2019-11-16 - The Pitch

It is a crisp fall morning in Gray Harbor with the sky clear and dark blue, the sun not quite having brightened it yet still coming over the horizon. The air immediately fogs breath and car exhaust alike as Raul opens up the comic book shop for the breakfast meeting. Who doesn't like waking up before 8 am to talk comics? The storefront is like it always is geeky and welcoming with a few mainstream recognized characters or displays and the deeper cuts interspersed so as not to spook your grandma looking for the MCU toy.

After opening up he steps inside, begins setting up one of the fold out gaming tables they use for dnd or magic the gathering, little black table cover, some empty coffee mugs for when Ruby brings the goods and some paper plates for the food she'll be hauling. He looks pretty set himself for the weather with jeans, a plaid button down, and a dark wool scarf, if only his shoes were a bit more woodsy he'd look like a latino lumberjack.

Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All was already sitting on the counter, so that generally meant Ruby had at least dropped him off prior to going and getting coffee and things. The huge Maine Coon is looking rather majestic as he is spread out across the counter and watching as Raul wanders past. His ears twitch just a little and then he goes back to staring at the door.

Ruby is hurrying back from coffee, the woman looks like she's either stuck in the 50's or she time traveled well into the future. She's wearing a red swing dress that's belted high on her waist and a black coat with a hood that frames her pale face. She has a box of coffee from Espresso and a box of pastries from Vyv's place. So it was going to be good. She enters and there's a bit of a look around, "Love? You setting up?" she asks as she hurries to the other room. "Geddy we're going to have company, be good." she eyes the cat.

Nicole and Dylan arrive together, walking from Nicole's salon just down the street. She is dressed for work, as she will have to return there to relieve lacy for the afternoon and evening; black boots with black form-fitting trousers and a black ballet-necked blouse tied at the hip with the ends hanging down. Over her ensemble, she wears her black leather jacket over it to combat the autumn chill. her hair is worn mostly down, though braids have been woven into the summer blonde locks at either side and drawn back to meet before being woven into one thicker braid, keeping her hair out of her face for work.

She's chatting at Dylan as they walk into One-Up Comics, as usual, she is doing most of the talking. She stops when they arrive, ending the conversation about some unrelated friendly chatter and looks about for both Ruby and Raul. Whoever is present in the front gets greeted and introduced with a bright smile. "Hi! Meet Dylan Osborne, aka, Rink! Artist extraordinaire with an amazing imagination and eye for art in many forms, and creator of GrayScale comics! Dylan, this is..." A hand gesture towards who is present and the name given, "co-owner and operator of One Up comics, and all-around fantastic person!"

Dylan does a wonderful job of making the already Stylish Nicole look all the more better put together, given he? He wears a pair of blue jeans that has a couple of rips in them, and a black t-shirt that has pink, green and yellow paint hand prints on it, and not in the, 'I meant to do this' sort of way. They are faded from the attempts of washing, but those stubborn things just won't come out. He has a messenger bag slung over his shoulder, the thing bundled full of sketchbooks, and once they enter in? Dylan's attention immediately goes... to the cat. Big, huge blue eyes go wide with delight, an 'ooooh' of expression for majestic Maine Coon. Fingers twitch, a pencil slipped free as if that beautiful beast is going to inspire a whole new set of ideas.

Thankfully, the hair dresser keeps him on track. It's 'Rink' that has his head snapping back around, a big, huge, lopsided smile offered up to anyone and everyone. "Hi!" Comes his cooing voice of delight. "Thanks... meeting." Two words, that's all that comes out at a time, even as a tinge of pink creeps to his cheeks for the profuse words of praise that Nicole grants upon him.

Ruby gives a smile when people come in and there's a wave towards the Initiative Room, "Head on back if you like. We're just getting coffee and breakfast set up." she tells them. "I'm Ruby. It's nice to meet both of you." she offers with another dazzling smile. Then she notices that Dylan has taken notice of the Dark Lord and she heads over to wear he is, "This is Stormaggedon, Dark Lord of All. He's my furbaby and graces the counter with his presence on workdays." she chuckles to that.

Storm flops over to his side, in a, 'Paint me like one of your French girls!' pose.

Raul finishes setting the table when Ruby comes in with the goods and hurries around. Calling from the room he's setting up, "Yeah just bring everything over here, I got those mugs out incase you brought one of those to go coffees you pour out." he explains with a brush off the front of his chair and an adjustment of his jeans. When he walks back to the front and spies the Maine Coon the animal gets a suspicious look from the man who then sees Nicole and Dylan arriving.

