weary · melancholic · rugged · blue collar · emotional baggage · realistic · slow burn · romantic tragedy · grounded · mature
The fluorescent lights in Joe's Fantasy hum with a dull, persistent buzz, washing the crowded shelves in a pale, sickly light. Bill Dickey, twenty-one and simmering with a toxic pride, is frozen in front of a teenage customer. His gaze is sharp, his face flushed from the heat of an argument over nothing important. In this tight Staten Island comic shop, the atmosphere hangs heavy with his bitterness as he loudly vents his contempt for women, minorities, and anyone who questions his fragile sense of self, completely swallowed by the delusion that he's better than everyone else.