0057: The Other Green Room (5) - Final
TITLE: The Other Green Room
AUTHOR: Mai / junmai
GENRE: Humor (attempted) / Crack (?) / Gen
RATING: PG-13
PAIRING: None
LENGTH: Part 5 of 5 - 3,266 Words
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Arashi. The Trainee is still mine. Concept is based from The Fanfic Lounge by CNell.
AUTHOR’S NOTES: The conclusion! Hope y’all like it. ;)
***
Matsumoto Jun and Aiba Masaki were left on their own in the Other Green Room couch when it was obvious that they weren’t in the mood to discuss anything without the rest of the members. It wasn’t as if they were incompetent if all five of them weren’t together; the duo was merely too preoccupied laughing themselves to death over reading an old series of one-shot Saigo no Yakusoku crack fics after Aiba had chanced upon after he had thought of borrowing the Trainee’s PDA.
Much like what Sakurai Sho and Ohno Satoshi had been doing earlier that day, Aiba and Jun were reading lines to each other with such feeling that they were soon wiping tears from their eyes and running out of breath from excessive giggling. The difference was that they had not done the scenes themselves; their respective characters had been the ones assigned of going through the motions of AU hopping and/or Mary Sue thwarting. The excitement over the concept folder had been replaced by such leisurely reading that gave them a chance to relive the fun days of shooting their drama project.
The Trainee, on the other hand, having figured out that it wouldn’t do any good fretting over whether to get Jun and Aiba to cooperate in getting some of the items on his checklist done, decided to answer some of the more relevant phone calls that had been plaguing his mobile all morning. He was conversing in relaxed tones with a colleague, the exchange occasionally punctuated by the laughter of the two Arashi members on the couch. It was this cheerful scene that Ninomiya Kazunari had come upon when he burst into the room yelling a hearty, “I’m baaaaack!!!”
“Welcome back!” Jun and Aiba chorused, while the Trainee stood up from the armchair to give him a polite bow and a smile before returning to his phone conversation, all the while noting Nino’s timely arrival on his clipboard. They all noticed how he was already back to his original self and was wearing a rather dandy set of clothes, which were quite similar to the ones he wore in VS Arashi when Takeuchi Yuko had been one of the guests.
“Where did you get that?” Aiba asked as Nino sat down beside him.
“From the Prologue of my latest Genderswitch, where else?”
“But you’re a girl in that one.”
“Well, I can’t just phase back to manhood wearing girly threads, can I? So I made sure I borrowed something before I had to go back,” Nino explained as he pulled out a DS from one of the inner jacket pockets. Soon he was deep in the game, yet skilfully remaining in the conversation.
“Wow, you even stole a DS,” Aiba added, impressed.
“The DS, I can understand, but I honestly don’t get why you had to steal a suit,” Jun said. “It has never bothered you getting back here in girl clothes before.”
“Why, for T-san, of course!” Nino answered as if it was the most obvious thing.
“T-san?”
“I heard she was going to have a cameo in one of the fanfics…”
Nino needed not finish his explanation as soon as both Aiba and Jun let out huge sighs of resigned comprehension. No need to tell them that Nino would, of course, make sure that he was impeccably dressed and prepared to meet his ideal woman of ten or so years, even if it was just a chance meeting in the hallways of the Realm of Fanfiction.
“And were you able to get a glimpse of her?” Aiba prodded.
“Eh, not really. There were Sues running about as well, so I couldn’t loiter much.”
Aiba laughed, but not unkindly. Whatever he was about to say next was cut off by a harassed-looking Sho who had run haphazardly into the room, nearly tripping over the rug in his haste. He slammed the door and leaned onto it in the attempt of painfully catching his breath.
“Well, here’s Sho-chan and his after-marathon look,” Nino commented lightly after a quick glance.
“I don’t think so,” Jun mildly objected, obviously pertaining to Sho’s Realm outfit instead, “he looks more like a butler to me.”
“But the important thing is that he’s fully clothed now, right?” Aiba added. “How did it go, Sho-chan?”
“Corridor…” he panted, “Sue…after me…ran for…my life.”
“Heh,” Nino snorted, “glad to see you in one piece then.”
