Chapter Text
Sometime after the Absolute Solver’s defeat, as normalcy returns (or at least whatever passes for normal after such a traumatic, planet-changing event), Uzi, N and Thad are approached with a simple question.
“Would you be interested in a game night?”
Uzi was caught off guard, to say the least. Even after saving the planet from being eaten by robo-satan, she was still the outcast of the colony. Most of her peers still forgot her existence or reacted in fear of her presence. It didn't bother her much, she had a handful of drones in her life she could lean on when things got tough or the lingering trauma threatened to crush her. Two of them were standing with her in the school hallway, equally baffled by the question.
Thad was the first to respond, his green eyes holding a friendly shine that masked his shared confusion. “Hey Abel. Still looking for peeps to try that game you found?”
The blue-eyed drone slumped a bit at the statement with a sigh, bringing them to the same height as their questioner. “I managed to get two others to try it and it’s been fun, but we need more players to do bigger things, and they recommended you guys!”
N perked up, interest in his golden yellow eyes. He was always quick to try cheering others up and was curious about this apparently fun activity he and his friends were being invited to. “Oh? What kind of game?”
Abel eagerly straightened up, stars in his eyes. “It's this old board game called ‘Dungeons and Dragons.’ One player is the game master, presenting the world and setting the scene. The rest of the players create characters within that world and control them, playing out their adventures or doing whatever they want. Whenever you have a character do something, you roll dice to determine if they are successful or not.”
“Ok, but why us?” Uzi chimed in, suspicion in her voice. Abel had never been outwardly mean or scared of her as many others were, but they had never really interacted outside of class when forced to pair up one time. He had come off as quiet and shy at the time, trying his best to keep up with her crazed ramblings and instructions while avoiding conflict.
He shrugged while reaching for the back of his neck, hand mindlessly playing with his brown plated hair. “I figured it might be something you guys would enjoy. It originally had a reputation as a nerdy game, but became massively popular in the mid two thousands.”
“Intrigue” a robotic voice exclaimed from behind Uzi, causing the four of them to freeze. The fanged maw of Uzi's tail slithered onto her shoulder, its sickly yellow eyes a reminder of the parasite that spoke through it. “Tessa showed interest in playing this game with us once. Her parents forbade it due to beliefs that it was linked to satanic worship. Giggle.”
Uzi was quick to swat at her rogue appendage, though Cyn's words lingered in N's head. If this game was something Tessa thought her drone friends would enjoy, then… “I think we should give it a go. It could be fun.”
“I'm down to try it” Thad added, stretching as he placed his hands behind his head.
Uzi was pinned. The two on either side of her had agreed; she would be a jerk if she turned down the invitation now. ‘Maybe it wouldn't be too bad’ she rationed in her mind. ‘Worst case scenario, it's a boring evening. Not like anyone would try anything stupid with a murder drone around, no matter how sweet he is.’ After mentally scolding herself for her last thought, she finally responded. “Ugh, fine. I guess it could be fun to try.”
“Oh, Sweet!” Abel beamed, with two large thumbs up. “We'll need to do a little preparation beforehand. If you guys wanna meet up somewhere or discuss it through DMS, let me know.”
“We could meet up during lunch?” N suggested. Classes had yet to start for the day so the reprieve could be a good time to make plans.
Thad sighed as he scratched the back of his head. “I got track and field practice then. How about you and I meet up after captcha class?” gesturing to Abel with his question.
“Sure, I can do both,” Abel said with a shrug of his shoulders. “So N and Uzi at lunch, Thad at the end of the day. That good?”
The three agreed, just in time for the bell to ring. With that, the group quickly wrapped up their business and parted for their different lessons.
The first and third lessons took forever to finish. Why young drones needed to learn human history that took place on a planet long dead made no sense to Uzi. At least N was with her for the second period, that alone made the boredom of human language class more bearable. As students flooded the halls on their way to the cafeteria, the two found themselves sitting at a table in a hidden corner. Both enjoyed a large jar of oil each, along with a shared plate of batteries and wires. The quiet of their corner was shortly broken, as N perked up at the sight of someone. “Hey Abel! Over here!”
The drone in question stumbled towards the table, several binders in his arms and a small black box in their hand. “Hey guys! Sorry, I’m late, had to grab some stuff.” He stacked the binders delicately on the floor, taking a seat between the two at the end of the table.
“The heck is all that?” Uzi eyed up the pile of papers on the floor, a stern look hiding dread. If that was some kind of homework for this game, she needed to get out now. N meanwhile looked with curiosity at the box, as Abel opened it to reveal a handful of strangely shaped plastic gems.
