Jimmy’s Day
By TerraMGP
8:00 AM
A heavy rustling came from underneath the stacks of sheets and comforters that rested atop Jimmy’s bed as he reached out to the night stand, slamming a paw over the snooze button of his blaring clock radio and ending its painful reverberations.
8:15 AM
After hitting snooze for the forth time that morning, Jimmy finally managed to pull himself up and wrest away from the warm, soft confines of his humble bed. Pushing himself up a bit the young man could feel a blanket of tired haze quickly enveloping him, calling him back to the siren song of sleep for perhaps another hour or two. Admittedly it was always tempting to just shut out the cares of the waking world for a while, and it wasn’t like his customer base was going to complain since most of them weren’t even awake or out of work until four or five in the evening. If worse came to worse Jimmy would be out five bucks from a kid who couldn’t come in and pick up his favorite comics with his allowance and had to walk down the street to Walgreens instead. It was a loss Jimmy could live with on its own, but really that was not how his trade worked and he knew it. That same kid who was only spending a few dollars might end up seeing something that piqued his interest. The cover of some manga or a game book just might pop out at him prompting the hypothetical young man to bring in his hypothetical mother and pick up whatever sunderied item had caught his interest at a later date. From there it wouldn’t be long until he had a loyal customer who was coming in to Hoardraider games every week to pick up a magic pack or some new mini for 40K or Warmachine. And thus the culture was perpetuated and Jimmy got to eat.
Knowing that none of this would happen if the doors to his shop were closed, the young mouse began to pull himself out of bed and lumbered slowly towards the small master bath that devoured perhaps a fifth of the tiny little four room house. Fortunately it never took the hazy mouse too long to get ready for work. One scalding blast from a high pressure showerhead and a few screamed expletives later he found himself walking back out and grabbing a clean T shirt and pair of jeans out of the cloths basket.
It was hard to call Jimmies house dirty. Contrary to popular opinion of his vocation and its portrayal in the media he did have a sense of keeping things neat and tidy, free of dust and debris as much as any young man could. Clutter was another story altogether. Stacks of unassembled comic boxes, Mylar bags and card binders were all crammed into a tiny living room that was dominated by Jimmy’s large entertainment center, ratty couch and portable painting station. Then of course came the shelves. Each wall was lined near the top with row after row of cheap store-bought shelving propping up some small, personally made dioramas.
Some of these elaborate scenes were already finished, most of them weren’t. Some would be put up against others in local competitions if they were good enough. Every now and then Jimmy came up with a model or scene that could win him some money or new special edition models and model parts. However even those that didn’t cut muster found their way into the shop window. If nothing else it let him draw in a few more customers than he normally got with the rank and file posters that companies sent for advertising purposes, and every once in a great while he actually managed to make some money off of the scene itself.
Money, that was the rub really. The young man cast his gaze to a large stack of letters laying on what passed for a kitchen table, already dreading what he would find inside of them. The down side of living ones passion was often much more mundane than most people realized. The shop cost a lot of money to stay afloat, and what little net gain the young man made usually went towards paying for food and keeping the internet up at home, which was honestly pretty damn close to a business expense at this point. Jimmy found himself inexorably drawn to the papers for what had to be the thousandth time and picked up each one. Power, phone, car insurance. He thanked god that aunt Lil was the one who held the title to his shop rather than the bank, but it still left a rather bitter taste in his mouth holding off on her payment, even if she insisted he get caught up first.
“Well, I guess I can handle the water first.” he quipped to nobody in particular placing the appropriate bill aside on the other end of the table where he knew it would not get mixed back up with the others. “If I skip lunch for about a week I should be able to make up the difference I need on it, assuming sales are halfway decent. Then Brian said he wanted me to paint up the new wolves when they come out… so that might be enough to cover power and phone with that. Maybe I can even get a new box for myself if it pans out. He has been saving for this for like, two years.” Jimmy let the pipe dream roll around in his head for a few sweet moments before allowing reality to crush it. He wasn‘t going to be getting himself anything new for a while. Hell he would be lucky to pull himself into the black before Christmas, and keeping himself there was a whole separate issue.
The bills would have to wait though. Jimmy let them fall to the table with another frustrated huff and then started to walk back to his shower. Looks like its gona be yet another glorious day of ’living the dream.’
9:05 AM
Florescent lights buzzed themselves into being overhead casting their off-white light into ever corner of the shop. The smells of paper and ink, paint and superglue all wafted together in one glorious momentary gestalt of sensory bliss. The still quiet shop lay spread out like some peaceful, dew kissed farmers field still fresh and untouched by the mornings work. This was the moment each morning that told Jimmy he had made the right decision.
His routine was pretty much rote at this point. He started at the front of the shop, looking into the two display windows facing the road and checking to remind himself what dioramas he had placed there. He liked to change out at least some of the Dioramas, posters and cardboard promos once a week or so, just to make sure he looked busy. After that he opened a small storage space under the display window and pulled out a dust rag and some spray. The whole right side of the shop was nothing but boxes of Warhammer minis, both fantasy and 40K. It was a nice little draw for new customers to see just what he had to offer, but if he didn’t keep up with those damn shelves sooner or later the dust made it all look like crap. Contrary to what much of his clientele may have professed, appearances did matter to them. Sales figures alone attested to that.
Once each of the shelves was dusted in turn Jimmy was able to turn his attention to the book shelf where he kept all of the older gaming books and paraphernalia. Some of it was still part of the most current canon for whatever series it was, but simply wasn’t popular enough to warrant real display. Other books like obscure gaming systems from the eighties and nineties or out of print sourcebooks and art books for settings usually ended up back here as well, their numbers only occasionally thinned by the odd ‘jaded gamer’ looking for something he or she had not tried a thousand times before. Honestly the only reason the books themselves didn’t have dust on them seemed to be his cousins OCD tendencies in making sure they all got sorted out whenever he acquired such a book from some garage sale or online auction.
Next to this shelf Jimmy had a set of magazine racks filled to the brim with the latest books that people might want. The newest versions of everything from Shadowrun to BESM all sat on proud display here. One rack sat up against the wall while two more sat back to back about five feet out from it in a sort of ‘news stand’ style, allowing people to get a good look at what he had for sale. Unlike the old obscure books these were not crammed up against each other leaving only the spine showing. Each title was stacked up one to three copies deep and each sorted by system and alphabetically, with his meager selection of comics spread out to separate each game system or setting. After all if someone gets frustrated looking for a product, they may end up buying it from another shop, or worse online.
