Page 38 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

“Look at how pretty they are,” Tom enthused.

He was the shyest of the group, with pale skin and floppy brown hair that he often pushed out of his eyes. Right now, those green eyes were sparkling almost as much as the handful of dice he was showing off.

“How can you not want more?” he demanded.

David leaned towards Rory, which put him very close to Tom, who was sitting between them. He appeared to have some Asian ancestry, with dark eyes and short dark hair that was shiny and straight.

Smiling at both Rory and Tom, he explained, “And if one of them isn’t behaving, then it goes into dice jail, and you need another.”

Rory blinked at the dice. “In what manner do they misbehave? What sort of jail?”

Rory hadn’t realized that inanimate objects could misbehave.

David reached around Tom to pat Rory on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. You’ll catch on.”

By the end of the evening, Rory was still hopelessly lost on the mechanics, but he was charmed by the group. They were great people, and led by Max, they were always willing to tell him what to do, which dice to use, and gently correct him when he tried to do something that wasn’t allowed. (David, apparently, was a bit of what the others called a “rules lawyer,” but he wasn’t mean about it.)

Rory still only half knew what was going on, but it was totally worth it to watch the ridiculous actions of the group, who seemed always to be falling into scrapes thanks to their rogue—or maybe because their fairy barbarian lost her temper or their surly wizard pissed someone off. (Rory laughed and laughed when he realized Max was playing himself.)

Once Rory had realized it was a storytelling game, he’d simply thought about what his character would do and then tried to do it. There were weird rules about what kind of animal he could shift into with what frequency, but he did enjoy the fact that he could be all kinds of animals, not just birds. Sometimes it was even useful, but the group didn’t seem to mind if he decided he simply wanted to experiment.

(This did lead to a whole rant that went right over Rory’s head about 5e rules versus the 5.5e refresh and what shapes and how many were allowed. Rory just waited until someone told him yes or no.)

He admired the way their DM Stella managed to wrangle them and still get something accomplished even when they chose to do the most ridiculous things possible. Her hair was cut short in a pixie cut and dyed multiple bright rainbow colors, which Rory thought was the best thing ever. She sometimes rolled her eyes a lot, but she never lost her cool. She had pale skin, brown eyes, and lots of curves which Sam seemed to admire a lot.

Edward cast appreciative glances her way occasionally, too, but in a way that indicated he knew she was totally unavailable and he simply thought she was pretty. Which was good for him, because while Sam was only a fairy barbarian in the game, Rory was quite sure she wouldn’t take well to someone trying to steal her partner. Sam was the shortest person in the room, probably 5’4” or so, with long dark hair braided into dozens of tiny braids, dark eyes, and chestnut skin, but with an attitude that lit up a whole room. Rory had no doubt that in a fight, Edward would lose.

Several times when things had gone very well or very poorly, Sam had come over to smack a big kiss on Stella’s lips. Otherwise, Sam seemed to spend most of her time trying to smash her way through everything Stella set up—but that didn’t seem to upset her partner at all, so maybe that was their love language?

Rory had read a book about love languages once. He thought humans were probably more complicated than that, but it was an interesting idea that gave a way to think about how you felt loved and how you could show that love to others. He eyed Max. He was pretty sure he showed his caring through acts of service, but, like… sneaky acts that he didn’t really want you to notice. Rory would have to think about that.

Rory, on the other hand, simply told people how he felt, as evidenced by the fact that he’d blurted everything out to Max practically the first moment he had human vocal cords. He had no idea if that had been the right thing to do or not, but it was over and done with now. He didn’t like the idea of lying to the man, so it was probably for the best. It could still end with Max not wanting a romantic relationship with him, but hopefully, he’d at least want friendship. And if he didn’t even want that…

Well, Rory couldn’t truthfully say he wouldn’t be worse off than before, because he’d know the amazing person that was out there for him didn’t want him back. But he’d still have spent as much time with Max as he could.

He was so glad that Max had invited him to participate in this game.

Tom and David were conducting a very adorable campaign of subtle flirtation, and Rory wasn’t quite sure whether it was between their dwarf cleric and dragonborn bard or between the two of them. He thought it was both.

They’d “leveled up” at the end of the session, which meant homework. The game allowed for characters to improve and face more difficult challenges by learning new spells and abilities at intervals set by the DM. It really was fascinating.

Rory looked at Max, who assured him, “I’ll show you what to do.”

He hadn’t ever doubted it. Max seemed determined to keep Rory comfortable and happy. He could easily have left Rory in the apartment—or not kept Rory at all!—but instead he’d included him in this game and given Rory a chance to meet all these fun people.

As they were all packing everything away—there was a lot to bring when you had dice and minis and books and snacks and character sheets and notebooks and spell cards—Rory asked, “What kind of books do you all like to read?”

Stella liked LitRPG, Sam liked romantasy—“All sorts, but sapphic preferred!”—David liked mysteries, and Edward liked fantasy and thrillers. Tom got red in the face and then mumbled that he liked romances because he liked the happy endings.

“I know what you mean!” Rory exclaimed, grinning at him. “Sometimes, the world is terrible, and it’s nice to read something that’s reliable and is definitely going to end well, right?”

Tom offered him a small smile. “Yes, exactly.”

“Have you tried any cozy mysteries?” David asked. “They often have a romantic subplot, and while there’s some sort of crime, it’s rarely dark or terrible. It tends to be more lighthearted than a regular mystery.”

Tom shook his head. “What… what do you recommend?”

As they headed out, David pulled out his phone to show Tom his Kindle, talking a mile a minute as he gave Tom more suggestions than he could probably read in the next month.