Dancing Fox In XII: Dance If You Want To

[Deathkeeper]

"Well, games like Battleship work with two people. Or scrabble or Chess. " he suggests.
"I could teach you how to play an RPG I guess but those really aren't as fun with just two people."

[Recaiden]

Battleship! She's seen that one! Leah reaches up and gets it, and hands it over to Mist.
"Okay! But also, teach me to play the other thing, and when we can get more people, we will."
She also brings out of the closet a stack of RPG sourcebooks from various systems. Here's an Aspectbook, here's a Bestiary, here's a Primer. They would not all make a cohesive game.

[Deathkeeper]

Mist chuckles.
"We can't play an ROG with books from five different ones. Just look at the covers and choose ones with the same logo that look fun." he suggests.

[Recaiden]

"Oh, okay."
Guess they like, come in series or something.

Leah gathers up a bunch of FFG's 40K games. Only War has the best cover art, so that's probably what it'll be.

Then it's on to unpacking Battleship and puzzling at the little pegs.

[Deathkeeper]

Leah produces one (1) instruction manual!
"You want to try reading that on your own or do you want me to explain it?" he offers with a smirk.

[Recaiden]

Leah takes the instruction manual and starts reading through it, every word.
"I'll try reading it. If I don't get it, you can explain."
But Battleship is pretty straightforward; I think she'll get it. And judging by the smirk returned, she seems to think the same.

[Deathkeeper]

Mist returns the smirk.
"let's go then." he says.
And the game will begin! Hopefully Leah doesn't have any tricks up her sleeves.

[Recaiden]

Nothing too tricky. Not like if he's tried to play against Kestrel. The machine has a statistically optimal Battleship targeting routine with matrices for rational, near-rational, and attempted random players.

Battleship ensues! Leah quickly figures out that once can do better than just calling wherever they want. Aim at the biggest empty space!
Much better than chess.

[Deathkeeper]

Mist has played this game before, so he's comfortable with his strategy. It's a pretty basic game so Leah has a good chance at winning, though.

[Recaiden]

Leah starts off with some bad luck, but seems to be having fun with the game, and starts taking longer and longer turns, eyes flickering along the rows, which also happen to be more and more accurate.

[Deathkeeper]

She gets more and more accurate, but she might be too late! Mist's strategy might take him dangerously close to winning...

[Recaiden]

It has! With just two hits left on his last ship, Mist sinks her patrol boat and wins the game.
"That's fun! Thanks, Mist."

She's both excited and genuinely surprised. Never really had time for games or an enjoyment of them in the past.
But now they should get to sleep.

[Cyber Punk]

The Fawcett Twins walk into the inn, weapons on their backs, hand in hand. They look to be in their early twenties. His hair is in an afro, and her hair is braided at the back, tied into a ponytail.

The two walk in silence, their dark brown eyes scanning the area, eventually coming to rest on Kestrel. A smirk appears on their faces, then they turn to face each other.

"That one has too many arms, brother."
"The more to do things with, sister"
"More things done, less focused on. More time taken."
"It's a robot, sister, and a high-tech one at that."

That said, they look straight at Kestrel. "Those hands certainly are useful."
"Being able to do so much at once."
"Without interruption."
"Indeed."

[Recaiden]

Kestrel ignores the twins and carries on with its work.

-Later-

Cleo enters the inn, humming a lazy dreamlike melody, and literally skips up to the bar.
"Miist~♥! Could I trouble you for some space to dream tonight, or soon? I have some business with your family, and they haven't shared a good way to find them. That is to say, not your family, but those nobles who fancy themselves such."

[Deathkeeper]

Mist raises an eyebrow. And an ear, just for emphasis. Cleo is...not usually this happy.
"Uh, you seem...chipper. Things with Keiko going well? I guess you can take the room next to mine if you want. Family-of-girlfriend discount?
Why do you want to talk to them? Just fae socializing?" he asks.

[Recaiden]

"Wonderfully. I hear you've already heard from Leah about the most newsworthy thing. Thank you for your advices. But I've earned my pearl, navigated a family meeting, participated in court intrigues, and learned about planes-traveling. Being free from things that have built up in your mind is the best thing to discover you are."

Cleo leans onto the counter with a grin and a nod.
"Sounds good. I can pay now, of course?" Bills are counted out of a swiftly found wallet. The money's real as long as people keep using it. "It's just normal socializing, I think. We're not exa~ctly on the same level. And also, I have a plan. If it works, I'll tell you all about it. In case it doesn't, I'll stay mysterious for now."

