Summer Shenanigans, Wednesday, August 14, 2024

[sith_happened]

"Hello, everyone!" Anakin boomed through the megaphone as people arrived. "It's the middle of August in Maryland, which is just the best time of year if you love being sticky, hot, and mosquito bitten!"

You should really work for the tourism board, Anakin.

"So today we will engage in activities that will take your mind off of such things!" He gestured grandly around the park. "Extreme pinball!"

Oh dear.

There was a pinball games set up inside of the slide, so you will have to insert your body up the down spout of the tube to play. There was one game set on a raft in the center of the lake. There was a pinball machine powered by riding a bike, another one on the ground that you had to play using your feet, and a final one you had to don Drunk Goggles to play.

"Volunteers, listen for your names and retrieve your shirts!"

Rey
Arden
Steve M
Stewart
Gray
Thor
Eleanor
Graham
Beaker

Comments

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden parked up next to Lydia and sighed. "I don't suppose I can interest you in a brand new shirt?" she asked.

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[mustbeawitch]

Lydia cast an alarmed look at said shirt and told Arden, "I shall have to regretfully decline."

There was zero regret. None. Negative regret.

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Think of how well it would help your witchcraft though!" Arden said, ever the helper. "You look at the shirt, burn your retinas, cast some incredibly powerful spell!"

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[mustbeawitch]

"Oh, no," Lydia said, wide-eyed with feigned innocence. "You were chosen especially to have this...remarkable item. I couldn't go against the dean's will like that."

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I could see if he has an extra?" Arden suggested, mimicking Lydia's wide-eyed innocence. "Then we could be twins!"

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[mustbeawitch]

Lydia wouldn't have thought she and Arden were close enough to want to be twins, what with the lying and all.

Then again, she did lie most extensively to most of her own actual sisters, so perhaps that was more usual than she'd thought. But she had lied about being a supernatural entity, not about boys. (They just thought she'd lied about boys.)

Still, she cast another Look at the shirt and said, "Wouldn't that introduce confusion into the proceedings?" Because they were already so orderly and sensible.

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

It hadn't been like that! Well, yes, about a boy...but not the way Lydia was thinking!

Though Arden was also lying being a supernatural entity, too, so honestly, Lydia had every right to be upset.

"No?" Arden tried. "I'm sure it would be fiiiiiine."

No 'fine' pronounced with that many i's could be trusted.

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[mustbeawitch]

Lydia was upset, but Lydia was also the sort of person who could beg someone to forget all and cry friendship while said person was literally gouging out bits of her own soul to try to kill her, and if she let on that she was upset Arden might not want to be her friend any more, and then she should be left entirely to Mr. Kestis's mercy.

Also, she continued to have not the faintest clue that Arden was a supernatural entity, because Lydia.

...maybe Arden would be upset if Lydia didn't have one of the horrible shirts?

"Well," she said with great reluctance, "I suppose you could ask Dean Skywalker...since you know him ever so much better than I, of course." On account of how he had given Arden detention that one time and all.

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Oh Lydia.

Arden immediately wrinkled her nose and sent a baleful glare Anakin's way. "Know he's an asshole," she muttered and shook her head. "Nah, I wouldn't really force you into a shirt," she promised. "That's just mean. Teasing is one thing, but actually going through with it? Bridge too far."

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[mustbeawitch]

"Well, if it would make you happy, I shouldn't mind too terribly much," Lydia lied, like a liar.

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"It absolutely would not," Arden assured her. "You're not like Kams and Graham, who collect these things cause they think they're hilarious. Goddess, we can't even have an end of summer bonfire with them because I'm pretty sure that throwing them on a fire would just result in us inhaling weird chemical fumes."

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[mustbeawitch]

"I really wouldn't trust them to burn properly," Lydia agreed. "Georgiana has taken up chemistry, and when I told her about plastics she told me--well, I didn't follow it very well, but it sounded most concerning!"

Wait. "'Kams?'"

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Kamala," Arden said. "Kams is Kamala, Eleanor is Ellie..." She gave Lydia a glance out of the corner of her eye. "Lydia is Lyds...?" she asked hopefully. "Or maybe Dee?"

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[mustbeawitch]

Lydia thought about it for a long moment, then said, apologetic, "I really can't see it."

She was perhaps a little protective of her name due to the whole 'Mrs. Wickham' situation, but she didn't quite make that connection in the moment. Or, being Lydia, perhaps ever.

Re: Arrive and Mingle!

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"That's why I ask, instead of just nicknaming people," Arden said said. "It seems rude to just assume."