The Ladderland, by TS eLiot - Page 3

II. A GAME OF C's

THE chair the leader sat in, like an office chair,
Grew hotter and hotter, where the cushion
Held up by the bodies of the defeated
From which a timid noob peeped out
(Another hid his keyboard behind his back)
Caught on fire from the pressure of the hundred headed hydra
Putting heat upon the chair as
The cream of the crop rose to meet it,
From ivory keyboards typed in rich profusion;
In rooms of wires and shining monitors
Unslept, lurked his strange dreams of glory
Pungent, powdered, or team liquid-excited, trembling,
And drowned in the sea of TSL-ers; stirred by the premonition
That freshened the foreigner scene, these ascended
In fattening the prolonged hype-flames,
Flung their bodies onto the pyre,
Stirring the waves of indifference.
Mass gaming fed with enthusiasm
Burned red, then yellow, then blue, framed by the green brick,
In which great light, a hundred minnows swam.
Below the equine mantel was displayed
As though a window gave upon the mythic scene
The charge of Hot-Bid, by the cry of the barbaric braavosian
So gallantly states; yet there the howler monkey
Filled all the jungle with inviolable voice
And still we cried, and still the world pursues,
“Go, Go, Go!” to anxious ears.
And other withered stumps of time
Were told upon the forums; staring forms
Leaned out against the current, to the cheering crowd outside.
Running footsteps fell hard upon the street
Under the torchlight, under the banner there,
Spread out in light blue and white
The spade, the club, now nothing is still.

‘My apm is bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
‘Play with me. Why do you never answer? Play.
‘Who are you thinking of playing? What match-up? What?
‘I never know who you are playing. Play.

I think we are in the minus’s alley
Where the dead men lost their expansions.

‘What is that noise?’
Your base is under attack.
‘What is that noise now? What are the zerglings doing?’
Loss again loss.
‘Do
‘You lose everything? Do you improve nothing? Do you replay
‘Nothing?’
I remember
Those are mutas that were his larva.
‘Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your base?’
But
O O O O that XiaOzI’ian multitask-
It’s so elegant
So intelligent
‘What shall I do now? What shall I do?’
‘I shall rush out as I am, and walk into his base
‘With six marines and two medics. What shall he do?
‘What shall we ever do?’
The base is at ten.
And he hasn’t built sunkens.
And he still kills my attack,
With lidless zerglings, waiting for my feeble knock upon his door.

When I got rocked, I said-
I didn’t mince my words, I said to myself,
I WANT TO PLAY OCTZERG NEXT
Now he’s asking for a game, play smarly.
He’ll want to know what you’ve done with the resources you’ve mined
To get yourself some marines. You did, I built them.
You took them all out, October, and get a nice win,
He said, I swear, come visit Macedonia any time!
And I making zerglings is easy, I said, and think of poor Greg,
He has been in Korea one and half years, he wants to get standard play
And if you don’t give it to him, there’s others will, I said.
Oh is there, he said, Making zerglings is easy, I said.
Then I’ll know what to do, he said, and killed me with mutas.
I WANT TO PLAY LIMBIC NEXT
If you can’t make it, we can’t play it, he said.
Others can make games and choose if they want to play.
But I can’t, and it won’t be for lack of trying
You ought to be ashamed, I think to have such an antique.
(And it’s less than a year old.)
I can’t help it, and I pull a funny face,
It’s them games I played, I lost them all, I said.
(I’ve played five already, and nearly died in all five.)
A Swede said it would be alright, but I’ve never been the same.
You are a proper Scandinavian, I said.
Well, if the ladder won’t leave you alone, there it is, I said,
What if you play well, and don’t get wins?
I WANT TO PLAY SOMEONE NEXT
Well, that was Saturday morning, I was back, they had a hot seat,
And they asked me in to play, to get the beauty of it hot-
I WANT TO PLAY
I WANT TO
Goodnight Computer. Goodnight Ladder. Goodnight Moon. Goonight
Ta ta. Goodnight. Goonight.
Good night, noobies, good night, sweet noobies, good night and go, go, go.