Call Out

Fern Fuentes

It's 6:30 AM in the morning, the alarm rang, waking me up as it would on a regular weekday. It's a Saturday so I might as well enjoy it. My bedsheets are worn and crinkled and the blanket clings onto me, marinating it inside the bedding until 10 o'clock. I got started on my day, brushing my teeth and ignoring my ruffled hair (which no one cares about anyways), before fixing myself a basic slice of toast. Just toast, no eggs, no spread, no nothing, just plain toast. They say you are what you eat, that wouldn't make me toast, but that would make me plain. I think.

Either my parents were still asleep, or maybe Ma had gone out with her friends. Pop's probably off at John's, but I am fine with a little bit of isolation and the rare peace and quiet. They didn't seem to mind the state I was in either. I was a stiller.

The white cabinet next to my bedside held all of my Warhammer painting supplies, brushes of varying sizes, a craft knife and small plastic paint pots of my favourite colours to paint with, crimson red, azure blue and gold. I can't help but smile, layering down the newspaper, readying to paint my next figurine. The plastic model posed, confidently holding his machine gun ready to take on just about anything that dared approach his way.

I sipped on the frigid cold water, gnawing on the ice cube. The figurine I'm painting today was a valiant man wearing intricate heavy duty armour with bumps and patterns. With Warhammer you can pick just about anything you desire, you see an interesting figurine? BAM! You can purchase it and add it to your deck without too much to think about (other than the price, of course. Some of them are ludicrously expensive!). Many people are simply collectors and would keep up with the release of new models, but there are also artists who love painting and have no interest in playing whatsoever, there also exists a corner of custom made models, people crafting their own figurines, those are the people I admire. There's also the competitive community, strategists deciphering the best figurines to play with in a match, or whatever niche some crummy unit has against the most powerful threats. Personally, I'm just some teenager who dabbled in a little bit of everything. This is why I fell in love with this simple tabletop game, on the surface it appears simplistic but it becomes more complex the more attached you become. There is always something for whoever has decided to pick up the Warhammer series, I'm not being sponsored I swear. I love occupying myself with painting figurines for a couple of hours on a free day. I love the online fanbase. I love Warhammer. That's why I'm still a stiller. But then again, it is probably the reason why I have no friends.

No one cares enough to hear me rant about passion. I don't have a sliver of another interest either. My library of topics to talk about is quite limited to Warhammer and Pokémon. Mainly Warhammer, Pokémon is like a side gig but then again, NOBODY CARES.

I let the red tint dry up, dipping my brush into the water cup, washing away all the colours before wiping the moisture on some paper towels. Little specks of paint escaped the delicate outline, which must have flicked on when painting. I can always cover it up with blue later. Smiling in satisfaction, I take off my gloves and stand up, aimlessly waltzing around in my confinement.

My bedsheet, childish with Pokémon stitched onto it. My Warhammer posters, slanted. My walls, white. My table, unorganised with paints and tools scattered amongst the mess. This is who I am. Crazy ain't it?

I glance outside the window, its edges weaved in with webs and dust. Blue sky, bright sun radiating warm rays, I can be out there right now, but I'd rather paint.

"Hey Ferno, aren't you gunna go outside on such a beautiful day? Summer won't last forever," Pop pointed out the obvious, blunt as ever. This reminds me of the recollections of memories he would bring up about his life back in Maine, the countless outdoor experiences he had with random kids and his neighbours, how they would have fun under the sun. I get the idea, he just doesn't want me to end up a loner, too bad I guess. Unless his flashback stories are cool.