"Hey nice to meet you Rink, good to see you again Nicole." he says in a cheerful but morning gravelly voice, no coffee yet to smooth out the edges. He eyes the cat laying out for Dylan and adds, "Table and everything is in the next room, I hope you brought the comics Ruby is the comic assessor for the shop so she can tell you if it's an instant classic." he assures Dylan as he beckons the group to follow him to the large foldout table with a black tablecloth and coffee with pasteries... Delicious... Sugary... Warm... Morning pasteries. He gets his cup of coffee first though.

"Hi Ruby, good to see you again. I talked to Raul about maybe setting up another shoot sometime soon, for maybe a holiday promo?" Nicole greets. "Coffee and breakfast? Thanks! I am starving..." She sniffs the air and whispers, "is that... pastries I smell?!? Why Ruby, are you after my heart?" It seems the cat is after Dylan's heart. Nicole smiles as he becomes filled with creative excitement. "Hey Raul!" He too gets a cheery morning greeting before she looks to Dylan. "I assume you brought them. Right?" She chuckles then heads over to the other room to the coffee and (more importantly) doughy, flaky, yummy, pastries. "These are the good ones. Are they from the Patisserie?"

Oh. Stormaggedon! Instantly Dylan's attention goes back to the cat when he flops over, that animal cast a big, dopey smile as the artist trundles over, briefly distracted. A hand reaches out to give a careful petting to the furbaby, and in he leans to coo out, "I'll sketch." It's a promise, but one for later, because there is business to attend to. "He's awesome!" The man declares to Ruby, and then Raul once the fellow is spied further in the back.

"Enchantee!" Comes Dylan's welcoming greeting, the french rolling well off of his tongue and turned on both of the new people he's here to meet. "Brought them!" He assures, patting that messenger bag even as he follows Nicole into the other room. Pastries? He seems torn, a touch of those nerves clearly edging him towards a stomach that isn't quite ready to eat as the artist settles down into one of the chairs so he can start pulling things out. "Thanks!" He offers up nonetheless to the lovely spread put out before them.

Ruby gives a look to Nicole and then to Raul before there's a smile and she's looking back to Nicole, "I think another shoot would be lovely, and maybe toss some more private photos in for his Christmas." she muses as she winks at Raul. Yes, the redhead was all adoration. Unless he was arguing comics with her! "And yes, pastry from Vyv's place. Please eat. These things go straight to my hips and then I whine about exercise." she chuckles. She does wander over and give Raul a smooch on his cheek, "Thank you." she tells him.

Then she's settling down, Storm hops off the counter and heads over to the table in the other room as well, "It is lovely to meet you, Dylan and I'd love to look over things. A local comic book artist is always exciting." she admits with a grin.

Raul claims a seat beside Ruby after the cheek smooching and then looks between Nicole and the red-head when there's talk of private photos. "You won't hear me complaining, I can make time to manage the shop for a day or two." he says with a lingering grin before nursing his cup of coffee and adding, "Nicole was telling me about the comic, it's a fantastical take on people around town. Sounded like a real crowd pleaser for the market." this more for Ruby than anything.

"You should talk to Ruby about being a workout buddy. She's always inviting me but I make it out maybe once a week." Raul explains to Nicole as he gives his minor gut a pat.

For some reason, at the topic of photos for gifts, Nicole looks to Dylan and smiles, then back to Ruby and Raul. "I am sure whatever can be arranged. Business or gift-wise." She carefully chooses a pastry she can eat without making too big of a mess of herself. "I adore Vyv. I mean, I've barely met the guy, but, his accent is to die for and he dresses impeccably. He has a sense of humor that is dry but witty. Though, he was kind of mean to Rusty... being a survivor of Flu Plague 2019 though, I can understand... But, I was a bit preoccupied at the time to pay much attention to their squabble." Nicole is doing what Nicole does best, other than hair. Nicole is rambling. "I work out mostly at Kelly's. It's invigorating. Uh, to like, hit the things and kick and stuff. Yeah, I don't really know what I am doing yet, but it feels good. The training. And I am learning. If you like that kind of thing, I am all for a workout buddy. I'm not much for treadmills. Tend to get bored, zone out, fall on my face when I forget to walk and the tread wipes me out... Anyway!"

She smiles at Dylan as he begins to pull some of his examples out. "It's really fun! His comic. Of course, I might be biased a little, as I am one of the characters, but there are a lot of people from around town you might recognize. he takes the mundane of our every day and makes it all... powerful and humorous too. Who can't use more lighthearted fun in their lives? Plus, I got to beat up a metal head." She beams with pride for her alter ego.

