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'Are we really, Bingle?'

'Oh, yes, quite certainly, Finch. In between checking this watch of mine, and checking our, frankly, unnecessarily large collection of prime condition wall clocks-'

'Your collection.'

'I can confirm with a nearly one hundred per cent accuracy that we do, in fact, seem to be late.'

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. 'Well, that-s a bloody shame.

'Very much, oh, absolutely.'

'Yes. That-s horrid. We can-t have that.'

'The guilt we will feel, Finch, when we come back to there, eventually!' Bingle wailed, glancing at his watch and backing into his corner of the RC and under the sheets of his bed.

'I-m burning alive with guilt, myself,' Finch agreed, optical sensor really narrowing hard at this particular page.

'Yes, yes indeed. We are late. Terribly, terribly late.'

Finch! Bingle! You, you're late!

Bingle crumpled out of his bed, spilling the sheets to the floor and smashing his face on a tile.

Ummm! What are you two doing? Ninetwo was standing in front of the swinging door like a foreign conqueror.

Finch was a trained veteran in these situations and he immediately charged on the offensive with a pointing actuator. 'What the hell are you doing in here? How did you even get in here?'

Well, I-

'Is that a bloody key?!' Finch pointed down at Ninetwo's frond, nestled in which was a key to their RC. 'Did you unlock - do you have a copy of -' He glared at Bingle. 'Did you give her a copy?!'

'I did no such thing,' Bingle argued from beneath his sheets.

The door swung open again: 'Hrmmm, yeah, guys, we need to go, we're late.' Anne swayed in, taking in the nooks and crannies of the room. She lazily swung another copy of their RC's key on her finger.

'You have one, too?!'

'Hrm? Oh, yeah, yeah. Bingle gave me a couple.' Finch gazed at her with a red melting rage and she was as solid and untouched as a cliff wall.

'Did I really do that?' Bingle exclaimed, pulling himself up and glancing at Finch. He made a face like he was being torn in half by an invisible giant. 'Oh! I did, yes. Ahah!'

'Bloody give!' Finch hissed, snatching the keys from Anne and Ninetwo.

Umm. I have a spare, too. I'll just get that out-

Finch grabbed it out of her frond before she even fished it out of her pocket.

'Shoo! Out!' and he beat Anne and Ninetwo, stumbling, out of the RC. And he pulled the door shut and hovered right back to his book.

'A damn shame, Bingle, that we-re late.'

'Very tragic, yes, Finch,' Bingle agreed, rolling into his bed and shutting his eyes. 'But there really wasn't anything we could do about it.'

There had been no new missions for an hour and a half, which was extraordinary. The only problem was that the Ironic Overpower was guaranteed to give Edward and Kat a mission within the next few minutes as soon as they started doing something.
Kat was currently singing along to “A Whole New World” and Edward had very quickly put his new earplugs in. Kat’s singing was absolutely horrendous.
Edward was half-heartedly playing Solitaire with his mind not really on the game. He’d played about five games so far and won zero. The current game was not looking promising.
Kat said something, but he couldn’t hear her through the earplugs. He took them out and said, “Sorry, what was that again?”
“We should do something.”
He nodded but asked, “What? The IO is going to give us a mission as soon as we start!”
“Whatever. I’m so bored I think I want a mission.”
Kat would probably regret that as soon as they did.
“Shall we play a card game?”
“I can’t think of any good two-player ones.”
“There’s loads of four-player games. Why don’t we play two players each?”
That seemed like a sensible suggestion. Edward agreed. He was going to say that cooperation between teams shouldn’t be allowed but decided there was no point – they’d both just cooperate anyway.
He suggested that they play Hearts and when Kat agreed gathered up the cards he had been using for Solitaire and began dealing, very quickly. He’d had a lot of practice at dealing cards. Once all fifty-two cards had been dealt he picked up one of the hands and cringed.
It was absolutely awful! Seven high clubs, a singleton Queen of Spades… He might as well try to take every card there was with this. His other hand was a lot better and he decided he would try to take all the penalty cards.
Kat’s first player played the two of clubs and her second showed off its club void with the Ace of Spades. Edward played the Ace and his second player the six. He took the trick and led his nine of clubs, which looked quite high but was actually his second-lowest club.
His other player played the three and Kat’s players played the five and the Ace of Hearts respectively. Edward kept leading clubs for the next five rounds, but by this stage Kat had figured out what he was up to and was refusing to dump any more hearts.
He so far had the seven highest hearts, three dumped by Kat’s players and the others by his own player. The King of Spades hadn’t come out yet so he couldn’t lead the Queen. What he could do, on the other hand, was lead diamonds; Kat had used up a lot of hers by dumping them on Edward’s clubs.
He led three rounds of diamonds and Kat wasn’t forced to play any more hearts or the King. However, Edward still had the highest remaining heart, which he led to take another trick and three more hearts. Now all he had was a heart and the Queen of Spades. The heart was the highest remaining, but there was no guarantee that he could force out the King.
He led the heart, fingers crossed, and his other player played a low spade. As Kat’s first player was about to put down a card…
[BEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!]

