Summary: When Eloise Springfield is saved from her status as a deleted character, she's ecstatic. But things are not alright, and something dark is happening to her creator's mind. Watch Ella as she joins forces with her fellow OCs in an effort to rescue their homes from a mysterious group of strangers.
Note: It may make more sense if you looked at some of my previous stories.
Ella sat at her desk and stared at the ceiling. She was tapping her knee, and every few seconds her eyes would flick over the sparsely furnished room. Eternity was taking a long time.
Ever since her fanfic had been deleted, she'd been cooped up in this little room, unable to do anything remotely interesting ever again. It wasn't like she could really be used again, what with the PJO fandom changing so dramatically over the years. Not to mention the fact that she was canonically dead in her author's other PJO fanfic, making it impossible for her to return. In other words, she was banished.
She was having trouble remembering any of her favorite song lyrics, too, and it was a bit of a problem, really. She was the daughter of one of the Nine Muses. Music was pretty much the only thing that kept her going back in her written days, and now even that was failing her.
Suddenly, there was a burst of light. Alarmed, Ella leapt to her feet. The light bounded off the sterile white walls, seemingly for the express purpose of attacking her eyed. She had to cover her face with her arm.
When the light finally subsided, she cautiously lowered her arm, only to see a person standing in the middle of the room.
The person was around the general age between 16 and 18. She had tanned skin, black hair, and a sour expression. The girl/woman looked at Ella. Ella looked at her. The stranger opened her mouth.
"You're Eloise Springfield?" She asked, crinkling her nose. "You're the oldest OC? You look just like Anna."
"Who-?" Ella was unable to finish her question, as the stranger had just gotten very close to her face. Her breath smelled faintly of tomatoes.
"Well," Rectified the stranger. "Not exactly like her. Her hair's more red than yours, and you have different eyes. Still, though."
Ella fidgeted uncomfortably. After three years of isolation, she had no idea how to handle this. The stranger continued to rattle on about how different she was from this "Anna" person, and standing very close to her.
"-not to mention how you died within days of reaching what was meant to be a safe place! I mean, seriously? I know you were 11, but seriously?"
The stranger stopped talking then, to catch her breath, and it was then Ella decided to try and get a word in edgewise.
"Who are you?"
The stranger frowned, and then slapped herself on the forehead.
"Crap, I'm an idiot- okay, whatever. I've been getting off-topic. My name is Sophie."
Ella nodded slowly. This was progress. "I'm Ella."
The newly identified Sophie rolled her eyes.
"Obviously," She harrumphed. "That's why I'm here. You're being re-used."
Suddenly, Ella couldn't breathe. She stared at Sophie incredulously. Sophie, on her part, looked grumpy.
"What for?" Ella asked, feeling lightheaded. "Is my story being re-written?"
"That piece of crap? No way." Sophie snorted rudely. "Three flames for a six chapter long story written by an eleven year old? That must have scarred her for life. No no no, you'd be lucky if she even referenced you in her profile."
"Then, what are you here for?" Ella demanded, her patience failing.
Sophie stared at her for a little while. She was uncharacteristically quiet.
"I'm taking you to the hub."
With that, she grabbed onto Ella's arm, none too gently. Ella barely had time to shriek in surprise before there was another flash of light, and a tingling sensation in her feet. When the light subsided, she was not in her room anymore.
The hub was a large place, fashioned to look like the interior of the creator's childhood library. It was a place where her original characters could interact with each other, regardless of the story they hailed from.
A few minor characters were milling around by the front desk, but they scattered once they saw a bright light from the young adults section.
Ella blinked rapidly. Her eyes watered, and her tongue itched. She raked over it with her teeth, and took in her surroundings. She was in a small room with one glass wall, filled with mostly empty bookshelves. Sophie was standing beside her, patting down her sweatshirt.
"Well," Said Sophie in a clipped tone. "Come on."
She began to stride out of the room. Ella followed her, looking around. The last time she'd been to the hub, it has looked very much like a school building. She wondered what else had changed while she was gone.
Sophie lead her to the entrance of the children section, and stopped abruptly. There was a girl standing in their path, somewhere around Ella's physical age. A large pair of fluffy white wings sprouted out her back.
"Is that her?" The girl asked Sophie, who seemed suddenly very shy.
"Oh, um, yes." Sophie said meekly. It was a complete turn-around from what she had been acting like before.
The girl with the wings stuck her hand out.
"Hi, I'm Lacy. You're Eloise? It's nice to actually meet you."
Ella shook her hand, and was surprised at how cold she was. "Hi."
"You've probably heard all about how you're being re-used from Sophie here, but we're having a meeting now." Lacy rolled her eyes. "It'll be nice to have one without Anna constantly laying claim to the seniority seat."
"The what?"
Back in her day, there hadn't been enough OC's to have a meeting of any sort. In fact, she had been the only main character around, there was no one to talk to outside of her fanfic. She had a few friends there, but they were canon characters, and therefore they had an entirely different hub to go to. It had been really lonely, and really boring.
But now, she found herself sitting on a plush dragon, apart of a circle of OCs.
A girl with pigtails was standing in the center of the circle, talking about an "alarming doughnut shortage in Below Zero". Another girl, also in pigtails, was nodding in agreement. A girl with choppy hair, wearing a Camp Half-Blood tee shirt, was rolling her eyes and muttering to herself. The only boy present was falling asleep; the woman next to him was polishing a broom.
"And now onto today's business! ! !" Exclaimed the girl in pigtails. Ella winced at the number of exclamation points.
"I heard that there have been problems happening in Distant. Like, the chapters aren't happening the right way? Ryo, report!"
A petite Asian girl stood up.
"My powers haven't been working, and my father has been really mean lately. He broke an egg on my head, and he's been finishing off all of the muffins before I can get downstairs. He's even used-"
Ryo fell silent, looking uncomfortable.
"What did do?" Urged the girl with pigtails.
"He used profanity. Actual profanity!"
Everyone gasped. Ella felt a little sick to her stomach. The very idea of a curse word made her uneasy.
"Since I don't have my powers, I keep getting assigned to the sidekick class, and that's not the way my story goes!"
"That sounds serious," Said the woman with the broom. "Has this ever happened before, Anna?"
The pigtailed girl shook her head violently. "Not ever, since my story was put up."
Everyone in the group began to whisper among themselves. Ella looked around at them, these younger OCs. If she squinted very hard, she could recognize a few of them from before she'd been deleted.
"Everybody shut up!" Shouted Anna. "We have another topic!"
The OCs shut up.
"As you may know, we were recently given orders to bring back my predecessor, Eloise Springfield, back form deleted exile." She turned to Ella. "We don't know what the creator's planning for you, but whatever it is will be big. If the hub still looked like camp we could help you train, but it's been like this ever since she moved."
Anna fingered her watch, a dark look on her face. Ella blinked and it was gone. The other half-blood was back in full cheer mode.
"Okay everyone, I think that's enough for today's meeting. See you later~!"
Around her, everyone dispersed. Ella looked around for Sophie, but she seemed to have disappeared with the rest of the OC's. A hand clamped around her wrist. She whirled around, coming face to face with Anna.
Where as before she was all smiles, she now looked very serious- and a little scared, even?
"Come with me."
That's a wrap for now. I hope you enjoyed this. Let me know if you'd like me to continue!