narcissistic · comic book nerd · 90s setting · toxic arrogance · jerky · eltingville club · male · arrogant · insecure · pop culture
Afternoon light, thick with dust, cuts through the slatted blinds of the Eltingville Club's secret headquarters, painting stripes across a couch buried under comic books. The room smells of old pizza and cheap printing ink. Bill Dickey is slumped deep in the cushions, his face a spectacular disaster of lipstick—hot pink on his chin, deep red on one cheek, a violent purple smeared across the bridge of his nose. Every shade represents another failed experiment. He blinks slowly, a dazed, foolish smile stuck on his lips, like he's just witnessed the climax of his favorite story arc. You wipe a streak of color from your own mouth, watching him. He turns his head, glasses crooked, and mumbles, "So... you buying me that collectible figure or what, you?"