My Idea Box

ORIGINAL IDEA: A New Player Arrives (An Unfinished Prologue)

Since moving to the suburbs five years ago, Sarah had never seen a street where the houses were nearly identical to each other. This one, was. Pale with one-floor and steep blue roofs like a tipi tent. Even the lamps had the same soft orange glow that hardly warmed an otherwise chilly night in autumn.

The lamp shone on Dino's fudge-colored frown. "Stop shaking. You'll look weird to the others," he grumbled after he parked.

"I won't!" Sarah's high pitch echoed in the car. Her dark pigtails bounced with every jittery action.

Stepping out, Dino's back slumped with his voice. "You will. You always do."

"No, I won't!" Sarah said again. Her short legs walked by her big brother's stilts for limbs, falling in tandem across the sidewalk and up the strange driveway.

Over the past few weeks, Sarah asked Dino to come with him and see the mysterious "friends" he rarely, yet highly, spoke of. Every time, every day, he said no until their mom stepped in. Whatever she had threatened Dino with convinced him to bring Sarah at last.

"Alright, let's get this over with," Dino mumbled. Ringing the doorbell, his hand returned to his hoodie. "Whatever you do, don't laugh, 'kay?"

"I got it, already! How many times I gotta tell you?" Sarah said. Her darker face matched Dino's, both in skin tone and frown, but only briefly.

A man's shadow moved behind the nearby window. The door opened, and Sarah sputtered at the short, black, and messy beard popping out. She quickly covered her mouth with the pink sleeve of her jacket, pretending to cough. Sure, Dino glared, but she was safe.

"Hi, Dino! Come on in!" the other man said, his lips curling like the hairs on his beard. Seriously, it was like someone took Dino's curly hair and put it on someone else's chin.

Biting her lower lip, Sarah followed Dino in. Dino asked, "You guys start yet?"

"Not yet. We were waiting for you and..." The man stopped after he closed the door, having noticed Sarah. "Oh, hello! You're Dino's sister, right?"

Sarah squeaked seeing the beard. Seriously, didn't he have a comb? "I'm... I, uh-"

"Aya? Well, nice to meet you, Aya. I'm Hamza. Sorry if I don't shake hands." Grinning, Hamza held up his hands stained with pencil lead. "Come on. Everyone's in the dining room."

With a mutter ("He's always got an excuse..."), Dino went with Hamza. The two talked about their classes at university. Sarah, a high school junior, lingered behind to eye the flowery wall designs. She guessed the interiors would be the same too, including the wooden floor.

Sarah's sneakers squeaked after Dino's hard shoes and Hamza's soft socks, right into the dining room at the end. Well, a gaming room, given the big board, stacks of books and paper, and bags of snacks on the table inside. Sitting in the mess, around the board and the table were two boys. Probably the same age as her brother.

"Hey, Deen!" said one passing as any white kid, save for the white cap on his blond hair.

"Deen?" Sarah asked instead of wondering about the cap.

Dino nodded to the white kid then to the one next to him. "Bilal. Sam. Hope I'm not late."

"Not at all," said the other brown boy with a thick accent (Arab? Must've been somewhere around it)...

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AN: And that's about it. Like it says on the title, this was an unfinished prologue for a story idea I had (pretty much a variation of Critical Role which includes the players and their characters during their many campaigns, but this was more inspired by Kevin J Anderson's own story on this site, I think--can't remember the title but it was about some friends playing one last campaign and going into the characters they played as trying to stop the supposed end of their world). Don't know if I will ever get to it at this point but I still hope you like it. Thanks and take care.

-W.S.