Posts #156-160: 15 April 2000

Post #156, by Chris

Once more, Chris and Juliana took their place out on the dance floor with everyone else.
As the themes from each town played, intermixed with the Sound Stone melody, the various couples danced around the room. Even the people who hadn't dance all night managed to find someway to enjoy the final dance.

You can tell Chris is nervous because his grammers is breaking down. 'hadn't dance', 'someway', etc. And I don't know what the point to that final throwaway line is; does he think the girl-less boys will feel better now? He's trying to be gracious in victory?

Finally, after all the music was finished, everyone clapped, and sat down again. The DJ said a few little good-bye messages. Then...

Yes, good, let's all move on now.

---

Post #157, by NessJeff

"Yes!"

Yes! YES! I don't care what your conditions are! I'm getting attention from a girl!!!

(Thank god for evenly divisible numbers!)

...what?

"Now, what's your opinion, Mark..."
Meanwhile...
and
Mark Said...

...it's like he set up a multiple choice to help himself decide which way to end his post, but couldn't decide and just tossed all three in there. Too excited and hyper to think straight, probably.

---

Post #158, by PSI322

The dance was over. "What's everyone doing now?" Juliana wondered aloud.

"I don't know," Chris replied. "People will probably find someplace else to party. You know how these Starmen.Net people are, Juliana."

Oh, ho, ho, you have no idea. Some of the stories I've heard from the conventions the last few years...

Juliana laughed. "I know, I know. It's true. I bet there'll be a party on the beach, or something. It's pretty cold out there, though, so I'm not sure what'll happen."

No, it isn't. You're near the equator and it's July or August, according to the timeframe you set up yourself. Even at 3:00 it's about 95 degrees out and muggy as hell.

The two of them walked over to waffle and Luna, who had been dancing as well. "So, what are you guys doing now?" Chris asked. "We're wondering if any partying is going on now, or anything like that."

Wait, aren't you two the alleged Syndicate members?

---

Post #159, by NessJeff

Drew takes the DJ megaphone and says, "Hey! I rigged up a wireless SNES and 2 Huge GBCs which are hacked so anyone with a Paula's Quest(My home made game!) cart or their EB cart can participate in a tourney! Sign up on the wall!"

That's quite a hack. An SNES cart is about the same size as a GBC.

The People who signed up for each game were...

Power to The People! Down with the Man!

---

Post #160, by Chris

"You know, I'm not supposed to tell you this until tomorrow, but the Syndicate is building a small amusmant park behind the main hotel. We could go visit it and hang out there for a while." Chris said.

Um... glad you remembered you're supposed to be the boss here, but Juliana ranks higher in the Syndicate than you do, and you're confiding Syndicate activities to her that she doesn't know about? How does that work?

"Sounds like a great idea." Waffle replied.
"Let's go!" Juliana and Luna said at the same time.
So, Chris led the way to the amusamant park.

Yikes. That's the second different butchering of 'amusement' Chris has committed in a few lines.

When they arrived, they saw that there was already a ferris wheel and a simple roller coaster built, with a log flume set to open tomorrow. The four arrived at the park, and...

And at post #160, the Gathering finally breaks free of the beach/hotel area.

Posts #151-155: 15 April 2000

Post #151, by PSI322

Juliana (PSI322)

I think everyone has been fairly consistently calling your AC 'Juliana' or at least everyone knows PSI322 = Juliana.

took a deep breath as she realized how hot it was in the room where the dancing was taking place. "Goodness, it's stifling in here!" she said, starting to stand. She looked at Chris. "I'm just going to take a little walk outside, on the beach," she explained, tugging at her necklace with one hand. "I need some fresh air and some time to think, and stuff."

Remember when I called Mark's 'walking on the beach' move the PSI322 gambit? Yeah. She did this all the time. It was usually her go-to way of breaking out of situations that had become a little stale (or, we'll note later, uncomfortable).

Chris nodded. "Take care of yourself," he said before taking another sip of punch. "Don't stay out too long, Juliana. It's cold out there, I bet."

Juliana nodded. "I won't. It'll just be a little while." She smiled and left the dance hall, wondering if it was clear and calm or stormy outside on the beach...

