Chapter Text
Captain Bobby Nash is fed up. His newest full member of the house and his newest probie are having another passive aggressive standoff in the loft. Well Evan "Buck '' Buckley is being a passive aggressive little shit while Edmundo “Just call me Eddie” Diaz is just standing there, confused on why Buck doesn't like him. If Bobby knew that there was going to be an issue with Buck, he would have sat him down before Eddie even started his first day. Bobby needed to get another firefighter in the house. One who could go on the rope rescues and maybe temper some of Buck's more impulsive decisions, so Bobby could step back a little from the "Daredevil hero stuff". But instead of inviting Eddie in as his new partner, Buck is acting like he is being replaced. Of course the station has never been so clean with Buck trying everything he can to prove the fact he is invaluable but Bobby needs to do something fast or he will actually lose Eddie to Station 6.
While at home later that day, standing in the kitchen, considering his options, May comes in and drops a book on the dining room table, while opening her laptop. She pulls a sheet out of the book and keeps checking her laptop, the book, and the sheet as she makes marks on it with a pencil, muttering to herself. Very curious now, Bobby asks, "Hey May what do you have there?"
As May gushes about her newest hobby, Bobby's mind is being blown. When he was 16, he never would have believed that something as nerdy as Dungeons and Dragons would have become so popular. But with May showing him the podcasts and the livestreams, even the group of voice actors who turned it into an actual company; it seems that what was once the cause of a so-called "Satanic Panic" has become much more mainstream. And what did May call it? Cooperative Storytelling that encourages problem solving, team building, improvisational skills, and mediation? Plus a way to blow off steam in a way that would not end in bruises or stomachs being pumped? Bobby was all for it. In fact, while he was sitting down with May listening to how her character, a Half-Elven Rogue, ("Isn't that a thief, May Grant what are you doing?" "Not all rogues are thieves Bobby, mine happens to be a spy.") and the party's paladin worked together to take down a corrupt politician, an idea started to form in Bobby's mind. Cooperation is exactly what his team was missing, and team building was necessary. Maybe this could be the answer to his troubles? After asking May more questions about the game; ("What do you need?" "How many rules exactly are there?' "Do you actually have to be good at math?" "How do you win?" "What do you mean, that's not the point?") May finally got him to open up about his staffing issues. It probably isn't the best idea to vent to his 17 year old almost step daughter (And he is afraid to ask what the mumbled "UST" meant when he was talking about Buck and Eddie) but she's always been a willing ear and has allowed him to talk to her about work in the past. So when he asked if something like Dungeons and Dragons would be helpful for what he was dealing with she got a mischievous look on her face that almost frightened him (and made him want to get the fire extinguisher). "Don't worry Bobby, I have so many ideas for this right now," she tells him, and that feeling only grew.
Bobby doesn't hear from May for the next few days. Which was fine because they were off shift the first day of that, and then Eddie called off because of a sick kid, and then Buck got knocked in the head and was on concussion protocol, so was man behind for the next shift, but the longer he didn't hear from her the more anxious he got. But finally during the last shift before they had their two days off (which luckily lined up with May's weekend) he received a text from her.
It actually wasn’t, due to kids and families, but Chim and Buck were easy. And with Harry and Denny and Eddie's son, (Christopher right? Bobby was sure that's what the paperwork said) all being around the same age, Bobby was sure that if he could get the kids to all have a playdate, he could get his team over to the house for a "team bonding meeting". And sure it took some convincing, but Eddie wants to fit in so bad, and Hen being inherently nosy, he got the entirety of A-Shift to join him over at Athena's at 9:30AM on a Saturday. (He told them 9 because he knew they would be all late otherwise.)
As Bobby walks into Athena's house an hour before "game" time, he’s surprised at what he sees set up at the dining room table. May is setting the table with sheets of paper (character sheets, Bobby's brain told him) and has sets of what looked like dice, but were all different shapes. Six chairs are set up around the table with one of the place settings completely blocked off by a screen with a design of a bright red dragon printed on it. Athena is standing in the kitchen, looking over at her daughter and chuckling to herself as she motors around, pouring Bobby a cup from what looked like a fresh pot. "She's been super excited, about all this." Athena tells him. "I don't understand it, but her group of friends really helped her after last year, so I encourage her."
