radio414

[COWCOW] December 25th in the OOC subforum. It’s a place and date I’m certain my guest at this time will not forget. I’m talking about a relatively new yet well-regarded RPer, radio4- [RADIO414] Nothing means nothing! [COWCOW] Noth- [RADIO414] Nothing means nothing, Cow, nope! No more. [COWCOW] “Nothing means nothing.” What do you mean by that? [RADIO414] I’m talking about all the way to the top, yeah. I’m justifiably in a situation I’d rather not be in, but the cream will rise to the top, oh yeah. “Radio silence,” they say, yeah, but I got more to offer than Forum Admin Jack Tormey thinks that I got, yeah, and let me tell you something right now: Cards stacked against radio414 in the RP Awards and let me say it, yeah, let me say it out loud, and let me POINT to the forum admins and mods and members. I, radio414, am not happy with your decisions voting in the RP Awards, yeah, I am the cream of the NCM RP subforum and there is no doubt about it. [COWCOW] Well, wait a minute- [RADIO414] Yeah, you Lord Cowcow, you know that I’m the cream of the crop! [COWCOW] Well, wait a minute, radio, I’ve got to ask you very seriously, do you blame Mr. Jack Tormey, the distinguished Admin of Neo Card Maker, for not being clear frontrunner in any of the RP Award categories? [RADIO414] Yeah I do, yeah. Outside interference. IN MY MOMENT OF GLORY, yeah, and now I’m living in a nightmare. And I am the cream. And now, not only the Best Writer and Most Helpful awards must fall, but the Best RPer award! ‘Cause Skaia, yeah, I am the cream, yeah. The cream of the crop. And there is no one that does it better than the Macho Man Radio Savage! Advance Clause, casual rules, it doesn’t matter, I’m better than you are, yeah. And I’m talking to everyone who participates in the Role-Playing Forums. And I’m even talking to Forum Admin Jack Tormey, yeah. I’m on my way, and nothing is gonna stop me! Nothing’s gonna stop me. [COWCOW] You know, just out of curiosity, radio, and I certainly don’t want to diminish your tremendous, uh, God-given talents, but I’m very curious, you post when you say you will, but that isn’t always very often. [RADIO414] Yeah, sometimes I take a break. Does the number of RPs I’m in affect my post schedule? Yeah? Nothing, zero, pure writer, yeah, and I’ve been, yeah, I’ve been maligned from the top to the bottom and ‘cause they can’t handle the Macho Man Radio Savage: THE CREAM OF THE CROP! Nobody does it better!

(to be listened to on 12/23)

