Second in a series of stories leading up to my Camp Nano Project – this one stars Emmett and the mentioned Jo & Cadey.

“You.”

Emmett tried not to jump. People weren’t supposed to come up behind you and say you like that. Not even in a room full of nerds. Not even in a cafeteria full of gaming nerds.

“Me?” The rest of the players at the table were looking over his shoulder. He couldn’t tell much from their reactions – some annoyed, some amused, some confused, standard “someone is interrupting the game” faces. He was going to have to turn around – which struck him as a trap.

“Five minute piss break.” DK, the DM, stood up, pushing himself away from the table. “Come on people, smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em.”

“You.” A second voice came from behind Emmett, and a hand landed on each of his shoulders. The second voice, more definitely female and slightly more firm, was almost in his ear. “Are you going to Anelle’s Samhain party?”

If he turned around, the nice hands on his shoulder were either going to vanish or turn into something terrifying. Schrodinger’s Girl: If he didn’t open the box, it was going to turn out okay.

“Who’s what now?”

The chairs to either side of him creaked. Don and Pony had abandoned him. “Anelle’s. She throws these awesome parties and her Samhain parties are the best. But you have to have an invite. Do you have an invite?”

That was the slightly-less-girly sounding voice. But it really was rude to talk to people and not look at them. Emmett turned first to the speaker and then to the other.

Two adorably hopeful smiles grinned back at him. The second speaker tapped his shoulder again, perkily. “You should come with us.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/727645.html. You can comment here or there.

This is the eleventh in a series of character profiles for my upcoming July Camp Nano Project.

The story follows the flight of a group – students and their friends – from Rochester, NY; as the world crumbles around them, where can they possibly go for safety?

Douglas King
Game Design & Development

Douglas went to R.I.T. because it was one of the best, and because they offered impressive scholarships and a five-year combined Masters/Bachelor’s program. He got into Game Design because it was a good career move, and because the concepts of game design interested him.

He got into the Friday night Shadowrun game because game design didn’t stop at computers, and the Tuesday D&D game for the same reason – and because Aih played in the Tuesday game, and Aih had a smile that lit up the world.

He got into Anelle’s parties because he met Jordan in one of his classes & she invited him; he got into the parties because the people there seemed more laid-back than the guys on his floor and more intense than the stoners in the quad.

From Anelle’s parties it was a pretty easy jump to Oak & Rowan. It really wasn’t his thing, not to begin with, but Aih was there, and Aih not only had a lovely smile, but she saw the world in a way nobody else Douglas had ever met did.

And from there it was a skip and a hop to Raven’s Thursday night drinking in the swamp, and closing his eyes to the world and opening them to the other world.

Douglas is a wee bit on the short side – 5 foot seven – and a whole lot on the skinny side – barely over 100 lbs. He has dark skin, nearly ebony in shade, and eyes that shifted to a light blue-grey at puberty. His hands are almost clawlike, although that could be attributed to his thinness.

His hobby is 3D rendering; nearsighted AND farsighted, sometimes he feels like he can see space better in programming than he can in real life.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/726918.html. You can comment here or there.