Usually the young shopkeeper liked to get out the vacuum at this point and give the floor a good once over. There was a lot of floor space to cover and it always seemed to get dirty. In the front people frequently milled around for hours between different racks and shelves grinding dirt into the carpet which didn’t seem to come up if he didn’t get to it quickly. Worse yet was the gutted stock room in back that he had converted into a makeshift gaming room with the addition of some cheap carpet and a set of long plywood eight by four tables. Cleaning all that carpet could quickly turn into a massive chore if neglected for so long, which never ended well. He had, in fact, specifically set up all of the racks holding various minis, dice, and even the main paint display rack, specifically so he could get around them easily with his twenty year old second hand behemoth of a cleaner to help compensate. Looking at the clock though he realized it was probably too late for that, and probably too late to give the shelves behind the counter a once-over either. Having a clean shop was always nice after all, but if he didn’t have new product come in none of that really mattered anyways.
The one main reason Jimmy had pounced on this shop was that it used to be a pawn shop, and the previous owner had put in a very nice custom glass case which he had seen as too much of a hassle to move. It was nice in part because it was big. One end connected to the back wall right next to the open doorway giving him easy visual access to the game room behind it. Furthermore the shelves were tiered letting people see various items such as his cards more easily from a normal standing angle. Sure that meant he couldn’t keep all of the rares he had in the case, but it also meant no straining to see what was in the very back. He also liked the case because of the nice big desk section that had been built into the corner where the counter turned ninety degrees and connected to the wall. The truth was this job required him to spend most of his time going around on web sites and checking his email and looking for any sort of deal he could find in order to make sure he was on top of the gaming industry. A comfy chair and a desk with some leg room were two of the most important things to his career and his health, the third being the treadmill at home he used to ensure all this sitting didn’t end up causing him some problems later on in life.
He had about a half hour left. Half an hour of peace, half an hour to get as much work done as he could, half an hour before his shop opened and the slow trickle of people would hit. Half an hour before he had to explain Battletech to some kid who thought the mechs looked cool. Half an hour before some gaming group came in to play D&D in the game room only to break out in a fight because they can’t stop horsing around. Half an hour before he had to figure out how to fish some variant of ‘Munchkin’ game off of the top shelf behind him because he had no where else to put the Peter Jackson games. Half an hour to get all his work done before the chaos hit. That seemed to be about the norm these days.
11:35 AM
“Come on mister please, I mean look all my cards are in great condition. I’m offering you a lot of stuff, can’t you at least cut me a tiny bit of slack? It would really help me out.”
Flipping though the first stack of sleeve-clad cards once more Jimmy took stock of the collection making absolutely sure he had not missed anything important. “Look kid I’m sorry, but there really isn’t anything I can do about it. The fact is that I can’t sell most of these cards because I either have a playset in stock, or they just aren’t worth enough. What you do have doesn’t add up to all of the cards you want.” Taking out the cards he could afford to take and placing the rest on the counter near the obviously crushed bunny boy. This was probably the part of the job that Jimmy liked least. Plenty of kids came in here not knowing what they had and hopeful that they could trade in or somehow afford new cards or models for their old stuff rather than paying. Not that he could blame them, tabletop games tended to be an expensive hobby, but between the payments he owed aunt Lil and his bills the margins were sadly too thin to be charitable. “I’m going to be honest with you kid. You won’t get a very good value for trading your stuff in and I probably can’t sell most of it anyways. If you really want to get into Magic why don’t you just buy a starter deck and learn the game before worrying about some deck you found online. I mean lets face it, you don’t even know the game enough to judge if you would like the deck in the first place.”
The dejected bunny flipped though his rejected cards once more and let out another sigh. “But I didn’t get this deck list off the internet. Ester said it would probably be the most like my Yugioh deck after I explained how it works.” A paw shot into his jeans and soon Leon produced a small sheet of notebook paper covered with that familiar half-scratched script which Jimmy knew so well. Leon shot his potential benefactor another hopeful glance and reluctantly pushed the cards back into the front of his binder before they got damaged. “I don’t have enough money to get a starter deck without trading something in though, that’s kind of the point. I’m trying to save up for a PS3. Mom says if I can save half of the money she’ll pay for the other half. I think she’s trying to teach me how to be responsible.”
“Or she’s waiting for the inevitable price drop” Jimmy interjected with a bit of a chuckle. “Look kid, I feel for you, I do. I know it sucks when you want to start a hobby, its expensive as hell, especially the ones from bigger companies. In the end your going to have to prioritize, and honestly if your going to get a PS3 for half price, I’d make that the priority.” Yet again Jimmy was far too generous for his own good. Impulse buying paid the bills most of the time, but unlike his competitors Jimmy hated to do it at the expense of his customer’s happiness. Of course he might if any of thems actually had some disposable income.
Leon mournfully flipped though his cards again trying hard not to show the full extent of his disappointment. It really didn‘t seem fair that his cards were apparently ‘worthless‘ for trade in. Not that he really even wanted to trade his cards in the first place, but he did want to get a magic deck to play with and it seemed to him like it would be better to get a good deck so he could keep up with his friends who had been doing this stuff for years.
Leon had been friends with Ester and Jamie for a while now, in fact growing up they were the only kids around in the apartment complex who hadn‘t picked on him mercilessly for no other reason than the fact that he simply wasn‘t as athletic or ‘adventurous‘ as the other boys. Hanging out with two girls had not really done much to lessen the teasing he got from the other boys honestly, but Ester’s apartment was always open it seemed and Jamie did stand up for the little group enough to earn some respect from their would-be tormentors. It was a rather odd arrangement the three friends had, but then most friendships were weren’t they? At least the bonds he had with his friends were good, and if nothing else he knew they cared about him. It just sucked missing them so much of the time. Giving one last pleading look towards the shopkeeper Leon took his stuff and started walking towards the back of the shop, opening his folder on one of the tables and looking over it mournfully.
“Est, come on I know it’s a good chunk of your allowance to play each month but you have to admit its impressive. Honestly they got rid of all the D20 mess so you won’t be deciding your actions a few turns in advance, and they have cover… in an MMO! You saw the previews, you can’t tell me you aren’t at least a little impressed.” Jamie half-glanced into the shop letting Ester and Diana slip past her before letting go of the door. I know you were impressed by that decision tree for conversation. Honestly the whole thing is probably going to end up being more like Mass Effect than anything else. Besides its star wars, you know you love Star Wars.”
“Well I guess…“ Ester mumbled strolling into the shop under Diana’s arm. “I don’t know though. After all it is an MMO, and pay to play at that. It might end up being a problem.“ It was true that the new Starwars MMO looked rather interesting, especially considering how it had managed to dodge some of the annoying issues with stiff backdrops and settings. Even a girl Esters age understood how easily those poor programming decisions could make an otherwise good concept bad. However she also knew that any attempt to try it would be moot, both because of the monthly fee and because of her mother whom she was sure would frown upon any idea that involved her child having less social interaction in her life.
“Admit it Est, your curious about it. Look its not like you don’t have all enough little plastic figures already, right? Nothing wrong with cutting back on the ol’ card budget for a while and trying to get into something new.” The Feline walked up to the counter and hefted an orange and black folder onto the glass grinning ear to ear at the man behind it. “Hay there mister shopkeep. Have anything for a girl looking to build a Bant deck without a big budget back there?”
