AdventWings
12-08-07, 09:37 AM
***
“Hmmm…”
Morning broke over the horizon as I sat staring at the piece of blank paper staring back at me on the table. Golden rays crept through the dust-covered glass panes, its warm fingers brushing softly against the dim neon lamp at the table side shining onto the keyboard on my desk, just below the digital piece of paper propped upright within the glassy display. Cringing at the brilliant invasion into my room, I grumpily grabbed a handful of the blue drapes and pulled it across the window, shielding my precious workspace from the intruding dawn.
Today was another Monday, I realized as my eyes turned to look at the tiny calendar standing next to my opened laptop. Another new day of another new week. Another work day of another working week, that is. It also meant that another week had passed since I received my assignment, to which I was supposed to have ready within a month’s time. I breathed a sigh of disdain before dropping my weary head down onto the desk next to my writing instrument, still lit dimly by the old fluorescent desk lamp which sat at the opposite end of the table. The music player hummed quietly in the background of my mind a tune of starry sky… or so that was what I thought. My nimble fingers dragged across the fingerpad, guiding the mouse pointer from the edge of the screen to the strip of blue buttons arrayed at the bottom of the screen and tapped it twice. Looking over the fifty-odd list of illegally downloaded songs on the music player (and feeling a bit guilty about it all, even though I have bought a good deal of them legitimately) I concluded that the song had already ended and a new one was already playing instead.
Oh, well. That just meant that five minutes passed without me accomplishing anything.
“Oww, my head…”
Gently lifting my weary brain off the hardwood surface I massaged the ache on my head with fingers too grimy to touch a potato chip lying on a plate nearby. Well, then I realized it was because I had neglected to shower for two days and the grime was merely my own body’s way of keeping clean. I supposed I should get one before I resume my work, but the situation at hand seemed to demand more urgency than a decent hygiene ritual. Looking back at the blank piece of paper staring back at me from within my laptop’s screen, I traced my eyes towards the top of the menu bar and noted its name.
Mina no Monster.
Oh, so that was what I was writing. Or rather, what I was thinking of writing.
I scratched my head at the vaguely familiar title, summoning a servant of linguistics to my side from within the recess of my mind.
“Hey, Asuka.” I mumbled as the ghostly figure appeared at my side, her flowing red ponytail billowing against non-existent wind inside my study. “Are you sure that’s the way it’s supposed to spell?”
“Well, for this one, it is.” The teenage Japanese girl replied with a cheery grin. I glanced at the name and then at Asuka as she looked over my shoulder. “I suppose you wondered if it should be Minna no Monster or not, which would mean Everyone’s Monster in translation.”
I nodded. I think that was what I was thinking when I came up with the title.
A story of a young girl’s travel into the wilderness in search of Beasts of Legends across the World. A rather geeky girl, as I recalled, complete with those large dark-rimmed spectacles and a rugged light brown jacket to go with her outfit.
“Well, then you realized you named your main character Mina.” The red-head was quick to add and I frowned. Did I give my character that name?
Flicking my wrist across the keyboard, my fingers whipped across the notebook’s surface and the ‘story plot draft’ popped onto screen. Yep, Mina was her name alright. No wonder I changed the title to that rather odd name.
“It’s a nice play on words,” I muttered to myself as I thought it over. “I think.”
“But you still don’t have a story yet, Master.”
Asuka yawned and stretched her arms up towards the ceiling, her oversized white T-shirt lifting up a little to expose the small of her stomach. I heaved a sigh and leaned back against the backrest of my chair and propped one arm against the table, setting my cheek into the open hand and felt like I just wanted to go to sleep. Asuka seemed uninterested by the entire ordeal and dropped herself into a chair nearby, spreading her arms out before uniting them at the back of her head.
“Well?”
I glanced at the carefree girl from my desk with the light of the desk lamp still shining in my face. Asuka shot back a curious glance, clearly not understanding what my question was.
