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Chapter Text

     Captain Bobby Nash is fed up. His newest full member of the house and his newest probie are having another passive aggressive standoff in the loft. Well Evan "Buck '' Buckley is being a passive aggressive little shit while Edmundo “Just call me Eddie” Diaz is just standing there, confused on why Buck doesn't like him. If Bobby knew that there was going to be an issue with Buck, he would have sat him down before Eddie even started his first day. Bobby needed to get another firefighter in the house. One who could go on the rope rescues and maybe temper some of Buck's more impulsive decisions, so Bobby could step back a little from the "Daredevil hero stuff". But instead of inviting Eddie in as his new partner, Buck is acting like he is being replaced. Of course the station has never been so clean with Buck trying everything he can to prove the fact he is invaluable but Bobby needs to do something fast or he will actually lose Eddie to Station 6. 

     While at home later that day, standing in the kitchen,  considering his options, May comes in and drops a book on the dining room table, while opening her laptop. She pulls a sheet out of the book and keeps checking her laptop, the book, and the sheet as she makes marks on it with a pencil, muttering to herself. Very curious now, Bobby asks, "Hey May what do you have there?"

     As May gushes about her newest hobby, Bobby's mind is being blown. When he was 16, he never would have believed that something as nerdy as Dungeons and Dragons would have become so popular. But with May showing him the podcasts and the livestreams, even the group of voice actors who turned it into an actual company; it seems that what was once the cause of a so-called "Satanic Panic" has become much more mainstream. And what did May call it? Cooperative Storytelling that encourages problem solving, team building, improvisational skills, and mediation? Plus a way to blow off steam in a way that would not end in bruises or stomachs being pumped? Bobby was all for it. In fact, while he was sitting down with May listening to how her character, a Half-Elven Rogue, ("Isn't that a thief, May Grant what are you doing?" "Not all rogues are thieves Bobby, mine happens to be a spy.") and the party's paladin worked together to take down a corrupt politician, an idea started to form in Bobby's mind. Cooperation is exactly what his team was missing, and team building was necessary. Maybe this could be the answer to his troubles? After asking May more questions about the game; ("What do you need?" "How many rules exactly are there?' "Do you actually have to be good at math?" "How do you win?" "What do you mean, that's not the point?") May finally got him to open up about his staffing issues. It probably isn't the best idea to vent to his 17 year old almost step daughter (And he is afraid to ask what the mumbled "UST" meant when he was talking about Buck and Eddie) but she's always been a willing ear and has allowed him to talk to her about work in the past. So when he asked if something like Dungeons and Dragons would be helpful for what he was dealing with she got a mischievous look on her face that almost frightened him (and made him want to get the fire extinguisher). "Don't worry Bobby, I have so many ideas for this right now," she tells him, and that feeling only grew. 

     Bobby doesn't hear from May for the next few days. Which was fine because they were off shift the first day of that, and then Eddie called off because of a sick kid, and then Buck got knocked in the head and was on concussion protocol, so was man behind for the next shift, but the longer he didn't hear from her the more anxious he got. But finally during the last shift before they had their two days off (which luckily lined up with May's weekend) he received a text from  her.

     It actually wasn’t, due to kids and families, but Chim and Buck were easy. And with Harry and Denny and Eddie's son, (Christopher right? Bobby was sure that's what the paperwork said) all being around the same age, Bobby was sure that if he could get the kids to all have a playdate, he could get his team over to the house for a "team bonding meeting". And sure it took some convincing, but Eddie wants to fit in so bad, and Hen being inherently nosy, he got the entirety of A-Shift to join him over at Athena's at 9:30AM on a Saturday. (He told them 9 because he knew they would be all late otherwise.)

     As Bobby walks into Athena's house an hour before "game" time, he’s surprised at what he sees set up at the dining room table. May is setting the table with sheets of paper (character sheets, Bobby's brain told him) and has sets of what looked like dice, but were all different shapes. Six chairs are set up around the table with one of the place settings completely blocked off by a screen with a design of a bright red dragon printed on it. Athena is standing in the kitchen, looking over at her daughter and chuckling to herself as she motors around, pouring Bobby a cup from what looked like a fresh pot. "She's been super excited, about all this." Athena tells him. "I don't understand it, but her group of friends really helped her after last year, so I encourage her."

     Noticing Bobby, May stops her preparations and bounds over giving him a side hug, which surprised him a little. "You're early right? I thought I had more time."

     "Don't worry Mayday, I told them 9, so we can expect Eddie by 9:15 and the rest to be here by 9:30." Bobby tells her, calming her nerves as she goes back to the table, to adjust papers. "Tell me what you got here?"

     "Well I made characters for everyone. No need to waste time with session 0 when we are trying to achieve team bonding. I made everyone a human and picked classes that I thought would fit best. Names are blank, maybe we will just use all of yours, but the characters are otherwise done. I had a bunch of unused dice sets from when I bought them this summer. So each of you get one. And there will be breakfast and coffee. I will do a brief introduction when everyone gets here, but the characters are basically you guys based on what I know. Making Hen and Chimney was the hardest. Also features have been set up so that certain characters get bonuses for working close together." The mischievous look crossed May's face again, and Athena burst out with laughter.

     “You're telling me you set this whole thing up in order to get your dumbass daredevil to play nice?"

     Bobby couldn't help the sheepish look that comes across his face. "Well I'm desperate! The next option after this is to lock them in the storage closet until they talk."

     Athena raises her left eyebrow at him. "You could have avoided this by just talking to them both when Eddie got hired."

     The thing is that Bobby knew this. But he didn't know how to fix it without something drastic, like them dealing with live munitions or something. But he didn't want to think about his crew dealing with bombs so this was the ideal solution. And May certainly seemed confident in her plan. Bobby would just have to trust her. 

     Sitting down at his place, Bobby started going through the materials May left for him, as she stood behind him pointing out the various things there. (“Okay so the die type is indicated by a d followed by how many sides.”  “Don't worry, I have cards for all your abilities. Spell cards for those who need them.” “Everyone has a really cool item, though I had to make one up for the plot.”) Staring at everything, Bobby is so impressed by how much effort May has put into everything. She somehow even had time to get miniature figurines for them all and a play mat with a grid system laid out. Upon seeing his looks, May blushed a little, saying "I talked to my group and they were more than happy to help out, but I've been spending my allowance money for this stuff for a while. The spell and ability cards, the dice. The minis were fun to make though! And the play mat belongs to the Dungeon Master of my group. So treat it nicely."

     Bobby spends the next half an hour getting familiar with his sheet and abilities, constantly checking with May on various technical issues. "Don't worry, Bobby. As soon as the game begins it will be so much easier. Just trust me." As she finishes her statement, the doorbell rings and one Eddie Diaz is invited into the house with a stuttered, "Sorry I'm late."

     "No problem Eddie. To be honest I told everyone earlier, knowing everyone would be late. You're the first one here" Bobby tells him, an amused smirk on his face. Eddie blushed with embarrassment, going to the kitchen to help himself to the coffee and breakfast sandwiches as the rest of the team trickles in over the next 15 minutes, Chimney being last to show. As they all settle with their caffeine and snack at their respective places; May stands at the head of the table and gets everyone's attention.

     "Thank you for coming. I know Bobby told you that this was for team bonding but to be honest I begged him for his help on a creative writing project. I needed to be the project leader on a cooperative storytelling assignment and my own friends are all involved doing their own thing so Bobby volunteered you guys. Now if you notice the materials in front of you we are going to use a tabletop role playing system to give structure to our story. I am the narrator and the random people you may encounter, while each of you are playing one of the protagonists in the story. I tried to make a character for each of you, something easy for you to all play, with values that you all appreciate. Everything that you need to know about your character's abilities and core values is in front of you, anything else about your character's personality is up to you, anything about your character's history will be revealed by me. Is everyone okay with this?" 

     Everyone nodded their assent though Buck0 looked a little put out by his seat closest to May and right next to Eddie, Hen grinning at him from across the table. They listened for a moment as May gave a general spiel about the different dice, what the stats meant, and a couple other things. For a bit Chim looked a bit down about the fact that he wasn't a frontline fighter, but cheered right up when May told him about exactly what "Counterspell" was. Just as Buck was about to ask about his specialized item, May claps her hand and says, "It's game time!"

Chapter Text

     Each of you are woken suddenly as you are pulled out of your respective beds and are dragged through the inn you have found yourselves in, down the well kept cobblestone roads and up to a sprawling estate. You are in disarray, without your weapons or focuses and are being held by two well armored people, bearing the coat of arms for the local nobility. A third guard is following each of you with all of your gear in their hands. Your heads are currently pounding and the previous week is fuzzy to you, while you cannot remember the night before at all. As you are taken into this estate you see the others being brought in as well, dressed the same as you are.The group is dragged through an ornate hall filled with lavish decorations, and tapestries until you arrive at elaborately carved wooden doors. They open up to a giant room, a ostentatious chair at the far end of the room 

     At this May stops, "Did you guys just want to use your names for the characters? It might be easier." At everyone's nod she continues.

     The local lord comes in, a strict looking man with a severe looking goatee and sits down in the highly ornamented chair. The guards who are holding you push you down on your knees in front of him as he settles. The lord, who has been ignoring you this whole time, finishes adjusting his opulate robes, steeples his fingers and finally glances in your direction. "You five." He says, "Have been nothing but a thorn in my side this entire week. I have half a mind to charge you all with treason and be done with all the headaches you have caused me. But as my advisors tell me," he continues as he glares at all of you, "killing those who are so beloved by the people is just asking for mutiny. Fortunately I know of a way for you to make it up to me.” 

     "Hold on May. So we are in character right now right? What do we look like? Can we do anything?” Hen interjects 

     "Oh yeah you can if you want. I was just doing the introduction. This guy is what is typically known as a quest giver and he is trying to get you started, but you guys have freedom to say or react to this. And yes are in character, so unless you address me by my name I will assume anything said is said in game. Also I made the descriptions on your sheets to match you! So your characters look like you.”

     “Thanks May,” Hen say as she settles back into her chair.

     May nods and goes back to speak.

     "You can make it up to me." 

     Howie interjects, "And I'm sorry, who are you to be sentencing us to death or imprisonment? And what exactly was our crime?"

     The unnamed nobleman looks at you, Howie and says, "Ah yes, Howard Han. You who failed at every business venture you ever attempted, yet still have the audacity to walk into my territory and make a spectacle of me, with your words. Slander against the nobility is a crime, and I’m the Judge and Jury here. But for you... maybe something different. You tried to ruin me, so maybe I’ll ruin something of yours hmmm? Your adoptive parents still have that inn correct? Maybe I’ll just impose tax after tax, and so many tariffs that they’ll become indebted to me before long. I wonder how long they would be able to last doing hard labor in one of my mines?" The noble's eyes sweep over you lingering for a few seconds on each person. "Death is too good for the likes of you. You’d probably welcome what comes after. No, I’ll take what you love and break it for your crimes of crossing me. So for now you're mine. You jump when I say. I point you to a target and you shoot your arrows. You have messed with the wrong man and you will live to regret it."

     The 118 stare at May in disbelief as her face cracks from the stern look she was wearing to giggle. "I never said that the quest giver is a good person. There you go, a villain."

     "Yeah, but May do you really have to do the voices, and the whole posture shifting thing. It's like you are an entirely different person!" Chim says, sitting back in his chair. 

     "You do the voices when you read to kids right? It's fun, helps with the immersion. And when you guys do something I'm not ready for, it helps me improv what the character would do." 

     Buck starts to tense, looking towards the guard who has his gear, and attempts to see how fast he could get his.... battle axe to sink it into this asshole's face.

     “Okay so take the d20 and roll it for me. I need two checks: a perception check, and a stealth check. So roll it twice and then add the number next to the stat to whatever you roll.” 

     “Okay so I rolled a 7 for the first check, plus perception which would be… 3? So a 10 for that one. And next to stealth I have a D there what does that mean?”

     “You wear chain mail, which is jingly. So while in armor you have disadvantage on stealth checks. But you are currently not wearing it so it's just a straight roll.”

     “Oh okay, so …  13 plus... total of 15.”

     May hums as she rolls a couple of dice behind her barrier. “Okay so here’s what happens.”

     Buck you glance behind you subtly as you clock where your weapons are. Unfortunately you aren’t as subtle as you hoped and the nobleman snaps his fingers. And Eddie (“ Roll a strength saving throw for me.” “Ooh, that is a 3 on the die so 6.” Oh your character is right next to Buck’s so add … what is Buck’s charisma modifier again?” “Uh, 3” “So a nine. Sorry Eddie.”) you feel a boot in your back as you are shoved forward landing hard on your face and elbow. ( “2 points of damage.”) Buck, while you don’t take any damage you feel the pain radiating from those areas for a brief moment. The noble gets up from his chair and walks over to where Eddie is sprawled on the floor and rests his booted foot on Eddie’s hand slowly adding more pressure, while staring straight at Buck, saying, “You really want to try me? My power isn’t limited to this room, but I can certainly start here.” Buck, you feel a pressure building, as if it’s your hand under the boot. What do you do? 

     Buck sits back down putting his hands up and trying to deliberately untense, so he’s almost slouching there. Trying to make himself look… unthreatening I suppose. (“ Okay. Your character is good enough at being intimidating so I will say he knows enough to do the opposite.” ) And he says, “Fine, I give. Just… just stop hurting him.” 

     Eddie felt surprised. He was getting caught up in the storytelling and for a moment he almost felt the boot shoving him to the ground. But Buck having his character intercede? He looks over and sees a piece of paper with Tenets of Devotion on the top before it goes back underneath Buck’s character sheet. Ah he’s just playing his character. That makes sense. But then Eddie remembers what May said. “I gave you all something easy to play. With values that you appreciate.” Maybe Buck isn’t an asshole after all. Now Eddie is really curious as to what values are on that sheet.

     “See the wanderer can learn! Though, what I don’t understand is,” And the nobleman reaches over and grabs your hair Buck, craning your head back, "how can someone with no home, no family, ever feel devotion to anyone?" ( The word devotion is hissed through May's teeth, made to sound almost disgusting. When Eddie looks toward her she makes a gesture towards him, which Eddie takes to mean that he feels the sensation too. ) "But trust me when I say this. I will find them all. Everyone for whom you feel the smallest bit of loyalty to; I will find them and I will destroy them the next time you even think of stepping a toe out of line." He releases Buck and steps back looking at Eddie, Bobby, and Hen. "So soldier? Are you going to follow orders? How about you, hero to the masses? Are you going to let down those who’re counting on you? And you, witch. You have those you want to protect I'm sure. It wouldn't be hard to find them.”

     The three nodded, with Howie and Buck looking down fuming. "Good. Now you’ll be meeting with one of my Generals, a man named Banfield, at the Inn you frequented last night for dinner. He’ll have your first assignment. Don't fail, you will not like it if you do." His dark eyes flick to the guards behind your group. "Get them out of my sight."

     The five of you are dragged out of the mansion and tossed onto the streets, your gear dropped into piles near you, before the guards file back onto the estate and the gates are slammed shut behind them. It's about noon, you have five hours before your meeting, your gear has been returned to you. Oh! Eddie and Buck. You notice that each of you has an identical platinum bracer around your left forearm. It doesn’t feel cold but almost warm to the touch. It has no noticeable latches, hinges or buckles on it. So as far as you can tell, no way to remove them. You don't feel like it’s harmful in any way, and may actually be beneficial but you have no idea where they came from. In your last clear memory... which would have been over a week ago for all of you, you didn't have them. And as far as  you know you have not met the people you are currently with. The afternoon is yours. What would you like to do?

