4187/The Proper Way To Set Up

The Proper Way To Set Up
Date of Scene:	20 November 2020
Location:	809 - Karita's Apartment
Synopsis:	Andy and Karita prepare (in the proper way) for a night of gaming.
Cast of Characters:	Karita Landry, Andy Katsaros

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Karita Landry has posed:
"No, I do not think a vegetable tray is a bad idea." The words are spoken with a definitive bob of a head, as the College aged female holds her tablet upwards, displaying the shopping list to the young man in the room with her. "While I understand the quintessential correlation between snack foods such as chips and d and d nights, there are those of us who do enjoy veggie snacks just as much as those that give coronaries."

One Karita Landry is doing a very important job, she's about to go out shopping for food for the important night of dungeons and dragons, which she will also be dungeon mastering. Her helper for the day, Andy Katsaros, is there to keep Karita from purchasing nothing /BUT/ vegetables and other healthier snack food.

As it is, Karita does not have Doritos down on the list which is written on her tablet notepad. Instead, she turns about, reaching for her coat and purse as she moves towards the door. "We also need to stop by the gaming store and get Marly a set of dice, this will be her first excursion into this, and you know the curse."

Andy Katsaros has posed:
Already wearing a coat, Andy Katsaros has propped himself up against the wall nearby the door, hands tucked casually into the jacket pockets as he has been watching and engaging with Karita. "Pretzels," he states clearly in response to the small diatribe about 'healthy' foods as opposed to those that supposedly shave years, nay decades, from one's life. "Pretzels," he repeats himself then, adding afterwards. "And beer. Or Mountain Dew and Coke if you prefer." He pauses. "Cold cuts and crackers go over good too. But a veggie tray...?" The lanky graduate student lets out a small sigh, shaking his head with a rueful grin. "I mean... Well. Fine, just keep the greenery on your side of the table. And don't say I didn't warn you if you get ranch dip on your NPC sheets."

Still grinning, Andy pushes off the wall and cranes his neck just a little to get a glimpse of what else Kari may have (or have omitted) from the list on her tablet. His attempt is in vain, however, as she's already tucking the pad under her arm as she's getting her coat and purse. Well - he supposes this is after all why he's going to the store with her, to make sure that there are some traditional snacking items in the card before they hit the cash register. "The curse?" he repeats then, quirking up an eyebrow. "You mean the one about serving your players only health food on the first session of the campaign?" He grins broader then. "But yeah. She definitely needs her own set - I am not about to sacrifice one of mine to get tainted by a newbie!" He's only partially worried about such a an eventuality if the amused expression on his features is any indication, though he does continue with, "We may want to get her two sets so she can give a few test rolls and see which is going to be better for her. You know what color combos she might like?"

Karita Landry has posed:
Quirking her eyebrow at Andy as he offers his own idea of what the 'curse' might be, Karita huffs with extreme indignity, and proceeds to flop right past the lanky youth and out the door with only the sound of the chuffed out annoyance her answer. Once outside the room, down the hall, down the stairs, and finally down to the garage area where Karita keeps her tesla, she's talking - almost non-stop. "You know the curse! You never, ever allow another player to roll your dice, else they will do nothing but roll ones for you!" With those solemn words, Karita makes the sign of the cross across her chest and down her stomach, as though just stating the curse it shall come to pass.

"We'll definitely have to make sure that she knows the importance of this." Karita states as she pops open the doors and settles in, getting ready to head to the store. "I hate food shopping in New York, so I figure we'll head to Jersey where things are not quite so expensive, and there is this delightful little gaming shop not far from one of the major grocery chains. I'm not sure on what colors Marly might like, so we'll just get one nice set for her. If she enjoys the game, she'll want to start getting her own dice, I'm sure."

Several. Several. Several minutes later, and Karita's pulling up in front of a small gaming store, 'Phoenix Games', she's already given her tablet over to Andy, instructing him to put down the important items - though she does clear her throat. "Just, sorry, no alcoholic beverages this time around. Last time I was at a game that had alcoholic beverages, Mitch got drunk and had his dwarf dash right into the Beholder's lair, wiping the ENTIRE party. I really liked my bard in that campaign too, so I was pretty pissed to have him die so horribly."

