"Why...is this...thing...so heavy...", RJ complained as he struggled to lift the sudden dictionary that appeared out of nowhere, "wait...maybe...". Using the same trick as he did with the two relics, RJ had managed to get the book to disappear into his "soul plane".
{All outstanding tasks have been finished. Disconnecting user from TWBL in ten seconds}.
"Wait, what"?
"See you on the other side", Tatterhood said with a wave before she and Bellerophon suddenly disappeared. A second later, RJ's perception became wonky for a moment before the alleyway started to melt away and his own conciouness started to...flicker...
_________________________________________
In the blink of an eye, RJ was back in the familiar game store, standing at the counter with his phone in hand.
Confusion washed over him as he darted his head back and forth, trying to figure out what exactly had happened. A thought occured to him to see how much time had passed. Checking his phone's clock, he had expected that at least a few minutes had passed. Instead, he saw no time had passed between him being whisked away and him coming back.
"Was that...wait", RJ thought aloud before going for the obvious. He quickly scrolled through his phone's app list to see the [Grimmemoria] app still there.
"It really did happen...".
"Yeah it did".
"Gya"!
RJ almost dropped his phone in shock as he saw Tatterhood currently sitting at a table with her feet resting on it, right next to her wooden spoon. Additionally, Bellerophon the goat was currently resting by the chair's leg.
"How? Why? What"?
"I said I'd meet you on the other side", Tatterhood said while picking her ear, "you didn't dismiss my summon before you got sent back".
"Right...okay...before I panic, should I assume that only I and others who have this app installed can probably see you?", RJ asked. He had read a lot of works of fiction that handled this sort of thing before, he wanted to cover his bases.
"Absolutely kinda".
"Not helpful".
"RJ? Why are you talking to thin air?", a voice suddenly piped up.
"Huh? Oh. Nothing Mina, just talking to myself. What's up"?
The person that had just walked into the store was one Minerva "Mina" Harkness, a twenty-something woman that could best be described with the term:"alternative chubby cute". Brightly colored hair, an anime hoodie with satchel bag, curvy, an adorable face with glasses to match and a video game streamer. For all intents and purposes, the ideal women for geeks and nerds everywhere...if there wasn't a ring on that finger.
"Not much, just came to see my honeybun. Is she around?", Mina asked as she walked into the store and took a seat directly in front of Tatterhood. Surprisingly, it appeared that she couldn't perceive Tatterhood's existence. The same could not be said about Tatterhood.
"Who's she? She's cute", Tatterhood said as she corrected her seating position to stare directly at her, "what a pinchable nose".
"Boss Olivia's napping in the back. Want me to grab her for ya?", RJ asked while supressing his instincts to tell Tatterhood to stop. It also probably didn't help his nerves when he saw Tatterhood's fingers pass through Mina's nose like a ghost.
"Aww, guess I need to be in 'mundie' mode in order to touch people...", Tatterhood grumbled.
"Meehhh", Bellerophon bleated as he woke from his nap, only to trot over to Mina and rest it's head on her lap.
"That'd be great RJ, thank you very much", Mina said as she began to unconciously pet the goat's head.
"How is she not... whatever", RJ mumbled to himself as he headed to the backroom to go and wake up his manager. Unbeknownst to him, Tatterhood went to the store's bathroom.
_________________________________________
*Fwooosh*
As Mina sat, idly waiting for RJ to retrieve her darling, her attention was grabbed by the sound of a flushing toilet.
From the bathroom exited a young woman with a plain in what Mina could only describe as peasant cosplay. What stood out to her though was the giant wooden spoon she was wielding.
"Maybe it's for a LARP?"Mina thought.
"Aiish! Bellerophon", the young woman said in a distinctly Norwegian accent, "stop acting cute and get off the fine lady".
"Baaa"!
"What? A goat"?
Unbeknownst to Mina, but she had been petting what appeared to have been a goat that was resting it's head on her lap.
"A goat? Nah, that's just my husky. Get back over here", the young woman said, an amused smile growing on her face.
"Ba...woof".
Mina didn't know how or why she thought he was a goat, but upon second inspection, Bellerophon was indeed a husky.
"Oh it is...sorry about that", Mina said in a somewhat apologetic tone.
"It's fine", the woman said while petting her husky, "I'm just surprised you didn't ask about the outfit".