A Home Away From Home - Chapter 1: Alone In a Sea of People
Mark Moore, aka Thalyn Chatnoir, the resident GothKat (TM) of the fandom, back with my first cohesive work of fiction in a long time. I've been sitting on these first two chapters for a while now, and am deciding to post them now, while I try to decide where to take the story. So far, there are only a few minor adult references, but the main characters are college students, ren faire geeks, and the like, so this is DEFINITELY subject to change. If you are under 18, use caution, and don't read the chapters that, in the future, will contain adult material. All characters, concepts, and events copyrighted to me, Mark Moore, aka Thalyn Chatnoir. Do not use without permission. As usual, enjoy, comment, and let me know what you think of my newest story series...
A Home Away From Home
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**Chapter 1 - "Alone In A Sea Of People"
**
The lynx sat alone in his bedroom. Bard College was on summer break, and his roommate, along with the other twenty thousand or so students were off enjoying their summer, or visiting family, or simply doing something, ANYTHING other than sticking around campus, aside from him and a few others who either didn't want to go back home, or had no home they could easily go back to.
For Jack Solace, there was no such option. There was no home to go back to. At least, not one he could go to this summer. His family lived across the Pond, and had no way to afford a plane ticket for him to go back. Intercontinental flight is expensive, after all!
His meager paycheck (plus tips!) at the local pizza delivery, or shit shack, as he referred to it, barely paid for the apartment he sat in, and food for his stomach (although he got a great discount, and when there were mistakes, which was often, as the manager was, to say the least, inept, free pizza), let alone an entertainment budget. His family, to be fair, helped where they could. They saved, and paid in full, for his education. No loans to worry about for this feline, and no defaults. In this way, he was privileged. However, with this being the end of only his first year in a new country, on a new continent, he had very few friends in the area to begin with. The fact that it was summer vacation only made it worse. Literally, everyone he knew was out of town. He was very alone, and very bored.
"This sucks," he thought to himself, as he logged into Pounced, which he had at least several times that week already. "One would think in a town like this, with a big bloody university like this, SOMEBODY would be up for hanging out, or at least chatting."
He logged into his account, clicking first on Browse by Area, then the state of NY, and began scanning. "A couple updates, but those are mostly creepy greymuzzles looking for a quick shag," he shuddered at the thought, "but nobody new. "Damn. I'm so fucking bored."
He looked through his bookmarks, searching for any updates on webcomics that he followed, some almost religiously. He found a new page of Better Days, which was starting to have a new, edgy storyline begin to unfold, to his interest, and a new Suicide For Hire that made him fall out of his chair, laughing so hard his sides hurt. Incidentally, now so did his head. He rubbed the rapidly developing bump from where his head met the edge of his desk, rather forcefully. "Great, now I'm bored, alone, AND my head hurts. I need to get out, to go do something. But first, some ice for this bloody bump."
The lynx stumbled out to the kitchen, and opened the freezer door. No ice was to be found, unless one considered scraping the ice off the walls of the freezer. Jack groaned, and found a bag of frozen peas, holding it to his forehead with his left paw, searching with his right for something to do, using Google. He typed in the URL, then typed "Kingston, NY" into the search bar. Then he thought a bit, wincing from the cold of the bag of peas, which was beginning to thaw, and added "current events" and tapped the enter key on his keyboard.
"Your search returned 3484 results" showed at the top of the search page. He scrolled through the first few links, skimming descriptions. About halfway down the second page of results, there was a listing that read, "New York State Renaissance Faire is looking for cast members for the summer Faire season. Students are..." It was an article on the Bard Observer's website. He clicked the link, and read on. "Students are welcome to apply. Food and camping area will be provided on weekends, with employment."
