The Weekly Pulp (2-16-2011)

More took place at the Wastelands’ Fourth Birthday party than could possibly be typed out in words.  Two full days of music and movies, sports and games, drinking and food and more drinking —  all the best kinds of excess in honor of our desolate home.   (A rough rundown of the games and their winners will follow in a special section.)   After the long hangover abated, after we woke up half-buried in the Junkyard or sprawled on a broken roof with no idea how we got there, after we stumbled back to our hovels and hideouts, muscles weary from dancing and fighting and running and laughing too hard, the next year of life in this wonderfully ruin’t colony began, with all its (un)usual features.  And there is always still more to come.

UPCOMING EVENTS: Fight Night takes place this Saturday at 3pm SLT, as ever and always.  Invite your friends!  Invite your enemies!  Invite some Flatlanders!  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get splattered with blood from the buzzsaws; it’s an hour of wholesome entertainment.  Even if people aren’t still whole when they come out of the Arena.

At 5pm, DJ Aposiopesis Fullstop will hoist her battered boombox high for another evening of Apo’s Audio Atrocities at a venue yet to be determined.  Possibly yours!  Contact her via IM if you’d like to host.

M is for Monday, for Music, and for Movie Night! Miuseppe – er, Giuseppe Spicoli will bring the finest in audiovisual WTFery to Burnt Oak once more, beginning at 6pm SLT when he’ll DJ an hour or so of music from the Boat House.  Then, bring your own chairs, crates, and couches to the roof of the Drive-In for this week’s film.

Team Screaming Monkey at the Court of Skulls in Cormac (l to r: theblackcloud Oh, Tayasha Tammas, Aposiopesis Fullstop)
Team Screaming Monkey at the Court of Skulls in Cormac (l to r: theblackcloud Oh, Tayasha Tammas, Aposiopesis Fullstop) - Photo by theblackcloud Oh

EVENTS HIGHLIGHTS:

Wastelands Four-Ever

On January 22-23, Wastelanders old and new partied hard in celebration of The Wastelands’ fourth anniversary. How hard?  24 FULL HOURS hard.   Giuseppe Spicoli and Gomi Mfume organized the event, which featured fourteen DJs, seven games, and three movies – many of these events overlapping.   The first of the weekend’s game was Cabeza Muerta, taking place in Cormac. The old tradition of bizarrely-named teams continued with Team Strut That Ass, consisting of lauren1010 Resident, Mira Kamiguwa, and Myotis Draconia; Team Screaming Monkey, made of theblackcloud Oh, Tayasha Tammas, and Aposiopesis Fullstop; and Team Stitched Fur manned (or mutanted and ghouled) by Ccindy Pfeffer, Smokey Steamweaver, and Pirate Graves.  The matches were fierce, and the scores often close, but Team Screaming Monkey took first place and L$250 apiece.

Giussepi Spicoli preps the Chaoseum stage for Taunt The Mutant
Giuseppe Spicoli preps the Chaoseum stage for Taunt The Mutant (photo by theblackcloud Oh)

Taunt the Mutant came next at the Chaoseum, where three contestants flexed their trivia skills, their correct answers earning them spins on the Big Board for the chance to win cash and fabulous prizes – unless they landed on a square featuring one of the many faces of Barry Wiranata, the titular Mutant.  A Barry bankrupts the player of all cash and prizes – and four Barries strikes you from the game entirely!  After a few rounds of practice questions, the contestants were decided:  Aposiopesis Fullstop, theblackcloud Oh, and Benjamin Bigdipper.  They were faced with questions on everything from movies to sports to history, though their brains were soothed by the smooth tunes of DJ Rance Alva at the same time.  Forced spins and devastating Barries kept the tension high, but at the end of it all, Cloudy was the game’s winner with a cash total of L$4950!

There’s no event quite like Fight Night, and no Fight Night quite like the anniversary brawl.  15 fighters participated in an epic point-match series of bouts that lasted even longer than the two full hours dedicated to it.  The first hour was accompanied by a set of sweetly-skewed covers courtesy of CickMy Lunt; the last hour was a live performance by RedZone, their droning, industrial music almost adding an air of the mystical to the bloodshed.  Diamanda Gustafson took the stage throughout the final fights – heavy metal in the air and underfoot as the fighters duked it out within the crazed and clanging Arena.  Finally it came to the final three: Fei Bourdeille vs. Ccindy Pfeffer vs. Aposiopesis Fullstop.   Iron Maiden blared as spikes and weapons pierced (painfully appropriately) through flesh, Apo falling first.  A harsh fight took place between the cattish Fei and the elusive mutant, but Ccindy Pfeffer took home the title!   Apo, as third-place winner, received L$250 and a month’s worth of tier toward a 234-prim plot; Fei received L$500 and the choice of an available 350- prim plot with a month of tier, and Ccindy won L$1000 and a month of tier toward a 468-prim plot.