Basically PSI is announcing, 'I want to retain the option of participating in other things going on with other people in this story, not create a separate Chris-and-Juliana arc.' This form of communication becomes secondhand for any IF veteran. Chris was actually not an IF veteran, and I can only imagine he read it differently and panicked, thinking 'she's trying to ditch me!' ...at least, that's what I would have done when I was 15.

---

Post #152, by Chris

While he waited for Juliana to return from her walk, Chris decided to start shutting down things. He told the kitchen that no more peanut cheese bars would be needed; they had enough to get them through the rest of the dance.

I have to disagree. When it comes right down to it, there is no such thing as too many peanut cheese bars.

He started cleaning up some of the empty food trays. He arranged for the final dance to be played in about 10 minutes. Then, he sat down at his table, and watched the other dancers enjoying himself. He reflected on how much he loved the site, and more than that, the people there.

Hint hint.

Soon, people began getting ready for the final number...

All in all, I have to hand Chris a 'well played' certificate here. He coolly resisted the impulse to freak out, and it's not like he thought it over for a while first; this was 9 minutes behind PSI's post.

[This message has been edited by Chris (edited 04-15-2000).]

---

Post #153, by PsycoPyro

I perk up and approach the snack bar. I see my friend Jenny and two guys with her.
"What in the heck?!" I said to myself with exclaimation.

What? Your 'friend' can't handle two guys without your assistance?

I shook my head. Already Jenny was becoming popular with the people of SM.Net! It took me by a blow. Some guys looked at my expression until I overheard someone whispered, "Matt's jealous..."
I shook my head and suddenly remembered a girl that I had left back in MD. It was weeks since I saw her shinning face that could tame a psyco like me. I wanted so desparately t see her and feel her soft kisses again. It made me want to use QC's laptop, sign on AOL and hope my gf was on. QC (Jenny) and I were never made for each other. Plus if we did start a relationship, it wouldn't have worked out or lasted because my best friend was her EX and rival. If I ever did go out with Jen, it would mean that I would loose my best friend.

ROFL @ the exposition here. 'No, really, it's cool, you guys can have her!' I'm now pretty much convinced QC and PP are the same person.

Also, I wonder whether PSI's going to step in with a Romance Rule Warning. I'll save the explanation of the Romance Rule until someone trips over it, which I'm certain someone will before long.

I continued to watch what Jenny had planned to do. This was surely going to be interesting to she how she could handle two guys. I was eager to hear of what she was going to say and decide...

OK! Now to switch to the Queen Catherine account...

---

Post #154, by PSI322

(Go easy on anything that could violate the romance rule here. I guess it's all right that you mentioned the kisses and what not, just don't have any kissing going on at this dance. Just telling everyone.)

Hahaha! I swear, I did not read ahead before posting above. PSI (and guruzeth, when he was around) could be relied upon to strike down all Romance Rule infractions with extreme prejudice.

Cliff's Notes on the Romance Rule: After Tengu Man basically reached third base with Paula in an elaborate post (or series of posts; can't remember clearly anymore) on, I believe, a story called 'If Giygus[sic] Won', the Powers That Be (which I think at that time may have solely been guruzeth; can't remember if PSI322 was a mod yet) very quickly decided to enact and strictly enforce the Romance Rule: slow dancing or hugging was about as far as you were allowed to go. Kissing was a definite no-no.

...I admit, it seemed to make more sense at the time than it does now.

Juliana took one step outside, into the darkness, and caught her breath quickly. She was amazed at how chilly it was on the beach. Shivering a bit in her sleeveless dress, Juliana crossed her arms and walked back into the dance hall, where the DJ was announcing that the last dance was about to take place. The song was a sort of medley of all the best music from EarthBound; the main part centered around the Sound Stone theme, with music from each town and other places thrown in for good measure. Juliana looked around and spotted Chris all by himself. She walked over to him slowly.

"It's the last dance, isn't it?" she said. Chris nodded. "Wanna go for it?"

"Sure," Chris said with a smile as he led her out onto the dance floor...

OK, well, I don't really know what the point to that was.

