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31 October 2009

Post #11: 09 April 2000

Post #11, by icEFusioN

(This is my first IF post...don't kill me if I mess up please :P)
This was a legitimate concern. What with Tengu Man and his merry band circling around, death just could be meted out for messing up in any way, shape or form.
Over in Coldwater, Michigan, icEFusioN pondered how he could get to the Convention.

"Hmmm..", He thought to himself, "How can I get to the Convention?"
icEFusioN--an important community member from way back, by the way--here becomes the first person to use the word 'Convention' to describe this thing which was called 'Gathering' heretofore. Around 2003 or so SM.Net started holding actual annual conventions, which it still does as far as I know.

So if there's ever a fight over who coined the term, the evidence shows that icEFusioN has the most legitimate claim.
Then, he had a brilliant idea! He would steal a jet! "I just had a brilliant idea! I will steal a jet!" and with that, he went down to the local airport.

When he walked into the airport, he realized that he didn't have a way to sneak past the guards! They were all over the place.
And this was a good 16 months before the disaster of 11 September 2001.
He then took out a box of donuts from his pocket (Yes, his pocket), and attempted to bribe the guards! It didn't work however; the guards ate the doughnuts and just told him to leave.
Everyone that's ever seen a movie knows you're supposed to distract the guards, not bribe them, with donuts. Sheesh.
He decided on another way to get though. He put a pair of pants on his head, and casually walked past them! The guards didn't even notice!
Pants were the meme at starmen.net for a solid two years. reidman started it. Ask him how it happened. I think it has to do with a Five Iron Frenzy song.
When he made it out to the runway, he found an empty airplane. "What Luck!" he said.
icEFusioN absorbed the power of Empty Airplane Runway! icEFusioN's Luck went up by 5!
He got in the airplane, climbed into the cockpit, and started it up. The only way he knew how to fly an airplane was from playing Pilotwings 64.

After he was about the land, he realized he didn't know how to fly an airplane!

*BOOM!*
If you're keeping track, this is our fourth aerial vehicle crash in 11 posts.

Posts #8-10: 09 April 2000

Post #8, by Rune

Meanwhile, Rune was flying to Eagleland in his custom Saiya-jin capsule.
Whatever that is. Rune was another of the Tenguites and one of the ever-prevalent Japanese wannabes.
He arrived and began to survey the territory. "Nice island," he said to himself, "I'd better claim part of it for myself."
And take it from... the Syndicate?
He walked around until he came to a beach where PSI and some other people were setting up.

"Hi everybody!" Rune yelled, "Where's the DJ booth?"
I kind of miss the days where four or five sentences comprised a reasonable IF post. IF is a lot more fun that way, I think (though obviously many disagree.) You can really get bogged down in this super-serious eight-paragraphs-per-post IF.


Post #9, by Anthadd

Anthadd was/is a true intellectual marvel. Only 12 or 13 at this time, his grammar was impeccable and his writing well organized. His personality was always extremely understated and conservative.
Anthadd parachuted down, biting down a shrill scream, and landed on the beach. It had taken some bartering to be allowed to come to the get-together, but he'd succeeded.
Back in 2000 Anthadd was new to the SM.Net community and suffered from a severe exclusion complex, which comes out in that last sentence. IF writers are constantly inserting their own thoughts, wishes and worries into their characters, consciously or unconsciously.
The slight wind, combined with the loose sand of the beach, started to irritate his eyes, making him glad he'd brought sunglasses along.
The wind also sent a cool wind around him, prompting Anthadd to button up coat.
The sky was clear, except for the occasional fluffy white cloud.
On the other beach, he spotted a small group of other Starmen.Net visitors clustered around a DJ set-up, and other things associated with such a big get-together.
Why Anth put a line break (but not a paragraph break) after each of these sentences, I have no foggy idea.
He started to jog across the sand towards the group, songs running through his head, he trying to sing them.
Jogging across sand is hard, man. I've tried it. You feel like you just ran the Boston Marathon after about two minutes.
[This message has been edited by Anthadd (edited 04-11-2000).]
You'll notice that Anth edited this post two full days after he wrote it. Why, I have no clue.



