Group Effort; Something by Joy Everlasting and Jelly Bean

[Joy_Everlasting]

Joy's mind was, of course, off skydiving while Jelly was deciding on her name. She had been just about to open her parachute when she was jolted out of her fantasy by Geneva's question. "Wha- Oh... Yeah, I think we are," Joy announced, before thoughfully asking, "What's your name, again? I already forgot it." Well, actually she was semi-thoguhtfully asking; she'd never been really good at sounding or appearing thoughtful. Anyway, "Celery" had finished her talk about winning the preliminaries to allay suspiscion by the time Joy stopped being semi-thoughtful. "Okay, should we pretend not to know each other at first?" she asked, twirling a stray strand of blue hair around her finger.

Joy had played tic tac toe before; many years ago she'd been a big fan, but after a while (at the age of six) she moved on to bigger, better things, like thumb wars and the dot game. So she knew how to play, it was just a process of remembering the details, mainly how to win. But she was sure it would all come back to her as soon as she sat down at the board, so she didn't mention it to Jelly. Instead, she panicked as she noticed something that was missing. "Where's Spike?! Did you LOSE him? The poor, lost cactus! How will he get his chocolate NOW?!" she wailed. Joy had, after all, been skydiving when Geneva had left her pet cactus by the water fountain.

 

[jelly_bean]

"That would be a good idea, Mara." Celery replied, fixing her constantly-mussed hair. "In fact, that would be a great idea! We could go in at the same time, separate, and meet back up after winning a couple of games... we just need to make sure not to play each other. I think. At any rate, we---" Celery was interrupted by Mara's panicked cries. Quickly, as to try and get her calmed down before such odd behavior was noticed, she grabbed the cactus from behind the water fountain and presented it to her friend. "Here he is! He just wanted to play hide-and-seek, you see." Celery figured Mara just spaced out or was distracted by Geneva's talking at the time of the cactus placement.

"Now he wants to play it again, see? So he'll go back into his hiding place and we'll have to retrieve--uh, find, him when we're done here. Sound fun? Okay. Let's roll!" She said, grabbing Joy Maloy and dragging her into the building, figuring if she tried to get an affirmation they would remain outside all night.

Inside, the recreational center was already cloistered full of eager tic-tac-toers. Releasing her hold on Joy, she moved to a table with an empty seat. A woman sat at the other end with a smug look on her face, obviously just having shamed some poor competitor and was waiting for her next victim, which looked like it was to be Geneva. "Uh, hi. I'm Celery!" She piped up, beaming and sticking out her hand to the woman. The woman shook it and said (rather pompously, Celery thought) "Greetings, I am Peanut Butter Brussels Spouts. You may call me Brussels." She announced.((In a town full of tic tac toe fanatics, you gotta assume there are weirdos aplenty. Yes, Geneva and Joy are weirder than most, but I want to make their weirdness not be as weird as you'd originally think. But then, you've probably already guessed that after the whole Empress of China episode. ))

"Are you ready to lose?" Asked Brussels, smiling at Celery. "Err..... sure!" She said, thinking the lady had said "battle". Then, the match began. Brussels, sure of her skill, allowed Celery the first move. Celery placed an O in one of the corners. Brussels responded with an X below it. Celery then placed another O in a corner, diagonally. Brussels quickly placed an X in the center square to prevent an easy win. Celery beamed as she placed one last O in a corner. The color drained out of Brussels' face--she saw the trap she had fallen for.

With a quivering hand, Brussels placed her final X in between one pair of Os. Celery grinned as she set the winning piece down, shouting, "TIC TAC TOE!"

O(1) | X(6) | O(5)
------------------
X(2) | X(4) | O(7)
------------------
| | O(3)

As Brussels stormed off, Celery gave a sigh of relief. She was glad the woman had just assumed all was lost, for she had been able to score a tic tac toe. "Next!" She yelled, hoping she would shake the rust off quickly. That had been too close.

 

[Joy_Everlasting]

"Mara" nodded, though she was still slightly worried that Spike would get bored, while they played tic tac toe and ruined the tournament. He'll be okay; he has chocolate. So she responded to "Celery's" pulling, and followed her into the recreation center.

