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And I'll add one of my own: "It was the only dream she was allowed to have and in truth it was the only dream she wanted to have. After twenty-four years she'd come to learn that there was a certain kind of alleviation achieved through the act of taking another's life."

Charlotte, clad in a simple but elegant red gown, looped her arm through Ix’s. Her hair was now golden thanks to the disguise generator, but she otherwise looked the same as ever, her purple glasses somewhat out of place in her Princess Buttercup costume,

Ix readjusted her Dread Pirate Roberts mask and shrugged, grimacing. “Not until I feel better about showing my face in public, and we both know that’s not going to happen. Besides, admit it—I look good in this.”

Charlotte laughed and shook her head as they entered the party. “You look good in everything, hon.”

In grand tradition (okay, the grand three-year tradition that eventually ended up skipping last year, just roll with it), the Purim RP is back! It’s the latest Purim RP yet, and that’s saying something, considering last year’s almost happened seven weeks after Purim...this one, meanwhile, clocks in at about two and a half months past the actual holiday. With the completely different holiday of Shavuot (...Feast of Weeks, I think it gets called in English?) happening very soon (Saturday night/Sunday day, as well as Monday in most places).

If you're wondering, So what is this Purim thing, anyway? look no further! Or rather, please feel free, but here's a brief explanation to get you started!

Purim is a Jewish holiday which is celebrated in the spring. This year, it fell on March 1st (beginning the evening of February 28th--in the Jewish calendar, the day begins and ends at sunset, not midnight. This is why you get things like big Friday night dinners for Shabbat, instead of everything being on Saturday).

Purim commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people living in Persia and Medea at the time of King Ahasuerus (who is generally identified with Xerxes I). Essentially, Ahasuerus fell out with his first wife, Vashti, and found a new one in Esther, a young Jewish woman. Upon the advice of her uncle-cousin (there's some debate) Mordechai, who raised her, she hid her religion. This eventually enabled her to defeat the plan of Haman, the king's adviser who decided to commit mass genocide of the Jewish population via a decree telling the rest of the citizens to get their murder on on a specific day. He got this day by going and having lots cast before him. That's where the name of the holiday comes from: ‘Purim’ literally means ‘lots.’ The Scroll of Esther, which tells the Purim story, ends with Mordechai and Esther instituting the holiday and its customs (and then a coda about Ahasuerus' new taxes and Mordechai's status as his new adviser--chapter ten is very short).

Why make an RP out of this holiday? Well, it lends itself very well to RPing. Purim parties are popular in the Real World, and traditions include dressing up--yes, all ages--eating a particular type of cookies called hamantaschen, and (optionally) drinking “until you can’t tell the difference between Haman and Mordechai.” Singing is also frequent, as are ‘Purim spiels’ (little plays retelling the Purim story, often made into musicals, very often performed by kids). The less RP-fitting parts are giving charity, hearing the Scroll of Esther (aka ‘the Megillah’, which...means ‘scroll’) read in the evening and morning, and delivering little gifts of food and drink (often hamantaschen and grape juice as a standard, but they can get wild apparently) to friends and neighbors.

A quick note: costumes! Sounds a bit like Halloween, yes? Well, the tendency here is not generally towards scary or revealing costumes. Popular choices (especially for children) include characters from the Purim story, though pretty much everything else gets in there too. And yes, some people don’t dress up, or just wear a mask or headband or something odd and remarkable like a straw hat with challah on it (seen, to the best of my memory, on a beloved, aging Holocaust survivor)--but dressing up definitely doesn’t end around the teenage years.

At any rate: We’re back! And here we go...

*

As ever, the rules/guidelines are as follows:

-Everyone is welcome. That means new agents, old agents, reluctant agents, enthusiastic agents, agents who wandered in by mistake…everyone. It also means minis, kids, and possibly pets. Free-To-Use Agents are also good.

