{Text; UN: scraps}

[disgracedprince]

I'm looking for a specific type of flower. It's small and white and it gives off a delicious scent. Maybe it's something like jasmine? I'm not sure. Its been awhile since I had any.

I think the butterflies will like it. {Granted they aren't real butterflies, but surely phantom butterflies love sweet scents too?}

I remember them blooming for most of the year or maybe I'm mistaken? It has been so long. My mind is getting old.

I was definitely spoiled back then. If I asked for them, someone would grow them even if it was the wrong season.

I know better now.

It's just the memories that I miss.

Comments

[wrotetheworld]

Ah, it's a thing we write with where I was originally from. They've actually got them here too! I bet you've seen them if you've been by the research center. Bunch of little tiles with characters on them. I used to be so fast with one, because that was how I kept a roof over my head.

[Clears his throat.]

Yeah... Thankfully didn't have to deal with it. Got a new body when I woke up again. Sure, growing up again sucked, but I obviously made it!

[disgracedprince]

Oh yes! I have seen those. So that's their name. {Keyboard. How strange!} Tile-board makes more sense to me. Or letter-board?

{Not the point. He clears his throat too, apologetically.}

Writing with one would take practice and skill. I would be very slow even if I recognized the characters.

{Xie Lian nods thoughtfully.}

You re-entered the wheel. It is remarkable that your memories remained intact. Usually they don't - as we discussed. Your fate must be unavoidable; thus an exception was made for you, friend.

[wrotetheworld]

Eh, there's probably some history to the name, terms sticking around as technology changes and all that. And I guess you could say the speed comes with muscle memory? You stop having to look for where the keys are as you type. Like sword forms! Once you get used to them, you don't really need to think about each step.

Least I've heard that's how it works. An Ding doesn't focus on fighting nearly as much as some of the other peaks.

[At the mention of fate, however, his smile distinctly loses most of its shine.]

Ah... yeah. Fate. Probably a bit of bad karma too. Or a lot of bad karma.

[disgracedprince]

Muscle memory is very important! Are all the keyboards the same size? If that differs, it could be like trying to train with an unfamiliar sword.

I'm glad everyone doesn't focus on fighting. We should retain some hope for peace, for the arts, for literature.

{Bad karma you say. Xie Lian has a mountain or two of that.}

We are cut from the same cloth, my poor friend. We mustn't die.

[wrotetheworld]

There are some different sizes, but most of them are pretty similar. The big problem is when you run into ones with different languages.

[Literature. Right. Clearly his strongest point.]

I try not to. Once was enough. Especially with what happened after.

[disgracedprince]

I'm thinking that would be a handy way to learn a new language, however. Not all at once, of course, but over time with assistance.

{As a lover of the arts, Xie Lian has no issue with that.}

What happened?

[wrotetheworld]

Least to learn the different characters. Then you get into the Latin alphabet and you get around fifty different languages that use the same characters but with different arrangements and meanings.

[Shang Qinghua chewed on his lip, debating with himself. Maybe... maybe it'd be nice for someone to know?]

How... good are you at keeping secrets?

[disgracedprince]

I've never heard of Latin. Is it an old language? {What's a few thousand years, right?}

I like to think I'm very good at keeping secrets. Especially when the secret refers to a friend.

I won't betray you.

[wrotetheworld]

Yeah, pretty old. But the writing system it used is still used a lot. Adjusted here and there. It's a lot different from ours, almost entirely based on how words sound instead of meaning. So the Hua for my name and your friend's name would be written out the same way. Someone actually wrote a full poem that used the same three characters repeated again and again when written out with the Latin alphabet!

[Is he stalling? Maybe he's stalling. Come on Qinghua, out with it.]

I didn't think you would. So, ah, you know how I said I used to be a writer? Least, I think I did. I've got so many things to remember that some things get mixed up. But anyway!

Before I... I died, I was writing a book. A very, very long book. Was still working on it when I stupidly got myself electrocuted, actually. Died because I ate at my desk, can you believe it?

