303SeeOther

The little beginnings of a smile on Yona's face quickly turned into a fully-fledged and beaming grin at the arrival of friends and, although the Ogres & Oubliettes rulebook made some mention about how they were players and she was the Game Master, Yona preferred to think of them as friend-players. Or player-friends. Either way, she promptly abandoned her spot behind the table to greet them all, because regardless of what the book said about roles and who had to do what, hospitality was important. And with what she had planned for the game, Yona wanted one last opportunity today to be herself, before unleashing menacing monsters, terrifying traps, plucky princesses and troves of treasure. The game required a yak who could stand firm. "Griffon! Not sure who else turn up. Yona invite everycreature," which was true, insofar as she had spent just about every available minute of the last few days leaving rather vague and cryptic notes about the game. And, just to be sure, she'd spread the message via word-of-mouth, which presumably Yona had taken to mean 'shout loudly about Ogres & Oubliettes to anyone who was unfortunate to stand still for long enough for her to shout at them'. She was about to say something about what the character Gallus had created was, but then she spied the masterpiece of a picture on his character sheet (there was no such thing as a terrible drawing of a yak, Yona considered, because by definition all drawings of a yak are the best), and so rather than whatever it was she was planning to say, she simply - and, unsurprisingly, loudly - exclaimed "ADVENTURE YAK!". The happy grin remained. If anything, it grew as Smolder arrived; she had brought snacks. While the rulebook did not make any mention whatsoever of snacks, the few ponies she'd spoken to about the game did seem to spend a lot of time talking about the importance of food. Food with mysterious names and equally mysterious ingredients. What was a huff puff? Didn't she see one of them in the list of monsters at the back of the rulebook? "It best game ever," Yona explained, sort of, as Smolder got herself settled, "Friends play and they explore scary dungeon! Fight monsters! And ribbons! And roll dice! Make characters and snacks and Yona hope everycrea-" The excitement that she'd been carrying with her for the last week threatened now to break free, in much the same way that a beaver's dam could only hold back so much water, as Sandbar arrived. Fortunately she'd moved most of the wooden furniture to the sides of the room, because at this rate, the young yak couldn't exactly be held responsible for any smashed furniture. The low table, now freshly laden with snacks, might be the first casualty of the game. "-all Yona! And pony not late. And ribbon important. And can play pal-adin," she'd stressed the part which seemed to be the most important, "or anything! Imagination best part of game! Pony can even be a yak like griffon. Like saying goes, one yak best, two yak best, three yak best, four yak best, five yak best, six yak best..." The arrival of Yama mercifully cut what may very well have been a very long saying short. It was one thing, and a wonderful thing at that, for Yona to see her friends from school getting themselves settled around the table. It was quite another thing, quite an exciting thing, to make a brand new friend with the help of the game. After he'd safely stowed away his strange instrument, Yona carefully trotted over to him and gestured back at the still intact table. "Everycreature welcome! Especially new friends. Even rusty new friends," Yona nodded enthusiastically. As she was entirely new to the game, she knew it'd be very helpful to have somecreature who was familiar with how the game was supposed to work at the table. Even though it stood to reason that she would be the best at running the game, the stakes felt that much higher now she had a new friend to impress. "Come sit. Yona got good cushions from all across school! Not as comfy as sleeping hay but less mess. And introduce self to friends!" Speaking of friends, another had arrived, and not only did Silverstream seemingly share her excitement for the game, she expressed it in a way that Yona could easily understand and appreciate. While there was a time and a place for subtlety amongst yaks, a loud proclamation of something - anything - being the best made things very clear. While Silverstream inspected Yama with her usual irrepressible curiosity, Yona carefully went back to her spot at the table, her hair brushing against the ground as she went. Once she'd successfully made it back to her own cushion, she addressed Silverstream properly. It was time, after all, to start trying to put her serious face on, even though she was still grinning uncontrollably. "Hippogriff can be anything! Even not a yak," she refrained from saying aloud that this would be a very strange thing to do, but she thought it loud enough that it wouldn't take some kind of mind-reading magic to pick that up, "but Yona think you should ask new friend. Yona happy if new friend happy. In fact, we make characters now! Or if have character ready, show it to everycreature! Starting... now!"

