radio414

What was your favorite masquerade monster you played? What about in real life?

What was your favorite piece of candy growing up?

Melissa wondered if she was supposed to continue the thread of the “next date” while still in the middle of the first one or not. It seemed… off? Somehow? Like, she could understand talking about when they were supposed to meet next at the end, in front of one of their dorms or something, but when there was still so much more time left in the night? Ignoring everything else (and there was a lot of else -- for example, that had to be in the upper echelons of social faux pas, right?), she was worried that one of them might forget by the time the night was over. Gabriela, thankfully, soon after pivoted back to the duel, deftly guiding Melissa’s attention back to, you know, the thing they were actually supposed to be looking at. “Is he really going to rely on something like that?” she said. “A tactic like that is the absolute worst.”You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend. -Job 6:27 (NIV) Melissa didn’t know what to think about Graceful Skull Dice, actually. Jun seemed pretty quick to accept it as part of Yushiro’s strategy, but that was Duel Team talk, probably. What about scripted duels between entertainers? She’d been hoping that she’d be able to start with those so she’d only have to focus on the “entertaining” aspect. You know, the part she was garbage at. The point was, luck-based cards like that, couldn’t those throw the script somehow? Or did each duelist just have to have a flowchart memorized, with forks at every dice roll or coin toss? That seemed… complicated, to say the least. The alternative was probably setting the number beforehand, though, which itself probably ran the risk of breaking the audience’s immersion. Could she fake surprise or disgust at the result of a die she already knew the result of? How many people could? And that was ignoring the biggest question, which was: if you were scripting out a duel, why even use luck-based cards at all? Then something clicked. She still didn’t know what to think or anything like that, but her brain had decided to ignore the question altogether and shift course to the other aspect of Gabriela’s declaration: her tone. Melissa was pretty sure she’d never heard Gabriela act with such disdain before. Sure, there was the standard air of nobility over the lower class that she had basically all the time but this one seemed different. Something personal. And Melissa was worried it was her fault. The thought wouldn’t leave either, no matter how hard Melissa tried to keep it down. So she couldn’t “ooh” and “ah” with the crowd as Yushiro pulled out a big Synchro monster. She kept her lip bit and started running through everything she’d ever said searching for something that might have offended Gabriela. Something that might have soured her mood. Was it the food? Gabriela hadn’t gotten a lot to eat at dinner and it seemed like so many advertisements were always like “Hungry people are angry people.” And that could probably be rectified pretty easily, like, the bar probably had some sort of snack and failing that, some nonalcoholic drink would at least have some calories, right? But Melissa imagined walking up to someone and being like, “You look angry, have a peanut,” like, that certainly couldn’t go well, could it? What else could it be? A thought struck her. Maybe she’d only noticed it now because she hadn’t been the best at paying attention. Maybe it had been subtler before and because Melissa hadn’t picked up on it, Gabriela had increased the intensity, and now Melissa was left to deal with the consequences. The knot in Melissa’s stomach got a little tighter. It had to be her fault -- it had to be -- and being unable to find the cause only made things worse. Something she said at dinner? No, dinner had been great. Calling out her loss to Hitomu? No, Gabriela would have said something if that were true, right? Her failure to adequately prepare for the duel they were now watching? Ashley had done most of that and… And… “I’m sorry, I think I need to use the restroom,” Melissa said. She stood up. Deep, measured breaths were starting to fail her now, which meant escape was the only option unless she wanted to ruin Gabriela’s night even more than she probably already had. She quickly shuffled past Gabriela (and gave a quick nod to Jun) and scampered off. The restroom wasn’t soundproofed at all. That wasn’t to say that Melissa expected that of her restrooms, but the noise of the crowd certainly didn’t help. Otherwise, it was fine. It had porcelain toilet bowls and sinks and smelled like it had been cleaned that afternoon. She wasn’t picky, especially not now. Her mental search had broadened. Now that she was staring at herself in the bathroom mirror, it was easy to reflect on things, and the entire day was now up for review. No, not just that day, any interaction. Every interaction they’d had. And every other moment Melissa had spent out and about. Ever. It wasn’t even gradual how quickly all those thoughts turned into a barrage, a monsoon of nitpicking and hyperanalyzing. Why did she wait until the day of to buy corsages? Why had she done the bare minimum of coordinating? Other people thought her flower looked terrible, didn’t they? Why did Jun show up all of a sudden, had she heard anything private? And Ashley… Ashley… Ashley… Everything about Ashley Rendleman and how Melissa had handled that particular encounter now flooded her memory because everything about it had gone wrong. From what was said to how it ended to the inevitable aftermath to- Someone entered the restroom and it was all Melissa could do to flee into a stall and just start sobbing. She was leaning over the toilet bowl in case something came out. Fortunately, nothing did, but it was a small fortune now. Between gasping for air and sniffling and feeling her heart pound like a drum in her chest, she could barely even think, anyway, so she couldn’t even recognize how lucky she was she hadn’t lost her din- “You’re probably too good for him anyway,” the other person in the restroom said. And there it went, between coughs and spit. Melissa flushed the toilet, but a second lurch left her staring at some remnants until she managed the strength to pull the plunger again. And even after that, the image was firmly in her mind now. She was a mess and she knew it. Why did she think tonight, of all nights, was going to be different? Melissa imagined spending the entire night there in that one stall, only coming out when the night custodian demanded that she did, before wandering in a daze back to her dorm room and never leaving. It just wasn’t worth it. If -- if -- Gabriela didn’t hate her, wouldn’t she now, after all this? And if she didn’t find out, wouldn’t she find out through Ashley Rendleman’s chain of gossip? “Watch out for that mess,” Melissa said to herself. “You don’t want to be- you don’t want to have anything to do with her.” In that moment, though, as soon as she uttered those words, Melissa experienced a moment of clarity. There was one person that both already knew and could maybe, just maybe, bring her back from this. She swiftly pulled out her phone. She was operating on blind hope now, like, it probably wouldn’t work, but she had to try. To: Elizabeth From: Melissa Hey, this is Melissa. Can we talk? I don’t want to say it’s urgent but... I’m in the restroom. It was only two messages, and they looked so small now that she had sent them. Melissa kept staring at the screen, mumbling to herself sentences like “Come on…” or “Pick up, please…” There wasn’t a read receipt yet, which meant there was still hope. But as the moments -- they were probably only seconds, unless… -- ticked on, the hope started to fade away, and nothing replaced hope quite like dread. She sent two more -- final -- messages and then the tears came back. I don’t know how many restrooms there are in this place, actually. Look for the crying girl one of the stalls. Please.

