Retired and Loving It

Posted on Wed 17th Mar, 2021 @ 4:21am by Chief Petty Officer Larry Kersenboom (Ret.)

651 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Business Not At All As Usual
Location: The Hangman's Noose, Gamers' Area
Timeline: MD-1, 1700 hours

"When we last left our intrepid heroes..." Larry Kersenboom intoned, "...they were all living happily ever after, the poor sods, and it was time for us to roll up new characters." He sat with seven other people in the gamers' section of The Hangman's Noose. Most of the group were clearly older and had graying hair. They were seated at a couple of long tables that had been pushed together with their leaves extended to accommodate the group. A waitress had already brought the drinks they'd ordered, and various light snacks were on the way.

Karen sat at the head of the table with Mark at the foot. Steve, Karen's husband, sat to her left and Larry to her right. Vanessa sat to Larry's right, and Vanessa's husband, Chris, sat to her right and Mark's left. Mark's wife, Renee, sat to his right, and Marie sat between Renee and Steve.

This was the signal for everyone to dig out their dice and character sheets, and stop talking about the latest holo-vid that Mark and Steve had seen.

"So did you all get them rolled up?" Karen asked. She was the group's dungeon mistress.

"Yeah," Renee said, "I just can't decide if I want to play a bard or a diplomat."

"Can't one person be both?" Larry asked.

"Not really," Renee told him. "Except in Celtic society, bards--or minstrels, really--were commoners. Diplomats had to be courtiers and were usually spies."

"Well, what were the Harpers of Pern but spies?" Chris pointed out.

"Hm! Touche," Renee admitted. "However, this isn't Pern. There is no Harpercraft."

"True," Karen said. "You can multi-task and be a bard and a spy; I don't care. Your max starting skill at both will be lower than normal, though, unless you take one as a secondary skill rather than as a co-first skill. Marie, did you want to roll up a character?"

"No. I like just being the chronicler. The rest of you, game on."

"We like having a chronicler," Vanessa told Marie, "otherwise we'd never remember all of this from one gaming session to another."

"What we didn't remember, we would just make up," Mark assured her.

Renee rolled her eyes at her husband. "Says the guy whose barbarian character named his horse 'Horse' and his hawk 'Hawk.'"

"Hey! He was a barbarian! He kept it simple."

This is the life, Larry thought as he warmed up his dice by rolling them a few times. No yard to mow, nobody inspecting my quarters, no having to keep my quarters clean to set a good example for anyone. I can wear my favorite clothes and tell the world to shove off. He sipped from his beer. Too bad they were gonna make me go for Senior Chief after my 20 years in Starfleet. I'd still be in if they hadn't done that. 'Up or Out' is so dang annoying.

"Okay, you all are passengers on a ship bound for the royal court in Tareya. Larry, party luck roll," Karen said.

Larry rolled a 10-sided and a 20-sided die. "Ninety-nine!"

Groans sounded around the table.

"Well!" Karen said, rubbing her hands together with fiendish glee, "Thank you, Larry! Shall I just say that a huge tidal wave sank the ship and drowned you all, or would that be too boring?"

"That would be too boring--and inaccurate if we're out at sea," Steve told her in no uncertain terms. "We need to have a demonic possession, at least."

Karen grinned. "Sorry, no demons around--yet. Instead, as your ship sails, you see blue-skinned men appear on either side of your ship. You can see they are mermen. They begin to literally rock the boat and demand a poem contest, or they will sink the ship. Renee, the ship's captain counts the colors on your cloak and, finding seven, knows you're a bard--a serious one. You're up."

 

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