My Cosplayer Girlfriend Likes To Watch 24

"It's nice to take a break of all the work and just go out and spend time together, isn't it?"

Janine was as right as she could ever possibly be, it was indeed, very nice to go out together and just go out on a date like a normal couple, rather than being caught up in work, or constantly traveling all over the place because her day job required her to be on the move. After all, even if it was a fraction of where her income came from, Janine quite enjoyed going to cons and cosplaying there.

But just going to a mall and having a regular grand old time together, especially considering the mall was going to be closing down soon and thus there wouldn't be more opportunities to visit it, that was very nice as well.

"Aw, this is why I love hobby shops in the more hidden places in malls," Janine gushed, as she looked through the glass on the store front. While most people would indeed be traversing the more popular areas of the mall, where the most popular stores were, as well as the food court, Janine had pretty much made a beeline for the backend, out of the way shops hidden in a corner. 

It was always interesting to note there was a store that sold videogames right next to a sex shop, and a comic book store right next to that, which also happened to sell foreign goods and was a hub for nerds that liked to collect memorabilia from shows. It was a relatively big store, and even had a second story. Despite being this far out of the way, the varied selection and access to merchandise of obscure shows kept a very loyal audience coming back, and the access to mainstream products kept a more casual audience visiting as well.

It was also a place where Janine usually bought props, though most of the ones she bought from this shop specifically were among the more fragile kind, and thus went into her collection room and were not, in fact, used as part of her cosplays. At least not since she tried to swing a prop katana and its fake edge flew off and smashed a window. 

Even if the props were of decent quality, fictional weapons were not always designed with practicality in mind.

Just going out and shopping, and spending all that hard earned cash, was actually pretty fun. Shopping therapy could be something usually seen as the domain of teenaged girls and trophy wives, but as it turns out it's all about what you buy and who you buy it with, and buying stuff you like is an universal joy.

Janine turned to you, with a puppy dog's smile on her face. "They have my favorite comic book," she said, pointing at a... frankly overpriced looking comic book.

You looked at it through the glass, then raised an eyebrow at her, then looked back at it.

Gunblood number 19, with the subtitle, Guns, Blood and Glory, with the cover art featuring a man griting his teeth, holding the titular guns, covered in blood, and presumably, the woman hanging off of him clad only in what could only be passed as superhero themed lingerie, was Glory. 

It also had the label 'uncensored'.

"I've never been able to find the uncensored version!" she said, "in all the others they take out the scene where Gunblood-"

The bell rang, and out the door walked a fairly overweight man wearing a bucket hat, a fishing vest for some reason, cargo shorts, crocs and thick square rim glasses, snorting. He waddled, more than walked, out of the store, stretching as he did. "Oh hey," he said, in a nasally voice. "Just stepping out for a smoke, you guys got business or-"

"I can browse a little while I wait," Janine said.

"Oh. Yeah. Cool then. Just don't rob us and we're cool," the young man said, taking out a pack of cigarettes from his vest and moving away from the store towards the bench in the middle of the alley that separated the buildings within the building of the mall. It was considered an open space for smokers by virtue of the ventilation system and the skylights that were open when it wasn't raining.

"Sure," Janine said. "Mind if we go in?" she asked, turning to you.

You shrugged, and then followed her in, and she went about browsing through comic books as she did.

The store was big, there were multiple racks with books, and the walls were covered in posters and shelves, there was also an entire section with merchandise from a lot of different shows, and opposite it, was a wall with more merchandise, but from clearly foreign origin. The counter was a glass display case, which had even more books and a lot of stuff that looked not unlike the more expensive props Janine would buy on occasion.

 As she did, you saw the first issue of the Gunblood comic book she'd been gushing over before, and you picked it up, looking at it as you did, it was weird, almost all of the books were sealed in shrinkwrap, but there were several that weren't, most being anthologies that seemed to contain the first issues of each book. 

"Oh, yeah - those aren't for purchase, they're like that so you can read the first chapter and decide if you want to buy the whole volume, pretty smart huh? Get them hooked with the first one, and then they'll buy the rest!"