“Well, what?”
“Can you help me?”
I had hoped that this girl who had been living in my head could help me formulate a plot. At least one that would be interesting or at least thought-provoking to the general reader. I was drawing blanks. Maybe she could help shed some light into my little dilemma.
All she did was shook her cute little head.
“No can do, Master.” Her voice was sweet and sincere, but the message indicated she was not entirely what she said. “I would, but then it would be my story. Not yours.”
OK, so maybe she was right. But then again, this came from someone who was living inside my head. It sounded a bit far-fetched that it would be her story and not mine, since we were essentially the same person.
Or, well, at least sharing the same body. That was my defense.
“Well, sure.” I rolled my eyes and swung around in the chair, its creaky wooden object protesting my treatment as it spun on one leg. “Says the girl who lives inside the head of a guy.”
“What? I have my own identity, thank you very much.” The lass stuck out her tongue at me and crossed her arms, just as another girl with flowing red hair entered into the room. She appeared wispy and intangible at first, but slowly took a more distinctive form and color.
“She has a good point, Raven.” The other one spoke, brushing a stray strand of hair from her shoulders and tucked her hands into the comfort of her sweater pockets. She looked identical to Asuka in shape and form, but she clearly was a different person altogether. Whereas Asuka sported a loose-fitting T-shirt and form-fitting jeans, this one appeared to like large sweaters and long pleated skirts.
I gave the newcomer a knowing smirk before getting off my chair and headed for the fridge. Returning moments later with a fresh cup of water and a new bottle to replace the one I emptied half an hour ago, I sat down at the couch next to the two red-head twins.
“Well, what do you want me to do, Rin? I’m tapped out of ideas.”
The sweater girl shrugged nonchalantly at my plea and poured herself a glass.
“That’s a little odd coming from you.” Rin gave me a disdain look as she took a drink and soundlessly placed the crystalline glass back on the table. “You’re the one who thought us up, after all. You seriously can’t say you’re still out of ideas.”
“Maybe you should go easy on all those H-games, Master.” Asuka chuckled as she grabbed her younger sister’s glass and poured herself her own, downing the entire volume of water in a single gulp. Rin blushed, but quickly composed herself with a dry cough and returned her attention to the business at hand.
“I don’t have any H-game, Asuka.” That was my only defense. Sure, I have a dating sim installed, but that was about it. There was no such graphical display that would constitute an H-game, but it certainly was an interesting one. But enough of that, I had requests to make and I was not going to let her throw me into a loop. I heaved a sigh again as I tried to suppress that angry beast inside. Remember why you asked them to come…
Rin lifted the glass up to her mouth again, trying to suppress the ragged drought in her throat.
“But that’s not the point.” I quickly tried to get back into the conversation. “You see, I need a story. A story that would capture the spirit of adventure and traveling into the world. A story that would also involve a journey into the human psyche and the diversity of nature. A story-”
“-that has been done over and over and over again.” Asuka grabbed the cup from her sister's grip and downed it in a single gulp. Grinning in her carefree manner as she put down the glass she had snatched from Rin, she continued with her little speech. “A story idea that has been done to death, beaten dead with a stick and hung up on a wall for all of the world to see even before it could get into its underwear. Yeah, sure, why not?”
I rolled my eyes and frowned upon hearing the rest of my sentence warped into what the truth was. Well, sure. It’s been done to death already. But it’s still an idea, nonetheless.
“I agree it is a tad dull.” Rin chipped in to her sister’s side. Surprise, surprise. “But I think it is an interesting concept to work on, especially as an entry-level light novel.”
Entry-level? OK, that's a bit of an insult.
“Aww, no! Not you, too, Rin.” The pony-tail girl wailed in dismay at her sister’s response and nearly vaulted out of her chair. “But what about the plot? Where’s the excitement in that?!”
