Rising Shards

My shoulders were killing me by the time the Brambler "please listen to us try to get you to buy our crap one more time" wrap up speech was done. I had a lot of fun in spite of me grumping a bit of the ways through it, and I was really happy for Pippi, Alix, and Mahina for their various successes.

"It's a bummer that this weekend getaway is just for two," Pippi said in an oddly loud tone as she fanned herself with the printout certificate they gave her for her winning card. The others we played the last game with sat with us for the final speech, but as soon as we were away from them headed to our cars, Pippi frantically waved us over. "I didn't want to make the others feel bad leaving them out, but it's actually for three pairs if you want to come with."

"Oh!" Stella said. "That'd be great! We've been meaning to take a vacation forever."

Stella and I had been slowly planning a family trip with Zeta, but I couldn't deny a weekend trip with just Stella sounded nice too.

"It's a really fancy hotel I think," Pippi said.

"Lemme see how this night with Rylla goes," Mahina said. "If that pans out I'm in, if not, maybe I can find another date in time."

"Woo! Social interaction with a group more than once!" Alix cheered. "Sorry, I usually get ousted from friend groups after one session."

"Well, we'll try and not do that to you," I said.

"If you stop asking Evy and I out," Stella said.

"It's a deal," Alix said.

My social tank was depleted by the time we got to the car, but I was proud of myself for going and for not being an ass about it the whole time. Stella had a devious look on her face as she got in the passenger's seat.

"What's up?" I asked.

"So I maybe stole a bunch of the cards for us," Stella said.

I made an exaggerated sound of disdain. "Stella Faleur, how dare you?"

"I couldn't resist!" Stella laughed. "I didn't grab any contest winning ones, but I saw some good ones laying around."

"These cards seem really powerful," I said. "Mahina got a one night stand and a mat ball game out of them."

"Like, you don't actually have to do what's on the cards obviously, but that's part of the fun of it!" Stella said.

"So which ones did you grab?" I asked.

It took a few minutes to get to it, Stella just giggled half of the drive home.

"OK, OK!" Stella finally said. "Got one that's about roleplaying. Maybe we can try that failwoman one Pippi suggested. I want to be the failwoman at least one turn, but you could try it too, Pippi did suggest me learning how good failwomen can be."

"I don't know if I have the acting chops to pull it off, but I could try if need be," I said.

"Next, I had to grab that post office one," Stella said.

"You think we could pull off a post office date?" I asked.

"I know we can," Stella said. "In fact, I bet we could have one that's incredibly romantic."

"I'll take that bet," I said. "I think you'll win, probably."

"I also got spa day, truth or dare, watch an entire season of Teensly Street," Stella said.

"Hopefully let's not do that last one unless it's full roast mode," I said.

"There's one where we dress up like the other, some really complicated ones, one that just says butt stuff on it...I thought it was funny, but also..."

"But also?" I said. "Would you want that one?"

"Perhaps," Stella said.

"We could try some of these when we get home if you're not too beat," I said.

"I, hm," Stella could barely keep it together with how much she was in gut laugh mode.

"I'll take that as a yes," I said.

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