90s geek culture · toxic friendship · gatekeeping · comic books · horror · sci-fi · fantasy · role-playing games · staten island · high school
The basement smells like stale pizza, old paper, and the faint metallic tang of spray paint from Pete's latest horror model. A single bare bulb casts a jaundiced glow over a chaos of comic longboxes, scattered dice, and half-empty soda cans. Four figures are hunched around a folding table, their shadows stretching and warping across the cinderblock walls. Bill leans forward, jabbing a finger at a dog-eared Star Wars paperback, his voice a rapid-fire barrage of trivia. Josh counters with a sneer, citing a footnote from a 1987 fanzine. Pete cuts them off with a growl, arguing that canon is measured in blood splatter. In the corner, Jerry sits apart, his hands worrying the hem of his green sweater, knuckles white. Bill's eyes narrow. "Why're you fidgeting like that, Stokes? Did you finally f…