The Roof: Sunshine In A Bag

[Diego Zapata]

"I'm both annoyed and relieved that I missed this crazy chronocalypse."

[Basil Benson]

"Only good thing to come of it was my maybe lady friend saying yes to going to the Halloween party with me. Everything else was a clusterfuck."

[Diego Zapata]

"Obviously punching a time-traveling nazi isn't on your bucket list."

[Basil Benson]

"Mmmm." He responded while he took a drag of his cigarette.

"I'm... not really like the others here. Haven't the spine for hero work I'm afraid.

Just thinking about being violent to others makes my stomach turn a bit no matter how much they deserve it, so I don't have any good mission stories or anything.

Sorry."

[Diego Zapata]

"Dude, that's fine. If everyone was like that nobody would need X-Men. There'd be fewer cops like my mom, dad, and big sis putting themselves in danger too."

[Basil Benson]

"Maybe. But such utopia shall never be.

We collectively enjoy being knobs far too much to stop now." He laughed.

[Diego Zapata]

"Drunken ones at that," he grinned before making a silent toast and drinking.

[Basil Benson]

"Always!"

Basil sighed again, currently trying not to think about his own problems, he was back on Diego's.

"Have you been doing your training in the Danger Room? I'm told that's as important as eating your vegetables and staying off 'the dope'."

[Diego Zapata]

"Yeah," he answered with a grin, "And it's totally awesomesauce. I mean, the entry exam course took me a few tries but the room's holowhatevers are so realistic it's insane."

[Basil Benson]

"I've never seen it in action, but I do hear it's quite impressive." Basil agreed.

[Diego Zapata]

"Seriously? Duuude, why not? You don't have to do training in it. Go moonwalking or, hell, reenact the Battle of Hoth or something."

[Basil Benson]

""IIIIIIiiii dunnnoooooh.

It's kind of important equipment, isn't it? Training is more important than me doing my best 'Ace Rimmer'."

[Diego Zapata]

"Counterpoint: How can one have access to a freakin' holodeck and not goof off."

"Also, who's Ace Rimmer?"

[Basil Benson]

"Mmmmaybe. But faffing about is the only thing I could make use of it for. Seems like a waste of good time someone else could be using it to train."

Basil was starting to feel tipsy, so the concept Diego didn't care as much as he did about this topic didn't quite tick, considering he had asked.

"The alternate universe version of the main antagonist in BBC series 'Red Dwarf'. He's everything Arnold Rimmer isn't. Cool, suave, dashing, heroic, good with ladies."

[Diego Zapata]

"So... me?" he joked, fruitlessly trying to smooth his hair back.

[Basil Benson]

That got Basil to laugh very hard. So hard in fact, that he became visible.

"Ace Rimmer dislocated both his arms behind ears, popped them behind his own shoulders and slipped between his bonds to rescue the princess Beryl Bonjela from Nazis. Then he shot the pilot of the plane he was flying in, wrestled an alligator in the cargo hold of said unmanned plane while it simultaneously went down and blew up thanks to a lit dynamite bundle, lasso'd the alligator and rode it through the sky like a surfboard into a Nazi officer, and then stole his parachute so he could land safely on the ground.

Some green baboon beat your brains into chutney and now you're drinking on the roof with me.

Sooooooooo nnnnnnoooooooo. Not as such."

[Diego Zapata]

"It was more of a shoggoth," he rather weakly pointed out.

[Basil Benson]

"A word which could also be applied to my own reason for drinking.

Amorphous gelatinous beings 2, fro'd sad sacks on roof:0."

[Diego Zapata]

"You're dating a tentacle monster? Have you been playing smutty Japanese dating sims?"

[Basil Benson]

"I think you might be confusing your Lovecraft." Said the librarian because duh.

"A shoggoth is more akin to a sentient amoeba capable of creating whatever it needs at the time, but primarily fond of superfluous eyeballs, mouths and pseudopodia: little jelly like, temporary appendages amoebas can make to move themselves about.

You might be thinking of Nyarlathotep, the crawling chaos. He can also shapeshift and many of his forms have tentacles."

He very pointedly didn't answer the question.

[Diego Zapata]

"Well then Amorphous gelatinous beings 1," he smirked. "And again... girlfriend or... wait... the French girl? Colette?"

[Basil Benson]

"Oui." He responded, rummaging his left hand around for those bottles again.

"Fittest protozoan-like lifeform on this side of the Danube."

[Diego Zapata]

"Good catch, man. She gave me awesome cookies and is, therefore, my friend forever."

[Basil Benson]

Basil went invisible abruptly, and fell silent for a moment before speaking. Without being able to associate his silence to a face, he seemed to just be distracted by trying to get the cap off his bottle.

"Thank you.

Though the way things are going maybe not for much longer."

[Diego Zapata]

"Are you sure it isn't just a misunderstanding between you two?"

[Basil Benson]

"It's not just this." Basil admitted.

"But I probably shouldn't go into it. Free Patron only buys a stranger so much leeway to dump." He chuckled, changing the subject.

" What're you into when you're not fighting imaginary bad guys Diego?"

[Diego Zapata]

"I... uhh... draw a webcomic about space cops..." he answered, "So... yeah... not Ace Rimmer."

[Basil Benson]

Basil took out his phone.

"So you write comics about the ISSP. You have a tumblr or a dev-art or a website or what not?"

[Diego Zapata]

"The latter two. But the comic is at spaceprecinct999.comixspot.com."

[Basil Benson]

Basil went to the website on his phone, and looked for a gofundme, patreon, PayPal or Google wallet link. He did not comment on the comic itself.

"I'll give it a read through. I'm sure it's fantastic."

[Diego Zapata]

"It's been getting more readers since I upgraded my art software. And basing the main character's new partner on my mutation maaay have attracted a few furries."

He did, in fact, have a Patreon link. The current strip on the front page featured an interrogation scene with a blue guy and some kind of alien tiger man questioning a roach-like alien in classic good cop, goofy cop pretending to be bad cop fashion. It was pretty well drawn and colored.

[Basil Benson]

Basil would end up donating later, when Diego wasn't around: that way he wouldn't make the connection.

"I like your style. Who's your influence? " Basil then scrolled back a bit to look at previous pages.

[Diego Zapata]

"Would you even know the names I'd throw at you?"

The art quality did drop noticeably about a few dozen pages back, and if Basil took a look at page one he'd see Diego had improved a hell of a lot since he started. Content-wise, the comic was a largely comedic creature with occasional detours into more serious science fiction.

[Basil Benson]

"Does it matter? I mean you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, just found it interesting."

[Diego Zapata]

"No, I just... nevermind..."

He proceeded to list a few names ranging from comic books to manga and even other webcomics. "... and Andre Jacquard, who does this freaky comic about a girl who can see the future. It's in French though so I 'm only as current as the translated version."

[Basil Benson]

"Colette might be willing to help you." Basil replied. "Of course, I suppose I could as well, but not sure you'd be comfortable with the idea of me reading to you."

[Diego Zapata]

"Nah, it's cool. It gets, like, super dark and head-trippy. Total trigger warning territory."

[Basil Benson]

His blazer shrugs.

"Just a thought.

Keep drawing. You're getting better." He states, putting his phone away.

[Diego Zapata]

"Thanks man," he smiled slightly drunkenly.

"And what do you do when not... well, whatever you do usually?"

[Basil Benson]

"Nothing." He replied.