That wasn't Janine, nor the employee from before. It was a higher pitched voice than either of them, and you turned to be met face to face with what appeared to be a short and thin, svelte young boy, in a ballcap, with his hair tucked into it, a jacket, jeans and a dark shirt, all a little baggy, like they were meant for someone a bit bigger.

You looked him up and down. 

Were you really seeing that in real life?

Did... did she seriously think she could pass as a boy, and even more importantly, did she really think she needed to dress up as a boy to enter a comic book shop and be respected in it like this was some sort of tired tv show using old and discredited jokes?

No, it had to be just a girly boy. For sure. There was no way something that dumb was actually happening.

"You, uhm, you don't talk much huh?" she asked, looking a little embarrassed, a pink dusting to her cheeks as she looked up at you. "Well that's okay I've been told I talk enough for two or maybe even three people!" she said. "I don't really work here but since Jimmy stepped out, I can help you, not to brag but I know this place like the back of my hand," she said.

You raised an eyebrow and gestured at her with your hand.

"Me?" she asked. "Oh, my name?"

You nodded.

"It's Bea- Bernard," she said, quickly correcting herself when she almost blurted out her real name, because of course she would, because this was only getting sillier by the second. "Uhm, is- is that the sort of comic you're interested in? Gunblood huh?" she asked. He? Whatever, if he wanted to go by He, then you would refer to him like that. For all you knew, you were horribly misjudging the situation and it was just a girly boy about to introduce himself with a nickname. Like Beansprout or something.

You shrugged. It was more Janine's interest than yours. Still, you flipped it open, and went through it.

Surprisingly, rather than the 1990s blood and gorefest that you expected, the first issue actually contained quite a bit of dialogue between the main character and the woman you'd seen in the cover of the 19th issue. Her name was actually Glory, to boot, and apparently the comic was a bit of a parody.

"It starts out lampooning a lot of the tropes that were popular back in the 90s!" Bernard spoke, smiling brightly, "but then it sort of started growing its own fanbase and it sort of became its own thing," she said. "Though I hear the author and artist always had trouble because they kept pushing the limit of what the publisher would let them get away with."

You hummed thoughtfully and nodded appreciatively at the background information. The story of the comic really was nothing special, it was just a bit of an introductory chapter mixed into an action scene of a hero causing mayhem and destruction as he chases a villain, then at the end when she gets away anyway he is thanked for driving her off despite causing far more damage than she did.

"There was also some controversy, supposedly the author kept making Gunblood's bulge bigger in every issue waiting for someone to notice," Bernard said. 

You spared him a glance. He didn't seem too particularly interested in this comic book story but he seemed to know a lot about its backstory. You gestured at the comic book and at Bernard, who coughed.

"N-No, it's not really my thing," Bernard said, "but I really like following the industry you know," he said.

You nodded, then put the book down, and gave another look around.

"If you don't mind, I could recommend you some stuff that's along the same lines? Or maybe you're interested in more serious comics, like the ones that Gunblood was a parody of?" she asked.

"Heeey~ I finished browsing and I've selected what I'm going to purchase, sorry, did you get bored while-" Janine said, as she approached, coming around a shelf. "Oh, I didn't know there was someone else here," she said, smiling. "Hey- I'm Jan, this is my-"

Bernard froze. "Uhm!" he shook his head, raising his hands. "Hi?"

"Hi," Janine said, blinking in surprise at the reaction she got. "... are you here incognito or something? Do you need help? We can call you a cab or something," she said, seriously.

"N-No, no, I don't- what, what gave you that impression?" Bernard hissed.

"Well you're obviously in disguise, and you're very jumpy, so I wanted to know if you're okay or if you need help," Janine responded, softly, "I'm sorry if I jumped to conclusions but better be a little awkward than not help when I could've."

"Sorry," Bernard responded, slumping a little. "N-No, I'm fine, really, I am," he said, waving his hands. "Ugh... is my disguise really that awful?"

"Well you're wearing the most stereotypical and obvious disguise possible," Janine said, softly. "I mean your makeup's on point it's just the clothes that give you away," she said. 

