F&F Club Open House Meeting

Boreas looked over everything in the pavilion. He'd been spending the last hour or so setting up and making sure things were nicely organized. Smaller tables were placed throughout the space, with chairs and some soft, fur mats for those who weren't so chair-friendly. There was a full plate of chocolate chip and raisin cookies on each table. This was meant to be a social event after all. He wanted people to talk to each other as much as he wanted to talk to them.

On each table there were also a few small, hand-carved miniatures. He hadn't had time to paint them all, but he was proud of what he had done regardless. A Vulpix in a robe and pointy hat. One Garchomp with a sword across his back. A very cute looking Jigglypuff in full plate armor with a giant war hammer. He'd set out all the player miniatures he'd made to give everyone an idea what their's would eventually look like. Of course, he'd try to carve and paint one for each player. It might just take awhile.

He smiled at the thought of anyone even being interested in his game. He'd been working for months on the rules and he'd finally gotten it to a point where he was happy with it. On the large table towards the back of the pavilion was a large tome that he'd gotten help binding. It was ring binding, and not very fancy at all, but the little Amaura was swelling with pride about it. He was looking forward to introducing people to it. He hoped they liked it.

He peeked out the front arch once more, just to check on things. The banner he'd hung up wasn't the prettiest, but the bright green letters could clearly be read. "Fortresses and Flygons Club Open House!" The cloth fluttered a bit in the summer wind, but it seemed it would stay put. With that, Boreas bounced back towards the back table with his book and took a seat. He started rummaging through the pages, trying to decide which page would be best to leave it open on. There wasn't much art, and what little was present was very simple. Boreas, unfortunately, did not have much of a talent for art.

Settling on the character creation rules, he set them out for people to see and decided he was all set. He took a seat down and contented himself to wait.

He may have allowed himself one cookie while he waited.

Maybe two.

Lincoln stared at the big sign declaring "F&F Club Open House!!!!" from where he was standing at the school entrance. Welp, that hadn't been hard. He looked down at the flier in his paws. "Fun with friends, and snacks too!!" It declared proudly, and in some pretty nice handwriting too. Lincoln had just joined this school recently during an existential crisis founded in his poor performance within the house of eternal death. He didn't really have any classes yet, though... and he hadn't met anyone yet, either. He really did want to be involved somehow! He just wondered if he'd fit in here...

He started walking over, flier gripped in hand. He couldn't just keep standing here doing nothing; if that mansion had taught him anything, it was that you couldn't make any progress by just standing around! Doing the wrong thing still had bad consequences, too... but at least then you were somewhere and not nowhere! His steps became kind of shy as he finally hit the couple of stairs leading into the pavilion, but he was already in plain sight now so it was far too late to have regrets.

The inside of the class space was... really nicely decorated. Were those... tiny figures?!!? Wow, they looked like the real thing! And they even had outfits on!!! Some of them were painted with really cool effects. Lincoln had been formulating a greeting for the Amaura waiting inside, but the words were now caught in his throat. He tried to focus himself by gicing a weak wave to catch the other pokemon's attention. "Ah, hi..." he said, still fumbling a bit, "I came... to check out the Fortresses and Flygons game? Is that here? I'm Lincoln, are you Boreas?" He was a little nervous. Probably. Maybe.

It wasn't long at all before Boreas heard some footsteps coming up the stairs. This early? He was half expecting to just sit here by himself for a few hours! Oh wow! Did he look okay? Were his fins ruffly enough?

A handsome looking Lucario had wandered into the pavilion and looked to be clutching a flyer. Wow! There really was some interest! Boreas tried to stand up so quickly that he nearly pulled the rug out from underneath him and ended up falling back over. Regaining his balance he said, "Yep! Yeah, uh, yeah, that's me. Boreas! I'm him! Nice to meet you, Lincoln!"

He tried to return the wave, but he couldn't quite get his leg up like that. He was always a little jealous of Pokemon that could. Instead, he decided to go ahead and just give his fins a little, happy wave.

"I'm so happy that you came. Go ahead and take a cookie! I baked them myself. I think they turned out okay, but if you're not a fan, that's okay." He prayed he didn't sound as nervous as he felt. "So, you're interested in the game? I could tell you about it if you want."

He was bursting at the seams to tell someone. He had been working so hard, he just wanted to know if anyone thought it would be cool.

Opal sniffed the air around her. Something smelt good. Really good, in fact! She allowed her nose to lead her to wherever deliciousness was waiting. It didn't take her long to reach a room where there appeared to be a meeting. Oh, the growlithe thought as she came to a stop, it would be a good idea to read the banner and make sure it was okay for her to be there. She did so, and lit up again at the mention of an open house and free snacks. Food! Friends! Fun! In trotted Opal, tail wagging and face smiling.

