"What are you doing!?"
Eloise clutched at Penelope's arm and questioned harshly. Her grip loosened just as fast when she heard a sharp hiss from Penelope who was shaking her head desperately and mumbling, "Goodness, the discomfort is quite pronounced. Oh, dear me... the pain is indeed considerable. It aches, aches persistently. Unpleasant, truly unpleasant."
As if suddenly realizing something, Penelope turned her face in the direction of Alicia with a comically pronounced awkward grin, and tried her best to sound absolutely fine,
"Miss Knight in shining concern... Be at ease. I assure you, my well being remains unscathed. Oh dear..."
Alicia's face was visibly taking on a vibrant red hue—a crimson masterpiece painted by the brushstrokes of both anger and distress, it seemed. Despite her not being able to move her facial muscles to an expression other than the close-eyed calm one of someone lost in deep contemplation, it was almost impressive how the dramatic shades of "are you being serious right now!?" were vividly splashed across the canvas of her visage. It was evident that she had to constantly deal with a close acquaintance prone to adventurous calamities.
Penelope's nose scrunched up in worry before her expression contorted into a nervous half-grin, "Pray, do not wear a countenance of distress and ire. Once I am resorted to the forced stage of my designed character here, I anticipate swift convalescence. Such is my conjecture, aaaand.... your visage appears even more furious."
With the shade of red and the bulging veins over Alicia's face becoming even more conspicuous, Penelope just pointedly ignored the problem for the moment, deciding to probably face the anger she would have to inevitably confront at a later time. Before she turned back to the rest, there was a chuckle at one side of the room. The new guy quickly covered his lips when the attention fell on him, before dropping his hands and saying with an awkward smile, "I'm sorry. This really does not seem like a time to laugh... I just thought you two seemed to have a close relationship?"
"But of course. Lady Heathers is my dear knight. We have grown up together. But that is beside the point right now—"
"You... I'm sorry, my lady, I do not really get your words, but could you have implied earlier that your injury can heal once you get back into character?"
Hearing Louis' question, the new guy's eyes seemed to twinkle as he stared full-focus at Penelope. Ezra could hear the rustle of Max's clothes from besides him. The man too had moved closer to hear the answer clearly. The only one that did not seem concerned about the answer was Eloise, who was staring fervently at Penelope's injury without blinking.
Penelope shook her head, "It is but merely a conjecture. I am unable to tell you with certainty. However, the last time I got to this world, I had been... Uh... Well, doused in hot tea, it burned. But as soon as I got here, a miraculous recovery befell my injuries. Alas, its efficacy proved futile, for I found myself to the very tableau I had departed, subjected once more to the scalding embrace of tea. I endeavored to ascertain, this time, the extent of my regenerative abilities."
Ezra had tried listening very attentively to Penelope and still almost got lost in the middle of her English. Thankfully, he had somehow gotten the gist of it. Penelope had been burned by tea once but had arrived in this world soon after and had made a recovery. However, since returning back to her world had brought her back to the same scene of her getting burned, she still got injured, so she could not make sure if her injuries would disappear if she entered character. Thus, she had now hurt herself when she was out of character to prove her hypothesis. Ezra could not help but complain to Penelope in the most rich British accent he could muster. Never once had the others heard such a broken accent before in their lives, but what did Ezra care.
"Miss Penelope, was it? If you'd be so kind, could you grace my humble intellect with the simplicity of your discourse? Your linguistic elegance is a maze, and I find myself in dire need of a more amusing map for my feeble understanding. Quite the linguistic acrobatics you've got there."
Penelope laughed out loud, "My apologies. I've been raised amidst the refined articulations of nobility, making adjustments a bit challenging. Yet, I do understand that the language you all speak tends to be more relaxed. Occasionally, I find myself swimming in the sea of your watered-down expressions, trying to catch the tide of your meaning. I will try my utmost hereafter, though."
"Wait a minute. You are a noble?"
Ezra was almost left dumbfounded by that sudden information. Penelope had mentioned that Alicia was her knight, but he had just thought she was joking. He looked dubiously at the jubilant-looking Penelope, who was drowned in cold sweat from the pain caused by her reckless action of almost breaking her own arm, and questioned again,
"Are you serious?"
"Countess Penelope Rosalind Cavendish. A pleasure to meet you. And that prepossessing lass, stuck in a growingly longer ah... internal monologue as you referred to it as, is Alicia Heathers. My personal knight."
"Wow... Uh. G-greetings... I-And I am Carlos Tanaka. I am a bartender."
Louis snorted at the sudden introduction. Ezra could tell he was previously overwhelmed by the situation because Louis had a tendency to pull at his right earlobe when he was anxious or nervous. Carlos' sudden intro seemed to have broken some of his tension,
"Introductions aren't necessary. Please be quick. What do you all know about the situation?", Interjected a very serious looking Eloise.
