24 September 2022
This was fun. I loosely based the MC of the Elsenaia story off of my own head, since that’s what I have access to, and I have a lot of weird and/or terrifying characters running around in there. So what would happen if she ran into one?
I come back to this idea and revise it later; I think the idea that she was utterly cut off from fiction to be unlikely, so later I took time to map out more of what her life looked like and what she’d been through.
The rest of my journey through the palace hallway was an interesting experience. I could feel Elsenaia pouting at me; she was trying so hard to be angry and indignant, but it was all undercut by the embarrassment I could feel all around me.
I was not surprised by her fondness for cute things, not that the weekly day where the public could petition her for things was tedious as all get-out. What surprised me was the way she entertained herself during those days; she’d try to imagine whatever conflicts were brought before had happened in ridiculous situations, like underwater, or by taking the point of the conflict to its extremes. This did, unfortunately, backfire on her, as thinking outside the box meant she came up with solutions that weren’t always immediately obvious, and people began flocking to her court over the others.
Meanwhile, she poked around in my head, trying to ignore all the memories I was sifting through. She spent a great deal of time looking at D&D things; the idea of playing out another character’s life, especially with other people, fascinating, even if she did spend a long time ranting about the elf stat blocks.
Another time, I was poking around to see if Elsenaia had anything she actively enjoyed doing, rather than felt obligated to do, when I heard her scream from my mind.
I popped over, only to find Elsenaia running desperately from a hulking skeletal figure wearing ominous black armor and wielding a scythe.
“Why do you have Death wandering around your head!?” Elsenaia screamed, and she headed straight for me.
I sighed, and with a small smile I walked past her to the reaper. He raised his scythe to swing, but I just reached up and flicked him in the forehead. “Oi. Knock it off. You’re scaring her.”
When the reaper started looking obstinate, I folded my arms and raised an eyebrow. “Would you rather I called Life over?”
The reaper flinched and sulked off. I turned and flashed Elsenaia a smile.
She just stared at the reaper, jaw gaping. When she finally looked over at me, she asked weakly, “Life?”
“His wife. Or maybe his wife-to-be? His crush? I dunno; depends on what part of the story he’s from. Time’s weird in here.”
“You have an aspect of Life in your head.”
I shrugged. “Well, sure. Why not? They’re not real; they’re just characters I made up for a story I’m writing.”
Eslenaia’s legs gave out from under her, and she plopped to the ground.
“Hey, wait, are you okay?” I crouched down and reached out to her.
“Yeah. Yeah, I just… need a minute.”
I shift so I’m sitting down properly, and we stay like that for several minutes. Finally, she spoke. “They’re… characters in a story, you said?”
“Yep. Or, well, a group of stories, I suppose. You know I want to write, right?”
Elsenaia nodded. “But I’m not sure I understand what that means.”
“Well, look.” I opened my mind to scenes of my wtiting, and to the “How Writers Become Authors” blog. “Basically, I want to tell stories for a living. Isn’t there anyone in your culture that does that?”
Elsenaia moved to shake her head, then stopped herself. “I’m… not sure. I never had time for things like that.”
I blinked, and materialized a movie drawer so I could start sifting through my memories.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“You need a chance to relax. Time’s meaningless here, right? I figured I could show you a movie or something before you go.” I growled at the drawer of DVDs. “If there’s even any I can remember the whole way through, that is.”
Elsenaia’s eyes were drawn to one; the Hobbit collection of movies. An image of Tauriel flashed across like a mini preview. “What’s that one?”
“Oh, that’s the Hobbit, based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkein.” I noticed her expression and asked, “I don’t remember it very well, but do you want to watch it?”
She nodded, and I began letting it play. When she first saw Fili and Kili, she complained, “Those aren’t dwarves.”
“Agreed. They’re definitely men.”
“They don’t even look like dwarves.”
“Hm. But at least Fili has a cool beard.” I glance over at her. “Have you met many dwarves?”
“Only a couple.”
Sensing a bit of awkwardness, I peeked into her memories to find one of a dwarf catching sight of her for the first time, only to immediately propose as dramatically as possible. The rest of his fellows came and dragged him off while the leader of the group apologized profusely, and explained that this was “the young lad’s first time abroad, so he hasn’t gotten used to the sights yet”. The whole thing had made Elsenaia feel very awkward.
I laughed, but rather than the indignant reaction I’d expected, Elsenaia just told me to hush.
When I glanced at the screen, it was the parts about Tauriel’s romance with Kili. Elsenaia was completely enraptured by it. At one point she asked, “Do you think I could ever have that?”
I shrug. “Why not? I mean, I don’t know how anyone else will react, but I think the choice should still be yours.”