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Sophie List flushed as red as the wig she was wearing. "That's not what I was suggesting!" she said.

"Lust objects are nothing to be ashamed of. But I'm not going to dress up as yours." Theo uncrossed his arms with a sigh. "But I will dress up, if it will make you stop pestering me." He turned to his closet and shuffled through it, finally pulling out a dark green cloak. Mud cracked and fell off the hem as he put it on over his white T-shirt and blue jeans. "I'm a Ranger. Happy?"

"Have you ever washed that?" Sophie asked accusingly.

"No. It's authentic. Come on, or we'll be late." Theo opened the door to their RC and walked out, Sophie following behind him.

"Your hair is still up," she pointed out. Theo pulled the hairband out of his hair and looped it on his left wrist, letting the pony tail fall across his shoulders. "I can see your tennis shoes," Sophie added, still critical.

"Then don't look," Theo said.

"They're bright red; I can hardly help but look," Sophie said.

"You're wearing a black turtleneck and black jeans with a Black Widow patch safety pinned to your belt," Theo said.

"But at least they're all the right color!" Sophie said.

The argument got them to the party fairly quickly. Sophie grinned as she looked across the room, taking in others who had arrived and finally seeing the refreshment table, which she made for immediately, abandoning her argument and her partner at the door.

As she plugged in her headphones and started up Google Docs, Twistey recalled the high likelihood of disastrous consequences occurring if she'd joined the fun last year. Bull in a china shop, indeed. Over that year, she'd developed a trick of channeling a terrible concept in a hidden way, resulting in something that was not offensive, just vaguely menacing. That was the reason why she could give away the character her thoughts had turned into, because it had been generic to the point of looking like it was related to something else entirely. Which reminded her, she needed to give it away.

But that didn't matter now. The Purim party hadn't even happened, and so no harm was done. Now it had rolled around again, and she was quite prepared this time. She knew some of her agents-to-be were going to go, and she wanted to surprise them a little. But still, she knew she had to keep incognito. Zingenmir's rules.

Twistey couldn't work without music, so she looked through YouTube to see what its suggestions were. Mostly Animusic. She'd gotten back into that a while ago, having loved its music and animation since childhood. Seeing one video, she remembered something she would love to do. "Aha", she thought, dialed up one of the pre-agents who had decided not to go, and began to write her costume into reality.

-------

"Hello! Listen, I finally found a costume for you that you might be able to go in. ...No, you do not have things to do, you're a semi-fic blip and you're not an agent yet. ...There's social anxiety and there's isolating yourself from everyone because you don't feel you're normal. Agents are an interesting bunch, there's a lot of them who don't know their parents either. ...Yes. And about the costume, no one has to see your face, hear your voice, or anything like that. I know right, it's great! ...We'll communicate with written signs, gestures, and music. First thing we'll do is ask the host if we can DJ, so it can be that we won't even have to interact with anyone. Okay, you're in? Sweet! Put your hair in a wig cap and get a binder if you have one. I have some really cool wearable electronics for us. See ya at my place. Goodbye."

-------

Amber Callahan, no relation to Kitty or any other agent with that last name, was peppering an agent with questions about HQ. When did a typical day start? What tools would she be equipped with for missions? What kind of person could she expect for a partner? The nature of HQ time, the severe underequippedness, and all that only made her more excited. Amber had always had a thirst for adventure. This seemed to worry the agent to no end, but despite the look in their eyes, they smiled and nodded, then continued answering in an even tone of voice.

The Callahan siblings (Erika, Amber, and Connor, from oldest to youngest) had collectively decided to go as characters who wouldn't require masks, excessive face paint, or wigs that were a different color than their actual hair, just so that the crowd could get to know what they actually looked like. Connor was immediately recognizable as Ron Weasley, though he'd remarked that he was "too quiet for the part." Erika had reused a formidable cosplay of Moira from Overwatch that she had saved up to buy, and it looked like she was getting more in character as she got more comfortable. While Moira isn't really a costume one can ruin Purim with, the younger Callahans would have to keep her in check. Amber herself wore the magnificent blue-and-yellow dress of Mrs. Whatsit from the new "A Wrinkle in Time" movie. Amber's best friend Miriam had helped her with her makeup and other such things - too bad Miriam hadn't been able to come. Oh well - Amber had her phone with her, and she could send Miriam all the photos of great cosplay that she could handle.

