"I cast Fireball at the dragon!" Johnny decred, leaning forward in Remi's bean bag chair with dramatic fir.

  "Roll for it," Andrew said from his cross-legged position on the floor, his DM s perfectly aligned with the edge of Remi's desk. A small army of carefully painted miniatures was arranged otle mat before him.

  Remi watched as Johnny's twenty-sided die cttered across the mat, nearly taking out a meticulously painted dragon miniature. He winced – Andrearticur about his hand-painted figures.

  "Natural twenty!" Johnny pumped his fist in the air. "That's what I'm talking about! Just like in that se from 'Bck Clover' where Asta faces down the demon—"

  "We are not paring this to anime," Andrew cut him off, adjusting his gsses. "This is cssic D&D. Tolkien-inspired fantasy, not your Japanese—"

  "Oh e on!" Johnny leaned forward, nearly knog over his Mountain Dew. "You 't tell me that wizards throwing fireballs isly like anime. Have you even seen 'Mage's Labyrinth'? The magic system is practically lifted from D&D!"

  "More like D&D's magic system is based on actual mythology and folklore," Andrew tered, his DM s kling as he gripped it tighter. "Besides, 5e's carefully banced spell progression and po requirements create a much more logical—"

  "Logical?" Johnny snorted. "Your wizard needs bat poop to cast Fireball. How is that more logical than eling your inner spirit energy?"

  "It's sulfur from guano, not bat poop, and it's historically accurate to medieval alchemical pos—"

  "Guys," Remi interrupted, seeing the familiar glint in both his friends' eyes. Last time they'd gotten into this argument, it had somehow ended with a thirty-minute debate about whether a katana should t as a longsword or a shortsword in D&D terms.

  "I'm just saying," Johnny pressed on, "that if you actually watched 'The Rising of the Shield Hero,' you'd see how simir the character progression is to D&D's level system. They even have skill trees!"

  "That's because JRPGs stole their meics from tabletop games," Andrew said with the weary tone of someone who'd had this argument many times before. "And don't eve me started on how anime pletely misrepresents the tactical elements of actual bat. A real fighter 't just spam the same move over and over—"

  "Have you seen some of the Champion builds in 5e?" Johnny raised an eyebrow. "A Surge, Extra Attack, just hitting things over and over—"

  "That's pletely different! There's strategic resource ma involved, and positioning, and—"

  Remi slouched in his chair, watg his friends gear up for what could easily bee an hour-loe. He'd learned more about both D&D rules and anime plots than he'd ever wao know just from being caught in the crossfire of these arguments. At least they were staying away from the Great Sword Debate of st month, when Johnny had tried to vindrew that Cloud's Buster Sword would be perfectly practical in a real fight.

  "Look," he cut in before they could really get going, " we just agree that the dragon takes 8d6 fire damage and move on? Some of us would like to finish this enter before we're eligible for AARP."

  A knock at the door interrupted Andrew's familiar rant. Before anyone could answer, Rachel poked her head in, her long dark hair falling across her fa that deliberately casual way that had takewenty mio perfect.

  "What are you guys doing?" she asked, stepping into the room. Her eyes lingered on the miniatures and character sheets.

  "We're in the middle of a campaign," Remi said, trying to keep the annoya of his voice. "Kind of at a crucial moment here, Rach."

  "Oh." She picked up one of Andrew's spare dice, turning it over in her hands. " I py?"

  "It's not really something you just jump into," Remi expined, watg Ae the sight of someone handling his precision dice. "You need a character, and we're already mid-campaign, and—"

  "Whatever." Rachel tossed the die bato the desk. "Have fun with your nerdy little games." The door smmed behind her with enough forake the miniatures wobble.

  John out a low whistle. "Dude, your sister's got some attitude."

  "She's fourteen," Remi sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Everything's dramatic at fourteen."

  Before anyone could respond, Rachel burst bato the room, all traces of anger gone. She flopped onto Remi's bed, somehow managing to scatter three perfectly stacked sourcebooks in the process.