Carlos was the first to answer; he seemed enthusiastic, very unlike a person in such a serious situation as they were in, "Oh, I think only the wounds or problems causing a threat to the storyline heal. Like, if a wound is visible on your face, someone is bound to question you about it, but since a wound acquired outside the plot will only hinder its progress, so it is removed. It might bring attention to you and not the plot laid out for you. Old scars that have become part of your person are generally not healed unless it is explicitly said so. At least mine haven't, so that's only my take on the matter."
"Gosh, Mr. Bartender. You might have a point. A scar of mine has not healed either... My man, you are actually smart, but you act so klutzy? That's kinda cute not gonna lie."
"Your assessment is astute, and I, too, discern an alluring charm in his demeanor."
Carlos blushed ever so slightly at Ezra and Penelope's praise. Max looked at Ezra with a complex gaze before scoffing from the side, "Can you two please be serious?"
He then looked on with a calm expression, "The characters we play share our names. They also share our appearances. I had seen Mister Tanaka only appear after his appearance was fully explained. Before him, someone else had appeared for a brief moment. I suppose the ones most suitable in line with the character explanation and sharing the name appear in the end."
Louis looked puzzled, "But. How is it possible to find someone exactly in line with those conditions? There can be just so many people that can share that exact name... and even more so... that specifically described appearance."
Eloise shook her head, "Did you not notice already? Of course, there might not be any in your time or world. But it is not like the search for these specific traits is limited to just your timeline and world."
"What-"
Eloise calmly pointed towards Penelope's hair, then to Carlos' odd and unnatural purple eye color, "Do you all look like you belong to the same world?"
Penelope chuckled and turned to Ezra, "The denizens... I mean, the people of your realm exhibit rather mundane hair and eye colors. Grey, a... rather common shade in my homeland, seems to be a hue of unremarkable prevalence."
"Oh, trust me, Countess, if grey was a tad more common, it would've been an upgrade from our boring palette of everyday brown, black, or blonde. And of course, the occasional red or white. Fun fact: I once dyed my hair grey. It's true, my original color was chocolate brown."
"How intriguing! You can change your hair color to such a light shade? That's fascinating."
"That's correct. Although it'll never look as regal as yours, Countess."
Eloise rolled her eyes at their banter, "You two, save the hair salon talk for later. Can we focus here? Is this a time to be discussing fashion transformations?" She then turned to Louis, "Got any enlightening revelations to share?"
At the question, Louis looked at Alicia with a complicated gaze, his lips opening and closing as if struggling to voice something. Eventually, he shook his head and said, "The only thing I can offer is probably information that you all seem smart enough to have grasped long ago."
Ezra contemplated Louis's peculiar reaction but decided not to press further. Instead, he quickly added, "You know, I've noticed that the lines running from beneath our feet dim when we are out of character. It's as if the control on us weakens. Do you all suppose... I don't know... that maybe the source of this control on our actions lies at the end of these lines?"
Silence fell when those words were spoken. Each person in the room was navigating through theories and hypotheses, and Ezra's observation struck them as a plausible lead with the limited information they had.
"Goodness me. I almost forgot to tell you all something really important." There was visible concern on Penelope's face as she continued in a hurried voice.
"It seems that whatever we acquire here becomes permanent despite returning back home. Like a talent, for example. I really do not know the first thing about coding. But as soon as my character was explained to be good at it, I naturally gained this skill and was even able to remember the methodology even upon returning home. This might also apply to other things. The most concerning of which-"
Before she could complete her sentence, she disappeared from her place and suddenly appeared right beside Alicia, gently asking her if she was okay. They noticed her injury that had turned purplish before had completely disappeared.
Louis, Eloise, and Carlos appeared right in front of Ezra, asking him whether he was going to join the club or not. Max was near the now open-eyed Alicia. Ezra's character opened his mouth to answer, but before he could do so, Penelope read from Alicia's phone,
"Don't tell me you will be skipping this club just because of prior disagreements. That's weak."
His character faced a surge of annoyance and answered thoughtlessly, "Who says I won't? I will be joining the club!" He soon felt great regret over his answer, too ashamed now to take it back.
Alicia smiled at this in an exhausted manner, "I see."
With those words, Ezra found himself back at the cafe. He looked on dazedly at Louis, who too was staring back at him in a daze, the sudden situation they had faced loading very slowly into their brains. Louis was the first to wake up and started to walk towards Ezra, only to abruptly stop in his tracks and look at Ezra in horror. Ezra got confused by that reaction.
"Hey Ez? Isn't that Louis? What is he doing here?... Wait..."
Damien abruptly stood from his seat when his eyes turned back to Ezra after having spotted Louis. He grabbed Ezra's chin and turned his face to the side, looking on with confusion and worry, "Ez... how in the world did your face get hurt like this out of nowhere? You were just fine a second ago, were you not? You look like you've been punched hard in the face."
Only then did Ezra notice the slight sting of his wound that he had unconsciously ignored. The wound that he had gotten from Maximilian's punch earlier. A wound he carried back into his real world.
Ezra's heart dropped at that realization.