-This is newbie-inclusive! While I know some newbies (often depending on just how new they are) have agents they’re thinking about, many other newbies don’t–and, well, this is Purim. It’s a party. Everyone should be able to come! So…everyone includes Boarders, with the condition that you’re incognito! Pretend to be your costumes, pretend to be newly-recruited agents, whatever you like–as long as you remember that the vast majority of PPC HQ’s inhabitants don’t know the Board exists (and would forget if they found out). Of course, this isn’t just for newbies; if you’re not a newbie and you really, really want to, write yourself in! The same rules apply, though. (This doesn't always happen, but you're certainly welcome to go for it!)

-A new reminder: please remember that the Constitution is in effect. If an author (not a character) expresses discomfort with something happening in an interaction with their character, please pay attention even if the thing in question doesn't bother you.

-On canon-compliance: this one is up to you. For my part, I take most of what my agents get up to in this RP as canon, to the point of working the occasional reference into various works in progress. Referencing relatively vague details that didn't make it to the RP but are headcanoned by the author(s) of the characters is probably also something I'll end up doing eventually--such as, "Did he really get so drunk he started dancing on the tables?" "Oh, he'd barely had anything. He just wanted to re-enact the Green Dragon scene, even though he came dressed as Frodo." "He did fall off, though, right?" "Yeah, right onto that one agent who came as the Lady Galadriel..." …Anyway, you can call this canon or not (or anything in between) for your agents as you wish! It’s entirely up to you.

-Have fun! It is Purim, after all, and Purim is a time for celebration. So let’s celebrate!

*

*Note: This Purim RP, while RL-wise taking place about two and a half months after March 1st, is in-universe happening at the appropriate time. (Boarders inside the RP can mention time-travel if you like, though.)

*Oh! Another note: I'm available for questions, especially about anything in this post that isn't clear enough. I'm all for cultural exchange! I'll be mostly offline over the weekend, though, so don't expect immediate answers from me.

*

And finally...the opener! Also in grand tradition :) Fun fact: the very first one was a multicolored textual invitation.

Let's journey now to RC Pie (that's 2.1459) and the disentanglers that inhabit it to start off the party! Or, in this case, setting out for the party...


“You're going as John Hart again?” Agen_t rolled zir eyes and put down the gun ze was cleaning.

“What's wrong with repeating a great costume?” Edgar Sullivan finished buckling his belt and reached for the katana that lay on the kitchen table. Well, what passed for their kitchen, anyway.

“It makes you seem boring.” Agent stretched and folded zir hands behind zir head. “Hints at a lack of creativity, in fact.”

Edgar shrugged. “It's a great costume, it looks good, and I like it. I don’t have any reason not to use it.” He adjusted the belt so that the sheathed katana wouldn’t bump his leg, and reached for something best described as a space pistol.

“You have a disguise generator,” Agent reminded him. “An RC full of items. A general store! Character replacements to loot—and don't tell me you don't do that. I know you. We've been partners for nearly four years.”

Edgar sighed. “I like this one. Anyway, if you’re so into creativity, where’s your costume?”

Agent shrugged. “I’m wearing it.”

Edgar eyed zir. “That’s just one of your old suits. Are you going as a SHIELD agent, or something? Because if so, I have something to say to you about creativity.”

Agent sighed and slid zir sunglasses down over zir blue eyes. “Don’t you see?” Ze spread zir arms wide and wiped most of the expression from zir face. “I’m a newly recruited bit character with practically no personality.”

Edgar rolled his eyes forcefully. “You’re going as a younger you.” Agent shrugged one shoulder very slightly, and Edgar nodded. “Right, yeah. That thing about creativity? Yours needs work.”

Agent shrugged again. “At least I haven’t used it as a costume before. And besides...it is a costume now.”

Relative silence fell, broken only by the shuffle of mini-Luggage feet in the background, until Edgar shook his head.

“Oh, no. You’re not getting me with the sap. I might be proud and pleased you’re all personed up now, but it’s not going to distract me from the fact that you’re a hypocrite.”

Agent shrugged. “It was worth a try, wasn’t it? Have you got everything put together now?”

