It was a Sunday morning. Steve was full of apprehension as he pulled into Martha Washington Public Library. He sat in the parking lot for a minute and psyched himself up for this morning. Steve had never role played before. He just wanted to do it because hey, it was something geeks like him were into. Right?
Never mind the fact that Steve had literally nothing else to do. It had been a week since he first moved into his apartment on Huntington Avenue. He knew no one in the area; he had no friends, no family. He only moved for his job, a federal position as a writer/editor for the Library of Congress. It was a great gig, and Steve couldn't possibly pass it up. But taking the job meant leaving everything he knew behind.
It's not as if he had a whole lot to leave behind, though. Most of his friends who he had made in high school moved away from Steve's hometown of Breakwater, Michigan years ago. Steve had never been too close to his parents, and he didn't have much in the way of other family, anyway. Steve was single, had been for most of his life. He was never much of the dating life. So he felt he had nothing to lose.
What Steve hadn't thought about, though, was the culture shock of moving to a large city. Washington, D.C. had more people on one block than lived in his entire hometown. That fact excited Steve before he had moved here; now it intimidated him. Open space, a bane in his hometown, was an absolute luxury here. And the COST of things? Yeesh. Steve hadn't realized how expensive "the real world" was.
Worst of all, Steve missed the familiarity. Though 39 years old, Steve had rarely used a GPS. He never needed one. Everything in his town was known to him. Street names were unnecessary. Directions consisted of a "take a left at the Walgreens, go down three blocks, hang a left at the video store, then it's on your right." His first couple of driving forays into the heart of D.C. were stressful, to say the least. Steve had never sworn so openly into silence before.
But it would all be worth it, in time, Steve had thought. The job would provide everything. And it did,almost. Steve loved his job. The pay and benefits were fair. The only problem was he worked mostly alone. Most of Steve's office were federal lifers, older folks who had fallen into a predictable rhythm of "clock in, work,clock out, ignore or avoid anything outside of the pattern." They were nice to Steve, and they were good enough workers, but they had absolutely no intention of being friends with him. So much for that.
And so Steve found himself alone in a city of millions. He needed something. He needed to find some friends. Facebook and Google Hangouts just weren't cutting it anymore. Steve needed something REAL.
Steve took a personal inventory of himself. How would he find friends? Well, from my interests, Steve thought. Steve was a geek. He was into Game of Thrones and Battlestar Galactica. He enjoyed sci-fi and horror and fantasy. He had dressed up as Frodo from Lord of the Rings last Halloween. Going to meetup websites on the Internet, Steve cross-referenced with his interests. To his delight, there were dozens of groups in his neighborhood, let alone across the entire city, who shared his interests. This is going to be easier than Steve thought!
Amongst searching through the groups, one in particular had caught his eye.
"Interested in role-playing?" The ad asked. "Ready to explore a strange new world?"
Well, thought Steve, I'm kind of doing that already. What's one more world to explore? Steve read on.
"I am launching a new Numenera campaign this week," the ad read. "Get in on the ground floor of a brand new game! New to role playing? No problem! I LOVE new players! Come learn a great new hobby!"
The ad spoke to Steve. Since the move, Steve had launched a new initiative on his own. A Brand New Steve ("BNS"). He tried a new hairstyle, bought new clothes, tried new food. Steve took the move as an opportunity to re-invent himself. He was in a rut, back in Breakwater. It was time for a change.
Steve signed up for the group. And here he was,in the parking lot, suddenly nervous.
JORDAN
Jordan was nervous. He always was, before a game. He'd been running roleplaying games since he was five years old, and he always got nervous. He didn't mind it. In fact, he came to take it as a good time. Jordan was nervous because he was excited. He was nervous because he wanted to rock the game, as hard as possible. Jordan did not consider himself a perfectionist about virtually anything else in the world, except his roleplaying games.
The game started at 10am. Jordan had been at the library since 8. There wasn't really a whole lot to get ready. Jordan just liked to be early and prepared. Rule books? Check. Character sheets? Check. Dry-erase markers? Check. Dice? Check. Custom-made "how to play Numenera" cheat sheets? Check. By 8:28, Jordan declared himself ready to play. He read over his notes, double and triple checked some rules. Then he laid beneath the table, stretched out across the carpet, and he closed his eyes.
Jordan did this, from time to time. He did it to center himself in the game. He liked to become one with the room, the table, the chairs. This was especially important to him in a strange room. He wanted it to be comfortable.
So Jordan laid on the floor, eyes closed, his mind looping around the room, through the books, through his notes...
"Jord? What are you doin', man?"
Jordan sighed. He opened his eyes and checked his watch.
"You're here early," said Jordan to Kinsey.
"Yep! I know you normally show up early so I got here as quick as I could. I would've gotten here earlier? But every light....EVERY fucking light..was red! I hit every single one of them..."
As Kinsey continued his epic tale of traffic, Jordan got off the floor and sat down at the table.
It's been a year since Steve entered the Ninth World. Since then, he's made friends, lost friends, fell in love, fell out of love, learned new things about himself, learned new things about the world, and overall just had a great time.
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