here, I was going to be seeing a whole lot more of him, which could be great.
Or it could be a fucking disaster.
"All right, we're cutting it close, so that's where we'll leave off for today. Angela, could you take a picture of the map so we know how to set it up next time?"
She did and, to my surprise, David got out of his seat and started walking that way.
"You want me to come with?" I called after him.
"I just want to see the map."
That wasn't really an answer, but I stayed put. Immediately, I wished I hadn't, because Elliot was heading right toward me. This time, I could see in his eyes he knew exactly who I was.
11
Elliot
My heart felt like it was slamming into my ribcage with every step I took. There was a strong part of me that wanted to just turn around and flee. Having my hookup suddenly appear here was one of the worst things I could imagine. Even worse than seeing him at work.
When I'd first caught sight of him, the most fearful part of me wondered if he'd come here to out me somehow. For what purpose, I couldn't even fathom, but there was no logic behind sudden, irrational fears. I'd only managed to calm from that because I'd seen the young man standing beside him, attention held rapt by the game. I remembered Elise saying someone was coming to spectate the session, and I knew this whole thing was just one big coincidence.
But what an insane coincidence to stumble into.
Worse than all that, I had no idea if he even remembered me. My eyes had never been covered and he'd heard my voice, but that didn't mean anything. He could have hooked up with other guys over the intervening days. I probably wasn't even a blip on his radar.
As I walked toward him, though, I could see that wasn't true. He looked like a wild animal that had just realized the cage door was shut behind it. Which... didn't make things any better, honestly. Caged animals lashed out, and I couldn't help wondering what he would do if I "confronted" him.
"Hi," I said, surprised my voice didn't waver even on that one word. "I'm Elliot. You must be Reuben, and that's your... nephew, right?"
"...Yeah," he said, having to scrape the word up from an obviously dry throat. He cleared it, then added, "David. He's a big time D&D fan."
"I can see that," I said, looking over my shoulder.
David was leaning over the table, his fingers moving like calipers across the battle map. Angela was trying to talk to him -- or at him, more likely -- but he was completely focused on the map.
"I don't know a damn thing about the rules. Well. I guess that's not completely true, but I don't know enough to run a game," Reuben said. "I thought it would be good for him to play, though, instead of just creating characters constantly. He's just... got a specific way he likes to do things, so he wanted to test the waters first."
"That's completely understandable," I said, as if I were talking to any other parent or guardian. "I run two groups here. This group, they're all sticklers for the rules. They like to maximize what their characters can do and get the most out of every dice roll. They want lots of combat and other scenarios where they can use their skills and their knowledge of the ruleset. The other group doesn't really care about the rules; they just want to roleplay and tell stories together. Both are valid ways to play D&D, they just don't tend to be the most compatible at the table."
"I think that's the problem we ran into before," he said with a frown. "My sister took him to Mega Comics a couple nights ago. Ah... we..."
His stammering caught me off guard, until I realized when a couple nights ago was. Heat rushed into my cheeks despite me willing it not to.
Reuben cleared his throat and continued, "Anyway, it didn't go well. The other kids weren't as heavy into the rules as David, and I don't think he really gets why someone would play the game that way. It's simple to him, you know? There are rules and they should be followed."
Elise had mentioned David was on the spectrum, and suddenly the pieces slid into place for me. Reuben left after getting an urgent phone call. Something must have happened at Mega Comics