The Portrait of Zool

You made it! I am so glad! I am also hoping you can scare up a little extra time to hang out, and won't have to go back too soon. Good luck with your schools.

~O~, dude! It's good to see ya! Last I heard, which was recently, CFTM! was still alive and well at The Reincarnation. PM Quincunx or check #thereincarnation on IRC. Someone should know. Good luck, and take care. Try to drop by a little more often.

Yay! Umm... there is some blue in the 'post reply' screen...

Wow! I wonder if we could implement a story forum like that? - In addition to our regular story forum, of course. Cool idea.

Excellent work tech-ites! Would it be possible to make 'save copy of PM' default again? If not, s'allright, I can hit the checkbox, but was just wondering.

INdeed - best to both of you!

Actually, the test rates each side seperately, which only proves what Master P has been saying all along, that poor ole Zool only has half a brain!

Brain Lateralization Test Results Right Brain (48%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (50%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain Are You Right or Left Brained? personality tests by similarminds.com Left brain dominant individuals are more orderly, literal, articulate, and to the point. They are good at understanding directions and anything that is explicit and logical. They can have trouble comprehending emotions and abstract concepts, they can feel lost when things are not clear, doubting anything that is not stated and proven. Right brain dominant individuals are more visual and intuitive. They are better at summarizing multiple points, picking up on what's not said, visualizing things, and making things up. They can lack attention to detail, directness, organization, and the ability to explain their ideas verbally, leaving them unable to communicate effectively. Overall you appear to have fairly Equal Hemispheres ----------------------------------------- According to Darwinian theory, optimal evolution takes place with random variation and selective retention. The evolution savvy individual will try many different approaches when faced with a problem and select the best of those approaches. Many historical intellectuals have confessed their advantage was simply considering/exploring/trying more approaches than others. The left brain dominant type suffers from limited approaches, narrow-mindedness. The right brain dominant type suffers from too many approaches, scatterbrained. To maintain balanced hemispheres, you need to exercise both variability and selection. Just as a company will have more chance of finding a great candidate by increasing their applicant pool, an individual who considers a wider set of options is more likely to make quality decisions.

Find out at; http://similarminds.com/brain.html

Indeed! Happy belated wolf lady!

Shining ripe fruit offered, like a gift into my waiting hand my sacrifice. Snapping skin crunching flesh juices spatter The private interior breached. Consuming the swollen girth navigating skin, stem, then seed into it's intimate secret space Pregnant with new life now torn open, revealed, violated. Without a thought so many promises crushed and now discarded.

Reminds me of some of JOATs prose.

The painting above the fireplace comes alive. "Racouol! The mighty bearer of frypans! It's so GOOD to see you!" Back when I was stationed at Oceana Naval Air Station I knew a lot of Navy guys ( I was a Zoomy ). From their descriptions, some of those assignments could get mighty long. 'See the world!' promised the recruitment posters, but no one promised you would get to stop and stay a while. Of course, with the way the busses run, maybe that's a good thing. Have missed you and your brand of insane story and humor. Hope you get a lot out of your assignments, and come back to us soon for some quality RP time!

That's awesome Rev! Am looking forward to some class exercises posted for posterity.

See, told ya Finn. Disturbing story you got there Patrick. You should call it; "Hammer Time". That is the cutest story Mynx. Excellent! BTW - Dr. Who rocks!

The figure in the full size hanging portrait stretched and yawned, scratching himself sleepily. Somewhat bleerily, he looked around the Cabaret to take in what was happening. On hearing Regel's proclomation, Zool brightened considerably. "Wyvern's birthday!? Yippee! To think, on this day only 24 short years ago he was almost hatched!" "Wow, I also remember Wyvern from Arch Mage, though I never really had the pleasure of playing with him, nor he the risk of playing with me. We had a wonderful time playing on the UBB, including a certain RP thread featuring a certain 'Goose of Redemption'. " "The 24th birthday is an auspicious occasion, occuring only once in a lifetime! I think this calls for something you have always wanted Wyvern, something gold and clinky, and a lot of it! - and I know you know what I mean." Reaching behind his back, Zool pulled out a BIG SACK OF GELD. Patting the bulging painted sack, he sat it down in his foreground, where it leaned over spilling painted geld at Zool's feet. "I wish it was real - I know how good it must look to you, how shiny, how perfect, how GOLDEN, that you can almost touch it, smell it, taste it... but just remember it's the thought that counts. HAPPY B-DAY!"