[Deathkeeper]

Mist takes the money and replaced it on the counter with a room key.
"Well, okay then, Cleo. Upstairs, second in the right. Have fun?" he says.
Cleo is being extra strange. He'll be sure to buy something with those coins soon.

[Recaiden]

Cleo swipes up the key and nods.

"Will do!"

Of course, there needs to be a sleepy Mist for this to work, so at the moment she just goes to check out the room -yep, that's a room at an inn- before coming back downstairs.

Now, if time skips ahead, later that night, a dragon will slink out of its own dream, looking for the others bubbling up from the residents.

[Deathkeeper]

There will be a few dreams bubbling up and around the inn, despite the only modest number of people staying there. Though obviously she's looking for one in particular.
Should she enter that one, my next post shall be in Random Plots.

[Recaiden]

Cleo spends a few minutes/instants/years flickering through the other dreams in the inn, seeing what's there to be seen.

But eventually she jumps to Mist's.

[Fenric]

Frederick is having a nightmare about the spibird from the floating island, and it is not at all a pleasant one.

He is trying to draw his attacks, but all he has is a yellow crayon and it keeps breaking. Meanwhile, it has already tied up Helen who is crying.

[Recaiden]

Cleo winces a little on seeing that.
But what she has to think is 'an opportunity to rescue the love interest after all!'

She pitches something along the ground towards Frederick, to roll in front of him. A fountain pen!

[Fenric]

Frederick seizes the pen and quickly draws himself a sword and shield. While his drawing was sad and poorly done, it turns into the grass-cutting blade and the imperial shield once he picks them up!

He charges into battle with the spibird, distracting it from Helen; but when it turns to face him it shifts into the nine-headed Keiko-dragon and suddenly they're out on the shadowy planes. Dragon-Keiko tries to convince him to go with her instead of Helen who in the meanwhile has turned into his twin sister Katherine (no relation to Caroline's mother), except his feelings and actions are still the same as if it was Helen. He finds himself agreeing that they should all go get pie, which apparently is to be found under one of the bushes - so they all go searching.

[Recaiden]

Cleo slinks in to argue the same thing. Dragons are better than pie, and pie is better than Helen.

Clearly there is a connection, however thin, between the two Katherines. If that was Caroline's mother next time she looked, it'd be no surprise.

Then it's to digging. Under the bushes, she expects, there'll be a kitchen. If they actually get to stay long enough to taste the pies, well, that's another story.

[Fenric]

Katherine finds a coconut cream pie, and Keiko finds a dragonfruit pie because Frederick's subconscious wanted a pun in there, but Frederick finds a tray of chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and sprinkles, which means he's out.

So Frederick has to go take a history test while everyone else eats pie. He finds himself back in his freshman year, in history class, without his pants. And he hasn't studied, and it's it about a country he's never even heard of - which makes it the wrong sort of history anyway. In fact, he has a growing conviction that he has not attended a single class when he is called up front to give an oral presentation.

[Recaiden]

Cleo acquires and eats a whole apple pie, and watches Frederick's discomfort.

Looks like he's rotating through a ton of common nightmares, poor guy.
As a parting gift, she throws him a paper airplane with the answers on it. He won't be able to read them in a dream anyway, but it'll help him say the right thing.

[Fenric]

Just as well... we probably don't want to see where things go from here anyway.

[Lex-Kat]

"I've never been here myself. But I hear it's one of the nicest places in the Nexus." Judy looks around, suspicious. "I've also heard there's some weird magic here that prevents fighting. Weird." She then heads to the bar. "What d'ya got that's good?" she asks, sitting on a stool.

[Cyber Punk]

Heck frowns at the no-fighting bit. "That is weird." He mutters as he follows Judy. "On the other hand, it means no one comes in here looking to start something with me."

He sits right beside Judy and crosses his arms in front of him. "Whatever it is, make it two."

[Fenric]

[Frederick's Room]

Frederick wakes from his chain of nightmares with a start, and lies on his back for a few minutes to collect his thoughts. Ugh, enough with the exam dreams already! And it's getting to be time for a stern talk with his subconscious: swapping Helen out for his sister like that.

Since Cleo had been at the battle with the Spibird, that at least doesn't seem strange. Though the whole thing with Cleo and Keiko certainly was. Keiko had flirted with him, for goodness' sake...

though, on further reflection...

she had to have known it was hopeless - was it all an act?