The classroom was different. Gone were all the instruments and accoutrements associated with learning and education, banished to the sidelines of the room. In their place, right in the centre of the room, stood a low table, borrowed from the library. Surrounding it sat a collection of pillows, cushions and blankets, which would hopefully keep everycreature comfortable. The table itself bore all the things necessary for the game; stacks of paper, dice of every conceivable size and shape, a brand new copy of the Ogres & Oubliette rulebook, candles, pencils, yet more paper and an assortment of wooden figurines to represent- well, it wasn't clear what they were supposed to represent, but imagination was the most important component in this game. And then, with the curtains closed, and the few candles carefully lit, the transformation of the room was complete. The rest of the room was plunged into darkness, camouflaging the furniture she'd pushed aside to make room for everything and everycreature. Not only did this help hide the fact that the room was still a classroom, but it helped create a sense that they could be anywhere. The darkness and the shadows could contain anything and, with the help of imagination and sugar, it presented the perfect backdrop. In the flickering candlelight, Yona sat by the table. In much the same way that she needed to transform the classroom into a room that was suitable for imagining terrifying dungeons and snowy peaks and pirate ships, she felt that she needed to really dress the part of the Game Master. The rulebook - the one that she'd been excitedly reading every night for the last two weeks - didn't offer much in the way of guidelines for how one was supposed to look. The young yak had experimented with wearing a blanket over her head like a hood to seem extra dramatic, toyed with the idea of wearing an eyepatch, but had finally settled on letting her hair down, and decorating it with ribbons. Hopefully that was the proper attire. All there was to do now was wait, and for Yona to try and contain her excitement.

Bon Bon made a very convincing argument for how good her bonbons were, implementing the most important parts of any sales pitch - volume, enthusiasm, stating that something is the best and somewhat fuzzy logic that made sense just so long as you didn't think about it too much. Still, it paid to be cautious, and Yona leaned in to inspect the offered treats, going through the motions of at least pretending to be sceptical, squinting her eyes and giving them a sniff. After handing over her last few bits to the salespony, Yona gobbled up the bonbon with such rapidity that any onlooker might wonder whether the yak actually managed to taste the treat at all. "This..." she paused, herding her thoughts and judgement on the bonbon together, "...good treat. Even though Yona like treats ponies make, this treat is good." The young yak couldn't quite bring herself to describe it as the best treat, but at least she'd spent enough time around ponies to at least understand that there was a state between best and, well, everything else. Like good. Just as she was about to opine further on what it was, exactly, that didn't make it the best treat, Yona's attention was caught by Princess Twilight and her praise on the volume of her cheering. The little smile on her face from eating the bonbon grew into a wide, happy smile, matching the sense of pride she'd felt at her cheering being acknowledged as great. Which was almost like best. "Yona is cheering for," again, there was a pause, as she couldn't spot a single yak in the race to cheer for, and school pride meant that she ought to be cheering for someone from the school, but then there was the problem of there being multiple ponies from the school participating. Choosing one over the other wouldn't be right. When Wind Walker offered a suggestion, Yona latched on to the idea and ran with it. "Cheering for Fire Walker! Fire Walker is, um, Fire Walker is," Yona leaned down a little closer to Wind Walker, though her eyes were fixed on Princess Twilight, her voice going down to something approaching a whisper, "which one Fire Walker? Just so Yona can cheer even better for sister-pony."

The excitement in the air was absolutely infectious and, while Yona had very little grasp on what it was all about, the young yak could at least appreciate the food, the crowds and the opportunity to put a bit of distance between herself and the growing pile of homework that was waiting for her when this was all over. Once she'd successfully bypassed the temptation of the food stands, Yona very carefully stepped up on to the bleachers, as if concerned that the construction might suddenly give way underneath her. Then again, Bevel was positively bouncing around on them, supporting one of the racers, and if it could support the hopping, dancing motions of the unicorn, well- Realisation on what this was all about began to dawn on Yona. It was a cheering contest. Yona took a deep breath. "CHEERING! CHEERING! CHEERING!" she bellowed out, closing her eyes to really concentrate on giving it her all. What it lacked in catchiness, it made up for with sheer volume.