What do you think makes a main character of a story?
Most people think it means standing out, being the favored son of the heavens, or being the most 'talented'.
The idea of a destined one — the only hero to save the world got old real fast, especially when it's not written well.
Because it's boring to know the hero always wins.
When others saw talent, all I saw was someone who followed the rules better than everyone else.
That's why stories favored extra. Readers saw themselves in him.
The one who defied fate.
Who built himself differently from all others because even though he wasn't meant for the success society acknowledges, he didn't want to die a dog's death.
The one who learnt to create his own set of rules,
It was a fantasy many of us dreamed of.
But there are 'extras' that never get seen.
They're the one who try to escape the rules as much as possible — doing the bare minimum of what 'must be done' — and never ask "why?"
They're the ones who try to follow the rules as much as possible and still fail.
They're the ones who— even though they ask why — never make enough effort to search for an answer beyond the ones being fed to them. They just give up along the way, satisfied with the comfort they have.
Not because they didn't have a goal. But because it wasn't theirs from the start.
"Hey, are you listening to me?"
At that moment a voice woke me up from my thoughts. The same voice I'd been hearing for a while now.
"Sigh… Yes, Danny?"
I looked down at my younger brother, who — for reasons I still didn't understand — was unusually enthusiastic about my company.
He hadn't always been like this, he became this way after I left for college.
His devilish and stuck-up demeanor had become something more vulnerable and emotional over the past couple of years.
I mean, I've seen this boy playing chess with himself! Something I'd only seen on TV!
He beamed at me, like he'd done tomorrow's homework before it'd been assigned,
"Did you know that TON 618 is the largest black hole we know? And that it's 66 billion times the size of our sun?"
"Oh really?", I widened my eyes in exaggerated shock as we continued our afternoon stroll.
"Yes," he hummed. "Sixty-six billion."
"Is that so", I muttered, already drifting away,
'I can't wait to get back home and finish that novel'
And I would have gotten home successfully and safely! If it all didn't go dark suddenly.
Yes, that's right.
Just like that
Dark.
"Tom, are you there!" my brother shouted as he waved his arms around in panic.
I grabbed his arms to steady him — to stop him from clinging to me or poking me in the eyes.
"I'm right here" I said.
"Everything would be fine" I reassured, even though I was just as confused as he was.
And in confusion, I heard a noise…
HOOOOOONK!
SCREEEEECH!
CRASH!
It all felt like a blur.
One moment I was standing an arm's length from Danny
The next, my body was airborne — flung like a ragdoll across the street — before slamming into the pavement with a wet slap. Something warm spread beneath me.
It felt like I'd been hit by a truck.
"TOM!" I heard Danny shouting nearby but it felt so far away…
I laid there involuntarily facing the dark sky lamenting about why I couldn't just finish my novel in peace.
But just before I lost consciousness I saw something up in the sky.
It looked like Land?
And as the darkness began clearing after that short moment of total darkness, I had my last thought:
Is that a planet?