Oh my, thank you so much for taking the time to lay out everything like this, it's so clear and easy now ! I did exactly this and it works perfectly, thank you !
I decided to put the "show screen onscreenmenubutton" after the introduction rather than at the start of the script and used your method to hide away the characters until we've meet them !
Thank you again for your time and kind answer, I really appreciate it ! Have a great day !