  "So what's everyone doing this weekend?" she asked, voice honey-sweet as she started boung otress. Each bounce sent miniatures wobbling otle mat. "I heard Tawnee's going to be at Crystal Lake on Saturday. You know, if anyone cares about that sort of thing."

  Remi felt his ears burn. "Rachel..."

  "What?" She rolled onto her stomach, propping her on her hands and batting her eyeshes ily. "I'm just making versation. Being sociable. Isn't that what Mom's always tellio do?"

  Another bounce sent Andrew's carefully painted dragon sliding dangerously close to the mat's edge. He luo catch it, shooting Rachel a look that would have turned a basilisk to stone.

  "Oops," Rachel giggled, not sorry at all. "Hey, did you guys know Remi has a diary where he writes about—"

  "OUT!" Remi finally snapped, pointing at the door.

  "Fine, fine." She slid off the bed, managing to knock over a dice tower in the process. "But you know," she added from the doorway, "if someone had let me py, I wouldn't have to eain myself."

  They tried to get bato the game, but Rachel's interruption had thrown off the entire rhythm. Andrew had to spend five minutes reanizing his scattered miniatures, muttering under his breath about proper tabletop etiquette.

  "Okay," he finally said, settling back behind his DM s. "So the dragon is wounded from Johnny's Fireball, but it's still airborne. Remi, yue is in position behind that pilr, and—"

  "ACHOO!"

  Johnny's sneeze sent dice skittering across the battle mat. The d20 bounced off Remi's pencil, spun on its er, aled on a one.

  Dead silence fell over the room.

  "Was that..." Remi leaned forward, staring at the die. "Was that your attack roll?"

  "Critical fail," Andrew firmed with a mixture of horror and delight that only a DM could muster. "Your wizard's spell goes pletely wrong. Roll for random dire."

  Johnny groaned, grabbing the d8. "This is karma for that anime ent, isn't it?" The die cttered to a stop. "...six?"

  "Southeast." Andrew sulted his notes with schorly precision. "That would be... directly at Remi's rogue. Roll damage."

  "But I have Evasion!" Remi protested.

  "Not if you used your rea for that opportunity attack st round," Andrew tered. "Which you did."

  Johnny picked up his pile of d6s. "For what it's worth, I'm really sorry about this." The dice bounced across the mat like tieors of doom. "Twenty-seven damage?"

  "My rogue only has twenty-four hit points left," Remi said ftly.

  Andrew was already scribbling behind his s. "Your character smells burniher and hair as the Fireball meant for the dragon goes wide, catg you in its radius. The st thing you see is your fellow party member's apologetic face as magical fmes engulf your position. You take... let's say fire damage with a side of emotional betrayal."

  "Dude," Johnny said, "I said I was sorry!"

  "Your wizard watches in horror as his panion bursts into fmes," Andrew tinued, clearly enjoying this turn of events. "The dragon, meanwhile, seems to be ughing—"

  A notification chime from Johnny's phoerrupted the description. He g it, then grinned. "Hey, my broing to be te from soccer practice. I've got at least another hour."

  "I say we take a break from this friendly fire hazard," Remi said, looking at his charred character sheet. "Switething where Johnny 't actally murder my character?"

  "Teical term is 'tactical friendly damage,'" Johnny offered, already perking up. "But yeah, I could go for some Smash. At least there I murder your character on purpose."

  "Pretty sure the teical term is 'you're buying the snaext session,'" Remi tered, standing up. "e o's head downstairs. I don't trust Rachel not to burst in here again and scatter the rest of Andrew's miniatures."

  Aarted carefully arranging his D&D materials with methodical precision. "We'll say the dragon was so impressed by your team's self-destructive tendehat it offered you all a temporary reprieve."

  "Temporary reprieve feels generous," Johnny said, helping to gather the dice.

  "Temporary Relief from Perpetual Inpetence," Andrew corrected with a straight face. "The dragon's doing you a favor, really."

  Remi was already heading for the door, Swit hand. "Less dragon judgment, more moving before Rachel realizes we're switg rooms."

  "Swite Smash?" Remi suggested, already reag for his sole. "Might be easier than saving Andrew's campaign from Johnny's pyromania."

  "Hey, Fireball is a perfectly valid strategy!"

