It would seem, to anyone passing by, that the young man sitting at the trailhead was having a bad day. The deep scowl on his already intimidating form might imply it was a very bad day. However, they might be surprised to find that they were only half correct in their assumptions. He was indeed having a very bad day.

  Temate Temaku also known as TT to his friends – a joke he started due to his once prodigious, now only slightly pudgy, size – was not scowling. It was more of a disappointed frown that simply appeared to be a scowl due to his facial structure. He was also not young, though people often cimed he looked to be in his early 20’s; He was in fact 32.

  Temate sighed softly, closing the group chat after sending a final reassuring message back that ‘it’s fine, take care of your wife, we can try again some other time’, and pced his phone in the side pouch of a bag at his feet.

  One of four densely packed bags of wasted time, he thought, and I had really been looking forward to this camping trip. Obviously I didn’t expect we were gonna actually find anything but that wasn’t the point.

  “We” being the tabletop rolepying group of Temate – the DM – and his friends – the pyers – he had thought he’d convinced to come down for the week. He didn’t get to hang out with people very often, he had very few local friends. In fact the only person he knew in person he could call a friend was his roommate Jean. He had many friends online though. He was easy going, funny, jovial, and overall just very congenial, but also knew his limits and boundaries. So he had been told, it didn’t really transte well to real life due in no small part to his super power of ‘being intimidating as fuck’.

  That was something Temate had been told by the few people who knew him in real life, coworkers mostly. His wide, ft visage had been described to him as ‘frowny’ or ‘intense’. Frowny from his ex – or had she said pouty? Whatever, it didn’t matter. – and intense from his roommate Jean. Anybody else just called Temate some variation of the previous ‘intimidating as fuck’. Scary as shit, imposing, terrifying, ‘oh fuck’, or just a deep gasp were all things he had grown used to hearing whispered behind his back; or when people thought he was out of ear shot.

  Temate couldn’t really help that though, his face had set in that expression over many years of intense focus – whether consciously or unconsciously – and drifting thoughtful expression. That was one of the nicer things he heard though, thoughtful, Temate liked that description because it was at least something he tried to be. Thoughtful and understanding, two core principles to how he, well, how he thought.

  On top of his face, or rather beneath it, was a rge body both height and width. Temate was technically obese, though he didn’t care about that. You could see his pudgy belly even in retively loose shirts, but he was strong. At work – or rather where he used to work – they had nicknamed him the ever clever ‘muscles’. He often lifted rge stacks of things most wouldn’t consider him capable of, even at his size.

  SMACK

  Temate’s right hand hit his ft face, the slight natural tan – ‘warm ivory’ again something his ex had told him – reddened on his face, around where his hand had impacted it.

  Excuses. Temate thought. Excuses, excuses, excuses I get them and I make them and I... He sighed loudly and his mind began to wander as he looked up. He sat alone at a trailhead which led into a locally famous park, known simply as Fairy Vilge. The park was massive and included several official campsites; as well as safe zones where you could set up camp anywhere. That is if you had one of the park’s official camping licenses to show when a park ranger comes to investigate your campground, which they always did. At least that’s what the reviews online had said.

  Which was more wasted… no, not wasted, just not immediately useful, time. Temate thought to himself. It annoyed him, he didn’t like wasting time, he liked to be efficient and prepared. It’s why he’d taken a week to study up on camping practices and necessities. Why he’d prepped the four heavy bags at his feet for his friends, who were no longer coming. Why he’d taken the test at the campground office and had his license printed immediately. To make sure everything was ready for when everyone got here to just go in. Then… they’d all canceled.

  Originally it was meant to be a weeklong camping trip, until Barry's work wouldn’t give them the time off. Then it was just a weekend, until an urgent project came up for Fred. Then it was just gonna be Temate and Bailey for the weekend. Unfortunately, as the text which he just read said, she had to cancel as well. Bailey and her wife had agreed to come because they were attending a local convention for anime fans. Honestly, Temate would have gone if he could have gotten that time off work as well, but he felt bad asking for more than a week off. Once it was trimmed down to just the weekend it was too te to change his vacation days. All the better it seems, as Bailey’s wife, Maretha, had gotten sick. So instead of coming here Bailey was taking her sweetheart home to take care of her.

  All of those were reasonable and Temate wasn’t angry or upset just… disappointed. He was really looking forward to this trip for two reasons. The first part of it was just for the sake of getting to spend time with people who’s first impressions of him weren’t… intimidating as fuck. All his party had pyed with him for 3 campaigns, almost 8 years in total between them all. They had seen him eventually, obviously, but by that point they knew him for many other reasons. Be it his teasing pedantry, love of puns and wordpy, general supportive demeanor or in Baily and Maretha’s case his more adult rolepy and fun.

  The second part Temate had been looking forward to this trip was Fairy Vilge itself. It was touted as the st pce in the world where the fae lived, with strange mysterious ruins scattered amongst the woodnds. Far too small for any human to live in, no matter genetics, and they were confirmed to be very old. That was why the group had picked Fairy Vilge, because they were all fascinated with myth and legend. For Temate it was more morbid things such as necromancy and occultism but the fae were cool too! I mean it was obviously all fake or upsold, but it would still be fun to imagine right?

  Now all Temate’s prep would go to waste, and he hated that almost as much as not being efficient. A cool autumn breeze blew and someone shivered. Temate smiled. Maybe not all of his prep would go to waste, these clothes were pretty warm.