Chapter Text

Bobby looks around at the assembled party and says, "Well maybe we should get dressed first at least." Before going over to one of the piles before turning to Buck. "Your chain mail or mine?" 

The pile you have stopped at has the pommel of a long sword underneath the chain mail shirt, Bobby. 

Buck snorts then, "I don't think any memory gaps would prevent me from remembering that sword sir. And I'm sorry but I'm not sure who any of you are, even though... we know each other?"

Howie laughs a little, already redressed in his armor. "Well, I'm Howard Han, as everyone already knows. Howie. Though I would also like to know about the gaps in my memory. Especially since they lead up to me roasting the nobility in charge of the taxes for my family. Though I'm sure he deserved it, I just don't know why I decided to do it."

“Howie as you start to try and remember I will need you to roll..... let's call it a wisdom saving throw. Also how close would you be to Buck?”

“I don't know, probably not close.” 

“Okay just roll.”

“Ooh only plus 1.... that is a 6.”

Howie as you try and think back, you remember a snippet of a conversation you were having, it was towards the beginning of the week. What you can remember is that a figure was saying, “in other places the leaders are actually held up to protect their people, not get fat and rich off of them.” That is all you get before your head feels like it splits apart with a headache. “Now make a perception check for me.”

“Oh, that's better 12...13... 16 total.”

While you cannot remember the features of the people you were talking to you remember two figures. The voice was a woman's but her companion was wearing garb very similar to what your new friend Buck is putting on.

"Okay okay, while this is all very interesting, how do we know that he can do what he says?” Hen asks as she finishes checking her component pouch, also already dressed. "Henrietta Wilson, by the way. Call me Hen."

"Eddie Diaz, and do you want to risk it?" Says Eddie, as he slings a medallion over his head and tucks it underneath his armor. “By the way, I am still injured, right? How am I looking?”

“You have a bruise along your cheekbone. Just a little scuffed.”

 "He knew my background, who knows what else he knows."

"Evan Buckley. Just call me Buck. And yeah he knew far too much." Buck says as he straps his shield on his arm. "Here." “So how does this lay on hands thing work, I just spend the points, right?”

“Yeah so in combat it takes an action which I will explain when we get there but for now you can definitely heal Eddie if you want.”

“Okay, you said two points earlier right so I remove two?”

Well actually, Buck as you reach out to heal him you find the divine healing flowing towards your new companion flows easier. You only have to spend one point and the bruise disappears completely and no lingering soreness remains.

Okay so Buck reaches out with his right hand and brushes it lightly over the bruised area, and a soft light glows, and when it fades the bruise is gone. 

“Well that would come in handy,” jokes Bobby. 

“Yeah Buck, why didn't you do that for my rebar incident?” Chim laughs.

"And that leaves me I guess. Robert Nash. Bobby. I think we all have a lot to talk about, but I don't know if we are going to get much of a chance."

"One thing I do know," Howie interjects, "Is that I met someone who dressed like you, Mr. Buckley at the beginning of this week. I don't remember much but a man with that type of clothing and a woman..." ( “Does the voice match Hen's?” “No it wasn't hers.”) "Who was not you, Lady Hen." 

"Thanks for the flattery but I am not a noble in any way, Howie Han," Hen says, smiling at him. "Maybe we can retrace our steps and see what we can find? We have to be at the inn in a few hours anyway. So maybe we can see if anyone in this town knows what we've been up to?" 

"Brilliant idea Hen. Also maybe we can discuss strengths? So if we are ambushed we know where to position ourselves?" Bobby speaks up as he looks around and takes in the team. 

So as you examine your team… “ How about I just do full descriptions for everyone’s gear.”

Hen is dressed in dark leather armor that appears to be made for her, with a hand crossbow attached to one side of her belt. She has a dagger in a sheath belted to her thigh, and a pouch for spell components hanging opposite of the crossbow. A specialized sheath is draped across her back with a stave stored inside. It is maybe two feet in length and made out of pale wood, almost looking like something you would find washed up on a beach, just thin enough in the center to wrap your hands around, and flared on either end. It has been polished perfectly smooth and carved with celestial runes, which shine silver when the light hits it just right. There is soft white leather wrapped around where the stave is thinnest, and while you know that this has had a lot of use, it still looks the same as when you first found it.

Howie is wearing very similar armor. In fact, it looks like they have the same maker, and it fits him just as well. A rapier and dagger grace his belt and with him are two instruments, an old violin, in a battered leather case. And a beautiful concertina, a sort of accordion made with lacquered redwood, and while it doesn't have keys, it does have a series mother of pearl buttons, on either side, amidst hand-painted scrollwork of leaves and vines. The hand straps on either side are black, and similar vines have been engraved into them. Based on the cases, the violin and concertina are the same age, but the violin shows its age. This instrument does not.

Bobby is wearing new chainmail armor. There are no holes, missing links, or dents anywhere that you can find. You have it over your typical clothes, with a padded undershirt underneath that to help protect you from bludgeoning blows. The shield is also new and made from wood. A symbol that you do not recognize is burned into the front of it. Your sword hilt, one that you have carried with you since you left your home to begin your journey, has a radiant sun inlaid into the pommel and the leather that makes up the handguard is well worn and soft.

Eddie and Buck, you are dressed similarly to Bobby, Eddie with the more monochromatic colors you prefer, Buck with your very colorful tunic underneath your chainmail. The one that you have used to mark the various journeys that you have been on. By this time you have discovered the bracers you wear. They fit perfectly against your skin and do not feel like they would rub or chafe your skin. Made of platinum they are completely identical to each other and have blackened runes etched into them. If anyone looks they cannot decipher the language they are depicting, let alone read them. 

Furthermore, the symbol you have on your shields is also embossed into Howie’s and Hen’s armor. It is a 4 petaled flower, with the petals pointing in the cardinal directions, coming out of a circle. Inside the circle, there are two weapons crossed over a third. A warhammer, which crosses a war ax, and a sword coming down between them.  

As Hen notices the two of them examining the bracers, she steps forward and says, "May I?" ( “Detect magic is something I can.... at will, means that doesn't use a spell slot right? Okay. ”) And before she gets permission she casts Detect Magic. “So I can see magical auras and if there is a school I know what it is... there are schools of magic?”

So you cast and what you get back when you see these bracers is strong Abjuration, some evocation, and a little bit of divination, all wrapped up together. 

“What does that mean?”

“Abjuration is protective magic, Shield and Mage Armor are examples of abjuration magic. Evocation is the big flashy magic. The stuff you throw around like Fireball and Thunderwave, but it is also the school of healing spells like Cure Wounds. And divination is like the stuff that allows you to know things that you otherwise wouldn't. Like Detect Magic. Now Hen there's one more thing that you will find out but I'm going to write it down for you. Also unless Hen decides to explain this no one else has this knowledge unless they cast the spell themselves.”

Hen was extremely curious about the secret note so she couldn't help but read it as soon as May gave it to her. When she reads it she can't help but cackle at the information. The bracers only work when they are near each other. Oh, this is gold and she can't help but grin maniacally at the rest of the table having this knowledge that the others don't have.   

Hen just tells them that she sees protective magic in the bracers, and nothing that seems that would harm them. "Also. I think they are a pair. Interestingly, they seem like they were made for the same arm." 

Howie snorts. "Yeah, very interesting. By the way, we were talking about roles. Mine seems more like I work at a distance. There are a few things like the ability to enchant people to work for me, or I can distract them from their goals but otherwise, I am meant for back-of-the-line stuff. There are a few things that work in a big area. Not too far though or I am useless."

"Well, I apparently can snipe someone from 240 feet with fire. Which is very cool. Um, I do have some ability to heal as well, though I doubt it will be very good." Hen says running her hands over her stave.

"Any healing is appreciated on a battlefield," Eddie says. "I am well armored to be up front, but my skills mostly are focused on keeping people fighting. Granting boons, providing courage, those things. But the best healing spells require touch so I need to be closer."

"Well, my entire thing is being up close. One man wrecking-crew. Though I do provide benefits for those who are in my immediate proximity. I can deflect blows and such. I do best when I have a team, is what I am saying." Buck says, shrugging sheepishly. “Oh! And the healing thing.”

"Well, that leaves me." Bobby says, "I do not have magic at all. I am a fair commander though, and a pretty damn good chef if I get a chance to actually cook for everyone. I am in the thick of things as a fighter, And it is very hard to surprise me." he finishes raising his eyebrows at them. 

"Well, that's all good to know," Howie says. "One dedicated healer in the thick of things. Two with additional healing, one backline, and one upfront, The backline healer is good with single target damage spells, while the front one can be a tank if need be. A commanding force to direct us, and me." 

"Yeah you," Buck says, leaning forward towards him. "Able to survey the battlefield because you aren't in the thick of things. Damaging spells that affect multiple targets, and abilities that can divert the enemy. Sometimes a simple distraction is enough to prevent a killing blow. I am a one-trick pony here. I see something, I hit something, and then I pump a lot of resources into that blow to make sure it doesn't get up. Being on the front lines isn't.... it isn't a glory thing. It's a, I put myself into harm's way so that the people I care about aren't there." 

“And Chim? I genuinely mean that. Before the rebar thing, you were mad because you never got to do the big things and you took credit for my rescues with Tatiana. I never minded, but you need to know it's not about the stories for me. Not since Devon, okay? I am glad that I am the one repelling down the cliffs because that means you aren't in danger. Arriving at the scene of the crash was one of the scariest moments of my life and I have had an emergency tracheotomy. You are so smart and you see things before the rest of us do because you are further back and looking at the big picture. All roles matter here." 

The table is quiet for a moment, before Chim starts to speak, trying to clear his throat, "So no more self-deprecating jokes on my part, I guess then. Wow, Buckley never knew you cared so much man."

"Well, you obviously didn't hear me while you were in the coma so I had to tell you to your face. I was just hoping for another hospital bed confession, not in front of all our co-workers who are going to mock me for crying. Hey May can we take a break? I need a moment."

"Sure thing. Everyone can take, let's call it ten minutes. Check your phones, grab a snack, all that jazz.” 

Buck takes the opportunity to quickly vacate the table and heads out the back door to gain some distance, while the rest of the team just sits there watching him go.

“Sorry, but I have to ask?” Eddie says, speaking up. “One trick pony?"

Chapter Text

As the group watches Buck go out into the yard, they move into the kitchen to try and make it seem less like they aren’t watching him. Eddie speaks up, trying to break the stifling silence, "So, I feel like that wasn't exactly all... how did May put it... in character for Buck. What did he mean about being a one-trick pony?"

Bobby looks a little concernedly towards the yard as he refreshes his cup of coffee. "I'm not sure. I know he has issues with feelings of being replaced, but he always seems very confident in his abilities."

"Yeah, so we need to knock him down a few pegs. Deflate his ego." Chim mumbles around a large bite of a pastry.

"So, you keep him humble," Eddie says, as the two paramedics nod. "You knock him down and make him feel like all he is good for is being the muscles and a literal human shield because he isn't overly self-confident. It's a mask,  a front. He has no self-confidence, so he fakes it. The bravado he’s been showing me? You see it all the time in the army. It's used to protect people from what they perceive as threats." As Eddie talks, the slight grin that Chim and Hen had on their faces fades into a look of horror.

“Yeah. No wonder he’s defensive and afraid of being replaced, and so antagonistic. He feels like he has one job and you brought someone else in who, in his mind, can do it. You didn’t talk to him about what role you wanted me to have, did you? What you said to convince me to join the 118?” He finishes looking at Bobby. At Bobby's sheepish look, Eddie scoffs and keeps going,“Yeah, I didn’t think so. Now I am going to go take him a water bottle because I refuse to put as much sugar into a cup of coffee as it would take for him to drink it. And you three need to learn when teasing actually can turn into bullying. My 7 year old knows, why don’t you?” He finishes his statement, grabbing a bottle of water and walking to the backdoor. 

Just before he opens it he turns back to Chimney, “By the way, dick move telling me about his girlfriend. I shouldn’t have brought it up, but telling me she dumped him when he had actually been ghosted? You have to let people come to the right conclusion on their own time. I would know.” And he leaves the room, leaving Bobby to stare at Hen and Chim. 

“Maybe we do need to talk.”

By the time Buck and Eddie returned to the house, they only had two minutes left on the break. The other three had finished their conversation and Eddie looked at the three of them with a raised brow as Buck went off to the bathroom. 

“Hope you can keep that little rant to yourselves,” he says quietly to them. “Are we almost ready to start again? May, I hope we are helping enough for your project.” Eddie says to the room. 

“Project…,” May trails off, before suddenly remembering the excuse she gave them at the start, “Oh yeah you guys are great. It’s a little awkward introducing characters at the beginning of anything so we’ll start to pick up. Also… It doesn’t need to be a one-time thing if you guys are having fun. It's a year-long project with updates on and off. But I told my teacher that my ‘group’ is a bunch of first responders, so they might not be able to continue, and she said she’s got something else for me if that happens, but she wanted at least one session.”

“Well, we’ll see, May; but if we do, your teacher may have to live with fewer updates,” Bobby says, winking at her. “Shall we continue?”

“Unless you all want to do anything in town, we can skip ahead a few hours to your meeting with the general. Um, also if there's anything you think your character is going to want, tools that you have proficiency in that you don’t have in your inventory, or other items that you're looking for. Just think about it and get a list together.” 

“I think everyone is okay with moving forward,” Bobby says, looking toward Buck and Eddie, and seeing more of an ease with how they are sitting next to each other. Their chairs are no longer as far away as Buck could make them, and the tension that was there this morning has vastly been reduced. 'Good, it’s working… at least on that end.' He turns to look at his paramedic crew and how they are having issues looking across the table. 'That needs to be fixed, but way to go, May.'

Okay, so the party gathers in the same inn that you all were dragged out of this morning. When you walk in, the previously lively atmosphere that was in here is instantly subdued. The bartender and a few of the patrons refuse to meet your eyes when you look in their direction. You feel profoundly sad. Like something made this place happy and now it's been tainted. When you choose a table, unconsciously sitting much like you are now, the bartender comes up with drinks for you and wordlessly passes them out. The drinks are exactly what you would've ordered if you'd had a chance to. Eddie. When you look at this man, the same feelings that all you and your... party have, they also show on this man's face. He stands at the empty place that you have left for the general you're meeting, and asks "You guys want dinner tonight?" 

"Um, we have a meeting soon with someone, so maybe we should wait until he gets here? Order when he does or wait to eat afterward?" Howie says, looking at everyone, who nods.

"I can do that for you. Don't worry about the tab, everyone. I'm sorry. We all are. For everything." And he walks away, giving you, Buck, a squeeze on the shoulder as he passes by you on his way. 

Hen takes a drink of whatever it is, (“ I am assuming wine.” “That’s up to you Hen.” ), and says, "This place feels... like everything that made it what it is was drained. Like it originally felt safe but now it isn't."

Eddie speaks up, "I think it has everything to do with our missing memories and what happened this morning. He knows us. Enough to apologize, bring us our order, and have our tab covered. This bar knows us. I don't remember it, but it seems that in the last week we've been regulars here."

Before you guys continue to contemplate the strangeness, the door slams open, and a very large man, wearing highly decorative and shiny plate armor, saunters in. The little bit of conversation that had picked back up dies. 