(other people have made this joke but this one is mine)

Anyway

Flying High, Defying Gravity

I wanted to post this as Larry but there was no way I was justifying Larry knowing about Ken Ashcorp

>Saying Larry's game "kind of died" >as if it was ever really alive to begin with >greentext on the wrong website, idiot Like Larry said, I don't mind; yours kind of stole the spotlight anyway, so the fact that people engaged at all with some silly pictures I pulled off of Google is good enough for me.

I'm no good at greetings... Qwerty? Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. -1 Peter 5:14 (NIV) I was Larry the Cucumber. Surprise! Except not a surprise, I'm sure, given that I play a similar character in the Yugioh Skies RP so I'm sure my fellow RPers figured it out right away. They're both Christians and they both get the long posts. It probably didn't take long. Yeah, basically the idea was, hey, I've got experience playing Christian characters, I was raised pretty hard as a Lutheran (up to and including, like, a decade of an Outdoorsy Bible-y Summer Camp (it wasn't an indoctrination. I'm fine. I'm fine)), and most importantly, I'm long-winded enough online to at least look like I know what I'm talking about when people inevitably ask "the tough questions" in the inevitable Larry AMA. And all that worked! And what didn't (specifically: the game thread and maybe the second half of "Rescuing Larry"), I can pretty easily identify where it happened and if anything needs fixed for next time. But I had a lot of fun finding silly things and answering questions and wondering if vegetables have souls (they don't, according to Veggietales' creators. Weak Source But Still A Source Larry wouldn't lie about that) and generally being cheery and upbeat. It was difficult when schoolwork got in the way but I tried to keep myself to one status post, one update to the game thread, and one Miscellaneous post a day. As long as I did that (and managed to keep my AMA running when people asked something), I'd be fine. I probably could have interacted with other monsters more. Sorry about that! Those that were posting seemed like they were doing pretty great. So about those specifics: The game thread was kind of cobbled together at the last minute, like "Oh, I have all these points and nothing to use them on, what do?" so the fact that people engaged at all was gratifying to me. I'm not going to promise that I'll try harder in that regard next time, but everyone else did a lot of things that I'll take into consideration. By the way, the last day didn't get an image (it was probably going to be the "Allow us to introduce ourselves" template) because I was... otherwise engaged. I didn't mean for Larry to get posessed. I was brainstorming status ideas and remembered that Cowcow had given Larry the Necronomicon, and I figured I'd engage with that. People seemed to respond pretty well, so I did a follow-up that night which blossomed into the first Miscellaneous post a few hours later (I may be blurring the timeline a bit but :shrug emoji:). That also got a good response and I noticed Kurumi engaging with it, so Yui and I got together on Discord to form the cryptograms. I think it overall went pretty well, though I did have to laugh when Mr Spaz commented something like "I was raised Catholic and I like cryptograms." My only weakness! There was an engagement dropoff in the final meta-puzzle, which I'm not super sure how I could have handled better. The first hints, in retrospect, were probably kind of garbage, but the last one also felt too obvious? If there's anything I'd like feedback on, it's probably that. A couple final remarks. First: I see this, and I agree with you. If you want my opinion, there should probably be a rule against using Zalgo in post titles? Like, not in the bodies of posts, but I can see how it could get out of hand if more people did it. Second, because I insist on citing sources for these things, the first cryptogram was Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV), the second was Luke 4:34-35 (NIV), and the last was Psalm 23:4 (NIV). Larry's first "posessed" post came from Caleb's dying speech at the climax of The VVitch (written and directed by Robert Eggers), and his second was, as pointed out, most of the final paragraph from Thomas De Quincy's Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow, which you can read here if you're curious. It's not too long. Anyway, I've probably rambled on long enough. Glad you all seemed to enjoy it, and if you didn't, well, I still love you.

