Wyvern

BehindBlindEyes paces restlessly back and forth in the Recruiter's Office, his eyes not blind enough to fail to notice the lengthy amount of time that has passed since he first submitted his application. Grumbling curses under his breath and shaking a fist to the air, the eager applicant contemplates the Arwen posts he might be missing in the forums closed to Honored Guests, and grumbles a string of curses under his breath. He is about to exit the office in order to inquire about the Elder of Initiates' whereabouts when suddenly, the main entrance doors swing open and Wyvern saunters in, wearing a cheaply fabricated smoking jacket, a fez and a pair of spectacles. Nodding to BehindBlindEyes as he walks towards his desk, the overgrown lizard calmly seats himself at his favorite easychair and gently hisses: "Good evening, BehindBlindEyes. Please, sit down." The reptilian Elder motions his hand towards a chair, which BehindBlindEyes promptly sits down in. "Apologies for the waiting period..." continues Wyvern calmly, pulling BehindBlindEyes' application poem from the stacks of paperwork that clutter his desktop and reading it over thoroughly. Nodding and stroking his scaly chin in an intellectual manner, the sinister lizard hisses: "An nice poem, BehindBlindEyes, and an interesting one... but before I accept your application, I'm going to have to run a few tests." The applicant frowns. "A few tests...?" "Yes..." mutters Wyvern. "Nothing to worry about, I can assure you, they're very simple, psychanalytical affairs. For the first test, simply complete the following sentence: 'I would give anything to be with _____'" BehindBlindEyes considers the sentence for a few seconds, then exclaims: "Jassette!" "Very good..." hisses Wyvern, jotting down the response in his notes. "The second test is a test of word association. I'll say a word, and you'll reply with the first word that comes to mind, got it?" The applicant nods. "O.K... the first word is Jazz." "Jassette!" responds BlindBehindEyes. Wyvern pauses for a moment, then strokes his chin and slowly nods, jotting the applicant's answer down. "Good... the final test is an ink blot test. I'll hold up a small card with a blot of ink splashed onto it, and you'll tell me what image you see in it." BehindBlindEyes nods as Wyvern holds up a card with ink splattered onto the front of it, handing it to the applicant so that he can inspect it closer. He considers the ink blot for a few moments, then responds: "You know, this ink blot kind of reminds me of an abstract version of Jassette." Wyvern grins and nods to this, thanking BehindBlindEyes for his time and diagnosing him with "Love Sickness" before stamping his application ACCEPTED. ;-) OOC: An ACCEPTED application, BehindBlindEyes, welcome to the Mighty Pen! I hope to read more of your works in the future, and particularly hope to see you becoming more involved in Pen community projects now that you're a member. One again, welcome!

While Peredhil cheers for numbers and Quincunx contemplates multiple Mintas in fear, Wyvern dons his drool bib and proceeds to revel in the thought of 6719 Signes. Small rings of smoke begin exiting the overgrown lizard's nostrils at the mere thought of the potential possibilities that several thousand dominant succubi could entail... ;-)