“Mostly notes I’ll need as the game master. There’s a few things we’ll need for character creation, but you don’t have to remember all of it.” A sigh of relief left Uzi’s voice box just as Abel asked “Alright, any more questions before we get into it?”
N quickly raised his hand, to which Abel nodded to go ahead. “Soooo… how exactly do we play this game?”
“Right, I only gave you guys the bare bones so far.” Abel brought his hand to his chin, as he thought of how best to explain. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke. “Ok, so, we start by making characters. Figure out what they’re good at what they’re bad at, and we represent this as a bunch of numbers on a character sheet, basically a small doc explaining the character. When we’re actually playing, I’ll describe a scene, then ask what you guys want your characters to do, or you can jump in if something catches your interest. Once you decide what you’re doing, we figure out which number on your character sheet makes sense to use and add it to the result of one of these.” He held up one of the plastic gems between his fingers. Looking at it closer, they could see numbers written on each facet. “If the total is equal to or greater than a number that represents the difficulty of the task, your character does the thing. I describe what happens next, and the cycle continues, telling the stories of your adventures in this fantasy world.”
N shone with awe at the idea of creating a story with his friends, while Uzi had her elbow on the table, fist against her cheek and eyes half-lidded. “And this preparation stuff?”
With a flick of the wrist, Abel tossed the plastic gem back into the box. “Just need an idea of the kind of characters you wanna play. We can make them now if you want, or I can give you some things to think about and we make them later.”
N almost jumped out of his seat in excitement. “Oo, I wanna make them now!” He turned to Uzi with stars in his eyes. “How about you Uzi?”
The emo drone simply shrugged. “Eh, I’d rather think about my options first.”
“That’s fair,” Abel commented, pulling out four more cube-shaped plastic gems. “So, N, if we’re doing your character now, let’s start by rolling numbers for your stats. Take these dice.” He placed the handful of gems in N’s hand. “Roll them. We remove the lowest number and add the rest together for the total. Repeat for 6 results in total and we’ll have the character’s stats.”
“Ok” N replied trepidly. He shook the dice within his cupped hand for a bit before releasing them onto the table. Removing the lowest number from the set gave “three, four, five… twelve!” Abel quickly jotted the number down on a scrap of paper, before gesturing for N to continue. Once they were finished, they had the numbers: twelve, thirteen, sixteen and three fourteens.
“Alright.” Abel chimed, tapping his pencil to his vinyl teeth. He reached for one of the binders and ran his thumb through it, looking for a specific page. “So these numbers will be your character’s six core abilities. They are the base of everything your character can do. We’ll sort them more out later, for now, we wanna choose your class, species and background.”
N nodded as though he understood what was being said. “Alright, where do we start?”
“Let’s start with your class. This broadly describes your skills, talents and tactics. Think of it as the kind of adventurer you want to be.” Abel pulled a sheet from the binder, clearly covered in many notes of various quality. “There are twelve classes in total; warriors, spell-casters, support, specialists. I’ve got a list of them here with brief descriptions. Give it a quick look, see if any interests you.”
The sheet was gingerly grabbed by N, as his eyes scrolled along the page. Uzi, not looking forward to a long silence while N chose an option from the paper, posed a question. “Any recommendations?”
“Oh! Umm…” Abel stuttered for a second, caught off guard by Uzi’s query. “Well, fighter and rogue are the quickest to pick up. Fighter often leans towards knights, tactician and mercenaries, while rogue plays more into thief, assassin and trickster tropes.” The emo drone seemed to wake up slightly at the mention of rogues. “Barbarians are fun, getting stronger just by being angry. Wizards can cast a million and one spells. Paladins are soldiers that get magic by setting themselves a load of rules. Clerics are like the ultimate support, getting magic from believing in a god or concept.”
Something in N’s instincts caught on a specific word used. “Support?”
Curiose, Abel elaborated. “Basically it's great at helping people, whether it be healing, making allies stronger, enemies weaker, or … taking ‘preventative measures’.”
That description was enough for N to make his decision. “Ooo, I wanna play that one!”
“Ok, so a cleric, good foundation for a team. Next, let’s look at your species.” After making a few more notes, Abel flicked through the binder, pulling out another sheet. This time, the list presented was accompanied by rough, sketchy drawings of various headshots. “This gives you a few abilities based on the circumstances of your birth. There’s like one hundred of them, but we’re going to focus on the main ten.”
Delectively grabbing the paper, N opted to place it between himself and Uzi this time, wanting to share the pictures of strange creatures on it. The human-like figures got the little emo’s attention, causing her to push herself up over the table to get a better look. “So this is how you look?”