The Portrait of Zool hangs regally over the fireplace where he has hung for many years. In between his occasional sonorous eruptians he has hung silently, requiring little in the way of attention or maintenance other than the semi-annual dusting off. Tonight the painting speaks again, but with a different voice. On this quiet and nondescript evening, when relatively few are in the usually boisterous room and the fire has burned down to nothing but low coals, the Portrait, for seemingly no reason, slowly takes to darkening, until the oil painting is completely black, and then resolves within the borders of it's ornate gilt frame many vertical folds of red velvet, as of curtains. After a moment, the curtains part to reveal a stage... A white screen is revealed. The shadow silhouettes of two chairs facing each other at an angle a couple feet apart is cast by backlighting upon the screen. After a moment, the shadows of two men, one from each side of the stage, walk to the chairs and sit in the chair on his side of the stage. Houman: "It was good of you to come." Ned: "Did I have any choice?" Houman: "We have been friends for many years." Ned: "Have we?" Houman: "I have considered you my friend." Ned: "You impertinant fraud." A silent moment passes. Houman: "I miss my friend." Ned: "You have a strange way of showing it." Houman: "I have always supported you - always." Ned: "Not what I needed most." Houman: "I can only do what I can do." Ned: "It wasn't enough." Houman: "You have high expectations of your friends." Ned: "Very reasonable, in my opinion." Houman: "I have done what I could do, done what I thought best, always with the best intentions. Sometimes I was right, sometimes I was wrong - but you would demand more?" Ned: "I demand nothing." Houman: "So the time for that is past - you have judged me and cast me away?" Ned: "You may look at it as you wish, I have no interest in the matter." The shadow of Ned gets up and leaves from the direction he came (stage left), leaving Houman sitting alone. Another silent moment passes. Houman [sadly]: "I suppose there is nothing to be done. Sometimes, even old friends can come to perspectives so different they must go their seperate ways. I so wish he would pause and heed my sorrow for having hurt him, but that is my need. As they say, the true test of love is letting go." The shadow of Houman gets up and leaves in the direction he came from, and the curtains close.

An excellent book is 'The Artist's Way', by Julia Cameron.

Indeed, enjoy yourself, and do hope you can check in.

Awesome story Finnius! So tell me - how do we get you to post more stories??

Welcome LilacFlame! It is good to see another wanderer from Terra Old come home. Love yer poem too! (I know Tofu makes me growl. )

I haven't thought of 'Bedknobs' in a loooong time! That's some classic Disney there. Love the poem, though I kinda liked the original form better - just my opinion.

Congrats Katz! Good luck with your gaming dreams, and hope you are able to still visit often.