“Just about,” Edgar said. He picked up the period coat that was one of the biggest parts of the costume, and shrugged into it. “There we go. Tell me you’re not bringing the gun.”

“Of course I’m not bringing the gun.” Agent pushed the pieces tidily together and wiped off zir hands, before unbuttoning zir suit jacket and pushing it aside to show a different gun in a generic holster. “I’m bringing this one. SHIELD standard issue.”

Edgar sighed. “Of course you are. Alright—let’s just go. The sooner we leave, the sooner Carrrot and Neinor and the rest can start making a mess.”

The shuffle of mini-Luggage feet stopped suspiciously. The two disentanglers exchanged glances.

“I plan to bring back a good supply of cookies this year,” Agent said casually. “I won’t be sharing them with anyone, or anything, that hasn’t been on good behavior since I left, though. I think that sounds reasonable.”

“Oh, very reasonable,” Edgar said. He grinned at the utter silence in the RC. “Come on—let’s go party. Maybe we’ll even bring back some of the little pita chip things this year...those are very good for sharing…”

“Extra chocolate hamantaschen,” Agent added. “Those always go quickly. We’d better hurry if we want some.”

“Good point.”

They left, grinning at each other once the door had closed behind them.

“Well, that went well.”

“There will be some kind of mess when we get back,” Agen_t said. Ze set off down the hallway, pushing zir sunglasses back up. “There always is.”

“You never know,” Edgar said, and followed his partner. “Maybe today will be the day…”

Switching universes does not change the physiology of a character. There is also the matter of surviving being noticed by the Sue. Anything stronger than a twilight vampire will get world one agents killed almost immediately.

So, Iximaz has been regaling the Discord with quotes of the worst passages of Xanth lately (glad I only read the first one some years ago), and it decided me to implement that little game, also inspired by another game about prompts posted here, and where people had to guess if they were real or not.

So, the game: You post a quote/line on this thread, and people have to guess if it's a line from original fiction, fanfiction or just plain made up. For instance,

'The King professed no love for the Queen, and governed that temperamental woman with a subtly iron hand that amazed those who had known Iris before her marriage. Yet she thrived under that discipline. Those who knew the King well understood that not only was he a more powerful Magician than she, he was also a stronger person.'

Is unfortunately very much Original Fiction, Xanth.

So, I'll begin with tis one line: 'Each artifact was unique, which means there was only one copy in all the simulation.'

Feel free to post the most outlandish lines you can find or think about.

Microsoft is going to be releasing an accessibility-focused Xbox controller, which is meant to make stringing together a bunch of non-standard peripherals (foot pedals, large buttons, etc.) into a controller a lat easier.

I'm mainly posting this because I think it's cool, and because it's nice to see efforts being made in the direction of improving gaming accessibility.

- Tomash

Many thanks!

I applaud your reference.

I actually never wrote any missions. I never got around to asking for permission. :P

Thank you very much. I'm not sure what I'll use the beads for, but I'll think of something.

“Daggeeeeeeeer!”

The dragonborn looked up from his bench, adjusting his glasses as he did so. The lamplight gleamed off his bronze scales. “What is it? Can’t you see I’m working?”

Talia, for her part, had been bent over a workstation opposite her partner until moments before. Now, she was staring at him irritably. “The network’s down. Still. It’s been three days, so would you care to explain what the holdup is?”

“The holdup, my dear partner, is that I’m not a network engineer. So I had to study up on how the mess that connects us to the mass of chewed gum and duct tape that HQ jokingly calls a network. That was the first day.” Dagger’s tone was tinged with that special indignation of an engineer who had just had his competency questioned.

“Right,” said Talia. “No, I get that, but what about the other two days? Were you just sitting around doing rude things to yourself?”

If Dagger could scowl, he would have. As it stood, he just gave it his best approximation. It got the message across, at least. “Nothing of the kind. The next days were spent running new cabling through our RC, because the old wiring was put in when 115200bps was blazing fast.”

“So what’s left to do?” asked Talia. “Just flip the switch and wire us in.”

