Someone’s Magic collection, Ashwaubenon, WI

Roomie Jon, buddy Peter, and girlfriend Hiroko are all in Japan. I’ve spent my summer more or less by myself, which is kind of cool but mostly crappy. Andy has gone beyond the call of whatever to provide me with fun stuff do do, but I’ll get to that in a later photo. The day I took Jon and Hiroko to the airport, we found this collection of Magic cards just sitting outside one of the doors of our apartment building. When I got back, it was still there. I grabbed the cards and left a note saying that I had them, and to come get them. When I came home from work the kid living downstairs came for them. He was mildly grateful, and apathetically accepted my invitation for a few games. His apartment was the kind of nerd-nest I thought only existed in my imagination: D&D books, Magic cards, and fantasy novels scattered everywhere. The kid himself wore a faded Darth Maul shirt, a sight that almost hurts my eyes just to see it. I tried to engage him in conversation while he tore me apart with his perfectly formulated decks, but he deflected all social contact in favor of talk about the game itself. I left, defeated in both the contest and in my attempts at friendliness, offering halfheartedly another game someday. I didn’t even get a reward, either. I could’ve kept ’em all.