“No, no, no…I’ll be finishing the report after I’m done with this meeting,” the Trainee was now insisting on the phone, all the while helping Sho into a chair and pouring freshly brewed tea inside the red ‘Sho’ cup. “Yes, you’ll have to wait. Seriously…,”
“Were you supposed to be a butler in that last fic?” Aiba inquired as soon as Sho regained normal breathing.
“I think I have another one after this meeting,” Sho answered, removed the spectacles and putting it inside his jacket pocket. “I was a journalist in the NC-17 I just finished.”
“How did that one go?” Nino asked with a smirk.
“Oh, geez…you know I can’t talk about that-it’s really embarrassing,” Sho said with much emotion-thickly laced with irony-until he dropped the act and continued, “…like I’d remember something traumatizing. It’s a good thing they got this kind of system of wiping our memories clean of ‘above PG-13’ love scenes. All I remember was that once I lost the boxers, everything went white. The next thing I knew, I was showering in the bathroom with this urge to rap about love-supposedly feeling inspired.”
Jun chuckled. “So what’s with the butler get-up now?”
“Wait, I know!” Aiba said excitedly. “It’s Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de! Right?”
“I guess,” Sho laughed, a little embarrassed that his potential as a butler character is given renewed interest. It might feel different than the times he had been someone’s butler in fanfiction, but hopefully his portrayal of Kageyama can garner enough attention so he and the actual character would have an equal portion of the fanfic load in the Realm.
“We’re back!” a new voice greeted into the room. Everyone turned to the door, expecting to see Ohno (although the voice obviously belonged to someone else), but they were all greeted by Ikuta Toma’s cheerful countenance, despite appearing to have been recently dragged out of a lake. Moments later, Ohno entered the room-equally soaked-and both men made to occupy the available space in the centre, regardless of whether they were dripping on the carpet or not.
“I invited Toma-kun for a little break here in the Green Room, is it alright?” Ohno asked the Trainee, who, since then, has ended his lengthy phone discussion and was already focused on the matter at hand.
“No problem, Ohno-san,” the Trainee answered blithely, and turning to the guest, “and welcome back to the Other Green Room, Ikuta-san. I’m the Trainee, filling in place of the Secretary to take charge of Arashi’s monthly fanfiction evaluation meeting.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Trainee-san,” Toma answered genially, bowing back at the Trainee-and getting several drops of lake water from his hair right into Sho’s tea. “Everyone from Arashi, I hope you don’t mind me intruding today,” he added, turning to his fellow Johnny’s. Another enthusiastic bow…and the screen of Nino’s DS got sprinkled.
The gamer clucked his tongue in mild annoyance, saying, “What in the world are you being so formal for?”
Toma laughed, collapsing on the fluffy carpet. “I’m just messing with you, Nino-kun,” the actor sighed. “Gawd, this morning’s chapter was awful. My Guide told me that I had to be on the freaking boat stuck for at least two hours under an impending storm, just to wait for Ohno-san to get back to that AU so I can finally fall in-again-and for him to save me from drowning. What was this I heard about some Sue attack earlier this morning?”
“It’s a bit of a long story, and it’s still being sorted out as of this time. But I’m sure they’ll be publishing some newsletter detailing the events afterwards,” the Trainee said. Toma seemed not to care too much and left it at that, barely nodding to indicate his understanding.
“Well, now that everyone is back-ah, Ohno-san, don’t worry. You’ll soon dry up without health risks so please have a seat-we can resume the meeting. Does everyone agree?”
“Yay!” Arashi chorused, with Nino doing his signature fist pump and Toma giving an enthusiastic little whoop. He sat up from the carpet and started paying attention, grabbing a beanbag to be comfortable.
“Right, great!” the Trainee cleared his throat and was soon squinting at the clipboard. “So far we’ve covered-yes, Sakurai-san?”
“No confetti?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
“So far we’ve covered the quality and trends of the daily fanfiction production, and when it comes to pairings with other actresses, we’ve deduced that last month’s fan favourite actresses are pretty much still the same, so all of you may still inspire consistent Het fics, especially when occasion warrants it. As for slash pairings outside of Arashi-well…the regulars appear to be Ninomiya-san, Aiba-san and…everyone actually has their turn, with JE having lots of other idols to pair up with anyone of you. Then there are also your individual projects with or without other actors…so there’s more material to be written, slash-wise, at the very least.”