"I need everyone to make a perception check."

“11 total,” Hen says, wincing as she looks up from her dice.

Bobby checks his character sheet and shakes his head, “9 and I am supposed to be okay at this.”

Buck actually smiles as he finishes counting on his fingers, “14...not bad.”

“Crap Natural 2,” Eddie tsks to himself. “Total of 8” he tells May when she turns to him. 

“And then I need… Howie?”

“Also 8.”

Eddie holds a hand up to pause what May was going to say next, and he runs a finger over words on his character sheet. “Hey May, can I make that an insight check so I can spend my... superiority die for Tactical Assessment?”

Bobby cranes his neck a little to see what Eddie was reading. “Wait, Eddie, you are... What is it? Multiclassed? You have maneuvers?”

Eddie shakes his head. “Uh, no. All... cleric. But it's on my sheet. I can do this once per short rest, or I have another thing I can do.” 

“Sure Eddie, will say that you're an insightful enough individual to do this. Go ahead and give me an insight check, and roll again. Then choose if you want to spend that die.” May smiles at him, she loves it when people start to get this game.

“So a seven that time... 13, plus a d6... 16 total.”

Okay, so Buck and Eddie... Bobby, your back is towards the wall that the stairs go up, the entire dining room in front of you. Howie and Hen, your backs are facing the door, and Eddie and Buck your backs are to the bar. You guys are kind of off to the right, so Hen and Chim have to look over their shoulders to see, Bobby is the furthest from the door.

Buck, you notice as the general walks in, one woman makes a symbol that you recognize from your travels, a hand gesture to ward off evil. And as he moves in, the bar empties. Not completely, but the people who deliberately avoided looking at you disappear from your sight. Eddie, you also notice what Buck is seeing, so you focus less on what people are doing and more on what they are feeling. First and foremost, those people who disappear are scared... but not for themselves and they hate this man who came in. The others who remain are scared for themselves. Secondly, this general... You were in the army, so you’ve met men who wield power like a sword. Some do it for the benefit of others, but some do it because they like making others afraid. This man is the second type. All the fear he is spreading... he loves it.

And he comes to your table, snaps his fingers at the bartender, orders. "Your best whiskey and charge it to these traitors," and drops into the chair, shaking it, the table, and the floor. "Well, aren't you a sorry lot? Never you mind, we just have a few tasks for you, and then you can go back to your pathetic lives. Put down the weapons you have chosen and I don't know, go plow a field or something." He laughs loudly as the bartender comes over, and Eddie, you notice the same look on the bartender's face as the ones who made themselves scarce as the general walked in. 

“Roll insight again, with advantage. Roll the dice twice and take the higher roll.”

“Um, 22 total.”

The anger they're feeling, it's righteous and personal to them. They're angry for you and your friends. 

The general drains his glass and then throws it on the ground, forcing the bartender to jump back from the spray of crystal. "Now, I have orders from the Duke, Lord Mackey. You remember him, do you not?" He says, grinning viciously at you all.

Hen pipes up, “May, I gotta ask, who the hell is this Mackey?”

May shrugs, “Eh, some ambulance chaser. He has a bus ad near my school and a billboard near the hospital. His picture just looks douchey.”

"Now, here is what you are going to do. You are going to fix what you broke. There is a group of dissenters hiding out like the little rats they are. A couple of pretty speeches, a show of magic or two, and now they feel like they have the power to overturn the status quo. You are going to snuff it out, and by it, I mean them. Every single one of them.

"Now to prove to the rest of you... I am going to name a few names for you. Denny," he says looking towards Hen. "Let me see if I am right here... Harry?" He directs towards you, Bobby, "I know not yours, but still... and you,” he says turning to Eddie. "I think yours has a lot to do with the medallion around your neck. Are we good or do I need to start hurting them to make you fall in line, outsider?" He says to you, Buck, as you start tensing (“ Kind of like you are right now, way to get into character! ”).

Everyone at the table shakes their heads. 

"Good, we have an accord. You can wait until tomorrow to leave. Get one last night of uninterrupted sleep before you go off to slaughter those you rallied behind your banner. Toodles!"  And he leaves, making a lunging gesture towards a terrified patron on his way out.

Bobby lets out a laugh, “May, did you hear me complaining about Section Chief Banfield the other day?"

“Maybe?”

As he does that, Buck stands up and watches him leave. He is probably standing there for several minutes, contemplating going after him. 

Eddie reaches over and grabs his wrist…(” I guess that would be around the bracer.” “Don’t forget Eddie, it exudes warmth.”) and pulls Buck back into his chair. 

The bartender stays there just as long and after Buck gets tugged back into his seat, he leaves for a moment, coming back with a dustpan to get the shattered glass. As he stands there sweeping he says under his breath, "I can get them out. Who he’s threatening. Just tell me the full names and I will." The bartender looks up, from where he was squatting to get the last of the debris off the floor.

Bobby speaks to him, "How do we know you can be trusted? You were apologizing to us earlier."

"Because I was the one to bring you here. I asked for your help. I thought it was safe, but I put you in the crosshairs and now you all stare at me like you've never seen me before. You're ... not cohesive anymore. I don't understand what magic caused this, but I want to make it up to you. So if you're still willing to help, I can get the people they're threatening out of their reach. 

"I don't know about you all," Buck growls lowly, stretching, "But I've wanted to destroy everyone with authority in this area since this morning. No memories necessary." 

"They are relying on our fear about what they could do to our loved ones to keep us compliant... If you can do it," Hen nods, turning to him. "Do it. And I’ll need your full name so I can contact you." And Hen pulls out a leather-bound book from... somewhere, flips through to a page that's outlined with runes, and pulls a wicked-looking pen from a pouch. 

"Dominique Luca. That is, yeah i-q-u-e. L-U-C-A. Perfect.”  (“ Wait, Dominique Luca, from SWAT? Jesus May, you're really pulling out all the stops here!” Buck bursts out. “Well they say write what you know!” ) “Okay, so I need names, and if you have locations, that would be great, but not necessary. I will get them out and you will contact me?" At Hen's nod, he continues. "Follow along with what they want for two days. Tomorrow and the next. The day after, contact me and I will tell you if everything's good or how much more time I need. Thank you. For not blaming all of us for what has happened and just bowing down. 

"Why would we blame you?" Buck asks, "They did this. If we just... followed along, it would make us complicit. Just as bad as them, guilty of sitting around while people are hurt."

This results in one-half of the table starting to gently rib Buck for info on how he knew a SWAT officer enough to know his full name, Buck blushing, while Eddie pulls out his phone and types in Tenets of Devotion D&D and clocks the first thing he sees before clicking the link. Quickly scanning through the whole thing, Eddie nods to himself. That explains so much about everything. 

" Anyway,” Buck interjects trying to get back to the game. “Those in power have proven to me that they have no business being there. And since I have been told twice today that I do not belong here, I figure that means that they don't want authority over me. Which means they are fair game. But, I won’t get involved if you don't, so I'm willing if you are." 

"You were going to go after him earlier, weren't you?" Eddie says, turning in his chair to look at the paladin. "What stopped you?"

"A person in power, casually threatened his subjects because of what... someone speaking out about how he didn't like how the duke kept house? That goes against everything I believe in. So I was going to act, you’re right. But then... If he had hurt me there, I probably would have gone through with it, but he didn't. And the idea of anyone getting hurt because of my direct actions isn't something I can stand." 

Eddie stares at him for a good two minutes before he speaks. "I'm in. There is no one else I would prefer at my side. And he threatened my son." He finishes turning to Bobby, fishing out his holy symbol medallion and holding it tightly. (“ Wait, you have a kid? I love kids!” “Yeah, I’ll show you a picture later.”)

Bobby looks at them all and says, "I don't ask this of anyone, Hen you obviously have a family counting on you."

"And if there was a chance that they would be in this same position? I would want someone to help if they had the power to." Hen says while tapping her stave on the table.

At her statement, they all turn to Howie. “Okay, but nothing happens until confirmation that our loved ones are safe. We'll play along, but you need to keep everyone away from us until we get confirmation, otherwise we may have to act on our ‘orders’.”

“I can get the word out. Also,” and he sweeps down grabbing your list and scans it. “I can take care of this. You will have it by morning. Now I got you different rooms then you've been staying in. I know you don’t remember but I didn’t want to trigger any trauma from this morning. So here,” and sets down three keys. One in front of Hen, one between Bobby and Howie, and the third between Eddie and Buck.”That’s the best I can do. Let me bring that food out to you. Thank you.” And Luca walks away from your table. 

“Now I wanted to run a few individual scenes. Basically dream sequences. Do you want to do that separately or do you mind everyone being at the table?” 

Everyone glances around the table, before Bobby speaks up, “I think we should go separately, give us a chance to talk.”

“Okay then… I will start with...”

Chapter Text

Hen, as you fall into bed that night, sleep quickly pulls you under. Quite literally, as an unseen force yanks you from your earthly body up into the heavens. As you fly through the Celestial Plane, you glimpse marvelous, mind-blowing, completely unreal sights; a massive city made completely of clouds, with flocks of winged angels flying through it, and a cavernous forge housing a giant, dark-skinned man, tribal tattoos shining with an unearthly golden glow crisscrossing his bared chest and arms, pulling little glowing balls out of a fiery hot furnace and dropping them on an anvil. If you look more closely, are those souls ? An entire forest made up of golden trees sporting leaves made of gemstones, with a herd of white horses running through it, each of them sporting a single pearly horn. 

Before you can look closer, you are swept away, finding yourself on a pristine white beach. There is nothing but an unoccupied beach, as far as the eye can see except... There! A beach house made of whitewashed wood, every window open and white gossamer curtains blowing through them. Sitting on the beach is a regal-looking woman, wearing a teal blue gown that flows over her body. She has skin the color of chocolate and her hair is in long box braids down her back. When you look at her, her facial features seem to shift to every woman in your family, though her coloring does not change. She speaks to you in a musical voice, "Sit, my child," and her voice echoes with the sound of every mother who has ever comforted and defended her child. You know this voice, though you have never actually seen her before. She is your patron, the one who gave you your power to protect and defend those, especially children, in need. It was on a beach similar to this, just after you decided to adopt your son, that the piece of driftwood you now wear on your back came to you on the waves lapping at your legs.

You don't remember the entire week, but now you remember why you are here and the last conversation that you had with your wife, when she told you to go. You remember the dreams you received from your patron, filled with mothers lamenting their lost children and your patron, this... Goddess, crying silver tears because of a child of hers, who she sent out into the world to spread inspiration,  got caught by the duke. The child whose powers were being corrupted by the evil nobleman to further poison the hearts of the population  And who destroyed herself rather than being used and the goddess mourning the death of said child, because she destroyed herself rather than be used anymore.

"Your patron has invited you to sit on the soft sand next to her. What do you do?"

I sit down next to her, sitting cross-legged on the sand, and I say, "My Lady, I am so sorry for forgetting what you tasked me to do.”

"It's alright, my child, for you remember now. Don't worry about your family, Starshine, we will make sure that all is well." This ancient entity, the representation of motherhood and protection, wipes away a stray tear, which falls onto the sand, a crystal flower blooming there. "Now dear one, the mission you've taken upon yourself isn’t as simple as removing the man in power, though that will help. He has armies, yes, but the real power is in what he is fueling with the negativity he has been generating. All that misery and mourning are feeding something and that is what needs to be destroyed eventually. For now, focus on freeing the territory from tyranny and we will move from there once that task is completed." She reaches over and kisses you on the forehead, her tears wetting your head. 

Hen, when you go outside, take the sourcebooks. You’ll be able to pick another eldritch invocation, as a gift from your patroness. Technically I think there’s a feat for it, but don’t worry about that too much. You guys should also take a look at your class features and stuff.

"Go now, my child. No one will disturb you tonight." And then you feel yourself slipping to sleep, feeling like a child again, safe and warm in the arms of your mom. 

"Okay Hen, go ahead and send me... Bobby." 

"No problem, sweetie. Hey, quick question, what is the name of the ancient deity of protection and motherhood?"

"Well, I know the Greeks would disagree, but I would call her Athena."

"Makes perfect sense to me.”

Bobby, you get to the room you are sharing with Howie first. The room is spartan, but what is in there is well made, two single beds are pressed to the walls on either side of the room, with a simple table between and an oil lantern resting on top of it. On the floor is a handmade rug woven with reds and browns. You may have wanted to do something else before bed, but it calls you and you find yourself sinking into a slumber as soon as you sit down, slumping over and dropping quickly in dreams before you even have a chance to change. The dream hitting you feels like... you are being shoved backward through time and then pulled rapidly forward. You see your hometown, the place you were raised. 

You dream about the expectations that weighed hard on you, Champion of the People, meant to protect them from all that would come to harm them, and the day that the army came. The Duke needed a new mine, and apparently, your town was right in the way. About how, when you came back from a hunting trip, all you could taste was ash in your mouth, and how that taste never really went away. Even now, you can still taste it. 

Starting over, but keeping your head low this time, and embracing the mercenary lifestyle; only doing what you were paid to and not concerning yourself with others. But then you were hired for a job that allowed you to feel like yourself again. You were to protect a woman and her two kids from someone she had pissed off and during the course of the job, you found something that you had thought you had lost. She was an investigator, and even though she was put in danger constantly, she hadn’t given up her sense of right and wrong, still holding tight to what she believed in. That, more than anything, healed something within you, and the four of you quickly became a family. But your wife was extremely stubborn, working to end the rampant corruption in your city, and the powers that be didn't like her being nosy. So they took her and her daughter and you have no idea if they're even still alive. So you decided to act... That's what you remember. You've been struggling with why you were here and not with them and it’s because they aren't safe right now. They're the reason you're doing this. You left your stepson with someone you trusted beyond a doubt and came looking for the rebellion that your village urged you to join before the duke came. 

"Honestly, I want to go into more detail, but I can't on this. I'm sorry." May sighs, slumping forward slightly in disappointment.

"Don't be May, you are doing great. We're all bonding and this has opened my eyes to a few things that need addressing. I appreciate you doing this for us."

"I know the project thing was an excuse for them, but I really do want to continue. If you say yes, I am going to pitch this to my teacher for possible AP credit... and maybe publish it." May waves her phone. "I've been recording."

"I'll talk to them. You are so creative about this, it's great seeing you passionate about something."

"Thank you, Bobby," she says smiling before she sits back up.

While your sleep wasn't exactly calm, it was restful, allowing some of the missing details from the past week to settle comfortably back into your mind. The next morning, you find an item folded up on the foot of your bed when you wake up, even though you didn't ask for anything from the rebellion, a tag stamped with the symbol of the rebellion on it. 

“We're done Bobby, Chimney is next.”

"Sure thing. Um, you described the rebellion symbol earlier and it sounded familiar. What is it?"

"A fireman's shield... modified to fit the world." 

"It’s perfect"

Howie, when you finally get to the room for the night, you see Bobby already asleep, slumped over uncomfortably, still in his armor, not even making it underneath the covers, and you feel like you could do the same. However, after you turn off the lantern and climb in bed, it takes a while for you to settle, despite your exhaustion. You keep staring at the darkness above you in a daze, while what sounds like whispers echo... around the room? No, there isn't anyone else here except Bobby, but the sound is definitely coming from somewhere. And suddenly, you realize your eyes have closed and you probably should open them, so you do. 

