A new old project

Nekar perches on the edge of my desk. He squints at the monitor and then glares at me. "Just what do you think you're working on?"

Whoa boy. I knew I'd get busted. I just didn't think it would be so soon. "A new old project."

"What the does that mean? It doesn't look like anything Trust related."

"It's not."

He gets up and comes closer, peering at the words floating before him. "Who the hell is Sahmara?"

"A character you don't know from a novel I wrote years ago that I've wanted to get back to revising. I needed a Trust break."

"Look." He stands in front of my monitor, making a right nuisance of himself by blocking the paragraph I'm working on. "We've all noticed the lack of incoming characters around here lately. Marin is still missing. The discarded adverbs are all sorted. Ms. Wildstar and Xander are off making moon eyes at each other. Zsmed made a move on Delilah and hasn't come running back to my corner yet. Everyone else is sitting around, reading their cut scenes and growing restless."
"Hey, I let you all keep your names for now."

Nekar glances at his nametag. "Thanks for that. However, I'm here to warn you that something is going to go down if you don't give us someone new to play with."

I run through the distant memory of the novel I'm working on. "I can't think of anyone from this novel that I need to cut. I wrote this one after the bloated nightmare of a novel that spawned all of you."

Nekar's shoulders droop.

"Are you pouting? You are!" That's hilarious, but I've already rubbed it in enough so I don't say that outloud. "What is this really about?"

He points down to the mountains of crumpled paper and the two couples blathering to each other like no one else exisits.

"What, you want me to cut a woman from this novel for you? Is that it?"

He turns to me, looking mortified. "No! You think I want to hang out in character purgatory forever? Gamnock got to go back into Trust. For goodness sake, if you won't give me anyone to fight, write me into this new novel! Get me out of here! I can't stand another day of listening to those moronic lovebirds!"

I rub my chin. "Interesting idea. I can't promise anything, but I'll keep your plea in mind."

"You do that." He climbs over the edge of my desk. "It might be a plea for now, but if you take too long, you might find it's become a threat."