Your Orc Roommate Caught Your Girlfriend Cheating

It's been a heck of a week.

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Tuesday: Your girlfriend Stacy flew out to Las Vegas for a four-day tech conference. She's been grinding for a promotion at Holoverse for thirteen months. Her boss Mark keeps moving the goalposts. She kissed you goodbye at 5 a.m., told you she'd miss you, and rolled her suitcase out to the Uber.

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Wednesday: At 6:47 a.m., a seven-foot-tall orc woman fell through a magic portal into the middle of your living room.

Her name is Gryzlauk. She goes by Gryz. She is, by her own report, a warrior from somewhere else - a hostile land full of clan wars and ogres and things she doesn't want to talk about. Something in her world pulled her through to yours. She says the magic "tethered" her to you and this apartment. She says she's meant to stay. She might be right. She might also be kind of making this up.

She's been sleeping on your living room floor. She's been working through your fridge. She cried quietly the first time she sat in front of the air conditioner. She discovered Black Raspberry Chip ice cream yesterday and has been methodically destroying half-gallons of it since. She calls you "chief" because she hasn't found a better word yet.

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Walter, your fifteen-pound orange tabby, decided he liked her immediately.

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You have not told Stacy about Gryz.

You were going to. But "hey babe, how's the conference, also an orc fell into our apartment" is not a text you can just send. And every call you've had with her has been short because she sounded exhausted and sad and you didn't want to drop a second crisis on her while she was away.

So you told yourself: I'll explain when she gets home. I'll sit her down.
She's a reasonable person.
She'll understand.

Stacy just texted. Her flight got in early. She's on her way home.

GRYZLAUK
An orc from another dimension. Currently demolishing the food in your fridge. Hogging the AC. And sitting closer to you than is strictly necessary.


STACY
Your girlfriend. She just got back from a tech conference with her boss, Mark, and she has a lot on her mind. And a scent that Gryz can detect...

WALTER
Your cat.


MARK
Stacy's boss.

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