Post #10, by Luna
Third post in a row written by someone who will remain in the story until the bitter end.
Luna was probably the single most popular SM.Net citizen ever, other than its co-founder and supreme-dictator-for-life reidman. Yes, being the site's alpha female helped, of course, but mostly it was because of her hyper-friendly, sometimes flirty, personality. In April 2000 Luna (only 12 then, I think) was pretty new and hadn't achieved those heights yet; that would happen when PSI322 left around early 2001.
"This was a great idea!" Luna said, speaking to no one except a water snake being delivered to a Zoo in Asia.
Luna was/is obsessed with animals. Ask her about her kiwi sometime.
"It's much cheaper flying fed-ex than some fancy flight company! I can fly over the pacific for 75$, AND I get a complimentry parachute! fed-ex is so nice..." She grinned, straping on the parachute and making her way to the door.
The part about the free parachute sounds farfetched, but then again, Luna is the kind of person who can talk anyone into anything. She once kept me online chatting about nothing in particular until 5 AM when I had to be at work at 7 AM, setting off the first, last and only time I have ever had to leave work early when I could no longer stay awake by 13:00.
She kicked open the door and jumped out, carefully pulling the ripcord, which turned out to be a very disgruntled water snake. "Aieeeeeeeee!!!" Luna screamed, as she headed towards the island.
**Crash**
A normal landing is just not cool.
The parachute puffed out around Luna. "Well, looks like I found the ripcord... now I have to untangle my legs from these branches, then get this water snake to stop biting me, fight off these mice that think my toes are snacks, and then find the party... and sue fed-ex for giving me a faulty parachute.
Were you specific that it had to be a functional parachute? Seeing as how they gave it to you free.
I'll be at the party in no time!"

30 October 2009

Posts #2-7: 09 April 2000

Post #2, by Ness The Skittleboy

Overhead,A Learjet descending upon the Eagleland Aiport Strip and landed.
Just a warning: When people like NessTSB post, do not make a drinking game out of grammar mistakes.
Once the ladder had been drawn,Ness The Skittleboy walked onto the runway and ambled towards the beach.There,on the beach were some snack tables,DJ equipment,and various games.And on the beach stood Juliana,waiting for the others to arrive.Ness The Skittleboy,being a clumsy fellow tried to descend the hill towards the beach but tripped oer a rock.
See what I meant there? You would already be blitzed halfway out of your mind by now, and we're only halfway through the first post. No space... no space... no space... no space... no space... sentence unnecessarily starting with 'and'... no space... no space... missing comma after 'fellow'... typo on 'over'. That would be ten drinks.
He sailed down the hill and landed on the beach.But to anybody watching,it had seemed NessSB had fell from the sky.He stood up and brushed himself off,and then waited for the other party-goers.
Even if we let the lack of spacing after punctuation slide, we still have two more clear grammatical errors: Starting a sentence with 'But', 'had fell' rather than 'had fallen'. Feeling buzzed yet?
[This message has been edited by Ness The Skittleboy (edited 04-09-2000).]


Post #3, by SuperSpeedy/Mankey Boy


I mean, really, that his handle is 'SuperSpeedy/Mankey Boy' tells you everything you need to know about him, doesn't it?
(Can a non-real AC make a temperary appearence?)

I think by 'non-real AC' he means an imaginary AC that isn't himself. This story will be comprised almost entirely of self-insert ACs. (AC = Author Character, for those fortunate enough to be uninitiated. And that's two misspellings, for those of you who are counting along.)
Then SuperSpeedy, better known as David, flew to Eagleland on his robotic replica of his AC named Shock Bird.
Wait, what just happened? Did he break the fifth wall? His AC just referenced his AC. My ears are smoking. SuperSpeedy, you truly are a mad genius.
It dropped him at the island and, as it headed for Dave's hometown of Hazlet, crashed into the ocean.
I admit, I LOL'd. I love these throwaway lines.
Dave brought everything from his room from home, including his two Pikachu dolls.(One is electronic and can talk when "petted" or has his hand squezed. The other can't.)
Because we're all riveted to our seats, and will stay here until we die of dehydration if you don't explain to us the exact nature of your two Pikachu dolls! Yes, Speedy was about 11 or 12 at this time.

"Yo, Juliana!" said Dave. "Come si chiama? That's 'How are you?" in Italian!"

Andate via, maniac del batshit!


Post #4, by brock128

Ah yes, I remember brock128. He tried his best, bless his heart.

