Tam leaned in closer to the monitor, straining to hear as he played back the section of song he’d been working on. But it was no use. He could barely hear a thing.

Phoenix and Lola were giving him a -2 penalty to his Perception check. Their chatting and giggling was just too distracting.

But he didn’t have the heart to ask them to stop. It was refreshing to see his best friend so happy and comfortable. It seemed that the dark curse that loomed over Phoenix’s head had finally begun to dissipate. At least for now.

Lola was like an Aasimar, Tam had decided. She practically radiated light and goodness. He could feel it from the moment he met her.

But he didn’t feel it as strongly as Phoenix did. Lola lit him up in a way Tam hadn’t seen for a long time. It was a thought that brought him a strange mixture of joy and sadness.

What about Gigi? What had happened to her light? What sort of terrible curse had befallen her and Phoenix since they left home? And whose magic would be strong enough to undo it?

His best friend had done so much to help Tam and Jasper face-off against their own curse lately… But it was no surprise, was it? He was always the best at making things better, ever since the moment Tam met him. No matter how awful or painful things got, Phoenix had a healing spell for everything.

But he’s too low-level to cast them on himself, Tam realized. He can’t undo his own curse without help right now.

But maybe there was still hope. Maybe he could still level-up in time to save himself and Gigi. Maybe Tam could roll high enough to give him a bonus on his next spell attempt.

Or perhaps he was already lost to the charms of a beautiful Aasimar.

Phoenix’s laughter called Tam back to the present. “Okay, that was was better, but… Try again.” He suggested gently.

“Ich hoffe ihr mögt die neue Titelmusik.” Lola repeated before bursting into a fit of giggles. “Okay, maybe thanking you guys in German was a bad idea… This shouldn’t be so hard, should it? So why do I sound like a dying cat?!”

“I was going to say dying seagull, but…”

Lola giggled once more at his words. “As long as it’s a dying German seagull, I’m okay with that.”

“What about an American seagull with a decent roll on her Language check?” Tam spoke at last, smiling kindly as he drew closer to his friends.

The dark haired girl beamed at him. “I’ll take it!”

“Finished already?” Phoenix asked.

Tam nodded. “I think so, if you wanna check it out.” He gestured back toward Lola’s computer as he spoke.

Lola leapt up from her chair and practically skipped over to the computer, pausing just for a moment to pick up Duchess on her way.

Tam rolled just high enough on his Perception check to notice the way Phoenix was looking at her as she did so. The sight sent a small wave of unease washing over him, but Tam tried his best to ignore it.

“Ahh, this is perfect!” Lola gushed as the brief sound clip ended. “You guys are amazing!”

Tam had offered to do some editing on Phoenix’s performance of the Space Dementia theme song so that Lola could use it as new intro music for her YouTube channel. Must’ve rolled a nat 20… she loves it! He thought proudly as Lola rushed back over to give him a hug.

“Thank you so much.” She said as she finally pulled away from him.

“You’re welcome.”

“DJ TamTam works his magic as usual.” Phoenix teased as he rose to his feet. “Seriously though, you’re so damn good at this, Tam. It sounds great!”

Tam just shrugged. “Thanks, but I can’t take all the credit… I couldn’t have done it without a certain Bard’s epic performance.”

“He’s right.” Lola turned toward Phoenix then, smiling warmly. “Thanks, Phoenix. You’re the best.”

————————————————–

Tam couldn’t help his relief when he and Phoenix returned home to an empty house. He remembered Gigi mentioning having a ‘girls’ night’ with her friend Lucy that evening, and it seemed they’d gotten an early start.

He was very grateful for that — It would be so much easier to talk to his friend without worrying about passing a Stealth roll.

Tam tried his best to keep his tone casual as he finally opened his mouth to speak. “So… Lola’s pretty cool, huh?” He asked awkwardly as he took a seat on the couch. Shit. That was awful.

Thankfully, Phoenix didn’t seem to notice how badly Tam had botched his Bluff roll. “Yeah, she’s great!” He replied with a smile. “And thanks again for helping with the song… I know it meant a lot to her.”

“No problem. You know I’m happy to help.” Tam returned his smile. I’ve gotta push a little more I guess… He decided to re-roll. “Sounds like you guys hang out a lot?”