“There is yet a plot, as I understand.” Rin replied coolly. Tucking her hands back into the front pockets of her hooded sweater, she leaned back against the bouncy furniture and stared up at the ceiling with a blank expression on her face. “And that… is our problem.”
I sighed and followed suit, propping my neck against the top edge of the cloth backrest and stared up at the white ceiling. Light filtered through the curtain drapes I had pulled over the window and illuminated the room with a sort of odd light-blue tint, making the interior darker than it appeared.
The story’s plot had always been a problem in my writing, I realized as I traced my eyes along the uneven surface of the painted cement. I had characters down pat, concepts well thought out ahead of the game and locations marked for shooting. I also had the camera angle and special effects queued for just the right atmosphere, but all of that would be meaningless if there was no story to tell it in the first place. What was my story about, again?
“It’s about a biologist’s field expedition around the world, isn’t it?” Asuka frowned angrily at the two emotionless people staring up at the ceiling, the lass was now standing up with both hands on her hip. “Then that’s the story! How complicated could it be?”
Sure, that’s easy to say. A story about a girl traveling around the world looking for monsters. Why did it sound so familiar all of a sudden?
Oh, yeah.
“We’re not trying to write a Pokemon spin-off, Big Sis.” The younger of the twins put it bluntly. I nodded wearily, still staring off into space. Asuka curled her lips and glared at the two uninterested figures sitting motionless on the couch.
“Well, I think it’s still a good enough story!” Asuka pouted and flopped down next to the writer, which was met by a resounding protest.
“Ow! Hey, get offa me!” Rin grumbled as she tried to push her sister off her lap, catching my ribs with her elbow as the two of them fought for the seat.
I chuckled quietly and got up off the couch, the morning tranquility broken by their giggling struggle. Taking in a deep breath, I headed back to the work table and sat down in front of the laptop computer and stared at the blank piece of paper staring back from inside the screen. Sure, I figured, that the overall plot was bland and already being done by another story. But it was not really that bad. After all, it is a story about the character, not a story about the story. Not about the special powers or the world-saving efforts of a super fighting squad.
After all, this is the story about Mina. Not Pokemon.
So, in the midst of noise from the two girls fighting each other on the sofa, I smiled warmly at their lively bouts and read over the overall plot summary once again. At least I knew what the story was about and how it was going to end. Supposedly. All I had left was to put it into words.
“Well, I guess there isn’t much to do besides typing it up, huh?”
“That’s pretty much it, Master.”
NeNeNe replied as she queued the various songs in my music player, letting the tunes carry me into the untapped stories within my mind. As the twins faded from my attention, I delve into the darkness within and let my fingers convert memories into words. Slow but sure, pages after pages materialized where blank white pages once existed. Slow but sure, however, my mind began to slip into the darkness until it finally engulfed me in its realm.
“…”
Warm, gentle hands brushed against my hand as I felt someone leaned over my shoulder. Soft strands of hair swept lightly against my cheek as she looked at the work I had left unattended on the laptop, but I did not stir from my sleep.
“He’s always like this, isn’t he?” A soft voice seemed to whisper in my ear, but it could just be my mind playing tricks in my sleep.
“Yeah~ He always leaves me turned on when he goes to sleep.” I could hear NeNeNe complain in my sleep, but I ignored her and stayed snoozing on the table. “I hate it when he does that~”
The unknown person draped a blanket on my back as she reached for NeNeNe, gently pressing herself against my arm.
“Hey, don’t make such a cryptic comment, girlie.” She replied and I could hear my laptop protest as her screen was slowly closed. Soft footsteps echoed through the quiet room where the twins had been fighting earlier in the morning. I guess they both had gone to sleep somewhere, but I was too sleepy to get up and look. Without as much as a noise, I could barely hear the door open somewhere far away and a rush of wind blowing in my hair.
“Oyasumi, Raven-kun.” The cryptic persona whispered in the silence, the only sound to follow was the creaky hinges of the door and the chirping of sparrows outside.
