Usually on a Saturday morning, Pax would be reading comic books, or maybe working on some of the miniature furniture for his little sister Poppy's dollhouse. A gentle easing into the day before he had to confront homework or, more usually, practicing wandwork. This Saturday morning, however, he was trooping up the stairs of the Astronomy Tower, a piece of parchment clutched in his hand.

Pax was on a mission. And not a SAWS, or Art Club, or any-club related mission... well, it wasn't a club yet anyway. Pax was a serious child in a lot of ways, but sometimes he just wanted to indulge in pure, unadulterated fun. And one of the things Pax had missed about his life in Birmingham was a specific brand of escapist fun he could only find in video games, and tabletop roleplay. He imagined his old primary school friends, now in secondary school, still going around to each other's houses to battle it out on Super Smash Bros, or meeting every week to go on quests and dungeon crawls. Video games, of course, were not an option in a highly-magical environment. So that left roleplay. Pax was finally going to take steps towards something he'd been daydreaming about since September; starting a Hogwarts Dungeons and Dragons group. But before he could start recruiting players, he needed a venue.

Reaching the door at the top of the stair, Pax cleared his throat out of nervous habit, then knocked. 'Um. Professor Trishna?' he called. 'May I come in?' He was fairly sure this was where he could find the Astronomy teacher. When Pax had thought about a venue for a D&D group, Professor Trishna had been the first teacher his mind had turned to. Much as Pax liked a lot of his teachers (even Professor Storm, whom he found very intimidating, was someone he admired a lot), Professor Trishna was the one he felt most comfortable talking to. There was just something very approachable about him. And then there was the feeling Pax had that Professor Trishna would be the one teacher most likely to know about a muggle like game Dungeons and Dragons; the Astronomy teacher had a very muggle approach to the subject he taught, after all. Plus Pax dared hope that he was maybe a bit of a geek, as well; he had taught the first years about dinosaurs the other week, after all!

Self-consciously straightening out the half-completed flier he had made to advertise the theoretical D&D club, Pax added, 'I, um, I have a question?'

On Saturdays Tapendra usually slept in, and that habit was reflected in both his attire, the faint shadow of stubble on his face, and the messy state of his hair. He'd spent half of the two hours he'd been awake uselessly attempting to pop his back; sleeping on the couches in the classroom got to him sometimes. Just another reminder he wasn't 18 anymore, he supposed.

When the knock at the door came he was sitting at his desk, typewriter out and a page of work half-typed. He almost didn't hear Pax over the clack  of the keys, and it was the boy's followup question that really got his attention and confirmed it probably wasn't just voices filtering up from the Divination rooms, as they often did.

He padded across the room and down the short flight of steps to the door of the room, opening it to double-check. He blinked a few times when he saw Pax and glanced down at his own shirt, and blush appearing subtly on his face. At least it wasn't Declan.

"Is something the matter, Mister Wintergreen?" He asked, adjusted his glasses a tad self-consciously.

'Oh, n-no, nothing's the matter,' Pax assured the teacher hastily. He had started to smile at Professor Trishna's outfit-- it wasn't the first time he'd seen him in an amusing t-shirt when off-duty-- but had bitten it back when it seemed as though Professor Trishna might be embarrassed. Better to press forward so as not to take up too much of the teacher's time, Pax decided.

Absentmindedly fumbling with the corners of his D&D flier, Pax explained, 'Y'see, well, I, um, I was hoping to start a... a club.' It sounded so childish when he said it outloud. First years didn't start clubs, not to Pax's knowledge... All the extracurricular activities he was involved in were headed up by students over the age of fifteen. But he hadn't climbed all those stairs just to chicken out, so he continued, 'Um. And I was thinking I would need a place to meet for it. Well... Well obviously we'd need a place to meet. And I was wondering if, maybe, maybe we might be able to use the... Astronomy Tower?' He gave Professor Trishna what he hoped was a very polite expression. (Mostly he just looked hopeful.)

