The library in the mansion was good, but it had one major drawback. Students. Verdy didn’t so much detest them when they were studying in corners or at tables, or surfing the internet on the banks of computers, not even when they formed a line that seemed to stretch forever backwards from the service counter. No. Verdy detested the students when they were in before her to borrow out the brand new comics.

Not only had they borrowed out the newest Judge, Jury and Executioner, but the others had had the nerve to reserve it. When the help desk lady looked at her through her multifaceted glasses with her multifaceted buggy eyes and told her there was a month long waiting list she gave up. In a month of waiting she could have read it already, and be on the waiting list for the next one. As it was she just thanked the woman for her help, borrowed her book on drawing cartoon people and left.

Despite Mr Holloway’s teachings, she found the cartoon drawing books easier to manage. Mostly because their ‘proportions’ page, and in fact every page, had a swimsuit as the bare minimum for their examples. There was something just disconcerting trying to study the shape of a body with anatomically correct drawings, mainly their genitals. She had tried sticking a sticky note over the drawing examples, to give them a little privacy but it still made her uncomfortable.

So the cartooning books were her non-homework and the comics were her guilty pleasure. She really felt like she connected with the characters, like they could be friends. Although, now it looked like there would be no guilty pleasure friends for a month. Disappointed, she headed to the living room where she plopped down on the couch to try and watch telly. She succeeded for a few minutes until she realised the student on the other end of the couch, a mere cushion and a half away from her, was reading the new JJ&E. Worse than that was the way he was reading it. Angled just enough that she could catch tantalising sections of border and the occasional dialogue box. Finally she could stand it no more, and she rose to leave. As she did so the boy stopped his reading long enough to smirk up at her. Little punk knew she wanted it.

Breathing deeply she decided to go to her room, and have a read through the guidebook she had picked up. She was sure there were anatomy mistakes all over the place (“ribs!” popped into head often) but she didn’t care. She plopped onto the bed and the screen of her computer lit up as the sudden movement jostled the mouse that was buried somewhere within the covers. Struck with sudden inspiration she searched for nearby comic stores, and in less than ten minutes was rugged up with a thick woollen beanie ready to head out to the nearest one in search of her guilty pleasure.

~~~

The trip into town was much faster when she could take a bus the whole way. Jack had opened one eye at her and thumped his tail on the floor when she spoke to him, but he showed no interest in going out into the brisk air only to be tied up outside. Besides, it was still light. Verdy didn’t need protecting on this trip.

She found the address she had scribbled down and slipped through the door into the little store. It was nice, and much warmer than outside. She stepped forward and began to browse.

Ahhh, it was another busy day at the comic shop. But not too busy, obviously. Akshay didn’t like it when it was too busy because then he couldn’t hear himself think. Today, though, it was just a nice day. People were coming in and out of the shop, he was making good sales, but it was slow enough that he didn’t have to worry about being overrun. All-in-all, it was actually a pretty good day and Akshay couldn’t believe his luck.

And best of all…he was in COSTUME TODAY!

He didn’t know what it was about dressing up as his favorite comic characters but it always made him feel like a hundred bucks. It lightened his mood, made him forget his past troubles, even allowed him to pretend that he was someone else for a short amount of time.

Not that Akshay was not happy with himself. No siree. The truth was, though, that he had definitely been having some tough times lately. Kidnappings, break-ups, etc., all of it only started to bring the man down. Thankfully those days were swiftly beginning to shoo away from him. The clouds were lifting, the silver linings were becoming brighter, and more and more Akshay was glad to be his old self again.

But the costume definitely helped.

Today, to promote the new mini-series of a certain comic, Akshay decided to dress up as El Beam! The Hispanic superhero who would turn himself in a shining ray of sunlight and travel at such speeds! Dressed in tight black outfit that conformed to his body, lined with gold that shined and shimmered under the fluorescent lights of his shop, Akshay must have looked quite a sight to those people who were not used to this shop’s manner of business.

Quite frankly, he didn’t care though. He liked the costume. Especially the gold helmet! He thought that was the most stylish part of it! So, with a superhero-like grin on his face, Akshay moved around the comic store, adjusted crooked items, answering questions, and most importantly trying to look like a man who knew what he was doing.

The chimes of his door rang and he smiled, puffed up his chest and greet the young lady who entered. “Hello, lovely young lady!” he said in his faux-hero voice. “How can, El Beam[/b]…”[/color] Insert cheesy hero pose. “…help you today?”

As she entered the store she suddenly felt… not underdressed, perse, but unfittingly dressed. As she was entering a few guys wearing Avengers T-shirts walked out past her, and once she was actually in the store a man in a full body costume greeted her. Yep, she should have at least tried. She was practically waving a ‘not a nerd’ flag.

It was warm in the store so she unzipped her hoodie and tossed it over her arm. While she did this she took a subtle glance at the desk with the register, there was no one there. This reassured her that the figure with the high collar and lots of shiny stuff was most likely working here. She had made the mistake of asking a random in a costume for help once in a video store. All he had wanted to help her with was taking her back to his place to enlighten her on the ‘amazingness’ of the character he was dressed up as.