“Hay now, no stealing my best customer.” Jimmy chuckled “But I guess I do have a few things for you, but I won’t keep holding on to the stuff I know you girls like if you aren’t going to spend the money here. Of course before you worry about that maybe you girls should be a bit more concerned about your little friend back there. He came in here looking to trade in some of his Yugioh cards for a magic deck… Did one of you girls give him a sixty dollar deck list?” As suspected both Jamie and Ester raised their hands in unison, apparently embarrassed to admit it. “Come on girls you can’t just go around throwing out these expensive lists to people just starting in the game. Not everyone has been collecting since the second grade, you can’t just go around giving out lists like this to new players unless you plan on paying for the cards yourselves. Forget the fact that its a lot of money to spend on your first deck in one fell swoop, he doesn‘t even know if this play style will match him. He might not even understand the basic rules until you’ve had a few dozen games with him.” It was obvious the girls didn’t intend to get their friend worked up, but this always seemed to happen when those two got to talking about anything. Ester and Jamie were both intelligent, strong willed little girls with a penchant for over thinking which often ended poorly.
“I can hear the whole conversation you know!” Leon yelled from the gaming area in the back of the shop.
“See girls? He can hear you. Why don’t you go ahead and talk to your friend a little bit about this, maybe cheer him up?” Jimmy fought back a chuckle at the inevitable grumbling from the bunny boy in the next room and motioned the girls along. It felt kind of strange playing the adult yet again when he still felt like an overgrown teenager, but at least he didn’t have to let it show.
“So Leon is moping around in here by himself huh?” Jamie smirked as she walked into the back room and looked down at the slumped-over bunny finding it very hard not to tease him right now. “Oh come on now its not like it’s the end of the world or anything. So Jimmy can’t buy your cards, that’s no reason to freak out is it?” Jamie put a paw on Leon’s back and Gave him a few small pats before sitting down beside him, picking up the folder he had left on the table and leafing though the rows and rows of cards. “You know in all honesty its probably a lot better if you don’t sell all of these anyways Leon. Its not like you know Magic very well and this Rare binder is almost as big as my trade binder for Magic… at least I hope it’s a Rare binder.” she said looking it over.
“Well yeah it kind of is. I use it to keep all the Ultimate and Ultra rares or the ones that I really like. I also have a deck that I let Jimmy go though, but he didn’t really seem to want those cards either.”
Hold on a second, so there are other kinds of cards?” Diana asked picking up a few pages of the binder and the cards it held for a moment, letting it drop.
“Yeah, I guess so…“ Leon said half heartedly, slumping down and looked across the table at his other best friend, quickly tilting his head and looking off to her left at the Chipette occupying the other chair. “Hay there! I haven’t seen you around the apartments before. My name’s Leon, nice to meet you!” The brown-furred bunny shot up and offered a paw in greeting with the same chipper, borderline grating yet strangely endearing energy that he seemed to bring to every new meeting.
“Hay… I guess.” Diana mumbled taking the paw and giving it a small shake. She really was at a loss for what to do with this overly-enthusiastic bundle of energy sitting across from them. “So your one of Esters friends? Why haven’t I seen you around exactly?”
Leon shrugged a bit and let his shoulders slump leaning back into the chair. “Well mainly its just a matter of time really. I don‘t get home from school until later cause I take an AP art class in the evening, so I‘m not around on the weekdays.” Leon gazed down at the table and traced one finger along the grain of the fake wood mumbling a little something to himself. “Well that plus Est goes out with you almost every weekend, and then Jamie has a lot of stuff she ends up taking care of on her own for school, and Champions Online. Honestly I haven’t really seen much of either of em since they started high school. I used to go to grade school with Jamie though… I don’t remember you going to Clark elementary though. Were you home schooled like Ester or something?”
“Home schooled… something like that.“ It took most of her self control for Diana to hold back the torrent of frustration the Chipette felt after all of these personal questions. Honestly if this boy wasn’t a friend of Ester and Jamie’s Diana was pretty sure she would have decked him right now for it. Why the hell people couldn’t just mind their own business was really beyond her. “So what was Jimmy talking about before? Feeling a bit mopey about getting some cards? You know you should count yourself lucky, it looks like you have a whole binder there, and a deck case. I just have this one deck Ester got me and a booster pack I splurged on down at Rite Aid a few weeks ago… I mean they are nice cards, but its not a lot to go on really. Nothing as nice as that.”
“Well yeah, but these are all Yugioh cards, not Magic. I always liked that show a lot when I was a kid so I got into it early, but Ester got into Magic cause her mom used to play, and then she dragged Jamie in because she gave her some cards. I never really got into it myself before now, but I figured it was about time I give it a shot you know?” A rather unconvincing smile graced the boys lips at this point as he looked at his friends and patted his Yugioh folder again leaning back a bit and making a noticeable effort not to seem upset.
“No, I don’t know. Not really.” Diana promptly reached over and grabbed a hold of the binder, hefting it in one hand, a bit surprised by how heavy it was. “Dude seriously how much have you spent on this game already?” She started to unzip the binder and flipped though the first few pages while Leon and the others watched on, though only the young rabbit was actually stunned by the behavior at this point. “Face it you’ve blown a ton of money on these things already from the looks of it. Unless this place gets some money from the company that makes the cards for buying it back there’s no way in hell you would get even close to what you put in. I mean its just like a pawn shop right? Your not going to make a lot of money if you give people the value of the card back.”
“She has a good point you know.” Jamie chimed in. “I mean back at Clark weren’t you like the best Yugioh player in school? Why on earth would you want to give it up now?” Unlike Ester Jamie had actually gone to public school with Leon, and could remember pretty clearly how good he actually was at the game. Not that she really understood Yugioh but still she knew that Diana was right about Leon, as much as it pained her to admit it.
Leon looked between the girls for a few moments before slumping down in his seat once more glancing over at his card binder as Diana continued to read though it. “Its just… you girls are always playing these different games without me now days. Mom won’t let me play D&D because she thinks its going to make me go crazy and commit suicide. Those Warhammer thingies Ester does are just way too expensive for me, and honestly I’m sick and tired of always being by myself. I mean lets face it Est you are out with Diana here most of the time anyways, and Jamie is never around because of her MMOs, something else mom is against. I just… I kinda figured that if I tried this game out then maybe I would get to spend more time with you guys like I used to.”
The next thing any of them knew Diana’s hand reached up from the folder and promptly bapped Leon on the side of the head. It wasn’t a hard strike by any means, little more than a firm tap really, but everyone fell silent for a moment dumbfounded by this odd behavior. “Dude, seriously, that’s it? That is why you want to sell off all your cards and try magic? You do realize that you probably could have just told these two you want to hang out some time right? Seriously its not like they don’t have the free time. Hell Ester wasn’t it about two weeks ago that we just spent a whole Sunday with me sitting around watching you beat some Playstation game? How hard would it be to call once in a while and just ask ‘hay, mind if I come over and hang out’?”
