#HEY GUYS WANNA TALK ABOUT MY DND CHARACTERS I SWEAR I WILL BE NORMAL ABOUT THEM

[asyor]

Therefore You and Me

[sassyshoulderangel319]

First Month of Sides High

@puns-and-patton @eequalsmcscared @alwaysmy-lilith 

Chapter 1

“---hear that the Sanders twins got suspended?”

“---prank gone wrong---”

“---something about stealing a sign? Or maybe it was---”

“---heard that their parents were livid---”

“---jeopardize everything? They’re seniors---”

“---not surprised. Thomas calls them the Disaster Twins for a reason---”

“---feel so sorry for their little brothers. Have to deal with those lunatics---”

“---we’ve only been back to school a month---”

“---this a regular thing with those guys?”

“Not really...”

Snippets of conversations and rumors followed Patton through the school as he slunk toward his locker. He hadn’t hit his growth spurt yet so he was still pretty small. No one noticed him. He kept his jacket hood up and his hands held the straps of his backpack tight. His quiet whimpering was lost under the cloud of chatter that hung over the hallways. Not that he minded. He didn’t want to be noticed anyway.

When he got to his locker, a familiar face was waiting there.

Virgil was leaned against the locker next to Patton’s, one knee bent with his boot braced against the metal door, hands shoved in the pockets of his too-big hoodie, giant headphones over his ears, and hood flipped up over them. His backpack was sitting on the ground by his other foot, covered in band pins.

Patton sagged in relief when he saw his best friend and rushed over. Virgil pushed off the locker and straightened up his posture.

Virgil knew Patton better than anyone on the planet and immediately opened his arms. Patton fell right into them.

Patton probably would have cried if they weren’t at school. Virgil just let Patton hug him as hard as he wanted. Patton wasn’t particularly strong so it didn’t hurt. “Wanna talk about it?” Virgil asked.

Patton sniffed and shook his head into Virgil’s shoulder. “Not really,” he said. And then talked anyway. “I’ve never heard Mom and Dad yell so loud. Remy and Roman are both grounded till the term is over so Thomas took Roman’s car to drive us to school.”

“Good thing he can drive,” Virgil said flatly. “How are you feeling?”

Patton cleared his throat. “‘M okay,” he muttered.

“Well clearly you’re not,” Virgil deadpanned. “So? Should we ditch first period to walk to that diner up the street and get some ice cream and a heaping helping of those ridiculously greasy curly fries?”

“No I just brushed my teeth,” Patton said, letting his best friend go in order to get organized for the day and drop his heavy textbooks in his locker till he needed them.

Virgil just bounced his eyebrows and stood in silence for a minute, leaning back against the next locker over again.

“Nice color contacts by the way,” Patton said. “The purple almost perfectly matches your hair.”

Virgil blinked. He hadn’t figured Patton would notice. No one else had. “No one can say I’m not committed to my aesthetic,” he said.

“Nope,” Patton agreed. He shuffled some things around in his locker for several quiet moments while Virgil tried to think of something to say.

“Hey, Logan wants to look for a group to play a new campaign of DnD with. You and your brothers are welcome. Roman and Remy can join when they’re ungrounded,” he said.

“I... Thanks, Virge. But I don’t know how to play.”

“We can teach you. No problem. It’s not that hard. The rules are fairly... lax. Logan and me will help you make a character and you can use my spare set of dice. Logan’s also got plenty of extras for Thomas to play with if he wants to join.”

“Uh...”

“It’s a really fun game, Pat. You’ll love it. You get to do what you want and be who you want.”

“Okay. I’ll try it,” Patton said.

Virgil grinned widely---the first genuine smile Patton had seen on Virgil in a while. “Great. I’ll let Logan know.”

“Really? He said yes?” Logan asked Virgil---who nodded.

“Yup. He was rather hesitantly for it, but he agreed.”

“Wonderful. Hopefully it’ll cheer him up a little,” Logan said.

