> > > So I was lying on the floor and watching everybody else doing some REALLY odd game that had several steps that seemed to be something like:
> > > 1. Look at 2 of several jumpropes on the floor.
> > > 2. Take Jumprope 1 and cross it over Jumprope 2.
> > > 3. Read the German word that will appear over the jumpropes.
> > > 4. Translate it into English.
> > > 5. Push the jumpropes toward the mouseholes in the other wall.
> > > 6. Wait for Alisha, waiting outside, to pull them through the mouseholes and out onto the grass.
> > >
> > > ?!!?!? What in the HECK?!?!?!
> > >
> > > So I remember watching this for some time when a guy I know got his foot caught in the jumprope and was screaming his head off as he was being pulled toward the mouseholes, so Brunnen_G screamed, "GET HIM! GET HIM! HE'S GOING TO TURN INTO ICE IF YOU DON'T GET HIM NNNNOOOOOOWWWWW!" So somebody grabbed him and ... well, he didn't get pulled in.
> > >
> > > And then, Ticia and Mousie and Darien were still stuck on the first jumprope. (Maybe because they can't speak German? Or can they?) And so Ticia yells, "Hey HANNAH!" (my real name) "CAN YOU SPEAK GERMAN??"

> > The church would be a metaphor, then, for Rinkworks itself since all the Rinkies are playing inside it.
> >
>
> Huh. I think you're right about where the game metaphors come from. RW games are like playing a silly form of jump rope... Mouseholes with Mousie are like MoleBot, etc. :-)
>

Okay, I read that description of the jumping-rope-German-language-mousehole game again, and I'm pretty sure it's meant to represent the viewpoint of a newcomer who's *totally baffled* by our unique brand of humour on RW ("So I was lying on the floor and watching everybody else doing some REALLY odd game"). The insanity is punctuated by the considerable amount of play-posturing done by RW regulars in their spirited, but mock "attacks" on each other, which then logically requires some form of "rescuing" ("GET HIM! GET HIM! HE'S GOING TO TURN INTO ICE IF YOU DON'T GET HIM NNNNOOOOOOWWWWW!") And of course, all this is *really* confusing to any outsider who may happen to drop into RinkChat "during a battle of the ahckers" (i.e. Hey HANNAH!" ... "CAN YOU SPEAK GERMAN??") Eh.

Wolfspirit