The building was very big, and very full; this tic tac toe tournament was quite popular, and there were plenty of games going on. Once she had signed her name on a long sheet of paper, she was directed over to an opponent. Rubbing her facepaint a little out of nervousness, Joy hurried over to a table with a thin old man, who was waiting for his opponent with a look of assurant anticipation.

She sat down at the table, and smiled at her opponent. "Hi I'm..." But she'd already forgotten the name that she'd chosen. The old man looked at her expectantly, as seconds went by until she finished her sentence. "...Jewel." The inspiration of this name quite obviously came from the huge ring on the man's finger.
"I'm Alfie the forty-second." was her opponent's interesting response. "And all forty-one of my forefathers have won this championship." The man was obviously lying, since the tournament had just started thirty years ago, but Joy didn't think that clearly, so she merely nodded, and started fidgeting with her hands.

"How 'bout you go first?" Alfie offered, though quite obviously with ulterior motives. Joy nodded, and hesitantly placed an X in the bottom right corner. Alfie smiled proudly, and dropped an O on the center of the board. Joy quickly set an X in the top left corner, at which point Alfie let out a groan of frustration, and seeing his mistake, slapped an O in the top right hand corner. Joy was left to wonder why he'd groaned, until she noticed the trap that she'd mistakenly laid, and set another X in the last corner. Alfie humphed, and put his last O in the middle left square, but it wasn't enough, and Joy laid an X in the bottom middle space. "TIC TAC TOE!!" she exclaimed, before shaking hands with Alfie as he left her to congratulate herself, and wait for her next opponent.

X| |O - 1, 4
O|O| - 6, 2
X|X|X - 5, 7, 3

 

[jelly_bean]

It was like music over in 'Celery''s corner. Half the people standing around watching were in awe, the other half were in tears. "She beat me in two moves!" One girl wailed, although it was hard to hear over the other people's sobs. Celery laughed evilly as she beat her next competitor. "You're no match for the great Celery!" She cried, slapping down an X. The business man dejectedly left her table, and she hollered "Next!" But to her surprise, someone shot back, "There's no one left! You beat everyone!" Some chattering broke out and a new voice said, "Well.... except that blue-haired girl. She hasn't beaten her."

Jelly beamed and she knew it was time. "No one's beaten the blue-haired girl yet either... maybe she can beat Celery!" Someone whispered behind Jelly. "So let her come forth and challenge me! This will be my final game." She announced, bending over and grasping something under her table. "I have something special for blue-haired competitors."

 

[Joy_Everlasting]

"Mara"\"Jewel" who by that point had pretty much figured out the rules again. She was beating everyone who tried to play against her, but being utterly forgetful, she was also giving herself a different name with every opponent. So by the time she'd beaten pretty much everyone in the room but "Celery," she was just being called "the blue-haired girl" and was quite content with that; there were only so many names one girl could call herself.

As she triumphantly placed another winning X on the board, and the young man - who had been staring at her blue hair for almost the entire game - left, still staring back toward her, she too heard the whispers of the watchers, except she'd forgotten Geneva's name, just like she'd forgotten her own, so she was fervently hoping that the "vegetable girl" was her friend. Either way, all her "fans" were telling her to go challenge the "vegetarian upstart" so she did, slightly nervous, but looking cheerful anyway.

Her smile widened a few feet when she saw "Celery." It was Jelly, so everything was working out perfectly. "Miss Celery, I hereby challenge you to a tic tac toe game." she said in a loud, dramatic voice, sitting down on the chair across from Celery with a flourish. The watchers all ooh-ed and ah-ed, and watched expectantly.

Unknown to Joy, one thing was about to shift the perfection of the evening. While everyone was staring at Celery and "the blue-haired girl," the door to the recreation hall opened, and a man entered. His dented bicycle was parked outside, but even without the police uniform (he was off-duty for the night) the moustache made Jeremy, the policeman, easily recognizable.