“I was getting to that. The only thing that’s left is putting the ends on the cables. And I can’t do that, so I need you to help.”

“Why me?”

Dagger held up his hands. “In case you haven’t noticed, I have claws.”

“Ooooh… Right.” Talia frowned. “So how do I help?”

“Do you like slotting small wires into tiny slots?”

“Not particularly.”

“Too bad. Get over here and I’ll show you the ropes. Just make sure you don’t miss any slots, and that you get the order right. I’ll be watching to make sure.”

Talia sighed melodramatically. “No bets on whether my hands will hurt after all this repetitive detail work, I suppose. All right. Let’s get this over with…”

--

Talia’s hands did hurt, as she had predicted. Her eyes and head hurt more, though: fine detail work could do that to you. She lay on the cot that passed for her bed in the RC, trying to relax before she got back to any sort of real work. Suddenly, she had a thought. “Hey, Dagger?”

He gave a grunt.

“How did a Dragonborn get a degree in Electrical Engineering anyways?”

Dagger let out a long, slow sigh. “I really, really, don’t want to talk about it.”

Which just didn't line up with reality. After walking for about half a mile, the path leads into a tunnel, made out of trees so heavily weighed that I have to put my head down a little so I don't hit it. This leads for a couple minutes, and then it just dives deep into the forest. One time, I was walking in a path in the forest, and I came to where I thought Civilization was. I ended up stopping before I hit the street, because I was blocked by a barbed wire fence. After some more walking around the edges, I learned I was in a sneaky government botany facility. Which I was very much not supposed to be in!

Obviously, someone engineer made a mistake with reality-bending trees.

(Also, on a bit of a spook factor note: At night, I hear children laughing and screaming from deep within the forest. Faintly, but most definitely audible.)

I haven't heard from Lycos, so I still don't know what happened, but all's well that ends well?

I think it's all backed up on Archive.is, but if you want to add another layer of redundancy, I won't stop you. Thanks. {= )

~Neshomeh

Would you mind if I mirror your site once it's back online?

Losing your website would be Very Bad, and who knows if Tripod will go down in the future...

You picked a good time to have a Lycos breakdown - the guy who built the company just got back from filming the new series of Battlebots. =]

(For reference, that'd be Michael "Fuzzy" Mauldin, of Polar Vortex fame)

I was not aware of this. I checked myself, and it's not working for me, either, although I can log in and edit my files. I've sent off a help request to Lycos, and I'll keep the Board updated with what I learn.

~Neshomeh

(Long-time lurker posting for the first time - hello!) Recently, I've noticed that all of the links to Neshomeh's Archive appear to be inaccessible, at least on my end, and repeated attempts over the past few days (on both a PC and a mobile device) have produced the same result. I'm unsure if this is a known issue or something that has already been addressed, in which I sincerely apologise, but I feel obliged to bring it to your attentions just in case. If anyone knows of a solution, I would be grateful.

(Apologies for taking up your time and for my own awkwardness in delivering this message, thank you very much.)

It might only work in its home verse; so when agents try drenching a 'toon Sue in the stuff, it just gets angry and tries to chase them down.

Of course, then an agent figures out why it doesn't work, dials up a portal, drops the Sue through, and watches in satisfaction as the Sue melts.

You ever read one've those?

Those things'd distract me from escaping from a sinking cruise ship. They're insane, man.

Anyhows, blimey, it's nice to get back into writing whimsy goofiness. The last thing I wrote was kinda depressing. I suppose this' why I've got Shift Twentieth lying around for me.

A lot of those changes just got made almost verbatim. Because they were good, and I liked them. Some of them, I worked out my own solutions to.

Fun fact: Al had more physical description in an earlier draft, but I couldn't find a way to make it not seem clumsy. Seeing as I have now done that, a bit of it is back!

Every line of this was full of comedy and whimsy. And I love it.

Favorite line: "Finch didn't even look up from his magic eye book, which he had scientifically determined to be (as of now) the single best way in which for any sapient, intelligent being to ignore the crawling and cold death that slowly comes for us all."