Inspired by GabrielleRPollack's Writing Prompt #23

One of these days Abby was going to actually follow the plan he had mapped out for these games. She was going to listen to his advice and they were going to get the game done without any casualties or weird incidents. Unfortunately, today was definitely not one of those days. It was never going to be one of those days, was it?

McGee sighed. What he needed was a better partner but Abby really was good at these games. Sure, he could probably find someone online but there was something about everyone being in the same room, playing the game, that couldn't be replicated by an online experience. Shocking coming from him, he knew.

Not that that sentiment mattered when Abby was refusing to play properly.

"No, Abby. I told you."

The look of dismay that appeared on her face was not going to sway him. He was going to stand firm here. He wanted to finish this game. Hopefully this decade. And Abby was not going to distract him. Too much anyway.

"Let's just do this once and -" she tried.

"No, Abby. We won't get through the game that way!"

She actually stomped her feet at him and crossed her arms, controller still in her hand. He hurriedly paused the game before her movements did something in game that they shouldn't.

"Oh, come on, Tim! You're no fun!"

McGee sighed and set down his controller before responding, "Sorry but I don't want to give them a reason to send me to the asylum. Again."

He was, of course, referring to their characters in the game. There was no reason for him to actually be sent to an asylum. But in this game if you got sent there you had to do ten different challenges to get out which just wasted supplies. Abby did not seem to see this as a problem because she pouted at him.

"Seriously, Abby, if we do that the villagers will think we're crazy. Even if they don't lock us up, they'll be too suspicious of us and won't give us any clues."

And they needed the clues or else they would never progress onto the next stage.

"You don't know that."

Though she didn't look too convinced of that. Abby had been on the receiving end of aforementioned villagers' suspicions because she had basically dressed her character like a bat. The villagers were not fond of that look. Also, McGee wasn't even aware that the wings were an option for the character design.

"Trust me, they really do get suspicious of overt displays of magic and will either get the pitch forms out or bundle you into the asylum we passed by when we led that campaign. Depends on the village but either way we will be wasting valuable time."

Thankfully, Abby rolled her eyes but nodded her acquiescence. Good, maybe she would be sensible about this... McGee went to unpause the game when Abby opened her mouth.

"Wait, you got sent to the asylum?" she asked with a snigger.

Dammit, he had hoped she wouldn't have picked up on that. It wasn't like it was important now. He gave her a look but she gave him an expectant one in return. She wasn't going to let this go, was she? No, no she wasn't.

"I didn't know that the villagers would react like that, okay?" McGee said defensively.

Abby just grinned at him which he did not appreciate. He was trying to help them!

"What even happens when you're brought to the asylum."

McGee shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it."

Oh, Timmy."

Yeah, she definitely wasn't going to leave this alone and he would actually like to play the game this evening, so...

With a long-suffering sigh, he explained, "You either have to persuade the doctors that you're not insane- which only works if you have a certain number of charisma points - or you take the question to sneak out."

"Which one's faster?"

She was planning on using magic and being caught. Great. He really should have known it was going to go down like that. Abby couldn't resist using magic when it was available.

"Persuading the doctors but we don't have enough charisma points to do that. We'd just be thought of as even crazier and be put in restraints."

"So, it would be a quest?"

"Yes."

He was not liking where this was going. Maybe he could still persuade her...

Then a giggle escaped her. What was so funny about this? There was nothing funny about getting side-tracked! Unfortunately, his petulant glare just made her giggle harder.

"Do you $¥ you get put in a hospital gown?" she managed to get out between sniggers.

He decided to not even deign that with a response. So, what if you did? It didn't matter. All that mattered was that they weren't put in there. That way there would be no hospital gowns involved.

"If you get put in the asylum, it takes ages to build up the villagers trust again," he said instead, putting his thumbs in the appropriate places on his controller so they could get playing again. "You have to do so many pointless tasks with basically no rewards."

"Kind of like building up real trust," Abby pointed out.

"Well, yes. I suppose so."

He had never thought of it like that before but that did make sense. It didn't make the whole process any less infuriating, however.

Abby grabbed her controller again and looked at the screen thoughtfully. "Do we really need the villagers' help?"

She just wanted any excuse to use magic. Well, not this time.

"Considering we know next to nothing about the crime lord we're going up against and they are apparently a part of the resistance movement..."

Abby huffed, not liking where this was going at all.

"Fine."

McGee still felt like he had to make some things clear.

"No magic," he reiterated firmly.

"...Fine."

Because that was really reassuring.