Queen Penelope

Establishing a routine with Shelly was unavoidable. Her entire life went by a schedule. She planned her work meticulously and went as far as reserving time slots for thinking over certain aspects of her projects.

If anything her private life was just as rigorously clocked. She was more obsessed with her food plan than a nutrition consultant. She had scheduled an afternoon for comic books, an evening for Halo, and there was a fixed time slot for washing her clothes. Not to mention her much dreaded potty training journals...

Penn was not sure if he got stuck with her and the other three scientists despite or because of the inflexibility of everything. He had tried to figure it out for a while. Ultimately, he concluded that it was probably just the convenience of it all. Leonard and Shelly lived across the hall and submitting to Shelly's routines and having Thai food every Monday was better than eating alone.

But it was not all enforced routines. He really enjoyed some of their activities and those he did not he could always walk out on. Paintball had become one of his favorite pastimes. He also enjoyed some of the computer games his neighbors played which was why he was currently over at Apartment 4A.

Finally done with writing her background story, Shelly glanced over at his screen. "Your avatar can't look like that!"

Penn noted the underlying anger contentedly.

"Like what? Did you..." Howard leaned over to take a look and instantly fell silent.

This attracted both Raj's and Leonard's curiosity.

Penn put on his best innocent voice, "I don't see why not? You're a female and created yourself a male character while I'm a male with a female character. I can't see how that's any different."

The theoretical physicist snapped, "Your avatar looks like me!"

"Well, it's only fair." Penn shrugged his shoulders. "Your avatar looks like me."

"My avatar looks like Chris Hemsworth in Thor!" Shelly announced self-righteously, "Tall, burly, blond hair, that chin." She pointed at her screen.

"No. It looks like me." Penn squinted his eyes. "Yes, definitely me. What do you think Raj?"

Raj had been staring silently over both of their shoulders and on their respective laptop screens. When Penn tried to include him he lifted his hands defensively and hurried back to sit on his spot on the floor.

"Howard?" Penn asked but Howard was whispering madly with Raj. "Okay, what's your opinion, Leonard?" Penn turned Shelly's laptop so that her roommate could finally take a look.

Leonard blanched visibly. "I think, that you two should discuss that and leave me out of it."

Shelly batted Penn's fingers off her laptop and started wiping it. "I couldn't get my avatar closer to Chris Hemsworth! The options for facial modifications are severely limited."

"So, you're telling me that it's just bad luck that he looks like me?" Penn asked incredulously.

"Exactly!" A sharp nod highlighted Shelly's answer.

"Well," Penn stretched the word. "I guess, it is only bad luck then that my avatar just happens to look like you."

Shelly glared at him. She hissed through gritted teeth, "Fine! I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I'm just asking you for one thing."

Penn instantly had a bad feeling about this. Shelly never admitted defeat. "Um... really?"

"Just explain to me how did it happen that your character 'accidentally' looks like me. Were you trying to model it after someone famous? Or how does this qualify to have happened 'accidentally'?"

There was only the obvious explanation why Penn's avatar looked like Shelly and they all knew it. "Hey, look I can make her stumble and fall on her face." On his screen, Queen Penelope stumbled over a crate.

Howard was the only one who snickered.

"I'm fine with you playing an Amazon," Shelly started. "They are a versatile character class and certainly more valuable than the sorcerer Howard wants to play but you have to remodel the looks of your avatar."

"I'll only remake my character if you do so as well," Penn answered stubbornly.