“That last part was a definite jab at GANTZ, wasn’t it?” Nino asked wryly.
“It’s just what the stats say, Ninomiya-san. You did realize that you actually confessed love for MatsuKen for the whole of Japan to witness, right?” the Trainee answered with a laugh. “That’s more than what fans were expecting, so naturally they love it. And that Genderswitch you just had earlier is merely one of the many manifestations of such pairings, and you know you’ve done a lot of others.”
“I just realized that MatsuKen is kind of nice for not chewing you out for dragging him into more Realm stories,” Ohno remarked casually.
Nino looked smug. “Seems I have chosen a great man, huh?”
“Okay, that was a little bit creepy,” Toma muttered under his breath, but Sho heard it and chuckled.
“Anyway,” the Trainee interjected, “we’ve gone over that already, so we’re going to open the meeting for more of your feedback on the stories you get into, as well as any suggestions you might have regarding…well, whatever concerns you have within the Realm.”
“I have a concern.” Sho raised a hand for the fourth time that day.
Unsurprised, the Trainee hid a tiny smile before addressing him. “Yes, Sakurai-san?”
“Well, it’s not really a concern, but more of a question,” he clarified. “I know I’ve only been complaining so far about the kinds of things that these authors are making us do, but there are some who definitely gave us a lot of interesting experiences in stories. Is there some way they can be compensated…or rewarded, so as to encourage the rest of the fans to write, or at least improve, in the same way?”
“Like an incentive, you mean?” the Trainee posed. He was somewhat surprised at the question, because he was generally more prepared to hear complaints against the less talented writers and rarely got to hear anything resembling a commendation for the better ones.
“That’s a little tricky, Sakurai-san,” he said. “With such authors, the reward is in the act of writing itself…and it is reinforced by positive feedback from their readers. No one pays them for it, yet they spend time working on a story only because they are inspired by the things you do on television, or other things they’ve read about and wishing they could see you in such settings.”
“So you’re saying that as much as we cannot hamper the production of low quality stories, we also cannot take an active part in boosting the production of the well-written ones?” Jun asked.
“In the Real World…no, I don’t think so,” the Trainee answered carefully. “Unless of course you read the stories back in your own world and giving them a pat-on-the-back comment for portraying you with such an interesting character, I don’t see anything that would count as active. I think it is best that you just continue to make them happy the way you already do. And you’re already doing so much for your fans-it’s no longer fair to get you to do more work-work that the Realm can actually do for you.”
“On the other hand, here in the Realm, I must say that you do have the power to resist the Forces as much as you can, although it will put a strain on your willpower if you resist too much. And conversely, if you really like the story you are in, you can be as cooperative as much as your temperaments can handle it. That will make things easier for the author to finish a story and move on with another. In that way, you are, so to speak, inspiring them as they write.”
“I think what you’re saying about resisting the Forces would be easier to accomplish if all of us are in one story,” Nino spoke up after a while. “It’s easier to-I don’t know, wheedle the Forces into our favour since we’re much influential that way-and five times more appealing, too.”
“Actually,” Toma piped up, “It’s also easier to accomplish if none of you are the main characters. Rather, there is little need for resistance.”
“Say what?” Aiba asked, somewhat confused.
“Now that I think of it, Ikuta-san is right,” the Trainee agreed. “It’s primarily the reason why he doesn’t sustain much mental damage-however temporary they may be, of course-even if he appears in a lot of stories handled not just in the Arashi Section but also in NEWS, TOKIO and other Sections under the JE Department. His roles are mostly secondary or tertiary-,”
“But, of course, that’s just saying you end up being in stories on your own, and the narrative Point Of View is the OC’s and not yours,” Toma added. “The only time you really need to struggle is when, for example, Nino is forced to be a clingy and desperate cry-baby that would end up slashing his wrists as soon as he finds out Ohno is making out with Sho-for every chapter in the story. That’s when it gets frustrating, right?”