And you look around a room that you haven't seen in... 30 years? Has it been longer than that? Since your mom supposedly mixed the wrong ingredients and blew her alchemist shop sky-high? But this day... you can sort of remember it, despite 30 years passing. Your mom and ... your adoptive mother are here. They were best friends since before you were born and they used to travel around together. You wander over and see your mom's alchemy book out, but the page it's turned to isn't for a Potion of Healing, which is what she usually makes. No, this is for an incendiary device, but why would your mom be making weapons? She notices you peeking and shuts it, wrapping the leather covering around the book and shoving it into a lockbox. 

"Here, Howie," she says as she passes you another thick book, her spellbook. That's right, you'd somehow forgotten your mother had graduated from one of the premier magic schools in the entire country. How could you forget that? Shaking off the sense of disorientation, you settle down with her spellbook and tune out what your two mothers are talking about. 

“Chim, make a perception check for me?"

“Um, that was horrible... I'm going to use a Luck Point.”

“Go for it."

“Shit, only 12. One more and I'm going to steal Eddie's die and... that's a natural 20." 

Sitting there, absorbed in your mom's spellbook, you didn't think you would remember what was going on around you, but you do. You remember the furiously whispered conversation that mentioned your mom planning something and her best friend needed to stay out of it because if this didn't work, she needed to look after you. You remember that the side of the box where she stored her alchemical book was stamped with the symbol of the rebellion. Finally, you perfectly recall what was on the page in front of you. 

"Chimney, when you get a chance, you will be able to choose another 3rd or a 4th level wizard spell that you will be able to cast like your additional Magical Secrets feature. I have spell cards that you can go through to choose from. Can you please also send in… Let’s go with Buck?"

Buck, you slip into the last available room and it appears that there is only one double bed and a sofa against the wall. Eddie is still downstairs, but you know that he eventually will be back here. 

"What do you do?" 

It's impossible to get a full night’s sleep in heavy armor, right? I think that was one of the things I read? Um... I strip out of the armor, leaving the other things on, and I would say stretch out, but it’s more like I curl up on the couch. 

Okay. You fall asleep pretty easily, which is unusual for you. You... you are a child? Your family were nomads for as long as you can remember, just you, your parents, and your sister. You wake up and there is no one else in the inn room that you stayed in. Getting a room was unusual in and of itself, since your family typically spent the night huddled together in the wagon. 

Unfortunately, this night turned out very different. You were laying on a pallet on the floor, alone, and any sign that there was anyone besides you in this room was gone. You go to the door and open it. Smoke pours out of the hallway and you can't see a safe way through. Slamming the door, you go to the window, but the window is a little too small for you to easily fit through and it’s also nailed shut. You could break the glass, but you were several stories up and there isn't anything to break your fall. 

"Which do you choose? Fire or the Fall?"

" Jesus Christ May. " A dice rolls along the table.  

Fire, I choose the fire. 

Wrapping the blanket as much as you can around your face, you step out into the hallway and make your way out of the inn. It wasn't easy by any means, burns covered your body and your feet were blistered and blackened. Plus, the smoke got in your lungs and you had a hard time resting enough to heal and breathe properly again. But you could move under your own power, so you weren’t completely helpless and you would heal, physically. The worst part wasn't the temporarily deadened nerve endings or the smoke inhalation. It was when you learn that your family’s covered caravan, the place you called home your entire life, was gone. The townsfolk tell you that it had been gone for hours before you even woke up the first time. So, you healed in the town until you could fend for yourself once more. 

And then you traveled all across the continent. Every place you visit, you leave a message for your sister, hoping that one day she would see it and come find you. You spent endless days and nights trying to find where you belonged. Every time you thought you found one, something drove you to leave. It got to the point where you started to have a hard time letting anyone in, until recently. A flash of memory from the past week comes back to you. A woman with the same loving eyes from your childhood hugging you and a now-familiar man standing in front of you, filled with the feeling of belonging and no fears about being abandoned again, encompassed by a feeling of security as the two of you clasp your left hands and the matching bracers are placed around your wrists, sealing shut before the dream ends abruptly.

“Buck, you okay?” May asks as she takes in the blond firefighter.

“Uh, yeah… How did you know about Maddie?” Buck refocuses, moving his gaze from the wall he was staring at to look at May. “I don’t think I’ve told anyone that I have an older sister.”

“Well… I didn’t. I mean, the way you interact with the 118, especially Hen and Chim, reminded me of how Harry and I are, so I had a feeling you were a younger sibling. And you seem closer to Hen than Chimney, so a sister. And you don’t talk about her, meaning probably estranged… I was just trying to give you a bit of happiness in the story,” May shrugs, looking slightly unsure.

“Yeah, that makes sense. I know I'm pretty transparent,” Buck shakes his head, smiling a little bemusedly. “Maddie hadn’t contacted me for three years, but yeah, I still reached out to let her know where I was. And it actually did end up working, as it turns out.” Buck looks back at May, his eyes having drifted off again. “I get off work one day and my sister is in my apartment, making herself at home. She’s been in LA for two months now and I finally managed to convince her to stay long-term. I just thought it was a crazy parallel.”

“That’s… wow, I’m good.” They both chuckle for a moment, as May fake preens. “I know there isn’t a mechanic for this, so just put it on your sheet. Your Aura is a constant thing that gets bigger at a later level and also starts having additional effects I think …" May looks something up quickly, "Yeah, that's what I thought. So, write down that your aura radius has permanently doubled.”

“It’s ten feet now, so… that would be a radius of 20ft?”

“Yes, and it isn’t relevant until the much later levels, but when the aura goes up to 30? That would also be doubled.”

“That’s awesome. Great story so far, May. I'll go send in Eddie.”

Eddie, you get to your room maybe 20 minutes after Buck does. You remember that Luca told you downstairs that these were the last rooms available, and apparently the two of you had already been sharing before the... mind wipe. You let yourself in and see a double bed taking up the center of the room, empty and against the wall, and a 6'2" man, who crammed himself onto a 4 ft couch. Buck is already asleep, armor and boots off, with his ax leaning up against the wall near him. 

"Fucking idiot. And that was in character by the way. Okay, I have a strength of 16… How does that work?”

“I think the inventory section tells you how much you can carry, lift, all that. That would be your strength score times 15 for carrying capacity, which is how much you can carry without slowing down. How much you can lift is doubled, but it slows you down, meaning your speed drops to 5ft. Depending on circumstances, I will allow for an athletics check if that’s ever necessary. The better it is, the less you are slowed. Gotta account for adrenaline.”

“That all makes sense to me. There, I see it now. My sheet says I can lift... Carrying capacity: 240, Push drag lift: 480. Shit, I'm jacked. Okay, now how much does this idiota weigh? 190? That cannot be right... Whatever, I'll take it. ” So, I should be able to lift him without issues, but if I need to, I shed my gear, so it just counts as me carrying him. I am assuming the bed is big enough for two grown men. (At May's nod, he continues.) The whole time I'm just cussing him out under my breath, in whatever languages I speak. And with my gear already off, I just go to the opposite side of the bed and crash.

And crash you do. Suddenly, you're pinned beneath a horse, which was shot by a barrage of arrows, and you're barely able to move. 

You somehow manage to free yourself from the fallen horse and rush to the closest of your comrades, yanking out your medkit to try and get him back on his feet to retreat. Time seems to stretch out indefinitely as everything starts moving in slow motion but the dying soldier in front of you. Then you hear the scream of "Daddy!" echo faintly and time starts moving again, but too fast this time. You look across the battlefield and spot your son, abandoned, arrows, firebomb potions, and spells raining down around him. 

Your commanding officer, someone who refuses to answer to any other name except Hondo, sweeps your son off his feet and into his arms and yells at you, "Diaz! We gotta go! Get who you can and retreat!" 

And suddenly, you remember what battle this was. Though it’s hard to remember sometimes, one blood and smoke-filled dream combining with the others, but this day was when you stopped being someone who could just patch the wounds and became one who could heal them. Your hands glow from where they are maintaining pressure on the sucking chest wound and the skin knits together starting from where your fingers are pressing. You get the soldier up and move to the next one and the next and the next. If the soldiers who were in your... ( “platoon? Is that right?” “It works, you’re fine.” ) platoon survived the initial ambush, they walked away from the battlefield that day. 

The whole time you are healing your people, the form of Sergeant Daniel Harrelson stands there with your son still in his arms. Hondo was the one to recommend you learn to be a field medic. When your wife got sick the first time, he was the one who sent the healers, which ultimately gave her more time with your son. He was the one to give you the medallion that eventually became your holy symbol and after your wife died and your parents, who worked for the man who kept sending soldiers into pointless wars, tried to take your son from you, he's the one you messaged. By that time, he had retired from the army and instead became the leader of a group dedicated to removing Duke Mackey from power. 

Time suddenly seems to warp and freeze. The other soldiers disappear, leaving only you and your former commanding officer present on the battlefield. He sets your son down behind him and as he makes his way toward you, the signs of battle that lingered vanish more with each step. It's not until he’s standing in front of you that you notice that his eyes aren’t the same as you remember, a familiar silver shine across them. It is the same color your hands glow when you use your magic. As you watch him, you can't help but catch the sight of your bracer faintly glowing gold, from the corner of your eye. He speaks with Hondo’s voice, but a rumble of deeper authority comes through. “Well done, soldier. I had hoped that this form would be more comfortable for you than any of the others I could take.”

“This form …? Where did Chris…? I’m dreaming, right?” I look around, trying to see if my son is around. 

You don’t see him and your attention is quickly pulled back to "Hondo" when he answers you. “You were caught in a nightmare of unnatural origin, to be more precise, though I was able to step in and stop it for you. Unfortunately, most of your team hasn't been as lucky, but those that can are trying to intercede and put a stop to them. Once we are done I will go pull your partner out of his,” he says looking over your shoulder. When you turn, you see a town and the prominent plume of smoke rising up out of it. 

“My…partner? You mean Buck? Is that his dream over there?”

“Yes, your partner. He’s quite the fighter Never taking the easy way out.” He shakes his head, an amused look on his face as he turns back at you. “You have any questions for me?”

“What do you mean by partner? What are these bracers? And who are you?” 

“Wow, quite a few of them then. Well, first, you already know what I mean when I say partner, but you mortals are always so weird about these things. He is your other half, your shield brother, your soulmate. It all means the same thing. The person with whom, once you click, can understand you without a word being shared, the one who makes you better, and you do the same for them. It's the world that has these social conventions and limitations. Just because one god’s followers got it into their heads that anything… nevermind. Point is, you two have the bracers Michael specially crafted. He was crazy to think of those. Michael is the Architect, he makes our weapons. After his daughter was killed on the mortal plane, he got a few of us together to put a stop to it. I already had you, but while you are a good soldier, you prefer healing to killing. No complaints, but we needed a whole team and I’d rather not lose you. So I told Michael if he wanted my help you needed to be protected and Michael's solution was these bracers, but he said it would take a deep, profound bond to seal them. They’re solid right? No discomfort?”

I shake my head no. “It feels warm actually.”

“Good. The kid was a good find, to be honest. I’m not quite sure who sent him our way, but he has a good moral center there. A little hot-headed, but what can you do? Anyway, don’t worry about your kid. He’s safe with his Aunt Maddie, who's doting on him and they are being protected by the one whose form I’m currently borrowing. But, that is why you are here. The rebellion has existed for a while, but Michael is angry and wants this done fast, whereas Athena wants everything that had to do with her daughter’s death ripped out by the roots. Join the rebellion, send Chase Mackey to us the fast way, and then… It’s on you to do what you want.”

“I had problems with the Duke before right? I wasn’t just...compelled to join the rebellion?”

“Oh no, Diaz, nothing like that. You joined the rebellion of your own volition. You were chosen for this team because you were one of mine. And the bracer was, well, bribery, because I wasn’t letting you go after this guy without someone devoted to watching your back. You two are a good match. Now, I have to go, otherwise, your boy is going to loop in his dreams. Sleep well,” and then he's gone as suddenly as he came.

“Dios mio,” Eddie breathes, sitting back at the table pushing his sheet away from him a little. 

“Too much?” May questions timidly. Eddie was the hardest of them, she had known the others longer or at least had been hearing about them longer.

“No, it's… a lot, but not too much. And not bad. How did you… What were your thought processes there?” Eddie says reaching for his medal around his neck, grasping it. 

“Honestly, I didn't really have any. I’m sorry if I crossed any lines or…” and that’s all she says before she gets cut off.

“May, it’s a good story. Don’t worry about it, okay? Do you have anything else for me?”

“Uh, yes. Mark on your character sheet that you get another usage of Channel Divinity. I think you had two, so now you can use it three times.”

“Great, we all done?” 

“Actually, I’m going to take a bathroom break, and you tell everyone that you all are now level 7.”

Chapter Text

As he walks back outside, Eddie shakes his head in stupefaction. That girl just nailed him better than any army shrink ever had. The other four out in the yard all laugh when they turn to see the look he was wearing on his face. “She got you too, huh?” Chimney jokes. 

“Yeah, I guess. Uh, we leveled?” Eddie says, going over and pulling the Player’s Handbook out of Buck’s hand, flipping the pages till he finds the right section. He frowns a bit looking at the other books the group had spread out. Hen had one of them, (“Who the fuck is Xanathar anyway?” Chim was complaining as he was shuffling a bunch of purple cards.) in her hand as she was comparing something on her character sheet. “It looks like most of what changes is spell slots and stuff.” He frowns at the book, making a note. “4th level spells, dios mio, how big is the cleric spell list?” 

“From what I read, the cleric and the druid are the only ones who can swap their spell list whenever they want. Well, not whenever they want, they have to wait until after a long rest. Cantrips can be changed during leveling for the cleric… maybe all classes, too, I'm not sure. Other classes can change spells when they level, but I think that they are limited with how many they can swap. Though, I think May would let you guys update your spells, to customize your characters,” Buck practically word vomits, scrolling furiously on his phone. 

Eddie nods, closing the book and reaching for the yellow spell cards. “Do you need this?” He holds the PHB up towards Buck.

“Nah, give it to Bobby. He has a class feature, I just gained a spell slot for a level I already have and my spells slots are better used for things other than casting. Also, my aura prevents charm effects now, so that’s cool,” Buck starts gushing a little, sitting forward in the patio chair. 

“Wait, Buck, have you played before?” Hen asks, as she puts Xanathar’s Guide down and looks at the youngest member of the 118. 

“Uh, no. I was just looking it up while we were out here. I mean, apparently, the creator was problematic and his progeny deserves to be canceled, but these days people are just doing their own thing with it and it’s becoming a much more inviting and inclusive space.”

“Problematic?” Hen questions, raising an eyebrow. 

Buck suddenly looks like he’s regretting bringing up the topic entirely. “Just don’t look up the history of drow and racism. Also, don’t look up The Book of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge . Gary Gygax was fucking weird.” 

“Of course you would look up a book called Unlawful Carnal Knowledge .” Chimney scoffs, reaching over for the blue cards.

“I wasn’t looking up the book, I was looking up the controversies of the previous versions. The book came up as one of them. I wasn’t…” Buck trailed off, shoving his phone into his hoodie pocket and slumping back into his chair. 

Eddie takes the moment to glance at Bobby, before glaring at Chimney. He opens his mouth to say something to him, before thinking better of it and shaking his head. “Hey Buck, so what kind of spells do you think we are going to need? Cause I gotta say, there's a lot here and I'm not sure where to start.” He diverts the conversation, waving the cleric spell cards in Buck’s direction.