"Local inspiration," Dylan coos out with warmth, and up one hand lifts to give a pointed finger to Nicole, who apparently is a part of what spawned the whole idea. He's already pulling out sketchpads, flipping through them to certain pages before he sets about arranging them. This part? It's all concept art, some story boarding that shows his thoughts for the theme, just to help set the stage of what he's thinking about. A quick glimpse will show this isn't all, because there are two quite short sets of comic book panels - what appear to be printed off and had originally been digital art work - and finally? So too is there an actual, real, living comic book, though a pre-production test to check for quality and approval.

The first set? It's a storyboard about the world of Grayscale, the concepts that go into it, the type of comic he wants it to be. There are also four individual sketches that are in a 'front cover' type of display, each showing off a different character. Firefly. Inquisitor. Studio. And that gets a point towards Nicole, "Style." He declares about the last of those. He doesn't seem to mind in the least about the other conversation going on, that big, brilliant, lopsided smile flashed towards them all as he watches.

Ruby gives a soft smile and she looks over the things that are handed to her and the red head looks over them intently and with interest. She gives a smile to things as she reads over them, "So which one is you?" she asks Dylan. "I think it's a great work. All the characters seem solid. The premise is pretty cool. I mean, who doesn't want to be in a comic book." she states. "So I'd be happy to help out with promoting the comic and things if you guys like?" she looks to them.

Raul takes a few minutes to check out the storyboard once Ruby gives it the once over. "So why is it all in grey with splashes of color?" he wonders with a look at Nicol and then Dylan. He then asks just a bunch of questions, "Is there a villian or is it just the adventures and odd occurences of theres heroes going day to day? How often do you plan on putting an issue out? Any ideas what the third story will be?" and with the onslaught complete he slides the work back to Ruby with a toothy grin. "Also do you provide cameos of comic book shop owners and employees who are selling?" the last one is clearly more of a fanboi request than a serious inquiry.

"I'm Style," Nicole says to Ruby. Looking at Dylan she tilts her head. "I think he's the creative mind and talented artist. You aren't in any of them, are you?" She gives him the easy to answer questions before looking back to Ruby. Pointing to Dylan again, she smiles. "If he likes. It's all him. I am just the blabbermouth. Mouthpiece. Hype woman. but -I- think that's great and thank you!" She looks between Raul and Dylan when Raul's barrage of questions begin. "I mean, I don't know if it is the right answer, but, we are in Gray Harbor, so... gray makes sense. And the splashes of color make it more impactful and eye-catching, I think. Personally." She looks to Dylan again, then back to Raul. "There hasn't been one main villain, just episodic ones that we vanquish." Looks to Dylan. "Right?" She bites her lip then smiles to Dylan. "If you have to, just text me something to say." Looking back to Raul and Ruby she shrugs a shoulder and says, "some things are hard to answer with two words... you know? Shit, I wouldn't be able to do it..."

"Uuuhhhmmm," It's a rather sheepish look he casts to Ruby at her question, a tinge of pink coming to his features. They all scrunch up for a moment, before he nods towards Nicole, though he does assume the unseen voice of the.. "Narrator." Those eyes cast a hopeful look to Nicole to see what light she'll shed upon the matter of gray versus color given just how complex of an answer that is. A brilliant smile greets her answer, his head dipping up and down, "Stylistic. Details." He mentions about the careful use of color to help define the style. "Right!" He says about the lack of villains thus far, a hand lifting to tap against the side of his head, indicating there are ample ideas floating around there, though.

"Monthly - Full," Issues that is, before his head wobbles back and fourth. "Patreon," One of those new fangled subscriber service things. He explains as one means for making a bit of money out of it all, some way to give something to those fans - if he ever gets them. "Shorts. Auctions." Of original art he indicates by tapping on the sketches he has laid out. But it's Raul's question that has a big, boyish smile curling to his head, up and down he nods in the affirmative. "And cat!" Because of course Stormaggedon is going to have to be included into the whole thing. "Sell here?" He taps the full issues specifically, hoping this is something agreeable enough, something of interest to pull in the locals, at least the ones into the weird of Gray Harbor.

"Auctions!" Nicole suddenly exclaims towards Dylan. "Maybe you can draw a picture of Sparrow and I jello wrestling that we can auction off at the jello wrestling event. Did I tell you there was going to be Jello Wrestling?" Looking back to Ruby and Raul, she explains. "It started as a fun debate that we joked we would settle via jello wrestling. Now we're actually doing it to raise money for charity." She listens some more, and when Dylan finishes, she adds, "I can, of course, take photos for promos for the comic at the store too, if that works for you."

