Vivian nods with apparently genuine approval. "Cute."

He smiles to himself and opens the notebook, then...

hey so it's occurred to me that I probably want more eyes on this whole situation than just mine so I want to show you to some other people

and it's also occurred to me that I don't know if you'd be okay with that though I really hope you will because it'll be a lot very good for my peace of mind to confirm that I'm not extensively hallucinating you and everything we've talked about

so i guess the two things i want to ask are 1. could you talk to my friends too? and 2. could you temporarily hide my everything we've talked about so far? some of it isn't really emotional processing that i'm extremely comfortable with other people seeing

i guess if it's impossible to do then i'll make do without but it'd be better if you could

"That was a lot of writing."

"Either you'll see why in a sec or I'll have to do a lot more explaining of how absolutely off-the-deep-end I've gone."

Oh. That makes sense.

I'm a little nervous about other people writing in me, because as long as you don't let them, I know I'm always talking to you, but as soon as someone else is writing in me, I have to try to tell people apart by their handwriting, and what if I make a mistake? But I recognize that this is a little silly of me, and if you want to show me to your friends, that makes sense and I support it! I've shuffled out all the pages with writing on them besides this one. If you let anyone else write in me, please ask them to introduce themselves so I'll know for sure? And I hope they have distinctive handwriting. I am being silly. Your peace of mind is important. Please feel free to show me to your friends.

"...hey what the fuck did the notebook just move of its own accord. Or like shift or—am I the only one who saw that?"

"You are not the only one who saw that," says Felicia, her eyes saucer-round.

Vivian squints.

"Oh, fuck you, Tarleton," she says obscurely.

She probably thinks this is a prank of some kind but hopefully it won't be ahahahahahah anyway.

i can definitely ask that they introduce themselves and always make sure that only one of them is writing at a time and that we are very clear about when we are switching who is talking

my handwriting is, however, for the record, very distinctive, in that it is an illegible scrawl most of the time including right now i am very sure you must be using magic of some sort to be able to understand everything i've written especially the parts where i was particularly emotional

but they're definitely introducing themselves, i'm gonna thwack them with another, non-sentient notebook if they fail to do that

Okay! ♡ In that case, go ahead!

He takes a deep breath.

Then another, deeper breath.

Then another—okay he's really fucking nervous. Anxious? Um. Uhhh.

"Okay before I chicken out of this shit," and he places the notebook on the floor between them all, open to that page. "Vivian, you start. Please introduce yourself to the notebook and then, uh, talk about whatever you want with it I guess just to confirm that I'm not hallucinating that there's a talking notebook here that has been talking to me all morning."

That was all said in a single breath and he's hyperventilating a bit kind of a lot actually.

"...uhhhhhhh." Gabe has an awkward smile kind of slightly frozen on his face. He usually tries to laugh awkward moments like these off but he did see the notebook do something even if he hadn't been paying all that much attention and Peter is probably having a mental breakdown of some kind but...

"Hello," she says to the notebook, deadpan. Then she rolls her eyes. "Wait, they don't have any fucking ears."

She takes a pen and writes, in surprisingly neat but very angular font, hi i'm vivian

Oh. Tarleton's already doing that quirk. Hi. I'm Vivian. I'm the colorful token lesbian side character in whatever YA bullshit Peter's gotten himself mixed up in. It's nice to meet you. If you need me to tell him to stop overthinking and/or panicking about epistemology I've got you covered.

Hi, Vivian! I am a notebook. ...I should have thought ahead and picked a name for now if I'm going to be introducing myself to a bunch of people, but I didn't do that and thinking of names is hard so here we are.

("What the fuck," says Gabe in a deadpan.)

(Felicia is still staring in disbelief, mouth hanging slightly open.)

That's sure an adventure. If you want any naming help from a chick you met literally a minute ago I am available. Otherwise I'll pass you on, I get the impression Pete wants this to be more proof of concept than extended conversation.

I think I'm okay just being a notebook. Most people do not meet more than one talking notebook.

"Can I be next?"

"Pete, what?"

"I'll tell you guys more about everything after you have confirmed that there is a magical notebook here talking to us."

"What more confirmation do you need?"

"I don't know I'm just kind of a mess right now!!"

Fair and reasonable and valid.

Vivian thwaps the notebook into Felicia's lap. "Say hi! They're really cute actually. Pete, just focus on breathing, okay? We'll handle introductions."

Uh huh he can do that.