Virgil scrunched his eyebrows. “What do you care, anyway? Patton’s not your friend.”

Logan blinked hard as he readjusted his contact---unlike Virgil, he needed them to see. “Thomas is my friend and he loves Patton dearly. The boy may be naive but his bright spirit is something to be cherished. And Patton is your friend---that makes him important to me,” Logan said. “It makes him another little brother to me.”

Virgil nodded. “Okay.”

Logan moved to head to lunch.

Virgil caught his arm. “Hey! Mom said Dad might be home early tonight. Should we maybe play DnD at the Sanders’s house?”

Logan looked thoughtful. He wasn’t so naive as to think that they could just play quietly so as not to disturb Mr. Berry---there was no such thing as a quiet DnD session. He nodded. “That’s a good idea,” he agreed. “I’ll text Mr. and Mrs. Sanders.” He pulled out his phone. “Why don’t you go have lunch with Patton? Make sure he’s okay.”

“Way ahead of you,” Virgil said, already leaving. “Bye Lo.”

“Goodbye Virgil.”

“You got a twenty!” Virgil exclaimed in surprise, looking at the gold dice he was letting Patton borrow.

Patton blinked. “Is that good?” he asked.

“A natural twenty---meaning you just rolled the highest number on that die---means you cannot fail at whatever you just tried to accomplish.”

Patton lit up like a beacon. “Really?”

“Yup.”

Logan smiled and peered at something behind his DM screen. “Prince Rofang leaps up the stairs and in one easy swoop snatches the small goblin and high-tails it out of the cave,” he narrated.

Virgil was grinning. “Doctor d’Arque pursues Rofang to regroup outside the cave,” he said. Logan nodded.

Thomas and Patton seemed to be having a good time. Thomas had played DnD with the Berry brothers before and their usual groups---Logan and Virgil’s cousins and an online party---but this was Patton’s first time. He appeared to be having a blast.

“Okay so the party regroups outside the cave.”

“I’m going to roll for persuasion to interrogate the goblin,” Thomas said, scooping up his D20. His dice set was a mismatched set. Each dice was a different color, making up a full rainbow. His D20 was red with gold numbering.

It clattered over the table, coming to a rest nearer to Virgil than Thomas. Virgil peered at it. “Thirteen,” he said.

“But I have a plus-five modifier so eighteen,” Thomas added.

Patton looked impressed. “That sounds good!”

“It is,” Virgil agreed.

Patton bounced in his seat. “This is going great.”

“I’m going to ask the goblin what his master wants with the town,” Thomas said to Logan, who nodded and rolled some dice behind his screen---and then snickered, dropping into character to talk with the goblin’s voice.

That was Virgil’s favorite part of playing Dungeons and Dragons with Logan. Normally he was so stoic, placing his intelligence at a greater importance than anything else in his life. He tended to be serious and mature most of the time. But as the Dungeon Master, Logan Berry became many different people and fell into their characters with the greatest of ease. He wasn’t the Logan that Virgil was used to and Virgil loved it. DnD was the only time Virgil saw his big brother loosen up.

“I swear I don’t know much!” Logan said in a nasally voice, talking in the goblin’s voice. “I’m just the summer intern!”

Patton giggled. Virgil smirked.

“What do you know?” Thomas pressed.

“We... we were hired by some noble in the City!” Logan squeaked in the goblin’s voice.

“What for?” Thomas continued.

“To... to distract you!” Logan straightened up, returning to his DM status. “Roll initiative,” he instructed.

“What does that mean?” Patton asked.

Virgil cracked his knuckles and picked up his purple dice with black numbering. “Means we’re starting a fight.” He dropped his D20. “Fifteen,” he told Logan, who jotted it down on a sticky note for the sake of the moment next to Dr. D to keep track of who was who going in which order.

“But---but I don’t want to fight anyone!” Patton protested, voice small and worried.

“Get your character behind mine as your first movement. I’ll keep you safe,” Virgil promised.