Young Writers Society

”Hello? Hello? does anybody here have a microphone I could use?” Silver called out over the gathered crowd sitting down amidst the small, dull-colored auditorium that had been rented only a week ago, just narrowly beating the request to rent the locale for a ballet performance. He was beginning to wish that they had come instead.

The audience continued to talk in hushed, somewhat angry tones, occasionally glaring or staring in confusion up on the empty stage, as Silver impatiently waited. Tapping his foot on the ground, white hair ruffled, he checked his watch. 10 minutes later than scheduled. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t know how to drive a car, even if he had offered it as a reasonable and cheap way to arrive (though not with style), nor had it been his fault that they should collide with a lamppost that happened to be in his way. Why he was he being blamed for this…

creak!

He stiffened, a crazed expression flashing across his face. Thankfully, being passed among the audience’s hands, a microphone slowly reached the stage grounds. Silver bent to one knee and picked up the object in relief, sighing as he stepped onto the middle of the stage, spotlights hovering over his head.

“Testing, hello, is this working?” he said as he turned it on, pulling it away from his face when it made that characteristic ear-splitting noise they had a tendency to do. The audience recoiled similarly, with some plugging their ears. Voices of discontent and jeering began to echo from the back, where the YWS trolls had been penned.

creak!

Briefly grimacing once more, Silver ignored the sound over his head and nodded in approval at the microphone’s quietness, not to mention his finally being able to speak. Yet, he hesitated for a few seconds. A bad time to have stage fright, unfortunately, but such was the case, especially in light of the sizably large crowd that had come full force. Pulling the collar of his cheap vest, the fox gulped and mustered the energy to speak. “Hel…hello, everyone,” he began quietly, catching everyone’s attention. The building quietened immensely, and his speech almost went with it. “and…and welcome to the first Impromptu Skit Night event, hosted by yours truly, and the rest of the Storybook moderators.”

“Those of you here were either invited, or snuck in through a vent, window, or through the floorboards. Honestly,” Silver went on, squinting at members of the audience to test their reactions. Most didn’t respond, but a few looked away, and at least one person grinned maliciously, “I bet there are still a few people hiding here. I would like to remind everyone here that we do have severe punishment for anyone caught trespassing, unless you were personally invited by one of the mods, or can bribe them sufficiently. Understand? You’d better have a lot of money with you, so…”

creak!

“…But, back to the topic on hand. You in the former group did, no doubt, receive your invitations and read through them completely, yes? You didn’t look at the first few words and throw the letter away?” Another stare, similar results, though some looked evidently frightened rather than maliciously happy. Silver sighed, shook his head in annoyance, and continued. “Anyways, I’m here to point out that you were expected to bring your own props here, by whatever means necessary. The reason is that most of us didn’t have enough money, and I was accused of being a cheapskate, which is the…”

creak!

“…So we were basically unable to provide any props ourselves. Now, I’m supposed to tell you to have fun and make the most of what you have, but I’m doubtful that many of you are good actors. And we didn’t plan this out very well. I swear, I wasn’t sure what we were…”

creeeeeeeeak!

“…Did I mention to have fun, and make the most of what you have? Since this is on the spot, we thought it would be appropriate to simply have me call up a few individuals to act out a play, skit, or something of the like off the top of their heads. It can be as random and as crazy as you like, so as long as it appeases the audience. And I’m sure you’re all aware that a few select judges will be announcing which act is the best?” Many individuals in the crowd nodded in agreement.

“Good,” replied Silver, now walking around the stage in an almost hurried fashion. He was amazed that he’d been able to speak as much as he did, given he felt terrified and was likely sweating absurdly. But he’d always had the ability to act calm even when he wasn’t, so perhaps that wasn’t surprising. “I’d also thought it would be appropriate if, as a random surprise, we allow anyone to attempt to sabotage the act as they are taking place. For the actors and actresses, that means you have to change plans on a dime, behave in the right manner, and appease the audience while keeping your skit alive.