The table was quiet as both Melissa and Gabriela finished their respective meals. They’d already had dinner conversation back when they actually had dinner and the “what’s next?” question had already been answered so that -- for lack of a better phrase -- was off the table as well. Besides, after Melissa’s proposal and Gabriela’s confirmation, the hamburgers were merely an afterthought in Melissa’s mind. She idly chewed on hers, but her mind was elsewhere. This was it, after all. The final moments. They both finished soon enough and Melissa collected all the trash and added it to the pile in the corner, which, when all combined, formed a ball just bigger than Melissa’s fist. “Let’s find a trash can first,” Melissa said, repeating her earlier assertion, reminding Gabriela in case she had forgotten and reminding herself because she oh so wanted to just be somewhere else already. The noise blasting from the dance was almost intolerable at that point and the chatter around her, too, seemed more energized than before. Melissa cupped both her hands together, cradling the ball of trash between them, and looked up at Gabriela. “Ready to go?”I want to touch you, but I’ve forgotten how I said I didn’t need you, but look at me nowFinding a trash can was easy. Blue Yonder had so, so many, and they were all evenly spaced out around its campus. It would have been more impressive, actually, if they hadn’t found one. Harder, though, was navigating from that point, but only just. Melissa had told Gabriela she had a few ideas in mind for where they could go but she really only had one, and it was getting to that specific point instead of finding one of many that was the real challenge. This was all mostly alleviated by the truth behind Gabriela’s words. “I shall allow you to lead me,” she had said. She hadn’t been lying; even as Melissa forged ahead, doing things like identifying buildings so she could regain a sense of where she was, she felt no pull behind her. Melissa knew Gabriela was there without having to look behind her, but they moved in synchronicity, linked only by a pair of clasped hands. It was a link Melissa dared not break, but on the other hand, she was never really worried that it would.You can never be sure of the people that you know They don’t want to show you their sadnessThey were close now. Even in the dark, things were starting to look familiar. She almost wanted Gabriela to- no, not yet. It was another too-apropos phrase, but Melissa wanted to keep her date in the dark just a little bit longer. Not that she was hearing any complaints from Gabriela begging to not be. That was what she most appreciated about the moments, actually. The near silence. Their journey had taken them far, far away from Kickoff and not the only noise was the ambient sounds around them. Crickets were chirping. Trees were rustling in a light breeze. Her and her companion’s gentle footfalls. That was all. And yet, It was enough to rejuvenate her and give her the confidence to keep moving forward. She could feel herself subconsciously moving faster, too. Until… Until she stopped. And she turned around. “Alright, Gabriela, I want you to close your eyes,” Melissa said. “It’ll just be for a moment, I promise.” Once she was sure she had done so, she released her grip on Gabriela’s hand and pulled out her phone. A few deft swipes later and Melissa had queued up a song. But before it could play, she looked back up at Gabriela. “This- this isn’t an incredibly special place,” Melissa said. “To most- maybe everyone else, this is just another spot on Blue Yonder’s campus; it’s a couple more steps they have to walk between classes. You wouldn’t have given it a second thought either, and that’s okay. “This is my spot. “It was the start of last year. I was a freshman and, well, if you can believe it, I was kind of a mess my freshman year. One afternoon -- this was in Autumn, um, so just a bit later than this time last year -- I don’t even remember what happened, but I was just going. And I mean not even caring what direction I went in, as long as I was moving. I was that sort of upset. “When I got to here, though, I stopped. Are your eyes still closed?” Melissa checked again to see that they were. “Okay, so I want to try and imagine the scene I found myself in. Just for me. The trees over here? They were explosions of color. Reds, oranges, yellows, if you can think of a Fall leaf color, it was there on one of these trees. The grasses below them? They were kind of long -- maybe it’d been a while since they’d been mowed -- but they were a beautiful deep, verdant green. And the sky above? As if to complete the rainbow, it was as blue as the sky could be. “Nobody else was around to notice any of this. It was just me. And just when I had noticed it all, the wind picked up. The grass, it was long enough that it looked like it was waving at me, moving back and forth in the wind like it did. And the leaves, some of them got caught in the breeze; they let go of their tree and swirled around, chasing each other this way and that, until a whole cluster of them blew right through me. And in that moment, I could feel the worries I had had being blown away too. “I don’t come back here too often, but I do always recognize it when I do pass it. And while it’s never been quite the same as it had that day, I still remember it as vividly as I just described it to you now. She gave a weak, sheepish smile. “You can open your eyes now. Sorry, that was a little self-indulgent of me. Um. Anyway, the last thing- the only thing we missed leaving Kickoff like this was the slow dance. But if you’ll have me, we can do that here, in this spot only you and I will ever know the importance of.” She held out her hand. “Though I guess that means you’ll have to follow me one more time.” Gabriela hesitated. Melissa didn’t blame her, though. She could feel it too, how the silence added emphasis in the magical way that only silence did. If she hadn’t already been talking for so long, Melissa would have wanted to keep quiet too. She wondered how she looked to Gabriela, too, in that punctuating silence. Did she look different? Was there some ephemeral quality of hers that only came out in times like this? Not that any of that mattered. Gabriela took Melissa’s hand again and said, “I think, at least for tonight, I would be happy to follow you anywhere. I place my fate in your hands.” Melissa’s smile improved. “Thank you,” she said. She guided her partner’s hands to her shoulder and placed them there before moving her hands down to Gabriela’s hips. “Start just like this, and then step, step, step, step.” Melissa lead through a few more music-less motions before, satisfied, she said, “Alright, Gabby, here we go,” and pressed play.If you see me passing by Please hold me deep in your heart And just remember, I want to help you I don’t want to hurt you Just remember, I want to help you I don’t want to hurt youYou turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, -Psalm 30:11 (NIV)

