Now, don’t go thinking I’ve become this mushy-wushy ‘friendship is magical!’ sort of beast. I am still a mole, and I still prefer the depths of my basement-level bedroom to that of prowling the streets with Advrik and his growing pack of companions, but I have, to my surprise, come out of my shell thanks to him. An initial regret for sure, but the opportunities that I might have missed had I not been tagging along with him following that day at the cafe are fuckin’ staggering to think about. I mean, I have not one but TWO jobs now; One of them is, of course, still at the coffee shop that my landlord runs. The other is at the town hall, where I get to mess around with and fix all the old electronics the mayor has (thankfully) refused to upgrade.
I don’t really see the mayor himself a whole lot, but I do get to talk to the town planner, a massive grizzly bear by the name of Eligh. He’s an actual decent guy behind that political title and background of his, which is quite at odds with the vast majority of the current scene in this country(but more on that later). Whenever something goes wrong at the office, he’ll give me a call or text me asking when I could swing by and work my magic. Did you know that they still have a fax machine from the early 90s running there? Because the Loveless Campaign didn’t, they were furious when they couldn’t get ahold of the mayor on account of it.
Eligh and I share a lot of similar social issues it feels like. Or, at the very least, we both have problems that are adjacent to one another. He didn’t come out and say it, but it sounds like the big bear is heavily medicated; Lots of mental issues going on there. Not in a fucked up kind of way, but probably to the point that he’s only barely managing to function in his job and society in general, thanks to what he’s on.
Finally, on top of working at the town hall on commission and at the coffee shop full-time, I have joined Advrik’s little business called Side Quests*, which is his answer to the overabundance of Help Wanted ads plastered all over the bulletin board outside the mayor’s office, as well as the monster bounties and, surprising everybeast at the table that night, actual bounties on other beasts. He’d covered every base, having registered the thing as an officially recognized business, as well as registering for his bounty hunter license. I’m not sure how the latter is going to work out for him, but helping the various townsfolk shouldn’t be too much of a problem. He really needs the cash right.
Eligh has this roommate. No, she’s not his girlfriend or anything(he’s super gay), but apparently, a friend who had moved here from Canada just to help him get through life. No goddamn way I’d do that for anyone, but more power to her, I guess. Her name is Brigid, and she’s a fox. No, not in that way, though I guess I can afford to recognize the fact that she isn’t the hardest on the eyes. It’s not like anyone will ever read this anyway. The lavender-colored fur, in contrast with her jet-black hair, looks pretty cool, and the fact that she still styles herself as a Goth or Scene girl is something I can appreciate, also being a 30-something that fancies himself after late 90s boy bands.
Brigid is, as far as I can tell, a moocher, living with Eligh in an apartment that is literally across the street from where I write this, in one of the three two-plus story buildings on Main Street. She, like me, has a pretty colorful vocabulary and a spunky attitude that mellows out the second she gets around Advrik, whom, I might add, she’s dating now (no thanks to Eligh and myself).
Advrik had held a little gathering the other night, bringing the four of us all together under his roof; the meal that he had put together was honestly pretty good. A big pot of savory behemoose stew with some bigass biscuits and a pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. The night was honestly a good time. Had it not been for one glaring addition that I’ll talk about in a minute, don’t you worry.
As I mentioned previously, Eligh and I had kind of gotten to know each other during his visits to Toh’s Beans over the months on his way to work. After I got a job at the town hall, I talked to Eligh about the fox that often tagged along with him in the evenings, and from there, we sort of divulged our… friends… lives to each other and orchestrated a meeting to try and get them back together.
You see, Advrik and Brigid met back during the spring, shortly after we all moved here. Advrik, in his dumbassed way, saw the bear and fox together and assumed them a couple. Brigid, on the other hand, had become infatuated with the wolf and had, according to Eligh, never shut up about him despite only having one meeting. She believes in that ‘love at first sight’ bullshit, evidently.
Anyway, we got the two together, and they have been slowly developing their relationship ever since. They have been on for a few dates and even fought some monsters together, from what I have heard. I can’t or won’t say if they’re good for each other or not since it’s not my place, but I’ll certainly make some wise-ass remarks about them regardless.
Oh hey, Journal, there was one other glaring issue during the dinner the other night that I am now going to dive into, so get ready, okay? As it turns out, Brigid is good friends with a certain big-titted lioness who has been stalking me around town for the last several months. And you know what? She had attended the dinner via an invite from Brigid. I was fuckin’ livid, let me tell you. The moment she stepped in that door and saw me, I don’t think I ever left her sight!
It turns out that her name is Callista Reigns, and she is the local General Practitioner. In other words, she’s MY doctor, the one I have to go and see next week. Fuckin-A! There’s a law protecting patients from their doctor’s creepy sexual approaches, right? I mean, she’s a beautiful beast, don’t get me wrong, but I have zero interest in sex or dating or anything. Not that I think she’s interested in the latter; she just wants me for my tentacles.
Oh shit, I almost forgot: I also met another one of the boarders here at Dawning Sunrise. Her name is Mossia Amberts, and she’s a Colugo! I thought she was a bat at first because of the wrinkly membrane under her arms, but nope! Her ears being on the side of her head should have been the first clue, honestly. Anyway, she’s ancient! She is in her mid-80s, but she’s a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who has traveled the world and even been on the front line of some wars. The stories she has told me about her travels have been incredible, and the best part of all, she has connections. She said that she would help me submit some of my short stories (which are one hundred percent artificial, btw) to some local papers!
Back at the end of August, Brickhedge saw a pretty huge upset when Garou Loveless, CEO of LovelessCo and the leader of his army of super soldiers, announced that he’d be running for President of the United States in November. Another goddamn businessman entering the picture was the last thing any of us needed. As I mentioned earlier, they had been in contact with the mayor and wanted to hold their very first rally here in town. This drew a lot of unwanted attention to the town, which had gone largely unnoticed for the longest time. And needless to say, a lot of fucking traffic came through town following that announcement; even the Google Earth mapping van came through. Ever since then, Brickhedge has had a fully detailed entry in every map app I checked.
The speech Loveless delivered was pretty typical for a politician, though he addressed the whole world rather than the country in which he sought to run, so that was strange. Advrik and I both agreed that there was something more going on there, something that Garou was hiding, and it felt dangerous.
Oh, and one more interesting little tidbit of info that came out during that whole fiasco: Evidently, Advrik had been in the same orphanage as Garou Loveless. However, it had only been for a few short months, as the bigger wolf had evidently been adopted. Still waiting for this to develop some more, but you can bet you’ll hear about it when it does.
That about sums it up for this entry, Journal. Thank you again for listening to me ramble. See you again soon!
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