You are reading: Obsession
Written by Dethnus on 07 Nov 2017 20:52.
My arms still stung from my first appointment with the Artist. I knew tattoos were supposed to hurt, but I didn’t know they KEPT hurting. It wasn’t that I was a wimp or anything, I just really hated pain. I looked at the bandage on my right forearm. Maybe I could take it off just to peek?
I pushed away the thought and continued to walk down the sidewalk of Cleveland. Clock had said it was only three, so I had another hour to kill until I met up with Dakota. After graduating from the Schulz Academy and getting our Obsession License, me and him had kept in contact. He traveled a lot, though, so it was always hard to get any time to hang out. Luckily, he was in the area for a bit.
“..that you?” a voice called. “Hey, Leo!”
I turned to see a massive man with wild curly hair jogging up to me. People moved out of his way and a few had flashes of recognition come across their faces as they tried to get a picture of the celebrity.
“Dakota!” I waved and waited for my friend to catch up. A crowd was gathering around us, sadly. “Never a dull moment, huh?”
Dakota shook his head. “Of course not. Kinda makes me wish I was still normal.” A few people were taking pictures now and some others were asking for autographs. They had recognized me as well, though Dakota was always a bigger hit. When you traveled the globe healing the sick, it kind of made you an even bigger icon.
“It’s nice to be popular,” I told my friend, smiling for the pictures.
“’Nice’ isn’t how I’d describe it. Mind taking us out of here?” He seemed slightly annoyed by it all. Must have had to deal with this stuff a lot.
I smiled and pulled my journal out of my satchel – its totally a satchel and not a purse, by the way. The pages shimmered as I flipped through the pages, summoning Atma and Caladbolg into the air above us. I grabbed Caladbolg’s black handle and Dakota grabbed Atma’s shimmering purple hilt.
Flying like this wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but it sure as hell made for a grand exit. I willed the blades into the air, pulling myself and the famous Red Cross up as well. I could imagine the news on the net now. ‘Blade and Red Cross meet up in Cleveland, Ohio! Could this be the arrival of a new Hero Team?’ Lord and Lady Star might get jealous.
The ground shrunk and the camera flashes ceased as we moved over a building and started picking up speed.
Again, flying with my sword wasn’t that great after a while when you just hung on to the handle. But it made for a faster trip. Kind of like how when you skydive you go head first to go faster.
“Mind if I pick up the speed?” I shouted to Dakota. He nodded, smiling like an idiot. “Hang on!”
I wasn’t as skilled as Falcon, the hero over in Chicago, with flying, but I could do it well enough. It only took ten minutes to get to the diner we had planned to meet up in. I landed on a parking lot thing – the ones with five stories that every city had – and we walked down to get a table. Thankfully, the staff was aware of us coming and had saved a table away from the street. There were still people in the diner that recognized us, though. They seemed to have good enough manners to leave us alone, though.
“So, what’s with the bandage?”
I laughed. “Really, that’s the first thing you say after months of being in India?”
“Actually, I started off by buying you dinner.” He point at the bandage. “But I do take notice of injuries due to obvious reasons.”
“Fair enough,” I said. The waiter came around and got our drink orders, then left us to look over the menu. “I got an idea a while ago, see. What if I didn’t have to carry around my journal to get my blades?”
Dakota nodded, the pieces probably clicking into place. “So you got one tattooed onto your arm? You know if it isn’t perfect, the blade won’t be. How many times did you have to redraw Dragonslayer again?”
I shook my head. “No, man. I got the Artist to do it.”
“The Artist? Like, Jonathan Green? That guy who’s crazy expensive?” He sighed. “Dude, how are you even affording that? He won’t just tat anyone.”
“He’s a fan, apparently. Likes my swords and likes to draw em.” The waiter brought our drinks.
“Do you still need a minute?” She asked us. She seemed really happy, too.
“No, we’re ready.” I grabbed up the menus and gave it to her. I ordered wings and some fries and Dakota order nearly half the menu for himself. She thanked us and went to place the order. I watched her walk away. Damn, what I wouldn’t give to…
“Should I leave a big tip?” Dakota asked, pulling me out of my head. “She might give you a number.”
“Nah, I just like looking.”
“Anyway, how did you pay him? Don’t expect me to bail you out again.”
“No, man, I got the money doing shows for some rich dude whose kid was a fan of mine. It’s taken care of.” I still had a little money left over, too. I had hoped I could make more money off the man but being famous didn’t mean people would throw money at you. It just meant they watched and recognized you.
“Alright. Well, you said you had something important to talk about?”
“Ah, yeah. Well, the thing is…”