“Well, it's not just spell slots you have to watch, there’s also action economy and then the whole concentration thing…” Buck starts going off on a tangent about some blog that he had read, and even though Eddie listens with one ear and can’t help the smile starting to curl onto his face, his eyes don’t leave Chimney’s. 

“Hey guys, you all good to go? Or do you need more time?” May interrupts Buck while he was mid-thought. (“So they have two clerics right? And so the clerics will compare spell sheets so they don’t double up certain spells that don’t benefit from both of them casting them.” “How does that help, Buck?” “Well you can use what you know about our spells to choose…”)

“Yeah May, I think we’re good,” Hen answers, standing up and starts to gather the various books. Eddie raises an eyebrow at Chim, before he starts helping and leads the way into the house, her and Bobby following. 

May looks up from where she’s adjusting a map with a grid pattern on the table and starts to speak, before cocking her head sideways in confusion. “Where’s…?”

“They’re coming, just give them a minute,” Bobby soothes, as he takes his seat, rearranging his papers.  

Sure enough, Buck and Chim walk back in, Chim looking a little chastised but Buck looked lighter, so Eddie was going to stop trying to terrify the paramedic with just his eyes. Now smugly satisfied, he looks at May, as the latecomers settle back into their seats. “Okay May. Where were we?”

The next morning, you all wake up in your beds, having slept well despite the initial turmoil to start. You find the gear that you requested, plus a few very necessary components for spell casting.  

“Eddie, you get two diamonds for Revivify and Hen, you have the components for a single casting of Find Familiar. Also Buck, yes, if you really want to reskin the mastiff into a golden retriever you can…" Buck brightens happily. "Are you sure you don’t want a warhorse?" Buck shakes his head emphatically. "Okay… I will say you cast that before you went to bed, so Eddie, there’s a canine version of Buck in the room. Congrats you are pet parents to a celestial steed. Because you completed a long rest, any spells or other features that you’ve used are restored. You're all gathered in the dining room, having just finished breakfast. The day is yours. What do you do?" 

“Really fast. Before I go down, May, I am going to take the time to ritually cast Find Familiar, so I now have a tiny celestial in the form of an owl.” Hen says, reading the spell card.

“Great! You are now the owner of a tawny owl, with feathers that almost seem to gleam gold. We'll go with Max Hit Points for it, and what’s the name?”

“I’m going to call her Medusa.”

“Okay, perfect! Oh, Buck, you can name the dog if you want.”

“Bailey. She’s the goodest girl.” Buck says, pulling up a picture of a golden retriever from LA’s Humane Society.

May finishes writing the names down and gestures to the group to continue.

“Well, we need to go,” Howie says, “The Duke knows our families, we don’t have a choice.”

Everyone around the table exchanges looks, before nodding. 

Okay so your party, now with the addition of Bailey and Medusa, leaves the inn and heads out into the woods. 

“How hard are you looking for the rebels? I will need survival rolls from everyone and if you're faking it, I'll also need a performance roll. So that would be a wisdom check with your proficiency bonus if that is one of your skills for survival, and performance is the same but with charisma. Chim, I think you actually have expertise in performance, which is double your proficiency modifier. Also a note, that modifier goes up as you level, and it is based on the character's total level, in case y'all want to multiclass. Let’s go around the table… Hen, you first.”

“16. And performance is a 7.” 

“Okay. Chimney?”

“19 for survival. I’m not rolling for performance.”

“That’s fine, Bobby?”

“7 survival. 15 performance.”

“Not bad… Eddie?”

“21 and 18.”

“Really good. Buck, you’re up.”

“Utter crap. 2 and 12.”

“Hey May? Is there any way I can tell that they aren’t actually trying?” Chim interjects. 

“Make an insight check. You will have to beat the performance check to tell that they are making it look like they are trying.”

“7… I won’t risk a Luck Point on this.”

“You understand that Hen is hesitant about this. But as far as you know, the others are doing their part, even though Buck sucks at it.”

The day goes on without sight of the rebels, though Howie, at one point, you do come across Eddie studying imprints in the dirt. Looks like there were tents pitched here, maybe within the last week. Eddie, luck was on your side because Howie didn’t notice you erasing some of the previous tracks you’d found, but he now knows that there is a trail. 

The sun starts to set soon after you discover the previous encampment of the rebellion. Based on the fact that your survival checks have given you indications of several large predators in the area, which you’d know would be more active at night, you settle down for bed, with whatever watch schedule you agree on, and you all wake up after a long rest.

“Yes, Hen?” May stops as the paramedic gets her attention.

“I pull out my spellbook and flip to the page that has Dominique Luca’s name on it and I write a message, using my Far Scribe feature: What’s the 411?

“And I know I have 30 words, but this is also unlimited.”

Hen, your Sending message disappears into the page, the ink quickly reforming into the words “Littlest Diaz and eldest Buckley are safe and sound at camp. Two Wilsons in route. Haven’t had a check-in from other extraction teams yet.” 

“Eldest Buckley?” After receiving the message, I clear the page of any ink and then go around, helping to clear the campsite.  

After clearing the campsite, you all head out. 

“ I need another round of survival and performance checks. The same way, counter-clockwise around the table, starting with Hen. We will keep doing any group rolls in this order to make things easier.”

“17 and 22.” Hen grins happily.

“Just survival… that’s a 7 and I’ll keep it.” Chimney makes a face in displeasure.

“12 and a natural 1 for performance” Bobby winces.

“Modified 20 for survival, and 10 for performance.” Eddie shrugs.

“Natural 1 for survival, and… nat 20 for performance.” Buck pouts.

“Okay… oh and Chim did you want to roll for insight?”

“Yeah, natural 18. So 22 total.”

“Okay… “

Buck, you honestly aren’t trying very hard. In fact, if it wasn’t for Bailey and Eddie, you would have wandered off into the bush and down a ravine… several times. But you didn’t actually want to find anyone, so you don’t mind that you are effectively slowing everyone down. 

Howie, you are reliant on everyone else to guide you through this second day of travel. You mostly stick with Hen, who seems that most of her reservations are gone, but she still seems uneasy today. Bobby is definitely dragging his feet and he isn’t trying very hard to hide that fact. You even saw him completely destroy a trail that you guys were following so you would lose it. Eddie is doing much better, but you do see him deliberately take unwise paths through thick undergrowth to slow the group down. He is a little distracted trying to keep Buck from wandering off, but he’s still sabotaging y’all. Finally, Buck is honestly the most effective at making sure you don’t gain any progress. But from what you can tell, he is trying to be helpful. This is just not his element.

I pull out a piece of copper wire and whisper into it towards Eddie, casting Message. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Eddie, Howie's words echo in your head. You somehow know you can respond and no one else will be able to hear you. 

I respond, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Trying to slow us down? You heard the General.” Howie hisses back.

“I’m not in any hurry to lead us straight into the camp where my son is, especially when the Duke expects us to go in swinging.” Eddie snaps .

Howie stops in his tracks and stares at Eddie. 

Eddie doesn’t look at him as he goes and rescues Buck from the bushes again. ( “Hey!” “Nat 1, Buck.” )

You guys stop for the night and…  

“I need everyone to make a perception check. Hen?”

“13” 

“13” 

“16” 

“Also 13… that’s ridiculous.” 

“...9.”  

“Buck, your character is not wise…” Eddie snorts.

“At least I’m proficient in perception? Otherwise, that would have been a 6.”

“Okay hold on a moment… Wow.. okay. So I need you all to take your minis and place them around this area here. And then you need to roll for initiative.”

Chapter Text

LAST TIME

“Okay hold on a moment… Wow.. okay. So I need you all to take your minis and place them around this area here. And then you need to roll for initiative.”

“Actually, I was going to talk to Bobby, so can I pull him off to the side… here?” Chimney asks, pointing to an area a little bit away from where the rest of the group was set up.

“Sure, go for it, Chim." May nods, grabbing his and Bobby's minis and placing them apart from the rest of the group's. "Now, I need initiative rolls from everyone. Does anyone have over 20?”

“Yeah, 26,” Bobby said, raising his hand.

Okay, Bobby goes there… 15 to 20… no one. 10 to 15?”

“Me, sweetie. 14” Hen smiles, tapping her finger on the table as she stares at the map.

“Okay, so Hen… anyone else? No, 5 to 10?”

“9.” Eddie and Chim chorus together.

“Eddie and Howie. Who wants to go first? Normally, it would be Howie, but I'll let you guys decide.”

“He can go first.” Chimney finally pipes up after he and Eddie stare at each other for a couple of seconds.

“Okay, Eddie then Chim. Buck, what’s your initiative?”

“I rolled a 2, so four.”

“Okay" May muttered, writing him down "So… surprise round.”

Bobby clears his throat before she can go on. “Just a reminder, May, that I have the Alert feat. What does that mean in the case of the surprise round?”

“It's 'creatures can’t surprise you by being unseen', right?”

“Yeah, that’s the wording.” Bobby nods.

“It means if anything attacks you during the surprise round, it's not at advantage. Okay perfect, Bobby, thank you. Now Chim, what's Howie’s Armor Class? It should be near the top of the page, in the box labeled AC. Also, since we're about to get into our first combat, if the roll matches or exceeds your AC, then it's a hit.”

“15?”

May smirks a little. “So, 22 hits. Out of nowhere, this nasty-looking, decrepit, and decaying unicorn charges up to you and skewers you with its horn, a long spiky bit of metal that extends down through the unicorn's head and out of its jaw, You take…" May rolls a couple of her dice, "23 points of damage and you need to make a strength saving throw.”

“Seven… I'm going to try and use a Luck Point… no good, seven again,” Chim swears.

Buck leans over the table and counts the squares between his mini and Chim’s before sitting back and frowning. “No, go on getting a bonus from me.”

“Chim, 7 is not enough, so your character is knocked prone. It will take half your movement speed to stand up and any attacks on you have advantage. Bobby, a skeletal warrior forms, crawling out of the ground right next to you and taking two swings with its battleaxe… I'm assuming 12 doesn't hit?" At Bobby's nod, she continues, "Well he rolled terribly and that was his highest total. Both attacks miss due to your heavy armor and you being alert to your surroundings.

Next… A similar warrior appears between Hen and Buck, swinging out at each of you… Hen, if an 18 hits, you take 8 damage, and Buck… what's your AC again?"

Buck shuffled through his papers, before making a quiet triumphant noise as he found what he was looking for. "20."

"Okay, so you catch the swing on your shield and divert the attack. After that… another undead warrior pops up 15 feet from you, Eddie, this enemy winds up to throw a javelin at you." May rolled her dice and winced at whatever it was. "The javelin misses by a wide margin, so he follows it by running up to you and slashing at you… Would a 20 hit?" At Eddie's silent nod, May rolled again. "You take 5 points of damage from his ax. One last warrior pops up and closes in on you, Buck, which means you're flanked. He takes two swings and hits both times. So, that's 12 damage and 7, for a total of 19 and ends the surprise round. Bobby, you're up!”

“So we get action, bonus action, and movement, right? And I’m currently engaged with something, so I'll use my bonus action to activate the Sun Blade. And I attack once… no twice, since Commander’s Strike also requires a bonus action. So, I roll a d20 plus 9 to hit?" At May's nod, he did so. "Total of 22 and 15.”

“The first hits, so roll damage. And Bobby, these are undead.”

“So an extra d8 for damage because of the blade. 19 points of radiant damage on that hit.”

“Okay, any movement from Bobby?”

“Yeah, I just move here.” He says moving his mini, closer to Chim but still in melee with the undead warrior that he’s engaged with.

“Reminder to everyone, because it’s your first combat, leaving a target’s reach can result in them attacking you as a reaction. But it goes both ways.” (May is almost certain she hears Buck mutter, “Me too.” and can’t help but flash him finger guns before going back to the story.)

“The Rebarcorn is going to try and use its damaging touch on you, Bobby… and hits your shield instead.” (Rebarcorn?” “Do you wanna see pictures, Chimney? I have them.” “No... I'm good.”) “Now the warrior in front of you is going to swing twice, hitting you once for 12 points of damage with a 22.”

“He missed once…" Bobby consults his character sheet. "I use my reaction for Riposte, expending a Superiority Die… I assume 25 hits? So my Superiority Die gives me an additional d8 of damage… plus the extra d8 for undead… two 7s and one 3 plus 6 for a total of 23 damage.”

“He is looking rough, Bobby. Okay, the one in between Hen and Buck is going to take a swing at each of you. And it misses both times! Hen, you're up.”

“Howie’s the most hurt right?" At May's hum of agreement, Hen continues, "So, I cast Armor of Agathys on myself which gives me 20 temporary hit points, and anyone who hits me while I still have them takes 20 cold damage. So that’s my action. Bonus action... I am going to use three dice from my Healing Light ability to heal Chim’s character. So 3d6… 11 points of healing to you, Howard Han. And now to get some mileage from this spell… My speed is 30 feet. I move away from the zombie, wasting his… reaction right?” Hen questions.

“That’s right… He misses, so avoids taking damage from your spell. Where do you want to go?”

Hen starts making a path on the battle map, though when she passes through an area, May stops her, “Hold on, one enemy was still hidden, let me roll his attack… Your AC is 14? So you take 6 points of damage and he takes 20 from Armor of Agathys. You've used 20 feet of your movement, what do you do with the last 10?”

“Well, I’d like to step into melee range of the… Rebarcorn? And then step behind Howie.”

“You can do that. The attack hits, so you take 4 points of piercing damage from its horn, and the Rebarcorn takes 20. How many hit points does the armor have now?”

“10. That ends my turn.”

“Perfect. Eddie, you are up!”

“Chim, how you looking?”

“Better, now that Hen got me.”

“Okay… Here… I can do that… and I can stack it with this. Can I get everyone? Range of 30 feet.” Eddie mutters to himself and reaches over and counts the squares. “I am going to move 15 feet away from this guy, putting myself in melee with this one.”

“Natural 2 on the attack of opportunity. You’re fine.”

“I cast Bless… at 3rd level, which means it will affect 5 targets. That means we all get a d4 to attacks and saving throws for as long as I maintain concentration. Bless is an enchantment spell, so I use Embodiment of Law to make it a Bonus Action, and I use Voice of Authority to have Buck attack one of the zombies of his choice.”

“Go ahead, Buck.”

“Does a 19 hit?” May nods. “Okay so... I'm going to Divine Smite at first level. That's 1d8 for the battleaxe, 2d8 for a first-level Smite, and an extra 1d8 for being undead. 4d8+4. 24 points of damage, to this guy here.” Buck gestures to one of the Dread Warriors.

“And with that, I'll use my action to Turn Undead. A 30-foot radius allows me to get everyone, except for the guy Bobby has been beating on… So all 4 of these guys need to make a wisdom-saving throw. The DC is 14.”

“One save. Two saves. Failure. And another failure.” May says rolling her dice behind the screen.

“I assume that their Combat Rating isn’t lower than 1.”

“Sorry, Eddie.”

“So on their turns, the ones that failed take their movement and action to get as far away from me as possible, for one minute or until they take damage. And they can take no reactions, so no more attacks of opportunity”

“May,” Buck leans forward catching her attention. “Can the ones that are turned be the one Eddie is in combat with and the one that isn’t within someone’s melee range?”

“Sure, Buck. It can be those two. And that will happen on their next turn. Eddie, you can move if you want. The one in front of you already used his reaction.”

“I think I am just going to move enough to make sure that this guy is between me and the Rebarcorn for now.” Eddie finally replies after studying the map.