“I think I’ve been in that story before,” Ohno said wistfully. Both Sho and Nino snorted at that.
“Thus, if most of the story is in the POV of the Original Character, then you can spend most of it watching by the sidelines while the OC does his/her monologue and poignant self-realizations throughout the story. If you’re needed for some melancholic or romantic support, you just have to follow the dialogue-and any kind of line delivery won’t matter, because they’re read and not heard,” the Trainee finished with relish.
“Wow…I never really thought about it that way,” Sho was clearly in awe. He was already imagining how he can save the effort of resistance the next time he gets assigned with a Sue, and boy, was Sho feeling very optimistic!
The PDA that had been in Aiba’s hands the whole time alerted all of them of an email, and Aiba promptly handed the device back to its owner. The Trainee immediately began reading the apparently urgent memo, and within seconds, his face broke into a relaxed smile.
“We got great news, everyone,” he said, “the Friendly Forces managed to get the Prologue chapter for the Genius Hacker Sue to be featured in, thus effectively removing her from the AU Control Room. The technicians then revised the security codes and placed the room on a lockdown until they could recover the whisked off JE idols and put everything in order. So far, you’re all cleared for travelling back to the Real World for some well-deserved rest until tomorrow when everyone can resume their chapter assignments like the usual.”
“You mean we can all go home?” Aiba clarified.
“Most definitely.”
“What about this meeting?” Sho asked.
“The Department had issued a blanket order to return all Characters to their respective worlds as soon as they’re done with their current assignments. We are also to cease extra-curricular activities for the rest of the day,” was the reply, but the Trainee added, “…because there’s going to be a staff meeting right after lunch to discuss the whole thing. We could, of course, schedule another meeting tomorrow, but I think with all the fiasco today, we can just adjourn until next month.”
“Neat!” Aiba was enthusiastic. He stood up and wore the jacket of his high school uniform in preparation for leaving, while Nino pocketed the DS and began helping Jun replace the used cups and tea pot on the tray.
Everyone helped restore order in the Other Green Room and back to its original state, and soon, they were all ready to leave. Jun silently said goodbye to the publications on the coffee table, the concept folder neatly stacked on top of the guidebooks. The group then jovially wished each other a good day, with Toma getting special recognition for his timely insights (according to Sho). They were filing for the exit, with Jun and Ohno taking the lead and behind them, Sho was bombarding Toma with questions on other tips to spare oneself from mental anguish. Nino, Aiba and the Trainee were all subdued in the rear-that is, until Aiba spoke up.
“You know, Trainee-san,” Aiba added thoughtfully, “I just realized your PDA doesn’t have phone capabilities. You’ve been using that one long before we debuted as Arashi, haven’t you?”
“Oh, not me specifically,” the Trainee answered. “This was company issued and it used to belong to my senior co-worker before he got promoted from training. But essentially, yes, this has been around before Arashi, although we’re not exactly bound by the same time and space laws governing the Real World, so I think it’s much longer than that.”
“Well, whether you have a fully-functional antique or not, I think you should switch to Android AU,” Aiba said sincerely. “It’s pretty cool, and the name even matches the AU Control Room!”
Nino rolled his eyes, “OH, Aiba.”
“What? I’m just saying.”
***
It was one of those creeping sensations as one falls asleep, like something will happen soon but one can no longer do anything else except to let sleep take over. One moment, Matsumoto Jun was closing his eyes, and in the next, as soon as he felt the need to struggle back to waking consciousness, his eyes blinked open and he was looking straight at the sky…which did not belong to his bedroom. In fact, he was not in his bedroom. He was…on his feet and staring at the clouds on what looked like the deck of a pirate ship, except that the said pirate ship was flying in the sky.
That was his cue, and the memories of hidden realms and Forces-at-Work came flooding back to him like a welcoming guide. He knew that he was in a Story and he also knew that there should be a physical Guide somewhere, and true enough, in his coat pocket was a little booklet that read: A Chest Full of Keys, a Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger AU. Jun gave a little laugh, and upon noting that he was dressed in purple-themed princely clothing, he quickly scanned the opening pages of his Guidebook-and immediately set off to find Aiba.