Having a moment of not knowing when to stop talking, he rambled on, 'I mean, if, if, that wouldn't work, that's fine, I mean--' He stopped himself, realising how silly it sounded to be telling the Astronomy teacher that it was okay for him to deny them permission to his tower. 'I, uh, I just thought I'd... check. It's for a kind of game,' he added lamely, holding up the semi-completed flier for Professor Trishna to see. Currently it consisted of a carefully drawn dragon above the title 'Dungeons and Dragons Society' and a brief explanation of the game.

His curiosity was peaked from Pax's first mention of a club; cautious curiosity, but he was still interested. Given Pax's attitude and attentiveness, he doubted it was anything he'd disapprove of. Eyebrows raised, he smiled in a way he hoped was calming, since the boy seemed nervous.

"Well, I'm open to letting you use the tower, depending on-" he started, but was cut off as Pax held up the flyer - and Tapendra clamped his jaw shut, falling oddly silent in response. His face showed his emotions clearly - surprised, happy, and definitely amused. Then he reached forward a took the paper from Pax, eyebrows dissappearing into his bangs. He'd thought, for a moment, that it was...but it was probably a wizarding game - but no.

It seemed his initial assumption wasn't a mistake; it really was a D&D club. He chuckled, quietly; he'd only been a few years older than Pax when Ryan had introduced it to him...and he'd spent far too many nights playing it in college, storylines thrown askew by the inclusion of beer.

"Dungeons and Dragons?" he said, his tone warm and amicable. "I'm certainly open to it, if you'd like to the use the tower. Have you gotten any interest?" he added, eagerly.

Pax could feel his anxieties fading somewhat at Professor Trishna's amiable reaction. And-- and it seemed like he was taking an interest! Pax had to try not to grin too much; he kept telling himself that he shouldn't be too presumptuous. 'Well... well, only a little,' he admitted. 'I, I didn't want to advertise it officially until I'd got a venue and stuff like that... But I've asked around a little bit, and some people seem like they might be interested.' Pax didn't want to count anyone in for definite, mostly just because he didn't want to jinx things. But he had taken heart in the fact that not everyone he had mentioned the idea to so far had laughed in his face. Playing D&D was one of the things he'd been teased for a bit back in primary school... Though he couldn't for the life of him understand why. Everyone played pretend somehow or another, didn't they?

'Um, Professor?' Pax ventured, glancing between Professor Trishna and the piece of parchment he was holding, and feeling a little more confident. 'Out of curiosity... D'you know much about Dungeons and Dragons? I mean, I know it's a muggle game and all, but you know about muggle stuff, right?' Silly question. Anyone who knew anything about Professor Trishna knew that he didn't restrict himself to the viewpoint of the magical community alone. (Plus he owned a t-shirt with a cat meme on it. Pax was pretty sure that lolcats were a breed of creature entirely foreign to wizarding culture.) Pax didn't know a great deal about the Astronomy teacher's background, or how muggle it had been, but he did know that on a sliding scale of 'Voldemort' to 'Harry Potter' in terms of outlook on muggles, Professor Trishna was definitely on the 'Harry Potter' end of the spectrum.

That fact he admitted to having some interest turned Tapendra's smile into something better described as a grin. "That's good," he said, part of him hoping that was a sign attitudes might be changing somewhat. One could hope, right?

'Out of curiosity... D'you know much about Dungeons and Dragons? I mean, I know it's a muggle game and all, but you know about muggle stuff, right?'

Tapendra chuckled. "Yes, Wintergreen, I know about a fair amount of muggle stuff - more than I should, as my wife used to tell me. As for Dungeons and Dragons, yes, I know of it - play it too much, according to my sister. I've played it since my Hogwarts years, actually," he admitted. "A muggle-born friend of mine showed it to me during 4th year - the rest, well? I went to muggle college for a scientific degree. Need I say more?" He glanced down to his shirt and smiled sheepishly again.

He gestured for Pax to step into the room, closing the door behind him when the boy did. He handed him back to the flier and walked up the stairs to the main classroom, heading towards the bookshelves that lined the alcove where his desk was.