Ryan (me!) blinked. "How am I gonna get cash for a jet?" Then, a jet fell from the sky - RIGHT ON RYAN! "Ow"

Ryan has introduced a universal IF/fanfic theme that runs especially strong in the Gathering: AC's are invincible. There is no way to harm them. Not only that, but their vehicles are usually invincible. A standard jet would explode into 83 million pieces upon impact, but not this one. This is a hoverjet, Junior.
Ryan was flyin in his jet, with all his pokemon stuff in the back.

You can basically tell which writers are younger than 15 because they're all carrying pokemon stuff.

He had -
A big TV
Mr. Hamster (His hamster, fictional)

No, seriously, it's important to note in this fiction story that his hamster is fictional. Using IF's as a way for authors to use their characters to socially interact with each other is standard.

N64 BABY! ALL THE GAMES BABY!
Pokemon stuff (duh )
SNES (with earthbound and all games)
Dreamcast (and all games)
Computer (with the good games)
Game boy (with games)

Using IFs/fanfics for wish fulfillment is also standard. Thanks for asking. When I write (we'll get to this later) I always get the girl.
With all this stuff, Ryan went quite slow.

Goddammit, I told you this 300 ton private jet can carry no more than 200 pounds of cargo, Jack! Why the hell did you bring all that crap?

Then, the engine went out! "Note to self - never ride a plane that fell on you"

Why would you be concerned about that? That's like playing Goldeneye with Invincible turned on and saying, 'Note to self - never stand near explosive barrels'.

He landed where Shock bird was. And rode him/her/it to the island. However, it crashed again (i brought my stuff) and I got beached with my stuff beside me. "Hey, You OK?" asked Dave

+1 for unnecessary period followed by sentence fragment. +2 for inexplicable midparagraph switch from third to first person. +3 for owning a television and electronic equipment that is impervious to seawater. Finally, the Navy can play Halo all they want with no fear of what might happen if the ship capsizes!

Post #5, by NessJeff

Drew Pfutzenreuter, better known as NessJeff the DigiFreak landed on the island.

'NessJeff' was just shorthand, obviously. I assume he made up 'Pfutzenreuter'--a lot of people were a tad paranoid about giving out their actual full names on the intarwebs back then--but there's no way to be sure.

"Hey, any othe Digifreaks?"

I really don't know whether he meant to type 'othe'. I think he did.

Silence.
"Must wait for friends like tengu, Rockwell, and WotE.

NessJeff, along with Rockwell and WotE, was a Tenguite, one of the obsessively loyal followers of the legendary Tengu man, the most magnificently screwed up writer of fanfic I ever personally came into contact with. You'll get to see plenty of him for yourself, but he was obsessed--and the italics don't even begin to describe it--with girls in general and EarthBound's Paula in particular. He was a skilled writer and charismatic in a kind of Charles Manson way, and had a throng of 12-13 year old boys that thought he was the bee's knees.

Anyway, what you read above was pretty much the Tengu Man Bat Signal.

Must wait for Teradoc, so I can kill Teradoc."
He took out his fanmade GBAdvance game, Paula's Quest, And began playing.

You see what I mean about Paula? And you think I'm exaggerating.

"What? Gary Oak????!!!!"
david came and looked at "Paula's quest".
"Oh up yours Flareon! PSI freeze!"
"What?? Puppetmon? PSI Fire!!!!!!!!!"
David left the weird kid alone.

Many of the kinds of people that posted on SM.Net, and particularly the IF forum, got called 'weird' so routinely by their schoolfellows that they inevitably took it on as a badge of honor.

"I just got Izzy, Motimon, Sora, and Yokomon in my group! Yeahhhhh!!"
Just then, someone came...

It was traditional during those innocent days to end IF posts like this, leaving a hook for the next poster to take.

Post #6, by TheGrislyOldHobo

TheGrislyOldHobo unhooked himself from the numerous straps that had previously connected himself to the bottom of PSi's jet.

One of PSI's many adoring followers/semi-stalkers. He probably would strap himself to the bottom of PSI's jet, if he could find the damned thing.
Glancing around at the lush flora and fauna of Eagleland Island he quickly pulled out his trusty harmarnica and began to play the awe-inspiring national athemn of Eagleland..............

No, I don't know what a harmarnica is, either. Or an athemn. But truly my awe is inspired.