She found herself transfixed by one depicting what looked like a human, with strange horns protruding from their forehead. N on the other hand, found interest in one depicting a human with oversized eyes and ears, and a button-like nose. “Ooo, what’s this one?”
“Oh, that’s a halfling” Abel answered, standing up a bit to see where N was pointing. “They were supposedly blessed with good luck by the gods to make up for them being short. You’d be hard-pressed to find one that isn’t curious and hospitable.”
A smirk found its way onto Uzi’s face. “You should so go for that one.” He hummed and nodded in agreement.
More notes were scribbled onto Abel’s scrap of paper, before once again searching the binder for another sheet. “Alrighty, two out of three. Now we just need your background.” Another list left the binder, this time with sketches of strange and detailed backgrounds. “This is what you did before becoming an adventurer. Like with species, there’s hundreds of them, but we’re going to look at sixteen from the core rules for now.”
Placed between them, N and Uzi examined the sheet with similar intrigue, drawn in by intrinsic scenes. One a dark alley leading from a brightly lit market, another a strange and complex series of astro-globes suspended within a vast library. N pointed to one depicting a large ship leaving the port of a town. “What about this one?”
“That would be sailor. With that one, you spent your life on the high seas; the wind at your back and the waves swaying the decks.” Abel got rather animated with their description, gesturing dynamically in an attempt to sell the profession.
Uzi cocked an eyebrow at the eccentric actions, while N was swept up in the theatrics Abel presented. “Ooo, I want that one!”
Sitting back down, Abel quickly added to the notes they had been taking. “And… done!” The pencil clicked against the table. “There’s more to go over, but we can save that for when we start the game.” The sheet of scribbles slid into the binder. “Just sorta helps with prep to have an idea of what we’re working with.”
N looked to his girlfriend with excitement and expectancy. “You ready to make your character Uzi?”
She gave a half-hearted shrug, before picking at the last few wires on the plate. “I dunno. Think I need more time considering my options.”
“Fair.” Abel casually gestured towards the papers left on the table. “You can take those to ponder over if you want. Might help.”
“Thanks.” She haphazardly grabbed the papers and shoved them into her bag. “Anything else?”
Abel brought a hand over his mouth, idle fingers scratching his chin. “Not that I can think of, but I did spend most of my thoughts on human history class. Some of the stupid stuff they did…” He gave a tired, airy chuckle.
The memory of her cold, metal desk against her head as she tried to sleep through the drones of ‘Earth’s World War V’ resurfaced. Not a difficult task, as that had only been an hour since their last lesson. “Ugh, tell me about it. It’s gotta be the most useless class we have!”
N gave a nervous chuckle to Uzi’s frustration, though both were caught off guard by a giggle from the blue-eyed drone. “Hmm, maybe. Though it can be amusing how often humans receive that ‘Darwin award’ of theirs.”
Puzzled, the two pressed for answers, with N speaking up. “Darwin award?”
Abel gave a knowing smirk. “An award given to whoever can die in the stupidest way.”
That couldn’t be real, could it? Humans celebrating dying in stupid ways? “Really?! That is so stupid that-”
Before Uzi’s ranting of her very deserved hatred of humans could reach full steam, a single sharp laugh cut her off. “Oh no wait, it gets better…”
For the rest of the lunch break, N watched on in joy (and fear) as his super cool girlfriend expanded her social circle. Sure, it was based on a shared interest in humanity's downfall, but that didn’t matter. She seemed to genuinely be enjoying the opportunity to bounce some of her more murderous thoughts off of someone new, and that they reciprocated with fresh ideas. The concerns of how this would affect the story they would play in the coming game night were things that could be pushed to the back of his mind for now.
A ring echoed throughout the school, signalling the end of the day. Leaving the challenges of captcha class behind, Thad gave a smile and wave to his fellow students, heading for the lockers before the trek home. They’d forgotten to plan where to meet up after class, he had a good idea of where Abel would be. Sure enough, he was found sitting on the floor outside his locker, scribbling notes and doodles in a black leather-bound book. “Figured you’d be here.”
Blue eyes quickly looked up from the book as it slammed shut. A single breathy chuckle escaped his mouth. “Yeah, realised we didn’t set a place to meet up, so decided to just wait in the open.” The book, along with papers and pencil were shoved haphazardly into a simple messenger bag.
Thad held his hand out to the drone on the floor, his trademark kind smile never leaving his face. “We head the same way home, right? How about we walk and talk?”
A smirk found its way onto Abel’s face as he clasped the hand in his own. “Sounds good.” A quick pull and he was up on his feet.