Oh yes, the cookies were definitely in here, alright. But so were two pokemon she hadn't met before. Opal was eager to make their acquaintance and quick to approach. "Hi!" she greeted the pair cheerfully, "My name's Opal! Who are you two?"

Lincoln had to admit, the cookies looked and smelled good. So good that he just couldn't turn down the offer once it was presented. "Wow, thanks! They look really good!" He sat down at the table that Boreas was sitting at so that they could talk more. He had a look at the massive book in front of him - hoo boy it was big. And handwritten. Had Boreas made all of this?! Lincoln couldn't imagine the time and effort it must have taken him to get all of this down. And the figurines as well!! He was slightly intimidated by the thought. Boreas was really nice though, and honestly Lincoln really did want to hear more. Lincoln wondered if he would also get the chance to learn how to make this stuff from Boreas. Was it part of the game? He certainly wouldn't be opposed to picking up something this cool.

He was about to ask Boreas for more information when a friendly-looking growlithe climbed up the stairs and entered the pavilion with them. She introduced herself as Opal, which stuck Lincoln as a really nice name. He waved at her cheerfully and responded, "Hi Opal! My name is Lincoln, and this is Boreas!! He's the leader of the club." Lincoln was rather excited and introduced Boreas despite himself, something that he normally would have been very embarrassed over. He motioned hastily with his paw for Opal to come and take a seat at the table with them. "Come on over, quick!! Boreas is gonna talk more about the game!!"

Boreas smiled. This was already way more pokemon than he had expected to come, and they all seemed pretty interested in what was going on. Granted, some of them may have just been there for the cookies, but that was okay too! He had worked hard on the cookies too! Well, maybe not as hard as hard carving the figures and writing down the rules by hand in the book and all that, but the cookies had been a labor of love. Definitely.

Suddenly though, he was on the hot seat and everyone wanted to know all about his game. He coughed a bit in his throat as everyone turned to look at him.

"Ahem. Uh, well, you see... This is 'Fortresses & Flygons!" he said, hoisting up the tome. On the cover was a rather amateurish looking drawing of what looked like a Flygon and a band of his friends storming a large stone structure with some sort of giant, fire-breathing lizard wrapped around it.

"It's kind of like a party game, you see. You get together a group of friends and you create characters and you all have fun pretending to be those characters and going around and having adventures in a great big fantasy world. I came up with the idea because I know that there are some pokemon who want to go adventuring in dungeons and stuff, but aren't ready for that kind of stuff, so this is a fun way to do that sort of thing in a safe environment!

"Plus it can be really fun to make up all these fun stories and adventures with your friends. I'm saying fun a lot, aren't I? Sorry. Jeez. Uh, if you want, I'm trying to get a club started so we all can make a group and play together!"

He forced a smile. He was sure that he'd done an awful job explaining that.

"Um, I can answer any questions if you guys have any..."

"Don't be sorry! It kinda sounds like you need to say a lot for this game! That book looks pretty big," Opal commented.

"So, it's like adventuring in dungeons, huh? But this one's carrying something pretty big. That can't be practical," the growlithe remarked as she had a sniff at the figure of the garchomp with a sword, "I mean, at least they look like they can use it, but how do you carry other stuff when you're lugging that around?"

Opal noticed that Boreas seemed a little uncomfortable and was worried that she had upset him. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean that to sound nasty! I'm just really curious about how it works, y'know? I'm sure you've already handled that matter!"

Lincoln smiled. Boreas was a really nice guy! He sure seemed excited too, which got Lincoln just as excited!! Partially due to his species's abilities, but also because if Boreas had dedicated so much to it than it had to be good! The concept was enticing. He did a lot of exploring in his day-to-day errands, but he had never considered writing a story about it. He imagined that the realm of imagination opened up a lot more diversity to the exploration that one could possibly achieve in the real world!! Yeah, that sounded pretty awesome!!

He looked at the picture Opal was pointing out. Well... yeah, that did seem like a pretty cumbersome item, especially from her perspective. Still, though... he supposed they probably weren't going to take that kind of realism too too seriously in an imagination game about heroes and legends. That kind of took away some of the appeal, didn't it? Or maybe it could be interesting... maybe you had to earn abilities to be able to lift items such as that!

"Maybe a stronger character lets you carry more things?" Lincoln reasoned aloud in response to Opal's question. "Actually, how do we make characters? Are there specific requirements for it? What are our options?"