***
“Hmmm…”
Morning broke over the horizon as I sat staring at the piece of blank paper staring back at me on the table. Golden rays crept through the dust-covered glass panes, its warm fingers brushing softly against the dim neon lamp at the table side shining onto the keyboard on my desk, just below the digital piece of paper propped upright within the glassy display. Cringing at the brilliant invasion into my room, I grumpily grabbed a handful of the blue drapes and pulled it across the window, shielding my precious workspace from the intruding dawn.
Today was another Monday, I realized as my eyes turned to look at the tiny calendar standing next to my opened laptop. Another new day of another new week. Another work day of another working week, that is. It also meant that another week had passed since I received my assignment, to which I was supposed to have ready within a month’s time. I breathed a sigh of disdain before dropping my weary head down onto the desk next to my writing instrument, still lit dimly by the old fluorescent desk lamp which sat at the opposite end of the table. The music player hummed quietly in the background of my mind a tune of starry sky… or so that was what I thought. My nimble fingers dragged across the fingerpad, guiding the mouse pointer from the edge of the screen to the strip of blue buttons arrayed at the bottom of the screen and tapped it twice. Looking over the fifty-odd list of illegally downloaded songs on the music player (and feeling a bit guilty about it all, even though I have bought a good deal of them legitimately) I concluded that the song had already ended and a new one was already playing instead.
Oh, well. That just meant that five minutes passed without me accomplishing anything.
“Oww, my head…”
Gently lifting my weary brain off the hardwood surface I massaged the ache on my head with fingers too grimy to touch a potato chip lying on a plate nearby. Well, then I realized it was because I had neglected to shower for two days and the grime was merely my own body’s way of keeping clean. I supposed I should get one before I resume my work, but the situation at hand seemed to demand more urgency than a decent hygiene ritual. Looking back at the blank piece of paper staring back at me from within my laptop’s screen, I traced my eyes towards the top of the menu bar and noted its name.
Mina no Monster.
Oh, so that was what I was writing. Or rather, what I was thinking of writing.
I scratched my head at the vaguely familiar title, summoning a servant of linguistics to my side from within the recess of my mind.
“Hey, Asuka.” I mumbled as the ghostly figure appeared at my side, her flowing red ponytail billowing against non-existent wind inside my study. “Are you sure that’s the way it’s supposed to spell?”
“Well, for this one, it is.” The teenage Japanese girl replied with a cheery grin. I glanced at the name and then at Asuka as she looked over my shoulder. “I suppose you wondered if it should be Minna no Monster or not, which would mean Everyone’s Monster in translation.”
I nodded. I think that was what I was thinking when I came up with the title.
A story of a young girl’s travel into the wilderness in search of Beasts of Legends across the World. A rather geeky girl, as I recalled, complete with those large dark-rimmed spectacles and a rugged light brown jacket to go with her outfit.
“Well, then you realized you named your main character Mina.” The red-head was quick to add and I frowned. Did I give my character that name?
Flicking my wrist across the keyboard, my fingers whipped across the notebook’s surface and the ‘story plot draft’ popped onto screen. Yep, Mina was her name alright. No wonder I changed the title to that rather odd name.
“It’s a nice play on words,” I muttered to myself as I thought it over. “I think.”
“But you still don’t have a story yet, Master.”
Asuka yawned and stretched her arms up towards the ceiling, her oversized white T-shirt lifting up a little to expose the small of her stomach. I heaved a sigh and leaned back against the backrest of my chair and propped one arm against the table, setting my cheek into the open hand and felt like I just wanted to go to sleep. Asuka seemed uninterested by the entire ordeal and dropped herself into a chair nearby, spreading her arms out before uniting them at the back of her head.
“Well?”
I glanced at the carefree girl from my desk with the light of the desk lamp still shining in my face. Asuka shot back a curious glance, clearly not understanding what my question was.
“Well, what?”