"I personally like the gray scale with the splashes of color. It lets you focus on where the important things are or gives little bits of pop when needed." Ruby admits. "And right now I've not seen a lot of gray scale going on, so something like this might really be great." she smiles to that. "And you don't have to include me in any comics really." she muses to that as she elbows Raul lightly. He was such a ham!

"Jello wrestling?! How can anyone resist that." Ruby laughs. "Patreons and Auctions are really nice. Could help get it published into a proper book if you want that or we could help by putting monthly updates on the stores website. Both might be good." she nods to that. "And any promo art you guys want to do we can work into the store. I definitely want to help get the word out for you." she smiles to them.

When Nicole mentions two words Raul kind of blinks and then when Dylan reveals he's rather short on descriptive verbage the man kind of makes a huh sound. The rest of it just gets some nods from him until Ruby gives him an elbow for his nerdy attempt to slip them in. "I guess not, but -I'd- certainly appreciate... and yeah we can sell it here, but no pre-payment we'll split the sale as it comes but we'll give you a display and if you want to come in and do a signing or something we can help with that too." as he adds on to what Ruby is saying.

When the topic of jello wrestling comes up he kind of looks sideways at Ruby and then innocently suggests, "You know Ruby could wrestle she's pretty good at that kind of stuff." then for Ruby, "It'd be good advertising for the store, we can get you a One-Up comic t-shirt." it's kind of transparent what he's angling for her.

Smiling at Ruby when she questions how anyone can resist jello wrestling, Nicole says, "right? That's our hope... So we can hopefully donate a lot to the charity. Angels of Hope I think is the name of the one Joey chose? To help families that have medical bills with needs and Christmas wishes. Thank you so much for helping support Dylan's work. As his friend, I could be accused of bias, but, I love love love his work. All of it." Her smile then shifts towards the man himself.

"Ooh, a signing! That could be fun." She looks to Dylan again. "You think? Meet the Man, the Artist, the Legend himself, Rink." However, when Raul, then suggests Ruby wrestle, she bites her lip then looks apologetic. "It's.. the wrestling is just me and Sparrow. but who knows, if it works out well, maybe there will be future events! All for good causes, right? But you can totally get advertisement by offering something for the raffle or silent auction thing we are doing." Looking between he and Ruby she then says, "in the meantime, I bet if you just asked she'd wet t-shirt for you. Or, I mean, we could promo ad her in t-shirt for your website..."

Up a hand lifts from the man comes, giving a point to Ruby. She gets it! A big, lopsided smile comes from the man, and at her words of not being included? A warm rumble of laughter comes, but the look shows she? Isn't out of the woods when it comes to being made into a character. That hand draws back, giving a tap against the side of his head. "Whatever inspires."
Those eyes go ever so big and wide when Nicole suggests that item for auction, a low 'oooooh' coming from him. "Sure!" All of those suggestions seem to resonate, each harder than the next to figure out which to pick from. "Thanks. Alot," And those words come out ever so sincere, not that the man seems to have a bone in his body that is capable of faking emotions. "Web comics" And then his hand clasps together, as if a compilation might be the way to go. "Sell book? " A beat of a pause, as he lets that reset button come, "Physical volumes?" A compilation, another words, for those who just love to have their fingers on things.

Ruby gives a smile to them, "I'm sure we could put a physical compilation together for something reasonable. I've got a couple of friends who do binding and printing, so let me call them to see how much they might cost on getting it printed." she states. "And it's no problem. I like helping out the locals and I think it would be great for everyone involved." she tells them.

"I have some board games we can offer in the silent auction... How about Catan, Fury of Dracula, and a Game of Thrones board game... Everyone wants Game of Thrones but no one wants to spend eighty bucks on it." Raul remarks with a shifty eyed look hopefully Ruby doesn't realize that means he over ordered stock for that particular game. "You can take them before you leave." he offers with a motion to the Initiative room where all the games are.

"Great!" Nicole smiles to Raul. "Really kind of you, of both of you. Thank you for supporting the wrestling thing, but even more for supporting Dylan. I honestly do not think you will regret it." Looking between the other three, she asks, "anything else that needs to be covered?" Then to Dylan, "do you have a card or something you can leave them?"

"Uuuhhhhmmm," Comes Dylan's response, having already flipped through one of those sketchpads. It's one of those earlier concept arts of the four main characters of the comic, and out his information is jotted on it. He carefully separates it from the pad, and then slips it over towards the pair. "Thanks. Everything," He coos out, a couple of thoughts already coming through his head. And up he comes, starting to carefully gather everything up even as he flashes an ever so appreciative smile towards Nicole for putting it all together.