I realised I should probably introduce myself. My mistake for waiting so long.
“Heyo!! My name is Dani Lewis Smyth. There’s a story about that, but not for right now. I am a Christian, writer, and—“
“Ooh ooh! Tell them about me!” A child races in and knocks me aside.
“Hey!” I cry, reaching to grab him. As usual, the boy slips through my grasp. “Magi!”
“I’m Imagination!” he shouts, puffing out his little chest and stretching to his full three and a half feet. “But you can call me Magi.”
I manage to tackle the boy. “C’mere you! You’re not supposed to come out.” I rub my knuckles into his head as he giggles and kicks against my embrace. We quickly succumb to a tickle fight.
“Looks like we’re doing introductions?” another voice asks, stepping into the room.
“Archivist! Uh… not really… but I guess it’s too late now.”
Archivist saunters over and grabs Imagination’s shirt, lifting him up off me. “Now look what you’ve done, Magi. Dani was making a nice and normal introduction, and you’ve gone and made us all look absolutely clinical.”
“Please,” I retort, rolling my eyes as far back as physically possible. “As if you’re not already.”
“I am, sure. But not you.”
“Not yet.”
“But it won’t be long,” chimes in another. Her tired eyes toss me a wink. “At lost not if I, the Writer, have anything to say about it.”
“Oh, so NOW you talk.” I put my hands on my hips. “You’ve been ignoring me since August.”
“What are you talking about! I’m talking right now.”
“Then where’s my progress on Calcasia?”
“You know what? Why did I even come here? I’m going back to my room.”
“Writer, wait!”
“And I’m taking these snacks,” she adds, tossing a glare over her shoulder as if to dare me to stop her. Of course she knows I can’t. She, of them all, do I have the least power over.
I sigh and look at Archivist and Imagination, who are now discussing the finer workings of the Interstellar time theory compared to Back to the Future’s execution. Shaking my head, I shout, “Everyone else might as well come out too.”
Four doors open, and in steps Brain, Reader, Student, and That Voice.
“Oh, not you, Student. Sorry, this isn’t school stuff.”
“Bruh,” Student grumbles. “Wake me up when there’s a test.” She shambles back to her dorm, slamming the door more aggressively than needed.
I gesture to the others. “Well, go on.”
Reader goes first. He dramatically steps forward and says, “Greetings. I am Reader. I have the final verdict in a story’s worth. If I don’t like it, it’s scrapped.”
“Boo! Nobody likes Reader!” Imagination cries, throwing popcorn—where’d he even get that??—at him.
“Speak for yourself,” Archivist retorts. “He keeps us in line and from wasting our time and energy on all the dribble you pass out.”
“I got good dribble!” Imagination pouts.
Reader straightens his jacket and cufflinks. “And there’s no doubt about that at all. However, you cannot deny, you also have some very bad dribble. Archivist does not need that in their files.”
“Anyways,” I interrupt before a fight breaks out, which happens a lot more than I care to admit. “Moving on.”
Reader huffs and steps back. That Voice then looks at Brain, who cocks his head slightly. The Windows error noise blares in my ears and I almost throttle him. Finally, he says, “I didn’t prepare a shower thought for this.”
“You don’t need a shower thought,” I reply. I don’t know why I’m still surprised.
“Of course I need a shower thought. That’s my sole purpose in life.”
“No, your sole purpose is to help maintain information input and output and connect dots when applicable.”
“So… shower thought.”
“You know what, forget it. We’re not going there. I’ll deal with you later.”
All eyes turn back to That Voice. He simply shrugs saying, “I’m the moral monitor and decision assistant. I fail to see why I’m even here.”
“Excellent point! And as such, you may all leave, so that I can return to—“
“EVERYONE STOP!”
We froze as Imagination held up his hands. An image of the ship Ol’ Zion flickered on his face.
“I have an idea,” he whispers. “Pirates.”
Reader groans. “Do you have any idea how overworked that genre is?”
“No, no! We can make it new!”
“I’m going back to bed,” Reader declared. “If you want me to review it, leave a full dissertation on my desk.”
“But, but Writer’s not here! I can’t give you a full dis—”
“Good night, Magi.”
“Welp, that’s my cue too,” Brain says, throwing up a peace sign. “Later dogs. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Then he stops and turns around slowly.
“No!” I shout. “No, no, and NO! Go away and keep that thought to yourself!”
“But you had it too.”
“NOPE. NUH-UH. NOT GOING THERE. GOOD NIGHT!”
“Fine then.”
And just like that, I’m alone again. I sigh. “Apologies about that. Unfortunately, this is indeed a normal occurrence up here. I’m sure there are many who would be highly concerned for my mental well being, and trust me when I say, you are not the only ones. I question my sanity on a daily basis. Well, that’s all for now. Hopefully I didn’t scare off too many people. This is Dani, signing out, eonar nicht einsam.”