“But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.” -Matthew 12:36 (NIV) Gabriela laughed and called Melissa funny. Which was odd because she wasn’t trying to be. Like, funny how? At the risk of derailing her train of thought, funny how? Like a clown? Was she just meant to play the fool, acting for Gabriela’s amusement? That itself was a weird thought, one that broke through Melissa’s barriers because it was probably true, wasn’t it? Why wouldn’t it be? But before Melissa could ask Gabriela about it, Gabriela was already somewhere else, declaring her inevitable dominance over everyone in the entire school (which seemed a bit excessive) before whipping around and challenging Melissa. “Perhaps we could have a duel sometime. I would like to see which of us is faster.” As if that helped. Didn’t she just say that she didn’t often? That she tried to get them over with as quickly as possible? This was a trap, and Melissa had fallen right into- “Oho? Well, you have a long way to climb to reach his throne, o princess of darkness.” Oh, Jes- NO Had Jun been there the whole time? Melissa tried to run through everything she’d said, wondering what Jun had overheard and what Melissa had only said in her head. The line blurred real quick, which only made Melissa more nervous. There was a duel happening in the background. Melissa didn’t care. More specifically, she didn’t care about that one, but now that Jun was here… ”Nothing says true friendship like a friendly duel between friends. Friendly,” Jun said. She did a little motion with her arms but her sleeves obscured most of it. What was that supposed to mean? Melissa imagined word getting out. She imagined word spreading all over campus and then all of a sudden she was thrust into a spotlight she was in no way ready for, and branching off from there was an endless array of possibilities. Most of them were bad. But on the other hand? If she said no? Word would probably get out anyway, and while “Melissa the Coward” or whatever unfortunate label the greater high school consciousness deigned to give her wasn’t by itself worse than the occasional “weird nun girl” she already got, the additional infamy was not something she wanted to deal with. Not with her (worryingly) increasingly growing list of acquaintances who were infinitely more sociable than her and who Melissa wasn’t entirely positive they wouldn’t gossip. Ashley Rendleman knew who she was! And… And also Gabriela would probably be disappointed. And Melissa would be disappointed in herself. Past all the fear and worrying, Melissa did want to spend more time with her without the hubbub of a dance. Something on her terms. “I guess…” Melissa said, her voice still hedging a bit even if her mind was as close to made up as it was going to get. “But, um, not at an arena or anything like that. Maybe at CoffeeCards? Or at one of our dorms?” She looked back. “Also, hi, Jun. Enjoying the show?”

Post the third‽

Post the second

I don't mean to be a rules lawyer, but I've gotta spend this first post somehow. I'm willing to let the issue die pretty quick in any case. To clarify, British Soul's post after your first announcement counted for the "last post of the day" rule and not Darj's Also, is the penalty for breaking rule 1 still one life? (Paging @Uncle Death)

10 Tempting televised televangelists trippingly trounced tackly trusting tourists, taxing tensions

8 Eleven ecstatic emissaries -- elevating evangelicalism -- ended everyone's ennui

1 Obviously.