Meeting Robb Sherwin
by Jizaboz (2019)
Genres: Slice of life

A slice-of-life adventure in Denver, Colorado.

action: %
response: You are standing on a train platform where people are boarding the RTD rail line in order to leave the airport. According to your online research before your trip, you gather this is your best bet to get out of this area quickly and onto your ultimate destination for the day; the La Quinta hotel near downtown Denver, Colorado. You have flown here because a month later you received an invitation from Robb Sherwin to attend his wedding. Your friend Jack "Jonathan" Flack with be there and you'd really like to see him again. Also, this is your first opportunity to finally meet Robb Sherwin.

A few random people are waiting for the next train. Some tourists are staring at what looks like a mall directory. A train pulls up and stops at the end of the track. People begin to board the train to the east. There is what looks to be a small ticket booth building here.

You can see a kiosk here.
action: You examine the mall directory
response: This seems to be an automated ticket terminal. There is a large LED square in the middle of which displays "$9.00".
action: About yourself
response: That's hard for you properly without a mirror around, but for a moment you stare down at your black khaki pants with matching black Vans brand shoes.
action: You check your inventory
response: You are carrying:
a wallet (closed)
a phone
action: You look around
response: You are standing on a train platform where people are boarding the RTD rail line to the east in order to leave the airport.

You can see a kiosk here.
action: You examine the ticket
response: This ticket provides transportation on the A Line for the day.
action: You put the credit card in the wallet
response: You put the credit card into the wallet.
action: You look at the license
response: A North Carolina drivers license. Your picture looks pretty bad because you slept on the floor of the DMV office for three hours before having it taken.
action: Go east
response: You board the train and moments later it begins to move. It's very plain inside; mostly white with blue seating. The other passengers start looking at the scenery through the window, talking amongst themselves or glancing at their cell phones.
action: You sit
response: What do you want to sit on?
action: You examine the passengers
response: These passengers are fairly non-desciptive. The few that are here are either talking to themselves or looking at their phones.
action: You examine the window
response: Along this route you mainly see dry scrubland. Since it is June, there is no snow on the ground.

A man in a uniform with some sort of scanner on his belt walks up to your seat and addresses you. "Ticket, sir."

"Okay. Here you go." you say while handing him the ticket. He thanks you and heads down to the next row. About 20 minutes later, you arrive at your destination.

You admire the city for the first time. There are kids playing in an area with water spouts popping out of the sidewalk. It feels comfortable to you here despite the temperature. The humidity level is much lower than back home! You take a deep breath of the dry air.

Streets lead off in many directions. You looked at this area in Google Maps a few times before you got here; just enough to know it's not practical to walk to your hotel from here.

You should probably "call Robb" to let him know you have arrived in Denver.
action: You call Robb
response: Robb answers the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey Robb! I just landed, man! Now how do I get out of here?"

"That's awesome. Do you need me to get you a ride? I'll get you a ride. Can't wait to see you buddy! Oh. Wait. What should I call you when I introduce you to my parents and stuff? I mean.. other than Jiz?" Robb replies.

After talking a little longer, a black SUV promptly pulls up across the street. You cancel the call after muttering "Think he's here. Bye." A while man in it spots you in a red Neo Geo MVS shirt you told Robb that you would be wearing.

"Robb?" he says as you approach the vehicle. Failure to communicate something here, but close enough. You enter the vehicle which takes you to..

Here you have arrived at the parking lot of the La Quinta hotel. There is a pool here on the other side of a gate which a father and his two kids in swimming trunks are skipping along their way to take a dip in.

As you stand around taking in the loud sound of trains idling on the two or three tracks wihin about one hundred yards of the hotel and notice a little area with a picnic table and trashcan by the fence, you hear the sound of the two young boys crying as you notice them walk back into their room. The father slams one of the doors to the west behind them.

The hotel lobby is to the northeast and the street is to the east..

You can see the door to room 302 here.
action: Go northeast
response: This bare lobby has two features; a desk and a woman covered in tattoos behind it. The only exit is to the door to the southwest.

The receptionist addresses you and asks for your reservation information. After she punches a few things into a computer, she hands you your keycard and informs you that checkout time is eleven in the morning.

You can see a receptionist here.
action: You look at the keycard
response: The keycard has the number "302" on it.
action: You ask the receptionist about the pool
response: "We're waiting on someone to come fix it. Sorry."
action: Go southwest
response: You are standing between the fence blocking the pool and the picnic area in the La Quinta parking lot. The loud hum of trains idling nearby fills the air.

The hotel lobby is to the northeast and the street is to the east and opposite to the west are all the hotel room doors.