 

[jelly_bean]

Jelly was very relieved when she spotted a look of recognition in Joy's face--considering she was in 'disguise' and Joy's usual memory span, she had been wondering if she would have to say something to trigger her memory. The 'vegetarian upstart' still had her hands hidden under the table, obviously getting ready to unveil it upon being challenged. "Miss Celery, I hereby challenge you to a tic tac toe game." Her friend said with pizazz. The defeated-by-Celery onlookers even stopped crying, they were so interested in the blue-haired girl. "Do you think she can take her?"
"No way. Celery has skills."
"I doubt blue-hair can do it, but I sure hope so. That darn Celery ruined my streak!" That was from Brussels, of course.

So happy at this turn of events was Jelly, that she didn't notice a certain mustachioed man enter the building. If she had noticed him, she may not have done what she did next. But since she didn't, all she did was grin and flop a large piece of posterboard onto the table. Everyone gasped. The white posterboard had lines all over it so that it resembled a checkerboard more than a tic tac toe board. She held it up on its side.

"What is she doing?" Alfie the 42nd said in the background. Celery beamed and announced in a loud voice, "A champion cannot play traditional tic tac toe... a champion must play connect four!" At that, everyone gasped again. Jelly had just capped her marker to get out a new one when the shouting began.

"CONNECT FOUR?!" The crowd roared. "BLASPHEMY!!! Unhonorable tic tacs! How have we been beaten by such uncouth players?!" Jelly jumped up and waved her hands. "No no no!! Listen, everyone!!! It's nothing to get excited about." Just then, a phone went off. "Oh, that's mine." Jelly said, for the ring tone was Polovestian Dances. She held up the two-antannaed phone to her ear and said, "Hello?" before realizing what a dead giveaway the phone was. Nobody else in town(besides Joy) had phones with any antannae on them at all, especially one with a pair. (They were said to be bad luck for tic tackers.)

"It's HER!!!!" Yelled Brussels. "It's Geneva Bean! The notorious tic tacker who stands against everything good and right!"
"And that must be Joy Maloy! Her fellow tic tac toe terrorizer and grocery store contest winner!" Howled Alfie. "GET THEM!!" Jelly gulped and said, "Whoops! Gotta go." Hanging up her phone, she glanced at Joy. "Our work here is done. RUN!" With that, Jelly took off.... just to run straight into a certain off-duty police officer named Jeremy. The crowd, in the meantime, was working on getting organized enough to actually get a hold of either girl, and hadn't done any 'getting' yet because they were still pushing, shoving, and shouting amongst themselves.

 

[Joy_Everlasting]

Joy was quite focused on not laughing out loud at the crowd's reaction to Jelly's new board, but her focus wasn't worth the time. Jelly's phone rang, and she answered it. Unfortunately, that revealed her identity, and Joy's name was an easy conclusion to reach from that knowledge. Of course, the crowd wasn't too thrilled at the sudden transformation of their two champions, so Joy quickly decided that it was safer to laugh and run for a little while, as a strange woman started shouting out their names, and organizing a mob. Except usually mobs weren't organized. Either way, this one needed it; they didn't seem to have the ability of moving in a direction other than in.

Jeremy was surprised at the sudden change of emotion. He hadn't been able to see what was happening, since the crowd was so thick, but he heard enough of it to know that the two people who were playing were imposters. When Brussels (Who Jeremy knew quite well as a loyal tic tac toe-er revealed their names for all to hear, Jeremy gave a gasp of anger; he'd heard about those two troublemakers, though he didn't think that had ever seen them.

Seconds later the terrible duo appeared, and Jeremy was left to stare in shock, his "STOP!" only making a pinhole in the noise of the mob. He barely had a chance to recognize the face of the orange-haired girl of the morning (though her hair was blue now) when he was run into, and knocked over, by the nice girl that he'd met while chasing Miss Orange-Hair. His eyes widened as the realization hit him; the orange/blue-haired girl must be Joy Maloy, which would make this girl, the one he'd though was a true, fellow, tic tac toe fan, Geneva Bean, the evil mastermind of things anti-tic tac toe! "YOU?!" The exclamation was loud enough for the outermost edge of the mob to hear, and the ones that did paused their angry yelling to watch and wonder what relationship Jeremy, the town's newest tic tac toe talent, could have with Geneva Bean.