THE END
***
( Return to Part 4 | Read from the start? )
AUTHOR: Mai / junmai
GENRE: Humor (attempted) / Crack (?) / Gen
RATING: PG-13
PAIRING: None
LENGTH: Part 5 of 5 - 3,266 Words
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Arashi. The Trainee is still mine. Concept is based from The Fanfic Lounge by CNell.
AUTHOR’S NOTES: The conclusion! Hope y’all like it. ;)
***
Matsumoto Jun and Aiba Masaki were left on their own in the Other Green Room couch when it was obvious that they weren’t in the mood to discuss anything without the rest of the members. It wasn’t as if they were incompetent if all five of them weren’t together; the duo was merely too preoccupied laughing themselves to death over reading an old series of one-shot Saigo no Yakusoku crack fics after Aiba had chanced upon after he had thought of borrowing the Trainee’s PDA.
Much like what Sakurai Sho and Ohno Satoshi had been doing earlier that day, Aiba and Jun were reading lines to each other with such feeling that they were soon wiping tears from their eyes and running out of breath from excessive giggling. The difference was that they had not done the scenes themselves; their respective characters had been the ones assigned of going through the motions of AU hopping and/or Mary Sue thwarting. The excitement over the concept folder had been replaced by such leisurely reading that gave them a chance to relive the fun days of shooting their drama project.
The Trainee, on the other hand, having figured out that it wouldn’t do any good fretting over whether to get Jun and Aiba to cooperate in getting some of the items on his checklist done, decided to answer some of the more relevant phone calls that had been plaguing his mobile all morning. He was conversing in relaxed tones with a colleague, the exchange occasionally punctuated by the laughter of the two Arashi members on the couch. It was this cheerful scene that Ninomiya Kazunari had come upon when he burst into the room yelling a hearty, “I’m baaaaack!!!”
“Welcome back!” Jun and Aiba chorused, while the Trainee stood up from the armchair to give him a polite bow and a smile before returning to his phone conversation, all the while noting Nino’s timely arrival on his clipboard. They all noticed how he was already back to his original self and was wearing a rather dandy set of clothes, which were quite similar to the ones he wore in VS Arashi when Takeuchi Yuko had been one of the guests.
“Where did you get that?” Aiba asked as Nino sat down beside him.
“From the Prologue of my latest Genderswitch, where else?”
“But you’re a girl in that one.”
“Well, I can’t just phase back to manhood wearing girly threads, can I? So I made sure I borrowed something before I had to go back,” Nino explained as he pulled out a DS from one of the inner jacket pockets. Soon he was deep in the game, yet skilfully remaining in the conversation.
“Wow, you even stole a DS,” Aiba added, impressed.
“The DS, I can understand, but I honestly don’t get why you had to steal a suit,” Jun said. “It has never bothered you getting back here in girl clothes before.”
“Why, for T-san, of course!” Nino answered as if it was the most obvious thing.
“T-san?”
“I heard she was going to have a cameo in one of the fanfics…”
Nino needed not finish his explanation as soon as both Aiba and Jun let out huge sighs of resigned comprehension. No need to tell them that Nino would, of course, make sure that he was impeccably dressed and prepared to meet his ideal woman of ten or so years, even if it was just a chance meeting in the hallways of the Realm of Fanfiction.
“And were you able to get a glimpse of her?” Aiba prodded.
“Eh, not really. There were Sues running about as well, so I couldn’t loiter much.”
Aiba laughed, but not unkindly. Whatever he was about to say next was cut off by a harassed-looking Sho who had run haphazardly into the room, nearly tripping over the rug in his haste. He slammed the door and leaned onto it in the attempt of painfully catching his breath.
“Well, here’s Sho-chan and his after-marathon look,” Nino commented lightly after a quick glance.
“I don’t think so,” Jun mildly objected, obviously pertaining to Sho’s Realm outfit instead, “he looks more like a butler to me.”
“But the important thing is that he’s fully clothed now, right?” Aiba added. “How did it go, Sho-chan?”
“Corridor…” he panted, “Sue…after me…ran for…my life.”
“Heh,” Nino snorted, “glad to see you in one piece then.”
