The night was...

Cold? Humid? Hot?....

Dark?

Miles was stumped. They'd just gotten back from the holidays and this was one of the first homework assignments he had gotten. Why? His brain was still re-adjusting from all the goofing off time they had had and now he was supposed to write a three page work of fiction for his literature class? Come on!

Some of the others students were actually happy witht this one, since they had been given carte-blanche to decide what they wanted to write about, but coming up with fictional characters and write about their lives and make it funny or at least entertaining was something he was terrible at.

The night was...
Once upon a time...

Good lord, give me a break.

His fingers stopped typing on the laptop and started drumming on the library table. He squinted his eyes at the white, mostly empty, digital sheet on his screen, hoping he could will it to write itself as he went out to play videogames, which is what he really wanted to be out doing right now, but this was due tomorrow and he wasn't doing all that well in this class. As assignments went, this one was supposed to be easy and one of the less boring.

He looked down at his green, long sleeved sweatshirt and jeans, he looked at Tinaker, lying quietly and unmoving by the side of his chair, he looked at his reflection on the screen with his messed up hair, he looked over the laptop at some of the other students for inspiration but his idea lightbulb remained surprisingly dim.

The night was...
Once upon a time...
The giant robot's foot crashed through the classroom's roof and smashed the literature professor into a pulp...

Oh, that was sure to give him an A+.

Miles looked at his surroundings again. A work of fiction did not mean it couldn't be based on some truth or that it even had to be entertaining. He could easily write three pages with mindless drivel of stuff happening around him and maybe spice it up here and there.

The library was half full, as students pored over their books, some doing homework and others reading hentai behind War and Peace a novel to kill time. Then someone entered the room...

Carragail had exiled herself from her own room. Namely because of her brand-new roommate. Not that her roommate was particularly off-putting, even with the tail. It was just her music. Angry lyrics and bass drops that were loud enough for Kara to be able to dance to them. And they were coming through headphones, to top it all off.

Kara shuddered as she wondered exactly what horror that poor girl's eardrums were being subjected to, right before she turned and walked into the Mansion's Library.

She'd found this place only a couple weeks ago, and it immediately became her second home. She'd always felt a little more comfortable around books. She had no idea why, but she still loved it.

For a brief moment, she let herself glow, just a little.

Then she saw a couple people look at her, and she blushed and skittered to the nearest empty table. After all, she wasn't really presentable. Having kicked herself out of her room with much haste, she was still wearing a pair of black-and-purple sweatpants, and a bright green Christmas sweater that her mom had "made for her" when she was ten. (she'd found one just like it in a Fred Meyer a couple years later)

So she quickly hid herself behind her laptop, which was itself followed by a rainbow-colored composition notebook (she had no choice in the color. They were leftovers from her sisters). She quickly busied herself with the both of them, glancing back around the library again. Thankfully, no one was paying attention to her anymore.

'Finally,' she thought to herself. 'Some peace and quiet.'

And with all that settled, she opened a word document and began to type.

Someone did enter the room at the precise moment he typed the words, so it was inevitable for him to just pick her as the main character in his story. Better that, than to create the character from scratch.

Then someone entered the room. She wore black, purple and bright green She probably dressed in the dark and her name was...

Miles noticed her laptop and notebook were very vivid with hearts and striped colors all over them. He was staring at her as he continued typing.

Her name was Rainbow...

All of a sudden, the girl's skin brightened, not unlike one of those fluorescent sticks or maybe a toned down light saber. It quickly subdued as she found her way to an empty table right across his and at earshot distance. It was clearly her mutation showing and it might have embarrassed her a little, but it gave Miles a last name for his character.

Her name was Rainbow Lightbringer...

Miles had to admit he had seen this girl before around the mansion, but geez, as much as he tried to think back, he couldn't remember a single time he had heard her talk. She was the quiet type and it immediately made him curious. He focused his eyes on the screen, as inspiration had suddenly struck him.

Her name was Rainbow Lightbringer and she rarely ever spoke because talking was forbidden in her secret ninja order she didn't know the language that well.

Huh. Why would someone named Rainbow Lightbringer not know english?

