“Are you sure it’s such a good idea letting all these trolls and wizards into your home, Claire?” Jim asked. “Not really,” she whinced. Tonight Claire had given herself (and Jim) the task of preparing a full course for their guests. There between them lay a notebook with a list for tonight: The Guacamole Queen’s special guac and chip recipe, thrifted silverware, chorizo tacos, socks generously “donated” by Coach Lawerence via Steve, and the infamous Camelot-meat-pies that they tried while time traveling (she’d and Jim had been working for months to perfectly recreate the recipe). So far they’d gotten through with the guac, socks, and silverware . . . if some baby brother would stop eating all the appetizers.
Claire swatted at NotEnrique’s arm as he snatched another a sock from the bowl on the kitchen island. “Hey—!”
Brother and sister shared a look across the kitchen. “— anyways as I was gonna’ say, yous’ was only blamed two times— but now that the fleshbag mom and dad are in the know there’s no reason we can’t move our meetings to a cushier joint than your basement.” “Alright, alright that’s fair,” Jim conceded, “but I better not get blamed for ruining the Nunez house.”
“Again.” he added. “If anything goes wrong! I was never here!”
“Trust me, Jim. I think this will be really great for our friends. Where else are they going to get to talk about this kind of stuff? Plus imagine what kinds of lives they’ve already led. I mean,” crunch, “— Douxie is over 900 years old,” satisfied she slung another chip into the fresh guac and passed the bowl it in front of Jim. “I mean, we don’t know how old Blinky and Arrrghhhh! are, but they have got to be much older than that. I mean hosting this event is the least I can do after everything they’ve done for us.” Jim swallowed, almost choking. “You know I’ve never thought to ask . . .” He shook his head, “if anything starts to get out of hand with these magic geezers then you’ve got your trusty troll hunting boyfriend here!” “Uh-huh and if my parents ask?” She teased. Jim looked into his girlfriend’s big brown beautiful eyes and rounded the countertop to place the chips and guacamole out for their guests, “then I was never here!” And that’s how it ended up being immortal game night at the Mayor Nunez’s house . . . ————— From their kitchen hideaway the host couple waited barricaded behind the kitchen island as their guests poured into the living room enemies, allies, mentors, friends, and ultimately family. SCRABBLE went off to a smashing start . . . Nothing quite like explaining, validating, and bickering over each. and. every. single. word. as Latin, Spanish, trollish, and now alien-ese was added to the mix by Stuart. (Of which none of the others would let him use.) Douxie’s girlfriend defended a word by demonstrating the spell on him as Strickler and Blinky firmly argued that it wasn’t a word. It was. It was a nearly useless parlor trick spell that swaps your bellybutton from an inny to an outy. Fun. NotEnrique started to secretly eat Blinky’s, Stricklers, and Douxie’s vowels to hault their winning scores — until they caught him. “Oi kid, that’s bad form!” “Indeed, perhaps if you’d surrounded yourself with books you’d be as good at this game as us scholars!!” And eventually ARRRGH fed up and overwhelmed by the constant slew of words and fighting passing over his head ATE the board . . . (Blinky was in the led.)
—————— MONOPOLY was simply a bad idea . . . Blinky kept doing math while wildly gesturing with all four of his arms the entire game thus, smacking Strickler and Draal in the face, and was WAY too into being the bank teller. Nomura and NotEnrique had somehow managed to gain a three quarters monopoly on the board (and turned evil again) — despite the wizards subtle magical money laundering, which was only fueling the math god fire that possessed Blinky because as it turns out Jim learned from Claire that “Duplications spells are child’s play!”
and everyone was eternally suffering from the whole corner taxation, lots of groans and growls and glowing eyes, but Jim and Claire couldn’t help but snicker as they watched from in the kitchen. “No, Draal and I are not selling our yellow square, not after you ate the last of the meat pies!” In the end the changlings prevailed against Arcadias mighty hero’s and as if defeat wasn’t enough . . . they bragged the rest of the evening. —————— By Deya’s grace, The Voting Game, seemed to unfurl at breakneck speed. Perhaps it was because they all felt better after a quick snacking interlude courtesy of Chefs Jim and Claire. Who would be the last person on the shore if everyone was skinny dipping? Naturally Zoe won without question although a few ringers for Stuart as someone they wouldn’t want to skinny dipping with — rude! “I’m not that smelly am I?” a frantic shout of “yes!” came from the group. “yes, and I don’t even know you that well,” Zoe sighed pinching her nose, “which to be clear, is the only reason I wouldn’t be skinny dipping with all of you.” “yeah, she’s rather informal about her bathing.” Douxie added. Which earned him a proper elbow to the ribs, “Ouch!” “Shut. Up!” Which person would come back as a ghost? “Mordrax’s Miracles! ARRRGH my friend, you’ve already done this!”