Thanks for moving the story. Item #2 is a broom. I haven't written it's history, but it's future, nor have I listed characteristics, but dramatized them. I WOULD like some feedback on this, if anyone is interested, and might even rewrite it. Thanks for the great game idea! * * * * * * * * * * * The old broom stood silent in the shadows, between the refrigerator and the counter where the toaster stood. The broom had become reclusive of late, being summoned less and less to work his whisking magic. Fondly he often reminisced on the days of his youth, when his paint was still shiny and his bristles unbowed, joyously leading the way into every corner and along every baseboard in the house. “Oh, how I loved getting at that pesky dirt.” he finally remarked with a sigh. “You’re lucky,” said the toaster. “You don’t have ignoramus teens stuffing you willy-nilly with conglomerations of combustible comestibles.” “Whiner!” shouted the blender from across the kitchen. No one denied the blender had a tough job, and that he was kept far too close to that hot headed oven, though the food processor gave a quiet snicker. The refrigerator kept its usual chilly silence, while the microwave kept the time. Just then people entered, bursting through the door like popcorn. For a moment a flicker of hope shined in the broom, but was quickly extinguished. It was the teens again, only the teens. They seemed to shun him the worst of all the people. As usual they approached the refrigerator and microwave. Lights flashed on, beepers beeped, the room was filled with a microwave hum. The broom felt the draft of cold air around his bristles from the open refrigerator door, but that was the only motion he saw. “That’s okay,” he told himself, “I’m numb to the disappointment now,” but of course he wasn’t. One of the teens seemed most impatient. He seemed irritated he wasn’t able to get his snack to the microwave first, and didn’t want to wait the two minutes for his turn. Taking a thick pat of butter and laying it on top of his Hot Pocket, he laid the whole assembly into the toaster and pushed down the knob. “Ack!” said the toaster. Within thirty seconds, the butter was rapidly melting, pouring highly flammable oil into its vital parts. A few seconds after that it started to smoke, and then ignited. “HEEEEEEEELP!! I’M ON FIIIRE! OH MY GOD I’M GONNA DIIIIIE!” screamed the toaster. The teens started screaming too. The one who put in the Hot Pocket slid the toaster into the sink and turned on the water. There was a brilliant flash and all went dark. And silent. Then one of the teens burst out laughing, and then another, but the one who still didn’t have a snack was close to tears. “Oh shit! Dad’s gonna KILL me!” “Gonna kill you…?” said the toaster weakly. Smoke still poured from him like a chimney. Then the dad came in. “What the…!?” The rest was bedlam – but the broom remained unused, and even worse, the poor toaster, deemed no longer useful, was taken from the kitchen to The Dumpster. The broom was never to see his friend alive again. He was sickened by the loss of his friend, and was frightened to his core on account of his own worn condition. “Dear God,” prayed the broom, “Please don’t let me become un-useful and thrown away like the toaster whose only mistake was efficiently doing what was asked of him. Please God, don’t let that happen.” Just then the mom came in, and in her hand was a new broom. With her usual quick efficiency she pulled out the old broom and replaced him with the new, shiny, stiff bristled broom. “Sucks to be you!” called out the new broom with a laugh as the old broom was carried helplessly out the back door – out towards The Dumpster. Time seemed to slow down for the old broom. Slowly the mom went down the steps, one… two… three. The broom felt he was being carried to nothing less than his execution. “Please don’t!” he cried. “I know I don’t look new, but I have many years of good sweeping left, I know I do!” His anguished cries fell on deaf ears however, as they kept advancing to The Dumpster. She stopped in front of the large garbage bin. She slowly lifted the lid. The broom looked down to see the smoldering ruin that was once his old friend the toaster. The fetid odor of rot and ruin engulfed him in despair. Resigned to his fate, he shut his eyes, ready to accept his discarding with dignity. And then… he felt another hand close around him. He hovered over the ravenous maw of The Dumpster. “No need to throw that away honey,” said the dad. “He’ll be perfect for the shop.” Nearly crying with relief, his heart rejoicing, smiling from handle tip to head, the old broom was carried to the shop, where he chased after pesky dirt for many, many years. ...And up on high, the broom gods smiled with him. (moved from Cabaret by Ayshela)

Zool is a picture of excitement. His eyes wide, and an actual blush coloring his usually well oiled complexion, his jaw hanging open though for the moment unable to utter a sound. Matt is literally a-quiver with emotion. Finally, Zool managed to speak. "Ah! Doth mine eyes deceive me? Or has someone actually created images that we can call our own?? I am grateful to my utmost." Zool bowed low. "And Matt, I can tell you, is also quite beholdenmf..." After Zool's bow Matt had shifted forward to get a better look, completely covering Zool's face. He reached up and corrected the errant hairpiece. "I'll tell her, don't worry." he said quietly to the top of his head. "Matt, as I was saying, is also quite grateful." "Thank you, thank you Canid!" "Now, whenever someone sees the brass nameplate at the bottom of the painting, they will know that what they have seen is The Portrait of Zool.