The japanese library in Japan was half full, as students pored over their books scrolls books, some doing homework and others reading a novel manga to kill time. Then someone entered the room. Her name was Rainbow Lightbringer and she rarely ever spoke because she didn't know the language that well...

Now what?

He started drumming his fingers again, his mind a blank sea of emptiness, completely unable to move the plot along.

Hmm... Maybe his muse could help?

Leaning his head forward, the boy addressed the asian girl on the next table with a whisper. He was not known for shyness in the least.

"Psst! Hey! Hi! How are ya?"

Kara waited patiently and silently for Susie (Her laptop. Again, not her choice) to boot up. It took forever, as per usual, and then took another forever to open up a blank word document.

Kara was eager to start writing. To escape deep into the world of her imagination, to become anyone she wanted, to create and play out a fascinating and complex plot of love, war, betrayal, and heroism, and all she had to do was...

figure...

out...

what...

to...

type.

She glanced around, searching the nearby books, as if one of them would pop out of nowhere and say, "Here's an idea!"

She spotted the words 'Moby Dick' on a nearby shelf.

Call me...

Someone walked by, carrying a copy of 'A Tale of Two Cities'.

Call me... It was the best of times, it was...

She eradicated what she'd written completely. This was absurd! This was hopeless! She'd never been very good at beginnings, and today more than usual, she seemed to be particularly bad at them.

Her eye wandered around the massive library, looking for inspiration. And she found a young boy at a nearby table.

Short (but everyone looked short in a chair), teenage, with dark brown hair. He, too, was sitting in front of a laptop, looking perfectly distraught.

So she used that.

Carter Phillips was well into his teenage years when he realized that he didn't have his mother was dead.

'There,' she thought. 'I have successfully created a mopey teenager. Now to make him talk...'

"Psst! Hey! Hi! How are ya?"

She was about to start writing that, only to realize that her character talking to her was not internal dialogue. Glancing sideways, she saw Carter Phillips staring at her, having just spoken words.

Her eyes went wide, and her face turned bright red. "U-Um...o-kay," she squeaked, her voice barely above a whisper. "You--know you're n--not supposed to...um...talk...in a library."

She stuttered a little when she replied, but her english was fine and her voice quite sweet, so if he had never heard her talk before, it was simply because he wasn't around when she did. This immediately fueled his inspiration a little, so he leaned back and typed a few lines before responding her anything.

Then someone entered the room. Her name was Rainbow Lightbringer and she rarely ever spoke because she didn't know the language that well she had a stuttering problem. She was a stickler for the rules and that's why she liked the library, because no one talked while in it.

He leaned forward again, her objection to his intrusion easily solved in his mind.

"Oh, I know, but I'm not talking. I'm whispering" he said, like that made all the difference.

He had reached a major problem in his story. Basically, it had no plot and his character was a little flat. It had no background, nothing for people to relate with. Rainbow Lightbringer was just... there.

"Off the top of your head, could you tell me a cool hobbie for someone to have?" he asked, hoping her mind was not a complete wasteland. He could grab inspiration from whatever she mentioned and work it into his story.

That would probably push it into C+ territory.

After her reply to Carter Phillips, she shrunk back into her chair and glanced around the room. She noticed a few people glancing toward her and Carter, seemingly annoyed at their noisemaking (what other explanation was there?). Kara blushed more and sank deeper into the dark pit that was her chair. She should have just gone to the Grounds.

"Oh, I know, but I'm not talking. I'm whispering."

Startled by Carter's words and caught totally off-guard, she stammered out a quick little, "Oh. O-okay..."

'Okay, now he's clever, huh?'

Carter Phillips was well into his teenage years when he realized that his mother was dead. He took an extra week off of school, "borrowing" his dad's Camry to try and visit the morgue she was being held at. They d

"Off the top of your head, could you tell me a cool hobbie for someone to have?" Carter's voice completely interrupted her thoughts (and her words). The Mansion Grounds were seeming much more attractive now. Maybe even Central Park. Or the Moon.

Speaking of the moon...Kara returned to Earth realizing that her face looked pretty stupid. She immediately ground her teeth shut ant thought about his question. What was it again? Cool hobbies? She went down the appropriate mental list.

