The next week I'd ended up sleeping in and got to the store late. I suppose it shouldn't have been a surprise to see Belle in a game already when I got there, but it was kind of disappointing. They were wearing another fantastic gothic dress, and sat opposite a person I didn't recognize. He was a guy with short blonde hair and the standard nerd-shirt-and-jeans uniform of every dude gamer I'd ever seen. Personally, I couldn't ditch it fast enough after transitioning.
I plopped down at the table next to Belle. "Hey, Belle! How's it going?" Their board position looked a little dire.
"Oh, Tessa, hi, it's, good to see you again." They smiled at me, which made me smile back. They turned back to the board. "I'm ahead on points, but, well..."
The guy across from us was measuring something out. I peered at his faction, then realized what he was up to. "Oh, no, you brought the orbital strike?"
"Obviously," he said. "They're the best part of playing Screza." He squinted at me. "I don't think I've seen you before. You know Belle?"
I stared him down. "Met them last week. I'm Tessa."
He grunted and went back to measuring. "I'm Max. I've been coming here for years." and I've known Belle way longer than you, went the unspoken implication. "You any good?" He rolled his attack dice and I glared at him.
"Yeah, I'd say so." I'd won most of the tournaments back home, but I wasn't about to get into a brag-off with this guy.
Belle made a soft "oh" sound and I had to do a double-take at their defense roll: all 1's. A complete and resounding failure. Max counted up hits and knocked over figures until the only one left was Belle's CyberHorde Leader, badly wounded.
"Damn, those things are brutal," I said, mostly trying to make Belle feel better.
"Hell yeah," gloated Max. "You wanna run a fight after I finish this one, see 'em up close?"
"You're on!" I leaned back and folded my arms. "But I don't think Belle's done just yet."
"What?"
Belle was, in fact, meticulously standing their figures back up and ticking off ability uses on their sheet.
"Wait, wait, wait, what are you doing? You don't get that many resurrections!"
I looked at Belle. They had opened their mouth to explain, and then gotten sort of a pained expression when they realized how much they were going to have to talk to explain everything. They shot me a pleading look, and I nodded.
"You haven't read the most recent rules update, have you, Max?"
He looked back and forth between Belle and I. "Well, ah..."
I shook my head and tsked him. "If you'd read it, you'd know that CybeRevenants got a new ability. If there's five or more of them grouped up like that, they get to come back immediately for a counterattack turn."
"What, permanently? That's broken!"
I sighed. "No, it's just the one turn. But your commander there is the real linchpin of your army, isn't he? Without him, your morale rolls are as good as failed."
Max half-reached out, as if he could shield his mini with his hand. "Well, he's still behind cover!"
"Sure," I said, smiling as I watched Belle move one of their minis. A really well-painted decaying human with a a cyborg eye and two large antennae skulked across the board towards the grey and orange Screza Commander. "But not for long, I think."
"I, use, Call of the Void, on, your leader..."
"What? But that ability sucks."
My grin got wider. "It got buffed. Now your commander has to move spaces equal to the number of successes, not just one."
Belle rolled, and Max's face fell when he saw the results. "Um. Can you, move them, here, please?" Max begrudgingly moved his unit... directly into the line of fire of every unit Belle had.
I looked at her. "You set that whole thing up, didn't you? You knew he had the orbital strike and wouldn't be able to resist all your units grouped up like that, and that he'd have to risk his commander to do it. That's brilliant!" Belle favored me with a small smile and blushed a little, the color nicely contrasting their eyeshadow. "What a trap! Light him up!" I was so ready to see Belle beat this guy.
But roll after roll after roll, Belle just couldn't seem to land a hit. Even when they did, it simply bounced off the prism-shaped armor. These units should have hit at least 50% of the time. This was ridiculous. Max breathed a sigh of relief and shook his head. "Well, sometimes the dice just hate you, huh?"
"Goddamn, that was awful. You got robbed, Belle."
They gave me another small smile as Max took his turn and mopped up their units. "It's, okay, it kind of, always seems to happen, like this."
"We gotta get you some new dice."
"I've, tried that, before. It doesn't seem to matter. I always, lose."
I blinked. "Wait, really? Always? I thought Bob was exaggerating. You've actually never won a game?"
"Not in, kind of, a long time, no..."
I looked at the board again. "But... your tactics are sound! Our games were close! You clearly know what you're doing!" I frowned at them. "If you can't win at all, why keep playing?"
They looked down, their dark hair obscuring their face as they cleaned up the battlefield, and said something so quietly I almost didn't catch it.
"It's, nice... to lose..."