The bell rang and the students began packing their things, chattering excitedly. She kept her head down, flinching when she felt Jessica's elbow jab her in the side as she passed. It could have been an accident, not at all intended to be malicious, but she still didn't want to risk looking up. If she met Jessica's eyes, there would be hell to pay, so she focused on packing up her cauldron and books, waiting for the class to file out before she slipped away.

The other students liked to hang out in the courtyard during their free period, which meant the library would be hers. She limped along the corridor, slowed down with the weight of all her textbooks crammed into her bag.

She could hear voices up ahead and she flattened herself against the wall, heart pounding, wondering if someone had stayed behind to jump her. Nervously, she peered around the corner, and her racing heart skipped a beat when she realized it was Teddy Lupin talking to Victoire Weasley.

"So, Hogsmeade is coming up soon," Teddy said as she began backing down the corridor the way she came. "Want to go with me? We could go to the Three Broomsticks, make a date of it..."

She didn't stick around to hear Victoire's reply. Beautiful, talented, perfect Victoire, who had the most obvious crush on Teddy that of course she would say yes. Who wouldn't? Jealousy gnawed at her stomach as she pushed aside a tapestry to reveal a hidden staircase. This route would take longer, but at least she wouldn't have to risk anyone seeing her cry.

She gave the library a pass and continued up to the seventh floor, to Gryffindor Tower, to her dormitory where she pulled her bed hangings shut and curled up on the quilt, hugging her bag to her chest. Her heart ached from the loneliness.

Laughter drifted up from the courtyard through the open window. She closed her eyes and listened, glad that for once, nobody was laughing at her.

And thank you everyone for participating! If I can get someone to help me with the bracket for next year's tournament, we'll go back to double elimination format to give people a chance to bounce back after a loss.

Happy battles, and see you again in March!

It went about as well as expected: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7doublesou-747504511

A bit of editing, an opening post, and it's ready to put up! Look for it...uh, still hopefully sometime this week, really. Sleep is necessary.

~Z

...of still doing the Purim RP this year. While it feels like ages since Purim actually happened, it's actually only been about two months, which seems somewhat reasonable. It could work. I think I've even done it this late once before.

The main thing, beyond lack of time for a bit (and also a bunch of different events and so on running when I did have a little time), has been that I'd need to finish both an opening scene (tradition!) and the starting post. Then again, I could probably do that...and it would be nice to keep this going...

I...seem to be doing this. Look out for it hopefully this week, I guess? At current glance, I basically just need to write a continuation/ending for a short scene and adapt an opening post into existence from the previous years.

For anyone who doesn't recognize/remember it: the Purim RP is basically agents, Boarders, you name it dropped into somewhere in HQ for a Purim party. What's Purim? It's a Jewish holiday commemorating the events of the Scroll of Esther (basically, an evil plot was foiled and the Jews of Persia and Medea were saved from massacre). Popular activities of the party variety include costumes, a type of cookie called hamantaschen, and optional drinking. There's more depth to the holiday, but so far that's the main part that's shown up in the RP, which, well, it's an RP of a party, not of people hearing the Scroll read or giving charity or gifts of food and drink to their friends/neighbors...

Anyway. Yes. I am apparently doing this again. Keep an eye out!

~Z

Ce’rana of Borune forced herself to focus on the book in her hands one more time as she picked up her pace. The halls of HQ weren’t the most cooperative thing, and neither was the IO; both had tossed her obstacle after obstacle - spider mites in her flowers that she had to take care of before they spread; a chance encounter with another Agent that started with her wandering straight into him and ending with her having to go back and pick up her book again after she’d dropped it; and now, making her even more hopelessly lost every time she glanced up from her book.

All she wanted was to be able to figure out where in Nedra’s name Rudi’s had gone off to. Alex had promised to get the both of them a non-Cafeteria dinner after yet another horrible mission; all she had to do was meet him there. There was no good reason for her to be late, and she could practically feel each second ticking past.