You can see the door to room 302 here.
action: You enter door
response: (first opening the door to room 302)
It seems to be locked.
action: You unlock door
response: What do you want to unlock the door to room 302 with?
action: Keycard
response: You unlock the door to room 302.
action: You enter door
response: (first opening the door to room 302)

You walk into your room and look around. It looks pretty clean at first glance, but when you peel back the blanket on the first of your two beds closest to the window, you notice a hair in the bed and a stain on the pillow. That won't do. The second bed near the bathroom looks cleaner and you lay down on it for a bit to relax after the trip. Due to the excitement of your new surroundings, you can't sleep it all, but you feel better after about twenty minutes.

Suddenly, your phone rings and you answer it.

"Hey man!"

You recognize that voice. It's your friend; Mr. "Jonathan" Jack Flack!

"What's up, Flack?"

"What's up dude? Looks like everyone is headed over to the Hipster Draft House soon. You need a ride?"

"Nah, I'll just walk." you reply. "I wanna walk around and check out the area a little bit on the way."

"You sure? That's cool. See you there. Later!" says Flack as he ends the call.

You can see the door to the parking lot here.
action: You examine the phone
response: Your little Android phone you bought from Walmart for 40$. It isn't great, but it gets you by.

The door to the parking lot slowly closes.
action: You go east
response: (first opening the door to the parking lot)

You are standing between the fence blocking the pool and the picnic area in the La Quinta parking lot. The loud hum of trains idling nearby fills the air.

The hotel lobby is to the northeast and the street is to the east and opposite to the west are all the hotel room doors.

You can see the door to room 302 here.
action: You close the door
response: You close the door to room 302.
action: You lock the door
response: What do you want to lock the door to room 302 with?
action: Keycard
response: You lock the door to room 302.
action: You go east
response: This large bridge has plenty of sidewalk on each side for pedestrians and an excellent view of the Rocky Mountains. Downtown Denver is to the south. Up the street to the northeast you see a large box-shaped building with a plain sign next to it. The La Quinta hotel is to the west. In the far distance to the east, you see the peaks of the Rocky Mountains.
action: You look at the sign
response: It's a large, square, white sign with a large green medical cross on it. Underneath is the word "PURE Marijuana Dispensary".
action: You go northeast
response: You walk into what looks like a waiting room for a dental practice office, but there are no patients sitting here. A friendly merchant behind the counter greets you.

"Hey, how's it going? Never been here before? I will need you to give me some identification to let you through to see the merchandise." she says.

You can see the merchant here.
action: You open the wallet
response: That's already open.
action: You show the license to the merchant
response: (first taking the drivers license)
You will need to actually give it to her. Showing it to her from the other side of the counter is not going to cut it.
action: You give the license to the merchant
response: You hand your ID to the merchant. She enters a few things into a computer and hands it back to. Then, you hear a buzz coming from a door near the counter. "Please come on in." the merchant says.

You walk into a room containing many glass jars filled with different types of marijuana. The clean-shaven man behind the counter greets you and asks "So, what are you looking for? Would you consider yourself a light user?"

He probably wouldn't assume that if you didn't just get a haircut for this trip you think to yourself. "Actually, no. I'm uh.. pretty heavy duty if you know what I mean." You respond.

Oh. Well.. okay. This here is over 25% percent THC. It's called Dead Head and..

"I'll take that." you respond.

And so, after a quick walk to the back of the building to use the ATM (They don't accept credit cards, apparently.) and 10 minutes later, you walk out with your product in a medicine bottle, something to smoke it with, and something to burn it with. You pocket your new stash and head back out to the street.

This large bridge has plenty of sidewalk on each side for pedestrians and an excellent view of the Rocky Mountains. Downtown Denver is to the south. Up the street to the northeast you see a large box-shaped building with a plain sign next to it. The La Quinta hotel is to the west. In the far distance to the east, you see the peaks of the Rocky Mountains.
action: You check your inventory
response: You are carrying:
a stash
a drivers license
a keycard
a wallet (open)
a credit card
a phone
action: You look at the stash
response: Your weed stash. You can "smoke stash" at any time when you are carrying it, but you probably want to refrain from doing so in public.
action: You put the license and keycard in the wallet
response: drivers license: Done.
keycard: Done.
action: You go south
response: This is just one small section of the rest of downtown Denver, but at the moment your destination is the Hipster Draft House to the west. Artistic graffiti marks most of the sides of the buildings down the nearby alleyways. People are strolling about everywhere around you. The Park Avenue Bridge is back to the north.
action: You look at the graffiti
response: You usually don't like seeing graffiti, as you think it just looks tacky. However, this is some really cool artwork featuring multi-colored geometric shapes and letters with extreme detail.
action: You look at the people
response: This area seems to attract a fairly young crowd. They all look quite common with exception to noticing a few people dresses as Marvel superheroes. There must have been a local comic book convention or something.
action: Go west
response: You stroll into the large, open doors into a bar with very minimal decor. The main point of interest is one wall is filled with beer taps. You look around a while for someone you know. There are not many people here yet. Quickly, you notice Flack waving at you from a nearby table. Plain, wooden tables and benches on the concrete floor fill the room; slightly resembling a German beer hall. Maybe I should "ask Flack about beer".

