The Portrait of Zool

You HAVE to record this, and distribute it through Wyvern productions... heh heh I REALLY want to hear it!

Your poetry has lost none of it's power I see. I certainly hope to see much more.

Good commentary too.

Nice. Happy Valentine's day to you!

The wind blows through Zool as he too hears his name.

The person above me makes a pretty mean avatar.

I have personally had some rather inexplicable experiences that have 'opened my eyes' to things unseen, at least in so far as having to admit that my own limited senses are horribly inadaquate to solve the universe. I also am not going to endeaver to 'convert' anyone, but I will remind everyone that cynicism is a bias, just as much as any enthusiasm. Beautiful poem, Rahsash.

Hilarious Orlan!

LOL! Now THAT I can identify with!

Peredhil has verrrry big shoulders.

So much hinges on an illusion of powerlessness though... Give in to that and it's over. Don't, and it's not.

Sometimes - at least twice in my life - my clarity has been focused enough to assemble such a reply given the moment presented, as Cyril has here. It is a mental position, above being a mere capability or standard - and Master P you know you are FAR more guilty of built in quality than you let on! Again, good job Cyril. You just go on shining who you are. Let others worry if your thoughts are 'up to standard' or not - that is all about them. ;p

All I got to say is - Well said!!! I feel the Love.

Oooh, VERY good poem Cyril.

It can be a complex issue. I tend to agree with Aardvark's view - though I also feel that facing chemical problems with chemical solutions fits right in with 'screwing' conformity, where appropriate. It is very individual, as individual as there are number of individuals. Everything has happened before under the sun - except your experience. This is part of the reason why your life is such a gift.

I'd like to see it come up with a name like Aeon Zoup.

Great story! Got real punch! You are good Aardvark. Here's a suggestion; http://hge.members.atlantic.net/New_Format..._Snail_Mail.htm

LOL! Two thumbs up on the review of the movie as well...

Love your sig!

That is very good, a peek into the truths of the soul.

Dark - dark red, too! Rather macabre and kind of short, but well done. Would love to see more.