“Can you help me?”
I had hoped that this girl who had been living in my head could help me formulate a plot. At least one that would be interesting or at least thought-provoking to the general reader. I was drawing blanks. Maybe she could help shed some light into my little dilemma.
All she did was shook her cute little head.
“No can do, Master.” Her voice was sweet and sincere, but the message indicated she was not entirely what she said. “I would, but then it would be my story. Not yours.”
OK, so maybe she was right. But then again, this came from someone who was living inside my head. It sounded a bit far-fetched that it would be her story and not mine, since we were essentially the same person.
Or, well, at least sharing the same body. That was my defense.
“Well, sure.” I rolled my eyes and swung around in the chair, its creaky wooden object protesting my treatment as it spun on one leg. “Says the girl who lives inside the head of a guy.”
“What? I have my own identity, thank you very much.” The lass stuck out her tongue at me and crossed her arms, just as another girl with flowing red hair entered into the room. She appeared wispy and intangible at first, but slowly took a more distinctive form and color.
“She has a good point, Raven.” The other one spoke, brushing a stray strand of hair from her shoulders and tucked her hands into the comfort of her sweater pockets. She looked identical to Asuka in shape and form, but she clearly was a different person altogether. Whereas Asuka sported a loose-fitting T-shirt and form-fitting jeans, this one appeared to like large sweaters and long pleated skirts.
I gave the newcomer a knowing smirk before getting off my chair and headed for the fridge. Returning moments later with a fresh cup of water and a new bottle to replace the one I emptied half an hour ago, I sat down at the couch next to the two red-head twins.
“Well, what do you want me to do, Rin? I’m tapped out of ideas.”
The sweater girl shrugged nonchalantly at my plea and poured herself a glass.
“That’s a little odd coming from you.” Rin gave me a disdain look as she took a drink and soundlessly placed the crystalline glass back on the table. “You’re the one who thought us up, after all. You seriously can’t say you’re still out of ideas.”
“Maybe you should go easy on all those H-games, Master.” Asuka chuckled as she grabbed her younger sister’s glass and poured herself her own, downing the entire volume of water in a single gulp. Rin blushed, but quickly composed herself with a dry cough and returned her attention to the business at hand.
“I don’t have any H-game, Asuka.” That was my only defense. Sure, I have a dating sim installed, but that was about it. There was no such graphical display that would constitute an H-game, but it certainly was an interesting one. But enough of that, I had requests to make and I was not going to let her throw me into a loop. I heaved a sigh again as I tried to suppress that angry beast inside. Remember why you asked them to come…
Rin lifted the glass up to her mouth again, trying to suppress the ragged drought in her throat.
“But that’s not the point.” I quickly tried to get back into the conversation. “You see, I need a story. A story that would capture the spirit of adventure and traveling into the world. A story that would also involve a journey into the human psyche and the diversity of nature. A story-”
“-that has been done over and over and over again.” Asuka grabbed the cup from her sister's grip and downed it in a single gulp. Grinning in her carefree manner as she put down the glass she had snatched from Rin, she continued with her little speech. “A story idea that has been done to death, beaten dead with a stick and hung up on a wall for all of the world to see even before it could get into its underwear. Yeah, sure, why not?”
I rolled my eyes and frowned upon hearing the rest of my sentence warped into what the truth was. Well, sure. It’s been done to death already. But it’s still an idea, nonetheless.
“I agree it is a tad dull.” Rin chipped in to her sister’s side. Surprise, surprise. “But I think it is an interesting concept to work on, especially as an entry-level light novel.”
Entry-level? OK, that's a bit of an insult.
“Aww, no! Not you, too, Rin.” The pony-tail girl wailed in dismay at her sister’s response and nearly vaulted out of her chair. “But what about the plot? Where’s the excitement in that?!”