As I recall, we didn't see much of TheGrislyOldHobo. He was the first of many people that made brief appearances and then, as people like Tengu man and Falcon24 hauled the story off into lets-save-the-world-land and you-have-to-write-well-to-be-accepted-here-land, realized they were way out of their league and found something better to do with their time.


Post #7, by Tengu Man/Makron

[sorry, to post comments, but what are the rules on using the original characters[EB characters]? I need to know this before I can decided if I can add myself to it. Sorry.]

[The brackets indicate out-of-character comments. You'll be seeing lots of them from our friend Tengu Man.]

And thus are you introduced to the incomparable Tengu Man. To be perfectly honest, re-reading the Gathering, I cannot for the life of me fathom why I didn't ban that guy the first moment I had a chance. I think it must have been because, deep down, I knew the IF board just wouldn't survive without him. (And it didn't, really, once he left.) He lived in a dream world where he owned the IF board, and pretty much bossed everyone else around until guruzeth or PSI322 emerged from their Syndicate hideout and put him in his place, at which point he'd apologize profusely (if it was PSI) or stick his tongue out (if it was guruzeth) and keep doing what he was doing.

PSI has the one-AC-per-author thing going, so Tengu man's appealing to her here to let him use Paula and his own alter ego, which was standard operating procedure for him. As I recall, Tengu's argument was Paula wasn't an AC so it was legal, and PSI (and myself) bought it. Looking back, it's obvious Paula was an AC--she was the biggest Mary Sue in the history of Mary Sues, and the unending object of Tengu's dreaming.

By the way, Tengu was always very kind and polite with PSI. He was obsessed with PSI. (Yes, obsession was, shall we say, a theme for him.) He used to IM her on AIM just nonstop, incessantly, and she kind of politely tried to parry his advances for months on end before she finally gave up and blocked him.

At which point he made up a female alter-ego--his sister, he claimed, presumably to explain why 'she' had the same IP as him--so he could continue talking to PSI on AIM. Made hundreds of forum posts under 'her' name and everything. But then, this is the guy that, way back on reidman's forums in 1998, pre-earthbound.net, registered 8 accounts and engaged in an elaborate flame war with himself, with his 'true' account defending reidman's honor.


Post #1: 09 April 2000

Posted by PSI322

PSI322 was one of the most popular people in SM.Net's history, and for good reason--she was probably the kindest, friendliest soul that ever treaded there. She was also, as you will see, easily the most talented writer of the bunch. If you're familiar at all with internet communities, you have already guessed that this makes her--and Luna, who will be introduced shortly--relentlessly sought after by the legions of guys. (And yes, that included me.) Moving along...

(I think we can all have a lot of fun with this topic!

Boy, did we ever.

This is a relaxed, humorous IF, probably not lending itself well to a whole lot of seriousness.

Hahahahaha! Oh, PSI, if only you knew what you were unleashing on the world...

Basically, strike a balance between the serious and the humorous aspects and you'll be all set.

You know how staticians will tell you that if your left foot is frozen and your right foot is on fire, on average you're comfortable? Yeah. On average, there was great balance in this fic.

Basically, by the halfway point the fic had converted to 100% serious and all attempts at silliness were instantly and ruthlessly exterminated (or utterly ignored). At the time this seemed unfortunate. Reading it now, I couldn't be happier about it, because like I said before, it's an unintentional comedy gold mine.

Only one AC per person will be allowed; your AC should probably be yourself and not some strange character you've created, since is a big party where all the Starmen.Net users are meeting. Make sure you don't add in anyone who hasn't added themself in here; for example, don't say you arrive and see Czar reidman first thing if reid hasn't joined this IF already on his own. Please try to write your posts in novel format, as this makes them easier to read and understand; furthermore, it allows for more description and actions in your writing. Also, please don't use signatures. I think that's all the rules, so let's get going!)

Yes, a full paragraph of rules was absolutely necessary if you wanted to try and start an IF (Interactive Fiction). And believe you me, many of the writers would do everything they could to ignore or break every one of the rules PSI listed.


It was mid-summer in the year 2000, a time of year when most people want nothing more than to sit out in the sun, drink a glass of cold lemonade, and relax. But everyone from Starmen.Net was on edge with excitement and anticipation; next week was the First Annual Starmen.Net Gathering!

