Things aren't always as they seem!
A hilarious tale from Matt's personal life where the situation looked bleak, and outcome could not have been foreseen + another very timely character profile.
Hey all - we wanted to relay a personal story to you today that just happened to me (Matt) just yesterday, that actually has an interesting real-world application. The situation seemed bleak, but when the full truth was revealed, we all got a hearty laugh out of what transpired. There’s also an interesting parallel to one of our characters, so we’ll share that as well.
THE GREAT STOLEN WALLET CAPER
I FEARED THAT I GOT ROBBED *OR* THAT I WAS LOSING MY MIND. On Thursday, I drove up to my dad's place (aka GUNK) to take him to a doc appt. He’s advanced in age and wants to drive the least amount possible. We took his car, with me driving. After the appointment, Gunk wanted to get breakfast, so we went to a restaurant of his choosing.
HERE'S WHERE THINGS GET INTERESTING.
We get back into his car after eating and I noticed my wallet was missing. Hmm. ‘You see my wallet, Gunk?’ ‘Nope.’ Went back in the restaurant, looked all over, nope, not there. Came back outside, scoured his car, looked under all the seats etc... nothing. Even made the ol' man get up out of his seat to make sure he wasn't sitting on it. He even said ‘yeah, I might be sitting on it’, but nope... seat was empty.
On the drive back to his place, I was racking my brain trying to figure out how someone could've taken it, or how I could've misplaced it... I even considered the possibility that me picking my wallet was up a mere figment of my imagination.
Got to his place. Checked my car. Wallet NOT there. Checked his car again. Not there. BLURGH. Dug under all the seats. Nope. Called back to his doctor's office, they checked. Not there. UGH. I even called the restaurant. NOPE. Not there.
On the drive back to my house, I'm starting to panic. If my wallet isn't at the house, am I gonna have to cancel all my cards, get a new ID, all that? If my wallet IS there, am I starting to lose my sanity? I couldn’t come up with a rational explanation that was going to have a positive outcome.
I get home. Check the spot my wallet is normally in... not there. On the plus side, this my sanity is not the cause of all this. Called back to Gunk and told him... he said he was gonna go outside and make sure that I didn't drop the wallet in between my car and his, and then he'd call me back.
So I proceed to get on the phone with Steph (as we always do to start our work day), and I tell her about this. Her first thought is to check bank accounts. No suspicious activity. Good. We then have this exchange. I say 'I literally went to two places with all older people. I can't see how one of them would've heisted my wallet.' She then says 'one of them probably got confused and picked it up on accident'.
RING. ‘Hey, Gunk is calling back, gotta go.’
I get on with Gunk. "Hey buddy what's your wallet look like? Doublefold, trifold?" "It's Trifold, Gunk." "You got pictures of your kids in there?"
...
.....
"Gunk did you find my wallet?"
"Yep I sure did."
"You want to know where I found it?"
"Yes of course I do."
"It was in my back pocket. I accidentally picked it up and put it in my pocket." (so yes, he was walking around with two wallets in the same pocket for a bit)
We both got a good laugh out of this... but now...
LET'S ALL PAUSE just one moment here.
Go back and reread this again, KNOWING that my wallet was in his back pocket this entire time. So, he WAS sitting on my wallet, it was just in his pocket. An older person DID get confused and pick it up. We were all RIGHT the whole time, just no one thought to look IN HIS FREAKING POCKET. We did the best with the knowledge in front of us and couldn’t fathom a scenario as simple as what the truth really was. (NOTE: We surmised that, because my wallet looks like his, that when we got out of his car at the restaurant, he muscle-memory picked it up and stuck it in his pocket… along with his).
It was the best Possible outcome. No theft. No loss of mental faculties. And got a great GUNK story to add to the pile of great Gunk stories.
This got us thinking about our next character profile, SERENITY, from Heirs Of Isildur, who’s entire arc so far is a parallel to what’s above.
CHARACTER PROFILE: SERENITY (Heirs Of Isildur)
Most of the characters in HEIRS OF ISILDUR have a tragic or troubled background, but none more than one who is truly the picture of innocence and misfortune: Serenity.
When we first meet her in THE CROSSROADS CONUNDRUM Issue #11, she’s been pulled through a rogue portal, into Mykal Isildur’s lab, sans clothes. She was in a lake with her lover when a vortex ripped her into another existential plane.
In front of her was a conflict like she’d never seen, with three people in a fight for survival. Based on what was communicated to her at the time, she was led to believe that KING LOVELORN was trying to save her from the evil pair of Mykal Isildur and Syndrome. This, in fact, was not the case, as it was Lovelorn who caused the rogue portal to appear, and Mykal and Syndrome were trying to stop him from any further misdeeds… but she had no way of knowing that.
When the laboratory exploded, she witnessed the death of Lovelorn (who she believed was there to save her), and she was badly injured. She ran off, into an unknown wilderness, with nothing more than a sheet she pulled off a machine in the now-destroyed laboratory, and a pouch that the fracas seemed to focus on.
She wandered aimlessly for weeks through the wilderness and outskirts and ended up miles and miles away from the laboratory, Shadow’s Haven, or any real semblance of civilization, until she happened upon someone that seemed to be suffering a similar plight: Phoenyx.
When they first ‘met’, he was in a near feral state after his own personal turmoil. He was lying in wait, hoping to ambush the one who had caused his pain and suffering. Once he realized Serenity wasn’t ‘her’, and once they realized they both had information the other needed (he knew where a hospital was to treat their injuries, and they believed she had encountered the one that injured him in ‘Syndrome’), they decided to partner up.
Little does she know that he’s not the innocent victim that he’s portraying. Phoenyx is probably the single most unredeemable character in the Heirs saga, as his narcissism, and brutal mistreatment and abuse of Syndrome was the catalyst for all that transpired after… but once again, she has no way of knowing any different.
Will her eyes ever be opened to the full truth of what’s transpired? And even if so, would she accept it, or is she destined to stay on this path that most would see as darkened and deceived?
****
We hope you enjoyed this character profile, and we hope you’ll come join us for the next installment of this insane story arc that is HEIRS OF ISILDUR: The Perilous Prospects Book Three.
CHECK OUT THE CAMPAIGN HERE and also, share your thoughts with us about the great wallet caper, as well as Serenity’s plight! We want to hear what you think!
Matt & Steph
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