Special (2)
Somewhere in a blank gray space, a young man lifted his hands from a wooden desk to massage his brow.
"Oi, Danu, can you not?"
Atop the desk was a laptop open to a document covered in text. Countless words were underlined in red, and a red circle with "41" in bold emblazoned on it sat near the bottom right of the screen. The red circle seemed to vibrate a bit, and words spilled out into the gray space.
Danu: Never! If there's one thing I will never give up on, it is this!
A dark chortling laugh rang out from from one of the underlines in the above text, then the new voice spoke in a mocking tone.
???: Bahaha! This is fun, dead girl. Let's see how you counter this!
More red lines appeared under the line of text that the man had just written, and the error count within the circle jumped to "43".
Oak: Can y'all just stop? I really only need one editor. You two are just making writing harder!
Receiving two resounding "Never!" cries from the editors, Oak began doubting his past decisions.
Living in the states, he'd grown used to many of the American English spellings of words. Seeing as how Edol hailed from Bristol, the writer had a brilliant idea.
'I'll have Danu edit using British English, since I need to approve the changes for her to change anything, I can just approve the ones inside of quotations!'
Unfortunately, this is where the second editor decided to join the party.
System Message: Autocorrect has joined the chat.
???: Yo Oak, are you writing yourself in third person right now? That's pretty cringe, ngl.
One editor in American English, and one in British English. What had seemed like a good idea had become a nightmare filled with red underlines and differing spelling suggestions.
It got even worse after considering the personalities of the two editors.
???, whom Oak still failed to recognize within his book, somehow managed to be even more of an egoist than Ghost. The annoying twerp also loved antagonizing Danu, whom had initially been assumed to be a pretty chill character.
Now, though, almost as if in revenge for having lower editing privileges than the stranger who'd shown up unnamed, she had set out on a warpath. Is there a perfectly fine sentence? How can we break it? An error? Looks fine to me.
Dealing with the faulty editors was too much of a hassle, so Oak turned away from his desk. It had been a while since he'd seen any of his characters in person, and now seemed like a fine time to do so.
Oak: Summon Edol, Ghost, Willow.
Three prone figures appeared in front of the writer, rubbing their eyes drowsily as they looked around in confusion.
Oak: Ghost, Edol, welcome back! Willow, it's your first time here, say hi to everyone!
Danu finally finished bickering with the mystery egoist and decided to join the group meeting.
Willow: W- where am I? Wait! This must be from sleeping on the ground! I knew it, good things really do come to those who sleep in the open!
Still rubbing the sleep from their eyes, Ghost and Edol looked over at the girl, confused. During their walk back to the destroyed village, Willow had mentioned that she had camping gear with for the trip, but only enough for one person to rest in. What could have compelled her to sleep on the dirt instead of in comfort?
Willow: Oak! My dad is over in Miaan, right? Please tell him I'm coming to find him!
Oak coughed, accepting the girl's request before quickly changing the subject.
Oak: Edol, I'm actually pretty impressed. Your terrible bird call somehow managed to attract a turkey in the tomb!
Danu, already near the edge of the group, shrank imperceptibly.
Edol: Eh, why are you impressed? I thought that was just a one-off gag jok-
Ghost: Yes!!! My armor!!
The no-longer bird Ghost was jumping up and down, celebrating the return of more than just his opposable thumbs. He was once again kitted out in the demonic armor, flailing around his sword with a grin plastered on his face. The outline of a maple leaf could be seen inscribed on the side of the sword, an image uncharacteristic of the demonic getup.
Willow: Ahh! There's a monster, run!
Startled by Ghost's unfamiliar appearance, Willow took off, sprinting away a few meters before pausing.
Maybe it would be fun to fight that scary-looking figure?
Unfortunately for Willow, Ghost was going to be too busy chatting for the next few minutes to fight her.
Oak: Summon Hell Crawler. Alright little spidey, go play with Willow for a bit! Don't terrorize her too much.
The massive cow-sized spider skittered off with all the speed of an out-of-control vehicle, and the scene of it colliding with the girl left behind remains that looked like said vehicle had met a pedestrian.
Oak: Now that that's taken care of, congrats on your first tomb run! You didn't get much out of it this time, but how did y'all think it went? Was it fun?
Edol: You could've at least given us something of value. I've got nothing but the clothes on my back right now!
Oak rubbed his chin, surveying the brit.
Oak: That reminds me, I don't think I ever described what you are wearing. Here I thought I was getting better at character descriptions, but I left out such an important detail!
Ghost: Getting better at that? Didn't you just describe his face as "punchable"? I don't disagree, but come on, man. You can do better!
Oak: Well then, I guess I'll try to do better with that in the future. It's getting late though, and I want to sleep. It'll be a problem for tomorrow's me!
Edol: Really dude? You're sending us off already?
Oak: Yep! Good luck with tomorrow's adventures!
A moment later, everyone disappeared from the realm, and Oak turned back to his desk.
Leaning over his computer, he typed a few words before getting up and leaving. Just after he walked away, the text changed, and a number of red underlines appeared under the words.
'Av a Jolly E'nin, Folks! ??? rules!