Fic - Balancing the Void

Warning - Fic content. Avoid if it isn't your bag. I MEAN IT.

This is a fic idea gone crazy. I know where it's going. It's just getting there. It's also probably going to be the longest thing I've written, although tiny for the rest of you guys.

Balancing the Void
Part One: Outside Forces
Rating: PG, at the moment
Fandom: IP&S NV/IP&S AMU crossover.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Notes: Steff challenged me to write a light fic to explain something. It didn't stay so light.

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Writer's Block: Shops Gone By

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I rarely answer these, but this one struck me. I'm not really a hardcore shopper, but there's some stores that I have bizarre emotional attachments too. And then, there's the granddaddy of them all.

Media Play!

For the particular store? The Niagara Falls one, at the corner of Niagara Falls Boulevard and Military Road, the only one I ever went to. Here's the location, posted online because they're still looking for someone to lease it:
http://www.loopnet.com/property/14500750/8460-Niagara-Falls-Boulevard/

Media Play was an attempt to ride the whole big media tie-in and branding spinoffs business of the 1990s. It was a big-box store dedicated to consumable media and only that. So, you'd find video games, music, books and VHS/DVDs there, but no actual computers or appliances like you'd find at Future Shop. The selection was also much wider than what Sunrise and Music World were providing at the time. In short, for a budding media geek, THIS WAS THE PROMISED LAND. It was a media department store!

Actually, it played a major role in my early fandom days.

At the time, about early 1999 or so, I had just started getting into MST3K. The show had little history in Canada, so finding ANYTHING was like striking gold. You'd find pockets here and there, but generally turn up nothing. The US fandom was like a distant, wonderful, dreamlike, perfect place that I really, really wanted to be a part of. Easy access to EVERYTHING.

Now, my father wasn't keen on online shopping at the time and Media Play was close to the big outlet mall over on Military. So, the store become a bridge of sorts, allowing this humble geek insight into the US end of fandom, not just MST3K but in general. The US end seemed so much more commercial with a lot more stuff to buy. Mind you, I was in my mid-teens and kinda stupid. Part of the problem was that I probably didn't know where to look and my parents didn't like me going to cons for whatever reason when I was younger.

My favourite find was a three pack of MST3K tapes on sale for $25. Manos, Gunslinger and the outtake tape. Ah, I was SO excited to find Manos. I also got my copy of the Buckaroo Banzai DVD there, back when it had to be imported at a steep price in Canada, and a spin-off DVD of the local Buffalo series Off Beat Cinema.

Media Play went under back in early 2006. I got to go to the closing sale, actually. The only thing I got was a DS game. I was hoping to get some manga, but it wasn't included in the sale - some odd legal problems there and they couldn't sell any of their book stock. During this trip, we went back into outlet mall, only to find it much more rundown than we remembered. I went looking for the ghosts of We're Entertainment and found nothing. There was a vending machine that still had Fox Kids trading cards from 1994 or so. Looking back, I should have cleaned that machine out.

Damn. Now I need something to cheer me up again. :(