“Watch closely, my dear friends. This is how you make the best popcorn known to humankind.”
Kalani opened up the microwave & put the popcorn package in there. She set the timer to around 2 minutes & pressed the start button.
“2 minutes seems kinda excessive, don’tcha think?”
“Patience is key, Leslie. Just wait.”
The group was currently at Kalani’s apartment for a sleepover. They did sleepovers fairly often, & shifted around whose place they’d have the sleepover at every month or so. This time, it was at Kalani’s.
“What do we do in the meantime?”
“Uh.. I dunno, actually.”
“Hmm..”
An idea popped into Nora’s head.
“Oh! Kalani! That.. magic book thing is here, right?”
“Yea?”
“How about we read through that?”
“Oh, that sounds fun.”
“Yea. Plus, if we’re so-called ‘heroes’ anyway, we should maybe read the book telling us how to be heroes.”
“Alright, lemme go get it.”
Kalani left the kitchen to go get the book. The microwave had about a minute & a half left on it.
“How much do you wanna bet he isn’t gonna come back before the popcorn’s done?”
“At least $5.”
“I’ll get a bowl.”
Cherry reached up into the cabinet & grabbed a big bowl for the popcorn.
“Have you all noticed an increase in posters everywhere with that puppet guy on them?”
“Oh, yea. There’s been a TON of them everywhere. Wonder why that is.”
“Les, weren’t you gonna find out what those red things above each poster were?”
“Yeah! I showed it to Natalie today during class, & I guess she knows a bit about tech stuff, so she’s gonna do some research on it & tell me what’s up with it later.”
The microwave went off. The popcorn was done.
“Why Natalie?” Cherry asked, opening up the microwave & pulling the popcorn out.
“What’s wrong with Natalie? She’s nice.”
“Yea, when she’s not trying to steal shit & antagonize us.”
“She’s helped us get out of some sticky situations. She’s not all that bad.”
Cherry opened up the popcorn & poured it all into a bowl. “Whatever. I still don’t like her.”
“I’m back!” Kalani grinned, entering the kitchen with the book.
“Awesome! Let’s get to reading!”
The group got all huddled up in Kalani’s living room. The book was laid out in front of them, & the popcorn was sitting on the coffee table. Kalani flipped through the pages.
“Alright... we’ve already read about the weapons... let’s see.. Aha!”
Kalani had landed on a page titled CELESTIALS.
“This seems interesting enough to read about!”
“Celestials? What the hell is a Celestial?”
“‘A Celestial is a god-like being, each one representing a different element of life,’” Kalani read. “‘There are currently 9 Celestials who reside at the Castle of Celestials.’”
“Ooh! They have a castle!”
“I’ve never been to a castle before. Unless bouncy castles count. Then I’ve been to dozens.”
“‘The 9 Celestials are as follows:’” Kalani continued reading from the book. “‘Fate, Time, Mr. Moon, Sun, Betty, Spring, Storm, Good, & Evil.’”
“Why does Mr. Moon get an honorific? Nobody else has a ‘Mr.’, a ‘Ms.”, or even a ‘Mx.’ What’s their deal?”
“Maybe they’re the most important?”
“I don’t think so. You remember that quote-unquote ‘dream’ we had?”
“How could we forget?”
“The dream mentioned that we were chosen ‘by Fate itself,’ & in the list it says there’s a Celestial named Fate.”
“So Fate’s the most important one then?”
“I guess so.”
“Wait,” Nora said, pointing toward a line in the book. “It says here that each Celestial represents a different element. What element is Betty supposed to represent?”
“Who knows? It’s not like there’s a list of each element or anything, so all we can do is guess.”
“& there are 2 Celestials named Good & Evil respectively! Why aren’t they maintaining ‘the balance between good & evil’ instead of us?!”
“That’s fucked up.”
“I’m gonna flip ahead to a different page.”
“What, we’re not reading the book in order?”
“What? No. That’s for losers.”
Kalani flipped ahead a couple of pages. She landed on a page titled CASTLE OF CELESTIALS. On the page, along with some writing, was an illustration of the so-called “Castle of Celestials,” which was light blue & white.
“Ok, that’s a sick looking castle.”
Clearing his throat, Kalani began reading. “‘The Castle of Celestials is where the Celestials live. Occasionally, we let guests hang around for a while if they need a place to stay-’”
“We? These Celestial guys wrote this book?”
“I guess so.”
“Could you not interrupt me when I’m reading?”
“Sorry, ‘Lani.”
“Ahem.. as I was saying... ‘As you are (presumably) the prophesied heroes, you are free to come & go whenever you please. All you must do to visit is be in Hero Mode & just think about going to the Castle.’”
“Why does everything have to be in Hero Mode?”
“I dunno. But I’m too tired to go to this castle right now, so who cares?”
“Yea, we’ll just.. keep that knowledge in our minds until we need it.”
Cherry yawned, stretching their arms. “Maybe we should call it a night. Read this thing tomorrow or something.”
“Yea, sounds good. G’night everyone-”
Leslie’s phone buzzed all of a sudden. “Oh! That must be Natalie!”
“Oh, great.” Cherry rolled her eyes.
“Let’s see what she said!”
Leslie took out its phone & looked at the text it had just received. The smile on its face quickly faded into a frown.
“What is it?”
They showed the phone to the group, so they could all read what the text said. Attached was a picture of the red, metal thing, & what Natalie had to say about it wasn’t pleasant.
Natalie: its a camera.