OOC: Thanks Wyv! Great App Rune! 1. "What are you doing with my bride!?" howled the ancient door angrily, so that even Zool could hear. "Her and I are gonna make many beautiful cupboards together. They will all grow into famous doors one day." Zool looked up from where his portrait lay on the floor and saw the door to Wyvern's office glowering down at him. He was also quickly becoming covered in wood splinters the raving Woody appeared to be gushing from his knotty eyes. "Uuuh, maybe I slipped in at a bad time..." started Zool "Don't worry dear," the door continued sweetly, turning it's gaze to Rune, "I'll tell you all the proper trees to eat in order to bear strong children." That was enough for Rune. With a single sharp yelp she dove behind Wyvern's massive desk, peeking out just enough to be sure the warped door stayed in it's jam. "Hey, plank head! Don't you talk to Rune that way!" shouted Zool, showing some of his eradication roots. "Have you come completely unhinged!? You're a door, she's a demoness - that's unnatural!" "If there's one thing I can't stand it's a nature freak! screamed Woody. Once again the magical door called upon the almighty God of furniture "Maahogeni Closset" to come to his aid. Rune yelped as Wyvern's desk seemed to come alive. It bucked, leaped and rolled. The lower large file droor opened in front of Rune, then one of the smaller side droors opened behind her, kicking her into the gaping maw of the larger droor. Both then snapped shut. Muffled screaming and a knocking sounds told Zool that Rune was now a prisoner. As he was opening his mouth to protest he heard the huge desk with Rune inside spin around and start to close distance at a rapid pace. The tiny iron wheels on the bottom of each leg of the desk would certainly tear his canvas to ribbons. The door began to laugh evilly at Zool's predicament. Zool resolved to speak to Wyvern about this the next time they met - if there was to be a next time... He suddenly realized he had seconds to think of something productive to do. He threw his mind into hyper speed, quickly looking at all his options, picking the most heroically correct move with precise and inexorable logic as the speeding desk bore down on him like a locomotive and the door above him shook with it's maniacle laughter. Zool clapped his hands over his eyes and screamed in panic. "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" He heard a mighty wham, then he felt the wind of something flying over his painting at high speed, smashing into and through the door. The laughing abruptly ceased... Rune, caught in the cramped darkness of the desk droor, had quickly become ashamed of the way she had reacted to the nasty old door. How dare it get such wacky ideas in it's head! How dare it throw her into a droor! She felt simply awful about her acting so childish at it's ravings. Was she a demonness or not!? Then the desk began to maneuver around at high speed, and she immediately sensed trouble. She knew she just had to do something! She guessed where the desk was going - poor Zool! - and she had to do something to get out of the desk too - and fast! It was going to be tricky... Gathering all of her determination she began chanting and writing her glowing runes in the air. Both hands delicately flew in fillagree patterns, each tracing the ancient symbols of power. There was just barely enough room... She felt a mighty wham as the front legs of the desk slammed into the low magical barrier she had materialized, nearly snapping the leggs off, but such was the kinetic energy of the the desk that it flew up and over the low wall of force, vaulting over Zool and through the door. At the same time her droor popped open, dumping her unexpectedly on Zool. She braced herself for the fall, knowing the hard floor was just behind the thin canvas, but then she hit something soft... Blue magical energy still crackled around her fingertips as she fell, contacting the painting first as she tried to break her fall. "OPEN" was the focused magical intent... She hit Zool right in the midriff, who never saw her coming because he had his hands bravely over his eyes. He folded neatly in half and landed in a rumpled heap in the grass, Rune sitting on top. 2. She looked at her surroundings in dazed curiousity. She was sitting in a grassy meadow. The sun was bright and cheery, a light wind stirring the grass. They were close to the ruins of an old fortress. Everything looked... painted. The ground, the air, the distance, the butterfly floating by... everything bore the light but distinctive brush stroke texturing of an oil painting. She looked up. Even the fleecy clouds looked rather Michealangelo-ish. Startled, she looked at her hands, and her clothes. They, at least, looked different - she appeared as more of a strong line drawing. Very strange. Turning around she saw the outline of the portrait standing like a portal into another world, glowing slightly at the sharply defined edges. It now showed the ceiling of Wyvern's office, and at the bottom an empty shattered doorframe. Beyond and behind the painting portal was... she turned away and rubbed her eyes before looking back again, or trying to. The best her eyes could tell her of anything in that direction was a sort of vast grayness... Something coughed weakly under her. "Zool!" she cried, jumping up. He was momentarily stunned by Rune's sudden arrival, and now seemed to be having trouble laying down. Also, he was bald as a billiard ball. "Rune!" rasped Zool as he creaked to a sitting position. "I saved you!" "Oh, of course you did Zool," she Replied earnestly. "We really told that old door what for! *cough* " "We sure did," agreed Rune with a smile. A puckered little rubber head poked up out of the grass, with a small but floppy little orange beak and the suggestion of a red cock's comb across the top of it's bare head. It turned first one way, then the other, so it could look at Zool and Rune with it's little black dotted eye on either