wink.
Yuan suddenly felt that Keal was not as rebellious as he looked. He seemed like a pretty nice person. He couldn't help laughing for the first time of the day "right, what about Kiro?"
"I'm a sunspot" Kiro introduced.
"A what?" Yuan couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.
"A sunspot, or a keyboard warrior" Kiro shrugged "I'm a fast typer I guess"
"Is this an entertainment industry novel or something?" Yuan asked with curiosity. Normally, it's the entertainment novels that have sunspots right? He remembered that he hadn't got much information about the novel from his awakening. This gathering of awakened characters is bound to know more information than him, who had just awakened.
"Mm, no, not an entertainment industry novel. You'll get to know more about it later. But if you're curious, that's the one" Kiro pointed to the book Oryn was holding.
"That's the novel we are in?! We got a copy inside the novel? Woah" Yuan stood up, utterly shocked. He was itching to take a look at the book, but he was not sure how to politely ask for it. This copy seems to belong to Oryn, and he only set it down a few times since the moment Yuan had entered the shack. Obviously it was a prized possession, clearly justified given the situation.
However, Oryn seemed to understand his intentions and offered the book to him voluntarily "You want a look? Here, check it out"
Yuan took the book with heavy hands. The book was exquisite with embossed designs protruding out. On the cover was a silhouette of a backlit young man, his pale robe fluttering in the night wind. Above stood the serene moon, covering most of the page, overlooking everything. Yuan carefully ran his fingers through the letters "Descendant of the Moon"
"Is this me?" Yuan asked, almost in a trance.
"Mm, there's a high probability it's you, but we can't be sure. Our current evidence doesn't support that" Oryn cleared his throat subtly.
Yuan looked at the delicate robe in the cover and compared it to his shirt that had several patches of dust due to the 'awakening' on top of the loose threads that was a result of his constant climbing, and suddenly realized 'right, how is that possible. The author probably used a fancy looking image for the cover. To be honest, his state is indeed quite unsuitable for something like a cover, sigh'
He shook his head and opened the book, scrolling through the pages carefully.
"This, this is blank?" He turned to Oryn.
"Ah, so you can't see it either" Keal didn't sound much surprised. Seeing Yuan's face, he offered an explanation "None of us can see it, Oryn is the only one. I thought maybe you would see something, given you're the main character and all"
"It's mostly blank for me too. Small sections appear occasionally when there's something special going on. What appears, when it appears or the content got nothing to do with me. I just hold on to the script" Oryn hurriedly clarified, as if afraid of a misunderstanding.
"Ooh" It would be a lie to say that Yuan wasn't disappointed. He gave it back carefully, and picked a comfortable looking couch to sit down. His joints were starting to ache slowly from the earlier fall. Suddenly, he saw something red that was propped up against the couch leg, looking rather conspicuous,
'A fire extinguisher?' His brain finally clicked into place. No wonder these guys looked quite familiar!
"It's you guys! You were the ones who were pulling the snow prank earlier!'
"Yup" Keal nodded "So you recognized ys after all. I told you he saw us" he poked Kiro with a smug look.
"How did you guys manage to, you know.." Yuan hesitated.
"Escape unscathed from the disciplinary committee head?" Kiro smirked.
"Yeah, you even..took the fire extinguisher back" Yuan said, forcefully swallowing the word 'smuggled'.
"We just had to get it back" Keal said with a painful expression "we had no choice, that is a property of this council"
At that, Oryn gave an exasperated look "I'm surprised you still dare to mention that you got it back. If it wasn't for Tavi, you'll have your parents called up tomorrow"
Just when Yuan was about to ask who Tavi was, a steady light ball crossed the door and floated over, and the door pulled open automatically with a light tap.