When you're alive they won't care what you said

[deadkord]

WHO: Deceased Masks and Menaces.
WHERE: A bowling alley in Heropa
WHEN: Some evening in May
WHAT: Bowling for dead guys! As advertised here. Feel free to make your own top levels and tag around as you please!
WARNINGS: Gallows humor and glow-bowling.


The address from the Network ad leads to a Heropa-local ten-pin bowling alley. A print out of the ad, complete with clip-art of tombstones and bowling balls, is taped to each door at the front of the business.

Inside, the owner of the alley excitedly greets any imPort who comes in, assuring them they're playing for free, and renting them only the best shoes he has in stock. Someone's hoping to make bank on all these dead imPorts buying beer and fried food.

There's a banner with tombstones on either end reading "AFTERLIFE BOWLING LEAGUE" hanging over a few alleys. Clearly that's where the party is at.

Comments

Ted Kord | Yell at this loser for organizing this thing

[deadkord]

[ Ted's hanging out with a beer and a basket of french fries, wearing a pastel blue bowling shirt and polishing a bowling ball that matches in between turns. Whenever he steps up to bowl, though, it's obvious to anyone who knows the signs that he's recovering from some kind of injury, because he's stiff and he's not at his best. He's not a bad bowler, overall, though!

If approached by a new arrival, he's all smiles, despite what one might think would be a depressing gathering. ]

Hey! Glad you could make it.

[girlwithout]

[The new arrival happens to be a teenage girl who's still in the 'awkward and not totally sure this was a great idea' stage of the evening. Look at her, slouching like a pro. (Don't worry, she'll blossom into her true bowling queen self soon enough.)]

Uh, thanks. I guess. I don't think we've met?

[deadkord]

No, I don't think so.

[ He holds his hand out for a handshake to introduce himself alongside, even though his bowling shirt has his first name embroidered on it already. ]

Ted Kord.

[girlwithout]

Rikki Barnes. [She shakes his hand and then shoves hers into her pockets.] Did you organize this? [She's guessing based on the fact that he has a personalized bowling shirt.]

[glowsferatu]

[ They may have both been working at Starrware for months, but Kanaya doesn't really know Ted very well, beyond Karen occasionally mentioning him. Of course, she's in administration, he's in engineering, their paths don't naturally cross very often.

So, it's a bit of a surprise to see him here, among the openly dead. ]

Hey. It's Ted, right? I suppose I hadn't realized you're...well, you know. [ You never know, people can be really sensitive about their deaths. ]

[deadkord]

[ He's a little less surprised to see Kanaya than she is to see him. There was always gossip amongst in the native employees of Starrware about their imPort colleagues, and the word vampire had definitely come up more than a few times alongside her name. Ted didn't know exactly to what extent the gossip was true, but nonetheless, it's not a shock that she's showed up. ]

Supposed to be pushing up daisies?

[glowsferatu]

[ Of course, all those rumors are true. She tries to be open about it, to try to head them off, but such things are always treated with hushed tones by those without experience with them. Nevertheless, she gives him a laugh, at least having some better idea how he'll want to treat it. ]

That's the one. [ Whatever that phrase even means. ] I don't suppose most of us come with signs that exactly advertise it! Maybe we should start wearing little pins, shaped like...what are those. The stones they put on corpse plots.

[23wishes]

[It's good Ted's cheery and enjoying himself, because Aerith sure is too. This is actually really exciting for her. Her death hadn't been very fun, but she had plenty of time to adjust to it, and maybe someone here needed help through that too.]

Thanks for hosting! This is a really great idea.

[deadkord]

[ Ted's cheer may be one part genuine, two parts defense-mechanism, but hey, who's counting? ]

I wish I could take more credit for it than I already am. Someone mentioned a bowling league for us types back when I first got Ported in.

[23wishes]

Mm... Well, you still made it possible. This is going to do a lot of good for a lot of people.

[She holds out her hand to shake his.]

I'm Aerith. If I'm any good at bowling, I'll join the league permanently!

[causational]

[The longer Eddie stands just at the peripheral of the gathering with his bowling shoes in hand, shifting from foot to foot, the more this seems like a really, really bad idea. Of course, he's right in the target demographic for this, since he loves bowling and he's definitely dead, and now that he had that run-in with Eobard, he's free to be open about it.

But it's depressing. And he's been pretty depressed. And he's not sure if he's up to treating it with the kind of humour demonstrated here.

Everyone seems to be having fun, though, so eventually he crosses over to them, sits down on a bench, feeling awkward as hell, and changes his shoes. Looks up and tries to figure out who he should approach about getting in on a game, who looks easy to talk to. This whole 'making new friends' thing has never been really easy for Eddie, and at least at home he'd met more people at his job and had Iris' friends to hang out with.

It almost catches him off-guard when someone says hi to him, and he jerks his chin up with his eyes wide, startled, like he was caught doing something wrong.]

Uh. Hi.

[deadkord]

[ Ted doesn't react to Eddie's uncomfortable body language with more than just a quirked eyebrow. The pins are resetting on his lane from his last strike, so he heads over and holds out a hand for Eddie to shake. ]

Ted Kord. You look like a man who actually knows how to bowl.

