Join the new world

When you try to do some creative writing, your mind is free to wander as it pleases, but it better make some damn sense or else some fapper is going to ‘tl;dr’ that caca you wrote. So, I better make it good, eh?



I take stock of the booze I have on my wall. If a sip has been drunk I’ll know who by and how much. I’m a nervous wreck when I’m sober. If my OCD hasn’t kept the shelf up to snuff, then I better wake up with a miserable hangover the next morning. My head is going to hurt tomorrow morning.

Waysted and Jimmy know exactly what's on my shelf. I thought I would be hospitable and invite them over for a drink. Dio knows I’ve not paid tribute in a while, but my friends deserve to get sloshed up tonight. I am nothing without my friends.

“Not sure what you had me over for this evening, mate. But an offer of liquor perked up my spirits when you were the one offering a drink,” smiled Waysted as he took a seat at my bar.

“Jimmy, you’re thinking too hard again aren’t ya, brother?” I asked.

Jimmy was staring at the lights above the bar, not the ceiling, but the under cabinet lighting that illuminates the top shelf.

“Heh,” Jimmy looked down at the bar, and moved to take a seat. Waysted followed suit. “I honestly wasn’t sure what to think when you asked us to come over to hang out, Wooky. My mind was half dreaming about Red Zeppelins a moment ago, and then I noticed my favorite drink is up there.”

“Would you like a glass?” I moved under the bar to fetch a couple glasses.

“If you’re offering…” Jimmy cracked a sideways smile.

I set the glasses on the bar and faced the shelves. With my back still facing them, I asked, “I’m going to be honest with you two right now: I know nothing about either of you.” I grabbed two bottles, turned to face them and began pouring them each of their favorite drink. As I set the last bottle down, I noticed it had a gulp left.

“Down the hatch, eh?” Smiling at them, I held the bottle out towards them, they lifted their drinks to clink mine, I tilted my head back and downed the rest of the bottle that had just filled Waysted’s glass.

As he threw back his drink and set the glass on the bar, Waysted wheezed out with a grimace, “AAAAHHHHH, goddam that’s good! Why was that on your mind, Wook?”

“I don’t know. If you work with someone, then I feel like you should know that person. We’re not robots. I sometimes forget there is a human being on the other end, you know?”

Jimmy slowly brought his glass down from his mouth after finishing it, but did not set it on the bar. Without me asking him, Jimmy offered, “I’m from Michigan, Detroit, actually; now I’m in Cincinnati, Ohio. My Aunt was in bad health and lost her husband. My wife and I weren’t finding work in Detroit, so we moved to Cincinnati and got a place with her. After obtaining 8 trade certifications, most of them for Masonry work, jobs moved slowly for me, but steadily. After my Aunt passed, we couldn’t afford the place, but don’t want to move because we have so much stuff.”

I nodded looking at the ring Jimmy’s glass had made on the bar, “I get the name change now.”

“Yeeeaaahhhh, that’s me: Jimmy Cincinnati, Jimmy 3 fingers, tube-steak and my birth name, ‘James.’ My brother in law is to blame…”

I looked at him and set a napkin on the bar, covering the water ring, “For your name?”

“No, for getting me into this wretched game, ha!” he slammed the glass down on the napkin and pulled out his phone. He showed me the game.

“eRepublik.” I smirked and shook my head, “Yeah, it got us pretty good, didn’t it?”

Waysted chuckled while Jimmy continued, “When I say my brother in law is to ‘blame,’ I'm being facetious. He sat me down, made me an email account and made me start playing this game. Now, he won't play and I bring it up all time. He was Courage the Cowardly Dog, in case anyone remembers him.”

“Have you ever thought about leaving?” I asked.

He pursed his lips, pointed to his glass and tapped with a finger, “Another please.” When his glass was refiled he continued, “I don't know how to leave and I wouldn't want to. I have met people on eRep that span Facebook, YouTube, skype, IRC and multiple forums. I could stop fighting working and training, but I can't quit the community.” He stared at his filled glass.

Waysted and I nodded in agreement.

Waysted looked at me, raised his eyebrows then looked at his glass, “Empty already, Wook?”

I laughed. “The shelf is not empty,” I turned around, walked out of the bar to the next room, grabbed another bottle in the back stock and returned. As I opened it up and began to pour a refill, Waysted covered his glass.

“One moment,” he furrowed his brow, watching his fingers block that sweet nectar from the bottle. “I was a musician until I was forced to give it up because of my ALS,” (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord) “In 2010 I hurt my shoulder on my day job, got 6 weeks to recover, and found Erep on a free games site. I really enjoyed the media module.”

“Oh man, that is EXACTLY why I liked erep, too!” Waysted’s hand backed off from his glass. I poured him a longer shot. I grabbed myself a glass and filled mine the same height.

Jimmy threw back his second shot, set the glass on the bar and said, “Wooky, I think I’ll need a beer, man.” I obliged.

Waysted started again, “I read the articles everyday. I guess you can say I am addicted to it.”

“I’m addicted to writing,” Jimmy agreed. “I can’t stop myself.”

“I also thought the best days came when I reached Titan level, when it used to mean something, and getting into Congress under the SFP banner.” Waysted went to drink the glass, re-thought that and raised his glass. Jimmy and I did the same. “To when it used to mean something, mates.” He downed that heftier, second shot.

Jimmy and I drank too, but not finishing our drinks entirely. I said, “Man. The Resource Wars though. That definitely was a trip down memory lane, huh?”

Jimmy nodded, “We were celebrating a war victory, hearing about the new game features and discussing the debates on IRC. That was fun. To what are you referring, Wooky?”

“Oh, dude, I just remembered. Were you around for the Hello Kitty and Lion King battles? Phew! The conversations on IRC these past few weeks no where eclipsed the excitement of the organization, fighting and media from those days, but it was damn close enough. It quenched the thirst many of us had been missing for a long time.”

“You might say after that, v1 erep we lost many friends.” Waysted finished his drink.

To be continued…



G’nite my lovelies. We’ll talk more later.