A long moment of silence passes after Belchfire whispers the final lines of his melancholic poem, inspiring the audience with deep feelings of sadness as the scent of nightshade and wilted roses begins to linger in the room. The half-dwarf lightly brushes a half formed tear from his eyes and sadly turns to the audience in the Cafe, only to suddenly be met by a thunderous round of applause. Belchfire's eyes brighten and a gigantic smile slowly spreads across his face as applause roars throughout the room. The clouds rumbling thunder outdoors part to reveal a magnificent ray of sunshine, and birds begin to fly up to the window and cheerfully chirp in unison. Confetti begins falling from the ceiling as the crowd cheers praises and lifts Belchfire off of his feet, parading him triumphantly around the room. The song "Where Everybody Knows Your Name (the theme music from Cheers)" suddenly cues up in the background. "Making your way in the world today Takes everything you've got; Taking a break from all your worries Sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away?" Belchfire is paraded on top of the crowd, laughing happily and giving several high fives to people. At the window, an innocent deer stolls up and joins the birds that chirp there, snuggling his head against their feathers in a loving manner. "All those night when you've got no lights, The check is in the mail; And your little angel Hung the cat up by it's tail; And your third fiance didn't show;" Behind the counter at the bar, the barkeep cheerfully cleans out a glass and casts an enthusiastic smile, striking a thumbs up with her free hand. She then skillfully slides the clean glass over the counter, and it lands in a perfect lineup with the other clean glasses arranged there without taking the slightest scratch. "Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name, And they're always glad you came; You want to be where you can see, Our troubles are all the same; You want to be where everybody knows your name." Gwaihir and the barkeep's buxom daughter put their arms around each others shoulders and each gives a thumbs up with their free hands, smiling and laughing in harmony. "Roll out of bed, Mr. Coffee's dead; The morning's looking bright; And your shrink ran off to Europe, And didn't even write; And your husband wants to be a girl;" From his position on the floor near an empty glass, SavageDragon briefly turns towards the crowd, sporting a bright smile and raising both of his hands in order to give two thumbs up. Sorciere kneels by his position and puts her right hand on one of his shoulders, turning her head, grinning, and making a thumbs up with her free hand. "Be glad there's one place in the world Where everybody knows your name, And they're always glad you came; You want to go where people know, People are all the same; You want to go where everybody knows your name." Belchfire is triumphantly set on top of a table by the crowd, and laughs and spins in slow motion as the colorful confetti rains down upon him and the crowd continues to cheer him on. The double doors of the Cafe swing open and Wyvern cheerfully dances in, hopping along happily and laughing with the others. The crowd and Belchfire cheer as they notice that the ecstatic lizard has a giftwrapped parchment with him as a housewarming present. "Where everybody knows your name, And they're always glad you came; Where everybody knows your name, And they're always glad you came;" Belchfire joyfully tears open the giftwrapping and unravels the parchment, which reads: EVICTION NOTICE The music stops and Belchfire's jaw drops as he reads the parchment over. The entire crowd immediatly turns glum and depressed, with the exception of Wyvern who continues to dance happily about as he tapes "Almost Dragonic Property" signs on the walls. Outdoors, the innocent deer is shot at and falls dead, getting branded with a price tag afterwards. The two birds sitting there are suddenly carried away by a strong gust of wind, which eventually evolves into a tornado. Belchfire stands and stutters as several bulking men dressed in black enter the room and begin measuring the furniture in order to carry it away. "B-b-b-but-" stammers Belchfire, his eyes slowly widening. "You can't evict us yet! Why, we haven't even gone on for a single season!" "Oh yeah?" hisses Wyvern gleefully, whipping out several extremely long parchments detailing legal actions and spinning them around Belchfire like mummywrap. "This new spot is definitely profiteable, so good luck trying to convince me otherwise!" ;-)

Tanuchan restlessly paces back and forth between corners in the Recruiter's Office, nervously toying with a pen in her left hand as she ponders where the Elder of Initiates could be. Turning towards Yuki Kokoro and anxiously brushing a hand through her hair, the eager applicant stands in silence for a moment before hesitantly muttering: "Are you sure the Elder of Initiates is always late, Yuki?" Yuki Kokoro nods reassuringly from her office seat, and warmly answers: "Yes, I don't think you should have anything to worry about Tanuchan. Usually, the reptilian Elder takes at least a few days to overcome all of the..." At that moment, Wyvern frantically races into the office as fast as his scaly legs can carry him, dodging several bricks, mortar fragments, and full wall segments being tossed at him by angered construction workers hot on his trail. Quickly slamming the office door behind him and praying that the disgruntled customers don't break out any heavy equipment in their chase, the overgrown lizard tosses off a construction helmet uselessly hanging from his horns and collapses into his desk chair. "... obstacles in his path." finishes Yuki in a slightly irritated manner, silently wishing that the construction workers outside of the office door wouldn't scream the phrase "Son of a Forklift!" so loudly. Wyvern proceeds to shift through several papers on his overflowing desktop, and takes a five minute breather before lifting Tanuchan's application from the top of the pile and reading it over in a thorough manner. After finishing with the poem, the greedy lizard flashes the eager applicant a grin full of razor sharp teeth and hisses: "A very nice application poem, Tanuchan... I would offer you the same Almost Dragonic Brand wall building products I gave to those "Almost Satisfied Costumers" outdoors (AlmostSatisifiedisaTrademarkofAlmostDragonic™), but I see that you're looking to deconstruct walls rather than build them. Then again, the casual customer has labeled my building products "95% certain to collapse into heaps of rubble," so perhaps you would be interested...?" Tanuchan frowns and silently shakes her head. "Ah well." sighs Wyvern while stamping Tanuchan's application ACCEPTED. "I would also offer you something along the lines of 'heart', but that's one of the few terms that's rather foreign to my industry." Tanuchan happily takes her ACCEPTED application, and is about to exit the office when she suddenly notices a large construction worker crane looming towards the office window. Noticing that Wyvern is unaware of the approaching vehicle, the applicant's eyes widen and she silently points towards in it's direction... ;-) OOC: A good poem and an ACCEPTED application, Tanuchan. Welcome to the Mighty Pen! I look forward to reading more of your writing, and hope to see you active in community projects as well. Once again, welcome!

