Relena: DM/Dungeon Master (loves the group, but often wants to TPK them)
Heero: Drow Ranger (Quatre had to make his character for him)
Duo: Tiefling Bard (likes to play up "that bard" to Relena's annoyance)
Trowa: Tiefling Rogue (dresses "like a bard/clown" to confuse enemies)
Quatre: Aasimar Cleric (lone healer of the group and all that prevents a TPK)
Wufei: Dragonborn Monk (extremely particular about his character)
Hilde: Tabaxi Barbarian (used to grapple the others as needed)

Noin has questions while Relena plans.

"So..."

Relena barely looked up from the Monster Manual in her hand, carefully reading over the stat block on the page as she tried to work out whether or not she could balance this monster enough for a side-quest encounter that would entertain her partners for a session...and hopefully wouldn't lead to a TPK with or without Duo's tendency to go with the craziest possible choices. "Noin...if this is about you and my brother, I really do not want to hear it right now. If he finally got his head out of his ass and proposed then congratulations, just tell me what you want as a wedding present and I'll have it express delivered."

Noin twitched slightly because yes, Zechs had not proposed yet...but she had tried to propose to him six times already and the man seemed absolutely oblivious to the point that she was starting to think that she needed to just drag him to a courthouse and tell him to just say "I do" and sign the papers that the judge handed him. "It has nothing to do with him...though we both are curious."

"I'm not breaking up with anyone, no matter what he's complaining about." The diplomat said as she picked up her pen and scribbled down a few notes-this encounter might be doable...she just needed to work out the numbers and how to set-up the terrain for combat...or maybe she could include a diplomatic option? Quatre favored diplomacy and he hadn't had too many options to go that route lately in game...unless he was trying to talk the others' ways out of being arrested by guardsmen.

Honestly, what had Duo expected to happen to him when he chose to have his character openly proposition the guards in exchange for Heero, Trowa, and Wufei's characters to not be arrested for starting a brawl in a tavern over all three thinking that the NPC bartender was flirting with Quatre's cleric by offering to let the cleric have his meal at a discount? They were just lucky that Quatre's stats and rolls were so good: assault and prostitution charges probably wouldn't have be very fun...well...not fun for the guys anyway.

Her and Hilde had found the whole escapade hilarious.

"Not remotely what we're curious about." Noin said with a shake of her head and a mental note to advise Zechs to stop trying to imply that Relena needed to break up with her "harem" as the platinum blond had started called it during his bi-weekly complaints. Did Noin approve of the entire group's relationship dynamics? Technically she did, but she just couldn't understand it and the logistics of how the group even worked boggled her mind. "Dungeons and Dragons?"

"We're allowed to play a tabletop game and enjoy ourselves." Relena said in near-perfect impersonation of Trowa's most deadpan tone. She had to fight back the grin that threatened to form on her face-Trowa had impersonated her voice before, so maybe she should spring her attempt at him on him over the group dinner tonight. She wondered if Wufei would laugh himself hoarse like he had when Quatre and Trowa had dressed up as Heero and herself for last year's Halloween party? She could only hope so. "And it keeps the guys from showing up at my brother's house to prank him."

Well...sometimes it did.

Relena tapped her pen to her lower lip in thought at that. Did she approve of the pranks? Officially...no. Unofficially? She told the guys to bring back pictures and/or video of the pranks in question whether it be decorating Zech's house with toilet paper, egging the house or the man's car while wearing gorilla costumes, covering the car in wet cotton balls during cold weather, wrapping the car in clingwrap and attaching it to a pole, spraying the car and front door with water so that everything froze shut, painting all of Zech's windows black so that he ended up oversleeping and late...

"Miss Relena, are listening to me?"

"Huh?" Relena blinked and looked up at Noin who looked more concerned than annoyed at being ignored. The diplomat sighed and set down her pen, prompting Noin to repeat herself. "I said that I was just curious about what the draw of the game even is and was asking who's idea it was for all of you to start playing."

"Duo found out about the game from the internet, Hilde explained everything that she could about it to him, then both of them got Quatre curious and wanting to play and, well, who could resist Quatre when he asks for something?" Relena said with a small shrug of her shoulders because, really, all of them had kind of realized that everyone else pretty much would do anything for Quatre if he asked...or before he asked if they caught on to what he might ask about and...she needed to stop this train of thought or she would end up in a mental rabbit hole again. "As for the draw...well, for myself I like how I can use the game as a creative outlet. It's honestly fun creating a story for everyone to engage in, and that's before even getting into creating the NPCs and crafting the puzzles and combat scenarios."

Noin blinked and tried to sort out what NPC meant, but Relena merely leaned back in her seat with her head tilted slightly to one side in thought. "As for everyone else? I know that Wufei enjoys the strategy of the game-he tries to plan for every dungeon and encounter, and he seems to enjoy the puzzles I create. Heero likes getting to sharpen some of his lesser used skills...and have an excuse to argue about plans with Wufei in a setting where there won't be a sword coming at him or him needing to fire a bullet at Wufei."

Noin almost opened her mouth to question about the sword and bullet part of the sentence...before she remembered the two names in that sentence and decided not to embarrass herself. Wufei's sword and Heero's gun were practically attached to their respective teenaged disaster.

Relena, however, just continued on as if unaware of the former OZ-soldier's want to question. "Quatre likes getting the chance to push himself outside of his comfort zone in game and it's been surprisingly good for him. Trowa, well, I think he just likes participating in the entire game by this point. Admittedly, he was the most skeptical about joining at first, but he's the best at getting into character now and I have seen him grin a couple of times while we're playing."

Noin blinked at that: Barton? Grinning? He could make that kind of expression?

Relena tapped a finger to her chin. "Duo just loves getting to do whatever he wants...even if that involves trying to drive everyone crazy in and out of game, but that's just Duo, while Hilde enjoys getting the chance to play a game where she isn't surrounded by creeps trying to seduce her characters or hitting on her in ways that border on sexual harassment."

"Wait...what? That can happen?" Noin started and Relena gave a nod. "It can. Hilde has some horror stories from a couple of previous campaigns that she'd played in, and Doctor Po apparently told the guys a few disasters that she'd dealt with when she played the game back in med school."

Noin frowned but made a mental note to talk to Sally about these 'horror stories'. "Okay, well that clears a few things up."

Relena nodded and picked up her pen once more, only for Noin to look down at the open book and stack of papers. "What are you doing anyway?"

"Plotting out a side quest for the party and trying to balance out this encounter with a group of assorted-race mercenaries and their minotaur leader." Relena said as if this were perfectly normal to say while in an office after finishing one's work for the day. "...maybe I could have the party and the mercenary get attacked by an angry wyvern and it's young as both groups are too close to the wyvern's hunting grounds? That would make a very challenging second half of the encounter especially if diplomacy fails."

Noin blinked in confusion before deciding to just see herself out. "Uh...sure. That sounds, uh, fine?"

Relena just nodded and added to her notes as Noin exited the room. As the door shut behind her, Noin decided to save herself a trip down an internet rabbit hole and just head off to question Sally about this game...and maybe ask if Sally still played.

What? I wanted to play with Relena planning as the DM for a chapter.
And the pranks the boys play on Zechs? Real ones pulled from a folder of prank ideas that I have (but will never get to use).