Redzone performs during Fight Night at Hambone Slash
Redzone performs during Fight Night at Hambone Slash

After this week’s iteration of Fight Night, it was time for a sport the Wastelands had not seen in years – Tireball aka Car Soccer!  Participants gathered at the Death Bowl in Burnt Oak, hopped into freebie cars, and tried to shove a great orange sphere into the opposing side’s goal.  Giu guided orange Team A, while Gomi led purple Team B.  It was a fast-paced, nail-biting game, scored by sounds from Diamanda and Aki as piped in from the Junkyard.  While it first looked like Team A was running (or driving) away with the match, Team B soon rallied to catch up and overtake!  The teams were neck and neck, and when the hour was up and the match was called, the two were tied at 7-7!

North Yard was the site of the night’s next event, as over a dozen punch-drunk participants took part in Fisticuffs inside the First Church of Gid.   Despite the relative close quarters, and despite the four-man matches, the bouts still ran longer than expected. To the disappointment of no one, Aki Shichiroji played an extended set of music, followed by the eclectic sounds of Gomi Mfume.  Still the participants punched and pounded away – and at the end of it all, the wily Tokiko Tigerpaw took first place and L$500.  All participants came away with a spiffy North Yard commemorative shirt.

The final event of the night was Aposiopesis Fullstop’s Radio Three Wastelands, where sets of three unannounced songs were played, each of the three sharing a common theme.  The first person to correctly guess the theme would win the round, and the person winning the most rounds was set to win the whole match and L$3000.   After over an hour of unlikely associations, Diamanda outguessed the rest and walked away the winner.

Due to constraints of space and time, Sunday’s events will be covered in the next issue!

In the weeks since, Giuseppe has shown 1998’s “Dirty Work” starring Norm MacDonald, and “Shock ‘Em Dead” starring Traci Lords, much to the amusement and chagrin of all.   The weekly Fight Nights have also seen

ESTATE NEWS: Are you new to The Wastelands’ roleplay and trying to get your look in-theme?  Having a hard time finding  gear that doesn’t look like it was just manufactured yesterday?  Do you, dare I say it, bling? Or could you just do with a makeover?  Check the new Thematic Content page of the Wiki!  You’ll find information, Marketplace URLs, and SLurls to vendors of thematic content in the Wastelands and Flatlands alike, along with descriptions of what they sell and how much of their shop is dedicated to the finest in grimy post-apocalyptic goods.   If you want your place on the list, shop owners can submit their information to Neo using the guidelines found at the bottom of the page.

NeoBokrug Elytis is thinking of adding more Homestead sims to the Wastelands Estate!  Consult this Forum thread for the terms:  put briefly, you must have an idea in advance, you must plan to stick around for at least a year, and you must keep it all in strict adherence to the theme.   Barely-affiliated “personal playground bubbles” will not be tolerated.  To apply, write up your proposition and email it to Neo at NeoBokrug (dot) Elytis (at) gmail (dot com).

There’s still a push towards getting a new Estate sim, as well – the long-awaited coastal sim.  But work can’t begin on that until and unless the current Estate is almost fully occupied, and holding there!  So, with that in mind, don’t forget the Wastelander Referral Program that will give you 25 or 50% of the sale price of any Estate-owned land when you inspire a new tenant to purchase it.

To reprint a reminder from the last edition, here is some advice from the Devs on selling and trade.

Trade WL: game items* via direct av-to-av transfer only with those you trust.

  • NEVER pay someone directly for game items.
  • Only purchase game items with L$ if the seller rezzes the object and sets it for sale, or from one of the local markets (see Market Reports).
  • Safeguard your knowledge of recipes, even within your own faction. Selling recipes is a bad business move [link added by me – AF] that will probably earn you the rage and distrust of three Wastelanders for every one ’satisfied customer’
*Food, salvage, ammo, weapons

RP NAME-DROPS:  The Stygian Flee Market and Watering Hole is now open!  Located at the far eastern border of Fort Stygian, the market offers an assortment of scrap on its lower levels.  The second level hosts a bar and a battered old stage, and the top floor serves as a flophouse for those too drunk to get home, or those with no homes to go to.