Thank you to everyone who tuned into this week's episode, and a special thanks to both Zool and Degeneros Angelus for recording the episode in MP3 format. Anyone who didn't manage to see the episode but are interested in checking it out might want to contact one of them about it... Zool's is missing ten minutes at one point in it, and Degenero's is the full version. I think "Industrealization" went very well overall, though Celes Crusador is quite correct that I get too nervous at times. Listening to myself announce things over the air in MP3 format is interesting to say the least... my radio voice is nothing like what I expected! I'll have to work on calming down a bit more so I won't fumble with sentences as much... Still, apart from one mess up on a Sole track and a few awkward moments of silence, I thought things ran quite smoothly. Once again, I crammed the show with numerous pen references. I mentioned that I represent the Mighty Pen crew, and gave shout outs to Dakeyras, Silvertip (Falcon2001's official music alias ), and Yui-chan's story "Duality" amongst other things. I also dedicated tracks to Degenero Angelus (Non-Prophets "Mainstream 307"), Quincunx (Cunninlynguists and Masta Ace, "Seasons"... different seasons for different personas), and all of those who remember "The Chronicles of Terra" mix CD (Blackalicious "Deception"). All tracks stuck to the theme of the music industry the whole way through. Next week I'll be hosting a belated Valentine's Day show, subtitled "Literally Romantic." It'll deal with the themes of love and romance, and will be dedicated to the ladies of the Mighty Pen and Washington D.C. Those of you who enjoy listening to me make a fool of myself out of my announcements should definitely look into tuning into this one, as this will be hopeless romanticism at it's finest. ;-p I'll also be giving away a Valentine's Day gift to the first girl that calls into the show(after I make the announcement in the show, that is) and hope to chat with them over the air. For any of you who might be interested in this, the station number is once again (202) 994-9749. Thanks once again for the support, everyone! It seems like a few more people tune in every show... [Edit: to answer your question Ayshela, they didn't teach us to befriend the microphone... though they did warn us not to attack it by standing to close it it. ;-)]

Hey you. Yeah, you. Come here, I've got some advice for you. First of all, don't read this story. Yeah, you heard me. I doubt you're ready for it yet. Given the way that your eyes are glancing at the page, I'm sure you'll just skim over it. You should look at every word and indulge in it. You should trace the words to their latin roots. You should take every sentence and analyze it. You should just take the piece in as a whole. You should admire the English language for simply being beautiful. You should pause for a breath at every comma and period. You should remember that not everything has a hidden meaning. You should look for hidden biblical references. You should think about God. You should partake in physical activities more, and stop reading so much. You should just take life in as a whole, like a story. You should read the classics to understand literature more. You should learn to love yourself so you can love writing. You should be acceptant, kind, and sincere. You should always be an individual, and stand for what you believe in. You should never forget to think. Secondly, you should be patient when you read the story. You should pay attention to the narrator. You should question his reliability. You should also trust him. You should never get discouraged by tedious reading, as there's always room for improvement. You should compare yourself to the narrator. You should question how reliable you are to yourself, and how much you trust your own life. You should use the story as a reflection of your past relationships. You should never become too glum. You should never become too happy. You should just be yourself and follow this advice. You should stand up and loudly declare your opinion about the story, regardless of what others think. You should quietly read it and let it effect you emotionally. You should be getting excited about the story now. You should remember that it's coming in a minute, and you should spread the word about it. You should remember that not everyone has the privelege of hearing a story. You should remember that not everyone is as priveleged as you in their lives, and that many people are starving. You should sympathize with these people. You should always remember the world. You should always be considerate of those around you. You should remember that they're your equals. You should give them advice like I'm giving you advice. When you read the first lines of the story that's coming up, you should note the tense. You should keep comments general, and make specific remarks. You should be conscious that your voice is unique, and speak as one in a million. You should remember that three wrongs make a right and a wrong, which can make two rights when one more wrong is added in. You should remember that not everyone might interpret dirty words as slander, or slander as dirty words. You should base thought on experience, and experience on thought. Now then, the story... you should listen up now. You should clean your ears out with Q-tips and take a bath to make yourself presentable. You should do this every day, and you should live a happy life. You should be happy and make friends. You should not get overly happy and make yourself sad, as happiness kinda relates to sadness in a sorta weird type of way. You should remember who's speaking and who's listening, and who's telling and who's hearing, and tell and hear at your leisure, because you know who's best in the end. You should remember to thank me for this advice in the future. You should find it very helpful. To start my story... you should recall the times of King Arthur and the Crusades. You should remember that just because something is holy doesn't mean it's a grail. You should think of life as a grail that you can sip out of. You should drink wine on a daily basis to stay healthy, wealthy, and wise. You should always befriend the wise, but never make enemies with the ignorant. You should sleep if you get tired. Once upon a time... hmm. Well drat. After giving you so much useful advice, I can't seem to remember the story itself. You should take my experience as a lesson.