---

Post #155, by Queen Catherine

((Gee Matt, thanx for adding more pressure here . It sounds like the world must pause until I make a descion for it to resume.))

No, not really. "Matt's" post actually didn't advance plot in the slightest. Two AC's must pause until you make a decision, or until they get bored and give up, whichever comes first.

I looked at Mark and back at Drew. Bitting my lower lip, I didn't know what to do at that moment. I hated hurting people that don't deserve to be harmed and leaving them to hang.

Blah, blah, blah, get to the point.

Until then, I heard the DJ call out that the dance would end within thirty minutes. I was then relieved and easily came up with a plan.
"How about this," I began to say nervously, "I'll dance with Drew for a little while longer around fifteen minutes and then I'll dance with you (Mark). Will that be fine? That way, every can be... happy...?"

Actually, that tends to leave everybody agreeing but pissed off, because they have to share. Just like when they were six and they had to share the Tonka truck with their brother. Grown men everywhere act exactly the same way about women.

((It's all up to you guys to agree or not...))

Posts #146-150: 15 April 2000

Post #146, by Mog116

The thousandth reply in the IFS! WHOOOHHOOOO!

This guy is fond of content-free posts.

He means it was post #1000 in the IF forum as a whole. Which it wasn't really, since we pruned dead topics from it regularly. But hey, an excuse to pump up my post count!

---

Post #147, by Earth Bound Ranger

The hour had gone by very slowly for Mark, who was still sitting on the beach.

Have you noticed time always seems to go more slowly for you? I've noticed time moves more slowly while I'm reading your posts.

I should talk, though; it won't be that long before I'm right in there with Chris and Falcon24 and the rest writing soul-twisting nine-paragraph posts.

After the fireworks display was over, Mark sat back down in the sand to think a while. While thinking, Mark remembered the dance, and ran back up to the dance hall. Once inside, He went to the snack bar to attack the penut cheese bars. He ate about 5 of them, and then looked around for someone to dance with. Unfortuatly, most all, if not all the girls were either taken, or being taken at that moment. The only thing left was to ask for a cut in. So Mark went up to Jenny and Drew and asked if I may cut in (All gentalmanly like). Her response was...

All right! A guy willing to do something that takes some stones!

---

Post #148, by waffle

Waffle slowly smiled. He was relieved that Luna said yes.

You don't say.

Now he actually had someone to dance with. A new song started and they went out on the floor...

---

Post #149, by Chris

"30 minutes until the end of the dance," the DJ announced.

Give Chris credit for finally realizing it's time to end this thing. Plus what else is there for him to do with Juliana? The dance thing's been conquered; gotta move on to the next mission.

Everyone seemed to be having a good time. After having dance through several songs, Chris and Juliana walked over to the snack table to try the peanut cheese bars that everyone was wolfing down. Then, they each filled a cup of punch and sat down at one of the side tables to watch the others dance.

I have more patience than most for this kind of thing, but the total lack of anything resembling story development is beginning to frustrate me.

---

Post #150, by NessJeff

Drew is thinking about what Mark said.
"God, I hope Jenny keeps dancing with me. She's the first girl I've ever danced with!"

We already covered this topic. Not a great idea. But then, it's probably not unusual when you're 11.

Drew took a deep breath and waited for Jenny's response to Mark's offer...

This may be the feeblest attempt to keep your girl in the history of mankind.

[This message has been edited by NessJeff (edited 04-15-2000).]

Posts #141-145: 15 April 2000

Post #141, by Mog116

(Matt, I TOLD YOU THE TIME!!!!)

Pshaw. Like Matt can be bothered to read other people's posts.

This was sometimes an issue on IF, Person B getting offended when it's obvious Person A, who Person B is trying to write a story arc with, isn't reading his posts. (Usually Person A is your average bad poster who doesn't read anybody's posts.) I'd suggest you ignore the kid and find yourself a new story arc, but you know how a lot of people find complaining more fulfilling.

Mog thumped the Snack table. He didn't want to dance. Mog walked outside and saw Tim putting sheilds up on his boat.

The shields are inherent. Haven't you ever seen Star Wars?

