A/N: This is what happens when you live in a city with the best street name ever.
Disclaimer: I don't own the It Crowd, Doctor Who, Scotiaback Theatre, Chapters, Google, or Cradle of Filth. But, I do own crazy OOC Richmond...sort of...and yes I know he gets extremely OOC but that's just how this story rolls.
Also, tonic water does glow in the dark. I learned it in Science class. I've decided that since I've found out about that, for very new fic I write I'm going to add in something about tonic water :P
Enjoy!!
The door was black. How peculiar, thought Richmond, a black door. It wasn't as if he'd never seen a black door before, he'd just never seen this particular black door before...and it was indeed strange, since he had spending his life in this room for over the past four years. Richmond had walked behind the bog box with the blinking red lights consecutive timesand had never once seen this door. He decided to keep it a secret, because if he told anyone it would eventually reach Jen and when Jen knows about doors that can only lead to disaster. Not that he believed Jen discovering him was a disaster, he just knew that Jen's curiosity could go little bit too far. It's my secret, and he smiled slightly just for his own sake. At least he, himself, thought that he was even the tiniest amount special. No one else seemed to care about him. Except, Jen maybe and occasionally Moss, because he was socially thick enough. Of course, most anyone who worked in IT was socially thick.
Richmond breathed in deeply...and then sneezed. My, it was getting dusty in there. He disliked dust and cobwebs. Anything dirty like that could give him a cold, and that would be just horrible. He did not like being down in the dumps like everyone else, he was a cheery bloke. Richmond reassured himself of it everyday.
Why was is so stuffy in this room? Perhaps it was because it was basically a closet. It was at this moment that Richmond decided there must be something beyond that door. Not the little kitchen they had, that was right next to Richmond's room, but maybe a whole other dimension! Richmond did enjoy the sound of that. An entirely different dimension that had not of yet been discovered by the beings of this universe. And maybe that's why he could never see it before, because it had something like a perception filter on it. But, the perception filter had broken and now he could see it. Now, Richmond wasn't entirely sure what a perception filter was, but he'd heard about them on a TV show that Moss had been watching. It seemed like a quite interesting enough show. Doctor What or something...He had trouble remembering names.
Richmond had to go through the peculiar black door that he had not once seen before. Beyond that door could be what he had been longing for all his life, though he was never quite sure what it was.
So, knowing there was something special beyond that door, Richmond reached towards the knob and turned it. He was surprised at how easily the door had opened, but he indeed happy that it had. He wanted so badly to get through that door and he had now. He walked through the frame into a very large and very loud room. He quickly covered his ears, still determined to find what he was looking for. He looked around, but all he merely had to do was look up to see rows and rows of seats with many, many people filling them.
A movie theatre? Richmond pondered. He was at this point incredibly confused at why the peculiar black door had led into a movie theatre. He doubted he'd find anything special in a movie theatre and felt suddenly depressed that he hadn't found what he'd been yearning for his entire life. That longing had been the bane of his existence and he was determined to find out what it was for. He then thought that maybe, just maybe the something special wasn't in the theatre. Maybe it was actually outside the theatre, this had just been the closest portal.
Richmond looked up to the screen and saw what appeared to be a very interesting film. He took a seat, folding his hands in his lap. The movie seemed quite bright, but still interesting and he wasn't finding that he was covering his eyes. The movie ended in the next minute. Richmond hung his head sadly, but got up and left with the crowd.
He wandered through the movie theatre, trying to stay as far away from people as he possibly could. He knew that if he was standing even a little close to someone and they would freak out at the sight of his gothicness. Though he was barely wearing any make up today, there would always be the odd look. But he soon found that no one was staring at him disgustedly. Actually, some people seemed to be admiring his dark dress sense.
One girl had even gone up to him and asked where he'd gotten his shirt.
"I made it myself," he answered, slightly confused, in his low voice.
"Wow, it's really well made," she said. She seemed to have an American accent, but she seemed much to nice to American. Canadian. Oh, yes, she had to be Canadian.
"Uh...thank you," Richmond said graciously, smiling the tiniest bit.
The girl ran off then back with her friend who plunged right back into a conversation about how awesome Johnny Depp was as the Mad Hatter.
Richmond suddenly realized that it must have been the new Alice in Wonderland he'd been watching. It was too bad he'd only watched the last minute.
He walked passed a large stand, not that you could call it a stand since it was so big, in the centre of the room. There was food being sold there. He found that he wasn't hungry so he walked past.
It was nighttime, Richmond was thankful he wouldn't have to be running around with his hand over his eyes.
He got on the steepest escalator he'd ever seen and tried very hard not to pass out from how frightening this actually was. There were a few others who also looked petrified at being on this escalator.
But, finally he reached the landing and pushed through the doors at the bottom out into the street. There were people around smoking and laughing. There was a couple bickering about ticket prices and two girls laughing hysterically about something that it seemed no one could understand. He decided not to ask them, and anyway the laughing was hurting his very sensitive nocturnal hearing.
Richmond walked along the street, letting confusion take over his mind. At the corner was a Chapters.
"Hmmm, books," he said to himself. He wasn't really in the mood to go into the Chapters, so decided to continue walking.
But his walking was cut short by a sudden burst of rain from the sky. Of course all that worried Richmond was that his make up was going to run.
He looked up to the sky, but saw only rain, buildings and the street sign. He looked away, uninterested, until something amazing occured to him.
Richmond looked back up at the street sign and gasped. He'd found it! The special thing that had been calling for him since his birth. that one thing that he could feel digging in his stomach the first time he'd listened to Cradle of Filth. This was it, this street sign. The street sign that proved that he was someone important in this world full of mean and curelty.
This street sign made him feel happy. And he'd generally always been a cheery person, but this was the moment. The moment he knew that being a goth was no longer what he had to be.
