When Reader Meets Writer [Closed]

Liseran was glad she finally had the time to go to Beacon's library area. She was slightly disappointed that there was a limit as to how many books she could borrow and that that number wasn't fifty.

They can't really expect me not read ten books within three days, can they? she thought to herself.

Liseran would have gone to the bookstores again, but she had emptied the shelves of their latest and oldest books and new stocks weren't coming by anytime soon. A writer didn't write things overnight, after all. She tried to satisfy herself with the classics, taking five from a shelf of literature until she caught the shelf of contemporary novels.

Maybe they have something here that I haven't seen in the bookstores...

She eventually came to the name of an author.

"Aphelion Messer...hmm, well I wasn't a fan of that genre of his, but maybe this one is different..."

Aphelion tucked himself away in his favorite corner of the library. He never came here to read, only to write. Today was such a day, mid-way through his new story. He struggled to find inspiration at times, but luckily today a stream of ideas hit him, so he was in the library from the moment it opened up and was set on staying until it closed.

"...Hmm... so they have the staff... why would they not use it in battle..." Aphelion mumbled to himself, mentally ironing out another possible plot hole. I wonder if this'll ever get proper recognition...

Liseran made her way through the bookshelves in hopes to get an empty table. At the moment she was carrying a pile of fifteen books. She would be assorting them as to which ones she would read here and which ones she would leave for reading at the dorm once she borrowed them.

"What a sad book limit for borrowing," Liseran thought to herself. "I guess I'll have to read most of it here and--

As Liseran passed one of the tables, her sight blocked by her tower of novels, one of her feet caught onto the table legs. Liseran yelped as she fell forward crashing onto some books while others flew into the air and were about to hit a person in a corner.

"Hmm... Oh, wait! It could..." Aphelion bent down to add more words to the new chapter, narrowly dodging the books what flew towards him. He quickly wrote up the next part of the story and moved back up, pushing the chair until it balanced on the back legs, leaning against the wall, "Okay... Close, close... Now for the big reveal..." he laughed before leaning back in and going through the pile of loose pages to his right until he found just the right one, filled about halfway with notes... until he started adding more of them, completely oblivious to what has just happened.

"Ouch..." Liseran grounded as she sat up on the floor. Her books were scattered. She sighed as she gathered them together but only counted thirteen. Looking around she saw some of her books were close to a person who seemed absorbed in whatever it was he was doing.

Liseran's mouth began a wavy line. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to people. She placed most of the books of hers on the table and walked up to person hesitantly. She would get the books, but that meant going around him and he was leaning on his chair.

"E-excuse me...?" she squeaked.

Aphelion blinked and perked his head up to the girl who spoke to him. He set his quill down and stared into her eyes, gaze piercing right through her glasses. He suddenly realized that he lost the thought he was writing down and frowned, but quickly recovered and calmed himself down with a few paced breaths.

"Yes? May I help you?" he asked her, his tone forcibly kind through the disappointment of losing his train of thought.

Liseran flinched a bit when the person stared at her and it almost brought tears of panic into her eyes.

"Um...I-I-I..." Liseran stuttered. Her hands were shaking now and she tried not to look at the person. She swallowed a bit of air before speaking again and pointing at the books that lay past his chair, her face pale with a tint of pink on her cheeks. "My books...I'd like to get my books...please."

She closed her eyes nervously as if whatever the person's response was going to be would hurt her.

Aphelion blinked at her request, turning his attention to the scattered books, "...oh. Those books I suppose?" he leaned down and started gathering them up, piling them on the table by his notes, "How did I miss those... Must've been pre-occupied with writing." he continued stacking them until he actually decided to take time to read one of them.

Wait a second... 'Truths of Contradiction' ? That's... he froze up and stared at the book, opening it and starting to shuffle through pages in disbelief.

Liseran opened her eyes to see that the person was now flipping through the book. She looked at him with a tilted head and drew closer cautiously.

"I-Is something the matter?"

Aphelion's face twisted slightly as he recognized the things he wrote sometime ago. He sighed, sounding somewhat happy, and set the book on the pile, looking back at Liseran with a smile.

"Nothing at all, I just haven't met anyone else who read my work."

Liseran's eyes widened and all her nervousness left she moved closer and one finger pointed sharply at the stranger.

"W-w-w-wait a minute!" she said excitedly. "A-are you saying you're Aphelion??"

"Well, yes. You caught me midway through the sequel actually." he smiled and fixed up her book pile before glancing down at the notes.

"Tell you what. I've hit a small writer's block, so... would you like me to carry the books for you?" he asked, starting to gather up the loose pages.

Liseran looked at Aphelion with sparkling eyes. The glasses fell to the bridge of her nose as her face came in only inches with his, her eyes gawking in admiration.

"I can't believe it!" she said ecstatically. "I'm actually in front of a real author! This is so coooooool! I mean, I haven't really read most of your works or anything, but I'm liking this book so far and you must be a really really good author!"

She was on the tip of her toes now as she leaned forward, her fists clumped into little excited balls.

"Can I have your autograph?" she said disregarding his previous offer completely.

Aphelion backed up a little when she leaned forward. Oh dear, is this what being famous is like? He chuckled nervously and scratched his cheekbone a little before taking one blank page and sitting back down, quill being dipped into the inkwell and visibly loaded with ink.