Mog walked down the beach. He saw a Kralen swimming around. Mog pulled his Hover board out of his Hover board and chased after it. *POP* The Kralen Hit Mog in the head. Mog flew around the Kralen. Kralen flung around and knocked Mog's Hover board away. Mog lost himself. He turned red and hovered in the air.

Since Mog can fly/hover, I assume the hover board was only there to make him look even cooler than he already did, if that's possible.

"Moogle Magic White!" Mog flew straight through the Kralen, under the water and killed about 87 kralens by shooting beams of Holy light at them.

It might have been 88. It was hard to keep proper count amid all the excitement and Holy light and all that.

He flew back around and landed on the beach, not being able to remember any of the fight.

---

Post #142, by Little Yoshi

(I'm not helping out with fireworks, I'm repairing my ship)

Things are starting to get snippy. This is potentially a fun development.

"Mog, are you okay?!" Tim asked.
"Huh?" Mog asked, then looked himself over.
"You just turned red then white, then fell on the beach," Tim explained.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Mog replied.
"I'm gonna just peek inside the dance room to see what's happening, then I'll be back,"Tim said.

As you can see, Tim, in a gathering full of godlike AC avatars, protection from monsters is wholly superfluous.

---

Post #143, by NessJeff

Drew is still dancing with Jenny. The Legend of Zelda song ends.
"Play Paula's theme!!!"
"Okay, but let someone else choose the music next!"
"Ahh, who cares, I'll just give you a play list."
Playlist says(In this order)
Moomba #5(Final Fantasy version of Mambo #5(The real song sucks)

Then why in the six purple hells would you make a Final Fantasy version of it?

Shadow's theme

Shadow's Theme? Don't get me wrong, I like Shadow's Theme, but who the hell would want to play it at a dance?

Schala's theme

See above.

Paula's theme

See above. Etc. It applies to everything on this list.

Rydia's theme
Cid's theme(All 9 of 'em(Cid in Chocobo's Dungeon/Racing)
Sound Stone theme
Zelda's theme(LOZOT)
Umi's singing of the sound stone theme(It's on file here somewhere...(SM.Net)
"Auuuuuuugghhhhhh! Fine! I'll play all your songs!"
"Good. I'll pay you $20 later..."

Sure! Thanks! I'll play your songs later.

Meanwhile...

---

Post #144, by Mog116

Mog was still bored.

Yeah. We all are. But for the number of posters that keep cranking out posts, I daresay that the Gathering was at this point officially in danger of dying off, thanks partially to the disappearance of four of the better posters--PSI322, Chris, Luna, waffle--on account of they're dancing with each other and none of them wants to be next to post. And I assume Tengu man was busy with some other thread at this time, since none of his Tengulings have shown up to prepare his grand (always bloody) entrance.

Violence and or/moving the story away from the beach/hotel where it's been taking place so far is going to be coming very soon, lest the thread die. It's a classic hallmark of a dying IF thread when it's being kept going by only three or so mediocre posters.

Not knowing what to do, Mog went back to The party.

What is it with this guy and capitalizing 'the' for no apparent reason?

He pulled out his Gameboy and put his very bad Game he made himself in, Mooglebound. "Oap, there it is, You're gonna die! Oh..." Mog lost at his own game extrordinarilly fast. He threw his Game boy in his duffel bag, then walked over to the Snack table. He ate 43 Peanut Cheese Bars, then sat back down.

The counts of snacks eaten remind me of the newspapers in SimCity 2000, where an RNG would spit out random absurd lines in articles like 'Pizza Delivery takes 2,385 hours' and '413 people were killed in a gang shooting'.

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Post #145, by Luna

Luna looked up at waffle, blushing slightly. "S..Sure, I'll dance... It's better than sitting here all night doing nothing except watching OTHER people dance.."

I guess Luna was still relatively new, very young, and not quite the Uncontested Alpha Female she would soon enough become. Anyway, this is not helping move the plot somewhere, now that the three girls are accounted for and everyone else has long since left behind the dance theme.

Posts #136-140: 15 April 2000

Post #136, by Earth Bound Ranger

Mark was wandering around the dance floor aimlessly. He was not shy in any way, but all the women were taken already.

Suuuuuuuure.