"Got most of the books here somewhere - 3rd edition only, I'm afraid. Would you like to use them?" He looked over his shoulder at Pax. "A bit useless to me on my own."

Pax trotted up the stairs after Professor Trishna, looking decidedly more chipper now. Professor Trishna had gone to a muggle university, just like Pax's mum had! And he didn't just know about D&D, he had played it! He had books for it! Pax had to remind himself that strictly speaking he shouldn't really have a favourite teacher, because it was unfair to the other teachers. But when faced with the knowledge that a teacher was this cool, it was very difficult not to.

'Really?' he chirruped, clutching the flier a little tighter in his enthusiasm. 'That'd be awesome! When I used to play with my friends in primary school it was the 3.5 rulebooks that we used, but we kinda modified the rules anyway just to make it fit better with the adventure, 'cause we all liked telling the story the best, well, except for Derek, but he was a bit obsessed with stats and making his character really really powerful and got a bit cross whenever the rest of us messed around.' Pax paused for breath; he had been talking about a mile a minute now that he was in his element.

'But anyway, I only have a 3.5 DM handbook and a player handbook, so if I could look at your 3rd edition ones-- oh!' A thought suddenly occurred to Pax. Professor Trishna had said the D&D books were 'a bit useless to him on his own'. Now that he had started teaching in a predominantly wizarding environment, when was the last time the poor Astronomy teacher had had a good game of Dungeons and Dragons? 'Professor Trishna, you should play too! I mean would you like too? If we end up using your tower, well, maybe you could join in?' Pax had initially envisioned a student-only group; heck, he hadn't even considered if any of the students higher than third year would consider participating in a club started by a first-year. But there was no age limit on being a geek!

'Professor Trishna, you should play too! I mean would you like too? If we end up using your tower, well, maybe you could join in?'

He tilted his head to the side in thought. "I certainly wouldn't mind, if you don't think an old fogey like myself would be an odd member," he said with another light laugh, as he finally found the books. He knelt by the shelf, running the tip of his fingers over the spines. "If you just have the handbook, these should help if you're trying to introduce the game - I think. I have most of the class related books and some of the monster ones..." he frowned. "Though it'd seem my book on Demons is missing. Hopefully someone didn't run off with it, thinking it was..."

He got the sudden mental image of  someone taking it, thinking it was an actual demonic summoning tome; the suppressed sniggering probably only served to confuse Pax. He couldn't help but wonder what an errant student would think, though...

"Anyway!" he piped up, forcing himself to stop that line of thought. "Yes - mostly class and monster guides. Here." He started pulling them off the shelf, stacking them on the floor between himself and Pax.

"You're free to borrow them, if you'd like...so long as you don't loose them," he told Pax. "If you're trying to introduce the game, dumbing the rules down a bit might be best," he added. "Especially the combat guidelines - they're complex enough as-is. Who was interested?"

'Oh, oh I promise I'm always careful with other people's belongings!' Pax hastened to assure Professor Trishna. Pax was rarely ever careless with his own possessions, let alone those of other people. Besides, it was important to him that people be able to trust him. 'And yeah, I was thinking of simplifying things, I haven't come across anyone else who'd heard of it before I told them about the club, well, not yet anyway.' Pax did daydream a little about muggleborn or halfblood students seeing his flier and having, well, pretty much the exact reaction that Professor Trishna just did. He did like the idea of bringing little pieces of the muggle world that people missed to Hogwarts.

'I was kinda explaining it to Eirene and I think she's pretty much agreed to come if I managed to get the club started... And we were hoping to try and convince Noriko to join too...' Pax had to smile a little at the thought of the two pureblood girls playing such a muggle game. Especially jumpy little Noriko. But Pax was certain that they'd enjoy it once they'd given it a try. Apart from anything else they both like books, right? he mused idly, eyeing the impressive stack Professor Trishna was assembling next to the bookshelf.

'Oh!' Pax interrupted himself again as yet another thought occurred to him. 'D'you suppose Cyhirae would want to play? I mean I haven't asked her yet--' This was partly because Pax had picked up on some sort of tension between her and Eirene and wasn't sure if putting them in a game together would be productive. But if he was inviting Professor Trishna to join in, it didn't make sense to exclude his daughter. 'But if you play D&D, I mean, did she ever play too? Would she be interested?'