Stick, The story is certainly interesting so far, and I'm looking forward to future developements. It's currently quite surreal through a great deal it's imagery, especially that of the lost teddy bear that Dierden finds and has a strange affinity for. I'm intrigued to learn more about what's going on in the story... my current hypothesis is that Dierden is experiencing vivid flashbacks invoked by the spirit of Nature. I particularly like the ambivalence of Dierden's feelings when he considers whether or not he's previously experienced the things that he's going through. One thing that I felt could possibly be improved in the story is the characterisation of Dierden and Deltradiel. There were certain moments where I didn't feel that Dierden's emotions came off as very convincing, an example of this being his weeping and solo dialogue near the beginning. I'd also really like to learn more about the character of Deltradiel, as we've seen and heard very little from her so far. More interactions between her and Dierden might reveal the aspects of both of their characters more thoroughly. Overall, it's nicely done and I look forward to further continuations.

...until Silly, the daringly clever orangutan Elder Dwarf of the Pen is Mightier then the Sword, swoops down from a tree branch by his tail and skillfully plucks the true Nimball™ from amidst the masses of replicas sailing through the air. Pawing the Nimball™ gleefully and adjusting the hat that rests upon it's spleen toupee, the mastermind orangutan grins and sticks his tongue out at Heinrich before reaching for an escape vine and swiftly making a beautiful getaway. The orangutan skillfully glides through the air, performing a number of acrobatic maneuvers in order to dodge what could probably be considered the more menacing, mob-oriented cousin of Meteor Storms. He relaxes and yawns as he performs yet another triple somersault backflip on the vine in order to dodge five incoming fake Nimballs, catching the true Nimball™ on the tip of his nose just as he completes the maneuver. Grinning broadly towards those that are having difficulties with the Nimball Storm below him, the orangutan proceeds to whip out a plain white sign and a black marker with his spare hand. The orangutan then clenches the marker between his teeth and leans forward, jotting "Hahaha" onto the sign through the use of head movements while still balancing the Nimball™ there and swinging on the vine. Unfortunatly, this remarkable feat is cut short as Silly forgets to pay attention to the direction that the vine is swinging in, and is sent flying face first into an adjacent treetrunk. Collapsing off of the tree and landing onto the crater-riddled terrain where the rest of the Nimball™-crazed pennites play, Silly painfully jumps to his feet and dizzily clings to the Nimball™ for dear life. Noticing several Pen members sprinting towards him in the hopes of creating a collective tackle, the Elder Dwarf frantically takes out several large signs and rapidly scribbles "Get back!," "Back, back I say!" and "Arrrgghl!" onto them. He then lifts the signs and proceeds to bash people over the head with them in order to knock them back, finding still more pen members advancing on him after he's used them up. Scratching his furry chin and tucking the Nimball™ under his left armpit, the orangutan decides that it's time for an alternative plan of action... Quickly turning from the approaching onslaught of pennites in the hopes of high-tailing it, Silly's jaw drops as he finds the entire front lineup of a troglyodyte rugby team directly behind him. The orangutan thinks fast, quickly recalling the famous words used in training by one of his heroes, Diddy Kong a.k.a Donkey Kong Jr.: "if you jump onto the enemies heads without touching the ground, you get a 1-up!" Clenching his teeth and noticing another huge barrage of Nimballs raining from the sky, Silly quickly scrawls "AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" onto a sign and tosses it into the air before jumping and bouncing onto a trogylodyte frontman's head. Ricocheting off of a troglyodyte in a number 7 uniform, he then proceeds to bounce onto another troglyodyte head, and another, and another... Eventually, Silly bounces off of a particularly sensitive troglyodyte and is sent flying high into the air. The orangutan happily soars over a high fence that happens to be nearby while still desperatly clinging to the Nimball™, crash landing on the other side of the barrier. Noticing that he's now safe from attackers due to the fence blocking their path, Silly jumps up and down in glee and sticks his tongue out to those on the other side. The orangutan then turns in the opposite direction... only to find that he's in a kennel for famished hunting hounds. Slapping himself on the face a few times to make sure he isn't having a nightmare, Silly frantically scrawls "OH @#$#$!!!" onto a sign while quickly opening the gates from the interior of the fence in order to escape. Rapidly running out of the kennel, Silly accidentally lets the hunting dogs loose in the process. The hounds bark after their potential orangutan dinner for a moment, but then stop short as they notice the numerous fake Nimballs falling from the sky. Mistaking the balls for chew toys, the hounds immediatly lose their mean streak and rush towards the pen members in a playful mood. At the same time, two angry noblemen run outside of their mansion after the escaping dogs, brandishing shotguns to deal with any intruders on their property. Somehow, in the midst of all of this insanity, Silly manages to escape from the chaos with the Nimball™ still tucked tightly under his arm. Running off from the havoc and reaching a secluded forest grove, the orangutan finally pauses to catch his breath. Breathing a sigh of relief, the Elder Dwarf brushes the sweat from his furry forehead and proceeds to bump into an unexpected figure, dropping the Nimball™ in the process...