side. Having aparently heard and understood their conversation, it then proceeded to cluck derisively, and roll it's little black eyes, if you could imagine how little black eyes which were nothing but painted dots could roll. Rune observed a thick shining hairy snake crawl out of the grass, undulate up Zool's arm and arrange itself on his head, seemingly of it's own accord. Only after it resumed the familiar swooping curl did she realize it must be Matt, Zool's toupee. "Ooh, can I pet it?" asked Rune, reaching out with her eyes shining. Matt made a cooing noise and leaned closer to Rune, but Zool retreated, his eyes round. "Whoa! Not the hair, not the hair!" Rune giggled at Zool's vanity, and waved a small wave at Matt. The hair waved back. The rubber chicken walked out of the grass and began pecking at Zool's shoulder. Zool wondered what he was forgetting. "Uuh, lucky thing that desk stopped like that, though not so lucky for the door, ey?" said Zool hopefully. "It was lucky there was just enough room in the droor for me to work a 'stop' spell, though I guess I forgot to stop the top of it..." replied Rune thoughtfully. Rubber chicken clucked, and peck Zool's arm harder. "Ah. Well, lucky the droor popped open when it did, or you would have been in a pretty serious collision!" "I had enough room to write an 'open' spell too, though I didn't mean to fall on you," Rune replied apologetically. The rubber chicken was nearly dancing now, flapping his stubby featherless wings and clucking like mad. Zool gave rubber chicken a frustrated look and spread his hands in bewilderment. "It must have been the 'open' spell that let me into your portrait," continued Rune brightly. Zool's eyes went wide, his head snapping around to take in the scene. "Hey!" he exclaimed, "You're in my portrait!" The rubber chicken let out a big sigh of exasperation, then lay over Zool's arm. 3. "Yess!!" exclaimed Rune exhuberantly, jumping up and rolling cartwheels and summersaults across the meadow. "Wheee!" In the portrait Wyvern and Melba simultaneously bent over the painting on opposite sides, knocking their heads together. Shooting each other a look and rubbing their respective heads, they looked back down into the painting, managing to keep a wary eye on each other at the same time. "Rune! said Wyvern. "My desk! My door! My office! Gah! I should have known better than to get Zool. Are you all right Rune? What are you doing in there?" Even though they were looking 'down' at Rune, to her they both seemed to be standing around the corner of the portrait portal on the wall. There was something very Escher-esque about it. "I'm fine - I'm a picture! I'm a picture," she said, still a bit dazed, plus a little dizzy from her romping. "It's FUN being a picture!" She tried a little flight spell experiementally and unexpectedly took off like a rocket, looping, rolling and shouting with glee. Zool laughed with her as she squealed and whooped through the air. "Being a picture is FUN!" she repeated as she came in for a walking landing next to Zool. They were over by the ruins of the Keep. "I could never fly like that before!" "Here in the portrait all depth and movement is an illusion Rune - see?" Zool indicated toward the portrait portal, and Rune caught her breath. Whereas before it had seemed regular size, as they 'moved' into the background of the painting the opening appeared to swell monstrously in size, so that now it rose like a great cliff far above them, through which Wyvern's office and Wyvern and Melba appeared as giants. "We think we are moving toward something in the background, when actually the enchantment is maintaining the illusion of depth simply by making us smaller according to the rule of perspective." Wyvern and Melba chose that moment to lift the painting back up so they could put it against the wall. Rune swooned dizzily as the walls and floor outside the portrait canted crazily. "Whoa... It still must be fun to be a picture." "Well, it's not like life on that bor-hor-hor-oring Terra, that's for sure. Every day it was the same old thing - summon more red dragons, then fork over two thirds of everything you got. More mana, more geld, more geld, more geld, another village of peasants. And all the peasants could do was bitch and moan - 'We're dying by the thousands, this sucks...' - Yeesh, buncha whiners. Same thing, day in and day out." "Really?" said Rune, somewhat taken aback at these revelations. "That's terrible! I've never seen this side of you Zool." "Oh, yeah, well, save your sympathy, ya haven't seen my bad side," said Zool, blushing. 4. They had arrived at a battered wooden door on the front wall of the crumbling old fortress. Opening it he gentlemanly let himself in first. Rune followed wide eyed. They were in a large domed chamber. It was rather dark and cluttered, crammed with all the paraphenalia of a disorderly, impetuous life. Circling the periphery were row after row of high bookshelves, complete with rolling ladders, interrupted only by a massive fireplace, which was dark. It never got cold in Zool's portrait. "All the comforts of home!" declared Zool, waving his arms expansively. "Of course, no one ever visits..." "Ooh! Whassat!?" said Rune, running over to a brilliantly glowing red gem encased in glass on top of a fluted stone column. "Ah. Many years ago, when I gave up being a mage, I transferred all my magely Eradication powers into that gem, so that should I ever return to Terra I would be able to reclaim my powers. That is what that is." "Ooooh, neato! What is that?" Rune next ran over to a huge machine which dominated the floor of the room. Gears, pressure vessels, levers, ropes and chains, and over it all were the massive spheres, hung on their stilled gimballs where they had lain for centuries. Dust covered everything. "This, my dear, is the grandest, most wonderful, most fantastic machine ever made!" "What does it do?" asked Rune excitedly. "I haven't a clue, but man, you oughta see it running!" Rune