Fencing? A bit too cliche'd. Guitar? Too common. Bollywood Dancing? More culture than an actual hobby. Chess Boxing? Bunny Jumping? Okay, now she was really into the zone of weird.

Then she got it.

"What about...like...um...like, c--computers? Like, m-making computers? That...that's cool. Right?"

"That's not just cool, it's brilliant!" he whispered back at her suggestion. "Thanks!"

Leaning back into his chair again, he re-read what he had written and noticed something. The sole reason the library was in Japan was because she didn't know the language, but if she had a stuttering problem instead, the library could be anywhere. That would save him time doing research about Japan, but oh, wait a minute... wouldn't he have to do research about whatever country he set the story in anyway?

The teenager was thinking what to do, trying to come up not with the best solution for a story, but the one that gave him the least hassle. He drummed his fingers on the table again, this time letting his nails do the drumming, not just the tip of his fingers.


Drrrrum drrrrum drrrrum...

....

Drrrrum drrrrum drrrrum...


Ah! Got it! Why not a fictitious place? He loved science fiction and this way, everything in the story could come out of his imagination and no one would question him the veracity of anything that happened in it, because it didn't exist in the first place.

The japanese Space Station library in Japan the future was half full, as students pored over their books tablets, some doing homework and others reading futuristic manga to kill time. Then someone entered floated into the room. Her name was Rainbow Lightbringer and she rarely ever spoke because she had a stuttering problem. She was a stickler for the rules and that's why she liked the library, because no one talked while in it.

She loved building computers and tearing them apart to find out how they worked. Computers were her friends, until the day...

Until the day... what?


...

Drrrrum drrrrum drrrrum...

....

Drrrrum drrrrum drrrrum...

...Until the day a giant robot's foot smashed through the roof and stomped her into the ground. THE END!

Grah! This was hopeless! He wanted to be a doctor, not to tell stupid stories to stupid teachers!

The temptation to just turn off the laptop and leave everything for later was huge, but no, no... he NEEDED this to get done. Come on, Miles! You can do this! Until the day.... WHAT!?

The boy took off his eyes from the screen and looked at the asian girl sitting in front of him, trying to find inspiration again. Surely, he could come up with an idea or something to work with if he looked past the surface and peered into the tiny, little details on her person?

So he stared.

And staaaaared.

A young man pulled into the parking lot of the Mayfield Regional Hospital. Getting slowly out of the beat-up Camry, he walked straight through the doors and up to the front desk.

"Can I help you?" the receptionist asked. She was bright and perky. She countered the young man's mood perfectly.

"Carson Phillips. I'm here to visit a...erm...I think she's a patient."

"Okay. Can you tell me her name?"

"Louise Trawley."

The receptionist tapped halfheartedly on her keyboard. "No, I don't see her."

"She'd be in the morgue."

The receptionis

Kara stopped typing, glancing over at Real-life-Carson. He was glancing back, and Kara felt her face get really, really red.

No, he wasn't glancing. He was staring.

Very, very intently.

Central Park was quite lovely this time of year.

Kara slid her laptop so that it hid as much of her as was physically possible. Then, peeking around the side to see if he had stopped yet, she asked, "W--wh--why are you...staring...at me?"

Until the day she... typed so effortlessly, the way he couldn't?

Until the day she turned into a tomato?

Until the day she hid behind... oh, crap!

He'd been found out and Miles quickly tried to pretend he wasn't looking at her. When she asked him why he was staring, he jerked his head as if he had been woken from a trance. Like his eyes had been staring without looking because he had been sooo deep in thought.

"Hmm!? Oh... no, I wasn't staring... I was just trying to read the name of that book behind you" he said while pointing at a book on a shelf and grasping at the impromptu excuse as best he could.

Alas, the spine of the mentioned book read "Sexual diseases and how to treat them."

Miles eyes went wide and now it was HE turning into a tomato and shrinking behind his laptop's screen. He quickly tried to fix up his gaffe before it blew out of proportion.

"How odd. I thought it read Sexual dishes and how to eat them."

Did he just...? Jeez, Miles, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?

