Alex: Karaoke night! What are we all gonna sing?
Jason: Not the AJQ theme song. Hmm. How about “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten?
Nono: Ooh! I know! “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne!
John: “Yuusha-Oh Tanjou!” by Masaaki Endoh
Emma: Prodigy’s “Firestarter”
Alycia: “Prisencolinensinainciusol” by Adriano Celentano and I will not miss a fucking syllable
Alex: and I’ll do “Shockwave” by the Hacker, the Gesaffelstein Remix from GTA V
Jason: (checking) that’s just… uh, someone chanting “ecstasy” in the background. There’s no other lyrics.
Alex: I play life on easy mode
Alex: for our next party game - strip poker!
John: absolutely not
Nono: besides, isn’t that a little cliché?
Alex: fine. Strip Twister
John: no, but points for originality
2 Likes
Big Bill: we should play some kinda party game!
Summer: you mean like charades?
Big Bill: yeah!
Otto: alright, I got one. I’ll start. I spy with my little eye something that begins with M
Big Bill: is it Mo?
Otto: It’s Maintenance Schedules. Get back to work
1 Like
Keri: we’re gonna play a game!
Keri: this is called a trompo. It’s a spinning toy top. You launch it and the goal is to get it spinning as long as possible
(William launches the trompo into the distance, easily beating everyone)
(Space Bug blasts it)
Jaycee: looks like it’s down to you… and me, kiddo
Jordan: I ain’t goin’ easy on you, old lady!
Jaycee: let’s go!
Adam: I’m reading emotional power levels off the scale
1 Like
Andi: hey I wanna play Monopoly with you guys
Harry: sure, board games can be a good bonding experience
(two hours later)
Trace: I am gonna kill you all
Fuko: not if I kill you first
Mirage: are you two going to stop bickering or pay me what you owe me?
Harry: god, whose idea was it to make a game about ruthlessly taking over real estate?
(Elsewhere)
Rex Tyran: I’m happy to say our profits in Monopoly sales are rising
1 Like
Maury: a bunch of you are from the past, or outside America. What games do you like playing?
Bodark: P’yanitsa. Play with cards. Two versions. Player who has all cards wins. Player with no cards wins. One thing. Choose which rule to use beforehand. Very important.
Charlotte: many of the games of my era are still around, such as 20 Questions and croquet
Manny: we played jacks and balls aboard ship. It was fun, until one critical moment
Charlotte: what was that?
Manny: the ship tilted and the jacks went overboard
1 Like
Imagining half the universe drifting off into dark ash … then drifting next to each other again, reconstituted.
2 Likes
Jason: So … that “Prisencolinensinainciusol” song. That’s pretty crazy.
Alycia: Yes.
Jason: And it’s kind of fascinating that Celentano intentionally came up with gibberish that sounded American to prove a point that Italians would listen to anything from the States.
Alycia: That’s the story.
Jason: Well, great music trivia.
Alycia: Actually, if you codebreak the underlying English and the original Italian that was blended into it, the synchronous vibrations, to that rhythm, would be capable of breaking dimensional barriers into a high-entropy universe, allowing its most powerful and ancient inhabitants to invade our world.
Jason: (Stares for a moment.)
Alycia: My father researched the matter extensively.
Jason: Wait. This is just you ragging on me for not liking to learn foreign languages.
Alycia: Sure. Tell yourself that as the music earworms through your head tonight.
2 Likes
(Back at the ranch)
Jason: Wait, why are you so good at this? Aren’t monopolistic practices the sort of thing you were raised to oppose?
Alycia: You’re not wrong, but the tactics of acquiring ownership of multiple city blocks in order to construct a covert science lab / missile silo / paramilitary training facility are not dissimilar to, ah, building hotels.
2 Likes
Alycia: Global Thermonuclear War. I mean, on a computer, obviously. No, absolutely not NORAD’s computers. Usually. Well, not lately, but, ah, as a, well, call it a hypothetical learning exercise a decade or so ago, to wile away the long hours several thousand feet below the Siberian tundra in December.
Jason: So the goal was to avert armageddon?
Alycia: Well, not exactly.
Jason: To start armageddon?
Alycia: Well, not exactly.
Jason: Then –
Alycia: Father spiced things up by setting victory conditions as destruction of all polities while not completely extinguishing human life from the planet. It’s actually a remarkably challenging scenario.
Harry: Well, this got dark awfully fast.
Alycia: It’s very dark in Siberia during the winter. And, honestly, pretty boring.
2 Likes
John: okay, so, we made it into the line you were so keen about. Now tell me why we’re here
Alex: JK Rowling is personally signing books here!
John: but you hate JK Rowling
Alex: I do! But this way, she’ll finally be in melee range
2 Likes
Harry: I am this close to doing some morally shady shit
Andi: what happened? One of your critical secrets was revealed?
Fuko: a villain took hostages we can’t get back any other way?
Trace: a universal conqueror is invading and we have to team up with a sus alien species?
Harry: Tyran Insurance is billing us for all the damage we caused saving the city from them
Harry: Computer, unseal high-level safety measures, authorization Gale-9289, Halcyon Heroes League high priority
Computer: request secondary authorization
Mirage: Computer, accept secondary authorization Quill-2927
Computer: safety measures disabled, access to secured assets granted
Trace: what are you guys doing?
Harry: getting hold of Rusty’s liquor stash
1 Like
Harry: there’s two awful things about Tyran Enterprises
Fuko: what are those things?
Harry: first, their nonsense drives me to drink
Fuko: and the second?
Harry: my super-fast metabolism doesn’t let me get drunk
1 Like
Bodark: I brought no vodka on this journey
Maury: any reason why not?
Bodark: pirates will drink all of it
Maury: but aren’t they all ghosts - already dead?
Bodark: that is safest way to drink vodka
1 Like
(Bodark is smoking)
Ancient pirate: I smell tobacco!
Ancient pirate: people lived and died to bring the crop to Europe
Ancient pirate: it was reputed to be a sacred herb, born from the gods
Bodark: I have spare pack if you want
Ancient pirate: please
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Manny: ..and not just tobacco! Coffee, tea, and alcohol are available everywhere!
Pirates: ooh
Bodark: Corner stores sell all these things for a day’s wages
Pirates: aah
Haam: what’s going on, crew?
Pirates: errr… cap’n, we wish to go ashore for… awhile
1 Like
Adam: I gave up being a Concordance agent and stopped being a superhero
Adam: I’m just gonna be a high school junior
Keri: sweetie you can’t do that
Adam: you really think so?
Keri: you can’t give up on everything until you’re a senior
1 Like
Adam: are you good at anything other than swordplay?
William: oh yeah, that’s just my personal hobby
Adam: what’s your real job then?
William: bladework
1 Like
Jaycee: it’s my goal to get Mr. Eddison into top physical condition
Keri: what do you get out of it?
(Armiger jogs by, shirtless)
Keri: ah