That’s about it. Those are all of the rules. Simple, right? Now, for the first act, I’m going to call…” stopping and thinking for a few seconds, Silver pointed to a few faces in the audience. “…@Dinosaur, @StupidSoup, and…you…yeah, you with the pitchfork and angry expression. Come on up to the stage.”

As they did so, Silver bowed and stepped away from the center of the stage, happy to finally not deal with his stage fright. “Enjoy the show, everyone! This is your host, who is most certainly not beneath a giant sandbag suspended from the rafters by a rope, and definitely not in any danger of @Lumi’s making sure it falls on him, retreating to the sidelines to begin my ridiculous, outlandish, poorly-conceived...”

creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak!

“I get it, thank you!”

TheStupidestSoup

StupidSoup stepped up to the mic, giving it a good smack and watching as the people in the audience grimaced in annoyance.

"Lets give it up for our good old SilverFox! What a riot eh?"

No one cheered. The Soup continued with the utmost zeal.

"Now, I personally don't really know what I'm doing. But hey, I'm just a Stupid bowl of Soup. What I do know is that I'm ready to whip up some hilarious skits for you all."

"Stop milking the StupidSoup thing."

Soup stopped, glaring at the offender.

"Oh sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of me being better than you. You try making a joke in front of hundreds of people with no sense of humor."

"How about you make a real joke. Then we can see how fast you can get booed off the stage."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll set my clock."

Soup moved on. Looking at the crowd gathered around him, Soup spied a moderator lingering at the fringes of the crowd.

"Oi! @AstralHunter! Come and do a skit with me."

The mod looked around sheepishly but complied nonetheless. Soup welcomed the junior moderator onto the stage.

"Now Astral. I know you're a smart guy. So I wanna ask you a few questions."

"And what might those questions be?"

Soup took a second to smile mischievously at the crowd. They glared daggers back at him.

"Astral. What do you think about Pokemon Go?"

The mod nodded in mock thought. He was getting into his groove.

"I see you noticed the poll we put up. To answer your question, I think Pokemon Go is a piece of garbage. The GPS system is faulty and ninety percent of the game is waiting for something to happen."

"Astral. What do you really think about Pokemon Go?"

"I couldn't tell you. I'm not online right now."

'Great! Here's another question. How do words taste?"

Astral laughed.

"They taste amazing. There's also nothing I can do to stop you from making me say this."

"Astral how amazing of a person am I?"

"Your the best person I know. You could totally become a global moderator."

Soup took a step back and glared up at Lumi.

YA HEAR THAT? I CAN TOTALLY BE A MOD

@Lumi ignored whatever the idiot on the stage was saying. He had a job to do.

Soup turned back around to find @TheSilverFox looking on from the corner of the stage.

"Hey Silver does this count as a skit?"

"Don't make me laugh."

"Here I was thinking I had already done that."

"You? Your about as funny as pancreatic cancer."

Soup laughed.

"Tell that to your motor skills."

Silver laughed.

"Sure. At least I'm the one who can actually handle a car. You sit at home and waste your life playing video games you degenerate."

It was at this point Soup decided to leave the stage.

"Look, buddy, I don't have time for this. If you could just-" Steggy pushed pass a small thong of people, only to be pushed back. She scowled, continuing to try and try to get through. On the stage was @TheSilverFox, which seemed indescribably nervous about the whole ordeal. Everyone in the crowd was just rowdy and not paying attention to the speaker. It annoyed Steggy to wit's end. Though she did volunteer to keep watch on everyone, it was like watching a bunch of school children. Fox's voice were being muttered out by the loudness and caused Steggy to only sigh. The temptation to grab a megaphone is promising, she thought.
Ahead, the thong of people seemed to slowly die down as everyone sat down in the seats provided. Lights were on Fox, who seemed to be glancing around wearily and at everyone. It wasn't until he mustered up and spoke loud and clear. Steggy, on the other hand, was trying to move pass the legs of @CandyWizard, @Wolfical, and @Ellstar. In retrospect, she could have asked nicely to go by. Though, being the time being, she just run through. Or, hopped through the bridge of legs to get to the aisle.

