Participants:
| Scene Title | Like a Wolverine in a Comic Store |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Christine needs to buy a comic for her brother, but doesn't know which one. Anna helps her find the right one. |
| Date | November 19, 2010 |
Even from the outside, this store clearly caters to specific crowds. Cardboard standees of Spiderman, vie with Gandalf and one of the many manifestations of Dr. Who, and small posters declare release dates for various comics. Once inside, it is clear that comic books are the main sell. Everything from the most well-known to the obscure are present, lined up on the walls and on metal racks, every single one bagged and boarded individually to protect them from damage until they are sold. The store is updated weekly, so all the newest titles are available. Off to the side in a corner are other merchandise, action figures, board games, and figurines that make this place a haven for geeks. Right by the entrance is the counter with a display of the many manifestations of dice, with packets of cards sold behind it keeping the cash register company.
Early afternoon on a Friday, horrible time to be working. But someone has to man the store known as Sam's Comics, a haven for the geeky and the nerdy. It's a calm afternoon, with not a lot of customers present today.
One of the people present is Anna James, who doesn't seem to be in all that great a mood… smile obviously faked, and her brows creasing into a frown unbeknownst to the girl. Still, she works hard, handling customers efficiently and in a friendly manner. She's been on television recently, loudly complaining about the Evolved and proposing drastic methods to contain them.
Currently, the girl seems to be sorting comics in one of the racks, having to lean over and thereby drawing the attention of the primarily male - and socially inept - audience of the place.
"C'mon, Kirkland! Just a couple minutes! If I don't do it now, I'll forget to later!" Comes a voice from the slowly opening front door. "I promise, just a couple minutes? You can help those tourists over there! They seem pretty lost! And I know how much you like directing tourists! And if you get bored…you can just join me in here!" At that, the body that belongs to the voice walks through the door. It seems to be an African-American woman in her mid-20s, in a police officer uniform. Christine Jackson is her name. As she enters into the comic shop, she looks around and starts to head toward where she things the Marvel Comics would be. Or where she hopes they are, anyway.
As the voice near the door sounds, Anna straightens and looks over. She forces that smile that everyone in retail eventually learns to perfect and pleasant, even if it's often fake. "Hello, Officer, can I help you?" The teenager asks as she heads over.
It happens to be that the marvel comics are the ones Anna was re-arranging, to accomodate for new releases and the like, so they're currently not quite perfectly ordered, but the comics are all there, so it's obvious that's the part of the store dedicated to the great marvels of marvel comics.
With a little smile of her own, Christine nods a little bit to the girl. "Hi. Yeah…I'm lookin' for a comic book…" She pauses and laughs. "Well, I guess that much is obvious, isn't it? I wouldn't be here if I wasn't lookin' for a comic book. What I'm looking for is a Marvel comic. I got a brother who was ranting and raving about it. I dunno. Somethin' about Wolverine goin' on a journey and fighting…Actually, I'm not exactly sure who. My brother hasn't been able to get it though, so I thought I'd pick it up for him. How many of the comics are there that star Wolverine specifically?"
Oooh boy. This is going to be tough. "A few hundred, ma'am." The girl starts with a faint grin, "Of the ones we have in stock… only two dozen." Anna chuckles before she continues, "I'm going to be needing just a little more information if I want to determine which one is the one you'd need."
"If you need one we don't have in stock, we can try to order an issue, but that might get a little expensive, many issues are just plain out of print, so they've become sort of collectors items." Anna continues.
Christine frowns. "Well…this is the last comic book I buy for him without know absolutely everything there is to know!" She states firmly. "Well, do you mind showing me the ones you have? I wouldn't imagines that it's too old of a copy. Maybe if I see it, I'll recognize some of what he was talking about. Worse comes to worse, I'll just buy him a random one."
And as such, Anna collects all the recent Wolverine comics she has in store, like she said, it's about two dozen. Each of them bagged in protective plastic sleeves, Christine would find it difficult to look beyond the cover. "These are all the wolverine comics we have in stock at the moment." Anna explains to the cop.
"I'm afraid it's store policy to bag and seal our comics, in order to protect them, and not to allow the customer to remove the sleeves until they have bought the comic." Anna explains before continuing, "So you'll have to go by the front and back covers of the comics, I'm afraid." She pauses, "If you have any questions, I'll be around."
Christine smiles a little at Anna as she collects and brings the Wolverine comics to her. "Thanks…" She takes a second to look at the girl's nametag. "Anna. I'll be honest, I'm absolutely horrible when it comes to comic books. The only things I know about them are from my older brother, and he doesn't exactly get out to buy them much. For a number of reasons, I'm sure. So your help is really appreciated." She responds with a little nods. "Is there somewhere I could put these all down and sift through them?"
"Of course, miss, no problem at all." Anna motions over to a table in the back of the store's public section, commonly used to demo wargames and the like, but also usable for this purpose. "But pardon me if I say that your coworker might not be patient enough to wait for a long time, you promised it would only be a couple of minutes." There's a faint amused smile on her face, but she doesn't press that issue, "Anyway, feel free to have a look, and I'll be here to answer any questions you might have."
Christine nods as she looks over to said table. "Ah…right. That'll do perfectly. Thank you." She raises an eyebrow at Anna at the mention of the person she's working with. "Oh, my partner'll be fine. He's a patient guy. Besides, he can always come in here. Anyway, he made me wait for him a whole twenty minutes yesterday just because he wanted a particular kind of donut from a particularly busy coffee shop yesterday." While her tone may suggest a joke, her face seems nearly completely serious, except for a little twinkle of amusement in her eyes.
Anna chuckles politely at the tale, then stands back, waiting for any questions that might crop up. While she does so, the store clerk does take a look at her watch, only a quick one, to determine how much time they'll have left. She's patient, but she can't spend all her time on a single customer.
After sitting down and searching over a little over half of the pile, she lifts up one of the comics in triumph. "Aha! I found it! Success!" She looks at the piles that's left and then looks back up at Anna. "Want me to put these away for you?" She asks hesitantly. After all, there are a lot there.
"No, that's quite alright, I was in the middle or re-arranging them when you came in anyway, ma'am." The girl responds, collecting the comics and heading to the cash register behind the counter, "That'll be nine dollar, ninety nine cents, please." The girl states, "We accept cash, credit, and debit, whichever you prefer."
Following Anna to the counter and placing said comic down, Christine waits for it to be rung up. Pulling out her wallet, she flicks through it as if trying to decide which way she's gonna pay. Finally she pulls out a 20 dollar bill and places it down on the counter. "Really, thank you for your help today, Anna. I know my brother's gonna love this. Honestly."
"Just doing my job, ma'am." The girl responds as she puts the bill in the register, pulling out a ten dollar bill and a penny for change, "Do you want a receipt with that, ma'am? Comics can be returned for store credit within a week, as long as they are still sealed and you have the receipt." The girl explains with a smile. "And do have a nice day, ma'am."
Christine stuffs the change into her wallet and puts the wallet back into its hiding place. At the question, she shakes her head. "Nah. That's okay. My brother will probably take the comic out of the bag immediately upon gettin' it." She says with a soft smile. "And once again, thank you. You have a nice day too." And with that, she's out of the store.