“Hello ‘El Bean’”

She smiled at the costume, she was pretty sure the eyes were real and some of the chin, but much of whoever was under there was disguised.

“I’m looking for the newest edition of Judge, Jury and Executioner. It came out this morning.”

Which in mansionite time was long enough ago that all the littlies had got to it before her. Damnned lack of being a morning person.

She glanced around at the store. It was small, but seemed well stocked and clean. Often these places had a lingering odour, usually sweat and excitement. This one, however mostly smelled like paper, and a little like new material, which she attributed to the costume before her.

>> “Hello ‘El Bean’. I’m looking for the newest edition of Judge, Jury and Executioner. It came out this morning.”

Sigh. El Bean?! Seriously? Akshay was not the type to label people, especially when he first met them. But he had to admit that his initial thoughts of this woman were not being proven wrong. How could she not tell the difference between El Bean, and El BEAM? Also, that was just a slightly bit racist, wasn’t it? How dare she assume that just because he was a Hispanic superhero that his heroic moniker would be after a Bean!

He was THAT[/b] close to saying something. But…she was rather cute. How would he really rail against someone so pretty? Then again, wasn’t that just being sexist? Gawd, today was just turning out to be completely politically incorrect, wasn’t it?

Whatever! A customer was a customer! And even though she was slightly racist, she had good taste in comics!

After flashing a winning smile, Akshay/El BEAM pulled out of his pose and took a more lax position.

“Well, a pretty lady like you deserves only the BEST treatment!” he said with a firm nod. “Allow me to lead you through the dangerous landscape that is this comic store and to the comic that you seek.” he turned, puffed out his chest, and began to lead in a rather manly way through the throng of customers. But not before he glanced back over his shoulder with a smile. “And it’s…El Beam, not El Bean. Just so you know.” He winked and continued to lead on.

…

…come on! He really couldn’t let her get away with that, could he?

A dangerous landscape it was indeed. She had seen at least three sets of ears perk up when she spoke to the man. Several of the more serious nerds, wanting to take her under their wings and explain the unforgivable mistake of confusing Star Wars with Star Trek, Jabba with Jar Jar or mistakenly calling ‘the Doctor’ ‘Doctor Who’. She moved into step with her shiny guide and walked with him, his confidence and authority splitting the ranks of his customers, allowing her passage.

“And it’s…El Beam, not El Bean. Just so you know.”

Well that made a lot more sense considering all the shininess on his costume. A bean, even a magic bean, tended to be somewhat subdued. The wink suggested that she had not offended him, but she felt her fumble needed to be rectified.

“Sorry, Beam, got it.”

Not the rafter, not the Jim, but the glowing ray of light.

Since he had seemed more forgiving that the raging teen who had shouted her down for her mispronunciation of DeLorean, she decided to risk asking.

“You’ll have to forgive me, I’m new to the comic scene. What are you from, El Beam?”

Who knew, it might end up being a comic she liked as much as Judge, Jury and Executioner. She could do with some other reading material, and comics seemed the easiest to get back into if she was interrupted at work.

>> “Sorry, Beam, got it.”

He nodded with a well-meaning smirk. In truth he could understand the mistake. The words were awful similar to one another and he had an idea that his fake Spanish accent was just blurring the lines more. So maybe he shouldn’t have just assumed that she was a racist. After all, she did see rather sweet and more inclined to make up for her mistake than a real racist would.

That settles it! He wouldn’t think of her as a racist anymore! Nice! The less of those people he has in his life, the better. This would be excellent for their professional relationship now! So, onward he led!

Maneuvering around a few of the more gawky customers (who had apparently rarely seen women in their realm), Akshay came to a stop in front of a wall of comics. These were the new arrivals so he was sure that the comic the young lady was looking for was somewhere around here. He peered around at each of the issues, trying to find the title she wanted, when their conversation seemed to continue.

>> “You’ll have to forgive me, I’m new to the comic scene. What are you from, El Beam?”

He tilted his head back to her. Yup, it really seemed as if she were a noob. Which is no problem! He was all too happy to educate people in the ways of his world!

“Well, beautiful young lady, I come from the B.C. Universe!” he said with another heroic pose. “Home of other fantastic superheroes like Spectacular Man! Flying Fox! And Captain Goldfish!” He made sure to point out each heroes individual comic to the young lady. “Together…we are the League of Heroes!”

Insert another heroic pose! Yes…she had to be impressed now…

El Beam parted the sea as best he could, and led her around the more stunned of the customers. What? It wasn’t like there weren’t dozens of women walking around out on the street, mere steps away. She guessed it was the novelty of one actually crossing the threshold into the comic store without an air of confidence that drew their attention.

