Re: Tandy/Alex: the comic book store
[Well, everyone did that: left an impression, though maybe Tandy didn't strive to. And Alex, who was, well - impressionable - particularly because Tandy had shown him a bit of kindness, had given him advice, and had listened to at least the PG parts of his story, was impressed. But again, that word was overused in the entire context. Alex appreciated Tandy, maybe was a better way to put it, both in his previous incarnation as text on the screen of his old beatup fourth-hand smartphone but now in person as a flesh-and-blood human with a pleasing arrangement of features.]
Yeah, I'll have to ask him. Best bang for my buck, or something? [Alex removed his hat, tossing it on the counter, and ran a hand through his mashed-down hair, trying to make it look...not-as-mashed-down. He was doing that whole Maslow thing and working on the belongingness. He had started laughing more, smiling more, engaging more instead of giving people a flat stare and flat tone and shrinking into corners but it was still a considerable work in progress and a lot of his sentences still came out sounding disinterested at best.]
Exactly! All his fault. [Alex watched Tandy kind of intently as he got his hands on the comics finally, holding his coffee cup in both hands. He didn't mean to stare really. But there was something almost soothing about how he seemed to fall into them. He had to give himself a little shake when Tandy asked about Saga.] Mmmm, yeahhh I think? Lemme see. [He slipped around the end of the counter and onto the floor proper, his walking not really walking, in a way. Almost drifting like a wraith, or something, like he had no agenda behind the movement. It wasn't really ambling or shuffling, just a kind of stride that kept him small, unnoticed. Some habits took longer to break.]
Umm, why? [Confused, tossed back over his shoulder as he crouched, shuffling through a box on the floor where he thought he'd seen issues of Saga, or where they should be, if they existed in the shop.] Told you, dude we can just swap 'em out.