The whole room remained silent for what seemed like an eternity after this, Leon gazing at Diana with big, wide eyes full of shock. “But… but I.. I mean they are always gone, and nobody else plays the game I do… I wouldn’t know what to do, you know, if…”
“If what?” the Chipette snapped back, holding the bridge of her muzzle in frustration “Dude you can’t spend life pussyfooting around every little thing. Man up already. Its not hard to pick up the fucking phone is it?” She slumped back in her chair and groaned again finally letting out the frustration that had been building since she met the boy. “God… Look if your Ester’s friend, then I guess you’re my friend too. Its painfully obvious though that I’m goanna have to toughen you up man. Even Ester can stand up for her self once in a while, and I would have thought hanging out with Jamie would give you at least a bit of a backbone. There’s nothing wrong with actually going for something if you want it you know, even if people might tell you otherwise. Be a man for gods sake and stand up for yourself.”
“Now wait just a minute!” Jamie snapped standing up and looking the bigger girl in the face the second the initial shock had worn off. “I’m not going to let you start coming in here and pushing my friends around Diana, I thought I made that pretty clear I wasn’t going to take you hitting people and pushing them…”
“No… Jamie, she’s right.” Leon sighed pulling at his feline friends jacket. “I needed that. Its just been so lonely without you guys around and I haven’t done a damn thing about it.” The bunny rubbed his forehead a bit and looked at Jamie pleadingly, waiting for the furious cat girl to finally sit down again though she maintained a venomous gaze at Diana. “You guys are the only real friends I have around here, and now that your both going to a different school I don’t get to see you like I used to. It just gets really lonely, and I was afraid that if I tried to say anything I would end up just annoying you and driving you guys further away.”
“But Leon you just had to call and we would have been more than happy to set something up. You know we’re your friends, why we get mad about you wanting to hang out? I mean the last time you called me it was to ask me about the Deck list I gave you, and I was really considering calling you myself a few days before that. You just haven’t been around.” Ester still couldn’t really understand the logic of her friend that well, not as well as Diana seemed to. She was still shocked that her girlfriend had actually struck him like that, but it seemed to have some form of beneficial effect, so Diana must have had a reason.
Leon just sighed and shook his head. “And if you guys decided I was being a pest? Honestly I didn’t want to take that chance. Everyone in the public high school is a jerk, and those that don’t try to beat me up or pick on me avoid me because they don’t want to get beat up or picked on. I can’t even bring up Naruto without someone calling me a nerd or geek or something worse, and I already got pushed in a locker twice! I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do anymore.”
Diana shook her head and went back to reading over the card folder. “God, looks like I have my work cut out for me. All you need to do when they pull that crap is punch them in the fucking face and tell them not to pull it again. Simple as that.”
Jamie gave a small glower towards Diana and then turned back to Leon “and then you get kicked out of school for a month. Look I don’t agree with Diana’s methods, or her hitting you for that matter.” she said emphasizing the hitting. “But she is right. You need to stand up for yourself, and you can’t be afraid of us abandoning you just because your feeling insecure. We are your friends Leon. We have been together for years. If you want to hang out, just ask. If you really want to play a game with us then tell us and we will teach you D&D or make you a deck, or if you really want help you pay for ToR when it comes out.”
“And so her recruiting begins anew.” Diana chuckled.
“The point is, Leon, that you shouldn’t give up something you obviously love just because you think it will make you fit in more with your friends. You don’t have to prove anything to us. We are more than willing to hang out no matter what you want to do. All you have to do is tell us.” Ester smirked and flipped back the folder Diana was now half way though, moving it to the first page where she knew her friend kept his favorite card, Airknight Parshath, so he could see it. “Besides if you give up now then you are giving up on the heart of the cards. You know that you’ll regret it later if you do that.”
“No! No! God no, we are not doing that. No. Just put it away already. No ‘heart of the cards’ crap, no duel spirits, and especially no ‘friendship‘ speeches!” Jamie was sure she felt a small piece of her soul die upon hearing that whole exchange. Honestly though she should have known it was coming.
Leon couldn’t help but smile at that. It felt good to have his friends around him again, just talking and laughing like old times. “Thanks guys, I really need this. You promise that you’ll let me hang out with you more if I just ask?” Leon smiled hopefully, gladdened beyond words by the reassuring smiles and nods he got from his two closest friends.
“Of course they are damn it. I gotta find some way to get you acting like a man don’t I?” Diana said with a seriousness that almost seemed absurd given the situation. “Now then, enough whining. Why don’t you tell me about these Alien cards here. They look pretty freaking cool.”
12:20 PM
“Oh come the fuck on, really?” Jimmy fell back into the chair and picked up the copy of Codex: Space Wolves that had been sent to him along with the Black box as a precursor to the release. “Look I know three people who want these models when they get in, not the next day, not the next week. I gave you the tracking number… the figures are supposed to come in soon. What am I supposed to tell my loyal customers exactly?” He grumbled to himself as the woman on the other line continued her tired shpeal. It was bad enough getting static half the week about the boxes being ‘lost‘ but now they were saying that they were already at his shop for crying out loud. Sadly it wasn’t anything new for the young man. “Look it was one thing when the Reaper Minis I ordered showed up late, I don’t have too many people waiting with baited breath for a new Warg. It wasn’t even that bad when the BESM books I tired to get here went to my competitor… Competitor mind you, because at least they had the decency to inform the guy he had the wrong place and give out directions rather than signing off on it and keeping them or sending them back to go though more processing. At least that was a somewhat understandable mistake. But when things like this keep happening…”
“Um, Jimmy…” Ester Chimed in from the other room rather timidly.
“Not now Est, I’m on the phone!“ he replied just loudly enough that it wouldn’t really interrupt his conversation. Once again more rhetoric on the pains of shipping and how it wasn’t anyone’s fault, talk of the computer as if it was some almighty crystal orb that could show them exactly where the package was. This was part of the reason he hated it when they ‘monitored calls’ for quality, considering that it meant anyone and everyone would be trying like hell to pass the buck rather than give a straight forward answer. “You know what? I don’t even care who’s fault it is ok? Blame me for all I care. Just please, for the love of god can you please try to track down the package for me? I know for a fact I gave you the right number because I wrote it down the second I got it, and I know that the models are on their way because they already showed up in another game store not too far from here, which also means the few customers I have left might go there for their stuff. All I want is… what? You want the tracking number again? Fine….”
“Jimmy…” Ester whimpered, this time with quite a bit more urgency to her voice.
“Just one second Ester, this is really important.“ he called back. The young man pushed the phone between shoulder and cheek for a moment and sifted around though the various pages he already had open, looking intently before spotting the simple word document he had opened up with the title ‘GW Tracking Number’. “You know if it comes up as delivered again I swear I am going to come down there and fix your whole network myself, because I will not listen to someone tell me that something has come when I have been watching the damn door all day. Ok then, the number is 846.… what? Yes it’s a four first. I already gave it to you once. Didn‘t you write it down or put it in the computer or something? Gah… but I already called twice today. You don‘t keep these things in a shared file or something? You know what I don’t care I don’t care. Just please tell me where my package is.”