You can see Flack here.
action: You ask Flack about the beer
response: You walk over to Flack and say "What's up, Flack? Good to see you again!"

"Good to see you, man." he replies.

"So hey, how do you get beer around here anyway? I see beer taps on the wall that people are just helping themselves to. This place is high tech!" you say.

"Yeah man. Check it out.." he replies as he explains how the tap system works. At this point, all you have to do is "take beer" if you want another one. Or three.

You pick what seems to be the strongest lager they have on tap and drink it down while talking with Flack about Denver.
action: You take the beer
response: You pour a large glass of beer and drink it down over the course of a few minutes. It's very excellent beer and you could certainly go for another.

Flack asks you about your flight. You explain that it was one of the roughest you had ever ridden. There was a lot of turbulence or something because the plane hopped in the air more often that smoothly flying through it.

"Oh man. That sucks." he replies.
action: You examine Flack
response: Mr. Jack "Jonathan" Flack. You've met only once before in person, but have always had a sort of strange "friend you always knew but hadn't met" connection. If you had met when you were much younger, you probably would have spent a lot of time riding skateboards and messing with Commodore 64 computers together.

He has wizard-like facial features and is built like a bouncer at a Slayer concert. This is not a man to be messed with.

Some dude with a shaved head a weird, skinny, braided little beard introduces himself to you as John and starts talking. And talking. Mostly about himself and females in the room. You distance yourself as far away from him as quickly as possible
action: You ask Jack about robb
response: There is no reply.

You hear some cheering as someone walks in. It's Robb Sherwin! He's surrounded by people, but maybe you could manage to "ask robb about tomorrow" and finally meet in person for the first time.
action: You ask Robb about the tomorrow
response: You wade through a few people to get to Robb Sherwin. "Robb!" you exclaim. "Really nice to finally meet you in person."

You shake his hand and ask "Nervous about tomorrow?"

"You know.. surprisingly, not at all!" He responds.

You talk some about each others arcade games, and he mentions you should join the others going to his house later to check out his basement arcade. Flack enters the conversation for a while and the three of you are all in agreement that you wish that your mutual friend Roody Yogurt could have made an appearance this weekend.
action: You take the beer
response: You pour a large glass of beer and drink it down over the course of a few minutes. It's very excellent beer and you could certainly go for another.

You hear an eruption of laughter at a nearby table. Food is offered by a passing staff member, and you grab a hamburger slider which you gobble down in four bites.
action: You take the beer
response: You pour a large glass of beer and drink it down over the course of a few minutes. It's very excellent beer and you could certainly go for another.
action: You take the shower
response: What the hell? There's no soap in here! Guess I need to go to the hotel lobby and "ask receptionist about soap". Ridiculous.
action: Go northeast
response: This bare lobby has two features; a desk and a woman covered in tattoos behind it. The only exit is to the door to the southwest.

You can see a receptionist here.
action: You ask receptionist about soap
response: "Um.. do you have soap? There's not any in my shower." you ask the receptionist.

"Sure. Here you go." she says as she hands you a small bar of soap wrapped in paper.

"Thanks." you reply as you pocket the soap.
action: Go southwest
response: You are standing between the fence blocking the pool and the picnic area in the La Quinta parking lot. The loud hum of trains idling nearby fills the air.

The hotel lobby is to the northeast and the street is to the east and opposite to the west are all the hotel room doors.

You can see the door to room 302 here.
action: Go west
response: You are in your room at the La Quinta. There's not much here and it's certainly not very fancy, but that's fine. You won't be here long. It just seems rather run down for one hundred and thirty dollars a night even if it is this close to the Coors baseball field. The door out is to the east.

You can see the door to the parking lot here.
action: You close the door
response: You close the door to the parking lot.
action: You look at the soap
response: A very small bar of plain soap.
action: You take the shower
response: You jump in the beige shower and get cleaned up. After drying off and putting on clean clothes, you feel refreshed.

Hm. Where is your ride? You should probably "call Flack". You were afraid the phone would ring or the phone would ring during the soap fiasco, but neither have occurred.
action: You call Flack
response: You call Flack. After a few rings he answers. "What's up man?"