 

[jelly_bean]

"Uh, I, errrrm...." Were Geneva's eloquent first remarks. She really didn't care to go to jail, so, she had to think fast. She did not think it was the time to start explaining about a long lost twin sister of hers... so she came up with something better. Puffing up her chest, she tried to look insulted. "Sir! I demand you speak to that rambunctious crowd over there, who has been beyond rude! I was simply trying to up the level of challenge for playing my dear friend Jew--Joy. Is that so wrong? I know I am, ah, I've had, quite the, um, illustrious career, along with my dear friend Joy, but do we NOT live in a country that believes-," at this point, "Yankee Doodle" was being played in the background, on a fife as the crowd settled down a bit to see what the fife was all about "INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY? Besides attempting to play a challenging game with my friend, I have done nothing yet! So therefore...." Jelly drew a breath, as she was getting winded, "There is no reason my friend and I should be mobbed and or arrested."

Now, if this were a movie, one person would start to clap, slowly, and more would catch on and Jelly would receive a standing ovation. But, not only is this not a movie, this was Watercress Heights, home of the tic tac toe fanatics. "THEY PLAY CONNECT FOUR!!!!! GET THEM!!!!!!" Someone roared, and the stampede was just about to start when the double doors opened with a bang. Everyone's head turned to see who had just made an entrance. It was none other than....

"The empress of China?" A small girl in the back whispered. Jelly blinked and rubbed her eyes--it was none other than Stoney from Stuff Mart! Everyone in the room who wore a hat of any sort removed it as the guy glowered at everyone. "You started the tic tac toe tournament without even waiting for your beloved Empress of China?! How repugnant. Be grateful I don't punish such insolence!" He bellowed. "And what is this? Why are you all standing around? Oh!" The 'empress' said, noticing Joy and Jelly, who had been singled out. Jelly shot a look at Joy, she was so confused. Geneva had lived in Watercress for many years, and yet she had no knowledge of this revered empress. "The imposter and her little friend. Is there a problem?" He asked, taking a step forward.

"Yeah! They hate tic tac toe--they're always messing up a good game! Haven't you heard of Joy Maloy and Jelly Bean?" Said Joan, a neighbor of Jelly's. "We cannot have that. Mustache! What say you of a fitting punishment to such a crime?" Stoney inquired of Jeremy, who hadn't had a chance to speak yet.

((I'm debating whether I should have him issue a pardon for the pair or not. He could sentence them to something, for all I've thought.... ))

 

[Joy_Everlasting]

Joy had barely managed to avoid dashing out the door without Jelly, and it was a good thing too; if she had gone through the doors, she would have smashed straight into the Empress of China, which would not have been pretty. But of course the result was that she was still in a room with an angry mob, and a policeman who wanted nothing more than to see her off to prison, once he got over the shock of seeing Jelly. And soon, there was also an angry Emrpress to deal with. It was getting to be a very full room.

Jeremy, on the other hand, was glancing from Geneva to Joy to the mob, and back to Geneva, until the Empress came in; then his gaze was mostly centered on him, except for a few glances at Joy, Jelly, and everyone else. Of course, he did have time to say, "But you tried to play a non-tic tac toe game in a tic tac toe tournament, and the result has been that you are both disturbors of the peace," before the Empress came in, and everyone else became quiet.

Everyone but Joy that is; her response to the Empress's entrance was to think a little, before interupting between his question (which she didn't hear) and Jeremy's answer, "Well, I'm the King of all AUSTRALIA, and we love Connect Four!" Actually, she might have been; Joy's birth was mysteriously unknown, at least by Joy, and her only known relatives were her parents, and her great-aunt, so technically, she could have a Princess Diaries life, and turn out to have to rule a country. Everything was possible in Watercress Heights.

Jeremy had only a moment to stare in shock at Joy's declaration. No one spoke like that before the Empress of all China. His decision was a lot easier to make after that, to a point. "Well, sire, it is clear that they must be punished. Whether or not they are sentenced to prison or tic tac toe indoctrination is your choice..." He bowed politely.

