Flash Fiction Friday – Dungeons & Flirting

I wrote this last night on my stream, and then almost forgot to post it before going to bed now. I use, once again, the Seventh Sanctum writing prompt generator to generate the first line of this flash piece. As soon as I saw it, I knew what I wanted to write about. Sorry, it’s not as naughty as the title makes it seem!

She pretended to be a Barbarian, and you know what that means. It means confidence, humor and a willingness to smash kobolds with a club rather than try to talk to them. All qualities I appreciate in a girl. ​
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you can predict everything about a girl’s personality by what she plays in Dungeons & Dragons. Certainly there are some things (their favorite food, for example) that are unlikely to be predictable by the choice of Paladin or Rogue. There are certain patterns though. I would never, for example, date someone who insists that their murder hobo Fighter is lawful evil or that their Elf Cleric is in fact the long lost princess of the high elves. It just wouldn’t work out. It’s not you or me, it’s irreconcilable difference about what makes a narrative interesting.
But I digress; this girl played a Barbarian and raged with the best of them. Not only that, she unabashedly produced a really bad Scottish accent for her quick-tempered Dwarf. Soon enough the game was over and the kobold nest had been cleared out. I collected my things slowly as she chatted with the GM for a bit then sped up as she headed for the exit, grabbing my messenger bag as I went.
​”Fun game tonight,” I said, catching up to her on the stairs.
​”Yeah, it really was,” she agreed. “Too bad it was just a one-shot.”
“Right? I liked the dynamic of the group tonight. Play flowed really smoothly.”
​”Have you played here before?”
I nodded. “Oh yeah, I’ve been playing here for years.”
​”Cool,” she said. “So in your very experienced opinion, what are the odds it’ll turn into something more than a one-shot?” Her eyes glittered as she pushed the door to the club open and held it to let me pass.
​”Oh, uh… pretty low I think,” I said with a shrug, trying to project a feeling of ‘bummer, right’ with my face. “Martin’s already GMing like three groups and only did tonight because two of them got cancelled this week, and Jack, that’s the wizard, he’s super busy at uni and barely ever plays these days. And the druid’s just kind flaky to be honest.”
“That’s a shame,” she said.
“Yeah, yeah it is,” I agreed. “I’m sorta between campaigns right now, really hope something I can join starts up soon.”
“If you hear about anything, let me know? I haven’t played a proper campaign in way too long.”
“Sure, I can do that.” We’d both slowed down as we approached an intersection. “Uh… which way are you going?”
She pointed with a thumb over her shoulder.
“I’m going that way,” I said, mimicking the gesture in the opposite direction.
“All right… you’re Lana, right?” she asked.
“Yeah. And you’re Mia?”
She nodded. “Should we add each other on Facebook? You know, so we can let each other know about campaigns and stuff?”
“Yeah. Yeah let’s.”
I helped her find my profile and felt my phone buzz in my pocket as she sent me a friend request.
“I’ll see you around,” she said and smiled at me.
I smiled back. As she turned, my eyes lingered on her just a moment before I turned and headed toward the subway. Something fluttered in my chest and although I had already been eager to get back to playing regularly, the desire to find a longer campaign to play in had suddenly doubled. With Lana, the Barbarian.

Nerd girls flirting, yay! And now, sleepy-time!