“At the end of your turn, the Rebarcorn is going to use 2 legendary actions, and form a shining shield around itself. Howie, your turn!”

“I stand up and look at Bobby and tell him, “You’re doing great. Keep it up,” giving one of my bardic inspiration dice. That’s a d8 that you can spend on an attack, ability check, or saving throw, within the next 10 minutes, in-game time. Then, I grab Hen’s hand, and I Dimension Door us… Is that a cliff?” May nods. “Then that's where we go. There’s my fourth-level spell slot. And that ends my turn.”

“Okay… This guy has to flee, and can’t get closer to Eddie to do so. So he goes this way, and goes 60 feet unless someone stops… but Buck already used his reaction, so he goes uninterrupted! 60 feet takes him to the edge of the map so I think we can forget about that zombie, for now. The next turn will be the guy who is in front of Buck and he swings twice. He only hits you once for 11 points of damage. Buck, your turn!”

Buck studies the map, counting out squares, before frantically checking his sheet and starting again.

“Come on Buck, you're wasting daylight.” Chim goads him a little.

“Okay. As a bonus action, I cast Magic Weapon. It makes my ax a +1 weapon for the duration of the spell. Using Bailey, I can disengage from these guys, and make my way here.” He says, moving his mini close to the Rebarcorn, double-checking the distance. “Yeah, Eddie is still in my aura radius. Then, I take two swings with my newly magical ax. That was a natural 2 for the first attack. And a total of 26 for the second. Wow, those were completely opposite rolls. So 1d8+5. And then I am going to Divine Smite, so that’s an extra 2d8… let's make it a 2nd-level Smite, actually, for 3d8. Also, May? If it's an undead or a fiend it will take another d8 from Smite.”

“It’s a fiend, so go ahead and add that.”

“So 5d8+5. Can I borrow some…” Buck blushes as the d8’s are handed over. “Thanks, guys. Chim, your die hates me. That would be 32 points of damage.”

“A very productive round from Buck Buckley. At the end of Buck’s turn, the Rebarcorn is going to use its final legendary action of the round to make a hoof attack against him, which misses. The next guy is turned. And will remain that way unless Eddie wants to knock him out of it with an opportunity attack.” Eddie shakes his head. “So he goes 60 feet, this way, and we are back to… Bobby!”

Eddie leans over and whispers to Buck. “You forgot about Bless.”

Buck grimaces, reaching out grabbing his d4, rolling a two. “Hey May, hypothetically. Would a 12 have hit?”

May grins wickedly leaning to look at the die. “Nope. You had a 25% chance there.”

Buck swears. “It wouldn’t have mattered for the second roll.”

“I am going to attack the undead once. And plus bless... That’s a total of 30 to hit and 20 points of damage to him.”

“And he’s dead. That’s your first attack. What do you do next?”

“If I move here, would we be considered flanking?” May nods. “Okay, then I move there. And then I use my Commander’s Strike, forgoing my second attack and using my bonus action to allow Buck to attack as a reaction. If you hit you get another d8 for damage.”

“Roll an attack with advantage Buck.”

“30 total... I am going to use another 2nd level Smite. So that is going to be a total of 6d8+5. Two ones that time, 34 points of damage… That was my last 2nd level spell,” He murmurs leaning over to Eddie.

“Great teamwork, guys. And now it's Rebarcorn’s turn… It casts Entangle, catching the both of you. The area becomes rough terrain, and you both need to make strength saves.”

“Bobby, don't forget that you add +3 to your save by being within my aura. I rolled a total of 13.”

“So with that, I have a total of 23.”

“Okay, so black and gnarled vines spring from the ground and start wrapping around you both. Bobby, you managed to free yourself, but Buck you are now restrained. And that is the end of that turn. That guy is dead… Eddie, this guy here closes in on you and you take 9 damage. Make a concentration check for Bless. The DC for concentration is either 10 or half the damage you have taken, whichever is higher. So 10 in this case.”

“I’m in the aura, yeah? 22 total.”

“And you maintain concentration. Hen, your go.”

“First, I send Medusa over to distract this zombie on Eddie, which grants me the help action. So now I can make the first of these rolls at advantage. Good thing too, that was a 3. So 18 for the first, and 22 for the second.”

“Both hit. Roll damage.”

“2d10+8 so 21 points of damage to that dude.”

“Looking rough! Eddie, you’re up!”

“Chim has War Caster, right? So, it says that he can use his attack of opportunity to cast a spell that only affects one person if the casting time has one action… So what if I grant him an attack as a reaction? “

May freezes for a moment and reaches for the Player’s Handbook. She is quiet for a moment as she goes back and forth reading the different abilities. She finally puts the book down. “The ability Commander’s Strike specifies weapon attacks. But, so does the reaction, Opportunity Attack, which war caster allows to be replaced by a single spell targeting one person and taking an action to cast. I… will allow the lawyering. Good job Diaz.”

“So, Chim gets my action and bonus. And he gets a d6 extra damage for whatever he casts.”

“I cast Dissonant Whispers, at third level. I lower my voice and I whisper into the void. ‘You are a blight upon the world. Your very presence is corrupting the land we walk on.’ The Rebarcorn has to make a wisdom saving throw, DC 17, for half damage.

“Hold on Chim. I am going to write how many hit points this thing has left. And put it face down here in the center of the table. Now the Rebarcorn has magic resistance, meaning it makes the save at advantage. Now Chim, roll your damage.”

“That’s 22 psychic damage if the Rebarcorn fails.”

“Guys… the Rebarcorn has a +3 to these rolls and advantage. If it rolls higher than 14 on either dice, it succeeds on the save.” May tosses the icosahedron onto the table in front of Hen and Buck. The die rolls and comes up with an 11. “One more.” Her other die clatters on the table and stops, the top number being… 12. “Hey Chim. Take a look at that paper for me will you?”

Chim flips over the paper and written in sparkly pink ink the number 22 stands out from the paper. “It had 22 hit points left?!”

“As the words you whisper float on the wind, just as how the stories that’ll eventually be told about this battle will be whispered over campfires and by bards in taverns quieted by awe, the Rebarcorn starts to crumble away. For a moment everyone sees the glittering form that was the unicorn before it shakes its head as the spectral figure gallops up into the sky. The remaining Dread Warriors all collapse where they stand, the more decayed of them clattering apart. The vines that were holding Buck turn green and vibrant, and release him gently as they sink back into the ground. As you are all standing there, watching this area heal slightly, you hear someone screaming ‘NO!!!!’” May suddenly screams the word, making the first responders nearly jump out of their skins. “The voice is frustrated and angry and familiar.” May takes a look at her phone. “And I think that’s where we are going to call it for the day. What did you think?”

Chapter Text

After the largest earthquake the city had experienced in over a decade, it took a couple of weeks for the team’s schedule to sync back up with May’s. Bobby was more than pleased with the change in Buck and Eddie’s relationship since the team’s first foray into Dungeons and Dragons. The two of them have been in sync with each other, needing no more than a couple of words or a gesture to communicate with each other on a call. Bobby had taken Eddie’s advice, as well. The first shift after the team-building exercise, Bobby pulled Buck and Eddie into his office to have the introduction he should have given originally.

“Buck, can you come in here for a second,” Bobby called from his office.

“Oooh, someone’s in trouble,” Chim and Hen sing-songed from the couch while they elbowed each other, trying to make the other lose focus on Rainbow Road.

Buck snorted as he finished drying the dish in his hands, setting it down and tossing the towel into Chim’s face as he jogged to the office. “Yeah, Cap, what’s up?” he asks, stopping short at the door upon seeing Eddie leaning against the wall, smirking, smug about being right.

“Go ahead and shut the door.” Buck’s nervousness was clear on his face as he walked in, shutting the door. “First of all, I’d like to apologize to you both. I put you both in an awkward situation by not explaining what exactly was going on. Thank you, Eddie, for pointing that out. I would like to take this time to correct my mistakes. Edmundo Diaz, this is Evan Buckley. Buck, Eddie is our new probationary firefighter. He is a former Army Medic and is extremely close to achieving EMT2, which I know is what’s next on your list for advancement, and I think that the two of you will make great partners. Eddie, Buck is my heavy rescue expert, with specializations in high altitude rope rescues, and is the most recent person to pass The International Association of Dive Rescue Specialist Watermanship Test. I’m not going to lose you to the 111 or the 112, am I Buck?”

“The IADRS is just the minimum qualification, Bobby, so no. I just had time last weekend and had seen what the test entailed. Thought ‘That’s easier than BUD/S.’ I needed to update my SCUBA certs anyway, figured I could do them both the same day.” Bobby was leaning back in his chair, now openly smirking. He didn’t know what to expect from this introduction, but seeing the “I told you so” look on Eddie’s face be replaced with one of dumbfoundment as Buck just revealed far more than he actually realized to the former Staff Sergeant. “Sorry, continue, oh captain, my captain.”

“I’m sorry… BUD/S? And you had me telling you that, ‘We do the same job, I’ve just done it while being shot at.’” Eddie interjected, dropping into one of the seats, pushing the other out for Buck. “And you didn’t say a word.”

“Well, two things. First of all, this is LA. Don’t count out being shot at.” Buck grinned. “Secondly, I washed out.”

Eddie nodded. That made more sense than Buck having served and keeping it quiet, especially after he had joined the crew. But Bobby didn’t say anything about…. Oh! Civilians. “When?”

“Wh-what?” Buck stammered, not expecting any follow-up questions, glancing at Bobby.

Eddie also glanced at Bobby, realizing what Buck was worried about. He thought for a moment about the best way to phrase the question. “How long were you in training, before you ‘washed out’?” Eddie put air quotes around Buck’s words and gave him a look, to tell his partner that he knew what the answer would mean.

Buck’s eyes flick back towards Bobby for a moment. “Four and a half months,” he responded, keeping his voice steady.

Eddie kept his face blank, making sure not to give anything away. “Not bad. You hear a lot of horror stories about Coronado. Well, Firefighter Buckley, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m sure that this partnership will be extremely successful.” he finished, reaching over for a handshake.

Buck took it and, with a relieved tone in his voice, returned the sentiment. “You, too, Firefighter Diaz. Call me Buck. Can I be excused, Cap? I was in the middle of dishes.”

“Dismissed Buckley. Diaz?”

Buck quickly departed, leaving Eddie half out of his chair as he had instinctively stood to follow. He looked at Bobby questioningly, standing fully. “Yeah, Cap?”

“I missed something. Care to explain?”

Eddie made a contemplative face, before shaking his head. “Not really,” he said as he started to leave without being dismissed. As the door closed behind him, Bobby could swear he heard Eddie chuckling, “Washed out!”

Since then, the two were even closer; Buck appreciated having someone who could keep up during heavy rescue, who was competent in assessing patients without having to pull Hen and Chim away from where they were needed, and Eddie was now more cognizant of Buck’s abilities, able to lean more on the instincts that Buck had developed. Buck had also bulked hard in the last month, easily evidenced when they were on the 11th floor of a tilted highrise, and he was able to catch both Eddie’s and the civilian woman’s weight while they were on a sudden descent out of the broken window. Then again, with that crazy-ass maneuver where they repelled down an elevator shaft with the elevator still dangling above them. Eddie was honestly impressed when Buck came flying through the open doors seconds before the elevator dropped behind him, flinging himself and the girl over both Eddie and the poor housekeeper they had found by accident, and managing to flip them so she landed on top of him.

Eddie knew Buck had to be feeling the strain by the end of the shift. He certainly was, especially with the bruises in the pattern of his harness, but Buck didn’t miss a step, even when Eddie had released a string of vulgar Spanish when discovering the lone tree in the parking lot had broken, blocking his truck from leaving. Buck had stepped in, sweeping up Eddie’s bag and pushing him towards the old jeep, easily handing over his phone so Eddie could put in the address. Eddie was beyond thankful and kept trying to offer to make it up to him, until Buck chuckled telling him that the only thanks he needed was a shower, and someplace to crash so he didn’t have to drive anywhere else.

Eddie was suspicious. “So, you’d prefer my crappy couch to your bed, after a shift where you caught over 300 lbs in a barely restrained drop. I’ll pretend to believe you.”

Buck was silent as he navigated the streets towards Chris’s school, before finally speaking up. “Remember what that girl said in the stairwell. Ali?” Eddie nodded to show that he knew who Buck was talking about. “She said that it was nice to have someone to worry about. And that is a nice sentiment, but…”

“It would be nice if you knew if that person was worried about you, too?” Eddie finished as Buck trailed off. “And while you were relieved that Abby wasn’t here to need to worry about, you are sad now because you don’t know if she knows what happened today. And you don’t know if she would even care if she did.”

“You are a blunt bastard, you know that?” Eddie smirked at Buck’s response. The insult meant that he’s right and Buck isn’t upset with him stepping in and “Jedi mind tricking him”. The first time he used that phrase, Eddie asked him if he had ever even seen Star Wars and Buck threw a cushion at him.

“My parents were married, Buckley.” He let the silence grow between them. Neither of them liked being pushed into conversations, so he was going to let Buck’s own distaste for quiet break his resolve to not talk.

“Maddie is working tonight. It is her first shift and they had this whole mess to deal with, she says that she’s probably not going to get home for a while. And she hates Abby’s, and I don’t want to go back to an empty apartment where… It’s not that I’m surrounded by ghosts there, but like Abby left me there to haunt it. And I know that’s not fair to her, but… I was a completely different person before I met her, and she changed me.”

“Okay… I am going to stop you there. I highly doubt that you were that much different. Your priorities shifted, not your personality. She didn’t change you. You saw something that you wanted more than what you currently had and you changed your habits yourself because they were holding you back from that. No one can cause someone else to change. You might change yourself for them, but that’s you making the decision. And it might not be fair to her, but in a way, she did become a ghost. You’ve been left in limbo. You told her that you would wait for her, and she hasn’t communicated clearly with you that she doesn’t want you to. Shannon did the same thing. She told me that she needed time and I tried to give it to her. Who knew that she needed three years? So let’s make a deal, you and me. You have Abby who has left you as a live-in house sitter, without keeping you in the loop of her movements, and I have Shannon, who I messaged that I was in Los Angeles 6 months ago when I started at the Academy. She read the message but otherwise ignored it. We both stop being held in limbo. It isn’t healthy, and it isn’t fair, for either of us.”

Buck nods, checking the GPS. “How’s everything else though? You settling?” Buck asks as he pulls to a stop at a very unnecessary red light.

“I guess. Overlapping insurances are a bitch. I don’t know what to do with Chris’s doctors, afraid to make a move one way or another in case my applying for something disqualifies something else. I would rather spend the time I have with my kid, not dealing with paperwork.”

Buck bites his lip, before he starts talking slowly, worried he was crossing a line, “I have this friend. She’s a home health aide, who has spent years working with the system. We used to have wine nights. She knows a lot of people in this city and knows the ins and outs of all kinds of red tape. I will give her a call…” He checks the clock as they pull away from the intersection, “Later today, I guess.”

“Thanks, Buck.”

And Carla really was everything that he could have wanted. She got him in touch with a family attorney who worked on a sliding pay scale, so he could get custody and figure out how to file for divorce. Helped him figure out how his insurance with the city worked with his VA benefits. Found him a new physical therapist for Chris after he decided that he didn’t like his current one. They were even looking at a new school for him, too. Buck had said the principal of the current one was “ableist”, and while Eddie wasn’t sure where he was getting his information, he had no reason not to trust what he said.