 

[jelly_bean]

((Joy? Well I'm what? ))

 

[Joy_Everlasting]

((I accidently replied before I was finished, but now I've edited... ))

 

[jelly_bean]

The empress of China looked taken aback by this declaration, but said nothing, just waited for Jeremy's response. He held up a hand as Jeremy bowed, as if to accept the gesture. "Your recommendation sits well with me, Mustachioed One. However... we must take into consideration this King of Australia, if she really is this person. She impersonated me today, so that goes into consideration also." The crowd laughed at the thought of Joy posing as the empress of China. How ridiculous was that?

Geneva was playing rock, paper, scissors with herself as the empress droned on. She had hardly even looked up when her best friend proclaimed her claim to royalty--she was on a winning streak! But then she thought about Spike, all alone on the fountain. What if he thinks I abandoned him? She worried, glancing at the double doors. What if we go to jail? Poor Spike! I've got to do something! AsJelly considered her options, the empress of China yanked a leash he had been surreptitiously holding to bring to view a familiar face.

"Well, minion, what do you think is fitting? Pardonment for the supposed King of Australia and her subject? Or harsh punishment and indoctrination for the imposter and heretic of tic?" The empress asked of an inanimate Spike. "Spike!" Jelly cried, rushing forward.

"Silence!" Stoney boomed, glaring at her again. "How dare you call my minion such a name! Such an offense cannot go unnoticed! You, subject, are sentenced to tic tac toe indoctrination until you have changed your ways! However," He said, pausing for effect, "your friend, the King of Australia, has my full pardon for whatever she is accused. I shan't have such a powerful person as an enemy. I do, however, require a tribute of five gallons of glue. Have them delivered by Thursday and all will be forgotten. All, dismissed!" He finished, waving his hand, and with that, he exited the building, dragging Spike along. ((The leash is tied around his pot))

Jelly watched with great despair at this turn of events. Not only was she going to a place equivalent to a torture chamber, but she was to be separated from her friend and had to watch her pet as he was petnapped. "Save Spike, Joy Maloy! If you never see me again, save him and keep him safe!" She cried sorrowfully over the loud murmurings of the crowd, as she awaited Jeremy to cart her off to 'the Happy Place'.

 

[Joy_Everlasting]

Joy, unable to pay attention to anything, even if it was as important as whatever the Empress of China was saying, was thinking about the responsibilities of royalty. "You know, I think I'll give up my crown..." She began to announce. There was more, but she stopped talking when she saw Spike, leaving quiet for Jelly's exclamation. Joy was just staring with her mouth open, as events unfolded. She didn't close it until the Empress was gone with Spike. "WAIT!!" she shrieked, "You can't indoctrinate my... Um... Closest advisor!! Australia will declare war if you go through with this injustice!"

Unfortunately, Jeremy had heard Joy's decision about giving up the crown, which he began to announce loudly, as he went over by Jelly in order to be able to escort her to the indoctrination center. And sadly for both, the Empress was already gone, and thus probably couldn't hear what they were shouting. The crowd wasn't being very quiet either, which didn't really help. So Jeremy was left trying to remember if handcuffs were warranted for "tic tac toe indoctrination," and Joy was left panicking about the hopefully temporary loss of her best friend, and trying to remember if Spike had been the cactus that the Empress of China was dragging behind him, and wondering how she'd save him if it was. She didn't even know about the tribute, since she hadn't been listening.

 

[jelly_bean]

Jelly tried to no avail to get Jeremy to stop trumpeting Joy's verbal misstep. "LA LALA LA LAAAAAA..." She sang, off-key, as he grabbed her arm to make sure she didn't escape her punishment. The indoctrination process was indeed a hard one. One was made sit at a small, wood-looking plastic table in a tiny chair in a tiny room with only one interrogation light. Then, one was forced to play tic tac toe for ten hours every day, while listening to a song called 'I've Got the Tic Tac Toe Spirit, Yeah Yeah Yeah' that was quite repetitive. The song goes like this:

"I've got something inside me
It brings me, it brings me such glee
I just wish you could see
Yeah, wish you could see, the glee, inside of me

What brings this feeling?
That makes me so happy I feel like keeling?
It's tic tac, tic tac toe!
It's made me more than an ordinary joe!