[disgracedprince]

That's... That's amazing! A whole poem, really? That would be almost impossible with our alphabet - unless you are relying on numerous meanings for one word? It would be an interesting project.

{It wouldn't sound very good, but the meaning behind it would be clever.}

Are you going to continue your book? {It would be a shame if his friend gave it up!} I'm sorry that happened to you. We truly have little control over our fates, but that's all the more reason to do our best while we're here, right?

[wrotetheworld]

They've only got twenty-six regular characters that they mix and match to make words. It's a big difference.

[Probably above his level of writing ability, that's for sure.]

And, well, the book did get finished. I guess? Protagonist got their love interest, villains got reformed or vanquished.

...cannon fodder side character cultivator cleared up things with his ice demon king boss...

[disgracedprince]

How did they narrow it down so much?

{They have hundreds - if not thousands - of characters!}

You don't seem happy with the outcome? I think your book sounds very exciting.

[wrotetheworld]

Don't think they started with as many?

[So not his field of study.]

And, well, it's sure exciting. But considering I've been living in it for the last sixty years, I could do with a little less excitement. [Pauses.] It was an accident?

[disgracedprince]

I see! So they started with few and expanded.

{Quite the opposite of their language.}

You... {Wait, had he heard that correctly?} You are living in your own book? How?

[wrotetheworld]

[Shang Qinghua sheepishly shrugged his shoulders.]

I'm not absolutely sure? After I died, I was reborn inside the world I'd written. I don't even really know if I brought it all to life, somehow, or if the System did.

And with my king here... you can see why I don't want the information spreading.

[disgracedprince]

System...? {He nods slowly, thoughtfully.} I will tell no one. I do have one question: are you content with your new life? Do you wish the spell broken?

[wrotetheworld]

I'm not sure it's actually a spell? I mean, I died. And so did Shen-shixiong. He's a... friend from my first world. Well, kind of a friend. And anyway, I've been in the one I wrote twice as long as I ever lived in the other and...

[Fidgets.]

My king is there. I created him. It wouldn't be right to just up and abandon him. Or worse, unmake him.

[disgracedprince]

I see. Maybe the world you thought you created already existed. {And his friend was reborn into it.} Sometimes we are given visions...dreams...of other dimensions or realities. I think you might be a Seer.

[wrotetheworld]

It'd sure be easier if I were. But I didn't exactly just sit down and write. I polled readers, based people on folk I knew, and sometimes just ripped off stories I already knew. I'm not a great writer.

And I'm definitely not the Shang Qinghua that I wrote about. You wouldn't have liked him.

[disgracedprince]

Writing about what you know is the first key to creating a story. {Xie Lian smiles a little, shaking his head.} You are a normal human being. Don't be so hard on yourself. No one comes up with a whole tale out of the ether. Not unless the gods give them inspiration, I suppose.

Why not?

[wrotetheworld]

[Still isn't really sure. Who knows, maybe it's the System that's a god. Which is a horrifying thought.]

Because he was an asshole! Slimy little rat man. I might have put some of my own details into his creation, a bit of resemblance and a name similar to my old one, but that's where it ends. For one thing, stood by while his whole sect got destroyed, and then he betrayed my king, which is why I wrote Mobei snapping his neck.

[disgracedprince]

{Gods in general are a terrifying thought.

Xie Lian's brows rise and he blinks slowly. Goodness.}

I would be furious with him too. {Especially on that last part.} Was your king harmed by his actions? Besides the betrayal?

[wrotetheworld]

Betrayal is bad enough.

[He's kinda sorta super protective over his king, okay?]

I didn't really write all the details of it because Binghe wasn't there and the story followed him. But I know what kind of person I wrote him to be. Likeable isn't on the list.

[disgracedprince]

Yes, it is.

{He gets it. Betraying San Lang would ruin him.}

That is something you can fix now that you are in his shoes. It seems fate gave you a challenge.

[wrotetheworld]

Hardly a challenge. Even if I didn't value my own skin, I couldn't do that to him! Not when he's so- urgh. [Grumbles.] You know, I almost smashed his head with a rock when we met? But how could I wreck a face that I'd designed to be so perfect?!