I don't own One Piece
My alarm went off blaring the radio. I groaned and fumbled for a button, it didn't matter if it was the off or the snooze button, I just wanted it to shut up
"Ash! Wake up! You don't want to be late to your first day at work." An overly cheerful voice sang out.
I groaned again and pulled a pillow over my head. Gods it felt way too early for this crap.
The pillow was yanked from my head. I opened my eyes to glare at whoever stole my pillow only to find myself glaring at a bright orange flying blob. I gave a strange kind of yelp and fell back off the bed. Ow.
"Seriously? You couldn't have done that yesterday?"
"I thought it was a dream!"
"Well it wasn't. Now come on. You don't want to be late." Azrael growled.
And now I was back to wanting to strangle the spell book. With a shake of my head I pushed myself to my feet. I found my glasses on the nightstand and pushed them onto my face.
I shuffled my way over to my dresser and pulled out some clothes, a black t-shirt, dark jeans, and blue socks with colorful mermaids on them. I changed out of my kitty jammies quickly and into the clothes I'd pulled out. I pulled on my sneakers, wishing they were converses. I could write them that way, but I was too lazy.
I moved to the bathroom, wincing when I saw that the ponytail I'd put my hair in before bed had turned me into Medusa. I'd deal with that, but while my hair was out of the way it would make more sense to brush my teeth first. Don't ask me how, but some way every time I brushed my teeth without making sure my hair was pinned back somehow, I got toothpaste in my hair.
I brushed my teeth and then took my hair down. I ran a brush through it, hating it more and more with every knot. I hated long hair, but I didn't have the bone structure to pull off short hair, and so I had to deal with my hair falling to my mid back in cute waves that formed unbearable and unmanageable knots.
I pulled my hair back as if I was going to put it into a ponytail, but instead I twisted it so it lad flat against the back of my head and then I grabbed a small black hair clip and clipped it about half way up the not ponytail. The above part fell over the clip when I let go of it, hiding the clip from view. I fluffed the hair above the clip carefully and then quickly turned away from the mirror. I didn't want to know what I looked like.
I slipped out of the bathroom and grabbed my messenger bag. My laptop, charger, IPod touch, and phone were already inside, as well as some other necessities I would need. I settled the strap of the bag on my shoulder, going across my body, and grabbed my jacket on the way out the door, Azrael quick on my heels.
"I'm your guide remember." They complained, landing on my shoulder.
"Yeah and? I'm just going to work." I pointed out. I really doubted I'd get a second to myself to think let alone write.
"You'd be surprised what inspires you."
"I already told you everything."
Azrael rolled their purple eyes and huffed out a short breath.
The walk from my apartment to work was uneventful, just the way I liked it. I could just listen to my music and not have to worry about anyone or anything. Of course, this also meant there wasn't any inspiration to be found. Still, it was nice to just walk with "Shape of you" bouncing against my ear drums.
I stopped in front of the building. Wicked Wick Café, which by the way, despite its name was more of a coffee shop than a café. Why had I chosen to write myself working there, I knew nothing about coffee. For that matter why had I written myself working at all? I'd never had motivation to do anything. But I knew the answers to both questions. I'd written myself working because I needed money and working at Wicked Wick would force me to interact with people, something I abhor, which would hopefully inspire me. Still… Why had I chosen Wicked Wick? It's not like I hadn't created other fictional places I could work at. There was the business behind the MMRPG Magical Delight, or the fan café Nerds. But alas my knowledge of coffee, not to mention the fact I was walking glitch, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to write Nerds into existence here, despite it being a much better fit for me, because one of the few friends I had in the real world kept saying he was going to build it.
So here I was stuck working at Wicked Wick Café. With a sigh, I trudged inside, and immediately regretted it. Holy shit! It was packed to the gills. I skirted around the edge of the crowd, trying desperately not to bump into anyone or anything, it was annoyingly difficult.
I pulled my earbuds out as I got to the counter. Ugh, the noise of people stabbed at my head like a million knives. "What's going on?" I asked the guy behind the counter, Coby? Well I hadn't written that. I'd have to ask Azrael about it.
"Spider's Café is closed for repairs so all their customers are coming to us for their daily coffee." Coby explained. Spider's Café, that was Miss Doppelfinger's place. The only reason I remembered that was because just before cycling out completely I'd read two fics back to back that mentioned it.
"Damn! Do you know how long they'll be closed?" I wondered as I hung my jacket and bag on a hook next to the kitchen door.
"They said about a week." Double damn, I couldn't put up with this many people every morning for a week.
"Please tell me we've got reinforcements coming." I practically begged as I took some girl's order. It was long, difficult, and way too much of a hassle to remember. Luckily with the way I'd written things the day before my body worked on a strange autopilot. Ha! I didn't even need coffee knowledge.
"Just us 'til non." Damn and it was only six. I huffed out a large sigh and gave the girl her drink. I was going to hate this, a lot.
Luckily the morning rush only seemed to last until eight and then we were just left with a thin trickle of Wicked Wick regulars and most wound up picking tables to sit at and lounge for a while. Oh, thank the gods. At least I got a second to breath.
"Is it always like that when Spider's café closes for repairs?" Why was I assuming that this was a regular occurrence?
"Every time. We're the only two places to get coffee on this side of town." Coby explained.
"And somehow both cafes are able to say open with decent profits and little competition?"