The cat wrote out the address listed for the fairgrounds, then searched for directions to the location. "I REALLY need a printer," he pondered, as he began copying the directions by hand. It was a distance away, being held up in the mountains, and pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, he had managed to save enough for a rusted out Chevy Citation, despite his meager salary. "Good thing New York has no inspection, just smog. This piece of shit would never pass at home." He noted that they were holding open interviews, beginning the next day. And he knew that he had to be there, or the rest of the summer would be as boring as it had so far. "Besides," he decided, "If I get in, I get to camp every weekend for free, and eat for free, and I can do my Altair Annunaki impression during the week. I get to have fun, and get paid for it, on the weekend, and I can go to work on the weekdays, and get paid for that, too! It's win-win." But first, something for this headache...
The lynx reached into the drawer of his desk, pulling out a small pipe and a small baggie of a green, leafy plant material that were sitting next to his iPod. He loaded the bowl, and took a hit. "Some people use Advil. I use weed," he mused to himself, as he took a couple more hits from the bowl, and felt his pain fade a bit. It didn't disappear, but now, he wasn't thinking about it anywhere near as much, and he returned the now half-thawed bag of peas to the freezer for another dinner, or another clumsy accident.
Jack grabbed his bag and quickly rolled three joints for the drive, and gathered everything together for the drive that he could. Now, there was only one major obstacle left...
"Now to update my resume... This is gonna be fun."
Jack spent the next hour updating and embellishing his resume a bit, making him look like a better candidate for the job, then decided to get an early rest, so he could get an even earlier start the next day. Interviews began at 10:00, but he was planning on getting there by 9:00, to scope the place out. After all, if all went well, this would be his home away from home for the rest of the summer. He had to make sure there were no snakes or anything. Jack didn't like snakes. He wasn't really afraid of them; the non-poisonous ones, at least. They just seemed icky to him for some reason.
The next morning, he was up at 5:00, an hour before his alarm went off. He rolled out of bed, and stumbled through the short hallway to the bathroom, and then into the shower. He rubbed his eyes with one hand, the other hand turning the knob to warm, and pulling it out to start the water. It was then that Jack Solace realized that he was still in his boxers and a t-shirt. He groaned, and stripped out of his now soaked sleep clothes, throwing them into the corner of the shower stall as he scrubbed his fur, trying to wake up for his drive.
He threw a nuke-able breakfast bowl from the freezer into the microwave and set the timer, pressing start as the microwave buzzed away. He reviewed the directions one more time, and looking up any details he might have missed. The bag of peas had been obscuring his vision the night before, and he did not want to get lost on the two hour drive to the campground.
The microwave beeped, and he grabbed the hot plastic bowl out of the microwave, closing the door and grabbing a plastic fork. He stirred the "meal" and added some cheese to the top, trying to gild the lily a bit, or at least make it seem remotely edible, then sat down and studied his directions, setting the bowl and fork down beside him.
He noted a turn he had missed. It was a turn, that, had he taken it, and gone far enough, he would have ended up in Danbury, Connecticut, not in Tuxedo, New York, where he wanted to be. He fixed his directions, then picked up his breakfast bowl, poking at it curiously. The sausage resembled a pizza topping, and the eggs looked like they were squeezed out of a toothpaste tube. the potatoes looked edible, but he could already feel himself getting queasy from the thought of eating what looked like yellow styrofoam. "The breakfast of champions," he thought sardonically, "Wheaties, at least, is made of real food. Oh well." and tossed the entire mess into the trash can, walking back to his room to get his outfit for the interview. He wanted to impress the new boss, after all.
Jack chose a black poet shirt and a kilt he had gotten before he left his home, and brought with him to school, and his black leather combat boots, which he had gotten from the army surplus store. He pleated the kilt quickly, having grown up knowing how to do this, and grabbed his keys and wallet, and put them into the sporran. He put on the shirt and adjusted it and the sporran, then put on his socks and boots, stretched, and stood up, taking a deep breath, stepping out of the door to his cramped apartment, and into the hallway that he shared with the three other apartments on the second floor of the building. During the school year, it was a bustling apartment building, with students in and out constantly. Now, less than two weeks into summer break, it was practically deserted.
And there you have it. Chapter 1 of A Home Away From Home. Please remember to vote and comment! Your feedback helps me to make later chapters even better!
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When you're finished voting and commenting, please continue on to Chapter 2 of A Home Away From Home - "The Journey Begins"!