Noticing Bobby, May stops her preparations and bounds over giving him a side hug, which surprised him a little. "You're early right? I thought I had more time."
"Don't worry Mayday, I told them 9, so we can expect Eddie by 9:15 and the rest to be here by 9:30." Bobby tells her, calming her nerves as she goes back to the table, to adjust papers. "Tell me what you got here?"
"Well I made characters for everyone. No need to waste time with session 0 when we are trying to achieve team bonding. I made everyone a human and picked classes that I thought would fit best. Names are blank, maybe we will just use all of yours, but the characters are otherwise done. I had a bunch of unused dice sets from when I bought them this summer. So each of you get one. And there will be breakfast and coffee. I will do a brief introduction when everyone gets here, but the characters are basically you guys based on what I know. Making Hen and Chimney was the hardest. Also features have been set up so that certain characters get bonuses for working close together." The mischievous look crossed May's face again, and Athena burst out with laughter.
“You're telling me you set this whole thing up in order to get your dumbass daredevil to play nice?"
Bobby couldn't help the sheepish look that comes across his face. "Well I'm desperate! The next option after this is to lock them in the storage closet until they talk."
Athena raises her left eyebrow at him. "You could have avoided this by just talking to them both when Eddie got hired."
The thing is that Bobby knew this. But he didn't know how to fix it without something drastic, like them dealing with live munitions or something. But he didn't want to think about his crew dealing with bombs so this was the ideal solution. And May certainly seemed confident in her plan. Bobby would just have to trust her.
Sitting down at his place, Bobby started going through the materials May left for him, as she stood behind him pointing out the various things there. (“Okay so the die type is indicated by a d followed by how many sides.” “Don't worry, I have cards for all your abilities. Spell cards for those who need them.” “Everyone has a really cool item, though I had to make one up for the plot.”) Staring at everything, Bobby is so impressed by how much effort May has put into everything. She somehow even had time to get miniature figurines for them all and a play mat with a grid system laid out. Upon seeing his looks, May blushed a little, saying "I talked to my group and they were more than happy to help out, but I've been spending my allowance money for this stuff for a while. The spell and ability cards, the dice. The minis were fun to make though! And the play mat belongs to the Dungeon Master of my group. So treat it nicely."
Bobby spends the next half an hour getting familiar with his sheet and abilities, constantly checking with May on various technical issues. "Don't worry, Bobby. As soon as the game begins it will be so much easier. Just trust me." As she finishes her statement, the doorbell rings and one Eddie Diaz is invited into the house with a stuttered, "Sorry I'm late."
"No problem Eddie. To be honest I told everyone earlier, knowing everyone would be late. You're the first one here" Bobby tells him, an amused smirk on his face. Eddie blushed with embarrassment, going to the kitchen to help himself to the coffee and breakfast sandwiches as the rest of the team trickles in over the next 15 minutes, Chimney being last to show. As they all settle with their caffeine and snack at their respective places; May stands at the head of the table and gets everyone's attention.
"Thank you for coming. I know Bobby told you that this was for team bonding but to be honest I begged him for his help on a creative writing project. I needed to be the project leader on a cooperative storytelling assignment and my own friends are all involved doing their own thing so Bobby volunteered you guys. Now if you notice the materials in front of you we are going to use a tabletop role playing system to give structure to our story. I am the narrator and the random people you may encounter, while each of you are playing one of the protagonists in the story. I tried to make a character for each of you, something easy for you to all play, with values that you all appreciate. Everything that you need to know about your character's abilities and core values is in front of you, anything else about your character's personality is up to you, anything about your character's history will be revealed by me. Is everyone okay with this?"
Everyone nodded their assent though Buck0 looked a little put out by his seat closest to May and right next to Eddie, Hen grinning at him from across the table. They listened for a moment as May gave a general spiel about the different dice, what the stats meant, and a couple other things. For a bit Chim looked a bit down about the fact that he wasn't a frontline fighter, but cheered right up when May told him about exactly what "Counterspell" was. Just as Buck was about to ask about his specialized item, May claps her hand and says, "It's game time!"