“No, no, no…I’ll be finishing the report after I’m done with this meeting,” the Trainee was now insisting on the phone, all the while helping Sho into a chair and pouring freshly brewed tea inside the red ‘Sho’ cup. “Yes, you’ll have to wait. Seriously…,”
“Were you supposed to be a butler in that last fic?” Aiba inquired as soon as Sho regained normal breathing.
“I think I have another one after this meeting,” Sho answered, removed the spectacles and putting it inside his jacket pocket. “I was a journalist in the NC-17 I just finished.”
“How did that one go?” Nino asked with a smirk.
“Oh, geez…you know I can’t talk about that-it’s really embarrassing,” Sho said with much emotion-thickly laced with irony-until he dropped the act and continued, “…like I’d remember something traumatizing. It’s a good thing they got this kind of system of wiping our memories clean of ‘above PG-13’ love scenes. All I remember was that once I lost the boxers, everything went white. The next thing I knew, I was showering in the bathroom with this urge to rap about love-supposedly feeling inspired.”
Jun chuckled. “So what’s with the butler get-up now?”
“Wait, I know!” Aiba said excitedly. “It’s Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de! Right?”
“I guess,” Sho laughed, a little embarrassed that his potential as a butler character is given renewed interest. It might feel different than the times he had been someone’s butler in fanfiction, but hopefully his portrayal of Kageyama can garner enough attention so he and the actual character would have an equal portion of the fanfic load in the Realm.
“We’re back!” a new voice greeted into the room. Everyone turned to the door, expecting to see Ohno (although the voice obviously belonged to someone else), but they were all greeted by Ikuta Toma’s cheerful countenance, despite appearing to have been recently dragged out of a lake. Moments later, Ohno entered the room-equally soaked-and both men made to occupy the available space in the centre, regardless of whether they were dripping on the carpet or not.
“I invited Toma-kun for a little break here in the Green Room, is it alright?” Ohno asked the Trainee, who, since then, has ended his lengthy phone discussion and was already focused on the matter at hand.
“No problem, Ohno-san,” the Trainee answered blithely, and turning to the guest, “and welcome back to the Other Green Room, Ikuta-san. I’m the Trainee, filling in place of the Secretary to take charge of Arashi’s monthly fanfiction evaluation meeting.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Trainee-san,” Toma answered genially, bowing back at the Trainee-and getting several drops of lake water from his hair right into Sho’s tea. “Everyone from Arashi, I hope you don’t mind me intruding today,” he added, turning to his fellow Johnny’s. Another enthusiastic bow…and the screen of Nino’s DS got sprinkled.
The gamer clucked his tongue in mild annoyance, saying, “What in the world are you being so formal for?”
Toma laughed, collapsing on the fluffy carpet. “I’m just messing with you, Nino-kun,” the actor sighed. “Gawd, this morning’s chapter was awful. My Guide told me that I had to be on the freaking boat stuck for at least two hours under an impending storm, just to wait for Ohno-san to get back to that AU so I can finally fall in-again-and for him to save me from drowning. What was this I heard about some Sue attack earlier this morning?”
“It’s a bit of a long story, and it’s still being sorted out as of this time. But I’m sure they’ll be publishing some newsletter detailing the events afterwards,” the Trainee said. Toma seemed not to care too much and left it at that, barely nodding to indicate his understanding.
“Well, now that everyone is back-ah, Ohno-san, don’t worry. You’ll soon dry up without health risks so please have a seat-we can resume the meeting. Does everyone agree?”
“Yay!” Arashi chorused, with Nino doing his signature fist pump and Toma giving an enthusiastic little whoop. He sat up from the carpet and started paying attention, grabbing a beanbag to be comfortable.
“Right, great!” the Trainee cleared his throat and was soon squinting at the clipboard. “So far we’ve covered-yes, Sakurai-san?”
“No confetti?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
“So far we’ve covered the quality and trends of the daily fanfiction production, and when it comes to pairings with other actresses, we’ve deduced that last month’s fan favourite actresses are pretty much still the same, so all of you may still inspire consistent Het fics, especially when occasion warrants it. As for slash pairings outside of Arashi-well…the regulars appear to be Ninomiya-san, Aiba-san and…everyone actually has their turn, with JE having lots of other idols to pair up with anyone of you. Then there are also your individual projects with or without other actors…so there’s more material to be written, slash-wise, at the very least.”
