dog$

Today marked the final day which another cartman is going to be working at the store. He is transferring to a department inside. Meanwhile, I learned later today that there is one additional person showing up who I didn't know to be scheduled beforehand, which means that this Saturday might be the first in the last four weeks where I won't be alone the entire day. Just in time for the holiday weekend.

Draft.

LL-N-4880

19281127 02:13:43

The door offered no physical resistance when he pushed it open, and only emitted a mouselike squeak as he widened the gap enough to allow himself entry. He stood with his fingertips resting upon the handle and laboriously scanned the church's interior. The sparse rays of moonlight which managed to seep into the building did little to help illuminate the barren hall before him. The moment of immobility rapidly grew longer until he realized that the only things which he could hear was his own breath and possibly even his heartbeat. Maybe it was simply an actual onset of nerves. The uncertainty felt foreign, having been absent from him for so long. Upon realizing this, he smirked and huffed a stifled chuckle through his nostrils; he was happy that the rumors did so far seem to have a touch of truth to them. A faint rustle, like a fallen leaf scraping the ground from the wind, snapped his senses back into attention.
A portion of the room made visible by the moonlight shown where a white plastered wall met the ground. He felt compelled to walk towards it, to engulf himself within the void and see if that true feeling of nervousness - or possibly even dread - would return to him, and more strongly. He walked towards the wall and finally stood next to it, and felt the luminous glow surround him within the black. He delicately ran his fingers over the wall, finding the surface to be gritty with dust. He didn't hear the front door shut and close as he did so. But he did hear the whisper. It disguised itself as the wind at first, and it was one word repeated, which still had the timbre of a whisper but rapidly became louder and more distinct. "Well", the wind said. "Well. Well. Well. Well. Well. Well. Well."
"Well here you are, William." He heard the welcome whispered immediately behind him but did not sense a body close to him, nor heard any footsteps approach. He held his breath and felt his body become rigid, but instinctively spun around with the dagger clenched in his hand. A human shape stood before him. Its white composition gleamed in the lunar rays. Its face bore a resemblance to a Greek comedy mask, with the vacant, wide smile, the pupilless eyes tucked behind dimples, and the complexion which seemed much more like a mask than human flesh. It appeared to have arms and to stand upright, but it was clad in a robe which obscured any hands or feet.
"Oh." When the word was said, he once again heard voices whisper and echo it behind him before it seemed to come from the being in front of him. This is the best he could assume, because no features on the beings face made any sort of movement. "Oh. We are unarmed. You don't need that here."
"A. Are y.. are you even fucking human?" William asked the question in unchecked emtion, and only after speaking did he realize that his chest was heaving with each breath. Waves of chills swept over his body, and he specifically exerted himself to remain motionless. The echoes arrived first, again. "Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why." William finally turned around to face the whispers which seemed to come from behind. The being was now directly in front of him, again. It stood under no moonlight but still seemed to have some sort of glow emitting from itself. Albeit very faintly, William could see the texture of the wooden floor which it stood over.
"Why are you here."
"I'm. I'm testing myself. I am testing how I handle fear."
"Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. You will handle fear. Let. Let. Let. Let. Let me show you." It lifted a white sheen hand and pressed a finger to the side of William's temple. It was so cold, William thought he felt the heat within his own body seep away.
Instantly, he felt his eyes snap shut but could see images as if being displayed behind his own eyelids. The images were murky but quickly became brighter and more saturated with vivid color. He saw himself, older, holding a sword, standing over men on the ground, blood drained upon the ground and spattered against his clothes. Another flash saw him with his sword raised to be pushing the edge cleanly through a human neck. Another flash saw him standing at a funeral parlor and watching an emotionally devastated wife wail out in sorrow. Visions like this ran through his brain one after another, quicker than he could perceive, and more quickly until the brightness engulfed his vision and all he could see was white.
The memory of the cold touch rushed to his head as he snapped his body upright with a gigantic heave of breath, as if he were just rescued from being drowned in water. He was now sitting on the church ground. The moonlight was gone, and the morning's sunrise bathed the church's interior with a somber orange that shown the room to be completely empty. In the distance, he heard a church bell chime six times.

Extra Mode. The Usual.

Code:

			EX% & Rank	EX.p/f	pg.gr.gd.bd.pr		combo	nc	onc	%+ 	date
yaksha @		27.59 E		1477.F	490.497.895.231.1051	0090				2012-06-30T00:05:55:749Z
					0167-				0026+

inori @			45.96 C		2153.F	733.687.608.97.397	0056				2012-06-30T00:09:32:230Z
					0137-				0035-

ミラージュ･レジデンス @	56.89 B		1791.F	646.499.279.42.208	0209				2012-06-30T00:14:11:070Z
					0118-				0040-

beatonic nation @	41.50 D		1905.F	635.635.514.202.722	0060				2012-06-30T00:17:12:924Z
					0337-				0016-

never fade away @	44.75 C		1724.F	617.490.469.118.537	0092				2012-06-30T00:20:36:014Z
					0164-				0075-

ganymede @		57.17 B		1626.F	587.452.276.26.173	0184				2012-06-30T00:24:08:078Z
					0098-				0033+

express emotion @	43.72 D		1840.F	643.554.490.126.605	0114				2012-06-30T00:30:15:563Z
					0068-				0018+

華蝶風雪 @		53.66 C		1845.F	651.543.358.33.245	0073				2012-06-30T00:33:59:746Z
					0287-				0151-

boom boom disco night @	35.21 D		1587.F	530.527.631.252.771	0047				2012-06-30T00:37:10:222Z
					0200-				0000-

electrified @		39.69 D		1360.F	482.693.460.143.463	0090				2012-06-30T00:41:14:396Z
					0136-				0005+

logic board @		45.64 C		1647.F	602.443.366.127.464	0067				2012-06-30T00:46:35:168Z
					0187-				0047-

リグレット @		55.73 B		1740.F	631.478.274.67.231	0074				2012-06-30T00:50:14:946Z
					0099-				0065-

no crime @		38.78 D		1348.F	458.432.418.188.581	0185				2012-06-30T00:52:50:981Z
					0185-				0023+

Now that I've seen this cycle come a few times, I'm not quite so surprised by it. Still, I had a few plays which garnered me some combo increases; this surprised me considering how inaccurate I was in my initial warmup routine. Also, while I didn't have any increases, the negative tendency today could have been substantially worse. Beatonic Nation has too many chords to make it easy to maintain consistency with Random.