Buck was moving on, too. Maddie had found her own place, and Buck had a lot to say about how the fact that the only outside security was a gate and the security system their coworker put up, but he was trying to not smother his older sister in concern. When he finally stopped haunting Abby’s place, he ended up annoying Chim for approximately 3 days before Eddie was tired of the paramedic’s complaints. He had asked for Buck’s help to clean out his spare room and turn it into a habitable space, stating the need to declutter his life. Then once it was done, he had Chim bring over whatever Buck had left at the older man’s place. From comparing Chim’s complaints that apparently Buck had opened a fitness studio in his apartment, the duffle that Chimney had brought over was only half full.

“This is it?” Eddie questioned at the front door.

Chim shrugged sheepishly. “I may be more used to living alone than I thought. Be prepared for early morning workouts, though.”

“You’re talking to a former army vet, who has a disabled son who does PT stretches every morning. Who are you trying to scare here, Chimney?”

“Hey, you’re the one who wanted him! Just warning you that he can be a lot.”

At this, Eddie lost any smile on his face. “Again, seven-year-old. Didn’t I already talk to you all about this? You are lucky he isn’t here right now. And a lot? He stayed on your couch for three days. If anything, that makes you the weak one, rebar head.” Eddie had been both thrilled and horrified to find out that the throw-away comment Buck had made on their first day was a real thing, complete with the knowledge of why Hen and Buck still started laughing at the mere mention of the “rebarcorn”. He could have done without the video of the actual event, but the cake was funny. The true amusement, however, was how the slightest mention of the event got Chim to shut up and pay attention. “Yeah, not so funny now. How would you like it if I spent all my time following you around, reminding you of mistakes you made when you were stupid. Questioning the things that you worked hard to achieve. Man, you are a great paramedic, and you obviously care about your friends, but you need to learn when things cross a line. Because if I was an outsider? I would think that you hate Buck the way you put him down sometimes. Just… A little thought in what you say, maybe.”

Chim had dropped his head, chastised, and helped Eddie move the rather meager belongings Buck actually had into the spare room. He’d even been more careful the next few weeks, choosing his words with more care when speaking to everyone, but especially to Buck. And Eddie hadn’t received one single question from either Hen or Chimney on whether or not he was “sick of Buck, yet?” It was a small victory, but Eddie would take it.

Buck insisted on helping with rent and bills, and had even taken over kitchen duties, much to Chris’s delight. You burn the pancakes once and are forever labeled with the title “Bad Cook”. The fact that his Abuela and son teamed up together to assure him that, “No, Eddito, it is far more than just one incident,” was just rude.

Still, things had been going great, so the next Saturday that they all had off, where Abuela had claimed her bisnieto for a bonding day, Buck and Eddie carpooled over to the Grant-Nash residence, dice and character sheets in hand. Buck had been really excited over a few packages that he received the day before, and Eddie only noticed part of one of the return labels for The Nerd Store, before Buck had squirreled it away.

As they walked in, Eddie noticed Buck reach into his messenger bag and pull a white dice bag out of it. It brought his attention to Buck’s messenger bag, something that he didn't carry around a lot. He had a ton of pins stuck on it and it jangled lightly as he manhandled it. Three pins caught his eye though. A red and yellow pin featuring a familiar public safety bear declaring “Remember...Only you can prevent wildfires!”, a black pin with four skeletons on it, one wearing a cerebral palsy ribbon telling everyone that “it is okay to be a little different”, and another black pin with a partial moon cycle in blue, purple and pink stating “Not a Phase”. The others he understood, but as Eddie stared at this one, he found himself running into the wall in distraction.

Meanwhile, Buck had made his way over to May, offering in hand, “Hey, May?”

“Yeah, Buck, what's up?” She asks, turning to smile at him.

“So, I figured that you probably bought those dice for yourself, and giving them to me was an afterthought. And when I looked, Heartbeat was sold out, so I went searching for something different. Now, I love the ones you gave me, and I refuse to give them back, so I figured these would be an… adequate replacement.”

May opened the bag and tipped it into her dice tray, her eyes going wide. Buck soon found his arms full of an exuberant 17-year-old thanking him. Reassuring her and grabbing a nearby kleenex box after she teared up, he went to his seat and started setting up for the session. He was looking forward to what today's adventures would bring.

Chapter Text

Henrietta Wilson didn’t expect to enjoy playing Dungeons and Dragons as much as she does. After the first session, when she came home with her character sheet and dice set, her wife was absolutely jealous, immediately going over to her computer and looking up sourcebooks. “Maybe I should get the basic rules and show Denny. This looks a lot different than the version I used to play. Maybe Harry too?”

“You should ask Buck. Fifteen minutes into a break and he was thirty tabs into research. And apparently, Eddie is “rules lawyering”? But then again, he was actually listening to Buck’s information avalanche. And apparently, he’s also a parent. Maybe his son would have fun with it, too.”

“So he and Buck are getting along now?”

“Yeah… Babe, I haven’t been very fair to Buck. And I can’t believe it took someone else pointing it out for me to see it.”

“Baby, I know how much you love Buck. Sometimes, we just get an image of someone stuck in our head and then they change, but the image doesn’t. We need to all be better… So, what was Buck’s problem with Eddie? Because my money is still on UST and internalized homophobia.”

“The running theory, provided by Eddie himself, is that it wasn’t made clear that Eddie wasn’t supposed to be a replacement for Buck, but a partner. And self-confidence and abandonment issues kicked in.”

“Makes sense, though that golden retriever of yours still screams repressed bi disaster.”

That conversation is playing in her head as she sits in her chair at Athena’s table as Buck and Eddie come in together, apparently carpooling. Hen had heard that they had become roommates (another thing to tell Karen), but it appears like things were going well. She watches as Buck gives their 17-year-old DM a gift that made her tear up and hug him and now she is observing him from across the table. Honestly, Hen thought her wife was right. Buck did seem like the type of person who wouldn’t have any preference for what shape his partners took, but typically men, especially self-proclaimed “badasses”, had issues when it came to expressing attraction to the same sex. But as Buck sets his messenger bag on the table and starts setting up his stuff for the day, two things blow that theory out of the water. Hen hadn’t noticed which dice May gave Buck almost a month ago, but there they sit, all nice and neat, next to a set that he obviously bought himself, all pink and blue and purple. The bi pride flag colors. But that could just be a coincidence. May had given them all dice, and she and Buck might not have even known what the colors meant. Turning her eyes to a bag that she had never seen before, Hen smiles at her pseudo little brother’s button collection. Until one of them catches her eye and she instantly has her phone out and snaps a picture to text Karen, discreetly. “Not so repressed I guess!” she types under the picture of the obviously bi “not a phase” button. And she immediately gets back a reply full of rainbows and shocked emoji faces.

As his firefighters start filing into the Grant residence, Bobby is in the kitchen saying goodbye to Athena as she is filling her thermos, shift starting soon. “I gotta say, Bobby. I still don’t quite understand.”

“Honestly, I don’t either. But, they seem excited, May is having fun. Chim was boasting about finally getting one over on the rebar the other day. And the way Buck and Eddie looked at him for it?” Athena raises her eyebrows, not fully understanding. “Buck did most of the damage to the… rebar unicorn and Eddie basically gave up his entire turn so Chim could cast the spell that took it down. Honestly though. The creative thinking, the working together? A month ago, Buck left the room when Eddie walked in and now?” Bobby gestures to where the pair in question had just stepped into the house. “They are carpooling, splitting bills, and sharing chores. There are even inside jokes. I totally dropped the ball on that first introduction, because those first couple of months, there was so much push back from one or the other. I don’t know why....” Bobby trails off as a thought occurs to him, “Hon, do you know how long the SEAL training program is?” Athena cocks her head to the side and grabbing her phone quickly types into it. After a moment, the familiar text message notification is going off. “Google says BUD/S is 5 and a half months, which was just confirmed by someone I know over on SWAT. Why?” Bobby just shakes his head. “I really need to start asking more questions.” Just then, Eddie comes over.

“Hey, Cap. You didn’t happen to hear how Charlie is, have you?” Yeah, Bobby had totally jinxed himself. At this point, he is honestly starting to be superstitious. His thoughts from over a month ago came back to bite him. Sending them off with the guy with the grenade in his leg and then hearing the call over the radio that the munitions were live? And then both of them volunteering to go into the ambulance to help Charlie? A lot of behavior is really starting to make sense.

“Charlie is just fine. He’s back home and thinking of starting a new collection. He actually asked me if I knew a place that was selling old firefighter memorabilia when I talked to him.”

“He was a cool guy. Glad to hear he’s doing okay. And that we won’t be responding to any more incidents involving grenade launchers from his address.”

As Eddie walks away, Bobby reaches over and knocks twice on the wooden cutting board, much to the amusement of his girlfriend as she gives him a kiss and laughs her way out the door.

Howie Han is sitting in his car outside of the house before the second session of “mandatory team-building”, not really sure how he should act. Go in and pretend like everything was the same, but react with the attitude adjustment he had gotten? Or actually talk to Buck again and really apologize this time. The last time he was just going through the motions of an apology because even though his behavior was pointed out to be toxic earlier that day, at the time, he didn’t really see the need to change. The apology he gave Buck before their break ended was just lip service, made to keep an angry silver star recipient from trying to light him on fire with a look alone. Chim feels a little sick now, being reminded of how even the half-assed apology he gave made Buck perk up as much as it did. Even after being (very gently, to be honest) chastised, and then nonverbally judged, he didn’t even attempt to break out of his habits, sniping at his friend later that day, and still making enough comments that had Eddie moving Buck out of his apartment after three days. That made him really sick, actually. Especially after that, he couldn’t stop; insulting Buck’s workout habits, when he knows that that is what kept any of them safe on shift, and telling Eddie that Buck “was a lot”? How is it that he was treating a friend, a pseudo little brother, the first younger man he had bonded with since Kevin, so bad that someone else was stepping in to protect him? But now, looking over everything, he knows that Eddie’s right. But what was he going to do? His half-assed apology satisfied Buck. If he apologizes again, Buck would know that it wasn’t genuine and it would only hurt him more. Feeling a little heart sick, Chim plucks his folder and dice from the seat next to him and heads into Athena’s house.

It isn’t even 10 am and May is crying happy tears. She had felt really bad when she had picked dice for everyone and didn’t have a set that matched Buck’s character, so she had given him her favorites. The heartbeat dice were a gift from her gaming group when she had come out to them using her character and they had given them to her on Bi Pride day of visibility. But seeing the man so obviously touched by them made her want to tear up and hug him. But his gift tipped her over the edge. The metal dice with her colors on them did have her reaching over and hugging the firefighter, accepting the tissues from him to wipe her eyes. She almost starts tearing up as she notices the pin on his bag, but pulls herself together as Chimney walks into the house, the last to show up. “All right, I didn’t scare anyone off! Chimney, if you wanna take your seat and get set up, I will grab you something to drink so we can get started.”

The paramedic looked up, a little distracted before shaking himself out of it. “Just coffee, May. Thank you.”

The teen nods as she goes to the kitchen, Bobby handing her a cup as he passes her to take his own seat, already made up to Chim’s preferences. May shakes her head in amusement. Bobby is just such a dad. Grabbing herself some coffee, she takes both cups and sets Chimney’s in front of him, taking hers to her spot. She smiles at her setup, though she is mentally shopping for one of those wooden DM screens with magnets on the inside. She asked her DM for tips and he told her to write down some of the players’ stats and keep them on her side… Like their AC. She had been making little cards all morning, so she could have the AC, max hit points, and passive perception/insight for everyone at a glance. If she could streamline combat she would. That reminds her of something, so she bends down to look at her notes for the session, and writes ‘Separate Eddie and Buck’ right before her notes about the encounter she had planned. Looking up at the waiting firefighters, she smiles at them, feeling a little bad about the Schadenfreude that she was going to get from this. “So the sound of a familiar voice screaming “NO!” just echoed around the clearing where you had set up your camp for the night…”

You are all in your various places… a little bloodied and tired.

“Really fast, can I get everyone’s current hit points? Counterclockwise starting at Hen.”

“51 with 10 temp.”

“And how long do those last?”

“As long as the spell does, so an hour or until they are gone.”

“Okay good. Next?”

“40”

“55”

“38”

“51”

May did some quick note-taking. “Okay… Sorry, it just helps with the scene.”

As everyone regroups, your ears are still ringing. You assess the condition of your group, noticing that the Paladin is looking battered, though the Cleric is not much better. (“Wait, I was impaled, though.” “Hen healed you, and now you are sitting pretty with over 75% of your max hit points. Hen would be looking pretty bad, but she had those temp hit points. Otherwise Buck and Eddie tanked the fight.”)

Bobby speaks up as he sees Eddie reaching for his holy symbol, “Now, before you boys go wasting all of that, how about everyone sit down and I will fix everyone a good meal, while we tend to our wounds the old fashioned way. May, I would like to use my chef’s feat and was wondering if we could take a short rest. At the end of it, we can decide if we stay for the night or keep going.”

“Yeah, no problem. We actually haven’t run a rest yet. Okay, so the rule is that for one hour, you can’t be doing anything more strenuous than eating, drinking and tending to wounds. Bobby, as a chef, can cook. At the end of an hour, everyone can roll the dice that they use for hit points. And they can roll it as many times as their level. That number plus your constitution modifier is how much you can heal for each dice, but there is a catch. You regain those dice on a long rest and at 7th level you can only regain up to three dice per long rest. Now Bobby has something he is planning on doing and Chim, does Howie have…”

“It’s called Song of Rest and yeah, I do. It's a Bard staple, not a College feature.”

“So if Howie chooses, he can use that as well. I don’t know if anyone else... “ May trails off as she looks to Buck and Eddie who shake their heads. Hen speaks up.

“So what I could do is cast my last spell as a cure wounds, heal someone, and then regain spell slots during a short rest. I will lose the Armor of Agathys, but that’s fine. Save someone the hit dice, for a spell that I am regaining anyway.” Hen looks around, “Let’s go with Buck, see if we can’t make you less bloody.” A die clatters along the table, while Hen keeps adding in her head, “How does 26 hit points sound to you, Buckaroo?”

“Sounds like I won’t have to risk using most of my hit dice to get back to full. Are we going to move on after this rest?”

“Let’s finish this first. If anyone uses one of their hit dice, they will also get a d6 from me, as Howie sits there just strumming his beat-up violin and humming lightly. This doesn’t use a resource, so that's nice.”

“And for me, If anyone spends a hit dice and they need it, they can get an extra d8. If we decide to go, I will also be using Inspiring Leader to grant temporary hit points to everyone.”

“Okay Hen, so go ahead and do what you want. You only need to roll one of your hit dice to get the bonuses from your party, and don’t forget to add your con modifier.”

“I can roll up to three and regain them after a long rest? Let’s see… That is a 1 on both the d6 and the d8, meaning I heal for 5. I will just use one more hit die, because my minimum is 4 with my constitution, leaving Bobby’s food alone.

“Howie.”

“A 7 on the d8, a 2 on the d6 plus 2. That puts me at 51, which is only one away from my max. I will hold it here, unless no one else needs Bobby’s meal.”

“Then it's my turn. I’m actually hurt that none of you are eating, guys. That is a 7 and a 1 plus 3. Which puts me one away from my max, too. Eddie, you’re up.”

Eddie rolls his dice and laughs, “Not me either Cap, max for my hit die, a 3 for the Song of Rest plus 2 gives me… 1 away from my max.”

