Dale

Dale is an anime and video game enthusiast. He started off as a well-liked regular at Coffee of Doom, but was later hired as an employee, breaking the coffee shop's female-only streak as Dora's first male barista. In his earlier appearances, he had an on-going rivalry with Marigold in World of Warcraft. Their adversarial relationship has changed, however.
==Biography==
===Background===
Dale's home town is unknown. It is presumed that he is from the Pioneer Valley area of Massachusetts. He is the son of a single mother, whom he helps to support. He is ethnically African-American.https://jephjacques.tumblr.com/post/11940736839/qa-dump-14
===Employment===
: See also: Pizza place owner
Dale delivers pizza, buses tables, and walks dogs. At first, he said he had three jobs, but most recently, he has been seen working the counter at a convenience store and washing dishes. He also appears to work at an all natural health store.
Later, Dale quit his job at the pizza place and started working at Coffee of Doom. However, after May was hired by Marigold as her manager, he quit being a barista in order to do "web stuff" for Marigold's streaming career.
===Relationships ===
====Marigold ====
Dale's interactions with Marigold originally started off as a friendly rivalry chock-full of anime tropes that were meant to reflect their mutual interest in anime and video games, but instead came across as somewhat disquieting in tone and ended up escalating into a gross misunderstanding between the two. Fortunately, Dale has no hang-ups about reaching out and apologizing when he know he's done wrong.
For all his easy-going nature, however, Dale admits that he doesn't seem to have much luck when it comes to having a normal conversation with girls he is crushing on and reverts to grade school tactics to get their attention. Barring any such pretenses, he becomes rather shy and nervous in their presence. (Of course, dealing with a socially awkward Marigold likely doesn't make this task any easier).
Dale complimented Marigold for the first time during their anime-date. Their first kiss happened on the next day, when Marigold came to Coffee of Doom.
====The Virtual Assistant ====
A hologram appeared via Dale's AR glasses in a maid costume, chosen for her by an algorithm – likely due to Dales love of anime – as part of a beta testing program for a new virtual companion service. He was the first (after fourteen previous attempts) to accept her presence and End User License Agreement (EULA).
Dale agreed to put up with the service for a period of 48 hours and in exchange for an evaluation of the program he would receive $1500. The AI didn't have a name, so Dale picked "May". 
Once Dale accepted the EULA, May became surly and quite caustic. When her griping and terrible advice became too annoying, Dale switched off his AR Glasses, but later had a change of heart and switched them back on. She became more cooperative.
Dale was invited to Marigold's apartment by Momo, but Marigold was angry with him,and May actually gave him good advice on how to patch things up with her. After the 48-hour trial period, the AI told him she liked the name May and would keep it.
====The Return of May====
Some time later, May showed up at Dale's apartment in a robot body; she'd been released from Robot Jail and needed a place to stay. Initially, Marigold didn't want May to stay at his apartment, but May convinced her that she was no threat to the relationship and Marigold relented.
==Personality==
Despite his stereotypically nerdy interests, Dale gives the impression of being a friendly and easy-going guy and is well-liked by the other characters. Faye describes him as being "suspiciously chill. Everything's either 'cool' or 'all right' with him." The more aggressive characters seem to mistake his nice attitude for wimpyness, but while Dale's boundaries and tolerance for rudeness are more lax than most, he is capable of standing up for himself when pushed too far.
He appears to have a good sense of humor, though perhaps he sometimes has a hard time gauging his audience.
===Hobbies===
Dale plays World of Warcraft. His main is a human mage on Tichondrius and he recently started a night elf rogue on Warsong. He previously played Dungeon Crawl, having done a 15-rune ascension with a Merfolk Crusader, though it is clear he no longer plays. 
He is also an avid anime fan and owns quite a bit of anime-related memorabilia. He has posters of Gally/Alita (Battle Angel) and Haruhi Suzumiya in his room. he owns the entire collection of the fictional manga, Magical Love Gentleman which he keeps locked up and out of sight. He frequently wears anime-related t-shirts, most notably "Shut Up, Shinji" and "EVA-01," both of which reference Shinji Ikari, the protagonist in the anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion." Interestingly, the title of further emphasizes a referential link between Shinji Ikari and Dale, which may or may not be intentional on part of the creator.
===Sex and drugs and rock&roll===
====Sexuality====
Dale has thus far only shown attractions to females and is in a relationship with Marigold, who also became his first sexual partner.
====Drugs====
Dale drinks caffeine.
====Music preferences====
Dale's musical preferences are currently unknown, though he wears a T-shirt bearing the name "Creston Electric", which produces vintage-style custom solid body and chambered electric guitars and basses. He has been seen wearing a T-shirt for nerdcore hip hop musician MC Frontalot, in keeping with his generally geeky preferences.
==Gallery==
Dale full length.png|Sketch from Jeph Jacques's Tumblr