“Hay, Uh, Jimmy!” Ester squeeked from around the corner waving her hand at her cousin. “I don’t mean to interrupt but.. Uh… This man needs you to sign something.” Jimmy looked up from the desk to see the small mouse, along with Diana who was holding a good sized cardboard box, standing next to a man in a simple brown uniform holding an electronic clip board.
“You know what?” Jimmy groaned. “Never mind…”
1:20 PM
Early morning commotion eventually settled into a comfortable calm within the shop. In the back room Ester and Jamie sat with Leon, trying their best to explain the rules of Magic to him without equating everything to Yugioh. Leon was in turn giving sporadic rule explanations to Diana who had been raiding though his binder and already had half of a deck pulled out and sleeved up so that she could try this game out for herself.
Jimmy just leaned back and kept one perked ear on the trio while watching Connie picking away at her Mexican pizza, still not bothering to clear the crumpled mess of Taco Bell wrappers that had found their way across every corner of the card counter. “You know ya really didn’t have to get me lunch babe. I am taking you out tonight after all, at least I hope I still am. Your not plying me with beans and cheese because of some impending bad news are you?”
Connie shook her head and picked up a couple bits of refuse from the counter, dropping them into the trashcan resting on Jimmy’s side. “Can’t a girl just stop in to see her boyfriend every once in a while? Besides its not like I did anything special. Four bucks worth of sub-par Mexican and a half hour out of my life... not really that big of an investment if you ask me.” She took another sip of her drink and just looked into Jimmy’s eyes once more with a small chuckle. Boyfriend, for the life of her Connie could not get used to that. The two of them had not been going out that long, hell the two guys she had dated before had technically been ‘with’ her for much longer, and she never considered them worthy of that little moniker. Something was different about Jimmy though. Sure he was a huge goof, and apparently couldn’t take anything seriously to save his life, but unlike her previous attempts at a relationship Connie actually felt comfortable just hanging out with him. It wasn’t a chore to come down to his work and visit, which was good considering that he apparently had to work though his lunches.
“Heh sorry if I freaked out. Its just not every day a beautiful girl comes into my shop to ply me with Mexican food. Might take some getting used to.” He shot her another cheesy and over zealous grin only to find a sharp swat striking at the end of his nose.
“You better not get used to it. If I see you in here eating taco bell with another girl I can promise you right now it will be the last time any girl brings you anything, cute or not.” Connie took another quiet sip of her soda and kept her eyes locked with Jimmy, staring him down ever so slightly with a few moments of eerie silence that finally broke with a hard chuckle and a slight spray of coke all over the glass case top.
Jimmy nodded at this, gripping Connie’s hand hard and ran his thumb against hers as the two exchanged another small glance. For one brief fleeting moment everything just seemed to fall perfectly in place. “You know Connie, a guy could really fall for someone like… wait… oh crap!” The young mans hands darted away from her paws and yanked up a red plastic folder resting at the edge of the counter, shaking it off and throwing it open to check the pages inside. “Crap crap crap, come on don’t be ruined. I knew I shouldn’t have brought all of these in today. For the love of god…”
Jimmy continued to leaf though each page held within the binder shaking them all out and checking for any residual cola stains. “Ok I give up, what was all that about? We were having this nice moment and then…” Rather than ask questions that she figured wouldn’t be answered any time soon Connie tilted her head and craned over to get a look at the pages. The majority of what she could see consisted of notebook paper, literally covered with scrawling irregular print that would have been sub par even by grade school standards. Her boyfriend distracted by his frantic dash to check over each page for damage it took very little effort for Connie to yank a few pages out of the other side and look though them carefully. “So what exactly is all of this for? You have some… interesting drawings here and a lot of notes. Was this something you came up with in grade school or something?”
Connie took a few more moments to look over the jumble of drawings before Jimmy snatched them out of her hands looking rather sheepish, noting one in particular of a young mouse holding a rather massive sword over his head standing on a crudely drawn building.
“High school actually…” Jimmy sighed “It was an idea for a comic I wanted to get started back in the day. I had a few scripts done, Tried to draw some of the characters. I used to have all these big dreams about approaching some guys at marvel and showing them my idea, one of those crazy little pipe dreams you have as a kid I guess.”
“Yeah I can kind of imagine it would be hard to get your foot in the door. I mean your writing style is great, and I’m sure whoever this guy Is has a great story behind him, but I’m sure they would have wanted your characters to look nicer or something. Not that they aren’t nice its just…” Connie quipped stopping herself before she dug herself too deep in a hole.
“His names Finn… he‘s kinda one of those self-styled virulence types trying to rid a city of its crippling corporate dictatorship with a rather eccentric and ancient sword style. Basically he’s part of one of the smaller factions fighting the tyrannical leaders of the city.” he stopped himself short of going into a dissertation about the whole thing figuring it was best to just let sleeping dogs lay. “The reason it never got off the ground though was because I don’t know how to publish comics, or anything else for that matter… your probably right though. I mean lets face it what professional publication would take the random scrawling of a disgraphic high school student when they probably have millions of seasoned writers and artists chomping at the bit to get in.” Without another word Jimmy slipped the red binder back below the desk and picked up the last few remnants of lunch, quickly regaining his normal carefree and happy attitude. “But I guess I should probably let you get to work before your boss decides to chew you out. At least one of us should be able to make enough money to live on right?” Without warning the mouse boy felt that slender white-furred paw slipping under his chin and pulling him forward slowly, drawing him into a quick, simple kiss on the lips.
“Mmmm and why is that? Hoping one of us can be the bread winner?” Connie chuckled. She let that linger for a moment and then ever so slowly pulled herself away from Jimmy giving her tail a sassy little lash as she turned to go. “Just remember you promised that we are going out tonight, no excuses and no exceptions. Everyone better be gone by eight, or you’d at least better have someone to mind the store. I’m not going to sit around all night watching a bunch of guys playing Battletech and eating Pizza Hut.” With that Connie pranced her way to the door and gave one last wink over her shoulder making sure that the point was thoroughly drilled home.
3:22 PM
The din of war surrounded the small squad of black and green armored battle sisters as they dug themselves in behind the collapsed wall of a large building, each one bracing themselves for the sea of gnashing mouths and swift talloned feet as it rushed towards them in a surge of bestial fury. “Sisters, wait for my mark!” Sister superior Janice cried out to her comrades. “We shall not let the temple of Aester fall, not so long as the Emperor grants us the gift of breath!” Janice stood from the shattered remains of the squads crushed immolator and signaled for the three flamers of her small Dominion squad to the fore, each one pointing her weapon to overlap the holy promethium and create a gateway of hell for the foul Xenos to pass though.
The beasts charged on, unphased by the threat of such a small warband. Their claws outstretched in anticipation of a freshly rent kill.
