KRIS - LVL 1 PIROUETTING PRANKMASTER
RALSEI - LVL 1 ENCASTLED STARCASTER
SUSIE - LVL 1 HAIRTOUSLED HAMFISTER
> HANGOUT START?
> HANGOUT START!!!
“It took us a long time for us to get this far,” Ralsei said solemnly, folding his paws in front of his face. The single source of light hanging in the room silhouetted him eerily, Susie thought, making the situation that much more extremely tense and dramatic.
“But unfortunately,” Ralsei continued, sliding his final rook along with a slice of shadow, “I think tonight you must finally admit defeat, hero of Light.” He arched his paws. “For- for I, Ralsei, mage of stars-!”
Kris clapped their hands with delight, breaking the tension. Susie groaned into her palm, hiding her smile.
“Have defeated you.” Ralsei gently tapped Kris’ king, causing it to fall over. “Checkmate, atheist.” (Susie had told him to say that.) “Um, is that how you do it?”
“You’re supposed to wait until Kris gives in and says checkmate themself, then knock their king over.” Susie delicately righted the king. “Because what if there’s some move Kris could do that you missed?”
“But I made sure there wasn’t!” Ralsei hunched his shoulders until only his eyes remained underneath his floppy hat. “I mean- sorry, Kris.”
Kris did an It’s fine sort of shrug. They reached out and flicked their king, toppling it over themself.
“Woo! Game over.” Susie pumped her fists into the air, beaming. “That was a great match! Are you up for a Grade-A THRASHING now, Ralsei?”
“M-maybe later?” Ralsei gently patted his king. “I’m a little chess-fatigued at this point.”
Susie shrugged and reached out to flick the torches on, revealing that the three were in a Card Castle room, emptied out and populated with hangout supplies specifically for this purpose. “’s cool, we can do something else. What DO you wanna do?”
“Just- just chill with you guys?” Ralsei pulled his scarf into his mouth and looked away. “If... that’s okay! But if it’s not-”
“Are you KIDDING?” Susie flung herself into the nearest pile of pillows, disappearing underneath its great might. “There we go!” She popped out and cracked her knuckles individually. “Perfect ‘just chilling’ pose! Right, Kris?”
Kris, with a perfectly monotone expression, gave her a thumbs-down, hopped into the pile as well, and reappeared on top with a pose worthy of Rouxls Kaard.
“Well, that’s just unfair,” said Susie.
“Alright!” Ralsei hopped onto the pile as well, reappearing somewhere above Susie and below Kris. “W-well, we’ve done step one, which is: Place oneself in a soft and comfy place!"
Kris said they didn’t know there were steps and Ralsei sparkled a little. “O-of course there are steps, Kris! I can show you later! Anyway, step two is: Capitalize upon promises made in the past.” He took a deep breath, fluffing up his paws. “Susie?”
“Yeah?”
“Would you like me to braid your hair?”
Susie mentally ascended. “Yeah. Sure. Yeah. I mean, if it’s not an issue. You don’t have to. Yes.”
“Step two worked!” Ralsei quite literally sparkled this time, sliding down the pillow heap to prop himself up against Susie. “I brought- I brought ribbons, and garlands, and bows...”
“It doesn’t hafta be fancy.” Susie reached out to catch Kris as they slid down as well. “Just, like, pretty. You can do that.”
“Alrighty!" Ralsei deployed an assortment of combs and ribbons and scraps of cloth from the group inventory.
“Hmm.” Susie leaned in to whisper something to Kris, who grinned and whispered back. “...Ralsei?”
“Yes?”
“After you’re done, can I braid yours too?”
Ralsei stammered for several seconds. “I- I don’t really- um- I would love- I don’t have hair, Susie! I’m, I’m sorry...”
“Your fur, dude.”
Ralsei flushed pink. “Well- alright, Susie, if you’d like that-" He began puttering about Susie’s hair.
Kris stole Susie’s phone (it was unfortunately impossible for Susie to retaliate at the moment) and asked her what her password was.
“I’m not telling you my password.” Susie huffed, attempting to snatch it back. “Just gimme it.”
Kris tossed it back, and after some finagling back and forth, they finally had a WiFi hotspot set up in the Dark World.
“Step three is: Settle into the monotonous activity of being loved.” Ralsei twisted Susie’s hair up into a bun. “I don’t know what that means.”
“Sounds real poetic,” Susie said as Kris opened up some nature documentary for them to watch. “Kris. Kris, we aren’t watching this, what the hell.”
Kris huffed and said that nature documentaries were the only rated G thing available on Susie’s online video platform app. The fact that this was literally the wording they used gave Susie chills.
“Look-” Susie tapped some words onto the screen. “See? See, we can watch- what cartoon do you want, I’ve got a playlist of their episodes.”
Kris stared at the screen for a moment, and then asked if they were pirated.
“What? No- no, dumbass, of course they aren’t pirated, those are official channels!” Susie pointed a claw at Kris. “Are you telling me you’ve never watched cartoons on YouTube before?”
Kris pulled their cape in front of their face.
“Okay, sorry, but how have you never-! Does your mom not allow those or something?"
Kris muttered from behind the cape that their mother had an unplugged TV in their home.
Susie stared for a moment, and then put a talon on their head to comfort them (Kris made an appreciative noise). “Wait- Ralsei?”
“Yes?” Ralsei asked from where he’d been trying to pin a stray lock of hair down for several minutes.
“Ralsei... you don’t know what a TV is, do you?”
“No.”
“A cartoon?”
“No." Ralsei frowned. “Can you just explain it to me, then?”
“Okay-" Susie snatched her phone back. “Yeah. Hang on just a moment."
She had a brief memory of someone else in her class gasping and pulling out her own phone and showing Susie her favorite videos. And then they’d sat there in silence, watching aliens of light dance and vampires play guitar...
“Here."
Kris clambered up above Susie’s shoulder and propped themself next to Ralsei to watch, and the rest of the night was spent gasping at plot twists and laughing quietly and pointing out characters they liked and doing step three.