The next day at the convention, I passed by the booth again and it was still there. I talked to the vendor and asked if he would be willing to sell it to me. He consulted his partner and she said that another girl had made a similar offer. He gave it some thought, he said that he wanted to hold onto it for a little longer to see if the original owner would come back and wondered if I would be back tomorrow. I said I was planning on doing some more sightseeing but for the sake of this plushie, I would return. I left again with high hopes that I could come back early tomorrow to collect it from him.
Arriving nearly at the start of the third day at 10:00 am, I sped over to the booth to see that the Whiscash was still there. I eagerly asked if I could have it then but he was still reluctant to part with it and told me to come back later. I asked how much later and he said the con ended at 5, so 3. I had 5 hours to burn so I wandered around, collecting free merchandise and played game demos. Originally, the plan was to collect the fish and leave quickly to go do my sightseeing but I desperately wanted this, probably more than anything else at the time.
I spent the day periodically checking to see if it was still at the table (with a quick peek, no vendor interaction) and if it wasn't, I figured I would just leave early. At around 2:30, I felt as if I had waited long enough and walked back for one last time to try and get this plushie. No sooner had I arrived, I noticed a girl cosplaying an Umbreon (another pokemon) eyeing the toy. The vendor saw me, saw the girl and then gave a look of awkward surprise. He explained that that girl was the other person who had asked about it.
At this point I was on an emotional verge of cracking. I had been teased with it and had practically sacrificed half of the day waiting around for this moment and it was like someone, somewhere had orchestrated this moment just to fuck with me. After a brief deliberation, the vendor sighed and relinquished the toy to me, citing that I was the one who had asked first, checked back the most frequently, and was the one he saw first (out of the two of us arriving at approximately the same time). He asked me for $10, which I was more than happy to give.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
-Got a Whiscash Plushie
The other girl, dejected as I had been earlier, asked if she could take a picture with it. I couldn't possibly refuse her and gave her some time with it while I fished out a $50 (I had no change). After she took her pictures and we parted ways, I realized that the vendor had given me a $20 and another $50 as change. I walked away, happy to have gotten the toy for free and made an extra $20 as I was getting low on funds.
...But I couldn't do it. The vendor was a good man, keeping the Whiscash and holding out for its original owner for as long as he could. He was trying to make a living and he had been nice about it; though my impression of him would be radically different if I didn't get the plushie. So I turned back through the crowd and admitted he gave me too much and returned his $50, expecting a $20 back. Instead, he gave me TWO $20s. If I had left at this point, I would have made an extra $10. However, I corrected him again and returned the second $20. As I explained my story to my girlfriend, I reiterate:
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"Whiscash makes me a better person."
