Its that time of the week again! If you like, or if you have anything to say, leave a review! They mean so much to us and we're so thankful for the ones we already have.
"And that brings you down to zero hit points. Roll your death save."
"What? No, that's bullshit! We can't even see your dice behind that stupid cardboard piece of crap!" Chloe lunged across the table at Warren, grabbing for the DM screen separating him from the rest of the group.
Warren flailed and jumped backward, nearly tipping over his chair. "I just roll the dice! I wouldn't lie about it!" He accidentally swatted the screen with his prosthetic, sending it skidding across the table, bowling over miniatures with reckless abandon as it went.
The two d6s, now visible, read six and six, just the way he'd said.
Chloe slowed to a halt, and her eyes narrowed. "You could have moved them before I looked."
"How the hell was I supposed to know that you were going to jump me?"
Max sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation. "Chloe..." Half of her wanted to burst out laughing, and the other half wanted to cuff Chloe upside the head. It had been such a struggle to get Chloe involved in the game, but now that she was here, it was a little disturbing how into it she got. Sometimes even Max couldn't tell how deep her rage ran.
"This is not how Thorg the Ripped dies!" Chloe hit the table with her fist. The large bowl of Doritos in the center of the table wobbled dangerously. She'd refused to take it seriously at first, as evidenced by her stupid character, but over time she'd gotten… attached.
"Chloe, he isn't dead yet. Death saves, remember?" Max slapped her upside the head and reached out to take her hand. She tugged playfully.
Chloe looked at her blankly.
"Death saves!" Warren piped up. "You have to roll above a ten three times before you roll under a ten three times. Don't you remember? Max got beat up the first session by those bird guys you all pissed off, and she had to do that."
Chloe blinked at him. "Yeah. Of course. I know that." She sat back down, doing a fairly credible impression of a person who hadn't just lost their shit.
Max rolled her eyes. "I'm standing right there, bonehead. I can just heal you, and you can stand right back up and keep hitting things." Max's character was an elven druid named Aldrea. She figured that Chloe called her a hippie enough that she might as well play into the stereotype, and they did need a healer.
Chloe cleared her throat as if she had something to say, but finally just looked down at the table, her face vaguely embarrassed.
Max glanced around the table.
Warren was looking back and forth between the two of them as if deciding whether or not he needed to start running for his life. Chloe did this often and, at one point, had tried to beat up Warren with his own prosthetic. Brooke had nearly eviscerated Chloe for messing around with the 3D printed masterpiece.
Daniel was drawing furiously, deep in that weird artistic trance he went into whenever he was creating. Max couldn't see what the subject was and gave it even odds that he wouldn't let anyone but Brooke see.
Brooke held Warren's hand under the table, one of her eyebrows quirked. "You all done?" she asked, her voice dry as a desert plain. Brooke played as a chaotic neutral warlock, a human who had gone too far in the search for knowledge. She didn't quite minmax her character to the limit, but she was definitely the one who paid most attention to stats and numbers.
Chloe grumbled something under her breath.
Max leaned in and pressed a playful kiss to Chloe's cheek, which immediately turned pink. "Just roll the damn d20."
Still muttering, Chloe picked up the die and let it roll. It came up with a 7.
"Congrats," said Warren, "you're one step closer to death. You see a bright light at the end of the tunnel. 2d6 angels are smiling and waving in the light. It's very sad."
Chloe shot him a glare that could have withered steel.
Warren chose to ignore it. "Max, you're up."
Max smiled sweetly. "I cast cure wounds on Thorg. He heals-" She rolled - "nine hit points."
Warren nodded, putting the screen back up and taking cover behind it as though from enemy fire. "Okay, Thorg, you're back on your feet, but you're still surrounded by scarecrows. One of them does this," he reached out with both hands in a grabby motion, "and goes good, toy is not broken yet," he finished in a high, reedy whisper.
"Creepy fucking things," Chloe said. "Why are we fighting these assholes again?"
Max nudged her and said, with a solemn expression, "Because it was your magnificent, sage idea to break into the castle without asking around to see if it was haunted or cursed first."
"I told you we should have put in some reconnaissance first," Brooke put in helpfully. "We always do this."
"Well how was I supposed to know the guy used these fuckin' things as guards?" Chloe protested.
"You're only proving my point," Brooke replied. "And there was that gross dude in the graveyard, remember? The one that kept talking about blood and straw."
The two of them clashed a lot, Chloe and Brooke, but it was surprisingly good natured. They bickered, but more like siblings than enemies - to the point where Chloe got along with her better than anyone else at the table, except for Max. They'd become fast friends after Chloe had borrowed Brooke's drone - with Max's support - and used it to divebomb Warren.