"Okay, I'll give you an autograph. And I'm still only a beginning author, mind you. Maybe if I hit high this'll be worth something. But you must promise to let me help you a bit, that might rekindle my muse." he brought the quill near the page, having first made sure no ink would drip from it, "Any specific requests or dedications Ms... ?"

Liseran was leaning on the table now, both hands flat on the surface as she continued to stare at Aphelion, starstruck.

"Liseran!" she burst out in excitement. "Liseran Dormirse. Uh, no special message is needed, really. It's already an honor to see an author in real life! I mean, most of what I read are classics so the ones I really like are dead and stuff. But I like your book so far! I think you write brilliantly!"

Aphelion beamed and blushed at bit at her compliments, "W-Well thank you! Glad to meet someone who appreciates my work." he gave her a bright, genuine smile before leaning his quill into the page and writing Liseran a nice autograph. He set his quill aside and gathered up the remainder of his workstation, neatly putting it away into his bag before slinging it over his shoulder.

He handed the autograph to Liseran before moving in to take the pile of books she was carrying later and lean his chin against it, holding it as low as possible to carry.

Liseran had been staring at Aphelion, her face still beaming with admiration, as she waited for the autograph. When she finally got it, she held it close to her chest, a pleased blush filling her cheeks as she sighed.

"Wow, my first autograph~" she muttered to herself. She was planning to stay that way for a while, in a trance of happiness and disbelief that she had it, but she noticed Aphelion was about to carry her books. She snapped out of it and waved her hands dismissively.

"Oh, no, sir! I can handle that by myself, really I can!" she said as she motioned towards the books. "Besides, I'm sure I've bothered you enough. You said you were in the middle of writing the sequel, weren't you?"

Aphelion looked at her and smiled, "I did, Miss Dormirse, but I also said that I hit a small writer's block, so this'll help me a bit. And, no offense, but I think you could use some help if your books managed to end up behind me..." he grinned and nodded at the library door with his head, "Besides, what kind of a guy would I be to not help a lovely girl, and what kind of an author to not help his first fan?"

Liseran's head dropped for a moment and she began pressing her two index fingers together nervously.

"W-well, I wouldn't want to be a bother..." Liseran said, her previous bashfulness now returning. "But if you say it's alright, I guess I could use a bit of help..I really appreciate it, though! It's really generous of you!"

She decided it would be better to have the books checked now as she didn't want Mr. Messer to be holding them too long. As they moved towards the counter, she began twirling the end of her messy violet ponytail. She glanced towards Aphelion.

"So, I'm sure there are a lot of young writers, but I've never heard of a student from Beacon being a writer," Liseran said. "Have you been writing for a long time or is it just something you've started? I'm sorry, I haven't really read much of your works, but from what I'm reading, I'm liking it. So I don't know that much about you, yet."

Aphelion set the books on the counter and left them to be checked as he turned his back and looked at Liseran, staring into her eyes past her glasses, "Well, I wrote a lot since a few years back, though now with the schoolwork and whatnot I write less. Most of my work isn't published here because... umm... it's more adult oriented, if you know what I mean."

He blushed slightly at the revelation, "S-So I only got into fantasy genre recently, and I didn't really write a lot of those yet... But I'm on my way there, um, hopefully I'll get more work done..." he glanced over Liseran and added offhandedly, "I could also use a proofreader..."

"Interesting..." Liseran muttered as she listened. "Well, I did see a book of your other genre, but it kind of flustered me so I kind of steered clear of it, hehe..."

She blushed lightly mentioning it but tried to erase it from her mind. She then listened to how he was getting into the fantasy genre and the need of a proofreader.

"Fantasy happens to be my favorite genre," Liseran said happily. "So, I hope you're write more about it. Oh, a proofreader, huh? I wish I could help with that, but I happen to read really fast and disregard mistakes and minor errors for the sake of getting straight through the plot. That's how I manage to finish several books at once."

Aphelion smiled at the girl despite her words, "Yes. The other genre is not for... flustery people. And it's pretty detailed, so probably worse than you'd expect..." he chuckled awkwardly before glancing around, "Yeah... Well, I'm happy you're enjoying them! It's certainly a good motivation to continue my work."

He turned to pick up the stack of checked books before putting on a mock polite voice, "Where to, madame?"

Liseran smiled sheepishly at Aphelion and scratched her head.

"You really shouldn't have bothered..." she said as they made their exit and were in the hallways. "But I guess I should have these put in my dorm room before those get to heavy. Afterwards, perhaps I can treat you to lunch seeing you've been so kind all."

Aphelion shook his head, "No, no need to. Unless you'd be tempted by me treating you to lunch. That'd be fine." he chuckled and followed her lead, "Which way to your dorm room, then?"

"Oh, um, well, my dorm's just up ahead, really," Liseran said as she guided him along the corridors. "Oh, and please give me the honor of treating you to lunch. It's not every time I see an author, you know, and I'd like to make that time special."

She came to the dorm room that said OPAL on it and opened the door, taking the books from Aphelion before he could stop her.

"I'll be right back," she said. She closed the door behind her and placed the books down and got her purse before coming out again.

Liseran smiled.

"Thanks again for your help," she said. "Now, where would you like to go for lunch?"