"Whoa, whoa whoa there buddy." a voice called in front of Steggy.

Now. what. she thought. Staring ahead was @Rydia, wearing a red shirt that had the words team player, number 1 (which was passed out to everyone but with different colors, different numbers). Steggy sighed, straightening up.

"I need to get through."

"Where's your foam finger?"

"My what?"

Rydia pointed to Steggy's left hand. which was tighten into a fist. "You didn't get a foam hand up front. It's complimentary with every mod that is running this. For storybook crew," she waved at someone (probably @Craz or @SpiritedWolfe). They then ran down and handed Rydia a pirate hook in a shape of a hand, with the hook pointing upwards like a thumb. "We have this."

Steggy blinked at the thing that Rydia held.

"I mean, if it is a gift..." Steggy muttered as she took the foam pirate hook. She frowned harder as Rydia moved out of the way, a smile on her face. As she about to leave the area, she heard Fox calling out names. Among the names, was hers. He was in front of the stage, hands on hips and smile on his lips.

Steggy slowly walked towards the stage, hundreds of eyes staring right through her. She mentally sighed, heaving her body upon the stage. Along with her was @StupidSoup and some guy who looked really angry, holding a pitchfork. Steggy was then grabbed by the arm and dragged into the darkness, behind the stage.

“Soup is performing first, then you with your act,” @Lumi had told her. Steggy scrunched up her nose.

“What act can I do?”

Lumi smiled shortly. “I'm sure you'll figure something out. I mean, it is a impromptu type of event.”

Steggy made an “o” with her mouth before being dragged into a lit room that was swarmed with other mods and people. At first glance, it seemed like a large dressing room with small closets, tall chairs that were lined around a circular table, and boas were stung neat and nicely on a silver railing near the east wall of the room.

“Welcome to the Throne Room!” Lumi exclaimed, spreading his arm about. “Where we get you ready for your act.”

“But, I don't have an act.”

Lumi chuckled. "Everyone has a talent! You just have to dig deep down to find it! Now, come on. Let's find your talent." And with that, Steggy was whisked into the Throne Room.

Most of the organisers appeared to be in attendance and, with the exception of @Steggy, they were all properly attired with foam fingers and foam fingers. Rydia hurried to place herself in the young moderator's way as she headed to the stage.

"Whoa, whoa whoa there buddy." Rydia tapped her boot on the floor and crossed her arms.

"I need to get through."

"Where's your foam finger?"

"My what?"

Rydia pointed to Steggy's left hand and pretended not to notice that it was tightened into a fist. There were more important things than a disrespectful gesture, afterall. "You didn't get a foam hand up front. It's complimentary with every mod that is running this. For storybook crew-" Rydia waved at some of the likely suspects and a foam hand with a pirate hook was brought forward. "We have this."

Steggy didn't seem to be as thrilled by the amazing swag as Rydia was but she took it and put it on and Rydia was satisfied. Job well done.

Which meant the show was under way and Rydia's role in the organisation was totally over!

"Move over, move over, swag queen coming through!" Rydia roared as she requisitioned a seat in the front row. The lowly user who got bumped back a row didn't look happy about it and Rydia almost felt guilty buuuut,

"This is the famous, fabulous, first impromptu show ever!"

"But he had that seat first," @LordZeus pointed out, coming to the rescue of his fellow man.

"Well I was busy organising so I couldn't claim a seat and-"

"Didn't you reserve one?" Auxiira asked as she slid into her own... reserved... seat.

"Right, yeah... I forgot to..."

Things were happening up on stage with @Steggy about to take over from @StupidSoup and Rydia didn't have time for this! But she did feel guilty and it wasn't right to take a seat she hadn't earned...