"Hey man! Are you on your way to pick you up?" you ask.

Long, silent pause. "Uh.. I thought you were going to take an Uber or something. Why don't you do that? We're like almost there. Sorry man!" Flack replies before letting you go.

Damn it! This is not good. You don't know where to begin to get yourself a ride. You look up how far it is to walk. Over an hour and the directions look a bit confusing, even on paper. The last thing you want to be doing is walking around like an idiot for a few hours in Denver while missing what you came here for in the first place. You download the Uber app. The account creation process, your phone, or both is going way slow. Your heart starts pounding as panic sets in.

After about ten minutes of this frantic moment, Flack dials your phone again. Maybe he's curious as to if you got a ride or not.

"Hey man!" Flack says. "I guess you didn't get a ride yet. Look, we just left Walmart and my wife checked the GPS and says we've got time to get you."

"Are you sure? I won't make you late?" you ask.

"We won't miss anything man. We've got time." he says.

"Dude, I really appreciate this! I was really starting to panic there!" you reply.

After getting off the phone, you grab a collared shirt with a tie you already put a windsor knot in, you briefly wait in the parking lot to wait for your ride. It arrives within minutes to take you to a large park where the wedding is being held.

You march along with Mr. and Mrs. Flack across a long field of grass up a low hill towards a lone fancy-looking structure. Surely this is the right place. Otherwise, there is going to be a lot more trekking across this park and you are running out of time.

Once you reach the top of the hill, it's obvious you are finally here. Many people are here talking and laughing. Flack and his wife go their seperate way for a while to mingle with others.

You can see Jason and Flack here.
action: You examine Jason
response: Mr. Jason "Textfiles" Scott. You had heard he was going to be here, but actually seeing him here feels a bit surreal. Aside from reading textfiles.com in the late nineties, a short misunderstanding on a MUD many years later, and a few Twitter exchanges, you don't really have any affiliation with him.

He is roughly your height and has a very happy air about him. This guy looks as glad to be alive and here at this wedding as you are. He's wearing a black hat and a very fancy red blazer.

You hear a young, male voice exclaim "That's WONDERFUL!"

You notice Jason Scott walking away from the pizza line. Maybe you should "ask Jason about Durham" because that's the only topic you can think of to bring up to him. You think he was there recently, and that's about a forty minute drive from where your house is.
action: You ask Jason about the durham
response: ""You walk up to Jason and introduce yourself by your real name and tell him that it's great to meet him.

He stares directly into your eyes and asks "I'm sorry. Who are you? How would I know you?"

"Uh.. I'm Jizaboz on.." you begin to say as he cuts you off.

"Ohhh you! Right, Right. I think Robb mentioned you were coming." he replies.

"Yeah, I flew in from North Carolina. This is my first time in Denver. Weren't you in Durham, North Carolina not that long ago?" you ask.

You end up having a short but good conversation. You learn that both of you had relatives that were treated at the main hospital in Durham.

After he walks off, someone offers you a Miller Lite. Not your favorite beer by any means, but it's hot out here and you are thirsty. You drink it quickly and deposit the can in a recycling bin.

Some random, sweaty jogger dude jogs up to your area, looks around, then jogs off around the pond.
action: Look around
response: You are standing by a large pond at the wedding. There is a huge line to a pizza truck nearby. Many people are standing around talking and drinking, most of them are outside where you are instead of where tables are.

You can see Jason and Flack here.

Some awful jackass helps himself to a piece of the uncut wedding cake, then disappears.
action: You examine the pond
response: This large pond is so symmetrically rounded that you assume it is man made rather than natural. There is a fountain way out in the center of it.
action: You look
response: You are standing by a large pond at the wedding. There is a huge line to a pizza truck nearby. Many people are standing around talking and drinking, most of them are outside where you are instead of where tables are.

You can see Jason and Flack here.
action: You ask Flack about the ride
response: There is no reply.

You have had a great time on this trip. You got to talk to many interesting people and have formed closer friendships. Most importantly, you met Robb Sherwin!

On the way out, Robb invites you back to his place early tomorrow morning before your flight and offers to give you a ride to the nearest train terminal. You gladly accept.

Once there, you get to play his various arcade games alone for a bit. At least, you think you are alone.

In a dark corner behind you, there lies a ball of fur! Upon closer examination, you see it is a long-haired cat. This must be the legendary cat "Frobozz".

"Hello friend. I'm Robb's friend too. You look like a sleepy cat. Ok, friend. I'll let you be. Nice meeting you." you say to the cat as you go return to playing games.