Dinner and Game (Otherwise Untitled)
#78 of Short Stories
A German Shepard arrives home, successfully proposing a meal while his room mate is busy with a MMORPG raid.
~ With one hand occupied by a bag of groceries, the elderly German Shepard fumbled for a bit with the keys held in his other. Well practiced with arriving home, he didn't take much delay to get to the kitchen where he rested the bag on the counter. Stifling a yawn, he turned on the living room's radio as he made his way to check on his room mate.
~ The gryphon's attention was focused on the flurry of colors and movement on her computer's screen, her fingers dancing around keyboard and mouse. The older dog regarded the screen for a moment, recognizing the approach of a break. When the screen's colors shifted from the active red to calmer blue, he inquired with enough volume to be heard through her headset, "How about a frozen pizza for dinner? I got some cabbage, too." The hen replied with a silent thumbs up, her grimace of effort shifting to a calmer smile as she explained into the headset, "Good job healing that phase. If you can still hear me, you forgot to switch to the general voice chat.", switching over herself to catch the last half of the lead tank describing the final phase. His tone, well worn through the familiar recitation, shifted to the bouncy tone the gryphon always expected of the fennec. "Any questions?... None?... Good! Lead healer?", he passed the discussion over to the gryphon.
~ The gryphon's fingers danced across a pattern of keys, and rainbow ribbons splayed out across her screen to envelope the other characters in the game, "Great job on staying out of fire, and on the healing. I've got enough mana to make us all immune to curses for the last phase, so healers just focus on keeping everyone's health up. That's all I've got.", her smile shifting to a proper grin as she could hear the oven's preheat cycle completing in the kitchen. "Lead damage?", she invited the third lead player to comment.
~ "I'm with the healer and tank; things are going well. Just keep it up. Oh, and, uh, motion to blame the healers if we all die?", the rabbit's playful tone provoking a mixture of groans and laughter from the rest of the guild. The house began to smell like cabbage and baking bread, the gryphon's tail finding cause to lash about excitedly.