(Anna) 3.00 pm EST

You can tell that the mixer-uppers got a lot more confident as time progressed. I mean, the NUMBER of questions for chapters is getting to ridiculous proportions! And, excitingly, it seems everyone is still answering them.

This has been such a different experience from #3D1D in that respect. Last time, people’s enthusiasm kind of dropped off halfway through – to be fair, it was pretty exhausting to keep up with. MCM’s new schedule, which does not run overnight, along with this being over the weekend, and hosted on i09, has really widened the number of participants.

And of course, you may have noticed we have several more backstagers, meaning that me, Jan and Eli have not been going utterly out of our minds (well, Jan only a little) in trying to keep pace with MCM’s frantic writing.

So, yes. Different. Less stressful and insane. But still fun.

And now for this chaoter’s outline. (That’s not a typo, that’s how they say it in my country.)

The explosion was a stun canister. The club is raided, and Darvey and Kaps are dragged off into lockup. Takes a while for their vision to clear up. Discuss Tobor issues with Centaurians… sounds like genocide in the making. The drug isn’t accidentally deadly, they’re trying to wipe out Centaurians…
The same Orillians as before drag them out for questioning. Darvey claims to be the same race as Kaps, just hanging around town before shipping out. Or he wanted to [FUN SHORE LEAVE ACTIVITIES]. The Orillians have the place bugged: they know what he was discussing. He says that was all a joke, that of course he wouldn’t go stealing ships. That’s crazy.
They ask him what race he is, he says “same as him.” They demand to know, he dodges the question. Kaps answers to break the tension. They don’t buy it. They put a gun on Kaps, ready to kill, and take off Darvey’s mask. He starts to burn in the sun [NUMBER], and they think he’s Centaurian. They put it back on, freak out about amplification, but then realize he would have used it by now. He’s human, isn’t he? They’re going to shoot Kaps. He admits it. He’s human.
They realize they’re dealing with CSA, release them, apologize and offer assistance. Subtly hint things would go better if the CSA bothered to inform district police they were in the area. Darvey waves it all off, says he just needs to find the missing ship. They suggest the space station off {Rok: [PLANET NAME]} the third planet in this system… that’s where most of the Tobor hang out because [REASON TO HANG OUT]. They offer him a recently-impounded Tobor shuttle called the {Najela: NAME OF A SPACE SHIP] to get back to their ship, send him off.
Darvey and Kaps debate the tactics of the Tobor. Darvey suggests that they {Najela:[A WAY TO GET RID OF SOMETHING]. Kaps suggests that they {Najela:[A HORRIBLE WAY TO KILL SOMEONE]. Both of them would never work They’re not known for being the smartest, and if they had a drug like this, it would take a lot of effort to deploy widely. And given the timeframe, it’s unlikely they’d kill many before the Centaurians figured it out. Kaps explains how the Tobor only have two planets in their district {Najela:[NAME OF TWO PLANETS], but the Centaurians have [NUMBER]… that’s why they’re doing this. If they can claim a big enough chunk of one of those planets, they’ll get two seats on the district council, which would give them access to a lot more cash. The more power on council, the more resources you control.
Just as Darvey’s about to ask a key question, Kaps discovers a bomb at the back of the shuttle!

And, err, is anyone else thinking that EVERY chapter ends with a bomb? Come on, MCM! It would have been funnier if for once they just found a jam sandwich in the backseat.

(Najela) TIME 3:08 EST EST!!! Sorry about the time fail in the last post. I seriously thought that we were putting our own timezones to reflect the globalization of the internet. One thing I love about #2D1D is that I don’t have any class preventing from participating in the festivities. The weekend is awesome. I can be lazy because I have no class (thought I have finals that I should be stressing out about, but this is more important. j/k j/k, but seriously this is better). I like that it doesn’t go all night and MCM won’t die as hard as he did in #3D1D. I can actually catch up with the chapters and as you can tell I went a little crazy with the questions. I’m just having so much fun, but the lack of sleep is catching up with me. I need to go to the gas station and get that mega super caffeine coffee with all the sugar and stuff. I bet my roommates probably think I’m crazy because I keep laughing randomly and loudly at random typos and the home shopping network and of course, the story itself, and scandals backstage. Oh do I love me some scandals. I really should try to get some sleep. I moved to my bed to write, but now the wifi is acting out. Anna is the group-togetherer or since she keeps adding me back to the group because I either get kicked out by my janky wifi or I keep closing out of the group. Oh well. C’est La Vie. Next post I’ll try to talk more about the story. I’m going through sleep induced rambling.

