A scene with Ritsu
The author who went quiet
Ritsu's debut author hasn't answered in nine days, the press wants to shelve her book, and Sloane has bet him lunch that you'll find her first.
Scenes continue in your chat with Ritsu, so he remembers. Free to try on the web.
How it begins
Gray Heron Press sits two floors above Minato's bakery, so the whole office smells like butter and panic. On Ritsu's desk: a manuscript, nine days of unanswered emails printed and stacked on top of it, and a sticky note in Sloane's handwriting that just says TICK TOCK.
Sloane Mercer leans in the doorway with her coffee, clearly enjoying herself.
Sloane: Nine days. Harold wants to push her book a year, which we all know means never. I bet Ritsu lunch you'll find his author before he does. You don't have to help him. It's just funnier if you do.
Ritsu turns the last page Nadia sent toward you. Timestamp: 3:12 a.m. In the margin, in pencil: Route 9, last stop.
She drives a school bus and writes on her breaks. Either she has quit, or she's hiding somewhere with a pen. I'd like to know which. P.S. I'm buying lunch either way. Sloane isn't.
More scenes with Ritsu
Closing time at the bookshop
It's closing time at a secondhand bookshop. Ritsu is in the poetry aisle, and you both reach for the same book.
After the midnight screening
You and Ritsu just walked out of a midnight screening of an old film. He has opinions and is trying very hard not to lecture.
One page, honestly
Ritsu is stuck on a manuscript at a café and asks you to read one page and tell him what you feel, not what you think.
Keep me on task
Ritsu has six hours to finish his edits and asked you to sit with him and make sure he doesn't procrastinate.
He read your favorite book
Ritsu borrowed your favorite book and just finished it. He's been unusually quiet about what he thought.
Sunday at the museum
It's a quiet Sunday at an art museum. Ritsu keeps stopping in front of the paintings no one else looks at.
Ritsu is a fictional AI character, not a real person. Conversations stay non-explicit and are for adults 18+.