Ruby sighed, leaning back in the driver's seat, feeling the boredom setting in deep in her bones. It wasn't like there wasn't anything to do, the beaches were open for the summer, the pop up businesses that always appeared in the summer months in tourist towns could always use a temp hire, and there was her studies, things she'd need to finish over summer in order to graduate with top honors next year. But instead she just sat here, leaning back in her reclined seat, out front of the small shop that had been a part of the town for as long as she remembered but had never been to.
"Your Turn To Roll"
From what her dad, Tai, had told her, the pace had been here since the late 70s, when the things they sold were super popular, tabletop games, things with dice and little plastic figurines. Some weird mix between a bookstore and a toyshop.
"Go on Rubes, if you are so bored, why not check out the kinds of games your old man used to play?"
She sighed again, looking down at her phone, a group text chain that she had started to make, but stopped before sending a message, since she couldn't figure how to start it. Luckily no one would know about it until she sent a message. Herself, Yang, her sister, her Tutor, Blake, Blakes friend Weiss, top of her class, and her childhood friend, Jaune. Her dad had said, if you wanted to play games like D&D, you needed a group to meet together. They were the only people she had in her phone and most of them aside from Yang and Jaune she barely ever texted. She could count the number of messages between her and Weiss on one hand and all the conversations with Blake were professional, just about tutoring meetups. She put her phone away, deciding to work on that part afterwards. Instead, she left the comforting chill of her car's AC and stepped out into the sweltering heat, walking over to the shop.
The door opened with a light jingle, the temp inside only marginally better due to the store's larger size, older, wheezing AC system, and massive glass windows basically magnifying the heat inward. The shop smelled like old books and warm plastic, which oddly Ruby didn't find unpleasant. She walked along the first aisle running her hands over the various book, looking at their titles, D&D Player's Handbook, Pathfinder Second Edition, Dragon Age, GURPS, and many other weird names.
"Can I help you, miss?"
Ruby tuned, looking over at the counterm having not noticed the man there. She was almost certain that he had not been there when she walked in. he seemed an older man though she almost couldn't tell, just by looking at his face, but short cropped white hair indicated advanced age at least, small round spectacles overtop hazel eyes that seemed to stare right through her. She walked over to the counter, uncertain what mist anything here was.
"Ah ... .yeah, sorry, i don't really know much about…"she waved her hand vaguely "...all of this. My dad kinda just said I should check it out" as she explained she watched as the man slightly adjusted his glasses, before grabbing acne next to him, dark black wood, topped with silver and an opal, and walked around the side with a slight limp.
"You…are Tai's daughter, yes? The younger one, Ruby if I am correct?" his voice was calm and even, as he walked over to the same aisle she had been examining, pulling three books off their various spots on the shelf
"Ah…yeah that's me…you know my dad then?" She watched as he limped his way back around the counter, placing the books on top of it, before reaching under the counter and placing a stack of papers on top of it as well.
"Yes, quite, the lad was in here almost every day in the summer when he was a young gun. Such a passion for the craft" Ruby walked a bit closer over to the counter, checking the books on the counter. Players handbook that she had seen earlier as well as another with Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide on the spines, the papers on top looked like overly complex spreadsheets that she couldn't make heads or tails of.
"So, what is all of this stuff?" she asked. "I didn't really say i was here to buy anything" she watched the man give her a wry smile.
"Consider it a gift, one for the daughter of an old friend who spent so much of his youth here. On the house." he lightly pushed the books towards her before pausing "Ah, i almost forgot. Dice"
Ruby looked through the glass front of a nearby counter with various clear glass containers of brightly colored polyhedrons sat in neat rows.