"Wait, I know, I'll duel you for it!" Rydia declared, thrusting her foam pirate hook in the face of @LordZeus.

"It wasn't actually my seat," he mumbled - was that a hint of fear in his eye? "And you have a foam hook while I don't even have a foam finger..."

"You could borrow mine!" @Auxiira piped up as she popped some popcorn into her mouth.

"Great! It's on then!" Rydia declared. "And after, I'm going to duel you for that popcorn."

Omnom ran down the sidewalk, passing a dark alleyway with a flickering neon light that read "GSD Way" but parts of it were burnt out. If he squinted, it looked something like "Go Away." Ah well, he guessed it suited the place.

His phone chimed. Omnom stopped and glanced down at it. A message from Husbando.



"Oh, crap. I guess I shouldn't have slept in." Omnom stuffed the phone back in his pocket and crossed Forum Expressway to the theatre. Cars and planes and jetpacks were everywhere. It looked to be a main event. Omnom was glad that people were excited for this first event. Honestly, he didn't know how it was gonna turn out.

He noticed a person absentmindedly flipping through a book. He awkwardly walked up to the admissions desk. "Hi, is it too late to get a ticket?"

The person glanced up to him. Turns out it was @Lareine. "Oh, hey Raye. What are you doing here?"

She shrugged. "Since the SB mods were all busy with planning the actual event itself, I thought I'd help out." She glanced down at the book. "Well, unless you're planning for reserving a seat, the sure. There's no more shirts, but here's a hook."

Omnom glanced down at the hook. Upon closer inspection, there was an inscription on the handle. "Storybook Crew is the best because we love working under the amazing overlord @Rydia!"

Raye glanced at the hook. "Yeah, looks like whoever made those is full of themselves or something."

"Oh it's way crazier than that. Do I need to pay it with anything?" He shuffled through his pockets. There were a few points, but nothing significant. A crumpled up Review!Request Coupon showed itself. I could give her that? He shook his head. Nah, like I'd ever review again.

"No, not if you're running the event." She leaned in. "Between you and me, I'd avoid Lumi and @TheSilverFox. They've been corralling random folks in for the improv show, mods or no."

Omnom gulped. There's nothing he hated more than doing improv. He'd much more like to plan events and disappear when they start. Yeah, that sounded good.

Using a rubber band to put his hair in a short ponytail. With the foam hook in one hand and nothing in the other, Omnom walked into the auditorium.

It was pretty packed, he had to admit. He could even see some dusty old wonderful members of BB in one corner. Omnom ran into someone and they rapidly turned, brandishing their foam hook like it was real.

"En garde! Oh, hey." @Craz lowered her "weapon," disappointed. "I was looking for some members to pick on. I meaannn. HEY JHIN- oh wait you changed your name again. Why can't you just stick with one name, Jesus."

"Craz, I can still hear what you say, even if it's striked through."

She looked at Omnom and feigned innocence. "I. Have. No. Idea. What. You. Are. Talking. About. Om. Nom. Must walk away slowly."

Omnom shook his head. "Have you seen Rydia? I wanted to thank her for these hooks. And to recommend giving me a cat next time if she wanted to have my loyalty 5eva."

"Oh, she's over there in the front row." Omnom thanked her and left Craz to whatever she's trying to do. Probably take some poor member's lunch money or something.

The crowd closer to the front was even thicker. It seemed like these members were just crawling out of the pipes and floorboards. Just as the first row came into view, Omnom bumped into someone wearing a bright blue shirt.

@SpiritedWolfe turned around. "Oh, hey Omnom."

"Heyo, Wolfe. Just saying, that blue does not suit you."

She glanced down at the shirt. "Oh. Thanks for being modest, Omnom. Nice event, by the way." She shuffled out of the way. It looks like @Steggy's act was starting soon, as @StupidSoup was being 'boo'ed off the stage from a certain @Poopsie on the sidelines.

