“Jane, can my friends make it here in a couple minutes?" Colin had asked.
“Yes,” Jane droned, before going back to her usual self. “I mean, it’s possible. Freak quantum displacement COULD happen. I doubt any of them are near enough to get here normally, though. Doesn’t Rex live a few miles away?”
Not quite as revealing as Colin had hoped… Or had it? He wasn’t sure if she’d known where Rex had lived before. They had visited each other from time to time, but he didn’t know if his sister had overheard where they lived. The fact that it had interpreted the “can” question’s answer as something hypothetically possible was an annoying rub, too. Did it have to do with what Jane already knew about? She wasn’t one to bring up quantum physics in regular conversation, but she at least knew about the concept.
‘Alright, let’s try this again, with a different question she couldn’t know about.’ Colin thought. “Before I got out of bed, did I invite my friends to come eat with us by text message?”
“Yes.” She tilted her head. “You told me you did that before we arrived. Why are you asking me about it?”
‘Okay,’ Colin thought. ‘So, if I ask a question they shouldn’t be able to know the answer to, it’ll contrive a situation where they COULD know the answer. Ugh. Another thing to keep track of. This power’s gonna be rough.’
“Just… making sure,” Colin said. “Are all of them gonna arrive in the next minute?”
“Yes… I mean, assuming they don’t crash in the parking lot. I mean, you JUST told me they’d texted you that info. What’s with the twenty questions today?”
“My memory’s all over the place today.” Colin said.
Before he could think of any better excuses, his friends came through the door. First was Rex, a longtime friend of his from school. He’d been the one to get Colin interested in D&D, and had always had a passion for magic and fantasy. He wasn’t really into furry stuff, but whether it was from his soft-spoken, non-confrontational personality, or sympathizing with Colin in having hobbies others found weird, he didn’t make a fuss about it when Colin had discussed it.
Next was a young man who looked around eighteen, someone he didn’t recognize, but, judging from his reaction on seeing Colin, the man recognized him. Maybe it was his online friend “C&PT&N.” Colin had never seen him in person, “C&PT&N” was the type who enjoyed his anonymity, and had never given Colin any identifying information beyond that he was male, and had once mentioned looking up colleges. He’d been an aspiring artist, who’d done a lot of furry art, and made a killing off the commissions
Lastly, there came Sally, a girl that had moved into town a couple years back, and shared some classes with Colin, and had eventually joined their tabletop gaming group out of curiosity. She had a “play to win” attitude about everything she did, whether it was school, games, or even the chores her parents gave her. “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing WELL,” was her motto. It had ended up manifesting in their campaigns as min-maxing tendencies, to Rex’s annoyance.
The Kobold waitress at the entrance greeted the three newcomers, and led them to Colin’s table.
“Hey Colin, hey Jane,” Rex greeted them, tilting his head slightly to look around them at the kobold in the booster seat. “Oh, hi to you too, Robyn. Looks like you guys are eating well today, huh?”
“Yeah,” Jane said. “We got a lucky free breakfast for the whole group as part of some promotion. Feel free to have as much as you like.”
The guy who looked around eighteen chuckled. “Heh, looks like I picked the perfect weekend to travel, then.”
“Yeah, nice to finally meet you in person, ‘Captain,’” Colin said.
‘C&PT&N’ sighed. “Didn’t I tell you not to call me that while I’m here? ‘Alister,’ is just fine.”
“Right, sorry,” Colin said, shuffling his wings slightly. “So, if you don’t mind talking about it, what brings you here? Thought my friends and sister might like to hear it.”
“It’s nothing special. My parents were visiting some relatives for a wedding and brought me along. Since I accidentally mentioned I’d be coming to Denver, Colin asked if I’d be in the area and might have time to visit him. And I did.” He looked over at Colin’s sister. “Since you’re one of the world’s super-rare dragonesses, I feel safe in betting you’re Jane, right?”
“How’d you guess?” Jane grinned.
“So, are you gonna introduce us to your other friend?” Sally said. “Or are we gonna have to do that ourselves?”
“Sure,” Colin said. “Alister, I’d like you to meet Robyn, Rex and Sally, they’re my local friends. Robyn, Rex, Sally, this is Alister. He’s a guy I’ve known online for a while.”
“Nice to meet you,” Alister said.
With his friends all together in one place, Colin thought about how to start transforming them. Perhaps he’d upgrade all of them into more dragons like himself. Or maybe he’d improve them in more unique ways? Or… Did he even have to improve them? He could turn them into whatever he liked, and could undo it with another question if he changed his mind, as far as he knew.