“That last part was a definite jab at GANTZ, wasn’t it?” Nino asked wryly.
“It’s just what the stats say, Ninomiya-san. You did realize that you actually confessed love for MatsuKen for the whole of Japan to witness, right?” the Trainee answered with a laugh. “That’s more than what fans were expecting, so naturally they love it. And that Genderswitch you just had earlier is merely one of the many manifestations of such pairings, and you know you’ve done a lot of others.”
“I just realized that MatsuKen is kind of nice for not chewing you out for dragging him into more Realm stories,” Ohno remarked casually.
Nino looked smug. “Seems I have chosen a great man, huh?”
“Okay, that was a little bit creepy,” Toma muttered under his breath, but Sho heard it and chuckled.
“Anyway,” the Trainee interjected, “we’ve gone over that already, so we’re going to open the meeting for more of your feedback on the stories you get into, as well as any suggestions you might have regarding…well, whatever concerns you have within the Realm.”
“I have a concern.” Sho raised a hand for the fourth time that day.
Unsurprised, the Trainee hid a tiny smile before addressing him. “Yes, Sakurai-san?”
“Well, it’s not really a concern, but more of a question,” he clarified. “I know I’ve only been complaining so far about the kinds of things that these authors are making us do, but there are some who definitely gave us a lot of interesting experiences in stories. Is there some way they can be compensated…or rewarded, so as to encourage the rest of the fans to write, or at least improve, in the same way?”
“Like an incentive, you mean?” the Trainee posed. He was somewhat surprised at the question, because he was generally more prepared to hear complaints against the less talented writers and rarely got to hear anything resembling a commendation for the better ones.
“That’s a little tricky, Sakurai-san,” he said. “With such authors, the reward is in the act of writing itself…and it is reinforced by positive feedback from their readers. No one pays them for it, yet they spend time working on a story only because they are inspired by the things you do on television, or other things they’ve read about and wishing they could see you in such settings.”
“So you’re saying that as much as we cannot hamper the production of low quality stories, we also cannot take an active part in boosting the production of the well-written ones?” Jun asked.
“In the Real World…no, I don’t think so,” the Trainee answered carefully. “Unless of course you read the stories back in your own world and giving them a pat-on-the-back comment for portraying you with such an interesting character, I don’t see anything that would count as active. I think it is best that you just continue to make them happy the way you already do. And you’re already doing so much for your fans-it’s no longer fair to get you to do more work-work that the Realm can actually do for you.”
“On the other hand, here in the Realm, I must say that you do have the power to resist the Forces as much as you can, although it will put a strain on your willpower if you resist too much. And conversely, if you really like the story you are in, you can be as cooperative as much as your temperaments can handle it. That will make things easier for the author to finish a story and move on with another. In that way, you are, so to speak, inspiring them as they write.”
“I think what you’re saying about resisting the Forces would be easier to accomplish if all of us are in one story,” Nino spoke up after a while. “It’s easier to-I don’t know, wheedle the Forces into our favour since we’re much influential that way-and five times more appealing, too.”
“Actually,” Toma piped up, “It’s also easier to accomplish if none of you are the main characters. Rather, there is little need for resistance.”
“Say what?” Aiba asked, somewhat confused.
“Now that I think of it, Ikuta-san is right,” the Trainee agreed. “It’s primarily the reason why he doesn’t sustain much mental damage-however temporary they may be, of course-even if he appears in a lot of stories handled not just in the Arashi Section but also in NEWS, TOKIO and other Sections under the JE Department. His roles are mostly secondary or tertiary-,”
“But, of course, that’s just saying you end up being in stories on your own, and the narrative Point Of View is the OC’s and not yours,” Toma added. “The only time you really need to struggle is when, for example, Nino is forced to be a clingy and desperate cry-baby that would end up slashing his wrists as soon as he finds out Ohno is making out with Sho-for every chapter in the story. That’s when it gets frustrating, right?”