There were far too many. Janie knew that even with the gout of flame her brave sisters could lay down they were easily outnumbered five to one. Worse still sister chastity had been the groups melta support and was too young to have real experience with the flamer she had taken off of Carols fallen body. She refused to give up though, the church was right behind them, and if it meant the lives of her squad to keep these beasts out then so be it.” Janice whispered a small prayer to the emperor, watching as the beasts drew ever closer to her position, hopeful that even if they fell he would ensure not one foul claw would find its way to the hallowed ground.
Without warning loud screaming sound suddenly drowned out the gibbering masses. Ten glowing spots of roaring fairly light rushed past the large walls that had been herding the Genestealers towards the sisters. The veteran sister instantly recognized the form of one woman, jump pack dying down and plasma gun aiming into the center mass of the creatures. “It seems that the Emperor has seen fit to give us the day! Now unleash the cleansing fire of his holy wrath! Lets turn this corridor into a slaughter pen!” Almost upon the command a brilliant flash of flickering energy left the barrel of the seraphim’s rifle, followed by massive gouts of promethium and cracks of bolter fire as the rest of the squad rained down death and destruction upon the Tyranids that dared to touch a human world.
Janice felt a small satisfaction as the Dominion sisters under her loosed their hellish gouts in turn and caught the creatures in a wave of painful death. Even before the smoke cleared she hefted the long curved blade of her power sword towards the foes once more and bounded along though the rubble and debris between her and the surviving Xenos with all the spry energy of a younger goat. “Now charge my sisters, give them no quarter! Do not let them near the church or the Inquisitor! After all she was once one of our own.”
“Yes that’s right, and bye bye go the Genestealers! Sorry about that I suppose, but you know how nasty those flamers can be. Still I guess that’s what you get for thinking a bunch of brutes running around can match the holy flame of the Emperor!” The mousette continued to smirk a bit as she watched the last of the Genestealers her foe had sent against her fall under the wrath of her mighty seraphim. Admittedly it had been a bit of a gambit keeping her four remaining Dominion sisters on the objective and hoping that the flamers would do most of the work for her. Honestly she had not even been sure that both sets of flamers and the plasma rifle would cover the 24 models, let alone cover them as well as they did. Looking down though she couldn’t help but crack a smile sure that the losses taken were far more than what her opponent had expected.
“Mmmm now I suppose all you really have left would be the tyrant and all those gaunts you were bragging about. Of course thanks to my jump packs I can easily put a flamer template between your gaunts and the objectives if I want to, and we both know my Exorcists here will be making very short work of your tyrant soon enough don’t we?” The normally innocent and bashful mouse looked across the table with the slightest hint of a blood-numbing grin. The fear was almost palpable… at least as fearful as one could get when playing a game with tiny plastic miniatures.
Brian was honestly shocked to see a maneuver like that, especially since he was sure any attempt to pincer would result in the sisters hitting each other or missing his brood lord and a few of the Genestealers that rested in middle of the pack. The look in the young badgers eyes grew a bit more grim as he struggled to figure out what strategy she might employ next and how best to defeat it. He made a point of keeping one eye on every piece the small schoolgirl had put out and pondering hard how to make his move count. “Ok then, not a bad move, but that’s one squad of Seraphim out of two which you have over extended, and like it or not I can still overwhelm you easily.
Brian looked around at the various small squads Gaunts, chitins six-armed alien creatures with pallid flesh and nasty claws, perfect exemplars of the ’Aliens’ inspired verminous Tyranid race. Each one was armed with maggot spewing Devourer guns and nasty flesh hooks and all of them set to use the without numbers rule, meaning they would keep coming until the game was over. The sisters and their Inquisitor were for the most part blocked in to a large cross shape, guarding the four paths that would lead to the church they were protecting and the chewy worshiper meat he knew lay inside for his nids. The Massed Genestealers had been a big blow, but thanks to his tyrant Brian had already taken out the Canoness and her Retinue along with a good chunk of her first squad of Battle sisters. He had been holding the winged monstrosity back from getting closer and unleashing its Death Spitter and Barbed Strangler. He had been holding back honestly because he knew that if he moved in too close it would put him in range of her Exorcist that he felt was probably held just out of reach for the same reason and the psychic powers of her Inquisitor. “Looks like I’m going to be the one to break our little standoff.” he mumbled to himself moving his Tyrant closer before edging the gaunts and Zoenthropes along for the ride.
The first blast template hit a bit wide, but managed to do enough damage that it took out about half of the seraphim and two of the post-charge dominos in the process. Brian rolled the second, smaller blast marker after putting it right on top of Esters lone Inquisitor, her second HQ and the one unit he was sure would break the back of her army. “Haha, a hit! Looks like this is going to be it for you. Once miss Inquisitor is gone I can pick everything else off at leisure and keep my thropes out of range, only real threat will be those Seraphim. It all comes down to this.” He made his roll to wound with the gun and grinned in triumph. Brian watched as the mouse rolled the armor save for her last wound on the inquisitor. It was another gamble, especially considering her +2 save. Brian watched with baited breath as the dice tumbled away finally stopping its roll on a 2.
“HAHA! I did it! I won!” Esters chair flew out from under her, striking the back of someone else’s seat the moment the victorious little mouse sprang up and started to awkwardly gyrate her hips in a rather crude and comical victory dance. “I did it! In your face Brian. I knew your foul Xeno corruption couldn‘t stand up to the faith and purity of the mighty sisters of battle!” the fact that she had not really and truly won yet and that she really had another two turns before the game ended didn‘t seem to matter to the mousie too much at this point. Every square inch of the shop seemed to fill with the gleeful whooping and taunting. “That’s why you never play with fire Brian, you know your going to get burned.” Ester continued to go though the rather awkward motions of her geeky little victory dance with such fervor that she failed to notice as one of her paws bumped into one of the Hive Tyrants wings, knocking the miniature figure over where it landed on the table with a sickening crack.
It only took a few moments of this for Jimmy to act. Before she knew it the mouse girl would find herself being scooped up in the young mans arms and carted backwards quickly, not seeming to realize that she was being pulled away from the gaming table and her flabbergasted friends. “Est, calm down, that’s enough.” He cast a glance back into the game room, seeing many of the people who had their Magic games or some RPG campaign broken by the sudden outburst of joy coming from the overly enthusiastic little mouse and the destruction she had wrought. Being a bad sport was one thing
“But Jimmy I beat him, I won. He thought he could rush me with a huge cluster of Gene stealers and take out my troops before I could react… and I beat him!” Ester was silenced by a paw going over her mouth and a desperate gaze from her cousin, pleading with her to settle down and stop.
“Yeah and you broke some of his minis too, look at that.” he motioned to the figure that was now laying on its side, thankfully unharmed. Below it though many gaunts lay, their unpinned arms and torsos now popped off in many different directions.
