"You are NOT serious," Becca said, as Anna nodded, sipping her beer as she set things up on the dining room table. Becca laughed and added, "Really?! You did that!?"
"Yeah!" Anna said, "Yeah, no, back in high school I absolutely was into fantasy stuff and I used to write smutty fantasy stories. Werewolf girls hookin' up with peasant girls, dragon women enslaving, and then falling for, brash young adventuring men. Yep. I still have it all in a binder somewhere." "Oh my god, that is hilarious," Becca said. "What, you never had any ridiculous hobby like that?" Anna asked, and Becca shrugged, taking a seat. "I don't know, I mean, I guess but it was never like that," they said, "Can I read it sometime?" "I guess so, if I can even find it, it might be in storage," Anna said. "You have a storage unit?" Ashley asked, coming in from the kitchen, eating from a bag of chips. "Yeah," Anna said, reaching into the bag and taking some, "You know, I didn't grow up in the best home, so I've always been afraid of losing my things. I know at least with a storage unit, unless it floods or something, or is robbed, which is unlikely, that as long as I pay for it every month then my shit is safe. It's just things I don't feel the need to keep on hand, stuff like, oh say, lesbian werewolf smut." "That's my new band," Ashley said, making Becca laugh. "When I was like 10, there was this fire at my aunts house, and it decimated the place. She lost everything. I've been very aware of safeguarding my belongings ever since then," Anna said, taking a seat as Ashley circled the table, and put a large platter on it, pouring chips into it before going back into the kitchen as Becca cleared their throat and spoke. "Yeah, I saw this movie about a house fire once, and it scared me so bad, I must've been like 7 or something, that I was terrified of fire for a long time after that," Becca said. Betty came into the dining room sipping wine from a glass and, as she finished it, put the glass on the table and burped. Everyone turned and looked at her, and she just shrugged. Betty sat down as Ashley put the bowl of chips in front of her and stood behind her mother. "Where's your brother?" Betty asked, looking over her shoulder at Ashley. "You ask that as if I care," Ashley said, "He's probably stuck in traffic." Sarah came into the kitchen and handed Becca a drink, taking a seat by them. "Who're we bad mouthing?" she asked. "Jason," everyone said in unison, and she nodded, accepting this answer. Just then they heard the front door open, and heard Jasons voice. After a few moments, he came into the dining room, Amie trailing behind him; from the looks on their faces, it had been obvious that the two clearly were arguing about something before coming inside. Amie sat down while Jason took his jacket off and looked around the table to everyone. "What's up?" he asked. "Not much, just waiting on you," Ashley said. "Well, I'm here now," he said, "So you can all breath a sigh of relief." "Alright folks, let's get this show on the road. This thing takes up a lot of time, so we don't have much to just sit around and shoot the shit," Anna said, sitting down and cracking her neck before opening her notebook and passing around the die and pieces, adding, "If you have to go to the bathroom, go now or forever hold your pee." Nobody said a word and Anna looked at her hands nervously. "I thought it was funny," she whispered, before clearing her throat and reading, "So, you have a few options of where to go from here. You can exit the cave and from there there's two branching paths that lay before you; the right one leads to a small town where you can stock up on supplies and such, and the one ahead of you leads to a larger city where you may likely run into enemies of Glave. Which do you want to do?" "I roll to stay in the cave," Jason said. "I roll to slap Jason," Ashley replied. "Alright, listen, if we're gonna do this, you have to take it seriously," Anna said, pushing hair behind her ears and sounding stern. "I also would like to roll to slap Jason," Becca said, raising their hand. "Alright," Anna said, sighing and leaning back, "Well, since it's a move action, and not a specifically high one, you don't need to roll, so you both slap Jason." "My name is Brutus, thank you very much," Jason said, "And I'd like to slap them back." "Brutus slaps both of you," Anna said, putting a hand on her forehead, already sounding exasperated. "If I may chime in," Betty said, leaning forward and looking at their sheet, "So, Anna says that if we head to a larger city, we might run into enemies, so that should be enough to tell us that we should head to the small town first and get supplies. Can't fight and survive without supplies, right?" "She's right," Ashley said, "We can hit