"I foreshadowed it a ton," Warren said. "It's not my fault if you didn't pay attention to my carefully laid clues."
Chloe stuck her tongue out at him.
Warren laughed. "Maybe we should take a break. It's about nine," he said. "Get some snacks, cool down. We can finish this combat after."
"Sounds like a good idea," Max broke in before Chloe could respond.
Chloe shrugged and threw five bucks at Warren. "Go get me a snack for trying to kill me."
Brooke immediately took out her phone and started tapping away, while Warren toddled off to get himself something to drink. Daniel kept right on sketching.
Max leaned over and put her head on her girlfriend's shoulder and closed her eyes. "I thought Dungeons and Dragons was nerd shit," she said teasingly.
Max could almost hear the grudging blush in Chloe's voice. "It's fun."
"Is it? You were getting really into it there."
"Yeah! I just thought he could use a good scare. I was only a little pissed off."
Max smiled. "A little?" she asked dryly.
"Okay, I didn't want Thorg to die. I like playing as Thorg. Even if he died, I would just make a Thorg II who would be even worse than version one Thorg. That what you want to hear?"
"It's good to know you're really just a big stupid buff Orc on the inside."
"Half-Orc." Chloe took on a gruff voice. "Thorg proud of his heritage."
Max snorted. "Okay, there is no way Thorg knows what the word heritage means."
"Thorg have hidden depths," Chloe growled playfully. "Thorg secretly genius."
"Thorg not get ladies with attitude like that," Max mimicked, then laughed and leaned up to press a kiss to Chloe's lips.
Chloe laughed softly, their breath mingling, and returned the kiss. Soft. Gentle. Warm.
Brooke rolled her eyes and stood, slipping her phone into the pocket of her hoodie. She walked around the table to stand beside Daniel's shoulder and leaned in to talk to him, actually smiling a little. She didn't usually smile much, unless it was with Warren or Daniel. It wasn't that she was a cold person. She was just a little withdrawn.
Daniel brightened and said something in return, proudly setting his pencil down and showing her his drawing.
Brooke laughed quietly, reaching out to point at something on the page and saying something else.
There was nothing romantic there. They'd bonded at the final Vortex Club party, and had grown very close in the time since. Brooke was faithful to Warren, and Daniel didn't really seem interested in anyone that way, of any gender really. He just called her his new muse, and Max thought the friendship was good for them both.
Max and Chloe were still quietly smooching when a wolf-whistle came from the doorway. "I usually have to pay for entertainment that good," called Warren.
Max and Chloe broke apart a little quicker than they would have otherwise, and Max felt her cheeks go pink. Warren was a good guy, but sometimes he didn't really have much of an idea of boundaries when it came to humor. "It's 2013," she retorted. "Who pays for that stuff in 2013?"
Chloe looked a little grumpy, though whether from the interruption or the joke, Max wasn't sure. It was probably both, but sometimes Warren's jokes got under her skin. "Not cool, man."
Warren raised his hand as he sat down, a glass of what looked like Coke tucked in the crook of his good arm. "Yeah, not my finest moment. Dick move. Sorry." His tone, though aloof, was genuine. He looked down as he sat, setting the glass onto the table, and started scribbling something behind his screen.
Max felt Chloe groping for her hand under the table, and she entwined their fingers. "Hey, Daniel!" she said, eager to change the subject. "What're you drawing?"
Daniel looked up, and his chubby face broke into a bright smile. "Ah, Max!" he said, as if he'd only just realized that she was there. "It is just a little sketch, and it is nowhere near done. I honestly don't know if I will finish, but it is for fun." Daniel came almost every week, but he never paid much attention when the group was in combat. His character was a charming halfling bard, who contributed almost nothing to fights. He was a charismatic little runt, though, and he often ended up being the face of the party when anything other than smashy-smashy was called for.
Brooke nudged him. "I think you should show them. They'll like it, and it'll make you happy. You don't give yourself enough credit. Share your stuff."
Daniel looked down at the sketchbook, and his brow furrowed. He studied it silently for a moment, then nodded. "Ah, yes, you are probably right." His faintly accented voice was, if not confident, at least more assertive than it had been when Max had first met him. He was still bullied by his fellow students, but his friendship with Brooke and Warren had done wonders for his self-esteem.
He lifted the sketchbook and flipped it around to show Max and Chloe.