“True. Have already.” “So do we choose to choose another bloke or do we go with the obvious?” “Well are we picking someone in our history that is already deceased or are we picking amongst us here in the room?”
“I’d say we pick from in here.”
“If that’s the case then . . .” The entire living room glanced over to the kitchen. ARRRGH said what they were all thinking, “Jim.” “Lively.” “Ditto.” “couldn’t have said it better me’ self. okay next — “
Who started a rumor that isn’t true, but everyone thought it was? An overwhelming amount of 5s. The culprit emitted a nervous laugh. “So come on, lay it on us wizard boy.” “Hisirdoux, don’t even think about it!” Archie growled from his spot on the top of the chair. Douxie laughed as the gang shouted in a frenzy. They quieted, “I am guilty as charged, but for what I can’t say. It would corrupt your sense of reality.” His familiar grinned back at him. “Precisely because you all believe it to be true.” He added with a nod. “A CONSPIRACY!!” ————— Eventually they forgot about the games (Blinkys conspiracy conniption diverting attention) and simply talked.
The card and board pieces forgotten on the board as they all munched on churros brought by Stuart, and watched a pie brought by Strickler courtesy of the Trollhunters mother. There was something cathartic and simply invigorating as sharing their life’s before they meet these predestined allies! Blinky spoke about the early Americas and his unfortunate near-death experience with a buffalo a month into life in the new world. And ARRRGGHH shared how he saved him — that time — and 17 other times just from buffalos alone in the new world. “They were a serious problem amoung troll kind in the early days!” “Just Blinky.” Stuart went on about the absolute best side of the space race story. Strickler and Nomura sitting on the ends of their seats with the most receptive feedback, nearly yelling like it was all a great big soccer match. And not, in fact, a great big scientific milestone. Draal and the trolls gave an interesting and disgusting angle on of one of the best underground prohibition bars which caused Arch and Douxie to sit up perk up. “—so you’re telling me as a customer I was unknowingly drinking glug? I’ve been in the food industry for centuries and this doesn’t pass any laws!” “Pretty much.” And at the end of the night when the apple pie he brought sat sadly and predictably untouched Stricklander commanded the room. A dark and twisted tale of his time teaching and unknowingly working alongside a decorated detective as he uncovered clues about the towns most infamous murder (not to mention the only real human inflicted murder). No one knew Arcadia Oaks High had such a deep true crime history. “It began to get increasingly difficult to remain undercover as a channeling in the Janus Order as Detective Miller investigated at our school. And each Tuesday like clockwork I would stay up listening to the radio in the evening as I worked to help keep the pieces of the story that got tangled in with us away from the public eye. Now one night I had discovered that . . .” Even Claire had slowly migrated from the kitchen as the gang gasped and laughed at Stricklers amazing story. She stood next to her magic teacher by the arm of her couch and NotEnrique passed her a greasy churro where she stood.
Jim could only chuckle and smile watching, as his girlfriend simultaneously took a bite out of her churro in one hand and petted Archie with the other to soothe her nerves. Jim stood in the kitchen still. This was home. Aliens, Trolls, Wizards and all. Douxie leaned back and peered past his girlfriend. He waved him over. Jim stood beside Claire before a healthy serving of churros was shoved into his hands. His soon-to-be stepfather indulged in the crowds reaction. Jim bit into his churros. . . “Now, as you guessed, the bureaucratic decision of using goblins to destroy evidence was a terrible idea. It wasn’t in my jurisdiction, nor would it have been my decision . . .” The welcome taste of cinnamon and sugar danced on his tongue; this was a good idea after all.
