As Bruce wondered what Aiden was doing here and was starstruck, seeing a celebrity for the first time in his life, Aiden was going through his comic.
He had gotten bored from the meeting and excused himself, saying he needed to go to the bathroom. Anyway, it was a meeting without much reason—a simple meet and greet.
Gravity Media would only have used him when they started working on the movie.
Instead of these thoughts, he focused on the comic.
Although the name was silly and wacky, Aiden felt like the art was the best part of the comic. He could clearly see that Bruce had only achieved this level of mastery after working on his art for years.
That was the thing that attracted him the most.
As he went through the story, he noticed a few inconsistencies, and the characters felt like cliches coming to fruition.
For example, the bully character was just shown as a dumb, burly guy who was bullying the main character because he was the ex of his current girlfriend.
He felt like it was a bad reason as it just displayed the insecurities of the bully guy and just didn't seem like something that could have been more.
Moreover, one more thing that Aiden didn't like was that the main character mastered his powers too quickly, it just took him one try, and he knew everything about it.
That was never fun.
That way, although the main character became very overpowered from the start, the author just killed any chances of growth happening.
Aiden was a fan of overpowered main characters, especially a certain bald guy. But even those have backstories where they have trained very hard.
The way the comic went was just too lazy.
Though he did like many things in the novel, including character backgrounds and powers, the choices of characters and other things just killed any excitement of him desiring to read further.
'Ah, the main character could be much better. Something great.'
He thought in his mind as he flipped the last page to end the comic.
"How, how was it?"
Bruce asked as Aiden put down the novel. He was curious about his views on it.
"I liked it."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it's enjoyable, but I feel like it could be much more. The central idea is good enough, but it's just… it feels wasted."
Aiden replied honestly.
Bruce frowned hearing that. Was his novel really that bad? Was he not a good story writer? Or was he just missing something?
"Can you tell me how it feels wasted?"
"I feel like you could do a lot with it. I feel like the story could have gone to a much more serious and bigger place than just revenge on bullies. The story just feels like a lot of talent that was never used. Having potential is great, but you need to know how to use it."
Aiden finished his words, leaving Bruce to his thoughts. At that moment, Wade walked in from the hallway and looked around, his eyes landing on Aiden.
"Aiden, the meeting is over. Let's go."
"Okay."
Aiden put down the comic as Wade appeared.
"I need to go now. Nice meeting you."
Aiden said and stood up.
"Yeah, bye."
Bruce still had a lot of questions in his mind and wanted to stop him, but nothing came out of his mouth. Aiden walked towards the elevator with Wade and left while Bruce just picked up his comic and other documents.
'What am I going to do now?'
***
After reaching home, Aiden spent his time browsing his phone and reading a few web novels. There was no session with Dr Penny today, so he was mostly free.
He also read up on what was going on in Hollywood.
Unlike other Hollywood celebrities, he seldom went to parties and didn't live in LA, which was practically the heart of Hollywood.
He was also not friends with many celebs and only talked to the people he had worked with.
It was mainly due to him keeping Hollywood as the place he worked and not living. He wanted to separate his personal life, being much more of a loner than an average Hollywood person.
There were a few interesting headlines that caught his eye.
<Aaron Hart was sentenced to prison for six months in case of assaulting a man in public. He's also penalised for his actions. His agency broke ties with him just last month.>
<Katie Brooks has apparently moved up in SGA ranks. The agency is looking at her as someone to groom as the next big superstar.>
<Ray Hardy said, "Action is becoming extinct in Hollywood because people rarely try something new. They feel all ideas are already used up. There are several car crashing movies, zombies are everywhere, and many sci-fi just seems like a copy of each other. Innovation is dead in action". The controversial statement is getting a heated response from the media.>
After reading those headlines for a while, Aiden got bored and got up from his bed to head to his desk where his laptop was placed.
He was going to try writing out his thoughts again into a novel — Mostly because he had nothing better to do.
'I really hope it works.'
He thought as he started typing. There were a few ways he felt that he could let out his thoughts, but after trying them all, he again faced the reality that it wasn't really working.
For some reason, no idea of his was clicking, and he wasn't feeling like his thoughts were coming out.
'Nightmares… I need to let them out… That creepy kind of a feeling… Ah, yes!'
Suddenly, as he was typing, something clicked in his mind, and words filled his screen within five minutes.
A feeling akin to enlightenment came to him as he really felt like an idea was finally clicking.
This time, his skill 'Synchronisation' wasn't helping him as the story he was writing wasn't inspired by a real person, which was kind of a bummer but he had the skills to pull it off without using his skill.
"Wait! What am I writing…"
When he stopped to read, his eyes widened, looking through the story that he had written.
"A guy with the ability to give people nightmares. Ain't it oddly similar to the comic I read today?"
Aiden wasn't thinking a lot when this idea struck him. No, it was more like the idea had been in his subconscious mind since he had read the story.
The similarities were pretty clear. Just Aiden was following a pretty different plotline than the comic.
'Still, it's plagiarising if I just used it up.'
He thought in his mind, frowning.
At the same time, when he looked up at the story he was writing, he felt like a comic version would suit it much better. The story was good in writing, but it truly came to life in a comic style.
It was more suited for that.
'What should I do now? No other idea is clicking, and this one is plagiarising if I really went with it.'
Aiden didn't mind using tricks against people who had tried to sabotage his career, but he still liked to think of himself as a morally good person.
If everyone in Hollywood was black, then he at least wanted to be grey.
So, plagiarising was something that he would never do in his life. It would be shameful to do, especially when he has his system.
Moreover, if one gets caught doing plagiarism or an accusation against him, it would get media traction and become a court case, ruining most of his reputation.
But Aiden also didn't want to part ways with the story.
He had nothing else that would work. More than writing a novel, it was a way for him to heal.
After thinking for a while, he decided on something.
'Umm, this could work.'
He took out his phone and dialled up Marshall White, the owner of Vikings publishing. The phone was picked up quite fast, to his surprise.
"Hello Marshall, sorry if I'm disturbing you."
"Hello, Aiden. I was just resting. Why did you call me? Do you have something to say about the meeting?"
Marshall's cheery voice came out from the other side.
"No, I just need to find out the contact information of a person I met in your office today."
"Do you know his name?"
"I don't."
Marshall laughed hearing that, wondering for a second if Aiden was just doing a prank on him.
"A lot of people go in and out of our office every day. Not even I know the name or face of every person. You need to be way more specific."
"He had a comic with him. It looked like he was there to pitch an idea."
Marshall thought for a while, hearing that before replying.
"The graphic novel department might know then. I will send you the number of my assistant. Contact him, and he will help you out."
"Okay, thanks."
Marshall cut off the call after that, and a minute later, he sent the number of his assistant through a text.
Aiden talked to him and told him about the person that he had met. The assistant contacted the Graphic novel department and found that only one person was there to pitch the novel.
'Bruce Morse.'
Aiden finally got the name and address of the guy who managed to inspire him.
….
