How do you feel about that?
Jo was scrolling through “confused” gif options for one that felt right when she spotted a maroon hoodie approaching out of the corner of her eye. She hastily typed “later” and sent it to Aida. She set her phone face down on the table as Felix slid onto his stool and held up a black business card with white text.
“Turns out the bartender who served us is the manager,” he said. “He couldn’t talk now but told me to call him on Monday.”
“That’s great!”
“We’ll see how it goes.”
They smiled at each other and went quiet. Jo took a sip of water. Felix drummed his fingers on his empty pint glass.
“I should’ve asked before I went to the bar,” he finally said, “but do you want another drink? On me, if that’s okay, to thank you for coming to what ended up being a complete waste of your time.”
“Not a waste of time,” she replied. “I got to see a new place in town. And hang out with a friend.” Because that’s what you are, Jo. Friends. “Better than falling asleep on the couch rewatching Xena for the hundredth time.”
“That’s high praise, I think,” he said with a smile. “So, another round?”
Jo frowned. “I’d better not, actually. Sorry. I picked up a shift at work tomorrow, and I have to be in at eight.”
Was that disappointment on Felix’s face? It passed so quickly she couldn’t be sure.
“You want to stay a bit longer or call it a night?” he asked.
Jo flipped her phone over, angled away from Felix. Nothing from Aida, but after last time, she wasn’t taking any chances. She checked the time. They’d only been there for half an hour.
“We can stay,” she said. “If that’s cool with you.”
There was no mistaking his expression now. The slow grin, the crinkled corners of his eyes, the ever-so-slight flush in his cheeks. “That’s cool with me.”
They talked until Jo’s voice was raw from shouting over the music and the ever-expanding crowd of drunk college students. She asked him about his time at Rutgers and why he decided to go back to school. It was a childhood dream, he explained, ever since he saw the Rare Books Collection on a field trip to the University of Oklahoma.
She asked what sorts of books he liked, since fantasy wasn’t his thing. Research-heavy nonfiction, he said, which made perfect sense to Jo. What surprised her, though, was that he also enjoyed poetry. He liked the way each word had to be precisely chosen, how poems could convey beautiful imagery or depth of emotion in a few brief lines.
In return, Jo mostly talked about MnM. At first, she kept her answers to Felix’s questions brief so she didn’t bore him. But when he asked for some stories from her campaign with her friends, he looked so genuinely curious she stopped holding back. She told him story after story: how Max and Heather decided that their demonkin characters, Lyric and Rosalis, should be cousins because they couldn’t stop bickering; how Lyric kept fucking dying, and Young’s cleric Sierra had to bring him back to life at least a dozen times; how Kim’s halfling rogue Lucas got the kill shot on the final combat of the entire campaign when all hope seemed lost. And of course, the epic love story of Kelpie and Sorn, Aida’s druid and David’s warlock, who pined after each other for months, finally confessed their feelings, adopted a daughter, and sailed off into the sunset as a family.
“Are Aida and David together then?” Felix asked.
“No, Aida’s engaged to someone else, and David’s aromantic, so he doesn’t date much.”
“So it’s only their characters who are in love.”
“Yup,” Jo confirmed. “MnM is about telling stories together. Sometimes love is part of the story.”
“Does that ever get weird?”
“It can,” she said with a shrug. “It’s best for the players to talk things through if they see the potential for a love story between their characters. Both players, obviously, need to be on board for it to happen. The GM can guide that conversation and figure out how to work it into the overall story.”
“Huh,” Felix said. He paused thoughtfully before he continued. “I suppose that’s not much different from real life—talking through your feelings and deciding what you both want. It’s hard to imagine doing that on behalf of a character who doesn’t really exist though.”
“When you’re roleplaying, you’re making all kinds of decisions on the character’s behalf. This might sound strange, but it’s almost like you become a part of the character and the character becomes a part of you.”
“That’s not so strange,” he said. “Plenty of actors say things like that when they really embody a role.”
“Exactly!” Jo cried. “The only difference is we improvise the script and use dice rolls to help determine the plot as we go.”
A bemused grin came over his face. “And you think you’re not creative.”
Jo stammered a handful of sounds that didn’t somehow magically turn into words.
“Thank you for telling me about your game,” he said, saving her from herself. “I feel like I have a richer understanding of MnM now.”
This is the part where you say “you’re welcome,” Jo, she told herself as a rich warmth washed over her.
“I need to pee,” she yelled instead. “I drank, like, six of those tiny glasses of water.” Jo grabbed her phone off the table and practically ran for the bathroom. It wasn’t complete bullshit; she did have to pee. But she stayed in the stall for a bit when she was done.
Jo
I feel pretty damn okay about it
Aida
Good for you, babe
Send pics
If he hurts you, I will get on a plane
RIP hot librarian
