Early close up - Gabe/Death

Gabe knew what he had to do later on today, and wanted to prepare for it. By doing so, it involved making sure that all of the door were sealed shut so that his business doesn't catch fire or anything while he was away. Dealing with any sort of regular vandalism was fine, but he wasn't too sure if that covered him in the terms of demons coming to play a terrible prank of setting fire to his shop. Those manga were Gabe's pride and joy, as well as a fun source of income. " Alright everyone, shop is closing in 15 minutes, please make your final selections. " Gabe's cashier and basically only employee would be working the floor for now as Gabe restocked shelves.

Hmmm, I wonder where I can find another good bookstore. The wandering about is cooling me down a bit, and maybe I can look a bit at the books before they start to close the shop. I want to go into this with a clear head. And what better way than to relax a bit? Hmm, book store, book store,..... book store! Oh thank goodness looks like it's still open. Maybe I can quickly look at a few items. ......what. Did I just hear who I think I heard? "Gabe?" I ask looking at the man who seems to run this shop...... "You own a book store?" I say with confused yet awed shock. Well then, this is very much a pleasant surprise.

"Hmm?" Gabe stood up straight and fixed his apron. "Tatsui? Oh my, seems as if you caught me at one of my little hobbies. " Gabe would say with a smile as he ushered his comrade inside." Yes, i guess i forgot to mention that i am the manager and the founder of HIT Scrolls Entertainment, with just about three manga's to boast from, three signature mangas. I made up the storylines myself. " Gabe was genuinely happy to talk about his work, but he then wondered why Tatsui showed up. After what happened this morning, i wasn't expecting to run into you until later on. Is everything alright?"

Wow, Gabe looks quite in charge here. One of his little hobbies? I don't think own a bloody store is a 'little hobby'. "Yes, you did forget to mention such a thing. Wait what? You MADE three mangas? That's.... just amazing." Not only does he have his own store, but he has made 3 manga himself!? That is fucking insane! Why haven't I heard about this before!? Rrgh, I need to remember the name now. 'HIT Scrolls Entertainment'. Damn, I didn't know that he had such skill for this. ......He's talking about what happened this morning.... bloody hell. "Well, neither was I. Yes, everything is all right. I was just looking around a bit for interesting bookstores before tonight, and here I am." I say with a mixture of sorrow from this morning and anticipation for tonight. Ugh. Tonight is probably gonna be another headache, isn't it? Oh well. It is still going to be beneficial to at least learn of what's going on in the Platinum Playhouse.

When you have a lot of good ideas , what exactly do you do with them? I mean, when the incident happened all those years ago, all I really had was time. I would write and sketch, it would be some kind of therapy session I have for myself. The only thing is that I pitched to the right people, working in lucky cover has gotten me a nice set of revenue for a down payment, and it all turned out to be a chance of a lifetime to start off with an investor that wanted to run all three manga’ s with me. “Gabe would beam with pride a little bit. “I’m mostly in charge of the storyboard, but I do draw a little for new character designs or anything of the sort. “ Moving on, it seemed to Gabe that he was looking for something to entertain himself with. “Oh, alright. Well, how about I show you the three manga’s that I worked on? You can take a look at them if you want.

...is Gabe talking about what I think he's talking about? Is he talking about the Eternal Divide? Wait, is he saying these manga of his are inspired from his personal experiences then? Oh lordie lord. He's now saying that his writing and sketching is some sort of therapy to him. Well, I can see that it could be therapeutic, but he didn't seem pretty healed this morning. He's now also saying that he pitched his manga ideas to the right people. Wait, he even has an investor for those manga now? That is absolutely fantastic.... yet also somewhat disturbing. Making amazing literature out of tragic experiences. Meh, I guess I should be used to it because lots of literature is based on stuff like that.... but it just feels so off when someone your close to is doing it. Huh, he is mainly in charge of the story, but he weighs in a bit in creating new characters. "Wow Gabe, that's incredible. I definently wouldn't be able to put half the effort you do for those." I say wryly. Huh? He wants to show me the manga that he made? "Oh, sure thing. I'd be happy to." I say eagerly, ready for Gabe to lead me to his works of art.

Alright, follow me. "Gabe would say as he went to a particular shelf, pulling out a volume of one punch frost. Handing it to Tatsui to see the description, Gabe would beam with a wide smile. "To be honest, One punch frost is an actual demon that saved my life all those years ago. I was really in a dark time, even though my actions probably manged to save a few people. I didn;t think of myself as a hero though, and i dont think this little guy thought so either. " Looking at the book once more, wondering if he got the costume right. "He's a Hee-hoo for fun. I remember that very distinctly. They were all gone with one punch."

"Sure thing." I say with excitement. I'm acting like a little kid aren't I? Ah, well. That is fine so long as fun is had and no one is hurt. "Hmm? 'One Punch Frost'? What's this?" I ask Gabe. Wait...... One Punch Frost is based on real shit that happened to him in the Eternal Divide!? Woah. That is some deep shit. I stand in awe a bit that he managed to save some people back then when no one knew shit with the assistance of this enigma of a demon. And they don't think of themselves as heroes and the frost just did it for fun? And all gone in one punch!? "Wow..... that is frighteningly amazing Gabe." I say looking at him in awe a bit. He managed to make a manga out of this brilliant character.... just wow.