It took a few steps down the locker-lined corridor for the conversation to pick back up, Abel hoping to pick at the jock's processor. “So, you got those notes I sent you. Any idea for the kind of character you wanna play?”
Thad took a minute to think. The relaxed drone had sent him a small collection of text documents after lunch; each one a small summary of the basic things required to make a character for this game. He had skim-read it during captcha class, seeing as the teacher never really paid attention to what they were doing. He had a decent idea of what each part did but was still unsure what to choose. “Hm. Something simple. The magic stuff looks fun, but complicated.”
Abel responded quickly, with no hesitation in his thoughts. “Simplest you can get is a fighter, and a human one at that.”
He mulled over that response for a bit. Fighter seemed like a fun option, it had been described as skilled in combat and a master of many weapons. Humans were supposedly very adaptable, able to be moulded to whatever role was needed of them with ease. As he thought about the suggestion, the more he liked the idea. “Yeah, I’ll go with that.”
Thad’s decision had come quicker than Abel expected, catching them off guard. “Wow, ok, and background?”
The blond drone closed his green eyes for a moment with a hum, letting an image of the character form in his mind. He saw them as simple, humble and hard-working, pairing that description with a background he remembered from the collection. “They were a simple farmer before the spirit of adventure called them.” He added a bit of flare to his words, striking a fist into the air.
A look of intrigue masked Abel’s wincing at how plain this character was feeling. “Human farmer becomes fighter? That’ll work, feels a tad simple though.”
“That can be their name!” Thad exclaimed, beaming at the misunderstood suggestion. “Tad Simple.” Pride filled his servos at how fitting the name was.
Abel just stared at him for a full minute, this had to be a joke of some kind. In the end, he just held his hands up in defeat and sighed. “You know what? Ok. Feels a bit like a joke but it’s solid.”
The green-eyed drone suppressed a puzzled look, unsure what his cohort meant by such a statement. He quickly shrugged it off, not wanting to overthink it. “Cool. Is there anything else?”
Abel’s brow furrowed, a finger and thumb resting under his upper lip. “There’s stats, but we can deal with those at the start of the session.” He waved his hand as though shooing the thought away.
Thad answered with a simple “K;” leaving the two to continue walking in comfortable silence for a while. As the two approached the fork that separated their housing units, the vacuum was broken with an exchange of farewells and a reminder of the coming game night.
As Thad rounded the final corner on the approach home, he couldn’t help his feeling of anticipation for the event. He had attended game nights that Abel hosted before, and every time they were an experience. Be it a board game, video game or even cards, the blue-eyed drone had a way of making it fun, whether it be chill and relaxing, or wild and chaotic. That sort of energy, paired with Uzi and N’s dynamic; he imagined the result would be something amazing to behold.
The door opened with a sharp hiss, as purple light poured out of the room. Uzi stepped in, shoulders slack and deep bags under her purple eyes. She slid her bag off her back and threw it across the room, landing with a thud next to her bed. Shuffling to her desk, she collapsed into the large black office chair, spinning around from the momentum while letting out a drawn-out groan. School had been exhausting, a long day of all the classes that didn’t appeal to her. To add to her mood, N had left the bunker after school with V, gathering oil for the three vampiric drones. All she wanted right now was one of the tall disassembly drone’s warm and relaxing hugs, to bury herself in the fur of his jacket and melt into the feeling of comfort and safety.
But he wasn’t there, and without him, she needed something else to distract her from the irritable mood the day had left her with. Thinking back though, aside from the worst lessons possible, it had been an interesting day. She had interacted with a peer from outside her small social circle, and they hadn’t immediately tried to ignore her, bully and mock her, or scream in terror. They had instead invited her to a ‘game night’ of all things. They had even managed to bond during lunch over the stupidity of humans. Sure they had differing views on how to deal with them; she still believed all humans should be slaughtered, while they figured humans would quickly drive themselves to extinction. That didn’t diminish the fun she had just talking about the topic with someone who could add to it.
That sparked a thought, prompting her to lift out of her slumped position and look towards her discarded bag. Poking out of the top, the sheets that Abel had given her stood crumpled against her other books. She thought back on them working with N to create his character. Afterwards, he had spent most of the day thinking about them; his normal drawings of dogs during class were replaced with human-like figures, trying to understand their appearance. He even came up with a name for them, Nate Rose. It had Uzi pondering what kind of character she would make.