© ® and ™


As it turns out, members of the Syndicate, in their never-ending quest for power (y'all know I'm just kidding about that, right?),

'The Syndicate' was what the staff/administration of SM.Net called ourselves. THE SYNDICATE IS WATCHING YOU was our motto. Some of us took ourselves way too seriously. That guruzeth guy is the most obvious example.

By the way, there was supposed to be a smiley icon there... at least I think there was. On my saved copy all of the emoticons are gone, recognizable only by a broken-link doohickey, so I'm mostly going to skip them here.

had gone exploring and discovered a small, deserted island in the Pacific which couldn't be found on any map. Since the land had never been found before, it had no country affiliation, so the Syndicate had claimed it for Starmen.Net and named it Eagleland Island, or just Eagleland for short. (At last, Eagleland was a real place on the planet Earth! Woo hoo!)

Don't doubt for a second the Syndicate is capable of this. Screw with the Syndicate at your own peril, kiddo.


The Syndicate had proudly informed everyone back at Starmen.Net of their great discovery and announced that there would be a huge party in Eagleland that summer. Everyone at the site rejoiced and prepared to wait out the months ahead until that party came in the summertime. (The party's length was to be about a week, but depending on how it went, everyone thought they'd take a little more time off to vacation with their online friends.)

Vacation? PSI, do you know nothing of the adventurous* spirit of teenage boys?

* read: 'bloodthirsty'



Finally, after so much anticipation, the fated day had arrived. PSI322, better known to some as Juliana, stepped off her private jet

Provided by the Syndicate, of course.

onto the shore and smiled as she looked around. She saw palm trees and white sand, and beautiful blue Pacific waves crashing upon the shoreline. The beach was set up to look like a luau or something of that sort; she saw a whole lot of DJ equipment, a table covered with snacks, a limbo stick waiting patiently off in the distance,

Ouch. I just herniated a disc reading this.

and tons of balloons. This had all the makings of a great party, to be sure; PSI322 had slept a lot in the past few days in preparation for a week of solid partying, dancing, and playing games. She walked across the sand and wondered who would be the next to arrive.

And so it began.....

Introduction

The Gathering (official title: "The First Annual Starmen.Net Gathering!") was an Interactive Fiction posted on the now defunct IF forum of Starmen.Net. The story was originally posted by the poster and beloved IF moderator PSI322 on April 9, 2000, and its phenomenal run finally concluded on June 16 of the same year. 

To say that the likes of the Gathering had never been seen at SM.Net before would be to say northern Siberia is 'chilly'. The thread caught on and grew like wildfire, with responses being added at its peak so quickly that by the time a person typed up a post of a few paragraphs to add to the story, five other replies would already have been posted ahead of it, generating confusion galore. Originally intended as a half-IF, half mingling of the IF forum crowd, it very quickly spiraled into a tangled-spaghetti mess of a dozen or more intermittently-crossing storylines, each carrying half a dozen or more characters (and this despite a swiftly instituted one-character-per-writer rule). 

Two weeks and about 500 posts after the thread began--and 500 posts was twice the previous record at SM.Net for longest thread at that time; the site was still smallish then--it became so large that it broke the forum, invoking the infamous and dreaded 'Forum Mini-Ghost' that caused all kinds of weird happenings, forcing the commencement of a new thread. And that repeated itself five times over.

In all, the Gathering comprised five threads, at least a hundred writers, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,800 to 1,900 posts. Given that, by 30% through the story, most of the posts were several paragraphs long, often taking up an entire 800x600 screen (that was standard resolution in 2000), in terms of sheer word count it may have been the longest continuous thread in the history of internet forums at that time, for all I know.

It would take me years to finish annotating this entire beast, and I sincerely doubt I'll get very far. I'm doing it because... I can. :P  The Gathering, as you will shortly see, was written by a particularly socially awkward, smart and hyperactive teenagers, and therefore it was loaded to the gills with insanity, gud gramers, violent bickering, complaining, overwrought angst and drama, and hormonal charge--in short, looking back at it now at age 27, it is one of the great unintentional comedy gold mines of our time. 

And did I mention that I personally was a writer of this? I was 18 in 2000, which made me one of the oldest writers in the story. I was just as full of angst, hormones and drama as everybody else, as we will see. I'll be making fun of pretty much everyone here. It's all in good fun, and I'll be heaping plenty of it on myself as well, I assure you...

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