Appy, I thought that "Realisation" was a very interesting poem, and that the concept of incorporating scripting as part of the poem was particularly intriguing. The approach to the poem was very original, and immediatly caught my attention, which was held the whole way through it. I think that the poem could be made even better, however, if you expanded upon it and built upon the foundation that you've set up here. As it stands, I think that the philosophical lines presented for the different codings, while not wrong by any means, are somewhat plain and uninteresting. Perhaps if you took stanzas such as "There is no reason for LIFE" and "Life is unneccesary to existence" and expanded upon them by adding in some imagery or emotions relevent to the themes, the poem could become even more interesting. I also liked the poem "Spring," particularly the line that describes the narrator as being "no thunderbird nor pheonix," which were two very original images that stood out to me. There was one line which felt a bit awkward to me in the poem, which was "being down with the weather," as I didn't quite understand what that line referred to in the context of the other lines of the poem. Overall, these are two very nice works. I definitely encourage you to expand upon "Realisation," as I'm eager to see the results it might bring...

Handshakes like shorelines when a low tide slithers over sand. Distant and passive, passionless, stony as a sea urchin chasm. Never wish to convey unspeakable truths, when sweaty fingers slip and bulge, converge, then loosen, parting in a faded spark of a moment. If distance is a remedy, then submit me to contagion. Anything but that galling, painful medicine that seperates souls from soft spoken words and transforms gentle chimes into echoes. Fever still sounded deadly when we sat together and you tilted yourself towards me so our shoulders could touch... When the crevice of my anxiety caused a schism that put a cease to my spineless motion. The plexiglass rests between us, thin and fragile but if I could shatter it, reduce it to shards, I would lean that extra distance, brush against that shoulder. I would playfully shove, and dance, and tackle, and hold you tightly to show how much I really care. Walking together with our hands entwined, would have been worth every passing shoreline. A tender touch capable of corroding all granite gestures to dust.

I really like this poem, Gwaihir, particularly its tone. The poem never seems cheerful, but initially it seems impersonal in a kind of interesting, artificial way. The artificiality of the impersonal tone is particularly seen at the end of the poem, where the universal "we" is finally exchanged for an "I," and we see the emotional devastation that truly lies at the center of the poem. I also really liked the structure of the first stanza, particularly the way that all of the sentence breaks are placed in the middle of the lines. It created a very choppy, disconnected feel that I thought complimented the themes of the poem nicely. One thing that struck me as out of place for some reason: the "all" in the line "So many things, at last all safe to say." Though it isn't directly stated in the line, I think that it would be implied that the many things are now safe to say without the "all." Very good poem, nicely done.

Thanks to everyone who tuned into this week's episode, it went fairly well. There was some confusion at the beginning of the show due to the D.J before me not cleaning up after himself, but after that was fixed up things ran quite smoothly for the rest of the hour I was on. I managed to give shout outs to lumpenproletariat, Celes Crusador, and Zool for tuning in, and also dedicated a keep-your-spirits-up track to Salinye (Lightheaded "Pure Thoughts"), a brilliantly mysterious and atmospheric track to Yui-chan (Declaime "Death Becomes You"), and a track to the entire Mighty Pen (Cadence's "The Mighty Pen," which sums up why the pen is mightier then the sword very nicely). Tune in next week, Friday the 13th, from 10:00 P.M to 12:00 A.M U.S EST for the next episode of "Any. Given. Moment." This one is subtitled "Industrealization," and will be based around the business elements of hip hop, as well as music in general... Quite appropriate that the topic will be dealt with on the unluckiest day of the year! Thanks for your support!