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” -John 6:12 (NIV)Melissa wasn’t sure how to respond to Gabriela’s most recent comments. Her initial impulse was, “Well, you’re welcome to them,” but that didn’t scan well at all in her head. Was she even supposed to respond at all? She took a bite of her hamburger in an attempt to stall for time, but the only thing she could really think of was a nod and an “Mm” in acknowledgment. Because Gabriela was right, it was a shame that people wasted food. Oh, that was something she could say. “We’ll just have to make sure not to waste ours, I guess.” The other big comment Gabriela made was about the dance. “What comes next?” she’d asked. “I’d rather this not end… if I can help it.” Gabriela’s question caught Melissa mid-chew, which fortunately was enough to keep her from immediately blurting out “I don’t want it to either” or something to that effect. She desperately ran through the schedule in her head, but the earlier moments had been the ones she’d had the most down pat. Everything after that… She swallowed, then took a breath to prepare the bad news. “I don’t- I’m not sure what comes next,” she said. “The schedule that got posted was pretty clear on some things -- the duel, um, dancing, obviously, stuff like that, but after dancing it got kind of vague. Maybe there’s a Kickoff Court vote, but, um, I’m sorry, if you wanted me to drum up support for you, I didn’t do any of that.” In her head, Melissa noted that Gabriela probably wouldn’t have beaten Ashley Rendleman or whoever was making a serious effort anyway, but she didn’t say that part out loud. Right as Melissa finished speaking, a large -- or rather, larger than normal -- cheer erupted from the dance hall for reasons Melissa was unable to piece together from the surrounding chatter. Melissa winced. It reminded her too much of the first day of the year. Most social events did, really, but the extra unchecked explosion of social energy made another serious dent in her mental armor. She had to say it, she realized. “If I’m being honest with you, Gabriela, I don’t actually want to find out what the hosts have planned for the rest of the evening. I’ve already- I feel like I’ve done enough already, but I can’t- I can’t keep doing this. We don’t have to go our separate ways -- the night’s still going, I mean, but all that…” Instead of finishing her sentence, Melissa just gestured at the dance hall and hoped Gabriela understood. It took more than a few moments (and more than a few more bites of hamburger) before Melissa spoke again. “We can go somewhere else if you want. I- I might have a few ideas.”