The three papers held her stare for a minute longer before being pulled out by a purple glow, a symbol forming around them of a hexagon with three arrows, each coming from an unconnected vertex. They floated towards Uzi, snatched out of the air as they got close. ‘Might as well try to come up with some ideas. Don’t want to turn up with nothing.’ Placing the notes onto her desk, and smoothing them out, she started skimming through the classes. Her eyes wandered the paper, coming to rest on one in particular.
Rogue:
Rogues rely on cunning, stealth, and their opponents' vulnerabilities to get the upper hand of a situation. Often tricksters with a knack for solving just about any problem, many start as criminals or crime fighters working against the law. Most have backstories marred with tragedy, abandonment and edge.
Without thinking, her hand crawled towards a nearby pencil, while her mind focused on pondering the ideas those few lines had created. ‘Ooo, a stealthy trickster sounds cool. Outsmarting opponents with deadly moves, hehehe.’ The page of classes was pushed afterwards, revealing the headshots of species underneath. She immediately found her eyes drawn to the same horned human as earlier, this time, taking to words written next to it.
Tiefling:
Linked by blood to a demon, devil, or some other fiend from the hells, tieflings are often ostracised for their links to the demonic. They can choose to embrace or lament their legacy, coming in three flavours.
…
Chthonic tieflings are more alien in appearance, often with purple or blue skin tones, and warped, twisted horns. They descend from the fiends of Gehenna, known as yugoloths; that act as mercenaries in the service of evil.
‘So they’re called tieflings, and they’re basically demons? Neat. It’s definitely the coolest-looking one.’ Pencil lead danced over scraps that had been discarded to the side of the desk. The list of human-like creatures joined them as Uzi moved to the last of Abel’s notes for a background. Among the scenes of carnivals, workshops and wooded groves, the one that caught her eye was a dark corner at the end of an alley. Crates were set up as a table and chairs with a tarp overhead keeping rain and moonlight out. On the table were a few bottles and coins, along with a knife stabbed through the simple cloth and into the wood below.
Criminal:
You scraped out a living by cutting purses, pocketing wallets or burgling shops. Your home was likely a dark alleyway, perhaps with a small gang of like-minded ne'er do wells looking out for each other. Or maybe you were on your own, fending against both the law and local thieves guild.
The image formed in her mind; hidden in the shadows, a tall human-like figure with pale purple skin, branching horns and a barbed tail. Dressed in dark leather armour, a knife and a small pistol were prepared in both hands as they readied for their lonely fight to survive the urban jungle.
Before the fantasy could continue, a ping brought Uzi back to reality as her phone lit up. Pulling it closer and opening the screen, she was greeted by a fresh notification.
1ostDr0ne sent an invite to: Dungeon Drones + 1 new message
[1ostDr0ne]: Hey, it’s Abel. Finished setting up the group chat
She’d forgotten that, like with most of the planning early that day. They had decided a group chat to discuss things related to the game would be a good idea, should they be unable to meet up. As she started typing in a response, two more messages came through.
[Thad]: Yo, looks good dude!
[SD_N]: Can’t chat much, hunting with v
[DarkxWolf17]: Sup
She pondered adding more before her eyes wanded to what her idle hand had done. On a large scrap of blueprint paper, was a rough doodle of the character she saw in her head. Looking at it intently, she felt her fingers type out another message before she could second-guess herself.
[DarkxWolf17]: Think iv got a character idea
[DarkxWolf17]: Rogue tiefling criminal
Bracing for some kind of comment, mean or insulting, the continued enthusiasm of Abel came as a welcome surprise.
[1ostDr0ne]: Ooo, good choices. Lot of backstory potential there. They got a name?
Taking time to ponder the question, Uzi sat in silence as she pictured the figure she had created, cycling through potential names before quickly typing out her answer.
[DarkxWolf17]: Darkshadow
[1ostDr0ne]: Very nice. I’ll make sure to have all the basics ready for the trial session. Here’s hoping y’all enjoy it!
[Thad]: Im sure it’ll be awsome dude.
She tossed the phone onto her bed, letting it sink into the messy sheets. A heavy sigh left her voicebox. Why did it still feel like a monumental task to talk with others outside her immediate friend group? As she melted further into her chair, she looked towards the drawing her idle hand had created, curious how this fantasy game that she hadn’t even heard of until today, had gotten her attached to something she had just created. Pulling herself closer to her desk, she reached for a pencil intentionally this time, fixing up the doodle to be something she was proud of. She lost herself in the process, only stopping when a low battery warning prompted her to head to bed to recharge.
Though normally her dreams were spent reliving the past, both pleasant and traumatic; this night, her processor created tales of Darkshadow’s adventures carrying her to a pleasant sleep.