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[Open] Hail to da King
There is a Burger King in Pumpkin Hollow.
Why? That is a fantastic question. Considering the fact that this is a Victorian-esque village in a fantasy world that has never even heard of Burger King, one can only assume it was created by a modern individual
with a mischievous sense of humor. This is only further implied by the interesting set of rules on the wall...
At some point during February of 16:55, the role of "The Burger King" is bestowed upon one Capochin Bastone, Grillmaster Extraordinare, by the Daedric Prince Sheogorath. Since then, he's hired a few of the locals (mostly younger folks) to work the shop and checks in on it daily, but largely lets the thing run itself. Still, he could really use a general manager...
Well, anyway. Feel free to grab a seat, get yourself a Whopper, check out the Help Wanted sign, or just hang out! If you're lucky with your timing, you may just see a little blue man in a fuzzy red robe far too long for him and a paper crown hop up onto the enormous throne to hold court. He sure does look pleased with himself.
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"You got it."
A cigarette is passed to Tenna as Capochin shoulders his way out the door. He fishes an old timey lighter out of his pocket, lighting up before offering the small flame to Tenna. Capochin takes a drag while Tenna lights his cigarette, waiting until Tenna goes to do the same before he speaks again.
"So what's up with you and Spamton?"
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"Th-That's—" Hold on, let him get one more drag...aaand he's coughing again. "Who- Who said anything about SPAMTON? I-I mean, I sure didn't!! I, haha, I didn't even know the guy WORKS here, wh-why would I...!!"
That hole is just getting deeper and deeper by the second, and Tenna can't seem to stop himself from using his own hands to keep digging. Maybe if he just keeps this cigarette in his mouth, he can at least get himself to stop talking already...
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"But ya do know him." Otherwise Tenna would have asked who that is. And Kris knows him, besides, so two and two must surely equal four. "And you was lookin' at his apron. Listen, bud, if anyone knows what a tense situationship looks like, it's me, capishe? My dumb ass held a candle for the same fella for 40 years, you won't hear no judgement from me."
Okay maybe a little bit of judgement, Spamton is incredibly weird. Mostly harmlessly so, as far as Capochin is aware. (Aside from evidently attacking zombies with his teeth in order to protect the Burger King to the death.) But building nests of weird blue eggs in the gutters and sleeping standing up in supply closets and spooking the owners of neighboring businesses with random bouts of manic laughter are certainly not attractive qualities in Capochin's book, and it's never really occurred to him that there might be something dreadfully wrong with the GM's psyche.
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Oh, he's really in it now, isn't he. Tenna takes another, much deeper drag off his cigarette before he can incriminate himself any further, smoke filtering out through the vents on either side of his head as he grasps at anything he might be able to say for himself.
"I'm not...holding a candle for anyone." And that's the truth, as far as he's concerned. "Spamton was... We used to be partners. Business partners," he's quick to add, as though that's the whole of it, as though that legitimizes anything about his being here. "That's... That's all."
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The thought softens Capochin, just a little. Enough that one can tell the difference.
"...Listen, all's I'm tryin' to say is, if youse two did have a... complicated relationship, I get it. I had a 'business partner' too. Got in too deep. Kinda wrecked my life there for a while. Hurt people, lost people... I dunno if that sounds familiar to you at all, but hey. Woist thing that can happen is I make an idiot of myself in front of some guy I dunno too well. Ain't like it hasn't happened before."
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"...I don't even know why I came here," is what Tenna finally says after a long, awfully pensive moment, and even though he mutters the words, the admission sounds entirely too loud in his own head. "Making an idiot of myself isn't the half of it. I don't know...what I thought would happen. What I would say, what I would even do if I actually saw him, you know...?"
It's one thing to crow about wringing the guy's miserable little neck, but to actually find himself in a position where he can follow through... So far, it hasn't felt nearly as cathartic as he'd hoped. He sighs.
"Sorry." He flicks ash off the end of his cigarette, staring down at where it lands on the ground. "I don't want to make trouble for you or anything, I just... I don't know." Another uncomfortable moment of silence follows, before another admission tumbles out that even he wasn't expecting to make: "I almost wish I didn't know he was here at all, in this world — you know?"
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"I had all these things in my head I was gonna say 'n do. Told myself I was gonna wallop him good, give him an earful for stringin' me along for all that time, gettin' me in all that bullshit. But the minute I saw him, I was toast. It was just like before. Couldn't say no."
How do you hate someone who you've loved since you were 17? Especially when rock bottom came with a physical change and a ton of remorse? Especially when Capochin himself wasn't a whole lot better.
"...We worked it out. It's been... a lot. But I love the guy. Whaddaya gonna do, y'know? We was both shitheads. If I can get better, I gotta believe he can, too." A pause, coming back to himself. Capochin hadn't even realized how far away he'd gotten. He looks to Tenna, nudges him lightly. "What about you? You wanna talk about it?"
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"I don't- I don't know if this, if any of this, is something we can just...work out." Tenna takes another long pull off his cigarette, an attempt to calm the nerves that are attempting to very quietly ratchet upward into an anxious affect. "Maybe if I just... If he would just- tell me why. Why he left me holding the bag, instead of showing me how to use technology, or helping me make it big, or..." He flicks away more ash, then folds his arms over his chest, trying and only barely succeeding to keep his back from curling into a cringe. "Why he stepped out on everything...everything he promised me."
More than anything, Tenna wants to keep holding onto that anger, that indignation. After all, if he can't even do that, then what good was any of it for — his anger, his hatred, his pain, any of it at all — over these past ten years? But if even one of these things that Capo is telling him could be applied to his own situation, then... The minute I saw him...
God. He's already screwed, isn't he?
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"...Can I ask what happened? It's alright if not, it's just--- I only known the guy a couple months, but it seems like whatever went on between you two... left some kinda mark, I dunno. I thought maybe it was from his time workin' for Aster, but Kris don't seem to think so. All I know is that he's got more'n a couple screws loose these days."
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"We... Like I said, we were partners." He doesn't really want to talk about it, but there's a gnawing sensation in his gut that gives him the feeling he doesn't really have a choice in the matter — that, sooner or later, one way or the other, the truth will out, and so he might as well do this now. "I already had my T.V. Time, and he was already a big shot, but he... He said he'd show me how I could get...even bigger. That's why..."
His shoulders begin to hunch forward as he speaks, his cigarette, almost totally forgotten by now, burning down to ash between his fingers.
"All he had to do was just...tell me his secret. That's all it was. And when I finally talked him into it... When I finally got him to sign that damn contract, he... All of a sudden, he had to take a call. And when he picked up the phone... The look on his face... It was..."
The winds are long gone, but there's a voice still echoing at the back of his mind, burned into his memory just as indelibly as that look on his face: "Don't forget. You picked what really mattered to you, didn't you?"
"I- There wasn't even anyone on the other end, when I picked it up — the receiver, he just — left it hanging, after... I-I mean— What was I SUPPOSED to think? That he DIDN'T just try to rip me off, you know!? Haha... But... He ran right out of the room." He ran, and Tenna stayed. "And...that was the last time I ever saw him."