Omnom finally saw Rydia, and almost stopped in his tracks. She was full on sparring with a confused @LordZeus, their foam hooks clashing in the most epic sense (@Auxiira was providing wonderful sound effects through mouthfuls of popcorn. Where were they selling popcorn?)

Omnom was suddenly pulled away from the scene and dragged to the backstage. He looked at the person. It was @Mage. "What are you doing?"

Mage danced around. "I just want to say this is such a cool thing that you're doing! This is so cool. I had to grab a mod to get backstage OH WE SHOULD DO AN ACT TOGETHER, OMNOMNOMNOM."

"DID SOMEONE SAY ACT?" Lumi appeared from out of nowhere and ushered them both forward. "This is a wonderfully magnificent idea, I must say. After Steggy is done with her thing-y-majiggy you can get on there and do your thing!"

Omnom was flustered. "N-no I really don't think that's such a good ide-"

Lumi screamed. "DEAR GOD STEGGY JUST PETTED A SPIDER EW EW EW EWWWWWWWWW."

Steggy glanced to him. "his name was carl."

"KILL CARL. STEGGY WE NEED TO KILL CARL."

A spider. It was lying so peacefully on the table, blissfully enjoying the last of a fly it caught last night for dinner. Merely leftovers. A small fluff was near the spider, acting like a pillow. A talent that was overlooked by many but the spider, now done eating the leftover fly, walked towards the center of the table and stayed there for a minute. It was frightening, not being able to see since everything was blurry, but it was also a luxury because you don't have to worry about the fear of the unknown and this concludes Steggy's inner monologue.

All the meanwhile, Steggy was above the table with her arms outstretch. The crowd was growing restless from the act she was presenting. She was only rambling on and on about a single story her mother told her time before and would often stumble over words to try (in her mind) make corrheartant speeches. No one had the heart to tell her she was speaking random rubbish, ranging from lions in tutus or @Mea's family reunion that involved someone literally spiking the punch bowl (rest in peace Mama June's 10 year old punch bowl).

It wasn't until Steggy ended the long talk with a high note.

"... And that's how I met my mother in a New York subway shop!" Most of the crowd yawned. Steggy could see @cleverclogs chattering with @ChocolateCello, a lazy @Kaos flickering her view towards the stage lights, and a small fly was buzzing around Steggy's head. Steggy only sighed, running her hands up and down her jeans. The stage lights were hot against the back of her head. What could I do next?

A small voice in the back of her mind was muttering something about fuzzy insects and eight legs. Steggy viewed down towards a spider on the table. Oh no.

The spider was now casually walking about the table, not minding the suspense in the air. Steggy glupped.

I could...

She slowly reached a hand out towards the spider with a lingering sweat from earlier (when the backstage helpers had offered her to take a shower before hand, she had declined. Oh, how a shower would be lovely right now.)

Meanwhile, @Omnom was busy being cornered by @Lumi and @Mage. Probably being forced to do an act. I'm so sorry, Oms. Steggy took a deep breath and picked up the spider by the back. The crowd seemed shift a little in their seat while holding their breaths. The spider seemed undisturbed.

She then ever so carefully, placed the spider on her hand. A sudden feeling of joy and accomplishment washed over her.

"DEAR GOD STEGGY JUST PETTED A SPIDER EW EW EW EWWWWWWWWWW."

She glanced towards Lumi. "His name is Carl."

"KILL CARL. STEGGY, WE NEED TO KILL CARL."

She only frowned. "I don't want to, though. I don't get why we hate these critters. I mean, sure, there are movies about how creepy, crawly they are but I like to think that they are something more."

"BOOOORING. Can we go onto the next act?" Someone in the crowd yelled.

Steggy only gapped while narrowing her eyes.