Dancing not being his strong suit, Mark walked outside just to walk along the beach in silent thought.

The PSI322 gambit.

He paced all the way up the beach, then started the way back. Once he got back, he sat on the beach, thinking of all the fun he had and would have, and the trouble he was going to get in when he had to go back. Then he forgot about the trouble and remembered the life he lived back in Idaho. Then he wiped that place from his mind and sat in the sand silently...

This guy had real issues with Idaho. I think we'd better keep him there for the good of the rest of society.

Being serious for a moment, I would guess this kid thoroughly hated his parents/school/life.

---

Post #137, by Little Yoshi

Tim continued blasting monsters, until he finaly met another kralen.
"Oh shoot!" Tim shouted, remembering the only way he could beat these earlier were with Pikachu's attacks. So he started shooting at different body parts, not getting any effect. Some people at the dance noticed the kralen, but figured that Tim could handle it.
"Okay, gotta have a weapon in here, gotta have a weapon in here..." Tim said, rummaging through his storage compartment.

Wait a second, Tim. Aren't you trying to stop this thing from going into violence? Or did you get bored and change your mind?

Then, the kralen got a SMAAAAAASH! attack on the boat. It remained in tact, but had taken serious shield damage.

Of course the boat has energy shields.

What could Tim do now? He helplessly checked his storage compartment again, and suddenly noticed something that wasn't there before. He withdrew the Masamune from its sheath, and leapt into the air.

Oh god.

The kralen dodged and struck the boat. Tim tried again, but was counter-attacked with a vicous bite. Wounded, he knew all he could do was try again. Again, it dodged. Suddenly, an apparation appeared in front of Tim. It was Frog, who preformed Leap Slash on thin air.

Of course! Tim learned Leap Slash!
The apparation vanished, and Tim's boat was struck again.
"Warning! Shield is down! Warning! Shield is down! The boat and passengers can now take dmage! Warning!" Tim's computer shouted.
Tim executed Leap Slash, and succesfuly defeated the kralen.
"Time to regenerate the shield!" Tim said, speeding off to the dock.

.....
..........
What the f--- was that all about?

---

Post #138, by Mog116

(I fixed my old post)

(Thanks for wasting precious internet bits)

---

Post #139, by PsycoPyro

I go back to the hotel and asked someone the time there.
"It's 7:35 PM." The clerk behind the check-in desk replied.
"Kay-o!" I said and hurried to my hotel room.
I started to straighten my up up a little and I grabbed my red duffle bag. Then, I ran out of the hotel and went to the beach. I prepared a few big fireworks and Bottle rockets on the beach as I save the others for later.

Well, I'm glad he's having fun, anyway. Moving right along...

Post #140, by Earth Bound Ranger

Mark watched Tim run down to the beach that he was sitting in silent reflection, and by the way he looked, Mark could tell it wasn't going to be silent anymore. Mark ran over to help him whith the fireworks just as the first rocket went off. I launched itself high into the air, and then exploded into a large red baseball cap (go figure).

Unfortunately for us all, 'I' was a typo, and he didn't himself explode.

Then mark got over in time to see one with Ness and Paula painted on the side, and guessed what it would turn out to be. It exploded into a heart shape and then glittered as it fell. The next one had a picture of Jeff on the side, and it turned out to be a dud (also go figure).

Poor Jeff was always mistreated and uncared for. PSI322 went through a period where she extolled Jeff in all her writing for a while, because she felt bad for him.

But when he pulled out the last one, Mark had the sudden urge to be a good hundred feet away. When it was lit, they ran as far as they could from it, only stopping to watch it go up and explode in an explotion the size of the island. The last one had gotten some attention, but their fears were quickly subsided. The dance went along into the night, all that was left of it...

If you're thinking 'this is starting to get boring'... I am too. I don't blame you if you skip ahead some (assuming I keep annotating), but I actually think things will start picking up. We're just in a rut where bad posters are doing all the posting for the time being.

Posts #131-135: 15 April 2000

Post #131, by Mog116

(Yah... Just leave and what do ya get? another 40 replies)

This thing really is taking off. Just go back and note just how many posts were listed under 14 April 2000, and then consider that all of the writers were in school all day and most of the posting activity was in the 16:00-1:00 timeframe.