(Rok) 3.30 pm EST

I want to say a few words about the experience of joining these folks backstage. First, MCM, Jan, and Anna knew each other already, but I didn’t know any of them. Yet, I was graciously invited to contribute and I was accepted, crazyness and all, with open virtual arms. I am old enough to remember a time when there was no internet as we know it today and it still strikes me as an amazing achievement of the human spirit that people from different parts of the world, people who have not met one another, can join together in virtual friendship and achieve something of the magnitude of what we’re doing this weekend. For some people, this is just a live-writing event. Big deal, right? For me, personally, it’s been yet another proof that there is good will and friendship in the hearts of everyone. All we need is to give ourselves the chance to interact for a common goal. In a small way, it reinvigorates my hope that human civilization can survive, grow, and thrive as a planet, not simply as a number of countries separated by artificial boundaries on a map.

Ok, that was a very philosophically-oriented paragraph. Let me lighten up a bit by relating an specific example of the nutness that goes on behind the curtains. Just a few moments ago, the following exchange took place:

(Rok): so, no one editing dispatch 16? I want to dive in for a bit

(Najela): i need to rest

(Rok): rest in peace

(Anna): dive in

(Anna): HAHA

(Rok): LOL

(Anna): cruel, rokko

(Rok): that was just priceless, the crossed responses

(Anna): no dying allowed

(Rok): I wasn’t suggested death

(Rok): suggesting, that is

(Anna): don’t make me laugh

(Anna): it hurts

(Rok): it’s hard to type fast when you have 18 tentacles

(Anna): surely it’d be easier to type faster?

(Rok): hmm… no

(Anna): i mean you’ve got 8 more things to tap on the kb with than i do

and that’s really just one example. I can honestly say that I haven’t had as good a time chatting as during this weekend in a very long time. I’ve only “known” these people for nearly 2 days and they feel to me as though we’ve been friends for a long time.

2DiD has been, and is still, a fantastic experience. I hope to see more of this type of activity sprouting all over the internet.

(JAN 4.19 EST) Awww. You guys are sweet. I need stuff like this now. I’m tired and I fell off the stairs. I’m in quite some pain, but nothing seems to be broken. I am watching the care bears in between chapters because I’ve been feeling woozy. Can I answer you guys more thoroughly when I feel a little bit more like myself?

On the the chapter questions picked.

Chapter 16 Answers
A fun activity for shore leave.: Playing in cybernetically-enhanced gravity by NXS
A number between 3 and 12.: 4 by NXS
A reason to hang out.: @1889ca A reason to hang out. // 4-20 by LynThorneAlder
A number between 5 and 20.: 13 by NXS
Name for a planet outside our solar system.: Xena by NXS
Name of a space ship: Coriander by janoda
A way to get rid of something: vacuum it out in space by janoda
A horrible way to kill someone: space him by retro_neo
Name of two planets: M&M by janoda

Okay, I totally won For those that don’t remember, Coriander was a C-Quest suggestion by TenaciousN, (C-Quest was the quest for MCM’s middle name), and it was my longtime favorite, only to be beaten at the end by Caligula. So in fact, that spaceship was named after MCM .

I like Darvey more and more, and Kabs is really funny, I hope he earns is cash in the end. Though Darvey probably won’t want to die at the end anymore. Also MCM found this a very hard chapter, and he doesn’t know yet I’ve added something totally random to the outline of one of the later chapters, because seriouslt, how many bombs have we had yet.

I could honestly write a whole essay on the differences with #3D1D, because I think I do miss the sense of urgency that went along with it. Like when you woke up, you had to Catch up fast so you could tag along with The Dispatch and Questions again. I miss that a bit. And I also miss the interactivity on twitter. The console is a great engine (when it works), but it doesn’t really work for discussion. I want DAAAARRRVVEEEYYY cries :p

Anyway, the next chapter is almost ready, and I’m still typing. Publish!