He tried to regain his composure. She was kinda shy and she probably wasn't taking any of this all that well. Miles thought the best course of action was to come clean, since it was much better to admit to staring than to accept the hidden meanings behind his imagined interest in the book.

"I'm sorry, I... I... was indeed staring. I didn't even know that book was there. I've got this homework I've got to do and I was just... drifting. Yeah."

He'd just finished saying that when he noticed one of the girl's fingers had a swirly ring on it, kind of like a little snake had tied itself up around her finger. He suddenly saw potential in it, but he needed to know more, and since they were already talking, hey, why not ask?

"That's a cool ring you've got there" he said, pointing at her hand with his chin, since his fingers were now placing themselves back on the keyboard. "Is there any meaning or story behind it?"

Kara glanced behind her, at the book he had mentioned. Sexual Diseases and how to Treat Them. She chuckled to herself softly, turning back to her computer screen. Okay, laughing at people certainly isn't cool, but she couldn't help herself that time. That was pretty funny.

"How odd. I thought it read Sexual dishes and how to Eat Them."

Kara burst out laughing for a second, before slapping her hands over her mouth and glancing around the room. That was loud. That was really loud. People were staring. Kara returned to her blushed state and shrank behind her laptop.

"I'm sorry, I...I...was indeed staring. I didn't even know that book was there. I've got this homework I've got to do and I was just...drifting. Yeah. That's a cool ring you've got there. Is there any meaning or story behind it?" As he said this, his fingers landed on his keyboard, expectant, like racecars at a starting line, and...

Was he writing about her?

Was he seriously writing about her?

Oh dear GOD!!!

'Just answer the question, Kara.' She tried talking and failed. Then tried again, and managed to stammer out something along the lines of, "Oh...n--no. I just...think...it looks...cool..."

She stared over at him, almost frantic. Her brain was racing, desperately looking for a way out of the awkwardness. 'New topic, new topic, new topic!'

'Heh, Sexual Dishes.'

She chuckled, relaxing slightly at the same time. It was just too hilarious, she couldn't help herself.

'Okay, Kara. New topic.' "What...what's the assignment?"

Well, at least she found it funny and didn't give him any of those 'get the hell away from me, you weirdo' looks. In the end, it turned out to be a nice icebreaker. They still weren't there in that 'Hi, nice to meet you!' stage, but it was progress.

She was overly self conscious of the looks other people gave her when she laughed and even Kealey, the librarian and his friend, had taken a glance at her table when she did. Then she gave a glance at Miles and the boy realized he was indeed talking and no longer whispering.

The asian girl stuttered a reply, this time with more effort than ever before, but sadly, it gave him absolutely no ideas. He was on his own on this one.

Fine, let's just give Rainbow a ring. The one ring.

She loved building computers and tearing them apart to find out how they worked. Computers were her friends, until the day she found a magic ring.

A magic ring. In a space station. Even the girl was chuckling about it, it seemed.

>> "What...what's the assignment?"

Miles blinked. Should muses know they're being muses? What if she doesn't want to be a muse? Keep it vague, Miles.

"I have to write a story. Fiction... A work of fiction of totally non-existent people doing things that never happened..." he said, clarifying things as best he could. Kealey gave him another glance and Miles wondered if there would be a third without being reprimanded.

"Do you mind?" he whispered, and before she thought he was being rude and meant 'leave me alone to my work', he got up from his chair, picked up his laptop and changed seats and table... sitting right in front of the asian girl. His dog got up, followed him obediently and laid down as soon as Miles was settled.

"That's better" he said, smiling a little as he accomodated himself. He then took a quick look at the girl.

Come on, muse. Inspire me!

She sat there, listening to him describe what a work of fiction was, rather than answer the actual question. Which confirmed it. She was being written about.

Invest in internet. Become billionaire. Flee to moon.

"Do you mind?" She almost thought that was Carter talking to her, like he had split-personalities or something. Unfortunately, his target was somethone altogether worse. Namely, the librarian. Sure, it was a pretty minor offense. Sure, the librarian seemed understanding. Sure, this was her first offense against library rules in almost a decade.

She still felt like fleeing the place quicker than if it'd become a crime scene.