It was still a rough sketch, little more than rough shapes and silhouettes, but there was real life to it. Movement. Two figures that looked like Max and Chloe sat behind a table. They were holding hands, and the taller figure - Chloe - appeared to be banging her fist on the table, yelling. Beside her, the Max doodle was covering her mouth, clearly stifling a giggle. Dice and assorted detritus littered the surface of the table before them. Was that a dorito?
"Do you like it? It isn't finished," Daniel repeated. "It's hardly my best work, but-"
"I love it!" Max exclaimed. She really did. A warm, happy feeling settled in the pit of her stomach as she took in the sketch. Unfinished or not, he'd captured her and Chloe perfectly.
Chloe leaned in to look as well, and her face broke into a smile. "Nice one, Danny-boy. Don't sell yourself short, man, you're good at this." Chloe and Daniel weren't as close as Daniel and Brooke, but after the first couple sessions of this group, Chloe seemed to have adopted him as a kind of surrogate son. She was encouraging and protective, and had beaten up at least one person for fucking with him. She didn't tease him much at all, the way she did Warren, or even Max. It was kind of sweet, Max thought. It wasn't often that Chloe got maternal. Besides, they bonded over understanding art, even though Chloe had a limited knowledge of traditional art forms. "Thanks for sharing!"
Daniel puffed up a little, looking proud. "You are too kind. Maybe once it is finished, I will give it to you, yes?"
Max nodded, grinning. "We'll put it up on our wall. We'd be happy to have another Daniel DaCosta original."
Brooke was smiling too, and she gave Daniel's shoulder a little squeeze before returning to her own chair, next to Warren. With one hand, she tapped away at her phone; with the other, she reached out to Warren without looking, simply holding her hand in the air until Warren finally noticed long enough to take it in his.
He leaned over to give her a short kiss, then let go to fiddle with his prosthetic. After a few moments, he managed to disconnect the thing, then held it up. "Anyone need a hand?" He looked around the room expectantly.
Max and Chloe just looked at him. Daniel laughed as if it was the first time he'd ever heard Warren make that joke. Brooke rolled her eyes and punched his good arm.
"Ow!" Warren swatted at her with the plastic hand.
Brooke snatched the prosthetic away from him, as easily as if he were a child. "Shouldn't you be wearing this?" She said it casually, but there was a quiet edge of concern in her voice. Brooke wasn't big on public displays of affection, but it was obvious to anyone who spent more than a few minutes around the couple that she really did care very deeply. She just wasn't great at showing it.
Warren shrugged uncomfortably. "It was getting itchy. You know. Wearing it too long makes it hurt, still." Max could see the stump was red and slightly inflamed, irritated by the constant pressure and friction of the prosthetic. "My stump needs to breathe."
Brooke rolled her eyes but nodded slowly, then set the hand down carefully in front of her. "Is it bad? Do you want to take something?"
Warren shook his head. "Nah. I'm tough, I can take it."
Brooke rolled her eyes, but she smiled. "Alright, Tarzan. Just don't hurt yourself."
Warren lifted the stump and waved it through the air a couple times, stretching the remaining muscles in that arm. "I'm good, baby. Just a little sore."
"Okay." Brooke nodded, reaching out to touch his cheek gently. "Just let me know if you need anything, alright? You big baby," she added, as if she'd realized that the moment was getting dangerously close to saccharine.
Even that was a big change from when they'd started. It had taken a good amount of effort to get Brooke involved in the weekly D&D sessions, and she'd been very quiet for the first week or two. One on one, she didn't have much trouble, but when you got her in a crowd, she tended to stay back and blend in, not drawing much attention to herself. She could also only take so much socialization at a time; she'd missed sessions because she was recovering from family events or other social obligations. Everyone understood that need. Max had needed nights off, too.
Max was happy she was here, though. She was good for Warren, and he was good for her. He pushed her to get out of her shell more, and she kept him more grounded than he might otherwise be.
They'd really bonded in the hospital, after the storm. Maybe she'd been the one that printed Warren's prosthetic by raising funds and using her own money.
She glanced over at Chloe and smiled.
Chloe blinked, then grinned back. "What're you thinkin' about?" She asked quietly while the other couple continued to talk.
Max shrugged, then put her head back onto her girlfriend's shoulder. "Nothin'. I'm just... happy. I'm glad we do this. All of us."
A cool hand reached up to run through Max's hair. "Yeah. Me too. It's fun." She quietly pressed a kiss onto the top of Max's head. "Sorry if I got a little... intense."
Max snorted. "It wouldn't be D&D without you flipping the table at least once. It's practically a tradition at this point."
"We take our traditions very seriously," Brooke quipped with a small smile.
