Phrenology: E-Lunar (3) Route A (MANUSCRIPT)

Chapter 3: Turn 1 [Breaking The Third Wall]

    "So, I'm sure you're wondering the pertinent question. What's going to happen now?" Mr. Miguel took off his glasses, holding a book. "And, yes, I'm talking to you, reader. There's a lot of places at this point, where the story could go. A lot of themes have been tampered with already. This story could literally have any moral at the end. What we're all hoping for, however-" 

     "However?" The stale voice of an older man coughed through a room, its walls a light, shiny blue. 

     "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm hoping for the 'red-shirted boy' to achieve his dreams. Becoming an amazing chef with his boyfriends! Charlie Monolow, yes? Meanwhile, I'm rooting for Tanaka to achieve his goals too, both with his own potential lovers, as well as driving. I'm also sympathetic for that Cuprite. But, you know how stories these days go. How they've almost always gone. There-"

     "There has to be some sort of bitter-sweet ending in order to always reinforce the message that life isn't all butterflies and rainbows. Yeah, yeah, I get it. In the end, reality never quite finds it's 'ever-after'. Reality is filled with complexes, chaos, kinks, and confusion. A nicely wrapped  ending -- closure -- is a joke. Is that it?" The seasoned individual twirled his locks of blonde hair and stood up. 

     Mr. Miguel crossed his arms. "Well, you don't have to be so morbid, but yes. I don't expect the resolution for these boys to be a gloriously... wrapped-up wrap-up, but I could be wrong. After all, for all I know, Nora could've been the main character, and she died back in the first part. Then again, maybe she didn't."

     "That would be a very shitty joke if that was the case. The main character having died way in the beginning story, and the rest of these chapters just being about all the other characters' impressions of her? This isn't a story about dresses, let alone one-thousand of them for that matter." 

     "This entire story could indeed be a shitty joke. At least, it certainly has its moments. What do you deduce, Detective Ivory?" 

     "Non-high-fantasy stories such as these are always... interesting, because they're more realistic. You see, in fantasy, the antagonist is the one with some sort of ambition, usually not a  pleasant one. Thus, the heroes must go out of their way to stop him, but the heroes normally have no goal themselves. If they do, it's something very broad. 'Become the king of the land', or 'get glory', or 'prove to my deadbeat father that I can take care of myself'. In non-high-fantasy stories, like this, the protagonists and antagonists are very gray. Take man such as 'The Inquisitor', who's trying to achieve his goal of abolishing driving from the world. Tanaka is also a boy with his own end game, however. Tanaka is wanting to drive for the sake of fighting loneliness and gaining opportunity for employment in an over-saturated world. Todd, or Cuprite, wishes to -- much like Tanaka -- reach for something. Reach for something and begin to build toward some sort of goal in... relationships." 

     Mr. Miguel took off his glasses and grabbed a glass of wine, two ice cubes floating at the top. 

     Stretching out his neck, the teacher eyed the wall behind Ivory. "Indeed. In stories like these, much like in reality, everybody has their own end game." 

     The older professor and detective yawned, sitting in their lit-up room. Miguel stood up against an easing chalkboard, whilst Ivory sat in a swivel chair, wielding small bars of candy. The room's door, closed, had a sign which read, 'Faculty/Staff Only'. 

     "I think it's so silly how you still relish yourself a 'junior detective' even though you're old now." 

     Biting into a candy bar, Ivory looked into Mr. Miguel's eyes. "I promised my older brother, Cameron Yefferus, that I'd be a great 'junior detective'." 

     "Haven't you completed that goal already?" 

     "Maybe. It's possible that I'm better than any other junior detective, though. I'm going to set the bar so high that it'll be unlikely for anyone else to pivot over it."

      Mr. Miguel shook his head and snorted. "Viciously competitive, I see." 

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