Deer Country Network

 [Near the end of the month, after playing Jumanji more times than she cared to, Rika is able to face some realities. Those being that her house is more empty than before and that she's feeling lonely. She's never lost a friend in the way that she has lost Rena. There's no way to flip a switch and have her back, and that has been weighing heavily on Rika's mind.

And yet, the matter for which she makes a network call is rather childish and unimportant in comparison.]

Is the Trench always like this..? I never expected that a game board would be so mean... Games are supposed to be fun, not like that.

[She sounds more disappointed than traumatized. Perhaps a sign of maturity? Or being numb to so much suffering.]

Where I am from, my friends and I had a club where we played games together. Games let us leave our troubles behind for a few hours and spend time together, in a piece of the world where everything was fun. It makes me sad to think that games might have been ruined for the people here, because one of them was naughty. So I...

[Rika's voice trails off. She briefly imagines a cheerful Rena and how she would react to this. As part of her grieving, Rika tries to follow in the imaginary Rena's footsteps. This is more proactive than Rika's used to, so she can't help but sound uncertain.]

I want to make a game board that isn't mean and play it with everyone here. Does anyone know where I can find some paint? And a biiig piece of wood, or something similar, for the board? I've never tried this before, but... I would quite like to try. I do not wish for the fun of games to be taken away too.

To anyone who is in regular contact with Takashi Shirogane, or Shiro, you may notice a slight difference in his username.

Please don't tell him. I'm waiting to see how long it takes him to notice.

[Anyone who cares to look will notice that Shiro's username has been changed from the ever pragmantic 'shiro' to 'buttman.' For science.]