"They've named a street after me!" He exclaimed, raising his hands to the air as he continued to look longingly at the sign for Richmond St.
His smile was the largest and brightest thing in this foreign city. It was so bright that if the street lamps weren't on, his smile would have actually glowed. It was like his mouth was full of tonic water, glowing a brilliant grin full of sheer euphoria.
It was now that people started to give him strange looks. He just looked at them and smiled. "They've named a street after me," he'd say to all of the passersby.
Of course, the people thought he was a little bit insane and nodded, "Good...good," they would say to Richmond.
Richmond needed to get back and tell the others what he'd found and then he was going to come back and live in this brillant city.
He ran back in and went up the escalator, not caring a bit about the frightening steepness of it. When he reached the top, he realized that he didn't have a ticket to get back through. Now he started to calmly panic. He knew something had to go right, though. Today was the best day of his life, nothing could possibly go wrong now. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. Oh look a ticket on the ground!
Richmond picked up the ticket. It was good to use. IT was obviously frechly dropped on the floor. He ran to the ticket taker, who ripped the ticket and told him to enjoy his show.
Richmond ran into the theatre that he remembered was the one with the door.
He hadn't stopped smiling. His grin was bigger than the cheshire cat's. And at this point it had to be the part where the cheshire cat shows up on the screen. Richmond laughed seeing the idiotically smiling cat and continued to the door. He opened it and went back into his room.
He scurried over to the front of the room and burst through the red door and yelled, "Goodbye!"
"What?" replied Moss.
"Goodbye!" Richmond enthused once again. "I'm moving out of this hell hole!"
"Finally!" Cried Roy.
"Richmond, something seems to be extrememly wrong with you," Moss said, looking the former goth up and down. "You're still wearing black, but you're giving off a sort of feeling full of colours."
"Yes, colour!" Richmond shouted. "Red, yellow, blue! Those are the primary colours! I also like pink and orange, you need partly red to make both those colours. How brilliant is that?"
Jen walked out of her office at the aggravatingly happy man she assumed to be a goth, but was giving off a sunshiny vibe. "Richmond?" She asked.
"Yes, Jen, hello!" He said. "How are you? What's the weather like! Is it sunny? I love the sun!"
"Richmond," Jen said calmly. "I think you need to take a breather and think about what you're saying."
"May I use your computer?"
"Of course," Jen responded, her hand signalling her office.
"Thank you," He ran into Jen's office and brought up Google.
He typed in: movie theatre on richmond street. What came up was the Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto.
"It was Canada!" He was so jolly, so full of life that everyone just watched intensely as he ran back to his room. A few minutes later he emerged, wearing blue skinny jeans and a bright red and pink t shirt. His make up was all washed off and he looked sheerly happy. And what Jen noticed was that he looked healthy. She hadn't expected him to look so well fed, even though he was spectacularly skinny.
"Well, Richmond," she said.
"Thank you, Jen!" He smiled brilliantly and she couldn't help but smile back. His voice was still low and strangely sultry, but it wasn't that monotone he seemed to always have going on. It was just a regular everyday person voice. Well, a regular everyday optimistic person voice.
"What's brought this on, Richmond?" Roy asked, happy that they were finally getting rid of Richmond, but all the same confused.
"Toronto's named a street after me!" Richmond exclaimed. "All my life I've been looking for something to prove that I am important and now I've found it."
"In Canada?" Moss said dubiously.
"Yes! Isn't just magnificent there?"
"Ummm, yes," replied Jen, " but Richmond this all very sudden."
"I have my bags all packed, Jen," Richmond said. "I need to live somewhere that I know people will like me. and that place is Toronto, Ontario, Canada!"
Moss, Roy, and Jen all gave eachother questioning looks, but decided not to aske any more of Richmond.
"Alright, goodbye, Richmond," Jen said, and Richmond hugged her. She hugged him back. "Have a safe trip."
"Oh I just have to walk through the peculiar black door in my room."
"Okay..." Jen wasn't sure what to say to that, but inside her head cogs were spinning. Another mysterious door!
"Farewell, Richmond," Moss said. "It was lovely to have you staying with us for the past four years. We'll miss you."
"We won't, " said Roy.
"Well, anywho, I must be going now," Richmond waved and made his back to his room. Before opening the red door, though, he turned back to Moss and said. "what was that show you were watching with the perception filters and the time travel?"
"Doctor Who," Moss replied, surprised that Richmond had even taken an interest.,
"Brilliant show," Richmond said thoughtfully and went on his way through the red door into his room.
Once inside, he picked up his bag and walked behind the box with the flashing lights and reached out for the knob. But it wasn't there. Richmond looke rapidly along the wall but the vlack door wasn't there. It was gone again.
About an hour later, Jen was sipping coffee on the sofa whie Roy was emailing a girl on seventh who didn't know it was him, and Moss was trying to figure out why his calculator had stopped working.
Richmond stepped out of his room, dressed in his usual black attire. His face had piles and piles of white and black face paint covering it.
"Richmond!" exclaimed Jen. "What happened?"
"The door's gone," he replied, unhappily and very, very monotone.
"Oh, Richmond, I'm sorry."
"Well, at least I know I'm important somewhere," he sighed.
"You're important here too, Richmond," Jen said, kindly. There was a sudden snort of laughter from Roy. "You are!" Jen said firmly.
"Well..." Richmond retreated back into his room and blasted his favourite Cradle of Filth song, Coffin Fodder, as loudly as possible.
"Is it strange that I like goth Richmond better than sunshine Richmond?" Asked Moss, giving up on his calculator.
"Not at all," Roy answered, returning to his email.
I hope you enjoyed my story. I was on Richmond St. before and thought that it would be funny if Richmond found out about it. :D
