Ondry/Liam anyone? Game Night

I have no idea where this came from, but I wanted to share.

Game Night

The first time they played, Ondry had been both confused and annoyed.  Rownt were not designed to sit in human-sized chairs or handle human-sized dice, and only one of those problems was solvable.

However, by the time they had met the human traders for the third time, Liam could tell that Ondry had developed an interest in developing his character and an equal frustration with the two members of their party who insisted on poking every rock when Ondry preferred to wait and watch. 

Luca had already been wounded badly enough to require serious healing from Liam who was playing a bard. Ondry hated that Liam had to use three spell slots and Cure Wounds to keep him from dying, and Diana had gotten her character killed. The dungeon master had needed to invoke a deity to bring her back to life.  She had complained that Liam hadn’t learned Raise Dead or Resurrection, but Ondry had shown a tooth to end that rant.

“Behind the rock lurks a minotaur,” the dungeon master announced in a grand voice.

Ondry held a hand for the challenge card giving all the creatures stats.  The dungeon master had tried to insist that he should be the only one with access to that resource, but Ondry had stared at him until the dungeon master had decided that retreat was the best pathway to success, especially since his real goal was to convince Ondry to like them and offer a good price on metals.

They hadn’t figured out yet that if Ondry ever did develop respect for these guys, he would try even harder to cheat them out of every credit.

“That thing has the same stats as you,” Luca joked. Then he jerked and glared at Diana. Liam assumed kicking under the table had been involved in the exchange.

“Rownt intelligence is higher,” Liam said with a glare. If these assholes wanted to compare Ondry to a villain, they’d better make it something like a Tarrasque, not a lowly minotaur.

Okay, not so lowly because Luca was already down with a life-threatening wound, leaving the rest of them to deal with the monster.  At this point, these guys didn’t have to worry about Ondry respecting them enough to raise prices. Liam grabbed his dice and prepared to save Luca again, despite the expression on Ondry’s face. He would clearly prefer to continue this mission without Luca’s character. It had been hard to even explain the idea of working together with a party to Ondry, but Liam suspected he was going to have more and more trouble explaining why they should keep Luca alive when he didn’t exactly help.

They were walking home, their shoulders brushing one another’s as they strolled down the dark road. “Rownt do not require your defense,” Ondry said.

“What do you mean?” Liam breathed in the flower-scented air. Of all the Earth colonies they traded with, this was his favorite.

“During the game you were offended at Luca’s words.” Ondry looked at Liam, his eyes wide and dark and he studied Liam.

Luca’s stupid joke, Liam realized. “He shouldn’t have compared you to a minotaur.”

“Why not?”

“Rownt are not mindless villains.”

Ondry huffed and he turned his head to give Liam all his attention. “We are not, but that is not an answer as to why Luca should have avoided such comparison.”

“Minotaurs are mindless villains, so comparing you or the Rownt to one is an insult.” Liam’s blood pressure was rising, but then Ondry rested his hand against Liam’s neck, his large thumb tracing circles against his Adam’s apple. Liam slowed his pace, settling into the peace he found when they touched. These days, that was all it took to hijack any negative emotions.

“The stats suggest minotaur have strong wisdom,” Ondry said, another huff at the end of his words.

“And low intelligence.” Liam didn’t bring up the low charisma number because that was accurate for the Rownt. These days, Liam saw human faces as pinched and narrow and weirdly plastic. They had far too many expressions, and most of them could be attached to multiple emotions. Rownt were slower. Calmer. Easier to understand and steady in a way Liam needed. But for most humans, all the things Liam adored made Rownt unattractive and frightening. They did have low charisma for most of humanity. Just not Liam.

Ondry whistled in amusement. “Rownt entered space only because the protection of children required it. We build spaceships based on the designs of others and feel no need to innovate. Give the game definition of intelligence, is that not the mark of a low scoring species?”

Liam opened his mouth, but he didn’t know what to say. He vehemently disagreed, but given the mechanics of the game universe, he could not think of a way to rebut Ondry’s argument.

“I prefer a species with low intelligence and high wisdom to one with the stats reversed.” Ondry looked around at the human city they were walking through. This was a trading city—fairly small and different than any of the other cities where they traded.  It had tree-lined streets with steel buildings. There were solar panels, but also neon lights that blinked advertisements for a hundred different products. Whoever had designed this city had innovated in a hundred little ways, but Liam could see the ways the city would not age well.  The steel buildings would hold and reflect more heat than the trees would prefer. The lights would tax the electric grid. The city planners were intelligent, but Liam was less convinced of their wisdom.

“I think I should be offended on behalf of my species.”

Ondry whistled again.  “This is why we are the best traders in the universe. Our stats are in balance,” Ondry said. He pulled Liam close and curled his tail around Liam’s thigh.

“That I can agree with.” Liam leaned into his partner. No species was perfect, but together they were pretty damn good.