Kurt walks into the cell to pick up the book, but Blaine stays behind, as if he’s rooted into the ground. The Cooper Chronicles? The books are real?

No. That can’t be. There must be a reason for this. Maybe whoever put Kurt here is part of the scheme and quickly made a book to throw Blaine off.

Kurt browses through the paper pages. They’re not digital, so it’s not from Blaine’s time.

As Kurt browses through them, another slip of paper falls out. Kurt picks it up to read it, and his face pales. Seeing the shock snaps Blaine out of his state. They’re here for a reason!

“What is it?”

Kurt hands it to Blaine.

Dear mister Hummel.

Well-done! I knew you would make your way back here. Part one of my plan has been completed and you’re the primary ingredient for the rest of it. But no worries, I am a good man. I will reward you for your contribution. Find all the other volumes of this precious book series, and you will find a way home. The next two can be found up north in a mystical cave. Hopefully the Chosen One hasn’t already cleared the place out.

Greetings,

Sergeant Handsome (a working title!)

Kurt and Blaine have set up a little camp in the abandoned liar. Blaine’s used his magic to make fire and they’re eating the food that they took from the carriage.

Kurt is still browsing his book, and Blaine watches him with an uneasy feeling.

But Kurt sets the book down in his lap.

“There seem to be no more clues in here,” he says.

“That is The Cooper Chronicles?” Blaine forces himself to ask.

Kurt nods.

“The first of eight.”

“Eight?”

“Cooper’s had eight big adventures.”

It’s true. This is why David is also writing multiple books.

David!

Blaine’s read David’s terrible first draft!

“M-May I?” Blaine asks.

Kurt looks surprised, but hands the book over. Blaine takes it, but very carefully, as if he’s afraid his hands will burn if the touches it.

But nothing happens, and Blaine reads the first few lines. He quickly realises that this is different from David’s draft, not only because it’s well-written, but because it doesn’t have the ‘Once upon a time’ opening.

So Blaine gives it back, disappointed. He had hoped David’s draft would at least give him a hint, but this B.D. Dalton is not David.

But that means that the possibility that Kurt’s theory is wrong decreases. Kurt is obviously familiar with this book, and so are many others in his world.

“Why do people like these books so much?” Blaine asks.

And Kurt smiles. He must really love these books if the thought of them alone makes them smile like that.

“There’s so many great things about The Cooper Chronicles!” Kurt says excitedly, “First off, the worldbuilding is very cool. It’s a weird mix between a fantasy setting, a contemporary setting, and a futuristic setting! You guys wear cloaks and use candles and ride in carriages, but you also use colloquial words like ‘awesome’ and ‘okay’, and B.D. Dalton already came up with technologies that were still fiction back in the nineties.”

“Like?” Blaine asks. He doesn’t know what Kurt means, but to be fair, to Blaine, everything in Daltonia is all he’s ever known.

“Your digital parchments, for example. They feel like ebooks. And some even say that Twitter might’ve been inspired by your bird messaging. And there’s stuff like high speed elevators, and yet you still traverse the land by foot or mount. It’s really neat.”

“So, Daltonia is awesome?”

“Yes. I admit a part of me is glad I get to experience is, despite the danger. This is so much more immersive than the movies!”

“Movies?” Blaine asks.

“Oh, yeah, they’re comparable to the Zooms in The Cooper Chronicles.”

“What else is so neat about The Cooper Chronicles?”

“The characters!” Kurt answers with excitement.

“The characters?”

“Yes, Cooper and Arasha and Javier and Mel! The Chronicles Club, as fans call them. But of course there are many important side characters, like Eileen and Mo and, oh God, the Pink Dagger was a marvellous villain.”

Blaine would rather not talk about the Pink Dagger. To Kurt, all the devastation caused by him is nothing more than a story, but Blaine and his people actually lived through them. So Blaine decides to ask about the good guy of his story: his brother.

“What was so, uh, cool about my brother?”

“He’s an ass,” Kurt answers. Blaine did not expect that answer at all and he can’t help but snort.

“What?” he laughs.

“Cooper was such a great character, because he didn’t fit in the stereotypical Chosen One mould. Cooper is very aware of the fact that he is the Chosen One and revels in it. He has a huge ego and the fact that the books are written from his perspective, although in third person, makes for some hilarious storytelling. But in the same vein, it gives him so much heart, because the moments he is serious, or scared, or sad, or flawed in whatever way hit extra hard.”

Blaine looks at the book in Kurt’s lap. Of course Blaine knows of what Cooper did, but these books also give a look into how Cooper experienced them. It almost feels invasive, as if it’s Cooper’s private diary.

And Kurt is saying that millions of people in his world have read it.

Kurt doesn’t realise Blaine’s having a moment of reflection and he keeps talking about how much he loved the books as a kid, and how much he still loves them, but also how some things haven’t aged well, but how the books are still great to read.

“What hasn’t aged well?”

Kurt sighs.

“It’s a book from the nineties, Blaine. Some language is outdated now, or sometimes offensive.”

“It is?”

“The fact that Arasha and Mo are ‘orientals’, for example. And that their brown skin constantly gets described through food times, or that Mo is also the more aggressive one which fuels the aggressive Arab stereotype.”

Blaine frowns. Arasha and Mo are orientals. Their families are from the far, far Oriental kingdom, after all. That’s just how people from the Oriental kingdom are called and Blaine knows that men from the Oriental kingdom are often more aggressive. Mo’s aggression and willingness to fight have helped Cooper a lot!

Is something like that wrong in Kurt’s world?

“Or that the girls don’t have a lot to do in the books. Mel and Arasha are very capable and smart, but they do often get saved by the boys. Sometimes it feels like Arasha was always meant to be a prize for Cooper to obtain. And some wonder if the idea of a divine Royal house is a great idea, no offense of course.”

“None taken?” Blaine says, although he’s not so sure. Do they not have kings and queens in Kurt’s world?

“But in the same vein, you have to place The Cooper Chronicles in its time period,” Kurt says, “And even when representation was flawed, it was there. It’s good to criticise the flaws, of course. Lord knows I hate it that everyone in these books are straight. But it also did a lot of good, even with Mo and Arasha. A lot of people saw themselves represented in them. Or Eileen, who’s deaf, or the idea that the Royal family has never been from a father to son, and that female Royals can also rule.”

Blaine nods along, although he’s not really following. Everything that Kurt’s saying about Daltonia makes so much sense to him, and the idea that it doesn’t make sense to others is baffling to him.

“People in your world really like to discuss these books, I see.”

“Oh. The fandom is wild, Blaine.”

Blaine also has no idea what that means.

“And there are seven more of them.”

Kurt nods.

“They’re scattered around Daltonia. We must find them.”

“It could be a trap,” Blaine points out, thinking about Sergeant Handsome’s note. His primary concern is Kurt’s safety.

“It definitely is. But it’s the only lead would have. That’s what Mel would argue!”

“She would?”

Blaine never properly talked to Javier and Mel, even though they’re Cooper’s best friends.

Kurt nods.

“We have to do this. Together.”