The Dryad barely even blinked when she wandered into the wall again, instead forcing herself to look up and turn the corner like a sane individual. She would get nowhere by letting her frustration mount until she broke down crying; if she did that, she’d stop moving, and wasn’t that the key to actually getting anywhere in this cursed place? To keep going forward without paying attention until you somehow wound up where you needed to go?

Obviously not, if another wall to the face was any indication. Ce’rana allowed herself a moment of pettiness to glare at the wall and kick it before looking around to see where she was supposed to turn. And of course she wasn’t actually at a corner this time - one of the few dead ends in this place. She growled and turned around, determined to pay attention to nothing but the words of her book this time.

“Rana?” Her partner’s voice called out from behind her. She paused before slowly turning again and looking up at him. It took her a few moments to work out some possible reason for Alex to have been behind her - in a dead end, of all places. It wasn’t like he could have teleported.

“...please tell me you didn’t go looking for me,” she muttered at last. “Because I do not need finding.”

Alex crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at her, even as he leaned to one side… on the door to Rudi’s.

The tiny agent looked up a little more to take in the sign, the door, and her partner all at once. She blinked. She took a slow, deep breath. Finally, she spoke. “That was not there ten seconds ago.”

“It’s been right here the whole time.” Alex gave her a knowing grin. “Now, come on. Your raspberry mousse cake is getting cold.” He turned around and slipped back into Rudi’s.

The Dryad glared at the door for a few moments as it swung shut behind him, mentally daring it to disappear, before opening it again and following her partner to the table in the corner. At least he’d gotten her something nice.

So, I've noticed that we haven't really had any RPs outside of the Discord for a while now.

A few months back, I started an RP thread on T-Board, but it didn't get much traction. (said thread is still open, if anyone's interested).

So, if anyone has any RP ideas (even if it's the rather classic "let's throw all our agents into the bar" RP), please propose and/or start them, because I suspect there's a lot of people who've been looking around waiting for someone to do that.

- Tomash

I’m feeling loads better than I anticipated, so it looks like I’ll be around! :)

I am EAIUBEROverlord

If I don't show up right at 8:30 then I'll try to make it by at least 9.

Normally I don't intend to break out the beta-reader hat for promptfic, but Thoth asked me to, so here we go! *cracks knuckles*

Paragraph 1, sentence 2: Tense agreement between clauses. I'd make it "but if he'd forgotten anything".

P2: Here's a good example of short sentences increasing the sense of urgency! And this continues throughout the "crisis," then stops. This is a good use of technique.

P6: I was very confused at this point on the first read-through. Who the eff is Al?, I thought. Flatmate?, I thought. Oh, I get it, it's a prequel! I mean, I figured he was doing some Laundry-related stuff from the get-go (or possibly a very involved computer game, though you did "it was actually a game!" already), but up until this point it could have been the PPC. {= )

P6,S2: Second comma unnecessary. Also, maybe "Al had poked", if the action is complete by the time Tom looks.

P8: It was not entirely clear to me what Al is referring to by "what you just said," but on the second reading, I guess it must be the "saving the world" thing? Which would not exactly be usual for Tom's desk job position? Maybe?

P8,S3: You've either got a comma where there should be a period or a capital J where it should be lowercase.

P9,S1: Sighing and huffing is a bit redundant. I'd probably just make the tag "Tom huffed defensively."

P10: I lol'd. Didn't see that coming at all. ^_^

What would I change: Maybe add a little physical detail about Al? Mussed [color] hair, or rumpled pajamas, or some little thing like that to bring him more to life.

What else did I like: Everything here has a reason to be here. No detail is wasted. The pacing is tight, the stakes feel high, and the punchline is suitably satisfying as a result.

Aaaand that's all I got! Basically, I liked it. Rite moar plz. {= )

~Neshomeh

I'm awake, little groggy but doing alright now. Feels good. The surgeon and his team were awesome.

Don't ask where the subject line came from... it just did.

Anyway, after some careful experiments (questions) with my guinea pigs (those who frequent the writing channel of Discord) I've decided to (relatively) regularly run two prompts until I a) forget or b) run out of prompts. The two prompts for this week are:

Prompt 1: "Break time!"

and

Prompt 2: Running late

Novastorme
PS If you want to write a prompt from a previous thread like Zing did last week, go for it. Just let people know else some may get confused.
PPS I told you I'd write one last time. Let's see if I can write two this time.
PPPS Let's see how Ix turns one of these into angst this time :p

Tomorrow at 8:30 EST?