Mog watched as everyone started dancing then thought "Boy... Isn't every girl already out there?"

All three of them, yes. This can be an issue on the internet.

Mog grabbed about 60 peanut cheese bars, stufffed several in his duffel bag, and started chowing down. "Mine, I'm bored."

Reminds me of a funny story from the 1996 Pennsylvania state MathCounts finals, held at the Hampton Inn in Carlisle, PA. David Kenepp and I (14 at the time) shared a room, and the competition was sponsored by Tastycake (makers of Butterscotch Krimpets and other such deliciousosities), who had several tables stacked up with Tastycakes beside the hotel pool. David and I went down to the pool, swam around a bit, then beelined to the Tastycakes. We each brought an extra beach towel with us, and so we each took two towelfuls of various Tastycakes back to our room with us. Must have been about 40 packs of them. Each. And we at them all in one night.

In a related story, David (the team's star) bombed the competition the following morning. I easily recorded the highest score on the team, because I was legendary for my superhuman sugar tolerance.

Also, there was a girl from a small neighboring town--a pretty nice looking girl, by the way--who had tagged along with our school's team since she had qualified individually. She was at the pool the same time we were, but didn't know the way back to our rooms, so the teacher/chaperone asked David and I to take her back with us. "Yeah, sure," we said, and then ignored her and left her standing there, and went to load up on Tastycakes. When we were finally ready to go five minutes later, she was gone. Far be it from us to check on where she went. We shrugged and went back to our room to gorge on Tastycakes. I miss those days.

If you're out there, Erin from Bellwood... it wasn't personal. It was just priorities, you know.

Mog never learned how to dance, so he was kind of glad noone had asked him to dance.

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

---

Post #132, by Queen Catherine

I danced with Drew and has a good time.

I can has good time?

Matt (PsycoPyro) stops headbanging and goes over to me.
"What time does the talent show start?" He asked.
"I think it's at nine." I replied.
"What time is it now?"
"I dunno. My watch is at my hotel room. Why don't you go ask someone?"
"Kay-o!"
He runs off somewhere and I resume dancing with Drew.

What exactly the hell was the point of that post?

---

Post #133, by SuperSpeedy/Mankey Boy

Wow. Back from the dead. It's about time we had some more GADGET SUGAR RUSH injected.

(Great. I'm gone for a few days, and about 100 replies pour in. And to note, the pokémon I rode wasn't Shock Bird, rather a robotic replica of it, and it only made a brief appearence. And If Pikachu can be in here, then so can my Porygon AC, Poryhedron!)

*facepalm*

"Cool! waffle!" David said at the dance. "How things back at your town in our home state?"
"Okay," replied waffle.

They say that like being from New Jersey is something to be proud of.

"Hey, a Pikachu!" said David. The Pikachu went into hiding, but David grabbed it and gave it a hug.
[Aww, thanks!] said Pikachu.
"Whoa! It's psychic!" exclaimed David.
"Did some-one say a Psychic Pikachu?" exclaimed a Porygon. Everyone raised their weapons, ready to hit the Porygon, who disappeared and reappeared in a flash of 0's and 1's. "Sorry. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Poryhedron: experimental Porygon 0-1-6-4. I made my first I-F appearence in 'Gotta Stop 'em All -or- Death to You, Pikachu!'.
ROFL @ 'Death to You, Pikachu!' I remember that now that he mentions it. That partially explains 3164's persecution complex.

The hatred of pokemon at starmen.net back then was extreme. And I wholeheartedly approved, and approve, of it.

Also, SuperSpeedy, never one to pay much attention to the rules, is violating the one-AC-per-writer rule, for which I'm sure Chris or PSI will smack him down momentarily.

Every since David thought me up, I've excited inhislaptop and all of his digital devices, including the mechanical version of my partner, Shock Bird.

I assume he meant 'existed'. I don't even really want to think about the ramifications if 'excited' is actually what he meant.

