demo-mo:

Them (Ameripan) being nerds would be nice enough, actually, I think nyotalia nerds would be best.

((Your wish is my command! I hope that this brightens your otherwise lousy day. Let me know if you need another! Uh, and I hope it's okay that PruCan kind of snuck in, too—they needed an adventuring party… It also got a bit long, so I tucked it under a cut. I hope it's okay!))

"No, no—first you have to roll to see if you hit. Then you can roll for damage," Amelia said, leaning over Sakura. She'd pulled out her first edition D&D rulebooks so that they could do a test run before the rest of their adventuring party arrived.

Sakura frowned as she looked at the pile of dice in front of her. Amelia tried and failed to keep herself from grinning, grabbing a d20 from the pile and dropping it into Sakura's hand. Sakura shut her eyes and rolled the die—when it came to a stop, Amelia beamed.

"An 18!" Amelia said. "Now you just have to check you THAC0—remember? 'To Hit AC of 0'?"

"But my THAC0 is 19," Sakura said unhappily. "I missed."

"Nope!" Amelia said. "This monster's got an AC of 2, not 0, so an 18 will definitely hit! Now you can roll for damage."

"This was not exactly what I had in mind when you invited me over to roleplay," Sakura muttered. It should've been inaudible, but Amelia was crouched over her shoulder.

"Did you want to play a JRPG?" she asked. "I've got some with dual language audio. Hey, we could play Disaster: Day of Crisis! You could finally translate all of the text for me."

"Disaster is hardly a JRPG," Sakura huffed, but Amelia caught her smiling. "Besides, the others will be here soon."

"Julchen and Maddie won't be here for another hour," Amelia shrugged. "What about Eternal Sonata—um, I think it was Trusty Bell in Japan?"

"Ah, I enjoyed that one," Sakura said, smiling suddenly. "The battle system was quite enjoyable."

"And we can both play," Amelia nodded. She pressed a quick kiss against Sakura's cheek and darted off to the family room. "Come on!"

They settled down on the couch, and Amelia pulled Sakura into her lap, stretching back against the arm of the couch so that they could both have enough leg room. Amelia held her own controller in front of Sakura, who chuckled under her breath.

"Don't need to see the controls?" she asked.

"As if," Amelia laughed. "Come on—I'll let you be 1P first. We can start a new game."

It was a habit of Amelia's to read all unvoiced dialogue aloud in a dramatic voice; she had to remind herself not to start waving her arms—she could accidentally clock Sakura on the face! They made it through the first few cut scenes and through a few monster-filled paths before the doorbell rang. Maddie opened the door without waiting for Amelia to let them in.

"Sis!" she called, setting a grocery bag on the counter. "Did you order the pizza? I brought the snacks and pop."

"Yeah," Amelia called back, launching a string of echoes that obliterated the rat she was fighting—Beat was the best at racking those up, but Allegretto could really do some damage with them. "It'll be here at seven. I ordered one for each of us."

"Amelia! We can't eat four pizzas!" Maddie replied.

"Speak for yourself!" Julchen and Amelia replied in unison. Sakura suppressed a laugh, but Maddie sighed loudly, heading into the family room.

"I'm gonna freeze the leftovers," Amelia explained, kissing the back of Sakura's head as she got a perfect snapshot of the monster they were fighting; it'd probably pay for some great items. This was why she and Sakura were the perfect team. Sakura racked up combos and loot; Amelia brought the heavy hitting. "Don't worry about me wasting food."

Amelia suspected that Maddie was rolling her eyes, but she didn't turn to check.

"We just have to get to a save point," Amelia said. When Maddie didn't reply, Amelia's brow furrowed, and she twisted around to see what was up—Julchen had her arms around Maddie's waist. Amelia felt Big Sister mode activating as Julchen smirked at Maddie, but she knew—really knew—that it wasn't any of her business, so she turned back to the game and snuggled against Sakura instead.

"I think you're gonna make an excellent rogue," Amelia said, nuzzling Sakura's cheek. "You've already stolen my heart."

"Oh, you," Sakura groaned. She'd accidentally triggered the wrong button, losing their carefully accumulated echoes. "That was terrible, Amee."

"Yeah," Amelia agreed. She finished off the monster, and Sakura led them back to the save point. "But it's the truth."

"Enough mush," Julchen said. "We need a DM if we're gonna storm the castle!"

Amelia set her controller on the coffee table and hugged Sakura once more before releasing her. Sakura glanced at Maddie and ruffled Amelia's hair rather than responding with a kiss.

"Onward!" Amelia shouted. "To battle!"