"Spider's café has a…. more spirited clientele so at least once every couple of months they wind up closed for repairs. And once every month we're closed to change our candles. Generally, those days aren't the same. People go to whichever is open and when we're both open then regulars go where they usually go and new comers go to whichever atmosphere they like better."
"And when are both are closed."
Coby chuckled. "Then they have to go to the other side of town and they're usually not happy about it." Oh I was sure.
The bell over the door tinkled. I never understood why I had written a bell in such a dark and quiet place like Wicked Wick Café, but at least it was one of those high pitched clear bells. Perhaps though in later writings, if I chose to ever write about the Wicked Wick Café again, I could change it to wind chimes, those would be better. A nice whimsical sound.
My breath caught at the sight of the girl who had walked in. Ren. Renee D Jordan, a character I'd created so long ago, but just couldn't get right. She was Nami's doppelganger, my experiment with the idea of split souls, except that had only come later. The true start of Ren had been a Nami dress up game. I'd wanted a character look just the way I'd dressed up Nami and so Ren was created. It was several chapters into her fic that I'd come up with the doppelgangers rules, which I thought was my finest bit of twisting, unfortunately the fic had fallen apart. It was crappy and way too fast. So, I'd tried to rewrite it. If I had my numbers right I was on rewrite seventeen.
Ren approached the counter. Oh gods, I was about to interact with my own character. Why the hell was I so nervous?
Azrael giggled from their perch on my shoulder. In all the rush, I'd forgotten the chibi was there. "What's so funny?" I grumbled.
"Just you." I scowled at the pixie's words and chose to watch Ren instead. She looked just like Nami, five foot six, long orange hair, and big bright eyes, though her's were green not brown like Nami's.
I'd written, or at least I'd head cannoned, that Ren liked to steal other people's cool looking clothes. I'd gotten as far as writing her getting Gin's jacket, but I was planning on her getting Paulie's original jacket and making a play for Law's hoodie.
At the moment she walked into the café she was wearing Gin's jacket, her favorite of her collection according to my head canon, a red tank top, black jeans, and combat boots. Well, my characters did always have a better fashion sense than I did, even when I was writing my fashion sense.
"Can I get my usual C?" Ren asked.
Coby grinned. "Sure." He turned to fix her usual, though I had no clue what that was. "You know this stuff will stunt your growth." Coby commented as he handed Ren her to-go cup.
"Good, I'll need it." Oh yeah, I'd been watching Stick It when I started the first rewrite of Ren's story so I'd made her a gymnast even though I knew nothing about gymnastics either, I did however know that a low center of gravity was a good thing.
Ren took her cup, turned on her heel, and left. Huh, so, I really shouldn't have even been freaking out. I didn't even really meet her, let alone interact with her. I tilted my head to one side, but my mind was blank and even that didn't help. Okay then.
I got my break at ten. I ate a muffin, it was my breakfast, lunch, combo. Ren come back at noon. Apparently, she worked a later shift at Wicked Wick. Coby left at one. I got off at three.
When I got off I finally got the chance to talk to Azrael. "So what's up with all the stuff I didn't write?"
Azrael pursed their lips. "Have you ever played with water paints?"
"What I played with was more water than paint, but yeah."
Azrael nodded, "so when you painted you know how the water ran? It spread off of what you did?"
I nodded. "Well the spell is a lot like that, sometimes you get run off that fills in what you haven't written. You can still paint over it if you want."
"Why would I want to? I like the way the two cafes work. I couldn't have written it better myself."
This time when I walked the route between my apartment and Wicked Wick Café I paid attention to my surroundings. I wanted to see what might have run off what I written, that my apartment was in walking distance of work.
The only thing worth noting was a bookshop about halfway between. It was called Good and Evil books. The double doors were wood with an angel and a demon standing back to back carved into them.
I slipped quietly inside. Oh, my gods! It was gorgeous. Row after row of dark wood bookshelves, filled to the bursting point with books. With a large smile, I approached the girl behind the counter. She was pretty too. A pixie cut of bright red hair and deep pools of blue eyes.
"Um, hi." I said nervously.
The girl smiled, flashing her canines which were quite pronounced. She must have had them filed. I'd never actually met someone who had that done before. "Do you have any books full of writing advise?" I wondered.
The girl's smile widened, her teeth thinned and sharpened, all of them, making them look something like an angler fish's or something. The whites of her eyes went black. Oh shit!
"Ash!" Azrael shouted in worry as the girl lunged at me, her neck turning into some kind of strange stretchy shadow. I fell back with a yelp before turning quickly and bolting for the door.
Somehow, I managed to skid across the threshold and slam the doors closed before she could get to me.
"What the hell was that?" I demanded of the spell book as I quickly headed back for the apartment.
"That was another author who couldn't find inspiration." Azrael answered.
"Excuse me?" I slipped into the apartment and locked the door behind me. I checked the windows and made sure they were locked as well. Then I grabbed paper and pen and wrote that the apartment had heavy warding of every single type I could think of. The paint would probably run off into paranormal supernatural territory, but I didn't care, there were already monsters in this world and I wanted to make sure I was protected.
"There are some people who read the spell but can't take the consequences, so they write themselves into oblivion. Others, like the one you encountered, they can't find inspiration so they go mad and after so long of being in a painted world they eventually turn into monsters." Oh gods. Was that what I had to look forward to? I sank to the floor, too weak to stand. Why had I been stupid enough to break the rules?