Peter looked around like Charlie might have been talking to somebody else, as if the context didn’t immediately make readily apparent who Charlie was challenging. There was some grotesque part of him that was actually glad for the challenge. Charlie hadn’t recognized him, after all, so why not teach the ignoramus a lesson? But also, like, if he’d already crossed one threshold by walking through the gymnasium’s doorway, it felt like this was the second, much more final threshold of actually participating. He could hear his parents whispering in his head. Some of the advice was old; one of the first things they’d ever said to him was, “Always accept a challenge. You’ll never improve if you never play,” but some of it consisted of more recent remarks. “Knock ‘em dead!” Peter heard his dad say. There was nothing for it. “Alright,” Peter said. He walked over to the other side of the gymnasium and powered on his own duel disk. He could already feel his mind zeroing in on the task ahead of him. Just had to beat one of the captains on his first day, right? What could be easier? As the hum of each duel disk aligned, merging together to create the opening harmonies of a new song, both duelists let out that all-too-familiar cry: It's time to duel! “You’re the captain,” Peter said, “so I’ll defer and let you go first.” “Aww, how sweet!” Charlie grinned and drew their starting hand, “Who am I to turn down such a little gentleman? And since you let me go first, I’ll begin this game with Toy Vendor!” As Charlie slid a spell card into their disk, a gachapon machine rose behind them, a good 3 feet taller than their owner, with arms on either side of it waiting to dispense. With a nod, Charlie placed a card from their hand into the graveyard. “You see, once per turn, I can pay Toy Vendor a card, then draw and reveal the top card of my deck. If it’s a Fluffal monster, I can special summon a monster from my hand. So, let’s go, Toy Vendor!” Throwing their hand back, a coin flew from it, growing larger until it fit perfectly fit into the vendor’s slot, causing it to come to life. Cranking itself, it rumbled a bit before a capsule rolled out, popping onto the field in front of Charlie. As it hit the ground, the blue bottom and white top fell apart, revealing a stuffed puppy! The winged dog, barely smaller than Charlie, yipped and wagged its tail as the co-captain giggled. “Aww, I got Dog! Look how cute he is! And it’s such a good puppy, too, letting me find another Fluffal monster from my deck! So I’ll add Fluffal Owl, and I’ll normal summon it right away!” Charlie slapped the card down, and a stuffed owl gently floated down to the field with a hoot, landing right next to the dog. Unlike its fluffy partner, Owl only stood about a foot and a half tall, making soft bird noises. “Owl is also a good cutie, so then I get to add Fusion Substitute from my deck to my hand when it’s summoned! They’re such helpful toys!” Charlie giggled with glee as they set a single card face-down, then held their hand out to Peter. “And I think that’s just about enough for now. Your turn~” “Is every monster in your deck cute or just these ones?” Peter asked. “Of course! I love cuties, and there’s all shapes and kinds in here! After all, you should love what you play, right?” “Hm,” Peter said. Half of the hm was just asserting that he’d heard Charlie at all; the other half was his reaction to looking at his hand again. “What do you do…” he mumbled under his breath. It was a rhetorical question, of course. He knew what all his cards did -- it wasn’t like he had to reread every card that came into his hand -- but he knew he had to impress at least a little bit. “Alright, well, the first part of every turn is the draw step, so I guess I’ll do that,” Peter said. “And then I’ll-” He paused, and looked closer at the card he drew. “Well, I can save that for later, I guess.” His mom’s words echoed in his head. “Table talk! Get to the point!” Right. Peter put the card in with the rest of his hand and pulled out another. “I’ll summon my own searcher, Sage with Eyes of Blue!” The card materialized in front of him and out came a tall -- taller than Peter, at least -- magician, his staff already in hand. Once he had settled into position, he raised his staff above his head and a beam of light stretched out, wrapping itself around the mage once, twice, before materializing into a card. “He finds another level one Light tuner, in this case, Master with Eyes of Blue,” Peter said. He flashed the card to his opponent before adding it in with the rest. Could Charlie actually see it all the way over there? Not that it really mattered, something would have stopped him if he did something wrong, right? Anyway, “Fortunately for me, I have another Sage in my hand, so I can use its second effect. By discarding it and sending the Sage in play to the Graveyard --” the magician in front of him dissolved into holographic light, but it didn’t dissipate “I can summon a, no, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon from my deck!” The sage’s light, still strong even though the magician had long left the board started to shift and change shape. It had already been taller than Peter and it was growing even more now. And it was growing wings. And claws. And teeth. What finally emerged from the remnants of Peter's Sage was as magnificent a creature of destruction as described on its flavor text. Peter wasted no time using it. “Battle!” he said. “Blue-Eyes, attack Fluffal Dog!” The dragon roared and raised its head. A point of solid white appeared inside its open mouth, and though it started out small, it only grew. It became larger and larger at a speed that was only increasing, until the entire inside of the Blue-Eyes' mouth was a pure white. Only then did it lower its head again and unleash all that energy in a straight line, and the pure white barrelled towards the dog at quite a speed. (Charlie: 8000 -> 6700) “Oh no!” Charlie cried out as the dog was blasted to fluffy bits, sniffling for a moment, before bursting out a smile. “Well, it’s okay. After all, I activated Fluffal Crane when it was destroyed, adding Dog back to my hand and drawing a card!” “Alright,” Peter said. It wasn’t alright, but he said it all the same. “I’ll just set one card, then, and pass it back to you.”

Best RPer: Skaia Best Host: Chaos Sonic Best Character Design: Hakima (Cheshire Toon) Best World Design: Best Writer: Sethera (Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd) Best Reliable: Cowcow Best Cooperative: rep Best Helpful: Skaia Best in Chat: Blake Best RP: Yugioh! Skies Going into detail takes too long -- I know for a fact I'll get long-winded all up in this post -- but I can provide justifications if you PM me.

what about chinese metal (some variant of black/death idk genres) about the nanking massacre?

