The room was a disaster.
Clothes were strewn across the floor like casualties of war. Empty cans of soda sat proudly on the desk, and a crumpled wrapper balanced precariously on top of an old textbook that hadn't been opened in months. On the bed lay a beaten-up notebook, filled to the brim with amateur sketches and lore notes scribbled in atrocious handwriting. Somewhere in there was a map with too many rivers and a city that didn't even have a name yet.
At the desk, a black-haired young man in glasses hunched over his PC. Tabs lined the top of his screen, worldbuilding articles, mythological wiki pages, fantasy forums, and a half-written Google Doc. His name was Alex.
Phone pressed to his ear, Alex gestured wildly as he spoke, "Okay, okay, listen. What if the Kingdom of Rold had a civil war with- well, I haven't named it yet- but like, they split, right? And the river from the Frostspine Mountains becomes the natural border."
On the other end of the call, Guy groaned audibly. "I don't care about that useless crap. Focus on the important stuff, man. Magic. Powers. Explosions. That's what people wanna see."
Alex rolled his eyes. "That stuff comes with the culture. You need structure. Motivation. Conflict-"
"Nah, nah, nah," Guy interrupted. "I've already got ideas. I sent 'em to you on Discord."
"You're supposed to use the Google Doc!" Alex snapped.
Guy scoffed, "Says the guy who sends me lore dumps on Instagram and WhatsApp. Don't even start."
"Okay, fair."
They kept going. Rambling, bickering, swerving off-topic. Arguing about world maps, arguing about magic types, arguing about whether a fireball should melt a rock wall or explode on impact. Somewhere in there, they looped back to boons.
"This system I made? It's tight," Guy said, clearly proud. "Boon of the Iron Will. Boon of Reversal. Boon of Blood Debt. Makes everyone unique as hell. We can throw in some weird shit too, I got a list going."
Alex paused, "...Alright, that is pretty cool."
A rare moment of silence passed between them. Then Guy spoke again, casually: "We should add racism."
Alex laughed. "Of course you'd say that."
Guy didn't elaborate, but in his head, he thought about making demi-humans the oppressed class. It'd give some edge to the world.
Alex, meanwhile, had a moment. Just a flicker. A flash of something grotesque, the reason for the racism. He shook his head, pushed it away.
"Anyway," Alex said, stretching in his chair, "it's getting late. I'm heading to bed."
"Lazy bum," Guy muttered. "We could've fleshed out the divine hierarchy tonight."
"We'll do it tomorrow."
"Yeah, yeah."
Click.
Silence.