I know.... to be completely honest with you, in one way or another, these manga that i started up are based off of my life in a bit. Like, for instance, the love game was based upon a woman i used to know. I was 18 and working for lucky clover, he was the bosses fiance. That one was complicated, but i admired her. I also had a back seat to see how she lived her life, the choices she made. "

Gabe looked a little sad. " Ahh, well... you get the picture. No need to be sitting here and acting sad. The things i took notice to and experienced, they gave birth to a sense of entertainment that others can enjoy. I'm happy for that, you know?" Gabe then looked to Tatsui. " Do you have anything that affected your life in the past like it did mine? I mean, did you managed to find a way to turn it into something... productive? Regardless of whether it was good or bad?

Huh, so all of these manga he has made are based off of his life somewhat. That is honestly astonishing. How can one have so much material to work with while only being at least a fourth of their way through life. Wait, The Love Game is based on him having a crush on a woman? Oh dear. He really is putting in what he has experienced and felt into his art and writing. That is really touching. "Yeah, I can understand that." I say to him. Wait, he's asking me if I had something that affected my life in the past like him. "Ah well, it's definently nothing as exciting or memory filled as what you experienced, but when I was young I got my hands on a certain book." I say reminiscing about what I felt back then. "It was, in many ways, one of your typical fantasy books, with a hero, a quest, a magical object, and them all winning at the end. But the author put that and much more into it." I say somewhat shyly. "I guess, reading it made me think about what I wanted to be like when I get older. It made me compare what I thought was good about the characters in it and try to apply them to myself." I say somewhat embarrassed. Oh god that was so damn cliché what I just said, wasn't it?

"What was the name of the book? I never copyright material, but reading things that gets my mind moving is something that could truly awaken new and fulfilling ideas for the story. Well... the stories that i continue to think of in order to keep the series going. " Gabe nodded at the younger male and smile. "So, you intend to be a hero? I can see that's where you get your vigorous spirit from. In such a bleak world where heroes as based with the epiphany of labeling,maybe you will stand above all that? " With a laugh, Gabe brushed off that last comment. "Forgive me, sometimes i tend to leak my abstract way of thinking, don't mind me. " Though, it made Gabe want to ask a curious question. "Tatsui, have you ever imagined how your future self would actually be?"

"Well, it was a series named The Belgariad. I think that this series could definently help your mind get moving with new ideas." I say to Gabe concerning my childhood inspiration. Honestly, it's embarrassing talking about a somewhat clichéd fantasy book as my inspiration for being a good person in life. "Um, well, yes." I say embarrassed even more. God damnit it's so cliché and embarrassing me wanting to be a hero, but I can't help it. I want to be able to help others, that's the definition of being a hero, right? Yes, I think it would be where my vigor comes from. Oh dear this is so damn embarrassing. I can feel myself brightening up like Rudolph's red nose. "Well, it's okay." I say abashed. I guess he does seem to sometimes show how he thinks of things. "Well, before what happened back then, I was thinking of getting into an administrative role in the government. Now though..... it would be best to not make plans for the future in our current predicament." I say to Gabe. Yeah, we can't really go ahead and make plans when are lives are at stake every day and we are literally state terrorists.

"After i'm done with you, i'll check my stock to see if we have anything of the sort, alright? I would be happy that I would have someone else to talk about the product once I read a few chapters or so." So he wanted to make a few moves involving the government?" The government? Well, what could you hate about that, well paid, good career? Maybe it's just full of a few bad aspects of the job that you don't like, which can change. So don't worry, I'm sure once you find out what you truly want to do concerning our predicament, you could still pursue a job like working for the government. "

To shape it in a way that it wouldn't be perverted anymore. Gabe wouldn't dismiss Tatsui's dreams, regardless of what they were. It wasn't like a forced idea that changed people for better or worse like trinity's, it was something that he wanted for himself.

Hmm, so he's going to check if he has anything like it? "Yeah, it would be nice to be involved in such talks with you Gabe." I say to him. Wait... did I ever consider the pay of a government job? "Well, I wasn't really considering the pay, but that is nice too. It's more like I wanted to help people as a part of the government. But with what we have learned so far.... I think that would be a bad idea currently." I say to Gabe. "Who knows what would happen if they discover that a government employee was doing such things. So I guess we'll have to work outside the system for now." I say. Seriously, it would be dangerous and very compromising. If they had any suspicions they would have the authority to have me immediately interrogated and then I would just be found and and... who knows what would be done to me?

"Yes...well.. you know it is nowadays. The more we learn, the more the growth that we call "uncertainty" continues to poke its head into our lives. Staying focused and vigilant is all that we could do. " Gabe then thought of something. "i remember being on a free run with that hotshot cop. You have to pay quite a bit of money, but he takes you on these police runs. Why don't you try that for once if you have enough to spare. Could build up quite a bit of courage, a hands on experience with law enforcement. Maybe you should be a city employee instead of a government employee. When you think about it, the taxes we pay would go towards your salary, so your sustainability of currency would be based upon your job as a public servant. Ever thought of that Tatsui?

Gabe then smiled. " Regardless, you have a friend in me. "