A couple years back, I interviewed a married couple my parents knew who had once worked at Industrial Light and Magic (that's the special effects company for a lot of movies).

They had worked on multiple Harry Potter films, and they told me that in order to get the Dementors' robes to flow in the exact way that was wanted, they had to animate it like it was cheesecloth under water.

Yes, cheesecloth under water. That's exactly what they said. I find that to be the greatest bit of trivia I have ever found out.

-Twistey

We should probably arrange a specific time so it runs more smoothly. Want to try for 8pm EST today?

And that leaves Avengers: Infinity Wars. Well. It was a well-done movie, but I can’t say I necessarily enjoyed it. Spoilers for Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity Wars.

With all the characters they had to juggle, they did introduce them on-screen in a smart way. They basically went backwards through the Phase Three movies, so that newer watchers saw the characters they were already familiar with before characters who hadn’t done much recently appeared. (Although it just occurred to me that Black Panther got saved until last, but that’s probably unavoidable when the final showdown was being saved for Wakanda.)

Since they apparently felt some weird need to wipe out all of Asgard between this movie and Thor: Ragnarok, we end up losing Loki and Heimdall right at the start. They were both really cool and popular characters, so I don’t understand why we have to lose them. I am glad that they at least allowed Loki to demonstrate for once and all that he was truly allied to his brother. I don’t entirely understand how Heimdall was able to activate the rainbow bridge magic now that the bridge has been destroyed, but I’m not arguing with Bruce Banner getting rescued, so.

I was worried that the Guardians of the Galaxy wouldn’t fit in well with the rest of the cast, with their stupid potty humor and constant jokes. Fortunately, the potty humor was left out (so far as I remember), and while they still used a lot of humor, they were notably serioused up compared to their own titles. Their introduction was flawless, with the “Space” title card and the funky music. The theater filled with laughter at that point, as we all knew what characters were about to show up.

Basically all the fight scenes were great. Every character got at least a little to do. The alien wolf things in the end didn’t really pose much threat, but the four creepy alien generals who served under Thanos all felt very dangerous, and their defeats were very rewarding. One weak point was that the Power Stone and Reality Stone felt really weakened compared to their portrayals in Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: The Dark World. They had seemed to have potentially deadly powers in those movies, but in this one, Thanos mostly just uses them to knock people backwards. Maybe he’s just not focused on them closely enough because he’s usually fighting too many combatants at a time, but it feels weird for the two most physically powerful stones to do so little.

It was cool seeing the Red Skull again. The MCU has killed off way too many of its villains, so it was nice to see one is still hanging around somewhere, even if he seems beyond the capacity to become a threat again, and might be a little repentant of his past? It would be interesting for him to interact with Captain America again, though I can’t see any way of that happening. Actually, I rather hope his spirit has been released to death now that he no longer needs to guard the Soul Stone. Regardless of his actions during World War II, he’s clearly suffering now, and keeping him around as a wraith can’t seem to serve any narrative purpose. (Plus, it looks like we’re not getting Hugo Weaving back at all, so.)

And, here’s the section that really matters. The ending. Since seeing the movie, I’ve had Boarders and real life friends alike explain that the characters who disappeared are likely to be resurrected in the next Avengers title. And uh. Well. THEY’D BETTER. I was furious watching that ending sequence play out. The entire theater was silent when the credits started to roll. Just seeing so many characters dropped off the face of the Earth setting with no fanfare, no real goodbye, was just disappointing and frustrating, and certainly not enjoyable. It doesn’t help that two of my favorite characters, Bucky Barnes and Maria Hill, are gone. And even worse, I now have to slowly continue watching the tie-in TV shows, knowing that once they reach the same point in the timeline as A:IW, that I have to watch a bunch of the Defenders and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents vanish as well.

So yeah. I don’t like seeing the bad guys win. I’m perfectly happy with the standard good guy ending. I don’t like thinking that so many characters I love are just gone right now, and I really want to “read ahead” to get them back, plzkthx.

—doctorlit, Infinitely Warring with his feelings for this movie

“You aren’t the only one cursed with spoilers, Stark.” “You aren’t the only one cursed with spoilers, Stark.” “You aren’t the only one cursed with spoilers, Stark.”

May or may not be around today, but usually available after 6:00 Eastern Standard Time

Time is an illusion. Happy birthday!

And good luck with your surgery!