CEX SUB CON

At some kind of day-camp place, a big long stretch of green with a hill in the center, walled off in the middle of some other city. Evan is here, turns out, with a big group of bohemian-looking mostly early-to-mid 20somethings, although Ronski is here, too, and a few other older people I recognize from Baltimore. Clearly, a play is going to be made with this group, and for a moment I wonder, "Do I really want to get involved with a play right now? Especially since I don't even know the script?" but I feel inside that I will probably get involved, why not, it's been awhile. It takes me a moment, after I've more or less accepted that I'm probably going to do a play with these people, to realize this is a church group-- I vaguely remember Evan mentioning that his parents were Catholic, although he grew up in PA so I can't be sure of this, so I make a joke to test the waters and the response seems to indicate that these are not Catholics, but some kind of evangelicals. Some bands play, I think. Eventually it becomes clear that some kind of battle royale is going to happen today. Nobody seems to think this is weird. I have already been lugging around some kind of long metal pole, just a little thicker around than my own arm, and about as tall as me, and I jokingly indicate I will use this as a weapon in the battle royale, hoping that someone will explain that foam weapons will distributed, or something. No one does. Everybody seems excited about the battle. I can't possibly believe that we're really going to be fighting each other physically, but I see other kids preparing various weapons. Everybody is arbitrarily split into two teams. On top of the hill in the middle of this place is a group of attached buildings with various snack vendors in them, like on the boardwalk. I walk around there. Most of the places seem to be closing, and the uniformed employees are excitedly getting ready to watch the battle. I'm no longer carrying around the metal pole. I hear a group of cute girls chanting together, like at a protest, and when I decipher that their chant is an intentionally-silly chant about how school sucks, I get kind of excited. They're dressed like they go to the Maryland College Institute of Arts and I think, "Maybe the MICA kids are on some kinda cool shit again this year?" I come into possession of a very strange weapon-- it appears to be a plastic reusable coffee cup, but when you take the top off and pull a string inside of it, a large spiked ball (bigger than a 16 pound bowling ball, much too large to fit inside the fake cup) drops out. It's attached to a frayed old rope which I can use to swing the ball around. The spikes on it are weird and wiry, more like razor wire than you'd see on like a classic D&D morning-star. It looks terrifying. Dina sees it and gives me a thumbs up, although I can't tell if she thinks the weapon is cool, or that it's likely to hurt me in a funny way. I start to wonder if I should supplement it with something small and fast-- if someone rushes in close too quick, I may not be able to swing the big ball around to get them with it, right? I start to wonder if I should find the pole again...