"Excuse me? My act is worth gold. A spider. Who would have the guts to hold one of these? I'm guessing a few of you but still ; a spider like this is wonderful." Right as she finished, the spider leapt off her hand onto the floor. It scurried somewhere off the stage and that was the only time she had every heard a loud enough scream to break glass.

@Rydia was busy trying to get everyone in an orderly fashion, @Lumi was clinging close to the wall crying, and @Nate had his hands on his head, in complete shock and confusion.

Steggy had ruined the show.

Or did she?

The foam pirate hook duel had reached its sharpened peek- Rydia had taken a hit to the hip and now clutched her side dramatically, but her left hand snaked out and gouged @LordZeus' left leg.

"Swish, riiiiiip -ouch," @Auxiira intoned as she reached for more popcorn. "Pssst, Zeus - your leg was gouged."

Lord Zeus looked down at his leg in confusion and then at Rydia still clutching her obviously painfully injured side. "Oh-" Zeus breathed. "I mean ow?"

"You should probably hop on one leg for the rest of the duel," @Mage suggested from the crowd, which had gathered within the crowd of people, trying to decide whether what was happening on stage was the real entertainment or just a decoy for this incredibly exciting piece of pantomime.

"Right," LordZeus agreed uncertainly as he lifted one leg off the ground. "I fight better on one leg, anyway."

Rydia grinned at his bravado and nodded to herself: a worthy adversary indeed. She raised her foam hook, ready to re-engage the foe when the most awfully, dreadful scream pierced the air.

"Wow, nice method acting," @Artemis28 complimented but Zeus shook his head.

"That wasn't me."

"WHERE DID THAT SPIDER GO?!" Someone else shouted and suddenly there was chaos everywhere.

Rydia tried to resist. She angled her pirate hook toward her enemy and tried to ignore the heavy mantle which rested on her shoulders. She had a duel to fight! But she also had a duty.

"My name is Captain Rydia. This duel is not over. Prepare to relinquish someone else's seat!" Rydia declared menacingly. "But first help me calm everyone down."

"@Omnom - defend Lumi. @Steggy, you're with me on spider elimination duty. This thing is dangerous and a threat to our evening and you are going to help me-"

"Capture it?" Steggy asked hopefully.

"Suuure," Rydia drawled. "Capture it." She signalled to @Craz and @TheSilverFox to fall in beside her and drew a line across her neck with her pirate hook.

"Wait... did you just kill yourself? Does that mean I get to keep the seat now?" @Sheyren asked. Rydia blinked at him for a moment - right, the newbie LordZeus was defending.

"No- I didn't. This thing's only a real hook when we're really fighting and I was only doing this-" Rydia repeated the action of gouging her neck with the foam pirate hook- "So that Steggy doesn't get upset when we kill her spider."

There was silence for a second and then Steggy's lower lip started to wobble.

"Where do you need me, boss?" @Wolfical asked as she strode up to the group.

Rydia looked around her and let out a big sigh. "You'd better get us some spider capturing equipment," she commanded. A loud gasp went up from amongst the crowd, mostly a fretful one but somewhere in there, Steggy swallowed her tears and gave a sagely nod.

"Even if Carl is creepy and scary, he still deserves every chance at life that we can give him."

"Wait, the spider's called Carl?" @Mea gasped. "Didn't a spider called Carl escape from a research facility last week?"

Now that she mentioned it, there was something very familiar about that name.

"Nevermind that for now, let's get hunting."

And then from somewhere deep in the panicking crowd came the fateful words everyone would remember for hours to come: "Ow, I think something bit me!"

Paella Night

Despite the impossible logistics, and despite his height already covering half the wall, Lumi had found some fear-focused method of climbing the green room wall, crying hysterically and singing Amazing Grace--between sobs--in Spanish, because, as he'd noted previously to several friends, Spanish is the language in which you cry.

"Husbando, you need to come down."

He supposed that his fear of spiders stemmed from infancy, from some memory that was far-repressed and would take years of therapy to console out.