He managed to control the flicker of his expression as he tried to imagine what Eirene's approach to D&D would be like. It was certainly a bit...worrying. As for Wakahisa - he looked around the tower for a moment. If they did get her playing, it might be good for her, on reflection. The poor girl could use some sort of hobby.

"Cyhirae?" he looked a bit surprised, and ran a hand through his hair. "You're certainly welcome to ask her - she's played sometimes, but hasn't had anyone her age to play with, and that can be a bit of a deterrent..." he trailed off and sighed, looking back to Pax.

"I'd appreciate it if you asked her, actually. She seems to - seems to have difficulty making friends." That was likely his fault - he'd done his best to make sure she got to socialize and went to a normal school and the like, but..."Though I understand she and Antonopoulos don't get along, so..."

"Anyway. The books are yours to use, Wintergreen," he added.

Looking admiringly at the stack of books (and puzzling how many trips it would take to carry them all to the Hufflepuff common room), Pax mused, 'Well, I think they maybe rub each other up the wrong way sometimes...' Rather a lot of people seemed to rub Eirene up the wrong way, Pax had been somewhat dismayed to notice. He had decided to attribute it to the myriad of very strong, very different personalities that seemed so concentrated in the first-years.

'I think it might be because they're both rather serious people. And they just happen to find different things important.' Pax actually thought they'd get along, given the chance. Heck, maybe they sometimes did, in the Ravenclaw common room, or some other times when he wasn't around. He hoped so, actually. Cyhirae could be a bit intense sometimes, but Pax still thought she was quite nice. 'Maybe a game of D&D would even be good for both of them! I mean, it's pretty much a team effort, isn't it? As long as there are no munchkins,' he added, remembering how his power-gaming friend Derek had rather taken the fun out of their campaigns sometimes. 'We'd all work together. So, so it'd be good for, um, what would it be... Teamwork skills!' Pax grinned at the 'semi-lifeskills-building' spin he'd put on the game, conveniently forgetting those many times in class where the first-years had needed to work together, often with less-than successful outcomes...

'Anyway, you'll be there, so I'm sure that'd make it easier for her,' Pax concluded, steering his train of thought back to the Astronomy teacher's daughter. 'Oh! You could even DM if you wanted! Did you do DMing?' Pax suddenly had a mental image of Professor Trishna running a campaign and transfiguring Kepler into whatever creature had been rolled on the random encounter table. He had to bite his lip to keep from chuckling at Kepler's potential reaction to being turned into an owlbear.

Tapendra nodded, thoughtfully. "They're quite similar in some ways, aren't they...?" He mused, a slight smile curling his mouth. The girls definitely had a similar approach to schoolwork - though Cyhirae approached hers with either a genuine interest or at least a competent focus. Eirene he wasn't so sure about, but she clearly worked hard.  Cyhirae and Eirene certainly seemed to be often at odds, though.

'Oh! You could even DM if you wanted! Did you do DMing?'

He looked surprised for a moment, then stroked his beard. "I certainly could, if you'd like, but I haven't DM'd in...years. I'd have to refresh myself on it..." He smiled thoughtfully and adjusted his glasses, then took them off and started cleaning them. "Would have to consider which rules to streamline, as well - the campaign we've been running is very heavily modified too, but not in the 'easy to understand' direction..."

He put his glasses back on and looked over at Pax again. "How did you intend to get it started?"

Pax smiled, warming quickly to the idea of Professor Trishna as a Dungeon Master. (Not to be confused with the type of dungeon master Professor Vallaincourt was, which was a potions master who happened to work in a dungeon.) If he was half as good at DMing as he was at teaching, it could make for some very interesting games!

Brought out of his thoughts by Professor Trishna's question, Pax clapped his hands together in a manner that was oddly reminiscent of Eirene, and said, 'Welllll... First I wanted to get the venue sorted out. Which now it is, if you're still all right with that,' he added with a grateful grin.

