Fortuna's Board Games

Hops was excited to enjoy her day off. Unlike some people, she still enjoyed a relaxing day, but her idea of recharging was still enjoying a social day. She didn't have any specific plans lined up though, so when Fortuna called her asking for her to come over and hang out she eagerly accepted. Fortuna was pretth eccentric in a fun way, and Hops was looking forward to a visit to the forest since she hadn't been there in a while.

When Hops arrived at Fortuna's home, she was not at all surprised to see a bunch of eclectic decorations and furniture. Though none of it directly matched or was part of a shared set, it all shared a warm color scheme with pops of blue and seemed to be purposefully coordinated rather than haphazardly strewn about. Fortuna was not at all a minimalist and even her outdoor decorations showed that clearly.

Hops knocked on the door with a bottle of alcohol she'd mixed in hand, a gift she knew Fortuna was sure to enjoy. There was a bit of shuffling heard before Fortuna answered the door, her tremendously fluffy hair in a half-up half-down style and her ears tied up. It looked like she'd been busy.

"Hey! Come in," she greeted as she stepped out of the way. "I was just finishing up making some peach cookies. They had a crazy sale at the grocery store for peaches so I got a bunch of them and haven't known what to do with them," she continued speaking as she closed the door behind Hops and led her to the kitchen, "and I remembered you designed a peach drink before so you obviously have to like peaches, right? So I called you up and have been making a bunch of cookies since then, but I think I made way too much so you can have as many as you want—oh! And thank you for the gift too. You should open it up and we can have some together while we snack!"

Hops smiled as she watched Fortuna get back to putting what she estimated to be the second to last batch of cookies in the oven. "These smell great! I think they'll go great with the drink I brought over."

There were some recently washed pattenered glasses on the counter so she grabbed those for the both of them and set them on the island where she sat and took a cookie from the finished pile. Fortuna sat with her and enjoyed the snacks too.

"Did you have anything planned you wanted to do or did you just want to hang out?" Hops asked before adding, "Either one is good with me!"

"Just hang out really! I got a bunch of board games over there if you want to look through them with me and see if anything looks good to you. I'll move the snacks to the dining table." Since the floorplan for the kitchen was open to see into the living room, it was clear where she was pointing at.

"Ohh, okay! Sounds good to me."

Taking a cookie with her for the decision-making, Hops headed over to the glass glass cabinet and was surprised by how many games Fortuna had. "Wow, you have a lot of these. Do you collect them?"

"Sort of! When I see something interesting and not too complicated-looking I pick it up. I haven't tried them all yet so depending on what you're interested in we might have to figure it out together." She felt Fortuna walk over to stand beside her.

The collection of games she had was actually very impressive. Hops could see some classics such as The Game of Afterlife, Sorry Not Sorry!, and Guess What?, along with a bunch of other very unfamiliar titles. She decided it would be more fun to try something new, so she picked three titles she'd never heard of before.

"Oh hey! You might like Hell Tavern Inn. It's a game about getting drunk and not going broke. I haven't tried the other two though."

"Why don't we start with that one then so you can teach me how to play it?"

"Sure! We can try out this one too since it's short and I've played it a couple times. It's about assembling an RPG team of imps and fighting angels." Fortuna snagged a small box of cards from a corner of the cabinet before helping Hops bring over the other games.

Before they even got to playing the board games, they spent long enough snacking and chatting that Fortuna went to put the last batch in the oven and came out with from fresh cookies. When she arrived back she found Hops reading the instructions to Hell Tavern Inn and Fortuna started explaining the board, actions, and pieces.

They spent longer than expected playing. Of the games they initially grabbed they struggled to understand the instructions for one of them. (A consequence of Fortuna misjudging the simplicity of something st a glance.) That led them into trying out various other games together that Fortuna hadn't tried yet since they enjoyed the process of working together to figure things out, and made some notes about what they should spend more time playing next time. Fortuna also made sure to serve more alcoholic refreshments once theirs ran out, so they enjoyed a nice evening playing drunk board games together.

By the time they started getting tired it was dark outside. They mostly kept the room clean while cycling through games but had to spend some time cleaning up the pieces from the last couple they were trying out.

"I don't think I've ever played so many board games before," Fortuna laughed.

"Me neither! But it was a lot of fun. I think I'm going to head home now, but thank you for inviting me over! I had a great time, and the cookies were amazing too."

"I'm glad that you liked them! It was nice having you over. You know you're always welcome to stop by if you're in the area. I'll answer the door as long as I'm home, since if I'm here I'm definitely not doing anything important."

Fortuna walked with Hops to the door and opened it for her to leave. Hops smiled at her. "I'll be sure to remember that. Have a good night!"

"'Night, Hops!"