//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Finding a place 
// by orioncorey 
//------------------------------//

	I tugged back up the way, way overlarge and floppy hat as it fell over my eyes again.

"Come on, I know part of my costume is Big Hat Logan," I began to my friend, Andrue, as we walked to Comicon,

"But this hat keeps falling over my eyes and I can't see! Couldn't we have done another part as Big Hat Logan? Like his robes! Those are cool!" I finished, bumping into people as we walked up to Phoenix Comicon. Most of them were staring at me, so I grinned at them as a sign that I was as sane as them.

I don't think they saw my grin through the hat, now that I think about it. 

"The hat is one of the more recognizable aspects of Logan! Plus, it's amusing to watch people stare at your hat." He chuckled to me.

I sighed. "Oh, shush."

I was dressed as a myriad of Dark Souls characters mixed together. I had Big Hat Logan's hat, a standard cleric's talisman, and Laurentius of the Great Swamp's robes. I had no props, sadly, except for the talisman, since I hadn't had enough time. I hoped to buy some props there, so I had brought $150, since I figured stuff was expensive.

We finally reached the building and walked in. I was so excited, I was bouncing on the balls of my feet and grinning. We got admission after a while, walked into the main part of Comicon, and I caught my breath. It was amazing, so many people walking around, showing off their nerdiness and admiring other's inner nerd! I could hardly wait, and I guess it must have showed, since Andrue laughed and said,

"Don't worry, we'll get down there in a minute. We've already talked about yours, but what about my costume?"

I smiled. "It's cool! Did you make it, or what? The designs are cool!"

He was Medic from Team Fortress 2, and had a near perfect costume. he even had a medi-gun that had some red lights in the muzzle, the lucky bastard.

"No, I found it on Ebay for 60 bucks, including the Medi-gun. It is pretty cool, isn't... it... " He said, trailing off and looking behind me.

"What?" I said, looking behind me and finding a pretty girl smiling at him.

I sighed at him. "Already? Seriously?"

"Yup! Look, I'll meet you here in... um... 3 hours! I've got some... business to take care of." He walked away, towards the girl, striking up a conversation.

I chuckled to myself at his behavior, and left to look around. I decided to go to the vendors first, to see if I could get some props with my money. I was walking through them, finding a few cool things, but nothing Dark Souls. That is, until one of the vendors commented on my outfit.

"Nice outfit! Matches mine. Say, where's you props and whatnot?" He was dressed in... was that the Undead Merchant garb from Dark Souls? Cool! His shop was pretty cluttered, with stuff occupying every available space. He had multiple fandoms worth of stuff, everything from Resident Evil to Harry Potter. I saw a few Dark Souls items in his shop, and started feeling giddy.

"I don't have any except for this one, " I said, holding up my talisman, "since I didn't have enough time."

"Well, today's your lucky day. Everything's half off today, and I happened to stock up on Dark Souls before I got here. Hmm... In fact... I think I know just the thing you want..." He said, rummaging under his makeshift counter, until he came out with a mini chest.

"What's in the box?" I said, wondering what he had. He only smiled and prized the lid open. Curious to see what he had,  I looked inside when he opened it and gasped. This was AMAZING! Since I'm a nerd, I recognized everything he had in the box. He had Velka's Talisman, a fake Pyromancy Flame, Quelagg's Furysword, Manus' Catalyst(I loved this item in game since I had the same name as the character), and a book that I couldn't recognize from the game, but still looked cool none the less.

While I gaped at how much he had, I suddenly realized a possible snag. A very, very bad snag.

"How much are these, " I said, fearing the worst, "since I only have $150?"

He chuckled. "Like I said, today’s your lucky day. Usually, this set is $200. Today, it's $100, since everything is half off."

I could hardly believe my luck. I grinned and said, “Cool! Here’s the $100! Can I have the box now?”

He lightly chuckled and took the money, then handed the box over. “Enjoy. This is a pretty good deal. I mean, that stuff’s… well, let’s just say that it’s very good quality.”

I waved to him as I walked away. “You’ve made my day! I’m going to find my friend, see ya!”

I walked around, trying to find Andrue. He’d gone off with that girl, and I had no idea where he was. 

As I was giving up and walking back to the entrance, I started feeling sick to my stomach. I barely registered this at first, but I started to panic a bit as it steadily ramped up into a stomach ache. 

It went even farther, and I quickly got into a bathroom to throw up in private. By then, it felt like I was having an ulcer, and I was really panicking.  How had I gone from fine to throwing up repeatedly in 10 minutes?

And then, suddenly,  everything was going black at the edges, and I felt myself slipping. I dimly wondered, Am I dying?, and thought that I must be.

And with that thought, my consciousness faded and I fell into deep sleep.