A heads up to people who are planning to tune in this week: due to a couple of unexpected developements, "Any. Given. Moment." will be broadcast from 11:00 P.M to 12:00 A.M this evening, which is an hour later than the usual times it airs and an hour shorter in duration. For this reason, the "Industrealization" episode of "Any. Given. Moment." will be rescheduled to next week, Friday the 13th (ha!). This evening's episode will instead be subtitled "Every Day Music," and will be a documentary on the highly respectable hip hop label Day by Day Entertainment. Day by Day released one of last years sleeper hit albums, Jon Doe's "Meet Jon Doe," so it'll definitely be worth tuning in! Apologies for the short notice, the station just informed me about this this morning. (as you can tell, they keep me so well-informed ;-p) Wyvern bows to all, mumbling something about the unluckiness of certain holidays seeping into the weeks preceding them before exiting stage left...

Jade sighs and restlessly swivels in her applicant easychair, staring at the grandfather clock located in the far righthand corner of the office as the minute hand of the contraption slowly begins approaching the hour hand at the midnight mark. Grumbling to herself and rolling her eyes at the thought of the far-fetched scheme that might be detaining the infamous Elder of Initiates, the eager applicant lifts herself from her seat to stretch and practically hits the ceiling in surprise as the main door to the Office suddenly slams open and Wyvern strides into the room. Jade bites her lip and cringes at the thought of Pen members awakening from their beauty sleep from the sound of the slamming door. This thought is only amplified as Wyvern tosses a huge bag of various metal rods which he carries onto the Office floor, causing the rods to resonate in a cacophonous clang. Briefly grinning and winking towards Jade, the reptilian Elder strides up to the office window and signals to a band of lizardmen construction workers standing directly outside of the Pen, who proceed to begin drilling into part of the pen's foundation with jackhammers while blasting a death metal band by the name of "Banshee and the Shrieking Gargoyleheads" at an extremely high volume. Jade's mouth drops open as Wyvern turns to her and says: "Sorry for my lateness, and apologies for this little procedure. I've been wanting to build a geld statue adorned with advertisements directly outside of the Pen for a while now, but my fellow Elders didn't find the idea quite as attractive. So, I decided that I should probably do it when everyone's asleep, so that I can avoid getting into trouble for it. They'll never expect a thing!" Jade raises a brow and slaps her forehead at this statement, about to explain to Wyvern that he had probably awoken everyone in the Pen with the noise he was currently producing. Her response is interrupted, however, as a lizardman in a construction workers uniform swiftly steps into the room through the main door and exclaims: "Mr. Wyvern-" Wyvern turns to address the lizardman, his eyes widening as he notices the four cigarettes that the construction worker is currently smoking in his mouth. "What did I tell you about bringing that many cigarettes into my office?!" bawls Wyvern just as the fire alarm of the Pen is activated and begins blasting throughout the halls in full force, awakening those few members that hadn't yet awoken from their slumber. Cursing to himself and stomping at the ground in frustration, Wyvern quickly snatches up Jade's application poem in order to read it over before any aggravated Pen members arrive and start strangling him. After finishing the piece, Wyvern nods in a contemplative manner and hisses: "An excellent poem, Jade, and an excellent point that you drive across as well. In fact, I think that I'll stop the production of that geld statue now, as the anti-materialistic sentiment of the poem is clearly felt and certainly speaks volumes. After all, building statues of geld isn't needed when you could be amassing huge amounts of geld instead!" Jade's face goes blank at this reasoning, and she sighs and shakes her head as the overgrown lizard stamps her application ACCEPTED. The newly accepted Initiate then turns to depart from the Office just as Wyvern signals for the lizardmen to stop building the statue and numerous aggravated Pen members arrive at the office door... ;-) OOC: An excellent poem and an ACCEPTED application, Jade. Welcome to the Mighty Pen! I look forward to reading more of your works, as well as participating in other Pen writing projects with you. Once again, welcome! Editted for gender confusion, thanks for pointing it out Vlad. My apologies for the confusion Jade... in reading your profile, your gender was listed as "not telling," so I hazarded a guess and was mistaken as usual. For what it's worth, I *thought* Jade sounded like a feminine name... ;-)

I believe that Alzorath summed up the principal answers to your question nicely, MeThinksUFoolish. As Lumpenproletariat pointed out, however, the Mighty Pen is not the best place to spark political and religious debates, as the focus should be on creativity and universal acceptance. I hope that Alzorath has answered your inquiries, and I'd be happy to discuss the issue with you over PM if you should want to look into it further. This thread will be closed, however, as previous experiences with heated debating on the Pen have proven to be hazardous. Thanks for your understanding.