"As long as this one doesn't end with me losing another hand," Warren protested with a grin, raising his stump and waving it in front of her. "I don't exactly have a lot of those to spare these days."
Chloe looked like she was at a loss as to how to respond; Warren joking about his missing hand tended to do that to people.
It made Max a little uncomfortable too, not least because she was fairly sure that the loss had hurt him a lot more deeply than he let on. He tried very hard to come across like he was okay with it.
"Do not worry," Daniel piped in, looking up from the drawing. "If there is a problem with your other hand, I will design another that is even better than the original. Brooke will print it out for you. It will be breathtaking." He went back to sketching.
Warren laughed, flipping Daniel off with his good hand. "Hey, thanks, but I'm good. One Darth Vader hand is good for me. I saw Star Wars, I know what happens when you let yourself become too much of a machine."
"Luke had a mechanical hand," Brooke put in. "It wasn't robotics that made Darth Vader evil. That had more to do with him killing all those kids, I think." She smirked a little, looking down at her phone. "Just a thought."
Warren rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. Next limb I lose is all yours."
Brooke nodded as though she had just won some sort of competition.
"For what it is worth," said Daniel, "I for one hope that you do not lose anything else. We all like you just the way you are."
Warren blinked. "Uh, thanks, Daniel. I wasn't planning on it."
"Good."
Max's phone buzzed on the table, and she picked it up while the others continued their good natured bickering.
It was a picture of a floofy black and white rabbit sitting on a desk wearing a little pirate hat, looking particularly unfazed. Something that looked like a little cardboard cutlass leaned against its side.. It was accompanied by a text reading [12/19 9:16 Help! Alice is out of control! :)]
Max chuckled. Kate really was too cute for this world. She raised her phone to take a very serious selfie, then used an app to scribble a rough eyepatch onto her face. [12/19 9:17 dont worry kate! captain caulfield is on the case! XO]
Chloe poked her head over Max's shoulder, peeking at the phone. "What's up?"
Max rolled her eyes, placed her hand gently on Chloe's face, and pushed her away. "Just Kate being cute. Don't worry about it. No crisis here."
Chloe looked as though she wanted to know more, but nodded and let it be. She'd gotten a lot better about Max interacting with other people who weren't her, but it still seemed to bother her a little sometimes.
Max didn't blame her. Chloe had been through a lot, too. She'd lost so much, and Max couldn't let herself forget that she wasn't the only one with psychological scars to deal with. They were all still learning to cope.
"Trouble in paradise?" Warren snarked, leaning in for juicy gossip.
Max threw a d6 at him. It bounced off his head with a quiet thok. "Mind your own business."
Warren rubbed at his head where the die had hit. "Ow. After all I do for you guys, this is the thanks I get?"
She blew a raspberry at him. "Shut up and DM, nerd boy."
The phone vibrated again. No picture this time, just a message. [12/19 9:21 I'm being silly, but Max, I'm so happy you were able to share with me. If you ever need anything, please let me know. You're my best friend and I'm here for you. I know things are hard sometimes, but you're in my prayers. Whether you want to be or not. :)]
Max smiled down at her phone. [12/19 9:22 anytime kate! it means a lot to me and ill definitely come to you again. whether YOU want it or not. i'm with the dnd kids though, ill write you in a couple hours! love you maxoxo] Kate was such a sweet person. She deserved better than the hand she'd been dealt.
[12/19 9:23 I'll probably be asleep, but u have fun! Don't let that evil roleplaying tempt you down a path of sin. ;) We can talk tomorrow. We still need to set up our next tea date!]
Max set her phone onto the table, and was immediately greeted by a nudge from Chloe. "Welcome back to the real world, Max."
Max rolled her eyes and planted a quick kiss on Chloe's lips. "Sorry, it's my generation. Kids these days, you know."
"Damn straight. Now are we gonna play, or what?"
"Don't rush me. Next time, I might just let Thorg die after all."
"You wouldn't dare!"
They all laughed. Max grinned. "Alright, then. Who's turn is it, Brooke?"
Brooke nodded. "Yeah. Now let's fry some of these dipshits." She cracked her knuckles as if she were the one who was about to unleash a powerful eldritch magical attack, not her character. She adjusted her glasses, paged through her handbook for a moment, and began describing the spell she was going to cast, complete with arm waving.
Brooke could get… kind of intense.
It was good, though, Max thought. This group. It was good for all of them. None of them were exactly social butterflies most of the time, but these few hours every week were perfect for just cutting loose, unwinding, and having a good time.
Max hoped they would never end. They were one of the only times that she felt… well, normal. It was a good feeling.
Maybe one day, it would last.