Was the makeup really on point though? Though you guessed with the beauty industry being what it was, she would just be seen as a pretty boy, rather than a woman, if that was how she presented herself. Ironic, the face was now the easiest thing to pass off thanks to the wonders of the modern world. "Aw, darn, I thought I had it this time..."

Bernard pulled his hat off, revealing his long black hair which came down in the form of a braid previously piled up and contained within his hat. Or rather, her hat. "I've been trying to pass myself off as a boy for ages..."

Janine giggled. "Well that's nice to know, I'm Janine, nice to meet you, how would you like me to call you?"

"I'm Beatrice, Beatrice Robinson, nice to meet you, too," Beatrice said, her remarkably pretty face becoming even prettier now that it was no longer set in a worried frown.

"No way, really?" Janine said. "I'm a huge fan!"

You blinked. A fan? She was famous? You spared a glance at Janine, who coughed, gesturing with her head to the comic book you were holding. You looked at the credits on the cover, and there it was, Gunblood's writer's name, B. Robinson.

"I'm surprised you figured it out that easily, most people assume I'm a guy," Beatrice said, scratching her cheek. "It's kinda by design, you know? Back when I started people wouldn't take a 'little girl' seriously," she said, laughing.

"Well the rumor's been persistent, some people refuse to believe it but you just confirmed it for me," Janine gushed.

"It could be a brother or my father or uncle or something else," Beatrice said, "you know?"

"Well, yeah, it could be, but is it?" Janine asked.

"I guess you've got a point," Beatrice agreed, a little embarrassed that she had essentially been outmaneuvered. "Sooo, you're a fan, huh?" she asked. "Of my work in general, or just Gunblood?"

"I guess mostly Gunblood, but I've read Rivet up until they moved you off the book and I really liked your run on the Blacklist," Janine gushed. "Though I swore vengeance when you had Wormguard killed!"

"If it makes you feel better, that wasn't the original plan, editorial mandate forced me to kill him off for the Black Matter incident," Beatrice said, raising her hands. "I had a plan to bring him back but then the book sales dipped, go figure, and I was kicked out of the project, and Leeroy was replaced as Wormguard entirely," she said, sounding a little bitter. 

"That was Gene Chandler, right? To think they promoted him to president and he nearly wrecked Wonderfont Comics entirely!" Janine said, pouting.

"Well, can't talk much on that, NDAs and all," Beatrice said. "It's nice to chat with someone that doesn't hate my guts for a change though."

"Whaaa, no, that can't be right, there's thousands of us who read and love your work!" Janine said. "Also is it real that you wanted to sneak a sex scene onto Gunblood 19? I'm about to buy the uncensored version, I really wanna know!" Janine asked.

"Oh, if you mean the one here, that's not really the fully uncensored version," Beatrice said, waving her hand. "And, well - it wasn't an explicit sex scene, it was always just implied," she said. "Hugo wasn't really comfortable drawing the sex scene in the first place so that was never in the cards."

"Aw, crud," Janine said, "I swear I can never find Gunblood with Glory in the fansites, it's always about Petra!" 

Beatrice laughed. "Well it was nice meeting you two," she said, nodding at you as well. 

The bell on the door sounded again, and in walked the overweight employee. "I'm back," he called. "Oh, hey, it's the lady and the hunk," he said, looking you up and down, wagging his eyebrows. 

"Down, Jimmy," Beatrice called, rolling her eyes. "You're on the clock now."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Jimmy said. "If you guys need any help with anything, just give me a shout, and don't listen to the hag too much," he said, "if you let her she'll go on and on and on," he said, waving his hand. 

"H-Hag!? I'm only thirty you brat!"

"You've been saying you're thirty for the past five years!"

"I don't know what's going on anymore," Janine said. "But I met one of my favorite authors, so that's nice," she said. "Should we go get rung out, or would you prefer to browse a little more? Oh, I've got an idea..! Look for a character you like, maybe I can wear their costume in bed next time?" she asked.

Well, wasn't that an interesting offer? 

The comic book store had a ton to choose from.