[causational]

[As soon as Ted approaches and holds a hand out, Eddie stands up and takes it, shaking and forcing a warm smile.]

Thanks, and yeah. [A little laugh.] I know my way around an alley. Did you set this whole thing up?

Rikki Barnes

[girlwithout]

She and Steve used to go bowling. It was stupid and cheesy, but it was fun. A nice way to unwind and bond without all the fighting. She'd have probably shown up no matter what the venue was cause the idea of being able to talk to other people who died kind of appeals, but the fact that it's bowling is kinda nice.

Unfortunately for everyone else, that means she's had practice and she's actually pretty good at this. Rikki gets her first strike of the event and immediately spins around to high-five the nearest person. "Hah! I haven't lost my touch."

[glowsferatu]

Kanaya accepts the high-five, then looks at her hand with a frown. So, this is what she's up against, but it's alright, she's faced much harsher competition before. What are a few silly pins?

"Suppose it's my turn, then."

She'd managed to find a nice pale green ball, she knew they had an immediate affinity. The connection between user and ball was apparently important, the two being in synch would help them to accomplish the common goal. So, she step up to the line, draws her arm back, and releases it into the lane.

It swerves right into the gutter.

[girlwithout]

"You'll get the hang of it," Rikki says helpfully. "Sometimes it feels like the balls have a life of their own, but you just got to kind of, just - " She does a thing with her hand that is supposed to be helpful and demonstrative.


...She tried?

[glowsferatu]

Kanaya screws up her lips, running the motion threw her head as she waits for her ball to come back up. She's been a fighter for years, tossing a heavy ball should be no challenge at all. She takes a deep breath, and squares her jaw. "It's a bit of a silly game to begin with, especially with the shoes. I can't even imagine how it must have evolved!"

She stops breathing, heading back up to the lane. Trying to mimic Rikki's throw, she lets the ball go again. This time it gets to the end before dropping into the gutter, taking three pins with it. She comes back to the booth, looking satisfied with her meager achievement.

Chloe Price

[helladoomed]

Chloe almost didn't bother to show, really. She knew there were other dead people here (hell, she was turning into a big sister for one of 'em) but knowing they were out there wasn't the same as wanting to bond with them and shit.

Still, she found her feet heading in that direction without really giving it much though, and was pushing her way inside, tucking an unlit cigarette behind her ear as she scanned the room. Hmm. Between Max being so busy and Sarah being a wreck, her evening plans weren't great and...

Well, there were worse ways to spend an evening. Probably.

So she'll give whoever happens to look her way first a little half-wave. "Hey. This the dead people support group?"

Needed more chairs in a circle.

Kanaya Maryam

[glowsferatu]

[ When Kanaya arrives and they ask her to change her shoes, it dawns on her that she's never actually been bowling before. By the look of the required footwear, she isn't sure she's really missed much of anything.

It just makes her wonder how bad a fit she may be for this group, as she's not really sure if any of them are really undead like her, only formerly dead. That doesn't mean she can't try to make it work, at least this time. She sets Ashiah's basket down, rocking it with her knee, then takes a seat and stares at the shoes a little longer. ]

Do I really have to wear these?

[23wishes]

I think so.

[Surprise roommate!

Aerith's never been bowling before, or even heard of it, but she did google it first. It seemed fun and easy enough, and she'd gladly give it a shot if it meant meeting other imPorts like herself.

... Granted, she didn't expect Kanaya to be one of them.]

[glowsferatu]

The colors are revolting, I feel like I'm becoming part-clown.

[ Kanaya lets out a disgruntled groan, slipping off her flats to work the required footwear on. She hadn't expected Aerith to be here, either, but tonight's proving to be full of surprises. ]

So, uh. Is this your first time doing this? [ Bowling or socially identifying herself as dead, either one. ]

[23wishes]

I like the carpet.

[Obnoxious florescent: the true taste of Midgar. She's got a soft spot. Or she's had one since coming here.]

Yeah, it is. I don't think we had anything like this where I'm from.

[Or did they? The Gold Saucer surely would have had a game like this there if it existed. But...]

If they did, I wasn't alive long enough to find out about it.

Aerith Gainsborough

[23wishes]

[Despite what some people might assume, Aerith didn't much mind being dead. Her ancestry as a Cetra meant she could stay conscious beyond death in the Lifestream and watch over her friends.

This is a great chance to make her friends here, and she's not gonna pass it up.

... Even if she is a terrible bowler.

But, hey, it's her first time. Maybe help her out?]

[causational]

[Eddie might not be comfortable with the fact that he's dead, but he is pretty comfortable with bowling. It looks like this girl is kind of the opposite from him - smiling and bright, she doesn't seem to know what she's doing when it comes to actually bowling.

So he walks right up with a smile on his face.]

Hey. Have you ever done this before?

[It's the polite version of 'you look like you need a crash course in bowling.']

[23wishes]

Is it that obvious?

[Every ball she throws goes right to the gutter. It's getting a little upsetting for her. Aerith's not particularly the competitive type, but this much failure is starting to get on her nerves.]

We don't have this game where I'm from.