Andy Katsaros has posed:
"Oh, right, /that/ curse..." Andy echoes with a grin, folding himself into the electric car's passenger seat. "I dunno, I've only ever had bad luck when I've lent my dice to a new player - they have beginner's luck, start rolling a bunch of nat 20's and it's like their rusty starting dagger turns into a vorpal broadsword, and then when I get the dice back it's critical miss city and I miss my very next saving throw and before you know it my ranger is missing an arm..." He pauses after that, blinking once and clearing his throat slightly. "I mean. Just as an example. Not a.. real story or anything."

And then, before too long they're at the gaming store, with Andy pulling himself out of the car and grimacing slightly at Kari's tale of bardic woe. "Well. If he was playing a dwarf, at least he was keeping in theme by getting blind drunk..." Andy offers with a not-too-helpful shrug. "But, fair enough. Probably a bad idea to involve drinks anyways when we're teaching Marly the game too," he adds with a grin. "She's going to have a hard enough time as it is." The dark haired student queues up the tablet as the pair enter the gaming store then, fingers dancing over the screen as he starts to enter in standard snacking fare - pretzels, tortilla chips, Hostess snack cakes - before he glances back up at the interior of the gaming store with wide, appreciative eyes. "Wow. WHen you said 'delightful', I was picturing this little tiny shop with like, one aisle only of current games and nothing else. This place is... Like the Amazon of gaming stores. I mean - cripes, is that a whole wall of just miniatures?"

Karita Landry has posed:
To answer Andy's question, Karita's head bobs, "/And/ they have multiple three-D printers at the back to customize your own miniature. Afore mentioned bard I had done into a miniature, he looked great, too. I painted him up, he was awesome, and then died like two games later." With a roll of her eyes, Karita meanders through the aisles, idly looking over the official D&D game books, "Tasha's Cauldron of Everything came out a few days ago, though I have to wait on getting it - my gramma Holly asked for a list of things I wanted, and I added that to it. So, Christmas, I guess." A sheepish grin is given to Andy, before Karita moves on towards the gaming section.

"I keep pestering the owner to start carrying handmade dice, versus just the big manufacturers, the bastard hasn't bothered even considering it yet." Karita's eyes lift up towards the front where the very stereotypical gamer-nerd is busy playing a computer game and occasionally keeping his gaze on the security cameras.

She offers a smug smirk towards him, before turning back to Andy. "So - we have some Chessex dice here. What do you reckon? Blue? Purple? This nice set of green and black is gorgeous. Opinion?"

Andy Katsaros has posed:
"3D Printers?" Andy echoes, clearly impressed. "Right on site? Nice! Clearly, I've been out of circulation on the gaming circuit..." His gaze is taking in the rest of the contents of the gaming store, head turning this way and that. There's shelves upon shelves of rulebooks and supplements from various games that span genres as diverse as post-apocalyptic to super-heroic, medieval fantashy to giant robot warriors and everything in between. A full section of board games from the mundane (various iterations of Monopoly) to the trendy (Settlers of Catan) to the odd and rare (Poetry for Neanderthals and Bananagrams among them). More racks of collectible card packets than should likely be allowed in one place. And, of course, up by the cashier, sets upon sets of gaming dice, along with a giant fishbowl containing a mishmash of various sizes, shapes and colors of single dice for sale individually.

"Mm, Christmas..." Andy muses quietly, lips pursing to one side. "I should probably start thinking of what I should get my folks." The statement is a quiet one, almost laced with an undertone of dread, before he shakes off the emotion and focuses again on what Kari is saying. "Handmade dice? Like wood-carved? That'd be pretty epic. Are there even any suppliers in the area for that sort of thing?" Judging from the way that the gamer-nerd behind the desk pulls the corners of his mouth downwards as he briefly assesses Andy and Kari, the answer to that may be a negative one. Or perhaps the man hasn't taken the time to even investigate yet.