  They migrated to the living room, where Remi set up the Switch while his friends settled onto the couch. Johnny immediately unched into a detailed parison of the test Zelda game to some anime Remi had never heard of, while Andreained noises and pulled out his phoo scroll through Reddit's D&D forums.

  "The art style is clearly inspired by Studio Ghibli," Johnny was saying as Remi navigated through the menu. "Even the character designs—"

  " I py?"

  Remi nearly dropped his troller. Rachel had materialized behind the couch, watg the character select s with forced casualness.

  "We've only got three trollers," Remi said, which was teically true – the fourth stairs in his drawer, slightly chewed by their old dog.

  "I could use yours," Rachel suggested, reag for his troller. "You alick Samus anyway."

  Remi leaned away from her grabbing hands, starting the match. "Maybe ter, Rach."

  She didn't leave. Instead, she perched on the couch arm o him, deliberately pushing into his space. "You're doing it wrong," she announced as his Samus missed a dodge. "You o roll there. Everyone knows that."

  "I know how to py," Remi muttered, trying to focus on avoiding Andrew's Link.

  "Doesn't look like it." Rachel's elbow somehow found its way into his ribs. "Oh look, you died. Again."

  "Because you keep poking me!"

  "I'm not doing anything." She shifted position, somehow taking up even more space despite her small frame. "By the way, you're about to get hit by Johnny's—oh, yep, there it is. Dead again."

  Johnny snickered, his Joker character celebrating on s. "She's n, dude."

  "See? I should py. I'm obviously better than you." Rachel made anrab for the troller. "e on, just och."

  "Rachel." Remi held the troller out of reach, his character standing idle on s. "I'll hang out with you ter, okay? We're kind of in the middle of something here."

  "Fine." Her voice could have frozen va. "I didn't want to py your stupid baby game anyway."

  She stormed off toward the stairs, her footsteps thundering overhead.

  "Dude, your sister's got it bad for attention," Johnny said, seleg random for the match. "Worse than that tsundere in the anime I was telling you about—"

  "Everything is not an anime reference," Andrew cut in, but his heart wasn't in the usual argument. "Though I guess she's kind of like a low-level chaos demon. es in, disrupts the party, leaves destru in her wake."

  "She's just being Rachel," Remi sighed, pig Samus again. "She gets like this whenever Dad's on a busirip. Mom says it's a phase."

  "A phase that's sted what, two years?" Johnny snorted as his random pided on Pikachu. "Remember when she sed your swim trunks for Hello Kitty ones right before Tawnee's pool party? Man, you were so worked up about impressing her, and then Rachel hits you with that."

  Remi's Samus missed a jump as he ged at the memory. "Did you have t that up? I ended up not even going to the party."

  "Which is exactly what she wanted," Andrew added, his Link taking advantage of Remi's distra. "Though maybe it was for the best. Didn't Tawart dating that guy from the swim team? The ohat's always bragging about his p times?"

  "Thanks for that remioo," Remi muttered. He'd been trying to work up the ce to talk to Tawnee properly ever since she'd smiled at him in AP Bio. She robably the smartest person in their year, with those intense dark eyes that seemed to see right through you whenever she answered a question in css—

  "Yeah, yeah, save the D&D fshbacks," Johnny interrupted. "The point is, your sister's got some serious—watch out for that Bob-omb—serious issues, man."

  "She's fourteen," Remi said, dodging the explosion. "Everything's dramatic at fourteen. You should have see dinner yesterday, going on about how nobody in this family uands her true artistic soul."

  "Artistic soul?" Johnny ughed. "Is that what we're calling TikTok danow?"

  A particurly loud thump came from overhead, followed by the sound of Rachel's door smming.

  Remi shared a look with his friends, silently ting down in his head.

  Three... two... one...

  Rachel appeared in the doorway again, twirling bad forth in her sundress. "Hey, whatcha doing now?"

  "Rachel..." Remi warned, reizing the too-ione in her voice.

  "I'm just asking!" She drifted into the room, bare feet silent on the carpet. "You guys are alying something. It's like, don't you ever do anything else?" She perched on the arm of the couch, right o where the power strip lugged in. "Like, I don't know, hang out with your sister?"