Peter only got a quick glance around the room before people started to notice he was there but what he saw was about what he’d expected. The size of the gymnasium had betrayed the expected size of the duel team, after all, and the outbursts of coming from the sidewall also betrayed -- in Peter’s mind -- the sort of seriousness his soon-to-be teammates were taking the whole affair. The only thing that really caught him off-guard was the co-Captain(?) Charlie asking him to introduce himself. He’d have thought… well, it didn’t matter. Maybe it was a formality anyway. “My name’s -” Someone who was neither Charlie nor Peter spoke up -- “Avi,” Charlie had said, right? -- cutting Peter off. “You’re Peter, aren’t you?” Avi said. “The third or something.” Well, that was close enough to what Peter had been expecting. He still winced a little at Avi’s “the third” comment -- without a surname attached the name just sounded like a king’s name and he was pretty sure he wasn’t that. “Peter Wilson, that’s me. Just ‘Peter’ is -” Avi cut him off again. “I met your parents a couple of years ago. Good duelists. I take it you didn’t take after them if you're here?” Peter almost said, “I don’t remember my parents mentioning you so maybe I could say the same thing,” but he managed to bite his tongue. Some of that hesitance was a simple worry that he was about to make one of those bad first impressions his parents always warned him about, but his larger worry was that, if Avi was telling the truth, there was the possibility he’d be able to relay the snark back to his parents, and as bad as bad first impressions were, bad first impressions that his parents knew about were even worse. All of this was compounded by the fact that Avi loomed large over Peter. Normally, Peter would be used to that sort of thing -- grown-ups were grown-ups and fourteen-year-olds were fourteen-year-olds, after all -- but Avi had to be, like, a foot taller than him. “You’re definitely the genius one, right? So small!” someone else said. Peter looked over, and while he couldn’t quite remember their name just yet, there was really only one person it could have come from: a girl who, despite her best efforts, still had crumbs on her cheeks. She, Peter found, was easier to respond to. “Sorry, um, your captain already said I can’t be a genius because my parents enrolled me in a historically great school that, uh, quote ‘is just in a liiitle slump right now.’ That’s, uh, those are their words.” And now that he’d started talking, Peter found it easier to keep talking. He turned back to the captains, especially Avi. “I don’t know. I’m only fourteen, after all. But I don’t think I would be here if I wasn’t pretty good, I mean.”

not yui but

Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. -Genesis 9:3 (NIV)Melissa smiled when she heard Gabriela was alright. Not that she’d expected anything else, really, so maybe the smile was also that she’d been able to catch her? Whichever it was, the smile remained as Gabriela thanked her in the way only Gabriela would. “An honored guest?” Melissa said, “Um, is this in addition to all the other times I’ll be honored in Romvania or do they all compound together into one very honorable ceremony?” Not that she minded or wanted to actually call out Gabriela on any of those promises, but she was interested. The interest was quickly revealed to be of the idle sort, though, as when Gabriela said she wanted food, or “nourishment” for “dark power such as hers,” Melissa developed a new plan. Gabriela’s request had also reminded Melissa how hungry she’d gotten after she lost her own dinner during the duel. Fortunately, she’d also heard that Fast Food (the food truck, not, like catering or anything) would be outside during the dance portion and that seemed like a good place to sate both of their hunger, so she took Gabriela by the hand -- “Alright, let’s fix that,” she said -- and guided her back outside the dance hall. There were still a bunch of other people around, either in line or eating or otherwise idling around, though it was certainly less crowded than the masses still indoors. The volumes of the music and the chatter had been reversed, too; Melissa could still hear the thumping bass and maybe when she paid attention she could hear some of the melody, but most of the noise came from the fragments of conversation around her. “My parents were always like, ‘If someone asks you to dance, you should be courteous and give them at least one. More can come if you want to after that, or you can leave, but give them the one.’ I don’t know. I’m not seeing anyone here who I’d want to dance with.” “I’m not dancing until the deejay plays something with some actual artistic merit. If they open the floor to requests, first thing I’m doing is going in and suggesting some King Gizz because otherwise I’m going to lose my mind.” “Who’d you vote for Kickoff King and Queen? I was thinking Chaderson and Rendleman but I could be persuaded otherwise…” And so on. Regardless of anything else, Melissa at least appreciated that it made the line move a little faster, and pretty soon both of them had a burger in hand. Luckily for both of them, too, a picnic table just cleared out nearby. It was a little dirty still -- one of the table’s occupants hadn’t even thrown out their leftovers -- but Melissa took care of that. She gathered it all into one corner of the table and looked back at Gabriela. “I don’t- if we go looking for a trash can now someone’ll probably take the spot without us,” she said, “um, but is this okay? I think that ketchup is still fresh so you might have to watch your elbow, but…?”

