31. Guest Characters #2
You’d think she killed a dragon.
“Oh my God, I hit him.”
“You did,” Cami says.
“I understand why people do this now.”
Shawn laughs.
The half-orc takes a swing back and misses.
Alexis points across the table. “Ha!”
By the second round, she’s raging.
Literally.
Ronan explains the mechanic once.
Her eyes widen. “So I get angry and become harder to kill?”
“Yes.”
“This game understands women.”
Cami almost falls out of her chair.
Griffin loses it.
I can hear exactly how Dex would laugh at that—too loud, probably followed by something inappropriate enough to make Ronan threaten him.
The thought still hurts.
Just not enough to ruin the moment.
I take my turn.
One of the goblins is moving toward Shawn, so I shift my character between them and cut it off.
Cami catches my eye and gives me a small smile.
The goose becomes a problem because Alexis spends an entire turn trying to free it.
“You are currently in combat,” Ronan reminds her.
“I know.”
“The half-orc is still alive.”
“I have priorities.”
Shawn studies the map. “Honestly, if the goose is here, there’s probably a reason.”
Ronan gives him a very specific look.
Shawn sees it.
“Oh.”
“What?” Griffin asks.
“Nothing.”
“That was absolutely something.”
Alexis succeeds on an animal handling check she has absolutely no business succeeding on.
The goose follows her.
Cami is delighted.
Ronan looks personally betrayed by his own dice.
Then Griffin kills the half-orc.
Which would probably end the encounter if Shawn didn’t immediately ask, “Where’s the silver box?”
Silence.
Ronan smiles.
Fuck.
I know that smile.
Apparently Shawn does too.
“I don’t see it, do I?”
“No.”
The dealer runs.
Through another door.
There is now a chase.
Alexis takes the goose.
Obviously.
Twenty minutes later, we’ve chased the dealer through a basement tunnel, up into an alley, across a market, and directly through an NPC wedding.
Griffin tackles the dealer into a cake.
Cami uses thaumaturgy to make the approaching city guard sound a hell of a lot closer than they actually are and sends half the wedding guests scattering.
I steal the box.
Shawn casts something that blocks the alley behind us.
Alexis’s goose bites a groomsman.
Ronan has completely lost control of the session.
Which means it’s going extremely well.
By the time we make it back to the tavern, all of us are laughing.
Even Ronan.
Especially Ronan.
He sets the silver box in the center of the battle map.
“Now,” he says, “you have the object you were hired to retrieve.”
Cami immediately says, “I open it.”
Griffin groans. “You said not to.”
“I know.”
Shawn leans forward. “I also vote open.”
Alexis raises her hand. “Same.”
I look at Ronan. “What happens if we don’t?”
“Nothing.”
“That is suspicious.”
“It is not.”
“It is.”
Ronan folds his arms.
Griffin sighs. “Fine. Open the fucking box.”
Cami beams.
Ronan describes the latch.
The engraved silver.
The strange warmth beneath her character’s fingers.
Then she opens it.
Inside is…
A hat.
I stare at him.
Cami stares at him.
Griffin looks confused.
Shawn starts laughing first.
“A fucking hat?” Alexis asks.
Ronan’s mouth curves. “A blue velvet hat with a single white feather.”
My brain catches up. “No.”
His smile widens.
Cami gasps. “Oh my God.”
Griffin looks between us. “What?”
This time, when I reach for my phone, I don’t stop myself.
I take a picture of the table.
Alexis in the place Dex has been taking lately. Shawn beside her. The battle map covered in miniatures. The goose. And Ronan holding up a tiny blue hat miniature he apparently made specifically for this stupid fucking moment.
I send it.
Micah
You missed something.
Dex answers before Ronan finishes explaining that the hat is mildly enchanted and completely narratively useless.
Dex
IS THAT MY FUCKING HAT
Cami sees the message over my arm and starts laughing.
I type back.
Micah
Apparently it became a quest item.
Dex
I LEAVE FOR FOUR CAMPAIGN NIGHTS
Another message appears.
Then another.
Then four more.
I don’t read them yet.
I already know the general tone.
Instead, I put my phone down and look around the table.
Alexis is still carrying the goose.
Shawn has somehow earned enough trust from Ronan that the two of them are now debating whether one of his spells should have interacted with the environment the way Ronan ruled it.
Griffin is eating the last of the chips.
Cami is trying to convince Ronan that the hat belongs to her now.
The house is loud.
Not Dex loud.
Different.
And that’s okay.
I still miss the weight of his leg against mine under the table.
I miss hearing whatever inappropriate thing he would’ve said when Alexis announced that rage makes women harder to kill.
I miss him reaching across the table for my drink because he finished his and apparently mine belongs to him too.
None of that disappeared because I laughed tonight.
Maybe that’s the part I’m still learning.
Missing someone and being miserable aren’t the same thing.
Someone can leave a space behind without turning it into a hole.
The thought settles easier than I expect it to.
Ronan finally closes his notebook. “That’s where we’re stopping.”
Alexis looks genuinely offended. “What? Why?”
“Because it’s after eleven.”
“So?”
Shawn smiles. “I told you.”
She turns to him. “What?”
“You’d like it.”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t like it.”
Cami reaches across the table and squeezes her hand. “You’re coming back.”
Alexis looks at Ronan. “Am I?”
Ronan adjusts his glasses. “I suppose.”
Shawn’s dimples appear. “That means yes.”
“I know.”
Ronan points at Alexis. “The goose is not permanent.”
“It absolutely is.”
“No.”
“We’ll see.”
Cami leans toward her. “I’ll help you.”
“I know you will.”
Ronan looks at me. “Do something.”
I push back from the table. “I’m going to smoke.”
“Micah.”
“Good luck.”
Griffin follows me toward the back door.
Behind us, Alexis and Cami are already naming the goose.
Shawn is asking Ronan another spell question.
My phone buzzes again with what is almost certainly Dex continuing his outrage over the hat.
I smile without checking it.
The house is loud.
Not exactly Dex loud.
But for tonight, it’s enough.