'Then, well then I need to ask for permission, I think? I was mentioning the club to my mum and dad because I needed them to send me my books and dice and stuff, and Dad said I ought to check I was allowed. So I was thinking that whenever Madam Snark gets back, I'd write her a letter-- I think I'd be able to explain it better in a letter--' he explained, leaving out the fact that he was afraid he'd lose his nerve if he actually tried to talk to the headmistress-- 'and ask for, I guess, formal permission to start a new club. I can mention it's a good activity for teamwork!' he added brightly.

'I know I could probably ask Professor O Morain, but see, I was in that group from SAWS that asked permission to have a guest speaker-- you know, when we had the Wizengamot Elder and the Werewolf Capture specialist?-- and I didn't want to push my luck, if that makes any sense.' Again, Pax left out the bit about him being afraid of bottling out. He thought more of O Morain since the werewolf talks, but that didn't mean he didn't still find him intimidating.

Pax drew a deep breath, and triumphantly concluded, 'And then I'll put up this flier!' He held it up again for effect. 'Only it'll have a time and date and place for the first meeting written on it, obviously.' Long-winded explanation of his master plan complete, he lowered the flier and tilted his head to one side in an expression of curiosity. 'What's the modified campaign you were running?' Pax knew planning out the logistics of the D&D club were necessary, but they weren't as interesting as talking about the actual game.

"Mm, yes - and yes, you're still allowed to use the tower," he added. "If it helps, I'd speak to Professor Frasier as well - as your Head of House, his approval can help you sway the Headmistress, I imagine. And as Professor of Muggle Studies, I don't think he'd be particularly opposed to such a club. I could sign off on it as well, though I'm not sure how much sway my signature would provide..."

He stood, crossing the alcove to sit at his desk, one leg crossed over the other as he mused over Pax's options. "If she does indeed say no, mind you, that doesn't necessarily stop you from playing on your own. If you and your friends would like to play in the tower here on your own time, just let me know." He'd kept the tower locked when he was away, for the most part; but having some first years in the tower on Saturdays didn't seem to him to be a problem unless they got loud.

Smiling, he thought of his friend's campaign. "Ah, our game? We've had it going for over a decade, now. We had no real storyline in mind until about a year in and the plot is too often swayed by alcohol and sugar to make much sense. I've pondered modifying it into a book at some point, just for fun, but..." he shrugged. "We modified the rules to make for custom objects and a few custom event rules. And for special spells that got made up, too. Not too heavily modified on the surface, but when it came to combat it gets a it complex for any outsider."

Pax, who had sunk to his knees while Professor Trishna was looking out his rule books, now sat cross-legged next to the stack of them, leaning back on his palms. He gave a sympathetic sort of lopsided grin when the professor mentioned that his signature might not do much good. Pax had noticed from O Morain's reaction to Professor Trishna that time in the staff room when the former had met with SAWS that the Astronomy teacher perhaps wasn't the highest thought-of when it came to those running the school. He didn't like to think that it had anything to do with Professor Trishna's rather muggle outlook on his class's subject, but the niggling thought was still there.

'I always found combat pretty complex,' he replied sheepishly to the remark about Professor Trishna's long-running campaign. 'Always seemed to involve maths, and I was never very good at maths. But, well, at least you won't have to worry about the plot being derailed by alcohol if your players are all students!' he added cheerily. (Pax was, it seemed, far too naive to know about some of the things his older housemates got up to.) 'Sugar though... It's not a proper roleplay game unless you have your four basic food groups. Fizzy drinks, biscuits, chocolate, and sweets.' Pax gave an authoritative nod, then giggled a little as he remembered some of the sillier sessions he had spent with his primary school friends. 'We got a bit hyper sometimes...'

A slightly more thoughtful expression crossed Pax's face as he recalled some of the more exuberant students at school, the likes of whom didn't even need an excuse like sugar (or alcohol) to act up. 'Hm. Maybe limiting the sugary snacks for the first game or two so nobody ends up scared off...' he mused out loud.