Peter always found phone conversations with his parents -- especially the ones where they put him on speaker and huddled over their phone analyzing his every word (like this one was) -- to be kind of like a rhythm game. They’d ask a question or say something and he’d have to respond quick enough that they didn’t think he was taking too long, yet slow enough that they thought he was still thinking about the answers. Maybe that was just because his parents had tried to instill that same sense of timing in other areas of his life, though it wasn’t like he’d be able to excel at an instrument or anything when most of his free time had been dedicated to cards. “You’re not lost, are you?” his mom said. “No, mom, there are only a few gyms and I know where this one is already. It’s by, uh, it’s by the classroom that community service club you said I should join uses.” Peter’s father piped in. “Oh, you did decide to join that! Good for you.” Inwardly, Peter wondered if he’d ever actually had any choice in the matter, and he mouthed along to his father’s follow-up “You know, stuff like that always looks real good, especially when you get older.” “Is everyone there treating you okay?” “Yes, mom. There are only a few people in that club anyway, and this one girl there barely talks to anyone, too. I think they just want-” “A girl! Is she cute?” “Mom!” It was a rare outburst and an especially rare break in the conversation’s rhythm, but Peter was pretty sure he was justified. She’d interrupted him first, after all. “Sorry! Sorry!” his mom said. “I’m just teasing you, honey. You know that, right?” Peter reached the gymnasium entrance and peeked in. It was definitely the place, though there weren’t too many people inside just yet. He wondered if he was supposed to wait outside for everyone else, or wait even more and be fashionably late. His parents had always been like that. “If you show up just a little bit late,” his father would say, “you show that you knew the time and you care about being there -- this is especially true if you apologize when you come in -- but by being late at all you get to be the center of attention when you come in.” Maybe he could just not show up at all, too. Maybe he could weave this grand lie for his parents where he wasn’t actually a duelist but pretended he was just for his parents and that’d- No, that was just a bad idea from the getgo. They’d find out. They always found out. “Honey? You still there?” Ah beans, Peter thought to himself. He’d gotten his thoughts sidetracked and forgot about the most important one. “Yes, mom. Sorry, I was- I just got to the gym and was making sure-” It was his father’s turn to interrupt him this time. “Oh, you did? That’s great, Pete! Knock ‘em dead!” Peter winced at, well, everything in what his father just said. Mostly it was the nickname, but the other parts, too, only served to remind him exactly why he was doing this and it wasn’t something he was particularly fond of being reminded. His mom broke through his thoughts again. “I suppose you want us to hang up now, don’t you?” “I guess,” Peter said. His parents both laughed. “I guess,” his mom echoed back at him. “Alright, honey, you’ve got this! We’ll be cheering for you.” There was a small beep and they were gone. Peter stared at the gymnasium door and his mind again wondered what he was supposed to be doing. Waiting… Not waiting… Either way, too, was he supposed to introduce himself and act like people already didn’t know who he was? Or was that too humble where he shouldn’t be? He knew what his parents wanted from him (“Be proud of who you are!” “We just want the best for you.”), but what did everybody else? He sighed, opened the door, and crossed the threshold.

Elsie tried not to react as the Nathaniel melted back into Tricky before her very eyes, though due to exhaustion, her elation at winning, or perhaps a mix of both, she couldn’t entirely suppress a wry smile. Being right about the magic circle had rejuvenated her somewhat; she wasn’t breathing quite as heavy as she was before, and watching this transformation was in the process of improving her even more. A shapeshifter! She might have guessed if she hadn’t been so focused on everything else. It made sense, after all. Why introduce someone new like that after all the introductions that had gone on back in the conference room? “That was fun though, right?” Tricky said. It was mostly, right? It wasn’t like he’d displayed any real ability to threaten her until she’d willingly landed and he started shoving her around. And even then, the second he found himself unable to trap her, that was it. Everything else was just throwing hailstones and lightning around, and who didn’t love that? So was it fun? “I guess,” Elsie said. The shoving part, being more recent, was fresher in Elsie’s mind than the fun parts, and part of her couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if she’d realized too late where Tricky wanted her to go. She had Corbin to thank for that realization, but he’d flittered off when Tricky had shoved her. Only now that it was all over did he land back on Elsie’s broomstick. “Did you have fun?” Elsie asked him. “You need to be more aware of your surroundings, I think,” Corbin said. “I’m not always going to be able to call your shots or point out some weird rocks on the ground for you.” Elsie rolled her eyes. She’d forgotten Corbin’s idea of fun was lecturing her. “You also should have known just calling out someone’s trick isn’t going to get them to stop using it. Especially when their name is something like ‘Tricky.’” “Yeah, okay, I got it,” Elsie said. “Anything else?” “Probably. Those are the two big points, though.” Elsie was about to say something back when someone else came into the arena: Alexandre. He didn’t seem to be approaching, though. Instead, he moved over and leaned against the wall. Elsie waved at him and called out, “Hallo! Do you know who else is coming? I’m kind of tapped out for right now, but I’d enjoy watching someone else.”

Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow. -Jeremiah 31:13 (NIV)At the exact moment Gabriela stumbled, Melissa had a realization. Hugging Elizabeth in the restroom and hugging Gabriela just after had been two entirely different experiences, and yet, although she understood that with a certainty that surprised even her, she still found it difficult to mentally enunciate the exact differences between those two moments. As far as she remembered, she’d been in more or less the same headspace both times, but… Maybe she’d held Gabriela a bit tighter than she had Elizabeth? But if that was true -- and Melissa wasn’t entirely sure that it was -- that was only part of it, she felt. And it was a small part, a part that barely allowed her to make any actual progress towards understanding the actual “why” of it all. Gabriela was falling now… How much did she value knowing each of them? Melissa knew the answer in regards to Elizabeth at least almost immediately. Who else would she have called out to when she trapped herself in the restroom? Who else would have been able to talk her out of it? Nobody else had come to mind then and nobody else was coming to mind as she thought about it now. That still didn’t explain the hug, though. Melissa instinctively opened her arms to catch her falling date. It took her a few more split-seconds to realize what exactly was about to happen, and only then did she brace herself. At the exact moment of collision, Melissa let out a soft -- even soft for her -- “oh,” and Gabriela’s momentum sent her back a step as well. The world seemed to freeze; the music even faded out and the deejay started going through their introduction and hyping up the crowd. Their words were unintelligible to Melissa. She was still trying to process what exactly was happening. This embrace was different, too, though it was different in the same unexplainable ways. Time resumed quickly enough. In fact, it seemed to come in right as the next song started. Melissa felt no closer to figuring anything out, but she released Gabriela from her hold and asked, “Are you okay? You’re not dizzy or anything, are you? Do you need some water?” She remembered that there was a food truck outside, too, if Gabriela needed food. The lyrics kicked in on the overhead speakers: Right now, I’m in a state of mind I wanna be in like all the time...

Presenting: Past Prince, Present Pauper

Ahhh, okay. The Correspondents - Fear & Delight OK Go - Here It Goes Again Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice Mint Royale - Blue Song

To clarify, the rules say four videos, but only one artist per person? So I'm locked into a single band if I want to nomitate more than one?

They weren’t lost. Why would they be lost? Elsie had been a part of ARCH for how long now, anyway? Whatever it was, it was enough time for Elsie to have familiarized herself with the layout of the place. So even if she and Corbin had taken a wrong turn or two, she easily would have been able to course-correct and they’d be right back on track. “I think we’re lost,” Corbin said. Of course, Corbin had to go and spoil the illusion. “It’s not my fault these hallways all look the same,” Elsie said. “I mean, I wanted to make something this labyrinthine, I’d at least want a minotaur, right?” She paused. “Does Jekyll have a minotaur?” The conversation proceeded to go nowhere quickly. The only thing that changed was that Elsie gave up on walking. Instead, she mounted her broomstick and meandered down, weaving this way and that along each corridor looking for something that she recognized. Corbin, too, had moved from Elsie’s shoulder to the tip of the broomstick, his own head on a swivel as he aided in the search. It took a while, but Elsie and Corbin did eventually find something a bit more familiar, or more familiar than all the same-looking doors; they found the door to their own room. They'd been going in a big circle. “Oh,” was all Elsie could say. Corbin only had a little bit more. “I mean, you know how to get there from here, right?” he said. It was true. She did. Elsie had spent enough time going back and forth between her room and the arena. What else was she supposed to do in the downtime anyway? It wasn’t like she’d seen any other Jaegers hanging around until just today, and when she wasn’t on assignment, she’d wanted to keep herself sharp. Plus, on the off chance she did get to meet someone new, she figured there was where they would show up. There or the kitchen, anyway. She wanted to get there as quick as possible, but a few moments resting couldn’t hurt either, right? Maybe she could refresh her glamour? Freshen up in general? It was just a quick duck inside anyway, so Elsie took that opportunity. It also let her talk with Corbin without either of them being distracted by a possibly familiar rogue detail. “What do you think they all do?” Elsie said. “The other Jaegers, I mean. You were the one looking around at all of them.” “Who knows?” Corbin said. “I mean, if you looked at you, what would you think you were?” Elsie looked at herself in the mirror and shrugged. “I mean, the broomstick, the hat-” “Without the hat and the broomstick and all that,” Corbin cut in. “Would you still think you’re a witch?” Elsie cycled through a few glamours. “I dunno, maybe not? There’s something weird probably still, like the eyes probably if you got a good look at me.” “Right,” Corbin said. “Nobody else there looked like a witch. They all just looked as weird as you. I can… maybe guess at Lachlan. Maybe. But that’s about it.” “I like Lach,” Elsie said. “I know he’s, like, the only one we talked to, but he’s probably my favorite so far. The other one, uh, Lopt? I think that’s how you pronounce his name. Um, he’s harder to get a read on, I guess. From my perspective, at least.” Only a few moments later, Elsie settled on a look she was comfortable with and the two headed back out. They remained on Elsie’s broomstick simply out of convenience, but it really was only a few quick turns and they were just outside the arena. “I wonder if we’re still the first ones here,” Elsie said as she opened the door. “Greetings, Jaegers!” Well, that answered that question. They were second, though the first was not someone Elsie recognized. The other one was a large bear of a man who, if he weren’t a bit of distance away in the center of the arena, would probably tower over Elsie. He was standing at attention and saluting, too, which only broadened the supposed height gap. “Shall we start?” he asked. “Just the one Jaeger, actually,” Elsie called back. “Hi. I think people have been calling me Ellie, so I guess you can too if you tell me yours.” To his question, though Elsie said, “I was actually expecting some other people, but if you’re game, I guess we can fight.” She gripped her broom handle tightler as Corbin took off from his perch and into the skies. “Ready when you are.”

