“It’s happening,” crows Dustin. “Eddie, it’s happening, it’s happening, she said yes!”
Eddie blinks up at him from the blankets. “Is…this about your little girlfriend, Henderson?” Is there a school dance coming up or something? Wait, it’s the summer, school’s not happening.
In a just world, Eddie Munson would never have to think about high school again; in a just world, Dustin Henderson would not have woken him up by breaking into his trailer at ass o’clock in the morning.
“No, man, Erica! Erica Sinclair! She’s gonna run a My Little Pony game for us!”
“Okay.” Eddie turns over to bury his face in his pillow. “Lock up when you leave,” he says, muffled.
———
He honest-to-god thinks it’s just a weird dream for the next few days. He’s almost completely forgotten about it when Mike corners him at work.
“You have to make her stop,” Mike says.
“Okay, Wheeler, two things. First: who am I making stop what? Second: I’m not making anyone stop anything. Really not my style, and also, I don’t wanna get involved in whatever this is.”
“You’re already involved! We’re all involved! We’re all, like, liable.”
“Right.” Eddie wipes his hands on a rag and ambles over. “Kid, you have got to start giving me some context here. What are we talking about?”
Mike gives him just the absolute bitchiest eyeroll any human being has ever mustered in the history of the world, and sighs noisily. “Erica wants to run a stupid game, and Dustin keeps encouraging her. Tell Erica and Dustin that we play Dungeons and Dragons with like, cool monsters and shit. Not some stupid game about ponies. It’s not even D&D, it’s a whole new stupid system that she’s making us learn.”
“Oh, shit.” There’s—a few things to unpack in that little speech, but Eddie can’t help the delighted grin spreading over his face. “That’s for real? The pony game? Shit, this is going to be the best thing ever. What system is she planning to run the campaign in?”
“Oh my god,” says Mike, and storms out of the garage.
———
“GURPS: Generic Universal Role-Playing System,” announces Erica, slamming the books down on Steve’s kitchen table. “A flexible, multi-purpose, setting-agnostic system that can accommodate any conceivable type of story or play style. This is the future of role-playing games, not your broke-ass fantasy bullcrap.”
Eddie wonders how complicated it is to file paperwork for adoption.
“Some of us like D&D,” says Will.
“Yeah, we don’t want your stupid generic whatever. We’re not playing,” Mike snaps.
“That’s not what I said.” Will looks annoyed with Mike, which has been happening a lot lately. Eddie’s glad the kid seems to be growing more of a spine; you can’t just let your tragic heterosexual crushes walk all over you, but that’s the kind of lesson every young gay needs to learn the hard way. “I’m fine with trying something new. I’m just saying, the next campaign after this should be D&D.”
“Sure, what-ever, nerds,” drawls Erica. “We’ll see how you feel after you experience the magic of Ponyland.”
Lucas puts his face in his hands when she says the magic of Ponyland and lets out a pitiful groan.
“Whoo!” cheers Dustin. “Let’s get started!”
———
It takes them a solid two hours to make their characters. Even Eddie, who’s been vaguely aware of GURPS since it was released a couple years ago, is struggling a little to adapt. It’s just been a while since he played anything but D&D, but he’s enjoying the change of pace. He likes this kind of challenge; it’s like figuring out how to play a familiar song in an unfamiliar genre.
Erica is not especially patient with them, but she’s clearly done her prep work, so Eddie thinks they all manage to get through the character creation process more or less the way it’s supposed to be done.
Steve gets back from work right when they’re putting the finishing touches on their characters. The way he blinks all sweetly confused makes Eddie think that Dustin was definitely lying about having permission to play here, and also that Dustin probably has a very troubling stash of keys to all their homes squirreled away somewhere.
“If I may, Lady Sinclair, I’d like to humbly suggest a ten-minute break?” Eddie says, before Steve can decide whether or not to be mad about this whole thing.
“Sure, go ahead and rest up while you still can,” says Erica. “Steve, I hope you got good snacks around here.” She makes a beeline for the kitchen, and the boys trip over themselves to follow her.
“I would die for that child,” says Eddie.
Steve laughs, low and a little tired. “Yeah. Um, me too.”
“So, I’m gonna go ahead and guess that Henderson didn’t actually clear this with you?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure.” Steve runs a hand through his hair. “He might’ve said something last week? Sometimes when he’s on a tear, I just kinda let him talk.”
“Y’know, we’re at a pretty good stopping point for today, if you want us to clear out so you can get some rest.” Eddie can see the smudgy shadows under Steve’s eyes from halfway across the room.
“No, it’s fine.” Steve peels off his vest. He’s wearing an entire perfectly normal shirt underneath, so there’s no reason for Eddie to hastily avert his eyes like Steve’s doing a damn striptease. “I might go take a nap, though. Gonna trust you not to let them burn down the place, got it?”
Eddie does a silly little salute. “Aye aye, cap’n. No hint of flame shall breach these walls.”
Steve laughs again, a gravelly chuckle, and musses Eddie’s hair on his way to the stairs.
“Why do you have that dumb look on your face,” says Erica suspiciously, standing in the kitchen doorway and clutching the biggest bowl of ice cream Eddie’s seen in his life.
“What look, there’s no look,” says Eddie. “Let’s play some GURPS.”
Edit: now a complete fic on AO3!
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I can't help thinking about Keyleth's increasingly horrified expression during the debrief with the Bells Hells—
like. they were up there for, what, 2 days? 3? and they:
Killed one of the Will-masters
Made contact with an underground revolutionary militia on the day they were going to conduct a covert assassination against Ludinus' four-star general
Assisted said revolutionary militia in the largest anti-Imperium attack in history, which in all likelihood resulted in massive and irreparable damage both to Ludinus' drilling site and to the capital fucking city of Ruidus
Also assisted the revolutionary militia in the rescue of a strategic scientific target, who is now their charge in the absence of any remaining Volition members
Brought said scientist back to Exandria as a major source of information about everything that the Emperium was doing, and learned from her where Ludinus is precisely at this very moment
After surviving that, one of their own willingly sacrificed himself, apparently beyond resurrection, to kill Ludinus' three-star general
Successfully turned Ludinus' four-star general into a double agent with the power of love
and at the end of all of that, they get to say that, yeah, they met the fucking Weave-mind too. because sure, why not?
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