Buck quickly counts on his fingers. “I’m 4 away. I don’t even need the Song of Rest, because my con mod is +3. Thanks for the meal though, Bobby.” The entire table bursts out into laughter, finding the whole thing funnier than it actually is. The crew had had a hard week, and this stupid little interaction was hilarious. May laughs with them, mostly at the look on her mom’s boyfriend’s face, but she was the first to regain composure. “Okay, Bobby, how about this. If you guys decide to continue in the dark, I will allow you to use the secondary part of Chef, because no one used the primary. Sound good to you?”

Everyone nods before Eddie draws attention to himself. “May, the voice, was it the Duke?” As May nods, Eddie adjusts in his seat, sitting straighter. “The Duke knows that we weren’t planning on going through with it.”

The Bard stops playing and sits up, “I knew you were all sabotaging us! Why? He threatened our families! All of you got my parents killed!”

Sitting very still, Buck speaks in a low voice. “If Mackey had killed your family, he wouldn’t have tried to kill us. He would have gloated first. Which means they are safe. He probably got impatient, went looking for them to incentivize us, and when he couldn’t find what he was looking for, he knew we weren’t going through with what he wanted. That’s why he sent that fiend. I don’t know how he managed to corrupt a celestial, but he did. Now the question is, how is it he knows where we were… And how did we hear him when his plot failed?”

As Buck’s words finally register through all of their minds, and they think about the ramifications those questions brought to light, the silence was suddenly broken by May laughing maniacally.

Chapter Text

It took them all a moment to regain their composure after May broke out into her evil laugh. She was still laughing, but it had turned to uncontrollable giggles. “So-so-sorry, guys! Continue, please!” she gasps out as she hunches over in her chair.

“Buck, that’s you,” Bobby reminds the firefighter, who was still looking very concerned at the teenaged girl who was now wiping away tears.

“Uh, right… um, so first and foremost, Howie, your family is probably fine. He would have gloated before trying to kill us, and he didn’t. So that means he has no leverage over us. The problems are: one, he knew where to find us, two, he was able to send something after us, and three, we were able to hear him after he failed to kill us. Which means next time he gets trigger happy? Will be worse. And he’ll make it hurt.”

“What makes you an expert on this guy? Honestly curious.” Howie sits forward, listening intently.

“The first time we met him. He was boasting about his power to try and get us in line. The problem was that the board we were playing on was controlled by him. The things that you wanted to protect were surrounded by him. So, I tried something. As he mentioned several times, I’m an outsider. The loner of the group. Whatever family I have, he doesn’t know about. So, I reacted. And he didn’t go for me, he went for Eddie. So either he knows more than we did at that point (“Or more than we still know,” Eddie interjects, grumbling.), or he enjoys making sure that the person he has a grudge on knows that their friends or family are being harmed because of them. Really hammer in the guilt.”

“I hate how much sense that makes. So basically, we moved his preferred source of retaliation out of his reach. So when he figured out that we were playing him, he went looking for our loved ones. When he couldn’t find them… temper tantrum.” At Buck’s confirming nod, the warlock scrubs a hand over her face. “And he has some way to watch us… hold on.” Hen stops talking as she stops talking to flip through her spellbook.

Out of game, Hen has her character sheet, scanning through what she can do. “Nope. I thought my invocations could do something.”

Chim chuckles as he pulls a card from his spell deck. “Hey, May? What are the odds that this is the spell I will need?”

“Chim, why don’t you roll me a… an arcana check, please?” May asks, checking her notes.

“Can I cast Guidance, May?” Eddie asks, looking up from his own spell cards.

“Yes, you can, Eddie.”

“So add a d4 to that, Mr. Bard!” Eddie says, grinning across the table.

“So… that was a 4 on the d4, plus 5… How does a total of 25 sound?”

Howie, as you sit there, quietly playing your violin during your short rest, you remember something. There is a spell that allows one to see what others are doing. Now, sometimes you can fight it off, but it requires a specific… wisdom about you. As far as you know, you will all be fine, especially if in the protection of Buck’s aura, but then you remember... Buck was not faking the fact that he kept getting lost in the woods. He was utterly helpless in this unfamiliar terrain. You also recall that to make the spell more effective, you can sometimes have something of the person’s to connect with them. Hair, for instance, would be very effective. The spell itself creates an orb or something similar to watch and hear from, which is invisible. You can roll once more, with Guidance… and if it's high enough, next time you long rest, you can switch one of your spells that you have taken for that one. Finally… as far as you know, it has a 10-minute time limit.

Chim looks across at Eddie and getting a nod, rolls his dice. “Okay, that is a 3 for Guidance. And a 16, so that is 24... you know what, I haven't used Luck yet today. It couldn’t harm anything to see… That is a natural 20! For a total of 28.”

You are sitting there, contemplating this scrying spell, and thinking of the ways that you have to try and detect it, all while strumming. And as you look over at Buck, most likely the victim of this spell, because Mackey did have the opportunity to steal Buck’s hair, and you see something. Floating above Buck and back maybe three feet, you can almost see the sound waves from your playing as they curve around a translucent orb that is dark-tinged. (Mark off a second-level spell slot, the Nat 20 had you casting it but you will still need a long rest and to switch one of your current spells out.) Howie, you have just cast a spell that you don’t even really know. But now, you see the scrying orb behind Buck, (One last Arcana check for confirmation. No Guidance this time.” “19 total.” “Okay.) and you realize something. They had to know where you were to summon the fiend that raised the undead. The battle happened, and Mackey obviously has seen the outcome of that. Then you regrouped, and you are here healing. It’s been closer to 30 minutes since you guys have sat down post-battle. That isn’t counting the time pre-battle or the fact that he knew that your party was trying to deceive him. Scrying is supposed to last 10 minutes. And it isn’t a low-powered spell requiring a significant amount of power to cast. How is this spell still active? But no one else has noticed that you have seen this sight. You can do whatever you want with this information.

“How much can I say with Message?”

“It is one round… I will say anything you can fit in 6 seconds. The Message Cantrip has somatic components, so you will be making a stealth check to cast without being discovered. Every consecutive spell will make the DC harder.” May pulls out her phone, setting a time for 6 seconds. “You ready?”

Chim cracks his neck, and stretches exaggeratedly, “Okay, so this is the sleight of hand. That is a 12 for a total of 16. And I am sending this to Hen, as the second-best liar here. First being myself, of course.” That had everyone snorting in laughter because Chim was the worst at lying and secret-keeping. “Oh, shut up. Okay, start the clock.”

“The scry is active. The spell is not normal. We have to figure out what to do about this.”

“Hen you have 6 seconds to respond. No rolls are necessary.”

“Can you dispel it? If so, let’s fake a convo, and then go.”

Chim is flipping through his spell cards, frowning. He has Dispel Magic, which would require a roll, but there was still the possibility of the Duke casting the spell again. He thought that he had read the description for a spell that would protect Buck for a time, but he couldn't find it. Then he remembers. It was one of the ones he swapped out last session before the level-up. Closing his eyes, he chuckles a little at his own blunder. May had given him all the tools necessary to fix this situation and he had discarded them because they weren’t flashy. He bungled it trying to be more important and the “non-flashy” spells he had discarded were actually of plot importance. He glances up towards the knowing smirk of his teenage DM and gives her a slightly pleading look. From the slightly evil grin that started spreading across her face, he knew she wasn’t going to be as kind as she was with See Invisibility.

“Well, well, well, Howard Han. There is something you had and threw away, that you need back. So, let’s talk about it.” May sits back in her chair and cracks her knuckles. “Here's the thing. I was a kind and generous DM at first, so we are going to play my version of Let’s Make a Deal. So… Without any kind of inspiration or outside help, you are going to roll... let’s go with three Arcana Checks. The first two checks are regarding that second spell that you know you need, and the third will be to gain those spells in your repertoire for permanent use without a long rest. In addition, you need to talk to me about which spells you are giving up to make room. They cannot be spells from your Additional Magical Secrets feature unless you want to give up the bonus one I gave you. I’m going to need at least one of the spells you swap out to be an Evocation Spell for me to allow it, though. The second one can be whatever, but I highly recommend either another Evocation or an Enchantment school spell to sweeten the pot. So let’s get rolling.”

Chim sighs, rolling his die in his hand before sending it across the table, watching it carefully, breathing in relief when it comes up as a natural 16. “21 for the first.” Rolling again, he couldn’t help but wince as the 8 came up, “13 total on that one. Last roll.” Chim lifts the die to his mouth and blows, ignoring Hen’s teasing, “What is this, Vegas?” as he releases the die, and holds his breath in as the light blue “20” is revealed.

The silence on the table is broken by May, who had stood up to watch the die’s progression, with a soft, “You lucky fucker.” The entire table’s heads snap up to look at the 17-year-old, who looks confused for a moment before horror crosses her face and she claps her hands over her mouth. “I’m so sorry Bobby! Please don’t tell my mom!” And just like that, the tense moment was broken, as the entire table once again burst into laughter.

Everyone had almost calmed down as Buck accidentally sets them off again with a very innocent, “Does this mean we can all swear now?” but now they have all caught their breath back and are looking at May, who has her hands pressed tight against her cheeks, which feel very hot. “Okay. Howie… Which spells are you giving me?”

“Shatter is the Evocation spell. Does me no good actually. It works on a radius and there's the possibility of friendly fire. The other one is Crown of Madness, which is Enchantment. It is a second level, requires concentration, causes me to give up my turn every round, and it makes a save every turn, too. Plus, if there are no enemies in the creature’s reach, it acts normally.”

“Howie, go ahead and switch Shatter and Crown of Madness out for See Invisibility and Nondection because”, as you are sitting there trying to figure out how to fix this situation, wracking your brain on the spells that could help your party, they come to you. You feel the knowledge of the other two spells slip away, beyond your grasp, but it doesn’t matter, because this is what your party needs, and you are the only one of them who can cast these spells.

“Wait, really?” Chim is shocked. He thought that the reason behind him being the focus was his Arcana, but now he sees that that is wrong, when he glances over and notices that Hen has a higher modifier than him. “There is no way that I am the only one who can cast those spells.”

“With this party, you are. This combination of spells is only available to Bards, Wizards, and Oath of the Watcher Paladins. There are two domains of clerics that have one of them on their spell sheets, but Eddie does not. And no one is a Sorcerer or a Ranger either. Also, with Dispel, you have it permanently, Eddie would need to prepare it, plus this requires a roll and you currently have the higher modifier, Hen may have access, but she has very limited spell slots, and Buck isn’t a high enough level of Paladin to cast level 3 spells yet. Only you can, Chim.”

“Okay, so I remove those two spells and replace them with these. Okay, good to go.”

Howie sits up, and says, “Maybe we should wait until morning to keep going. We will have an easier time in the light of day,” and as he finishes his statement, he gives a flourish with the bow, dragging it sweetly across the strings, and casts Dispel Magic.

“Okay Chim, because the spell is higher than 3rd level, we are going to roll an ability check, using your spellcasting modifier. The DC is 10 plus the spell’s level.”

Buck sits up and says, “Wait, Chim, read the details of Dispel Magic out loud first.” At the strange look from the table, he shrugs, “Just humor me.”

Frowning, Chim pulls the card out and starts to read, “Choose one creature, object, or magical effect within range. Any spell of 3rd level or lower on the target ends. For each spell of 4th level or higher on the target, make an ability check using your spellcasting ability.”

Buck stops him, “Okay, now read your Jack of All Trades feature description.”

Grinning now, Chim flips to his character sheet, “Starting at 2nd level, you can add half your proficiency bonus, rounded down, to any ability check you make that doesn’t already include your proficiency bonus.”

“May… If Jack of All Trades applies to your initiative, which it does because it is a Dexterity Ability Check without your proficiency modifier and already applied like that on Chim’s character sheet, then wouldn’t it stand to reason that it applies to this?”

May stares at the youngest Buckley for a moment, before sighing, “You guys are aware the lawyer is the bad guy here, right? You two with your word games… I will allow it.” She rolls her eyes and smiles as Eddie and Buck tap their wrists together before turning to Chim. “You heard them. One roll with your spellcasting ability modifier plus what you would get with Jack of All Trades. Oh and don’t worry about any material components for the other spell.”

Chim rolls, grimacing as a two comes up. “I will be using another Luck on this.” At the nine, he grimaces and goes to mark another mark off another. He sighs in relief as the dice comes up to be 15. “Modified 20 for the dispel. Which should work unless there are Level 10 spells. So Dispel Magic is cast, and then I am standing up and walking towards Buck, throwing the diamond dust into the air and casting Nondetection.”

Howie casts a spell, stands and walks toward Buck, and then casts another spell, before he turns to the rest of the party and says, “We need to go and hopefully find a ranger or wizard with the right spell in 8 hours. Or we sleep where we are currently known to be, and we risk being attacked again. I vote we go.”

“Wait, I don’t know about the scry at all, do I?”

“No. Howie is the only one who knows everything and he has not shared it yet.”

“What is going on? You say we are going to stay and then change your mind?” The Paladin had stayed seated while Howie was casting, but now he stands, cocking his head curiously. “Mackey was able to apply a type of scrying spell on you. I don’t know which because this one lasted longer than it should. But it was able to take hold, and so I cast something that protects you from all divination magic. But that was the last time I will be able to cast something like that without resting, so we need to leave.”

“How is he able to though? Shouldn’t Buck be able to have a chance to resist?” The cleric also stands and begins packing up his medkit.

“Not if he has something belonging to the intended recipient.” the warlock says calmly, smoothing down her familiar’s ruffled feathers.

Buck groans as he starts redoing his armor and strapping on his shield. “Fucker ripped out some of my hair. Fuck.” (As the disapproving A-shift looks at an unrepentant Buck, he just points over at May and says, “She started it.”)

Soon the rest of the party is ready to go, and with Chim leading the way, Eddie right next to him to help provide any guidance necessary, they set back off into the woods.

“Group survival checks, same order please, and Eddie, you have said that you are providing Guidance for Howie. Hen and Buck, just so you know, Medusa and Bailey can give you advantage on these rolls. Hen you start.”

“18.”

“Modified 20.”

“Also a modified 20.”

“21.”

“And two good rolls. 17 for me.”

Howie, between you, Eddie, and Bobby actually working together, Hen and Buck taking up the rear with the party pets, you quickly find one of the paths that Eddie had tried to hide earlier in the day. You guys follow it, trying to take the most direct path to what you are trying to find.

“Group perception check, please. No guidance for this.”

“18.” “6”

“Natural 20 for 24.”

“24.”

“10, with Bailey’s help.”

As you start to get a little desperate, already tired, and quickly approaching your eight-hour deadline, you hear a distinctive twang. Eddie, you grab your partner, while Bobby pushes Chim out of the way. Everyone missed the two figures stalking through the woods, but you were perceptive enough to notice as an arrow embeds itself into a tree, at about throat height. A woman comes out of the shadows, a bow in a ready position, a gigantic black cat acting as her shadow. She starts speaking, her eyes flickering over each of you, “Stay where you are, and drop your weapons.” She continues to speak, but when her eyes land on Buck and Eddie, she stops talking, dropping her ready stance. She flings herself at the both of you, wrapping an arm around each, exclaiming, “Eddie! Evan! Thank the gods!” As you stand there being squeezed to death, Eddie, you start to remember who this person is. You are both being hugged by a very relieved Maddie Buckley.