Just then, Amber heard a loud sound coming from the entrance. Specifically, a series of notes played on a higher and lower synthesizer. She spun to face the direction the musical noise had come from. Two gleaming, futuristic robots, their fronts covered in large pentagonal buttons that she assumed made the music, glided into the room together and made their way towards the host. Things just got more interesting.

-------

The blue Starship Groove robot, presumably male, pulled out a sign reading "Can we DJ?" and showed it to the host. The red one began pressing buttons with one hand and gesturing with the other, first pointing to "her"self, and then making a motion that resembled scratching a disk on a turntable. They waited for a reply.

-Twistey

(Here's a reference for Twistey and the reluctant pre-agent's costumes):

One: "You are educated evil, and might have to kill the evil ONE teaching educators before you can learn that 4 corner days actually do exist"

And, the other: "Death wobbled meretriciously, erring on the side of butch with a strong scent of whiskey on their jaw hinge."

The book is Paper Towns by John Greene.

As 700 rounds per minute blazed across the bombed-out no-man's-land that used to be the city's most exclusive club, all that Corporal Allen McCormick could think was: "Did I leave the stove on?"

I haven't seen the movie, but it looks interesting. Anyway, it's probably a lot harder to get that sort of sentiment into a movie.

I haven't got far enough to decide if this Avengers fanfic is a raging 'Sue or just tiresome, but in any event that's a poor use of the word "alleviation".

Marina said as she entered the room with her partner, looking at his masked face. "And you just had to use that Disguise again, uh?"

Richard, wearing a black coat, black clothes, red gloves and a black and white mask, grinned slightly, "You can talk. you used the same one too, and it is an even cheaper one."

Marina, who was wearing a brown trench coat, a collier with a silver pentacle, and had an engraved staff in hand, shrugged before raising her other hand to list points "Not my idea to come. That's as good as I can get without Disguise Generator like you. And finally, if he can go to a party disguised as a series B vampires, I can do this. Just be happy I'm not going here with robes and a pointy hat with stars on them. Oh, and a wand to go with them."

"But you still intend to enjoy the party too, right?"

"Well, I'm here now, so I could as well profit from that..."

Because that's definitely happened by now. It's beautiful!

https://rc1587.wordpress.com/2018/05/19/blank-sprite-mission-record-14/

We're getting near the end of the Blank Sprite Incident, and we finally get to know what happened in Nikki's missing years. However, Vera still has a curveball to throw at our heroes.

I got it straight out of Ready Player One, the book. More or less, I only have a French version, so I had to translate. And I swear, this sort of line where the reader is considered as dumb as a brick abund. Might be because the chracters are on that level too. Movie is much better.

And for the sake of giving a shoot, I'll tell fanfiction for th line you gave.

I think it's a little too structured to be badfic. The metaphors are all so random, but somehow, it doesn't seem like something you came up with off the top of your head. So I'm going to guess it's from published fiction.

My own contribution:
"Beyond where you can see, there's—there's an island, and it's a very special island. I left it a long time ago. I never thought I'd see it again. It's called Great Britain. And the most beautiful part of the island is Scotland, and that's where your daddy's from. There's mountains and glens and monsters in deep lochs, and... and it's where your mummy and daddy... fell in love."

—doctorlit, running out of time to pack tomorrow's lunch

G'day fellas, ya boy Larfo over here needs some betawork done for the second story of Flaming Broomsticks.

I need to know if it's TRASH or NOT, and have SPAG SORTED OUT, and to SEE if parts are FUNNY or NOT and how I can make them FUNNIER, and SO ON and SO FORTH.

I've had this story lingering around the back of my Google Drive for yonks, and, man, I gotta get it out. It's starting to smell.

I believe you can click my name to access my email thingy and so forth, but, uh, in case I did something wrong - iammisc1 @ gmail . com
(Remove all the spaces, of course)

Cheers anyhow!

Here's the sentence:

She wanted me to play out the string, to find the place where she had stopped and was waiting for me, to follow the bread crumb trail until it dead-ended into her.


So: Published, badfic, or something I made up?

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.