Hop on, #3-1-6-4. I'll let you ride me. I can mystically fly using anti-gravity."
Pikachu said, [Well…]

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Post #134, by Mog116

Mog runs off after Matt to tell him the time. Matt runs into the wall. "it's 7:35." "Oh" Mog walks back to the Snack table, pulls a very large cup out of his duffel bag, and pours the punch in it.

Baron von Awesome approves of that. I just took a swig of water from my signature 32-ounce stein.

*GLUG* Mog drunk the whole thing in one cartoony *GLUG* type thingy.

Writers take note: If you can't stretch your vocabulary far enough to capture the correct word ('gulp' or 'swig' in this case), you can always fall back on the old standby, 'type thingy'.

Mog walked back over and sat down. He pulled a CD player out with a "How to dance" CD in it, and thought "It's kinda Ironic. I'm a moogle that can't dance. Heck My name's even Mog! He's the dancing king."
Mog put the CD To dance and asked (Girl) to dance. (Note: any girls fine. as long as she wants to dance.)

Sorry to break it to you, bro, and I know that actually reading other people's posts before making another of your own is just so much, whatyacallit, work, but all the girls are now spoken for. Just as well you can't dance, eh?

[This message has been edited by Mog116 (edited 04-15-2000).]

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Post #135, by NessJeff

(Mog, Matt needed to know the time, not me.)

I presume Mog116 originally said Drew in his above post, and then edited it after NessJeff posted this.

Posts #126-130: 14-15 April 2000

Post #126, by Chris

Just as Drew and Jenny walk onto the dance floor, another slow piece comes on. Chris and Juliana start dancing again, this time more relaxed.

He means he's more relaxed now. Somewhat. Deep breaths...

All through this, Chris is thinking "Wow, this is only the second girl I've ever danced with. This is fun! I've gotta do this more often."

He's lying; this would be the first girl he ever danced with. I know this because a month later he posted in the legendary Freaky Magic (which I will annotate after I finish the Gathering) that he had never danced with a girl before. Unless in this case he's counting his sister when he was 6 or something. But I agree with him here that admitting to PSI he'd never danced with a girl before wouldn't be a smart play.

While Juliana and Chris drifted along the dance floor...

C'mon, Chris, you can do better than that. Write us some dripping sappy prose here. Hell, I can do better than that. Hell, I will do better than that, later in the Gathering, which makes me blush even now and I will probably be merciless on my past self about.

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Post #127, by NessJeff

Drew is making futile attempts at dancing with Jenny.
"You aren't doing that well now, but it's pretty natural."
"I hope you're right, 'cause ridicule sucks."
Just then...

Your suspicion is correct, Drew: You suck at life.

So..... what now?

---

Post #128, by Little Yoshi

Tim decided not to go to the dance, at least not yet. He had several reasons.

Oh god. Here comes an autobiographical Tale of Why I Suck Oh God Why Me that we'd all rather have skipped, if it weren't so damn funny to read now.

1:No girl would ever ask a somewhat plump boy to dance with him anyways.

Maybe a somewhat plump girl would?

2:The LAST thing he'd want to happen is for some monster to storm the dance, so he'd patrol the shore, and he knew he might need to protect some of the other somewhat disliked people/animals.

Tim is trying very hard to prevent the Gathering from dissolving into endless violence, which is like trying to prevent the sun from rising in the morning.

3:He hadn't read the overcoming shyness book yet, so he was quite shy.

4:Chris already snapped up the girl I wanted.

(Yes people, Chris did almost win that twist contest. The only reason that other couple won was because they went last, right Chris?)

I wonder if Chris let Tim have the N64 for an extra hour in exchange for writing that?

So, he patroled the shores.
"If that thing gets in, the dance will be over in a flash!"Tim exclaimed, seeing a jellyfish nearing the window where Luna was.
(insert laser sound)
"Whew! Got it!"
(note:if any girl wants to dance with Tim[quite unlikely, though], they can just come outside a ask him)

Ouch. I hurt. Reading this even nine years later makes my insides hurt. It's painful. Please make it stop.

Note to aspiring IF writers: Don't leave parenthetical comments at the end of your post restating what your post already made clear.