B.C… Spectacular Man, Flying Fox… She should have know El Beam then, for all those names were familiar. She had only heard sympathetic or mocking things about Captain Goldfish though, so perhaps El Beam was a step below even him.

He was heroic posing again now, and she suppressed a giggle into a grin. It didn’t seem nice to giggle at a man in tights. It was a heroic pose, and it did look good, she was just feeling a little overwhelmed by all the geekism around her.

“Did you make your costume yourself?”

That was assuming that this wasn’t the actual El Beam wearing the costume he got from… wherever heroes got their costumes… In fact, where was that? She could only think of Arachnoboy making his, none of the others in her limited knowledge were handy with a sewing machine.

She was scanning the rack as they were speaking, and she caught a glimpse of a light greyish cover, barely poking out from behind the blue of Fe-Male flying through a swarm of warheads. She pulled the greyish comic out and was momentarily disappointed. This was no Judge, Jury and Executioner. She perked up when she realised she was holding a comic of El Beam himself, though this one looked quite a lot scarier than the friendly, good mannered version showing her around his store. She smiled and tucked it under her arm. She would read this one too.

She grinned! Hey, that had to be a grin of being impressed, right? What else could it possibly mean? He was dressed in the appropriate costume, he stayed in character, of course she could appreciate the finer points of that. He was beginning to like this young woman as time ticked on now that things were loosening up. She was nice, after all and he never should have jumped to conclusions about her noobishness. That just wasn’t fair of him. To be honest the majority of the young women who came into this store were lost, especially when they looked like this lovely beauty here.

But, he was quickly learning that such stereotypes loved to be debunked. More than likely she really was a fan but jut didn’t flaunt things like that. One of more reserved type of nerds. He could appreciate that.

Coming out of his pose, he turned back to looking through the racks, knowing for sure that he had put that comic in there somewhere. It took a few moments but eventually he did find it! Nestled between a copy of Emerald Archer and Devil Dude.

>> “Did you make your costume yourself?”

“Huh? OH!” he blinked and offered her another fine smile. “Of course I did! The collared jacket and helmet was actually my fathers, the original El Beam! I simply used them, and changed the pants,” he leaned in to whisper. “They were bellbottoms. My dad loved the 70s,” he said with a shrug and shiver of distaste.

In reality Akshay had spent a lot of money making this costume. He of course made it himself since he loved superhero costumes of all typed and needed them on hand for promotional days like this. He painstakingly did his best to copy the costumes from the comics as best he could so normally his quality of work was pretty high up there. He was proud to say that at least he could achieve this type of good work.

Turning back, he finally plucked out the issue of Judge, Jury, and Executioner, and handed over to the young lady.

“I believe…THIS is what you are looking for?”

For a second she had a glimpse of the man behind the mask, then he was back in character. The thought of the costume with bell-bottoms really did bring a chuckle to her lips. It was passable in a comic store, but the thought of him walking down the street to work… well, small minded people were small minded people, whether their distaste be for mutants, nerds, or people who wear skin tight pants. She wondered if his father actually had helped him make his costume, she had done a fair amount of sewing in her time, mostly repair work, but something as complicated as the costume she saw before her… it must have taken weeks.

“I believe…THIS is what you are looking for?”

Don’t snatch. Don’t snatch. Don’t snatch!

She very calmly reached for the comic. Very calmly smiled in what was not at all a gloatingly triumphant way, thinking of the whole list of mansionites she was skipping to read this. She very calmly went to thank the nice El Beam for helping her.

“Yeeeeeeeeeheehehehehehessssss”

Well, so much for being calm.

She flared a brilliant red from the nape of her neck to the top of her beanie-covered head. Oops, now she’d gone an shown her true colours, true line jumping, kid threatening, comic-store scouring colours. She wanted that comic. Bad.

Akshay smirked, holding the comic up and waiting for the young woman to grab it. So busy was he posing that he had yet to notice that the young woman hadn’t grabbed the comic yet. Maybe she was just taking in his posture and position, marveling over him and his superhero-esque stature. Though it really wasn’t superhero-ESQUE[/b] since he was already wearing the hero costume! On top of that, he did find the comic that she seemed to be eagerly looking for.

Yes. He was a superhero!

…but why wasn’t she taking the comic. He blinked a couple times before he finally straightened up his position and looked back to the young woman again. Immediately he was slightly started by the look of frantic need in her eyes.

>> “Yeeeeeeeeeheehehehehehessssss”

Eyebrow…arched. Apparently she REALLY wanted this comic. So maybe she was more than just some random noob who got lost when coming into the comic store. The majority of the time these pretty girls had a notion of what they wanted but it was usually gifts for friends, brothers, or other nerd-like people that simply weren’t them. But this was not the case for this young woman.

He was…impressed.

Even when she suddenly began to blush a little at her actions, the comic store owner couldn’t help but smile. She was adorable. Smirking, he waved the comic in front of her.

“Um, you are buying this right? he asked, hoping to bring her back to reality.