Çet! They're glad to escape the riotous conversation inside, which is far too large and free-wheeling for them to keep track of. Playing tag is a simple joy in comparison.

They juke to one side and start jogging halfheartedly, hoping that people won't realize that they're it. Casually, they pull up near part of the rapidly thinning crowd. They lunge forward, throwing their arm out and tagging ...

Sakusen, who was so momentarily captivated by the sight of this many diverse beings playing with each other that he didn't notice the one reaching out right next to him. A surge of hunting instinct flows through him once he realizes that he is now "it". He has always understood himself to have quite impressive alertness, agility, and strength compared to many sapients he's known, but some of the abilities already displayed by the participants in this game are truly mystifying.

So many options. Should he go after one of the weaker looking ones, that he thinks he could quickly and easily catch, or set himself more of a challenge? Many of them are by no means limiting themselves to normal means of locomotion. Oh, that one--if he could catch that one, that would be fun.

He softly, stealthily stalks toward his intended prey, and when suddenly they catch wind of him and turn to flee, he races forward, lunges, (is careful not to strike too deeply with his claws), and manages to just land a touch on...

Zana, who despite noticing him a second before being tagged is not as fast or agile in her current humanoid form as Sakusen is. The pain of claws in her back just adds to the fun of the game!

Well, her turn now.

First, a form more suitable for this! She goes quadrupedal as her hands and feet get covered by a layer of black scales. She can feel her wings tugging to get out but she doesn't want to cheat, so running it is.

She points towards the furthest person and starts accelerating towards them; no pretense of subtlety but just a feral, wild hunt - fangs bared. She draws on her rage to run faster than her quarry, and at the last moment jumps and...

Tackles Zeterse, who takes the tag with good humor and rolls back to her feet. She's been having so much fun talking to people, since Milliways' applies translation effects to everyone, not just her. And now she gets to participate in the most free-form training exercise she's yet encountered!

She sprints ahead, parallel to the lake shore, trying to see if she can outrace anyone and then pin them against the water. After a moment, she manages to trap a small group, who start trying to backpeddle. She reaches out her hand and tags ...

...a passing Scottish civil engineer, who glowers. "An assassin from a rival turnpike trust? You'll need to do better than that to learn what traffic wrecks Macadam."

He slips into a different Kipling reference, recalling that the strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack, emerging amid a group to tag...

... a History-Monk who was distracted by how Macadam's suit coat looked unusually familiar.

With a start, he turns back to the game.  Stalking, plotting, running - this's a different sort of fun than he's had lately.  Maybe he should volunteer to chronicle a war or expedition or something when he's home.

Still pretending to be distracted, he moseys along until he can casually reach out a hand and tag...

...Jar Jar, who yelps and trips over him. He scrambles to his feet, and with a warbling cry, he begins chasing around anyone he can find. He doesn't really manage to catch up to anyone with his hands, but once he manages to get within a few feet of his target, his tongue shoots out and grabs...

--The beard of a female dwarf, who got momentarily distracted by trees!! and sky!! and wow is this what the Surface looked like before the Breaking??-- oh right tag. That thing. Lapis shakes herself and goes tearing off looking for someone to tap. She won't use Mage Hand, that's against the spirit of things and also would make it hard to tell who was doing the tagging, so her short little 20ft/round legs will take a little while to bring her close enough to grab...

... the hand of an Imperial Prefect, who immediately shakes her off without even spilling any of the drink he's enjoying.  "Bandits everywhere, and no mages to help me deal with them?" he grumbles.  "Everyone's left it all to me - but then, I suppose I'll deal with it myself!"

Not admitting to himself that he's rather liking this, he strides quickly over to tag...

...a seven-year-old holding her hand out to be tug. She zooms around the entire group three times then leaps forward to (fall, roll, spring up with 1 grazed knee, and) tag...

...a rather pale looking individual with a truly excessive straw hat, who has sat down on the grass to examine the soil. "Oh aye?" she says in mild surprise, then good naturedly gets to her feet and ambles around a bit, then once everyone's got a false sense of security, she lashes out with her stick surprisingly fast to tag...

... a girl obviously dressed as a witch, pointed hat and all, who's holding high her wand and staring around at all the magic of Milliways.

"Oh," she says.  She twitches her wand, and the air around her ripples, turning her half-transparent.  Thus disguised, she stalks around to tag...

A girl who looks like the result of someone having a great time with a picrew: four arms, giant blue butterfly wings, cat ears, sparkly rainbow eyes, and a long coat trailing fluttering green streamers. She takes off, swoops around a bit, then flies out of one edge of the backyard's warped space and in at the other side to tag . . .

A giggling pink-skinned woman, who twirls aside and claps briefly in admiration of Brenda's space-bending shenanigans, before loping off to select a target of her own, leaping out at...

...a perfectly nice young man(?) who jogs around looking for people who look like they want to be tagged, gives up on parsing the panoply of body languages and runs into...

...a teenage girl, who stumbles and stops for a moment, before-

-her form shifts, growing tiger-striped fur over her arms and legs. She sniffs the air, before crouching and pouncing forwards, much faster than before, using her palm to tap at...

... a large happy wolfhound, with a strong magic aura around him which he isn't using at all at the moment.  He jumps up to wrestle the tiger for a moment, and then bounds off to tag with his snout ...