"No, those wouldn't do. I have a…special set in mind. Your father used to use them himself back in the day, ill get them right now"
As the man walked off to the back of the shop she rapped her foot. The look in that man's eyyes when he talked about special dice her dad used to use was the same look her dad had when he told her to come here, like they were waiting for her to get an inside joke that she knew nothing about. The look her sister got whenever she had pulled some prank and was waiting for it to be discovered. It was a look she was wary of. All of a sudden the man seemingly appeared in front of her again, a special dark mahogany box in his hands, an inscription on top in gold lettering "Ad Casus et Inventio in Magica"
"What does that mean?"she asked, she recognized it as latin but had never really paid much attention in her classics class.
The man just gave her that same small smile "you will know, in time." he folded his hands on the counter in front of him "a quick addendum, a tradition if you would. Your father believed that you shouldn't open it or roll the dice until you were truly ready to begin. I know that may seem strange but it was always his tradition." he handed her the stack of books with the box on top "i hop you and your friends find it as enjoyable as your father and his group did"
"Uhhh…y-yeah..thanks" almost as if beyond her control she found herself walking back to her car, and getting in. placing all the items on the passenger seat she sat there for a bit. With the flare of the sun, she couldn't see if that man was still at the counter, and she had never gotten his name. Pulling out her phone again, she hesitated, before typing out a quick message and sending it.
Ruby: hey, if non of u are busy, wanna hang out tonite? Got some old game stuff my dad used to play.
0-0-0-0-0 Later that Night 0-0-0-0-0
Ruby was honestly surprised. After sending the message out, she had hidden her phone in her baf until she got home afraid to see the responses, but after getting everything inside she was surprised to see that everyone had generally responded with various forms of "sure" or "might as well". After asking for more info, Jaune had even said that his girlfriend was actually super into TTRPGs, a word Ruby had no idea what it meant but didn't mind, Jaunes girlfriend, Pyrrha, was cool, so it made her feel less like a dork for suggesting it if someone as cool as her liked this stuff.
Her dad was thrilled, setting up a whole large table that looked like a modified circular pool table, thick oak, felt topped, and looked like something straight from a casino. He said that while when he started he and his friends mostly played at the shop, once they all got older, they had moved to playing around this very table.
"Its where i met your mom you know, playing this game" he looked a little down for a moment. "You'll love it Rubles, don't worry."
Before she knew it, suddenly people were arriving. Yang had been home for hours, on break from mechanics school in town. First to arrive were Weiss and Blake, exactly at the time Ruby had said, 6:30. They were both starting their time at the nearby college, and apparently shared a dorm, so Ruby was sure that them being this punctual was all Weiss. Even though Blake had been her tutor, and set the meeting times, it was always her who was late. A bit later, Jaune and Pyrrha arrived, at nearly 7, Pyrrha apologizing because Jaune had spilled an entire pitcher of coffee on all his clothes in the closet and Pyrrha had to quickly was some things. Jaune still looked slightly damp, smelling like laundry soap.
Ruby was a little nervous being around so many adults, even though she was only a bit behind them herself. She was just about to speak up when she heard yang behind her
"Woah, these dice are amazing looking, look at these-" Ruby turned around so quickly, not sure why, but the words of the games shop man rang in her head. Turned a little too quickly however and slipped, stumbling into yang, knocking into her hard. Almost like in slow motion, ruby watched the die, from what she had looked up briefly on her phone, a d20, fly through the air. It was in fact very interesting, dark obsidian, silver trimmed with the numbeing being in a deep gold. The die rolled along the table with a rattle, landing eerily dead center on the table. Ruby saw the number on top
20
And then everything was a flash of white.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
The sun shone brightly in the clearing, trees swaying gently in a cool breeze, the clouds overhead towering like pillars of white in the sky. Under a tree in the clearing sat a beautiful young woman, in deep red leather armor, a red hooded cloak adorned her shoulders, the hood currently pulled up, slightly obscuring her face. The woman rested in the shade of the tree, enjoying the serene atmosphere, twin short swords on her back, an elegant longbow on the ground next to her, just within reach. Slowly she looked up at the sky, bright shining silver eyes reflecting the world around her. Ruby, Ranger of the Rosewood,stared atthe world around her.
