Dear Diary,
AAAAAHH SECOND TO LAST CYCLE!!!!!!
We’re hobgoblins. In parties of five. So, as usual, it’s me, Avi, Kimi, Y, and Mika.
Second to last cycle, second to last cycle!
Everyone knows it, too. We’re pretty sure next cycle all the players will be on Floor 1 again, so this will be our last time going through! Probably. So we’re all saying goodbye.
I really want to make like a thousand cakes and give them to everyone. But if I took the time to make cakes, the cycle would end before I got around to giving them out. So I guess I can’t.
I hope everyone in the other dungeons knows we’re super close to the end and can say goodbye to their friends. It would be sad if everything ended without them having time to prepare.
Not that we’ll remember, probably, but… I don’t know, it’s good to say goodbye to people. To friends.
I don’t know how we’re gonna say goodbye to the wolves or velociraptors. Avi suggested extra cuddles, but we already give them lots of cuddles, so I’m not sure how anyone would figure out what “extra” is.
Among the players, though, there’s a kind of… nervousness. It kinda feels like people are upset about something. But I don’t know what they’d be upset about.
Maybe they’re still upset with the Director for having said there wouldn’t be weapons this cycle? I would ask, but going up to people and saying “hey, what are you upset about” generally isn’t a good idea. Or at least, it doesn’t sound like a good idea.
Maybe I could ask Fire. We’re friends; she’d tell me what’s upsetting. Like, it could be that everyone but us got an announcement. Who knows.
Yeah, if we see Fire’s party I’ll ask.
But until then, I need sleep.
Goodnight, Dungeon!
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* * * * *
Frog looked over his graph paper spreadsheet. “Right. Fish, avians, reptiles, mammals, insects, and amphibians; can we agree on those categories?”
There was some grumbling in his group about “fish” not being the correct term, and Ringo muttered that “insects” shouldn’t include arachnids, but no one complained loudly. Which was good enough for Frog.
“Ok. We need six for each class. What mammals should we give bad luck to?” he asked.
Fire was the first to speak. “Hamsters.”
They all looked at her.
“Why?” Steel asked.
“I do not know,” she said, almost sounding annoyed. “I feel strongly that hamsters are magnets for bad luck.”
Frog watched her for a few seconds, then shrugged, writing it on his sheet. “Sure. Why the hell not. Hamsters. What else?”
* * * * *
Hash laughed, pointing her beer at 9. “Ok! Eld- elderly antelope! Not young ones, but just old ones!”
9 cracked up. “Wait! If- If there’s a type of leopard with two spots on their heads! Specifically two! Not one or three or whatever, only two.”
Hash wheezed.
“Is that, maybe, too specific?” Fishy asked, cracking open another can. “Why not go for…” She focused on her beer, destined to never finish the sentence.
“Okbut if you’redoing. That,” Edison said, a finger waving unsteadily in the air. “Then just sayevery bear born. On the, the fourteenthof… April. Should work.”
9 giggled his approval, but Hash frowned.
“What if April, like, isn’t a thing?” she asked.
“Thenno bears. Are unlucky.”
After missing a few times, 9 managed to tap his nose at Edison. “I like the way you think!”
Fishy looked up from her beer. “I don’t think thinking is a thing we’re thinging right now.”
Hash emptied her can in a show of agreement.
* * * * *
Bacon finished writing out a list of her most disliked animals, tore the sheet out of her notebook, and took it to Moose.
Moose thanked her, looking it over. “Two repeats so far; they’re going on the list for sure.”
“Cockroaches and mosquitoes?” Bacon guessed.
“Cockroaches and rats,” Moose corrected. “It’s best if they’re not all bugs, so this is good.”
Two more group members walked up with their lists, so Bacon left Moose to her compiling.