“I… did that?” she craned her neck to see and then quickly slumped back into the corner away from the accusing eyes of her fellow gamers. Ester was fully aware that she could be a bad sport. It had caused her plenty of problems in the past. But she also knew how hard Jimmy’s friend had worked on customizing those models and what a difficult project it had been. Each one would need to be reglued and repainted, and many would need greenstuff or even new parts to replace broken ones. Her only small consolation was that the tyrants elaborate and painstakingly crafted wing hadn’t broken along with the other figures. It made her sick thinking about someone else’s hard work getting flushed away like that.
“Look, I know you enjoy this game and everything, but these outbursts have to stop. Family or not it could end up hurting my business… and I know your mom would be really unhappy if she knew you were flaunting wins over people again. That’s why your not allowed to come to Magic events anymore.” Once again the shopkeep took inventory of the customers who were availing themselves of his services. For the moment it seemed that the whole outburst had passed without anyone deciding to leave so at least it wasn’t as bad as last time. Once he was sure that things would not devolve into one of Esters famous little crying fits Jimmy led her back behind the counter away from the crowds so she could collect herself twice.
“I really am sorry about Brian’s nids. I never meant to break anything. You know I respect Brian too much for that.” She followed him behind the counter and sat down in a chair where she wouldn’t cause any damage. Ester looked around at the various scattered about the floor and tried hard to take her mind off of the guilt that was now balling up in her stomach. “Do you… think he would let me fix them? Or pay for the Materials?” she mumbled looking up at her cousin for some sort of absolution.
“Well I‘ll talk to him about some sort of restitution later, but I don‘t think this is a good time.” he said taking a seat himself. Jimmy really wanted to be more understanding about all of this. He knew it was an accident. He also knew that Brian would probably understand since he had been a regular at the shop long enough to know how Ester got. Unfortunately after so many ‘accidents‘ that could be specifically linked to the girls outbursts it was getting difficult to play the understanding authority figure. “Tell you what, why don’t you just stay back here with me and give me a hand with my inventory list until you calmed down a bit. I’ll ask Brian to put your stuff away for you, and then afterwards we can see about ordering you and your friends a pizza, ok? I think your done with 40K tonight Est, but you and your friends can still hang out up here and talk and play some magic. Sound like a plan?”
Even though most people thought of her as rather naïve Ester knew exactly what her cousin was trying to do. It was true that she had occasional… problems with being a sore winner, or a sore loser for that matter. To her own credit she had taken a lot of effort to surprises it most of the time but when it got out it could end pretty poorly, especially in public places, and of course there was usually some form of collateral damage. “Ok Jimmy I think I can do that.” she sighed “Besides you know how much I love to organize things. But this time your ordering Pizza Hut, ok? None of this Little Caesars stuff.” she quipped trying to sound at least a bit less upset.
“Deal“ Jimmy took her paw and shook it in the most professional manner he could manage before retreating to his office “Do a good job and there may just be a couple pots of paint in it for you too.” And with that Jimmy rushed to the safety of his office to start getting ready for his date, leaving Ester behind the counter to do her ‘work‘.
As usual the industrious little mousie took a few moments to gather herself up after all of that and put on a brave face. It took all the effort she had in her to smile at her cousin and act as if things were at least somewhat ok. Once he was gone though she slumped back down into her seat mulling the events over in her head again, too distracted to notice Jamie and a very confused Diana walking in from the other room.
“Ok Mousie“ Diana said still in a state of shock. “What the hell was that?”
4:43 PM
“And then Lite had the Shinigami find all of the hidden cameras he put in his room… and do you know how he found out that there were cameras in his room, so he decided to act all cool and calm while he was being watched. See cause Kira knew that Lite might be a suspect, so he had his room bugged. But Lite knew about it Mister, cause he has a system. Wanna know what it was?”
“Not really…” Jimmy mumbled, sure that the young man would tell him anyways.
“But its really really cool!” the young boy who had been assailing Jimmy for the past half hour held up his manga again grinning ear to ear. “See Lite put a piece of paper in his door that would drop if anyone tried to come in… but that was just a distraction. Really his door handle stays perfectly level when he leaves it alone. So what he does is move it just five millimeters down so that if its level again he will know if someone got into his room. Isn’t that brilliant? Then he puts a piece of pencil led on the hinge so if someone opens the door it snaps the lead, and that way he knows for absolutely sure that someone was in his room and nobody would think to look in it! That’s why I think Lite is so cool!”
It was amazing how much the young boy could get out without taking in a breath. Jimmy was still reeling from the assault as the young boy had somehow managed to his entire exposition about whatever anime character he was talking about down to the space of ten minutes while filling it painfully full of unwanted information about whatever Manga was popular right now. “Look kid, I get it that you like this guy, lord knows you made that clear. But honestly….. I just don’t care.” The shop owner winced right away at the inevitable angry look and lip quiver he knew his potential patron would give him, sitting back into his seat and leaning against the seat. “I’m sorry, but not everyone is going to like the same things you do. Just because you like this Lite guy doesn’t mean everyone wants to hear about him. Besides… aren’t you like ten?”
“I’m twelve” the boy pouted, still giving Jimmy a venomed look.
“Ok twelve, and your reading something called ‘Death Note’? Really? Do your parents know that you read these things?” Jimmy picked the book up from his potential customer and flipped though it a few times shaking his head. “Far be it from me to parent someone else’s kid but you can’t seriously be reading all this stuff without any supervision. God knows I’m not going to sell you something this bad if your not old enough.” He flipped the book around and pointed to a small A printed on the back of the publication. “Some guy behind the counter at a Barns and Noble might not know enough to check out the cover, but I do. If your parents want to come in here and buy it and give it to you that’s perfectly fine, but I’m not going to sell you something you shouldn’t have.”
The young boy stood there for a moment utterly flabbergasted, before turning with a huff and storming off. “Fine, I’ll have my mom take me somewhere else, and I’m never going to come back here!”
Yet again another potential customer had slipped though his fingers, and that meant he had lost a bit more money. It was the right decision of course, but it still sucked considering how badly he needed the repeat customers. “Damn it… why am I always so freaking idealistic.”
7:33 PM
“You have to be kidding me, its already seven thirty… gah I‘m going to be late!” Jimmy bounced his way across the floor of his semi-crowded shop with one arm still stuck half way in his jacket sleeve the other fumbling to pull both on without falling over in his panic. “Why didn‘t anyone tell me that it was getting so late? Seriously people can’t someone look up from the gaming table for two seconds?” No sooner had the young man uttered those words than he tripped on his own shoe and nearly fell backwards, feeling a paw held firmly in place to keep him from tumbling on his face.
“Dude, relax” Brian chuckled “You are way too freaked out about this. Look Connie isn’t that far away, and if your late just tell her the van broke down again. Hell odds are good its probably the truth.” Once his friend was standing again Brian gave Jimmy a nice playful, if perhaps overenthusiastic punch in the arm. “Just relax ok? This is your night man, don’t spend all your time stressing out about it.”