“A couple times a week.” His friend nodded eagerly. “I’ve been helping her work on growing her channel lately. I know she really wants to get her name out there… I just wish people would start taking the bait.” Phoenix paused for a moment with a sad sigh. “You’ve seen her stuff. She’s smarter and funnier than any of those idiots out there with millions of subscribers.”

Tam nodded in agreement. “Prettier too…” He eyed Phoenix closely as he replied, doing a silent Perception roll.

“Right?! She’s totally gorgeous.” Tam felt more red flags popping up in his mind at his friend’s response. “The whole package… So I really don’t get it. People have gotta start catching on eventually, right?”

“Yeah… Well, at least now she has a kickass theme song to help draw them in?” Tam’s smile widened slightly. “And I’m glad you’ve got such great friends to keep you company while you’re over here… Not that anyone could ever replace me, of course.” He teased.

“Never.” Phoenix assured him with a playful smile.

“And… Gigi’s okay with you and Lola being such good friends… right?” His smile flickered slightly as he spoke.

His friend let out a small laugh. “Are you kidding? Gigi’s never okay with anything I do.”

Tam’s heart sank. Phoenix’s Bluff roll wasn’t high enough to hide the bitterness behind his voice as he spoke. “Yeah… I know things have been kinda rough for you guys lately.”

“Yeah. It’s still hard. I’ve tried and tried, but…” Phoenix shrugged almost helplessly as he spoke.

“Well… she seems okay so far?” He muttered uncertainly. “I mean, she’s seemed fine since I got here.”

Phoenix sighed softly. “You’re right. I need to give her more credit. She’s finally been back to her old self again the past few days… It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her like this. It’s nice.” He admitted. “And I really I wanna believe things are finally getting better… But I guess we’ll see, huh?”

“Yeah…”

Things were even worse than Tam had thought, from the sound of it. But Phoenix still couldn’t do any healing magic on himself. And Tam didn’t know the right spells to fix it. What could he do?

“Anyway, speaking of Gigi…” Phoenix’s voice broke the brief silence that had fallen between them. “Since she’s not around tonight, I was wondering if you wanted to try something? One of my, uh, ‘Jedi Mind Tricks’…”

Tam’s eyes lit up eagerly at the offer, his concerns for Phoenix temporarily forgotten. The spell his friend had performed the night he arrived had worked wonders. And the phone call he’d had with Jasper the other morning was the best conversation they’d had since they started their break.

It finally felt like he was making progress. He’d finally completed the first step of the next quest… But he still wasn’t ready for the Boss Battle. Not yet, anyway. He needed Jasper for that.

But he needed Phoenix too.

“Sure!” He replied happily.

Phoenix smiled. “Great! I was thinking of some more ways I could help you out with the whole Jasper thing, and then I realized what would totally be your style… Roleplay therapy!”

“Roleplay?!” Tam repeated excitedly. They’d already talked about him DMing a one-off game for Phoenix and his friends before he went back home. But he’d been itching to play ever since he arrived there.

“Yup! It helps you kinda ‘get into character’ and practice talking to the other person… Or you can even try and pretend to be the other person and see things through their eyes… There are so many ways you can do it.”

“Sounds good to me… Where’s my character sheet?”

“Uh… well, you don’t need one.”

Tam’s brow furrowed slightly in confusion. “But what are my stats then?”

Phoenix laughed softly. “You don’t have any.”

“So what do I roll for?”

“You don’t.”

“Oh.” Tam’s face fell. This was already sounding much less fun than he’d thought it would be. “That’s… easier, I guess? Who’s my character? Can you tell me his name, at least? Backstory?”

His friend rolled his eyes. “Okay. How about this? You are… Tamzar. A humble Bard who travels around and performs in taverns by night. And by day… you work in a book shop selling scrolls and leading other villagers in weekly… board games?”

Tam smiled. “Okay, I can totally work with that!”

A soft laugh passed Phoenix’s lips as he continued. “Okay, so… um… Tamzar, your reputation has begun to travel far and wide. And one day, you are called forth by the King to embark on a very important quest.”

“Ooh! What kind of quest?”

“I dunno… An important one?” His friend shrugged. “Um, so… you try and leave the village and head to the castle… But you can’t. Because… there’s… um…” Phoenix seemed to be struggling for a moment. “A magical force field surrounding the village. You can’t escape.”