Or maybe it was that, in the summer of '94, a sac of spider's eggs had fallen from the ceiling and into his favorite juice cup, that had been filled with, notably, grape-flavored Juicy Juice. There was also a slice of rye bread somewhere nearby, but that's neither here nor there.

Regardless--oh, and it was also ALSO worth mentioning that the episode of Friends on that night was The One with George Stephanopoulos, which Lumi had later grown up to also fear.

Ended up being a bad night, basically.

"Husbando, you're crawling higher up the wall."

"I'm safer up here! Spiders can't crawl walls; it's a scientifically-known fact. Just like how all rocks are the same age and how no matter what day it is, exercising your cheek muscles by chewing trademarked Jolly Rancher fruit chews burns at least sixty calories per day."

"I'll...have to look up that last one. But no, Husbando, you're--no. Spiders can climb walls."

There is no description to the sudden and remarkable width of his eyes as he unclutched the walls and fell featheresque into @Omnom's arms. "Please take me somewhere safe."

Omnom thought about this for quite a while. His eyes shifted this way. His eyes rolled that way. He smacked his lips as if tasting trademarked Jolly Rancher gel-filled hard candies for the first time. Then he smiled! "It's Paella night at the Writers Market! We can go learn, uh, Paella. From @Rosendorn." He leaned in to whisper the next part and really sell it: "I hear she makes @Kyllorac wear the really tall chef's hat."

Nodded. "Sold. But also, my legs aren't quite working right now so if you could just carry me that'd be great." There was a blare of feedback, and he raised his eyebrows. Then he blew into his headset, which had switched to house mic while scurrying up the wall. He paused for a moment before whispering, mic head covered. "My mic's been on this entire time."

"Did anyone else audibly hear his flashback to the Friends episode?" called @Caesar from beneath the chaos, distinct in the sound of swinging a rapier lit ablaze using propane and propane accessories.

"To be fair, it was a really good episode of television," shouted @Birkhoff. The audience, much like the international viewers of the trademarked Friends, agreed that, yes, it was a nice episode of television.

The chaos returned for a long while, but just as Omnom hoisted Lumi further up in his curl-lift, @Rydia shouted: "BRING ME LEFTOVERS!"

To which @Auxiira added something about being outraged at the idea of the entire Earth's history, geological patterns, and weather phenomena being written off as a joke in a storybook post. Much meta. Wow. (Seriously though, folks, if you didn't know you can tell a lot about what the planet's gone through, what it's going through, and what it WILL go through by looking at geological records! If you're new to the idea, I suggest SciShow for beginner's info!)

When Omnom had gotten Lumi safely out of the back door, the two broke arms and Lumi landed on his feet, dusting off his show manager's special tee shirt that no one had had the heart to tell him was just a normal tee-shirt with Special written on the front--by @AstralHunter--in silver marker, which was undoubtedly the most superior color of marker. Undoubtedly.

"So," Lumi coughed. "They bought it. We're free. Paella night with Rosey, or do we skip straight to sneaking cold hot chocolate into the movies?"

Omnom thought on this, but decided that, as he explained it, it would be more beneficial for the ongoing show if they were to actively engage in a scene that could be riveting and fun and bring new elements to the story, such as Paella Night.

Lumi nodded. "Good thinking."

"That's what I do, Husbando," he said as they walked towards the notably pink-lit streets of Resources. "I think good."

Lumi stopped a few paces down the alley. "Wait, should we leave clones to participate in the A-Story?"

"I dunno. Last time we did that, mine ended up trying to eat a robot and now everyone calls me a metalhead."

"We'll go ahead and flip that coin," Lumi said as he pressed a button on his yPhone. "Last time mine insisted that I was named Ysayle and it was very confusing for all involved."

This event was going about as well as Silver should’ve thought it would.

In other words – horrible.