'Cuz
I got the Tic Tac Toe spirit, yeah yeah yeah!
I really really really do! Yeah yeah yeah!
Nothing makes me so happy inside, yeah yeah yeah!
As a great game of tic tac toe! Yeah Yeah yeah!"

And it continues on in that same vein for a couple of more verses, followed by a huge accordian solo, and was repeated all day long. Most tic tac toe offenders were released within a week(you could spot indoctrined people a mile away) but Jelly had been in there for a month on her last visit. She visibly trembled at the thought of being in there again, possibly for longer than a month, a year, ten years! Beginning to wail, she was lead out of the building, but not before she managed one last utterance: "Save... Spike! Goodbye, Joy Maloy!"

((My next post will be with Jelly in the indoctrination building, as I don't know what else to do with her. LOL, I keep seeing Joy Maloy going to visit her and they have the glass wall between them, Jelly looking pale in a green jumpsuit... ))

 

[Joy_Everlasting]

Joy was half deaf from Jelly's shouting, so her friend's last words were almost lost in her ringing ears. She did hear them though, and started trying to focus on Geneva's instructions, before she lost her attention.

Of course, she'd forgotten that she was in the midst of a bunch of tic tac toe fanatics. The fanatics hadn't forgotten, and a certain woman named Cauliflower, started shouting, "DOWN WITH THE FAKE KING OF AUSTRALIA!!!" a chant which was soon taken up by everyone else in the room, the loudest of which was Brussels. No matter how intent Joy's concentration was, it wasn't enough to shut out that noise, and she had to leave to preserve what was left of her sanity.

Joy stepped out the door, to the cheers of the crowd, and shivered, crying slightly as she gathered her jacket tighter around her, and started the long walk to her lonely home. At least, that's what she did until she realized that it was almost 70 degrees outside, and her apartment was only two and three-quarters blocks away. Once she'd realized that, she began walking cheerfully home to make elaborate plans to save her friend from a fate worse than ten-year-old tofu.

 

[jelly_bean]

In the meantime, Jelly was booked and sent to her cell. She occupied it often enough for it to be her favorite color: green. That was actually her fake favorite color, but she felt her yellow was far too precious to be used for everyday purposes. So her cell(with her monogram on the wall) was green. The music had already started, and it was already up to the first chorus. "'Cuz
I got the Tic Tac Toe spirit, yeah yeah yeah!
I really really really do! Yeah yeah yeah!
Nothing makes me so happy inside, yeah yeah yeah!
As a great game of tic tac toe! Yeah Yeah yeah!", wafted clearly into her cell. Moaning with anguish, she covered her ears.

The warden, a woman named Stellar Persun was on duty, reading a 600-page thick book called "600 ways to beat your opponent in tic tac toe" written by Ima Tick-Tacker, the local author. (She was married to Irving Tacker) Well, she wasn't reading so much as she was reading aloud. Very aloud. More like the top of her lungs. (In German) Geneva didn't even bother asking Stellar to stop, she knew it was useless. This WAS the indoctrination hall.

Trying to find something mind-numbing to do(which wasn't too hard as the German and the song were both very mind-numbing) she unearthed a box she had hidden away some time ago, and pulled out a small book of sudoku puzzles.

The shriek of terror was so loud it was able to be heard above the noise... for the book was completed.

 

[Joy_Everlasting]

Joy had reached her apartment, a boring building except for one corner which had apparently been shot with paintballs at one point. The signs that had been the target of whatever citizens had paintball guns had been removed a few weeks ago, after Joy's protest on Triple T Day (Tic Tac Toe Day, or more specifically, whenever the tenth day of a month happened to fall on a Tuesday)Most of the tic tac toe players weren't very good at aiming, since they spent most of their time playing with X's and O's, so the wall outside Joy's apartment had random spoltches of paint scattered around the bricks.

At the moment, Joy was sitting at her table, surrounded by a comfortable mess including a mug of blue hot chocolate (the best type) and random papers that were covered in unfinished plans for both Spike and Jelly's rescue. One of those plans appeared to involve a hang-glider and two bottles of lotion as well as the necesary duct tape. That specific plan was in a wad on the floor. The plan she was studying while she drank her blue hot chocolate was simple; visit Geneva, with an indoctrination survival kit if possible, and then go visit the Queen of China and try to save Spike. It wasn't very elaborate, but Joy was never good at following plans unless they were as simple as possible.

