Greetings, all!
This is a weird one. It's a fanfiction for a webcomic called Dork Tower (I lurve it!). (If you haven't read it, you might not get most of this; I heartily recommend your reading it!) Kali and I read it, and I figured 'What the heck.' I will be doing more webcomic stories to eat up universes, so this is the first of many!
I have five stories, I have five stories! I'm halfway done! Yay!
I've been torturing Kali with the idea of setting her up with Igor, another gamer, but then decided against it. So this is a Kill Dlyan.
Disclaimer: Bill Blyan, Pegasaurus Games and the entire Dork-verse belong to John Kovalic. Kaoru Dearborne, however, is mine!
Enjoy!
Pegasaurus Games opened up early, as usual, on Saturday morning, or, as it is know in infamy, the day of the converging of the fan boy controversy. Bill Blyden, the proprietor, feared this day above all else.
The weekend meant only one thing to the geeks of Mud Bay: gaming. Video gaming, role-playing, card playing, board gaming, online gaming. Gaming was for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.
The fact that weekends were time of gaming was not what frightened Bill. In fact, Saturdays were when he sold more games than any other day. Saturdays were frightening because before actually buying something, the customers would argue about their obsessions in the shop for long periods of time. When something new came out, the shop was swamped, and there was inevitably some mess to clean up afterwards. Bill had been trampled a few times when new releases came out.
This Saturday was exceptionally scary, for this was the day that the Play Station 3 would be released to the public.
As Bill drove past the front of his shop and saw the line of sleeping bags and tents that had appeared over night, he turned into an alley and entered his shop through the back door.
He glanced at the pile of PS3s that were stacked in a pyramid at the far corner of the room. He had arranged them last night.
Reaching under the desk, he picked up his uncle's old army helmet, and plunked it on his head. Bill then grabbed a mob shield he had fashioned out of duct tape and Plexiglas, took a deep breath, and headed toward the wall-sized front window, where gamers had already pressed themselves against the glass. He carefully slid toward the door, and with a quick motion undid the latch.
In a display most unlike himself, Bill sprinted a few feet, and dove behind his desk as he heard the trampling of many feet a few scant inches behind him.
Deciding to keep his helmet on, Bill stood up and dusted himself off, only to find himself centimeters from Igor's nose.
"IT," the enthusiastic gamer cried, "IS MINE!" Nothing but rapture glowed on his face.
"Hello, Igor," Bill said, getting his second wind. "Enjoy," he said, as he rung Igor up and sent the gamer skipping off with his treasure.
Most of the other check-outs went like this, and lasted into the afternoon, when the pile of PS3s was naught but a memory. Ringing up the final lucky purchaser, Bill slumped into his chair behind the desk, put his head in his hands, and honestly thought he was going to cry. The feeling quickly passed, to be replaced by hunger, exhaustion, and rebelling feet.
The bell above the door jingled. Without looking up, Bill said, "Sorry, we're all out. The last Play Station 3 sold a few minutes ago."
"Oh, that's all right. I'm not looking for a PS3," a female voice said, and Bill looked up. Right then and there, he had an epiphany.
Bill hadn't ever been interested in women. Bill hadn't ever had much social interaction with females, and women so rarely came into his shop. When they did, they were too old, too young, or already married. If the grand rarity happened upon the proprietor that a woman that was none of these things came into his shop, they usually lost his interest within the first five minutes.
This, however, was very different. The lady glimpsed at the Warhamster sets for a few moments, then set her sights on the card and board games. She selected a few choice games like Fluxx, Kill Doctor Lucky, Devil Bunny Needs a Ham, and one or two more. Bill had tried and enjoyed most of these games.
Turning around, the woman started toward the posters and manuals. When she did, Bill could get a good look at her.
The lady had brown hair with two shocking purple streaks on either side of her face. Her face had the sun-starved look of someone who stayed inside all day, and her black t-shirt read, "KIII-YAHHH! (That's your cue to fall down.)" A few billion bracelets hung from her wrists, and her bright hazel eyes swept over everything.
All during this time, she kept Bill fascinated. It was something about how she carried herself and what games she selected and what she didn't. It was something about how she didn't seem to think it was a fad, how she seemed to be doing this only for herself. It was something…but Bill didn't know quite what it was.
The girl came up to the front desk with her items.
"Hi," she said simply. Her voice made his mind reel.
"Good afternoon," Bill murmured, took the army helmet off of his head, and focused on the games in front of him. He checked the lady out and handed her the bag, disappointed to see her go. She had turned around and was about to walk out the door, when she spoke again.
"I hate to ask," she said, turning to face Bill, "but I'm new here, and I don't really know the gaming community. I need to find a good group who play card and board games; I also really like role-playing games. I was wondering if there were any cons coming up or…eh, something," the woman said, and grinned sheepishly.
"Well," Bill said, pondering, "there is GenCon in August, but that's pretty far off. People leave flyers and things around here telling about their groups; if you come by here every now and again, I can save a few."
"Really?" The girl's eyes lit up. "That'd be great! I'll definitely be back any way; you've got a good selection."
"Thank you," Bill simply said.
The girl had one foot out the door when she said, "By the way, my name's Kaoru Dearborne."
When Kaoru left, Bill stashed his mob gear and helmet underneath his desk again, and ordered take-out, smiling.
Saturdays weren't so bad after all.
I may have gotten some gaming info wrong; for that, forgive me, and remember: it's different in the comics! Maybe there is an underground flyer passing! NO ONE KNOWS!
Review please!
Until next time: this is Semine, signing off!
Post Scriptum: Kali, I chose the lesser of two weevils. I hope you'll do the same for me:)