"No Armory dice?" Andy counters with a grin then, before taking a look at the selection of polyhedrals. "Well. She'll want something easy to read, so either light colors with dark ink or dark colors with white ink. But a pretty solid colored set. Nothing speckled or too mottled or anything... Oh, those *are* nice," he nods to the green and black set. "Purple ones there aren't bad either. Real rich hue and the white numbers pop. Comes with the extra sixes too, which is nice." He pause a beat then, before asking, "Hey, that reminds me. How are we rolling up our characters? Roll 4 and toss out the lowest die? Or Roll 3 an extra time and throw out the lowest stat?"

Karita Landry has posed:
"In my character roll-outs, I allow players to do the roll four, throw out the lowest, though if bad luck hits, I allow an additional roll - once. Maker knows how often I've ended up with only one stat above twelve and the rest in the negatives." Setting aside all of the other dice, Karita plops the box of green and black down on the counter, and the purple and white on the counter, gazing from one to the other with a critical eye. As Karita examines the dice, she casts a glance once towards Andy, then back at the important task she's taken upon herself to do.

"Wood carved dice are fantastic, sure - but I'm talking resin and acrylic dice makers. There are some fantastic, I do mean FANTASTIC, dice makers out there. It's absolutely amazing what they can do with color, and inks and inclusions. Fuck. I have this one set - it's got this swirl of blue through the middle, bloody gorgeous, and if you for one instant start to throw out words like, 'balanced' I will make you walk home. Nothing is balanced perfectly, but resin dice are balanced, everything is the same weight through-out." Karita huffs soften, then picks up the purple and white set, putting the green ones back.

Meanwhile, the owner just shrugs at Andy, turning back to his game and not saying anything about adding any other kinds of dice, hand-made or otherwise to his shop. He does, however, turn around when Karita plops down the cash for the dice - offering out a, "See ya next week to get your comics, Kari." Which the blonde girl just offers a cheeky wave as she heads out the door. "Next stop! Grocery shopping, did you add much to the list?"

Andy Katsaros has posed:
"... I take it the conversation about, ah, the even distribution of weight in the dice..." Andy begins, choosing his words carefully, "...Is one that you've had before," he comments with a grin, clearly amused by the indignance that Karita displays. "You'll have to show me those," he continues, referring to the blue swirled dice. "They sound awesome. I haven't really seen any hand-made acrylic dice before, but I new a kid who had mad carving skills and made his own wooden dice and even made himself a set of bone ones once." Andy gives the store owner a brief upwards tilt of the head in acknowledgement before adding to Kari, "He always said that they were made from deer bones from a buck his dad shot hunting, but..." Andy's voice lowers dramatically, "The summer right before he made the dice was when Old Ms. Carruthers the math teacher from PS 41 went missing..."

Then, without breaking stride, batting an eyelash or cracking even the hint of a smile, he transitions topics to the grocery list, nodding decisively. "But of course. A gaming session cannot subsist on celery and prune juice alone! The real question is: What's our budget and how sick do we want to be the following morning?"

Karita Landry has posed:
About to get into the car is when Andy goes and states that old Miss Curruthers disappeared and then, Karita's left gazing at the lanky fellow with a slack-jawed, open mouthed expression of pure horror mixed with confusion. "What. The. Fuck." She states when she finally finds her voice. "You are so full of it." Finally is Karita's decision in all things as she plucks open the car door and settles in side, jabbing Andy in the arm as soon as she's able to. "So. So. SO full of it."

A few minutes later and the shopping trip to the grocery store is completed, considering this is Karita's first gaming session of the year, (many more to come), she decided to go full out and be completely ill the next day. Snacks. Sweets. Drinks. Candy. Chips. Vegetables. Hummus. And Pretzels of course. Everything growing College age kids need to make a proper night of things.

On the way back home, Karita offers a wry grin to her 'partner in crime' at least for the current moment. "Thanks for coming with me, had fun." And with that - she falls into a comfortable silence.