Fifteen minutes later, Joy had put on a brown wig that didn't really disguise her identity, and was walking down the street toward the Tic Tac Toe Indoctrination Center carrying what appeared to be a large tic tac toe board. In reality, the board (which was really about two inches thick) opened up to reveal a book of sudoku puzzles, some earplugs, and a couple other anti-tic tac toe necesities. After a couple of stops at several desks, she ended up in front of Ms. Stellar Persun. "Excuse me, ma'am, I'm Geneva's long-lost cousin, and I've come to bring her a few things to help with the indoctrination process," Joy said firmly, waving the tic tac toe board in front of Ms. Persun's face.

 

[jelly_bean]

Stellar Purson paused in the middle of her reading to take a look at the urchin who dared address her. Seeing it was an odd-looking girl clutching a tic tac toe board, Stellar moved over to the stereo and turned it off so she wouldn't have to shout to give her response. Although she still had to be heard over Geneva's exclamations of joy, the green-clad girl was much quieter than the Tic Tac Toe Song at any given point in time.

Stellar looked over the visitor, sizing her up. "Yooh?" She said, with a distinctly fake German accent. "Yooh come into my center and tell me yooh comingk here to be her lost-cousin long?" She demanded, even though it wasn't quite a demand. "Vell. Vell. Ve see if yooh be cousin to her. She good at tic tac toh. Yooh be good too. Yooh beat me, Stellar Purson(which was said with no accent at all, strangely enough), and yooh visit this girl alveys. Yooh lose, yooh spend the night here." She felt quite certain that this girl would lose her gumption and turn tail at the mere thought of being incarcerated also in this place.

This was actually a new function of the center. There were many rumors of Jelly being given anti-tic-tac-toe materials whilst in the center, but nobody knew how she acquired it. Of course nobody suspected the odd characters who always seemed to come to visit her, like the blue-haired alien who claimed to be a long-lost cousin, or Detective Dan, who was 6 feet tall("I may look five-and-a-half feet, but I'm really six, don't believe the rumors") and her long lost cousin, or the blonde-blue-eyed half-dolphin woman who visited Geneva with a tic tac toe board who was said to be her mother and her long-lost cousin.

Eventually, they decided that Geneva was enough of a troublemaker that she shouldn't have anybody to visit except tic-tac-toe champions; for if they were champions they must love tic-tac-toe and would help Geneva mend her ways. For Stellar Purson was the talk of Germantown, a bustling village about 50 miles away from Watercress Heights. A champion in her own right, she was a force to be reckoned with.

As it was, the new facet of security was not because of Geneva's strange and highly suspicious visitors that came to call, but merely because the staff was sure what was sustaining Jelly's evil ways was that she saw more than one person in the duration of her stay.

 

[Joy_Everlasting]

Joy's face twisted slightly, as she tried to decipher the fake German accent. She could usually understand accents pretty well, but no Germans lived within 50 miles of Watercress Heights, except for all the ones from Germantown, but that was technically 50 miles away. After a couple of seconds, she'd gotten most of Stellar's speech figured out, but seeing that Ms. Pursun was waiting for a reply, she decided to smile and say "Okay," while she finished translating whatever she could remember.

Of course, that probably wasn't the smartest idea, since Stellar immediately got out her golden tic tac toe board. Joy's eyes widened slightly, as she realized what she'd just agreed to, but after a second, she shrugged and smiled, stopping her in-head translation right before she came to the threat about having to spend the night in the indoctrination center. So Joy had no idea that anything bad would happen if she lost. Still smiling, she made her first move; an X in the far right corner.

 

[jelly_bean]

Stellar Purson gave a full laugh as she slapped down an O in the center. She has given the game away! She thought to herself, picking up her 600 ways of winning tic tac toe book. "Yoohr moof!"

((Should Joy win? I think she has the goods to win, but, it could be interesting for both of them to be trapped there. Then again, Spike needs rescuing. What do you think? ))