The pep talk had less than its desired effect. Jimmy gave another grunt and worked the jacket around until it fit properly and gave one last look to his attire. “Yeah Brian, real comforting. Look I really am thankful that your doing this for me man. I know I told Connie I would close the shop but I really can’t afford to and there is no way in hell I can pay someone to watch it, even for one night.” Jimmy shoved a paw into the cluttered and junk-filled pockets of his fall jacket sifting though scores of granola bar wrappers, electronics and the like before finally withdrawing a thick key ring from it. “Now you sure your ok with this? I should only be gone till close, but in case you want to leave early I’ll give you the spare key ok? That way you have an option.” Jimmy began to twist the key around and pull at the ring in an attempt to separate it, making the apparently futile attempt to separate the thick key from its bindings.
Brian ran a casual paw though the ratty mane of black hair and winked knowingly to his friend. It was almost comical to see the squat, awkward badger trying so hard to act the smooth ladies man, though by now most people had given up on trying to convince him it didn‘t work. “Don’t worry about it man, really. Unless your not gonna be back tonight There won’t be any reason to close up. I’ll be more than happy to sit here as late as you want.” Brian maintained his helpful and eager grin, once again nudging his friend towards the door “And if nobody comes in, hell I’m in a game shop. I’m sure I can always do a little grunt work sorting some stuff out right? Maybe do some shelving or update your card prices or something.”
“uh huh… something, like help yourself to the box sitting there behind the counter?” Jimmy laughed. “Come on man, did you seriously think I forgot about it? Look I know your anxious to get started on your new army, but I’m not supposed to sell any of this stuff yet., and if I let you start tooling around with it and word gets out people are going to stop coming in here.” he finally managed to pull the key free of its ring and placed it into Brian’s paw giving the other man a firm look. “I know your doing me a huge solid Brian, and I appreciate that. I am more than willing to let you sit here all night with the preview codex and type up some sample lists on the computer or play a few test games with people, or whatever you want. Just please do me a favor and don’t get into the space puppies ok? I just don’t want to get that kind of hassle from people who think I’m playing favorites.”
“I wasn‘t going to open anything that I wasn‘t planning to pay for. Besides by the time you finish painting them odds are good it will be mid October anyways.” Brian was hopeful that the little bit of logic might sway his friend, but the look on Jimmy‘s face made it fairly clear that was not going to happen. “Ok Jimmy… If it means that much to you man, then I won’t…” The badger wrapped his paw around the key and nodded solemnly to his friend.
“Don’t worry man, I know you won’t.” The mouse gave his friend a reassuring smile and motioned for Brian to turn around. There, behind the counter, Diana was sitting on a chair in front of the large box, a small stack of comics resting on top of it holding open a copy of ‘Uncanny X men #451‘ as she leafed though it carefully. “Brian, meet your assistant for the evening.” With that Jimmy gave his friend one last pat on the arm, confident that Diana would be a fine watch dog in his absence, meaning that all of his bases were indeed covered.
10:53 PM
The brisk night air seemed to hang in a mellow blanket over the flowing grassy plains that littered the city park before them. Connie pulled the think jacket Jimmy had placed on her shoulders just a tiny bit closer to her body as the two looked out upon the serene slice of nature swathed out of their little pseudo-metropolis. It was strange how all of the chaos that made up a normal day could just melt right away when it was just the two of them. No customers or supervisors telling them what to do or deadlines to meet. The whole world giving way to this simple moment between the two of them.
“Sure your ok Connie?” Jimmy finally asked as a paw ran though her hair gently. “We can always head out if you want… I know its kinda cold around here.” he took a playful punch to the ribs as reward for his concern and turned his gaze back to the cool white stars twinkling on above the two of them.
“Will you stop worrying already?” Connie chuckled giving the young man a small punch in the shoulder “Come on, its not that cold. Its not like I didn’t grow up around here. Besides I’m actually getting a chance to spend some time with you without watching the clock for once. There really don’t seem to be enough hours in the day to just have some decent us time. Speaking of which.” Connie’s paw rummaged around in her own jacket pocket for a few moments, soon withdrawing a rough sketch of a teenage mouse in a black trench coat holding a two handed sword lifted above his head with one hand.
“Wait a second here… is that…“ Jimmy took the picture from her and looked over the rather impressive drawing a bit. It wasn’t exactly what he had in mind of course, but the drawing was clearly one of the characters he had sketched out in his old high school folder. “Hay, is that Finn? Sweet. I can’t believe you actually got him looking like something other than a bobble head.”
“You like it? I got a good enough look at a couple of those characters to take a stab at drawing them in my free time. Granted its still a rough sketch but, well I figured it was something to do so I didn’t go totally insane. You’d be pretty surprised how boring it can get in a library when you don’t have midterms to deal with. It almost makes you miss the rush of students pouring in to get the last copies of the books they need to finish some poorly written report.” Connie contently watched Jimmy as he scanned over the picture for what was probably the hundredth time in a minute. It was rather gratifying to see him this content over something that she considered so small.
“So you really drew this yourself? Connie this is amazing. If I could have drawn even half this well back in high school I’d probably have my own comic by now.” The mouse planted a hard kiss right on his girlfriends cheek and folded the paper back up carefully, not wishing to damage what he was sure took her hours upon hours of work. I always kind of wished I could draw this well… You really have no idea just how much this means to me Connie. Nobody has ever taken my ideas seriously before. Its nice to know someone believes in me at least. Even if it was kind of a silly dream.”
That last comment got Jimmy a hard punch in the arm and another sly smile. “Oh come on now, How is it silly? You wanted to write a comic book right? Who says you can’t? So you didn’t have writing talent, that shouldn’t stop you should it? Look, you told me about what happened when you wanted to open the shop. Your parents laughed at the idea, so you went out and got a loan from someone just barely family enough to still be cool to you, right? Then you moved a massive distance away from your home town and your parents just to open up a shop close to your benefactor, and your still paying it off in spite of a bigger, better funded shop opening up half way across town.”
“Gee… thanks.” Jimmy chuckled. “To think I had almost forgotten about my massive outstanding loan and the competitors kicking my butt.”
“My point is…” Connie groaned “that you are fully capable of taking a stupid risk based on a dream. Hell you did it once before and it turned out well enough. Who the hell says that you can’t do it again? After all you have everything you need right?”
Jimmy just shrugged at the little quip and tried his best to smile “Well sorta. I already have the characters written out, and the back-story. I still don’t have anyone good enough who would be willing to draw the…”
“Ahem! Like I said, you have ‘everything’ you need.” Connie cut in giving him another stern look. “Come on now, you think I wouldn’t like the chance to do something in that annoying time between when I have to stack books up answering peoples inane questions? Besides its not like you really have anything major that you have to do right? You work hard as possible, but lets face it just how hectic can things get in a game shop?”
A knowing smile crossed the mouseboys face as he leaned a bit closer to his love. “Yeah hon, I guess your right…”
