Mischievous Function

Open Eyes

That night, at the hotel lobby...

"And then I throw Bomby at the dragon!"

Coiny, Cake, and Book all blinked and stared at Pillow. Bomby spluttered in irritation for a few moments before grumbling and crossing his arms.

Naily snickered before clearing her throat. "Okay, let's see..." she said as she picked up the D20 and rolled. "Ooh, that's a four! The dragon ingests Bomby, and the resulting explosion from the dragon's stomach acids combined with the Artificer bombs that Bomby was carrying...killed you all." She clapped her hands together and started folding up the board on the coffee table. "And that's the end of our 38-week-long campaign."

Coiny huffed and stood up, pointing an irritated finger at Pillow. "Hey, just because you're our fighter doesn't give you permission to overrule everyone else!" he ranted. "Let Bomby play—"

Pillow's hand darted up to grab his with an iron grip and gave him a friendly, gentle smile that threatened to break every bone in his body if he said one more word. "You may now be quiet."

Book shook her head and sighed while Cake leaned back on the couch in disappointment. "Another game wasted..." he grumbled.

"PILLOW!"

"Hm?"

Pillow perked up and looked around the lobby before finding Remote and Liy waving her over to the elevator. "We think we've got a good contact," Liy called out. "We figured that it would be best to let you do the talking."

"Oh, of course!" Pillow cheerily replied, getting up from the couch and speed-walking over to them. "We can't just let anyone fence our take, after all. Goodbye, geeks!"

"Wh—you were playing, too!" Book called after her in protest, albeit to no avail as the trio had already stepped into the elevator. "Ugh...that girl. She drives me crazy sometimes."

"Same," Cake grunted. "I think she drives everyone a little crazy."

Bomby gathered up the last few cards and handed them to Naily, who placed them back into the box and placed the lid back on. "Well, I guess I'd better get going," she said with a yawn. "It's pretty late, after all. You guys coming, too?"

"Yeah, I think so," Bomby nodded as he stretched his arms out for a few seconds before letting out a sigh of relief. "I'm gonna go check up on my cousin. Thankfully, I think he's getting along with Spongy and Pickle."

"Oh, really? Nice." Coiny let out a yawn as well and said, "I'm going up, too. Needle's having the Literature Club write a little journal entry every night we're here, and if I'm awake for much longer, I'm probably going to forget everything."

Naily nodded before turning to Cake and Book. "You two coming?"

Cake shook his head. "Nah, I think I'm gonna hang out down here for a bit. This lobby's got quite a nice atmosphere."

Book scoffed and crossed her arms. "I wish that was my reason. Last I checked, Teardrop and Dora were fighting over something, and Eggy was, uh...thinking about Cake's boyfriend in the bathroom. Out loud. No peace in there at all right now."

Naily shrugged before waving goodbye to the two of them. Cake and Book watched them walk off to the elevator for a bit before Cake spoke up. "Well, I think I'm gonna head up to the café in a bit," he told Book. "You wanna come with?"

"Uh...sure," Book shrugged. "Why?"

"Because two social outcasts with crippling social anxiety stand a better chance against an apathetic nihilistic minimum-wage cashier who wants to see the world burn than one social outcast with crippling social anxiety does."