didn't quite know what to say to that, but was saved the trouble as Zool continued. "When it's running, there are blue sparks everywhere, there is a huge throbbing hum, and those great big spheres up there spin like crazy, dancing... dancing... The spheres... in commotion..." Zool's eyes faded to somewhere else. "That's, err, great Zool..." "One time, I wasn't watching careful enough, the steam pressure went way over, forceing the gravometric regulator to over-vector and the friction beam to pummelate. next thing I knew the ground strap snapped, giveing me a wicked ankle wound!" Zool grabbed his ankle and hopped around a few hops to dramatize. "I bet you learned a few things then," said Rune hopefully. "You bet! From then on I wore high-tops!" Zool raised a pant leg to show he was, indeed, wearing high top tennis shoes. Something else then caught Rune's eye. "What's that!?" She ran over to a picture hung precariously on the back of a sturdy throne with wires all over and a strange metal cap hung over it. The picture was of a feather, lying next to a great open book on a stout writing desk. It seemed the only light source was the feather itself, which glowed with a pure white light and irridesced with rainbow hues as Rune moved from one side to the other. "It's like a window!" she said, moving to peer into the painting from various angles, then looking at the back of the painting itself to reassure herself it was indeed just a picture. "Is it a real room? What a pretty feather! I sense a very strong magic here." "Indeed you should, Rune, for that, is the Quill." Said Zool dramatically. "The Quill?" "Yes, the Quill. Surely you realize that the traditions of the Pen have come down through the ages to us with a reason. I mean, they are not simply arbitrary traditions, let me assure you." "So that then... is... THE Quill? The Quill Quest Quill? The Quill Bearer Quill? THE QUILL quill?" "Exactly." "You mean, it is a REAL LIVE Quill?" Rune looked somewhat confused. "All this time I thought it was a metaphorical quill - How can every initiate be looking for the same quill? That just doesn't make sense." "Yes, that is THE Quill, and yes that picture is looking somewhere deep in the heart of the Pen Keep at this very instant, in a secret and forgotten room where it all originally started so very long ago. Just where it is exactly even I am not sure. It is probably one of the most valuable Pen treasures, if not THE most valuable Pen treasure, and closely guarded secret." "What is it that makes it so valuable, err, exactly, and secret - other than it being THE Quill...?" Zool sat down on a stool made from the stump of a dragons foot. The dragon didn't mind at this point - you should've seen the knight. "Legend has it, that whoever can take up the Quill and write in the great book, whatever that person writes actually will happen - THAT is the power of the Quill, TO MAKE A REALITY. That is why the Quill holds such a high place in our culture, and why it's location is so secret that not even any of us know where it's resting place is exactly - only that it does indeed exist." "Well, why keep it around if none of you ever can use it?" asked Rune penetratingly. "Ah, good question. The fact is, that here at the Pen the Quill's enchantment carries throughout the Keep, so that whoever will pick up a quill, or any means of writing, and hold the intent of creating a reality, can tap the power of the Quill in weaving together their stories, poems, or other writings - thus that is the mission of the quill quest. Whoever shows they have the will and the resolve will be granted a mission of proving they hold the power of directing the Quill - the power of creation. When writing lives and breathes, transcending mere words and jumping into life, then and only then is that writer recognized as a true Quill Bearer, one who commands our smiles and our tears through the power of words." "Wow!" said Rune quietly. "And that is why we don't need to know where it is. When we at the Pen go to write, we know it is always there, ready to grant life to the moments we commit to the page." "Geez! So that's what it's all about." "That, and ensuring everyone is granted an open place with which to find the Quill Bearer within. That's what the Pen is all about." "That's quite a secret! Too bad you can't get into other pictures." Zool winked. "There are many secrets at the Pen..." 5. "RUNE!" The voice called loudly from outside. It sounded like Peredhil. Hurriedly they both exited Zool's crumbling fortress and hurried to the portrait portal. Rune marveled as the closer they got, the smaller it shrunk, until the opening looked to be the right portrait size. Peredhil looked only somewhat relieved to see her. "Melba came calling for me, I came as soon as I could. How in the world did you get in Zool's portrait? Are you okay?" "Sure! Zool was just showing me some sec..." she glanced up to Zool, quickly self admonishing. "...tions of his portrait. There's really a lot going on in the portrait of Zool." "Indeed. Are you able to get out?" Zool and Rune exchanged glances, Zool indicating that she should do as Peredhil directed. "Well, I don't know..." She started to come closer to the portrait opening. Disconcertingly, the closer she came to it, the smaller it became, so that finally it was merely an inch square, hung in the grayness at eye level in front of her. Peredhil called out to her. "You were not originally part of the enchantment, so if you can touch the interface in all probability you will..." Rune had reached out to touch the tiny opening, her heart sinking as she saw it collapse into a pinpoint as her finger drew near. She put her finger where she thought it was... *WHaaaamm!!* ...and was forcefully spit into the unsuspecting Peredhil's arms. OOC: Over to you Master P

The person this is says "Just say 'yes' to the insane."

The person above me is aaaaaa... brunette.

The person above me is aaaaaa... brunette. *doesn't actually know anything*