“There is yet a plot, as I understand.” Rin replied coolly. Tucking her hands back into the front pockets of her hooded sweater, she leaned back against the bouncy furniture and stared up at the ceiling with a blank expression on her face. “And that… is our problem.”
I sighed and followed suit, propping my neck against the top edge of the cloth backrest and stared up at the white ceiling. Light filtered through the curtain drapes I had pulled over the window and illuminated the room with a sort of odd light-blue tint, making the interior darker than it appeared.
The story’s plot had always been a problem in my writing, I realized as I traced my eyes along the uneven surface of the painted cement. I had characters down pat, concepts well thought out ahead of the game and locations marked for shooting. I also had the camera angle and special effects queued for just the right atmosphere, but all of that would be meaningless if there was no story to tell it in the first place. What was my story about, again?
“It’s about a biologist’s field expedition around the world, isn’t it?” Asuka frowned angrily at the two emotionless people staring up at the ceiling, the lass was now standing up with both hands on her hip. “Then that’s the story! How complicated could it be?”
Sure, that’s easy to say. A story about a girl traveling around the world looking for monsters. Why did it sound so familiar all of a sudden?
Oh, yeah.
“We’re not trying to write a Pokemon spin-off, Big Sis.” The younger of the twins put it bluntly. I nodded wearily, still staring off into space. Asuka curled her lips and glared at the two uninterested figures sitting motionless on the couch.
“Well, I think it’s still a good enough story!” Asuka pouted and flopped down next to the writer, which was met by a resounding protest.
“Ow! Hey, get offa me!” Rin grumbled as she tried to push her sister off her lap, catching my ribs with her elbow as the two of them fought for the seat.
I chuckled quietly and got up off the couch, the morning tranquility broken by their giggling struggle. Taking in a deep breath, I headed back to the work table and sat down in front of the laptop computer and stared at the blank piece of paper staring back from inside the screen. Sure, I figured, that the overall plot was bland and already being done by another story. But it was not really that bad. After all, it is a story about the character, not a story about the story. Not about the special powers or the world-saving efforts of a super fighting squad.
After all, this is the story about Mina. Not Pokemon.
So, in the midst of noise from the two girls fighting each other on the sofa, I smiled warmly at their lively bouts and read over the overall plot summary once again. At least I knew what the story was about and how it was going to end. Supposedly. All I had left was to put it into words.
“Well, I guess there isn’t much to do besides typing it up, huh?”
“That’s pretty much it, Master.”
NeNeNe replied as she queued the various songs in my music player, letting the tunes carry me into the untapped stories within my mind. As the twins faded from my attention, I delve into the darkness within and let my fingers convert memories into words. Slow but sure, pages after pages materialized where blank white pages once existed. Slow but sure, however, my mind began to slip into the darkness until it finally engulfed me in its realm.
“…”
Warm, gentle hands brushed against my hand as I felt someone leaned over my shoulder. Soft strands of hair swept lightly against my cheek as she looked at the work I had left unattended on the laptop, but I did not stir from my sleep.
“He’s always like this, isn’t he?” A soft voice seemed to whisper in my ear, but it could just be my mind playing tricks in my sleep.
“Yeah~ He always leaves me turned on when he goes to sleep.” I could hear NeNeNe complain in my sleep, but I ignored her and stayed snoozing on the table. “I hate it when he does that~”
The unknown person draped a blanket on my back as she reached for NeNeNe, gently pressing herself against my arm.
“Hey, don’t make such a cryptic comment, girlie.” She replied and I could hear my laptop protest as her screen was slowly closed. Soft footsteps echoed through the quiet room where the twins had been fighting earlier in the morning. I guess they both had gone to sleep somewhere, but I was too sleepy to get up and look. Without as much as a noise, I could barely hear the door open somewhere far away and a rush of wind blowing in my hair.
“Oyasumi, Raven-kun.” The cryptic persona whispered in the silence, the only sound to follow was the creaky hinges of the door and the chirping of sparrows outside.
***