Then Carter did the worst. He stood up...

...and started walking towards her table.

No.

Shoo!

Begone, ye vile creature!

Petrificus Totalis!

Alas, her attempts at psychic suggestion failed miserably. Despite her best efforts, Carter sat down across from her. So she took revenge in the page of her story.

The receptionist stopped typing and simply stared at Carter. His face was expressionless, but hers was on the border of shock. "I'm...I'm sorry..."

Then, Carter spontaneously caught fire, and died a horrible, painful death.

The end.

She was typing at her keyboard something fierce. For a second, he felt tempted to take a peek, but that would be rude and would probably open the door for her to take a peek at what HE was writing and he couldn't have that. Oh no. What would she think if she knew he was writing about her? Who is lame enough to just write about some random person in the room? Miles, that's who.

The teenager imitated his muse and started typing as well, trying to follow up with his magic ring idea. In a space station. No, that didn't work.

Drrrumm drrrrum drrrrummm...

The ancient, mystical library in the kingdom of...

Crap. Now he had to think of a fantasy kingdom name. He took a glance at his muse and she delivered without saying a word.

The ancient, mystical library in the kingdom of Ashiangurl was half full, as students pored over their tablets scrolls, some doing homework research and others reading futuristic ancient manga to kill time. Then someone floated teleported into the room. Her name was Rainbow Lightbringer and she rarely ever spoke because she had a stuttering problem. She was a stickler for the rules and that's why she liked the library, because no one talked while in it.

She loved building computers and ... kjasbdgkjbkjUKHLKJBKJLBNÑL!!

Dammit!

He'd stomped his fingers in frustration on his keyboard. How many times had he written this over? And every time he thought up of something that worked, something else stumped him along the way. He was stumped, stumped, stumped!

Do you know what that means?

Muse time!

He looked at his table partner and leaned his head over to where she was. Hey, she smelled nice. He then whispered:

"I'm sorry, but building computers won't do. Do you have any other hobby ideas? Preferably something old timey"

With a quiet little sigh, Kara half-heartedly deleted Carter's death scene and tried to start again. But she couldn't help herself. She couldn't get going again. All she could think of was unique and interesting ways to murder Carter Phillips.

Micrometeorite? Satellite crash? Accidental suicide?

Bleh. Can't kill him yet. Must...resist...

She turned to the real-life Carter Phillips, who seemed almost as angry as she was. Slamming his keyboard and all that...She noticed a few people looking over in more curiosity than anything, and instinctively hid herself a little bit.

Then Carter did the unthinkable.

He leaned over.

She felt herself panic slightly as his head crossed into the Danger Zone, and she felt herself scooting her chair backwards to get him back out of it. Sure, he was trying to stay quiet, but...one does not simply enter Kara's Danger Zone, no matter the circumstance. It is folley.

"I'm sorry, but building computers won't do. Do you have any other hobby ideas? Preferably something old-timey?"

Old-timey, fiction, and beginning writer...he was totally writing a swords-and-sorcery fantasy, wasn't he?

She decided to check.

"W--what's wrong with it? And...why old-timey? Is it...like...a fantasy...or something?"

She was asking questions about his 'masterpiece' but Miles was hesitant about delivering a synopsis, specially if said synopsis was constantly changing and had no middle or end yet. Also, he didn't want his star to know she was a star, so he kept it vague.

"It's... a fantasy, yes..." he admitted, thinking that wasn't giving too much away. He could keep the rest of the details under wraps and he figured just telling her the genre would do no harm.

Then again, he remembered the 'sexual dishes' fiasco and now it turns out he was writing 'a fantasy'. What kind of fantasy are you implying here, Miles?

"It's about a wizard girl with a magic ring in a library and she needs a hobby" he blurted out in quick succession. "I don't think they had computers back then."

Oh boy, now he had given too much of it away. He hoped she wouldn't tie two and two together, since it was plainly obvious this was about another girl, in another library with another ring. Still, just in case she suspected anything, Miles tried to distract her attention from what he had just said.

Hey, if she had asked about his assignment, why couldn't he ask about hers?

"How about you? What are you writing about?"