You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. -Ecclesiastes 11:9 (NIV)The fact that Gabriela had been startled by Melissa’s apology was encouraging, even if Melissa’s first instinct was to apologize again for startling her. It meant maybe at least some of her fears had been unfounded. Or Gabriela was just being nice. Melissa really tried to focus on the former, though. Elizabeth’s advice still played over and over in her head, and though her words got fainter and fainter with every echo, the message did a much better job of sticking. “Yes,” Gabriela said. “Let’s do the dancing thing. With the music. And the closeness. And the moving.” Melissa smiled. There was something else Gabriela said too, but that was less important. “Well, let’s get down to the dancefloor first,” she said. A few other couples and groups had arranged themselves around the floor, though there was still a rather large amount of space left open. Melissa assumed that that was there wasn’t any music yet; a balcony had been commandeered and a deejay was still in the process of setting up. She wondered if they were planning on using the school’s speakers -- the ones in the ceiling pointed straight down at the auditorium -- to help with the sound, though surely the deejay would have speakers of their own specifically chosen for occasions like these, right? Melissa took the opportunity to address some of Gabriela’s concerns. She’d prepared for this, and just because there was that slip in the middle there didn’t mean the words didn’t come flowing out of her when she was ready. “Okay, so at dinner, we talked mostly about slow dancing, um, that’s probably going to be, like, a quarter at best of what’s going to happen, though,” she said. “The idea is the same, though. The drumbeat’ll- um, the basic idea is that you count probably to four over and over and then start doing moves to match each count. So, like, um…” She went through the motions she’d prepared earlier. “So if I’m standing like this, then one is stepping to the side and bringing my arms up like this, right? And then on two, I snap my fingers --” She demonstrated the sound “-- and then get ready for three, where I step the other way and on four I snap again.” Another snap. “And then, I guess you just keep doing that, or some other motion until the song ends “It’s silly, I know, and you’re probably not like me like this but it’s easy to think you look stupid doing stuff like this if you’re not- if you haven’t done something like this before. But the thing everyone told me last year when they were trying to get me to do this was, um, nobody really cares. The only one who would is me and I won’t. I promise.” Melissa gave a wry smile. “I’ll probably be wondering who else is looking at me, to be honest. But, um, give it a try. Just, uh, one.” She stepped, arms up. “Two.” Snap. “Three.” The other way. “Four.” Snap. “One-” The deejay cut in. They’d finally set up, apparently, and after a little feedback, the music finally cut in, starting with a chorus even Melissa knew. If our lo~ove is tragedy Why are you my remedy? If our lo~ove’s insanity Why are you my clarity? Melissa mouthed a “Ready?” at Gabriela, though she wasn’t sure if Gabriela saw or heard that. Still, she started counting, going through the motions again. One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four. This was the final hill she had to climb, right? This was what all her efforts had gone towards, right? She just had to guide Gabriela through a set and hope that she had fun in the process. One. Two. Three. Four. Melissa could barely admit it to herself, but she was almost having fun too.

Five Foot Two, Eyes Of Blue

Did somebody say CHRISTMAS MUSIC?