Tam was thoughtful for a moment. “Can I roll my Arcane Knowledge to see if I know anything about getting past this force field?”

“Uh, no. You don’t have to roll, remember?”

“Oh.”

“BUT as you walk around the edge of the village examining the strange force field, you find someone else examining it too…” Phoenix paused, as though for dramatic effect. “It’s your former lover, Jas… uh… Jazza! He’s an aspiring sorcerer attending… um… magic school?”

Tam nodded. “Okay… and why did we break up?” He had a feeling he already knew the answer.

“The same reason you and Jasper did.” Phoenix replied. “You haven’t spoken to him in many months. But here he is, standing at the edge of this force field. What do you do?”

“Good day to you!” Tam called out in the haughty accent he liked to put on from time to time. “It’s good to see you, Jazza. You’re looking well.”

“As are you.” Phoenix replied in character. “But I fear our village may be in danger. There is a powerful spell surrounding all of us. And you and I are the only ones who can stop it.”

“How?”

“Uh… This is a very rare spell. A… Communication Spell.” Phoenix seemed to lose some of the character’s confidence for a moment. “And the only way we can break through it is if we talk. About our relationship.”

Tam laughed. “That’s oddly specific… But okay.”

“So… Jasp — er, Jazza’s standing right here.” Phoenix replied gently. “What do you want to say to him?”

He paused for a few moments before replying with a question of his own. “Where do you want me to start?” It was suddenly so easy to get into character. Tam could already feel himself getting lost to his emotions. “With how you betrayed my trust by cheating on me? Or how you suddenly stopped caring about the things we used to like to do together? Or how many times you ditched me to go to those stupid parties? Or how every time I tried talking to you about it, you made it my fault?” He paused once more, taking a deep breath. “Pick one, and I’ll start with that.”

Phoenix cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Um… a mysterious ghostly figure emerges from the force field. And… it, uh, whispers to you, ‘Use ‘I’ statements’…”

“What?”

“The, uh… The spell can only be broken with ‘I’ statements.”

“Phee, where the hell did you get this spell from? It’s awful.”

Phoenix sighed heavily. “Look, just… try again. But less ‘you’, more ‘I’. Okay?”

“Fine.” Tam took a deep breath. “Jazza, I still feel very angry about what happened. I was hurt by how things started changing between us. I… know that I made mistakes too. But I don’t understand why you stopped caring. You used to love going to my DJ gigs or doing game nights with me, and then you…” He paused, shaking his head.

Phoenix cleared his throat softly. “Remember, ‘I’ statements…” He muttered quickly.

“Okay, wait, who’s telling me this? Jazza or the ghost guy?” Tam asked, breaking character for a moment.

“Does it really matter?!”

“It’s just confusing.”

“Because you’re making it that way, Tam!” Phoenix groaned in frustration.

Tam bit his lip guiltily. “Sorry, Phee… Guess I got carried away with the whole ‘roleplay’ thing…” It was hard not to.

His friend took a slow breath before replying. “Look, Tam. Forget the characters or the setting or the quest. Forget all that fantasy crap just for a second, okay?”

Tam nodded.

“If Jasper were standing here right now, what would you say to him?”

“I’d tell him I’m still mad at him.” He replied slowly. “But that I still love him too. And that I wanna hear his side of things and figure out where I fucked up too. And… that I want to give this thing another chance.” Tam paused for a moment. “But I’m kinda scared too. Because I don’t want –”

Knock-knock-knock

His words were cut off by a sudden knocking at the door.

“Sorry.” Phoenix muttered apologetically as he rose to his feet. “I should get that.”

“It’s fine.” Tam assured him. “I appreciate your help Phee, but honestly? I’m not really sure if this is really gonna make a difference anyway.” He rose from his seat as well, following his friend toward the front door. “It’s a lot easier to talk about this shit with you. But if Jasper was actually here…” He shrugged, leaving the thought unfinished.

Who knew what he’d actually say the next time he came face-to-face with Jasper? Could he really roll high enough to talk through all this shit?

Apparently he’d be learning the answer sooner rather than later.

Because, as they so often did, the DM decided to throw him a curveball.