“I think I’ve been in that story before,” Ohno said wistfully. Both Sho and Nino snorted at that.
“Thus, if most of the story is in the POV of the Original Character, then you can spend most of it watching by the sidelines while the OC does his/her monologue and poignant self-realizations throughout the story. If you’re needed for some melancholic or romantic support, you just have to follow the dialogue-and any kind of line delivery won’t matter, because they’re read and not heard,” the Trainee finished with relish.
“Wow…I never really thought about it that way,” Sho was clearly in awe. He was already imagining how he can save the effort of resistance the next time he gets assigned with a Sue, and boy, was Sho feeling very optimistic!
The PDA that had been in Aiba’s hands the whole time alerted all of them of an email, and Aiba promptly handed the device back to its owner. The Trainee immediately began reading the apparently urgent memo, and within seconds, his face broke into a relaxed smile.
“We got great news, everyone,” he said, “the Friendly Forces managed to get the Prologue chapter for the Genius Hacker Sue to be featured in, thus effectively removing her from the AU Control Room. The technicians then revised the security codes and placed the room on a lockdown until they could recover the whisked off JE idols and put everything in order. So far, you’re all cleared for travelling back to the Real World for some well-deserved rest until tomorrow when everyone can resume their chapter assignments like the usual.”
“You mean we can all go home?” Aiba clarified.
“Most definitely.”
“What about this meeting?” Sho asked.
“The Department had issued a blanket order to return all Characters to their respective worlds as soon as they’re done with their current assignments. We are also to cease extra-curricular activities for the rest of the day,” was the reply, but the Trainee added, “…because there’s going to be a staff meeting right after lunch to discuss the whole thing. We could, of course, schedule another meeting tomorrow, but I think with all the fiasco today, we can just adjourn until next month.”
“Neat!” Aiba was enthusiastic. He stood up and wore the jacket of his high school uniform in preparation for leaving, while Nino pocketed the DS and began helping Jun replace the used cups and tea pot on the tray.
Everyone helped restore order in the Other Green Room and back to its original state, and soon, they were all ready to leave. Jun silently said goodbye to the publications on the coffee table, the concept folder neatly stacked on top of the guidebooks. The group then jovially wished each other a good day, with Toma getting special recognition for his timely insights (according to Sho). They were filing for the exit, with Jun and Ohno taking the lead and behind them, Sho was bombarding Toma with questions on other tips to spare oneself from mental anguish. Nino, Aiba and the Trainee were all subdued in the rear-that is, until Aiba spoke up.
“You know, Trainee-san,” Aiba added thoughtfully, “I just realized your PDA doesn’t have phone capabilities. You’ve been using that one long before we debuted as Arashi, haven’t you?”
“Oh, not me specifically,” the Trainee answered. “This was company issued and it used to belong to my senior co-worker before he got promoted from training. But essentially, yes, this has been around before Arashi, although we’re not exactly bound by the same time and space laws governing the Real World, so I think it’s much longer than that.”
“Well, whether you have a fully-functional antique or not, I think you should switch to Android AU,” Aiba said sincerely. “It’s pretty cool, and the name even matches the AU Control Room!”
Nino rolled his eyes, “OH, Aiba.”
“What? I’m just saying.”
***
It was one of those creeping sensations as one falls asleep, like something will happen soon but one can no longer do anything else except to let sleep take over. One moment, Matsumoto Jun was closing his eyes, and in the next, as soon as he felt the need to struggle back to waking consciousness, his eyes blinked open and he was looking straight at the sky…which did not belong to his bedroom. In fact, he was not in his bedroom. He was…on his feet and staring at the clouds on what looked like the deck of a pirate ship, except that the said pirate ship was flying in the sky.
That was his cue, and the memories of hidden realms and Forces-at-Work came flooding back to him like a welcoming guide. He knew that he was in a Story and he also knew that there should be a physical Guide somewhere, and true enough, in his coat pocket was a little booklet that read: A Chest Full of Keys, a Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger AU. Jun gave a little laugh, and upon noting that he was dressed in purple-themed princely clothing, he quickly scanned the opening pages of his Guidebook-and immediately set off to find Aiba.
THE END
***
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