so I had planned on posting this last Friday but the week got away from me.
Slice Of Life/Domestic/Found Family
-and-
"Okay, show me."
Set after Summer Knight.
"I can't believe you talked me into this," Murphy whispered. "Can't believe I let you talk me into it."
"You said you were bored," I shrugged. "I'm just trying to help."
"I don't know if I've ever been this bored," she groused, putting her foot up on the battered ottoman. Her knee brace creaked in protest, crutches propped against the nearest wall. Our Wal-Mart garden center adventure had left us both a little worse for wear.
"Have you ever done this before?" I asked. "Or did your mom buy into the whole Satanic Panic thing?"
"What do you think?" she replied as I dropped into the seat next to her, pulling the coffee table a little closer before setting down two icy beers and a paper plate of pizza.
"I think you think this is dumb," I teased. We had once again found ourselves at the Alphas' apartment headquarters near the university — for game night, this time. I had been to a few game nights since our epic battle with the Fae, and it felt good to get out of my apartment and spend some time with friends. I wasn't the only one who had been playing hermit lately, though, avoiding people and screening calls and— according to Stallings— skipping her usual training hours at the dojo even before she had the excuse of a knee injury.
"I don't think it's dumb," Murphy lowered her voice as I leaned down to listen. "I think it's too much like work. If I want to fight monsters and do paperwork about it, all I have to do is wait."
"This is nothing like work. No risk, no stakes," I bumped her with my elbow. "No sprained ACLs. Just silly fun."
"So no plant monsters, no chainsaws," she mused. "All Looney Tunes?"
"Exactly. You get it. And you don't even have to make a character." I handed her a clipboard of paper and a mechanical pencil, and then dumped the contents of a Crown Royal bag into an old cigar box lined with felt. "Will and Kirby already did that for us."
She eyed the dice, then glanced over her shoulder toward the tiny kitchen where the kids were still gathered, chewing her lip.
"Just give it a shot. You might like it."
"Easy, Dresden. You're starting to sound like my ex." I must have made a face — she laughed and took a long pull from the cheap beer. "Okay," she said, scooting a little closer to me on the couch. "Show me."
"Your character is—" I looked over the character sheet and stifled a snort. "Stuffy Bummers, vampire slayer."
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Murphy muttered. "You're kidding."
"Nope. Aaand you're a Halfling. Y'know," I said, carefully. "Like a hobbit."
"I know, like a hobbit," she ground out through clenched teeth, snatching the clipboard from me. "Not like work, my ass. I can do all these things."
"You can throw daggers?" I took her clipboard again to have a closer look at her stats. Murphy shrugged and took my own clipboard of papers. "And you're proficient in... intimidation, okay—"
"Look at yours," she whispered, actually giggling as she pushed the clipboard back into my hands.
I read it for the first time since Will had handed out the sheets: I'd been assigned a bleach-blond vampire bard — with a few levels of barbarian— named Poke.
"Very creative. Hey," I grabbed the arm of the scruffy college kid who just happened to be passing behind the couch. "What happened to the character sheets being assigned at random?"
Kirby grinned at me. "Yep."
"Not funny."
"It's a little funny," Murphy said under her breath, as the rest of the crew trooped in with snacks and drinks, taking their places around the living room. As soon as everyone was seated, the kid launched into exposition, setting up a dark and stormy night storyline, introducing the players; all parodies of modern fantasy and horror characters, trapped together in a haunted castle that definitely wasn't a ripoff of The Overlook Hotel.
Silly fun — just like I'd promised.
"Hah!" Murphy crowed, triumphantly pointing at the 20 she had just rolled to attack the Jack Nicholson-shaped zombie chasing us up a staircase.
"Are you sure you've never done this before?"
"Now you're really starting to sound like my ex."
See you on Friday ;)
