"Who are you?"
Theia inquires from the side as she is working at the food stall. John stared back and couldn't respond appropriately. At this point, he was preparing a burger inside his stand.
Theia's confidence grew as she spent more time with John.
She was pretty sure that John wasn't the heretic, at least, not the same one that she was promised to meet. Her scared self starts to fall off. And John could sense that.
"I don't know"
He answers honestly. A month ago, he was sitting in his apartment reading the legend of the divine twig and now he was. He vividly remembers cursing the author about how the ending was shit and how he was way too angry at the author for writing that.
Now that he's in it, he couldn't be more confused.
He looks like he has accepted this world but in actually he's actively avoiding it. He doesn't want to interact with the character, he doesn't want anything to do with the main plot.
Something is always in the back of his mind.
A fear
Fear of what he doesn't know. Fear that he might never be home again. He numbed all of that by doing stuff, constantly filling his mind with something else until he was only a robot.
He still doesn't think that all of this is real, that he will wake up in his old apartment one day. He hoped that by setting the plot straight it would continue to the end while he just sat on the side.
"Who am I to you?"
"uhm.... It might sound strange but you feel like you don't want to be here, like there is a wall between you and the rest of the world"
She couldn't put a finger on it. It's a feeling that she has never felt before. even after all the horrific things that happened in her family. The mystic, the heretic, and the church, still felt kind of real to her. But Reeva just doesn't feel like he belongs here.
John doesn't answer but he agrees with her.
He doesn't want to be here.
He needs to get home.
"I want to go home"
John answered, his face longing for the comfort of his bed and apartment.
"Lmemore?"
John didn't answer her question and continued to do his burger. His wish is not something anyone could understand. To that he needs to find a clue and build up his power. He is building one right now.
A certain bat said that money is a kind of superpower if you have enough of it.
He didn't say it but that is his superpower.
"or Earth?"
Theia muttered in her voice. When Theia mentions it, John whips his neck towards her. It startled her slightly. John couldn't believe what he'd heard.
"What did you say!?"
"earth?"
"Where did you hear about it?"
His stare bore a hole through her. There is no mention of Earth in the novel, Theia might just be referring to an element but he could sense that it is much more than that. She has to mean a place.
"It's my father's collection item. It says that a person who knows about earth could use it."
"Item? Wait, why did you think I would know about it?"
This was far from the strangest thing he had heard, but it was about him. This is the first time he has heard anything about the Earth or his home. Theia was alarmed by John's outburst.
"T...this thing tells me to trust you, from the beginning....."
Theia reaches into her clothes and retrieves a chunk of metal. It has an unassuming look that nobody would notice. John could see why Theia's father, a merchant would collect such an item since it looks like a perfectly rectangular rock. Many would decorate their room with these. However, John knows exactly what this item is.
A phone
He quickly snatches it off Theia's hand, much to her surprise. He flips it around and looks all over it, no matter how you look at it. It is a phone. As he was unlocking it, it rang. It's the same catchy song that he liked at the time.
[Theabsolute123]
John slid his hand over the green phone icon and put it on his ear.
"Hello, John never thought you would be the first person to reach me."
"Author of the divine twig?"
John's voice is filled with uncertainty. It's the author of Divine Twig. He never heard his voice before but instinctively, he knew that this was the author.
"Correct!"
The voice behind the phone replied with a playful voice. John felt a dose of annoyance in his own voice.
"Why am I here?"
"I could tell you that, but... we might need to change place"
John looks around and sees that he's in the middle of selling his burger. After seeing John talk with a slap of stone on his ear, someone I going to call him crazy and call the church.
"Theia close the shop for the morning."
John said that and moved to a nearby alley to talk. Theia could only apologize to the customer while she closed the shop and sold their last burger for the morning.
"Now, answer me. Why am I here? how do I get home?"
"Quite hasty, are we?" The phone answers playfully "You know why you are here"
"What? To change the ending? You didn't even finish writing it. And I'm not a writer."
John said angrily.
"You are not, that's why you're there. If you're all writer then this wouldn't end well"
"There are other people?"
John asks with an uncertain voice.
"Oh? You haven't met them yet? I guess I ruined the surprise then." The voice then stops for a second "I see, you're in Tumidus. That's why you haven't met anyone yet hahaha"
"What are you talking about? How many are there?"
As he was talking, John couldn't help but feel a sense of despair. A feeling was similar to when he was looking down the cliff in the land of reeds.
"I guess as a reward I ought to tell you. There are 4 of you that I sent there, as for who, you'd have to find out yourself."