The next showing of "Any. Given. Moment." will be Friday the 6th, and is subtitled "Industrealization." The theme of the show will be centered around the hip hop music industry, and how everything works on the business side of things. It should be very interesting... very insightful lyrics, lots of funny skits, some spoken word, and I may even throw in a side order of Tom Waits. Be sure to tune in if you can.... remember, Realplayer is no longer a requirement! On a side note: no special guests as of yet, but I'm working on it... ;-)

... an Almost Dragonic Brand Nimball Embracer™, complete with "loving" supplement ®. Clinging to the circular, transparent purple device that now contains the Nimball™ and caressing it with his trembling scaly hands, Wyvern casts frantic glances in several directions to make sure he's not about to be tackled. Unsteadily maintaining his composure and quickly flashing a nervous grin towards the camera that Bravery the Elder Dwarf is holding, the reptilian Elder hisses: "Ladies and gentlemen, today you are witnessing a moment that will go down in history. With my brand new patented Almost Dragonic Brand Nimball Embracer™, I can hold the Nimball™ without fear of it's destructive tendencies. As you can see, the device is shaped in the form of a human spleen, and supplements blood and gangrene for-" Wyvern stops and freezes as he suddenly finds himself surrounded by Nimball-crazed, blunt-object-weilding pen members. At the same time, the ground begins to tremble as a bloodthirsty troglyodyte rugby team stampedes directly over Savage Dragon and floods out of the underground passage that he created. Wyvern jitters and stutters as he notices smoke and electric shocks beginning to exit his machine, and trembles as it begins to grow hot in his hands. The overgrown lizard just has time to mutter "I knew I shouldn't have used imp spleens..." as the contraption explodes in an enormous blast, knocking the pen members surrounding the area back and sending Wyvern flying upward at a 73 degree angle. Bravery quickly knocks out a troglyodyte wearing a sewage-stained number three uniform and flinches as he watches Wyvern collide directly into a pillar holding part of the Pen's roof... which proceeds to come loose and collapses into another pillar, causing a domino effect and crushing a few troglyodytes, as well as poor old Aardvark, in the process. The flaming Nimball™ jets through the air, hurling like a comet towards...

Yui, First of all, very nice changes to "Melody." I think that "accoustic wars" maintains the rhythm very well, and is also a far more evocative image than "defeated hordes." Interestingly, the first time I read the poem, the piano was the first instrument that came to mind... then after rereading it and noticing the metal strands image, I thought it might be the guitar. I take it the piano is the correct instrument the poem is alluding to, right? Secondly, I really liked "A Never-Life," and thought that the uses of repitition worked very well, particularly in the final stanza. That last stanza was my favorite, as I thought that the line "never hope to never hurt" really drove across the theme of hopelessness strongly. In terms of improvements, there was one image that didn't strike me quite as much as the others: "wicked gleam." Great stuff, as always.

I really liked this piece as well, Merelas. Unlike Appy, I thought that the tempo you intended for it came out well through the structure, as the way the poem was phrased and broken up gave it a very slow and melancholic feel. There were certain places where the syllable structure changed along with the tempo, but these seemed intentional as they only added to the broken feel of the poem. In terms of titles, "Caught" works well, though maybe you could add in a reference to the "her" of the poem. "Caught in her Shadow," perhaps? Nice work.

A great set of poems, Psimon, thanks for sharing them. Here are my thoughts on the four of them: "We Stand Alone Together" - This is my favorite of the four poems presented here, as I think that it's a very heartfelt tribute to the 101rst Airborne. I particularly liked the paradox of standing "alone in unity," as well as the cyclical repitition of the last lines of the stanzas throughout the poem. The manner in which both repeated lines are unified in the final stanza is also very well done, and it accentuates the theme of unity very nicely. "Push on Through" - I really liked the imagery in this poem, as it was very vivid and descriptive. The repitition of "this" throughout the first stanza was also very well done, as was the contrast between reality and falseness. One thing that I didn't particularly like was the introduction of the first person in the third stanza, as though it personalized the poem, I also thought that it made it seem a bit pretentious. The use of "yes" in the last line of the third stanza, as well as the narrator's questioning himself in the final stanza, also added to the slightly pretentious tone of the final two stanzas for me. "Yearning" - I very much enjoyed this poem, and could certainly relate to the theme of longing that rests at it's base. The first stanza was my favorite, and the poem was direct and to the point for the most part. Though it's an easy work to relate to, perhaps you could draw the reader in more if you incorporated more imagery and action in order to relate the narrators desires rather than telling them. "Expectation" - Once again, the imagery of the poem was striking and vivid, and the pace was also very well done. I didn't pick up on the meaning behind some of the images, however, particularly those of the last two lines. There's a suggestion that they might have to do with expectation, but you may want to expand upon the piece a bit in order to make them more significant. I enjoyed these as a whole, and it's excellent to see you writing again Psimon.