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Post #129, by NessJeff

Drew bigins dancing better than Squall in the SeeD ball scene(Li'l too natural). Jenny seems surprised, but happy.
"Good, Drew! You see? Dancing comes quite naturally!"
"Yes! I'm dancing with a girl, I'm at an SM.Net convention, YES!!!"Drew thinks to himself.

ROFL. Sure he might have been thinking it, but at least Chris had the self-restraint not to type it.

"Yo DJ! Play a remix of the Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening overworld music!"

Because every competent DJ has a remix of that handy.

"OK kid!"
Meanwhile...

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Post #130, by waffle

After looking around enough at all the people dancing,waffle just had an urge to. Of course,he needed someone to dance with. He scanned the room and noticed Luna sitting there,also not dancing.Thinking he had nothing to lose,he took a deep breathe,tossed his punch cup aside, and walked over...
"Would you like to dance?" he asked. She replied..

THAT'S the spirit, waffle! YES! High five! I am so pumped.

[This message has been edited by waffle (edited 04-15-2000).]

Posts #121-125: 14 April 2000

Post #121, by Pikachu3164

[Yeah. Another Pokémon hater to add to the list. I wonder if anyone here would start a conversation with me without wanting to kick me.]

God, I should have banned this kid. Don't get me wrong; for the unintentional comedy value here in 2009, I couldn't be happier I didn't. But at the time, it's amazing I didn't ban him. PEOPLE HATED POKEMON EXACTLY BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU

By this point, four more people had come to the dance. Chris and Juliana were still dancing, but Mark, Jenny, Drew, and Psycho (your AC is Matt, right? I have trouble keeping track of names.)

You could, you know, read some of his earlier posts.

had joined in the dance.
Hoping that one of them may like Pokémon, he walked over to them and satrted to talk with them.

Not to wax philosophical or anything, but if your entire self-identity is tied up in Pokemon and you can't figure out why people don't like you, you probably have at least a handful of diagnosable mental disorders.

(One of you four start a conversation with Pikachu. Do what you want, talk to me, slash me in half, kick me, give me a Peanut Cheese Bar, just something. Kay-o?)

[This message has been edited by Pikachu3164 (edited 04-14-2000).]

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Post #122, by NessJeff

"Yo, Pikachu3164, over here!"
[Yes, Finally!]
Drew and Pikachu begin talking/thought-speaking about PoKéMoN and DiGiMoN and stuff.
[Yes! Someone who won't kick me!]
[Ya know, that's my philosophy on school. Every day I don't get kicked is a good thing.]

ROFL

(Drew can use thought speak, but it's shaky, and not done well.)

Awww, the emo kids have made friends with each other! It's so cuuuute! Now they can sit around together and cut themselves!

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Post #223, by Luna

"Hrmmm... great party..." Luna observed from her spot at the snack bar. People were talking in one corner, and a few people were dancing. The rest were sitting around doin nothing. "I need to strike up a conversation with somone, Dance with somone, or sit here bored as a log all night. I just hope SOMONE will talk/dance with me..."

Translation: WOULD ONE YOU LAZY FRAIDY-CAT GIRLY-MEN COME OVER HERE AND GET ME INVOLVED ALREADY? NO, I WILL NOT ASK YOU TO DANCE!

It's amazing how many boys spend years dreaming of a girl--as many SM.Net boys did of Luna, for instance--but even when an opportunity clearly presents itself, don't have anywhere near the balls to say 'hey, wanna dance?' And this is why said girl has never noticed them and will never notice them.

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Post #224, by Queen Catherine

I start to get bored and I really want to dance. I was boared just standing around and watching. Then, I began to notice NessJeff is looking for someone to dance. I smile at him...

I have no idea what motivated 'her' to do this. Maybe vindictiveness toward 3164. Just thinking that thought made me smile.

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Post #225, by NessJeff

Drew(That's me!) and Jenny(That is your AC's name, right? I'm not good with names...) walk up to each other.
"Yes?" Drew asks.
"Would you dance with me?"
"Okay, but I'm not very good. I liked your Super Smash Brothers fanfic."

Good god. The correct answer is 'yes', doofus! The myriad ways guys screwed this kind of stuff up....

"You liked it? Wow."
Drew and Jenny walk on to the dance floor together...