  "We're kind of in the middle of—" Remi started.

  "Oh, what's this do?" Rachel's hand hovered over the power strip's switch, eyes wide with exaggerated curiosity.

  "Don't you dare—"

  The TV s went bck. Along with every other eleic devi the room.

  "Oops!" Rachel giggled, boung up from the couch. "Was that important? I'm so clumsy sometimes."

  "She's definitely your sister," Johnny said, watg Rachel skip toward the door. "She's got that same evil glint you get when you're about to edge-guard someone."

  "I do not have an evil glint," Remi groaned, letting his head fall back against the couch. "And Rachel, turn it ba."

  "'t!" she called over her shoulder. "I'm busy being dramatically ignored by my big brother. Maybe I'll go write about it in my diary. You know, like some people write about certain swim team members in theirs—"

  "RACHEL!"

  "Siblings, man." Johnny shook his head sympathetically. "My little brother's the same way. Last week he deleted my entire chyroll queue and repced it with nothing but Pokémon reruns. Like, the inal series. Not even the good seasons."

  "At least you guys have siblings," Andrew said, still trying to peer at his nohone s. "Try being an only child. My parents think D&D is my cry for attention."

  Remi pushed himself up from the couch. "I should probably go talk to her. Rain che the game?"

  "Sure," Johnny said, already pulling out his vape. He caught Remi's look and quickly stuffed it ba his pocket. "I mean, uh, I should head home anyway. Got that history test tomorrow."

  "That you haven't studied for because you were too busy watg anime," Andrew added, gathering his things.

  "Excuse me, but 'The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire' is a highly educational series—"

  Remi left them to their bickering, heading upstairs to deal with his sister. He knew Rachel wasn't really angry about the game – there was always something deeper with her these days. Every iio like navigating a minefield, trying to be a good brother while also maintaining his own life and is.

  He paused outside her door, hearing the muffled sound of her favorite pylist bleeding through her headphones. With a deep breath, he raised his hand to knock, w how te the gap that seemed to be wideniween them day by day.

  He never got the ce. His mom's voice carried up the stairs, calling him down for dinner. Rachel's music got louder, and Remi's hand fell back to his side. He'd try again ter, he told himself. There would be plenty of time to figure out how to be a better brother.

  But of course, Remi didn't know that time was running out. He just turned away from Rachel's door, heading down to help set the table, one more normal afternoon slipping away before everything would ge.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Edit - My dad just reminded me that I was Rachel growing up...... I just had to say "I wasn't that bad!" He disagrees.

  Ok, first off.

  inally I had dohis 100% AI. And it was a mistake.I am a mute. So I 't use Voice to Text. So haters that tell me that's an option? It isn't. My vocal chords are destroyed.I had damaged my left hand badly so typing was horrible. And I mean horrible. On top of that many life things happehat made writing hard, and I mean HARD.

  But, I didn't want to leave off and not write. So I posted it. And caught hate. And I mean HATE.

  So I pulled everything a offlio heal. I have worked on fixing myself and re-disc tools and works. I still 't properly type. Not really. I'm henpeg this with my right hand mostly. But, I still want to eain people. So I'm moving fowards.

  This is a pletely revised Hatgs Remorse for anyone who read the old and very cumbersome version. I hope that it is more enjoyable. I know that rew this and other series has been a joy. Yes, I am using AI to assist me, but I am not having AI do all the writing. Only having it as a tool not as the creator of the cept and the path. And it is just a tool, just as much as microsoft word or clipstudio pro is.

  Anywhooo... I'm bad posting.

  And if you don't like people using AI for anything? This and all of my works are not for you. Go find someo using these tools. But remember, your Cell Phone? It is an AI tool. You're using it just to talk and browse online.

  Edit:

  I’m putting my Discord el back up on perma invite:

  https://disc/NYjPU3auVy

  Join Me and some other people to talk shop, discuss artwork, stories, chatter, or just share fun videos or memes!

  I’ll put this link in other chapters as well.

  Also, feel free to PM me if you have any questions or wanna ent.

  TTFN Everyone.