Somewhere along the way, everyone had actually forgotten that there was a show at all. @StupidSoup had descended into the audience and was showering his surroundings in bad jokes and memes, no thanks to @Poopsie, who was doing the same right next to him. Nobody had taken the stage in the past couple of minutes, as half of the audience was in the midst of energetic conversations, what appeared to be sword fighting, or searching for the spider that had already led one person to demand extensive medical attention for their “injury.” The rest of the staff was paying him little attention, and were anxious running about or adding to the frenzy in their own unique way (which seemed to involve fireworks and rapid-fire TV show references, for whatever reason). Silver, standing from his position by the stage, the microphone abandoned at the center of it, was completely and totally ignored. He didn’t even try to call for order; in this place, that always seemed to be the opposite effect. Frankly, whatever could add more chaos generally did.

Honestly, he’d been expecting this to happen. There was no such thing as a smooth event, and it always tended to descend into the usual madness. So the most he could do was smirk his idiot, attempted sly grin and watch the show go on, bemusedly mumbling about stupid spiders and sandbags and silly spectacles and…

Wait, was @Lumi still here?

Looking up, Silver couldn’t find a trace of him. The sandbag was still poised about his head, but there were no signs of anybody controlling it. And he’d been standing here for at least a couple of minutes, so he should’ve heard a particularly loud or obnoxious creaking noise. Or, worse case scenario, wake up in a hospital bed covered in bandages and with a nasty headache. Just like last time.

His grin turned into a genuine one. Lumi had obviously left the building, and he didn’t see @Omnom either. So, Plan B would work just fine after all, what with everyone completely busy and distracted or frantically trying to crawl up the walls in spider-induced terror. Or anyone claiming to have been bitten and trying to test out their newfound spider powers, of which there was a surprising number of people. He wasn’t exactly excited to see that he was resorted to using the plan, since it had a lot of potentially tragic consequences if it backfired, and it had proved very damn expensive, but there was something about stage villainy that was a lot more amusing than regular comedy. Especially if nobody realized he got away with it.

Silver pulled out a remote control from his pocket and pressed the button. Everyone had thought he was stupid when he had an electronic locking system attached to all of the doors, since he did end up blowing half of the budget that way, but now it served its purpose just fine. Now the audience would be unable to escape.

With that complete, he strode up to the stage, spotlight flashed over his head, and picked up the microphone. At this point in time, stage fright was the least of his concerns, mainly due to the fact that a. nobody was going to listen to somebody like him, the sort-of-sane and rational voice, and b. he was a little too happy to care much about being afraid.

“I’d like to thank you all for coming here today,” began the fox, who was, as he expected, mostly ignored. “This has been a wonderful show, and it was a lot of fun getting everyone here for a single event.”

“So, yeah, thanks a lot, all of you” finished Silver, reaching a hand into his other pocket and feeling around for a button. “Just remember that this was an amazing event.” He pressed the button, put down the microphone, and stepped off of the stage, making his way calmly and coolly to the nearest exit.

By now, he could hear the hissing sound of the canisters of knockout gas being activated beneath the floorboards. In a few minutes, if they failed to make everyone sleep, he had installed another set on the ceiling.

Keeping to the shadows, he made his way to a small exit door, which happened to be the only one he hadn’t locked with an electronic system. Pulling out a key from yet another pocket to open it, he begrudgingly admitted to himself that this plan was doomed. The odds of everyone being knocked out, simply forgetting the incident altogether, and then believing his story that it had been a wonderful show were practically nonexistent. After all, the audience was not dumb, not amnesiacs, and at least one person would not be knocked out and piece two and two together. To name a few options. There were so many ways that this could end up with him being suspended upside-down from the edge of a building wearing only his underwear (again). But, in the end, it had been a story to make himself feel slightly better about being a tad malicious, and he was fine with that.

He closed the door behind him, locked it, and vanished into the night.

Due to lack of activity (and interest), this SB has been archived.

It's technically completed what little plot it has, so yay, I finished my first Storybook.