Chapter Text
Johnathon Ohnn met Ozo Macias at a board game cafe.
Both had shown up individually, drifting around on an event night. Most other people had already settled into groups; some played simple games like Uno, and others had complex sets with hundreds of tiny little tokens and other tchotchkes.
Johnathon was sitting at a table, unpacking some sort of inventory building game, when a shorter man approached him.
“Is this seat taken?” the man said as he gestured to the seat across the table.
“Uh- no, you can sit.” Johnathon briefly looked up to acknowledge the person, but immediately looked back down. The chaotic crowd was overstimulating, and focusing on a single task helped keep his anxiety under control.
The stranger tilted his head curiously, surveying the mess of tiles and pop-up meeples. “What game is this? I don't think I've seen it here before.”
“Oh, no, of course you wouldn't have- I supported this game on Jumpstarted and got the deluxe edition copy out of it.” Johnathon continued popping little cardboard pieces out of their containers. The texture felt nice, the sound was satisfying- and the smell of fresh pieces was always so pleasant.
“It looks like fun. May I play?”
Johnathon looked up from his pieces again, finally taking in the stranger who had sat before him.
The first thing he noticed was the hair- a dark emerald green that appeared almost black at first, had it not been for the fluorescent lighting that hinted the coloration. It was cropped short, showing off cat themed earrings.
He wore large circular glasses with a thin metal frame that perched on the edge of his nose, which highlighted the contrasting brown and green eyes lined with heavy pencil eyeliner.
His shirt read, in bold white lettering, "PROUD PARENT OF A GAY CAT." The words were printed over a black cat outline superimposed over a rainbow. Bootcut jeans were very obviously rolled up several times, showing small bits of rainbow patterned socks. Chunky pony-bead bracelets lined both his arms, and a leather satchel hung over one of his shoulders.
"How do you know your cat is gay?"
The man's eyes lit up and a cartoonish grin stretched over his cheeks. "It runs in the family. Like father like son!"
Johnathan couldn't help it- he laughed. "That's a good line."
"Thanks! I'm Ozo, by the way." Ozo stretched out a fist towards Johnathon. "So... is that a yes on playing?"
"Johnathon. And sure." He did not acknowledge the fist, deciding instead to pass the instructions to Ozo and let him read it over.
Ozo flipped through the pamphlet, silent as he studied. It gave Johnathon time to finish the last of prepwork, most things already sorted. He offered the different character tokens to Ozo, curious as to who the man would pick.
"Hmm.. do any of them have backstories?"
"Oh! Ah, yes! Hold on let me grab it-" Johnathon stuttered out, fumbling for something still in the box. He handed Ozo slightly larger cards that read as mini bios for the character tokens laid in front of him.
To say Ozo was excited was like saying a tornado had wind- technically true, but didn't quite capture the full scope. He gleefully accepted the cards, eyes skating over the words rapidly. He shook his head and stuck his tongue out at one, placing the card down. Another was sorted into maybe, another immediate reject, and on he went until only two characters; Arachne the Venomous and Octavius the Lyrical.
"Damn… the hardest choice before a roleplaying game. Do I wanna play a funny little guy or a cuntress?"
Johnathon let out a quiet wheeze at the boldness of Ozo's statement, amused if only for the absurdity in wording. "If it matters any- the backstory doesn't really matter, it was just something extra they included because I helped Jump it. Normally you'd just pick based on appearance."
"Cuntress it is!" Ozo said, slapping his hand on Arachne's tile.
Johnathon laughed harder at that, an actual snort. Ozo smiled, his cheeks tinged pink.
"Glad I can make you laugh. Now… you ready to play?"
"Yeah. I think we'll make a good team."
Ozo and Johnathon began the game at that point, and time seemed to blur as they counted coins and traded trinkets.
And so it went, even as other guests to the cafe slowly trickled out. It was just them, an employee, and two other people playing chess. The employee stopped by their table, interrupting the game.
"Hey, we close in 20 minutes. Finish up your game."
Ozo glanced back at John. "Maybe we can play again sometime?"
"Ah- yeah. yeah, I'd like that."
"Cool. Give me your number, I'll send you a picture of my cat so you know it's me." Johnathon listed the numbers, got in his car, and drove away as Ozo walked to the nearby subway station.
When he got home, he noticed a text had arrived from an unknown number. John opened the message- and was greeted by a picture of an adorable black cat dressed in a lobster costume. directly below it was just "haii :3 his name is nyx".
He read over the text, stared at the image more, and came to a sudden realization.
Johnathon Ohnn became infatuated with Ozo Macias at a board game cafe.