Brutus later." "Nobody is hitting me unless it's consensual," Jason muttered, "Alright, so fine, we're gonna head to the town then. Anna, lead us, oh grand narrator." "This small town known as Tu'nark, it's not a very populated town, but it does have your usual run of the mill folk. There's a blacksmith where you can forge or purchase weapons, and an inn where you can rest, there's also a lumber mill where you may find information pertaining to your quest. Perhaps someone of the town has knowledge that you seek," Anna said, leaning back and brushing her bangs out of her face. "Okay, so, we should get weapons, right? I mean, we need those to kill enemies don't we?" Jason asked. "Definitely," Becca said, "But asking for information wouldn't be bad either. Let's do that first." "Alright, we wanna ask someone at the lumber mill for information," Jason said. "You approach the mill, but it appears there is only one person there; a lovely young woman with hair the color of golden wheat and eyes as blue as the darkest sea. She is the only person you can find, and she looks rather solemn about her loneliness." "I roll to hit on the lumber girl, cause she sounds fiiiine," Becca said. "You've caught her attention," Anna says, now doing a character voice, "She approaches and asks 'How may I help you, weary travelers?'." "I ask if she's heard of any disturbances around these parts from Glave," Becca said. "She replies 'I have not, but lo, if you bring me a jewel from the local trader, I can read your fortune and tell you where it is you need to seek out the answers you so desire'," Anna replied. "You're really good at that," Jason said. "Thank you, I've always wanted to be a wench," Anna said, laughing. "So wait, you didn't say anything about a local trader being in the town," Becca said, "Where are we supposed to find this trader? I ask the lumber wench where to find this trader." "She tells you she knows only of Bartok, the jewel trader, who is sitting at the inn," Anna says. "She lives in an entire town but she only knows one person?" Jason asked, "That seems unrealistic." "It's a game about magic and dragons and improbable geography is the issue you're going to take in regards to realism?" Becca asked, looking at him, making him nod, realizing his question was in fact kind of dumb. "Maybe she's a hermit," Ashley said, and Amie shook her head. "She sounded hot, no self respecting hot woman is a hermit," Amie replied, making Ashley laugh. "Okay, so, can we go to the inn then and talk to this Bartok?" Jason asked, and Anna nodded. "You move to the inn and find Bartok in a corner, shrouded in a deep blue cloak, his eyes only barely visible as he nurses his ale; he welcomes you to sit with him," Anna said. "I ask Bartok what he might know about anything happening within the town," Becca said. "Bartok tells you he knows there's lately been whispers of a small group of bandits dealing in stolen weapons and jewels that often surface just on the fringes of town late at night," Anna said, "He tells you that he can give you weapons if you retrieve for him a trinket they stole from him." "Jesus, this is tedious, is this entire thing just fetch quests?" Jason asked, and Becca looked at him. "Have you ever played an RPG?" Becca asked. Jason leaned back in his chair and ran his hands over his face, groaning loudly. This made Anna smirk, satisfied she was getting to him. Becca looked back across the table at Anna and cupped her hands. "So," Becca continued, "I roll that we take this offer and try to fight off the bandits and get back his priceless trinket, unless someone has any objection to that?" "I have an objection to all of this," Jason said, sounding exhausted. "You stay in the inn until nightfall, at which point he outfits you with various weapons and sends you along your way. Since the bandits do not know you're coming, you have a good shot at sneaking up on them and getting extra damage, do you take the chance?" Anna asked. "Uh, I guess I'm the Ranger, so I'd likely have a bow, right?" Jason asked. "That is correct, yes," Anna said. "Alright, fine, I roll to shoot from the bushes," Jason said, tossing the dice on the table. Anna rolled the dice and smirked. "You fail and shoot yourself in the foot instead, bringing attention to yourselves," she said, "You're nothing if not clever, Jason, well done." Jason exhaled and leaned back in his chair, running his hands over his face. By the end of the fight, they had in fact retrieved the item in question and come away with extra equipment, gave the trinket back to Bartok and ended their game with the decision to be made to continue onwards with information from Bartok about the potential whereabouts of the Wyrm. After the game wrapped for the evening, Jason was standing on the back porch, smoking a joint while he watched the stars. He heard the door slide open behind him and saw Becca step out onto the porch with him. He handed them the joint, which they gladly took and puffed a bit on. "I think Anna is trying to make a mockery of me," Jason said. "As if you need the help," Becca said, making him chuckle. "Seriously. She thinks I'm clumsy or something, thinks I don't know how to interact with others in a group dynamic, didn't you notice how everything I did in the game tonight failed to meet minimum standards?" "Dude they were dice rolls, they were just unlucky, that's all," Becca said, "That's the way the game goes. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. She can't pick on you, that isn't how the game works. You just need to let it go." Jason sighed and sat down on the lounge chair, leaning his elbows on his knees and making a somewhat pained face that Becca couldn't help but take notice of. "You don't think she harbors some sort of ill will towards me, do you?" he asked, and Becca shook their head. "Naw, you've grown a lot in the last few years man," Becca said, taking another puff and rubbing Jason's back, "They got what they wanted, ultimately, in the end, so what could they be harboring toward you?" "I don't...I don't know," Jason said, lying on the lounge chair, looking back up at the sky, "I miss dad." "Yeah, me too." "It's like without him to guide us through the dungeons of life, we're just an aimless party, unable to find their way to their destination. Unable to save their kingdom, watching it crumble beneath them," Jason said quietly, surprising Becca with this analogy; he continued, "I feel like her making me a ranger insinuates that I keep myself at a distance with others, afraid to get too close to them, hence why our marriage was never great to begin with." "Wow..." Becca said, "That was...incredibly insightful, I'm impressed. Seriously though, while I don't think you're wrong, I DO think you're definitely over analyzing it a bit. Let's just try and see where she goes with it." Becca sat on the edge of the lounge chair beside their brother and looked up at the sky, pulling their hair back in a messy bun. "...What do you think dad would be if he were part of the party?" Becca asked. "Dad wouldn't be part of the party...he'd be the treasure we're trying to get at the end," Jason said. "It's good to know you can work together in a fictional setting at the very least," Amie mumbled as she stepped out onto the porch with them "What's that mean?" Jason asked, turning his head towards her. "All you've done since we started is question every single move someone's made or a decision that we've had. You're not so much working with us and much as you are working in spite of us," she snapped back. All we ever do is bicker. You fight with me on every little thing, there's absolutely no compromise. It's either one way or no way. You like to tout that you've grown and changed, but..." She trailed off, not finishing, but instead staring out at the backyard. She sighed, as Becca stood up and excused themselves, heading inside to find Sarah. Amie sat down beside Jason and ran her hand through her hair. "...you want to break up, don't you?" he asked quietly. "What? No! No, Jason, I'm just...frustrated. After all this time it seems like you still can't help but fight with your family." "They're fighting with me, there's a big difference," Jason replied, "why can't you see that?" "Because you don't have to feed into it. By giving them reactions, you're only further enabling their behavior," Amie said taking his hand in hers and kissing it, "and I know that deep down you're better than that. You're so much better than they've ever given you credit for." "It feels like they were mad at me for not being modern enough, now they're trying to get me to backslide on my progress," Jason whispered. Amie put her hand on his face and pulled him towards her, kissing him, making him smile. After the kiss broke, Jason laid his head on her chest and let her stroke his hair as they sat on the back porch, simply enjoying the cool night air and the sound of crickets. "You may have to play the game," Amie whispered, "but you don't have to play by their rules." Jason nodded, realizing this was the first time someone outside of the family told him that he wasn't beholden to his families whims, and that he could in fact be whoever he wanted while still being with them. No matter what happened, he'd be a hero, either in game or not. That much he was certain of.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About
Family Game Night follows the Fuller family, a (possibly too) tight knit family who meet every Thursday night to play board games...and air their dirty laundry. Archives
March 2019
|