I also thought that this was an excellent poem, Justin. I thought that the imagery you used throughout it was very evocative and vivid, particularly "colour copy of retribution," and I especially love the way you ended it. The rhyme scheme and structure were also original and intriguing, and definitely drew me into the piece. The theme that I personally picked up from this was that people who desperatly attempt to heal and love other people can end up wounding them in the process. Great stuff.

Carpe Diem? A lost phrase. Savage her, trickle her woe into your golden chalice. Scowl at her innocent charm. Excessive, abundant hurt cut into oragami and paraded as genius.

So... the second episode of my show aired this evening, and I felt that this one went extremely well. I felt completely in my element over the course of the show, as I wasn't nervous at all and really enjoyed myself for the two hours that I was on the air. A big thank you goes out to everyone that tuned into the show, and particularly to those who managed to tune in for the full two hours of it's duration. As usual, I noted that I represent the Mighty Pen crew worldwide over the air, and gave general shout outs to Signe and Sorciere for their birthdays as well as to Vlad upon Gwaihir's request. In addition, I dedicated tracks to Gyrfalcon (The Opus "Whirlwind-Guardian"), Aardvark (Curse ov Dialect "Wolf Moon"), Xradion (Aesop Rock "Big Bang") and sent a very special dedication out to Peredhil (Listener "Train Song," a melancholy story about spirituality and finding God). There were very few technical difficulties this time around, and it aired smoothly for the full two hours. A note to everyone who refuses to touch Realplayer: I'm pleased to announce that WRGW now has an MP3 method of streaming the radio, which has better sound quality and requires no downloads. A thank you goes out to Degenero Angelus, who tried to record the show but unfortunatly didn't quite manage to do so. Hopefully, next week, we'll be able to get MP3 recording of it thanks to him. I'm curious as to what people thought of this weeks program, how many pen members tuned in, and what people thought of the music since I played some IDM and independent rock music released by Mush in addition to their extremely experimental brand of hip hop. Stay tuned for information about the episode airing next Friday, which will be decided upon and posted in the near future. Thanks once again to everyone who supports the show and tunes in, I promise I won't let you guys down! (I'm beginning to sound like a broken record here-record here-record here...)

Wyvern scrambles into the Cabaret Room as fast as his legs can carry him upon hearing that several classy brands of alcohol are available, and cheers for the Mighty Pen community while pocketing a glass of white porto and desperatly trying to uncork a bottle of champagne with his teeth. Adding a large section of Bruteweiser to the celebration tables by passing around the Decanter of Endless Booze, the overgrown lizard promptly hiccups and exclaims: "Indeed, a very happy Anniversary to the Pen is Mightier than the Sword: a community that continually rests at the very foundation of my activities and aspirations. Countless words of praise to everyone who has devoted themselves to making the community a better, friendlier, and funner place for all of those who participate in it." Wyvern then proceeds to take a sip of Wise Bore (a mixture of white porto and Bruteweiser), and gleefully hisses: "Through being courted by Orlan, the Pen has given birth to a huge variety of creative talents... and the beautiful guild discourages protection to this day." With that, the lizard winks and proceeds to hand out pamphlets that read "Play it natural... Don't take the online gaming pill!"

I really liked this vignette, Regel, and actually ended up using a segment of it as a starting point for the last Mighty Pen Madlib out of my admiration for it. What struck me the most about this piece was your uses of numerous original and significant details in describing the narrator's old hometown, which really made for an excellent and vivid read. One of my favorite moments of the piece was when you described: "The CNR tracks where we used to hunt garder snakes in the tall grass, the Western Fairgrounds with it's winos living in and around the race track, the smells that eminated from the Kellogg’s and Dare Cookie factories (which always made you hungry) and of course the Pepsi Cola plant were we watched the line on hot summer days..." That sentence really struck me with it's vivid descriptions and drew me in with it's original details. One small thing I noticed that you might be able to improve: while the piece is mostly narrated in the past tense, there are one or two moments in the last paragraph where the tense changes from past to present to past again. You might want to check the tenses in that paragraph... Overall, great stuff!