Katzaniel

In case you haven't noticed, I have started adding links. But I'm really not up to catching each of these as they come up (university has started again) so if a few days go by and yours isn't linked, PM me. Or just PM me right when you post it. I've probably already missed a bunch - you guessed it, just PM me. Thanks.

Time slows again for Inbi as Sweetcherrie and Gryphon begin to disappear from her vision. Her mind races. She had tried everything she could think of already, but she couldn't possibly give up. Inbi begins again to go through possible methods of making a change to the dream. Either moving something (preferably the rock she's ... well ... in) or moving her consciousness. Or backing out of the dream with the intention of reentering, possibly further down the tunnel. But even that proves to be difficult. This as much as anything convinces Inbi that it's not a regular dream. The guildleaders would have tested the cloak before auctioning it off, and would not have sold her something dangerous, at least not without dire warnings. Exitting the dream should not have been difficult. The last trace of the two Pennites eventually disappear from sight, and Inbi begins to panic a bit. What if she can't get to them in time? What if she can't get out of this rock at all? Time passes and the young woman works at seeing herself in her own body, at being in her own body, with no success. More time passes and she's beginning to go cross-eyed at the concentration and concern, still to no avail. Finally she pauses for a moment and starts to think again, over and over again through too-familar thought patterns, trying to think of something new. As she does so, she stares absent-mindedly at another rock in the cave, a little further down the tunnel. Inbi isn't aware of the change right away, but at one point she becomes the other stone. When she realizes it, she becomes very excited. Small progress in the big picture of what she needs to do, but huge given the lack of any progress in so long. So she thinks about it; what had she just done? She comes to the conclusion that it must have had something to do with not thinking about it. Okay, well yeah, but it's not exactly easy to intentionally not think about something. In fact, she had already tried exactly that method dozens of times. But it also had something to do with the similarity of one stone to another, and the darkness of the cave: for a brief moment, she had gotten confused about which rock she was in. So she stares at another rock, and tries to let her mind wander. At first, she keeps finding herself thinking about it, trying too hard, or too quickly breaking out of a reverie to see whether it had worked yet. But finally, finally, Inbi notices that she's in the third stone. So of course she keeps trying. And though it takes time, Inbi eventually gets the hang of it. She has only to look at the object that she wants to haunt, shift her mind away for a brief moment while distantly telling herself that she is that object, and then become it. Crash course in travelling about: Complete. So she works her way down the tunnel in the way that her friends had gone.

The sensation of falling lasts for seemingly hours but in truth is over in a matter of seconds. It ends with an abrupt halt, a little movement backward, and then a sudden restoration of vision. What Inbi sees is Sweetcherrie and Gryphon, huddled together and staring right at her. Sweetcherrie has her sword out. The expressions of fear and concern have magnified, but immediate pain seems to have subsided. Inbi sighs and steps forward to comfort them. At least, that is her intention. Neither the sigh nor the reassuring words make it past conception, but Inbi doesn't have long to ponder that, for the step forward does. But it doesn't go as she intends; in fact Inbi realizes she isn't controlling her body at all. She pushes down the panic and tries to look down. Of course, she can't cause that to happen, either. What does happen is a sort of out-of-body experience in which Inbi sees a troll's body, her body, from a slightly elevated view. And it steps forward again. Panic rises once more, but the young woman forces it down. She had been warned about this: An inexperienced dream-walker might appear in the dream as any form, and be subject to the dreamer's interpretation. Only patience and experience would lead to the Walker gaining control over how she appeared or what she did. Inbi recognized now that Sweetcherrie was somehow dreaming this troll, and that she expected it to hurt her. The question was, would it really hurt her, or would the dream shift before then? And if it didn't, would any real pain be caused? Common sense said no; if a person got hurt in a dream, they woke up, or forgot and started dreaming something else, or sat there nursing the wound until they did. But Sweetcherrie and Gryphon had appeared differently in the dreamscape. Why? What did it mean? So Inbi puts all her effort into stopping the forward movement of the troll. She tries pure force; she tries thinking sedentary thoughts; she tries convincing herself that she's actually standing still, or, better yet, moving backward. She attempts to talk to the inner brain of the dreamtroll, to convince it to stop. She tries to talk to Sweetcherrie's subconscious, and convince it that the troll has stopped moving. Inbi, as she realizes later, is working on a different timescale, and so she has time to attempt many and varied tactics, all of which fail. The troll steps inexorably forward. The cave shakes. And then it vanishes. For a moment Inbi Infusco is projected (in her own mind, at least) where the troll had been, surprised and confused and definitely concerned, like someone who is magically and without warning stripped of everything but their underwear. Then everything shifts and she's inside one of the rocks on the cave floor. Better than a troll, but still not much use. “We’ll have to find a way out somewhere, before these…these things get back.” "No!" the rock tries to call. "Wait... pick me up... or something..." but Inbi-the-rock realizes the futility. Her two friends step off further down the tunnel. She knows she will have to find some way to follow them, and quickly... but how?

I'll be creating a new char, and yeah, as long as slow (ie, normal speed ) is okay, I'm still in too.

Travelling from the carnival's item auction to her cave outside the keep's walls, Inbi smiles to herself. A good day. She had spent 50 of her hard-earned geld, but she had gotten a magical cloak out of the deal. The cloak was supposed to allow her to visit people's dreams, and she couldn't wait to try it out. As Inbi arrives at the cave's entrance, she grins even more. The obsidian stone Gryphon had given her for his quill quest sat nestled in a small hole in the center of the floor, and the sight of it, as usual, cheers her up. As good as he'd said it was, the stone kept away all manner of annoying bugs, bad temperature, and random theives, making her living quarters very comfortable indeed. Inbi heads for the pile of leaves in the far corner, intending to fall asleep as quickly as possible and try out her new item. She knows that few Pennites will be asleep as of yet, but she drapes the cloak over her shoulders anyway, and it isn't long before she drifts off. The world of the cloak is immense before her, a seeming infinite black vista in all directions. Inbi sees a few familar forms as she surveys the area around her, but she doesn't go closer yet. Instead, she travels around, testing to see how far she can go, figuring out in her mind how real-world location must correspond to location here, and staring in wonder at the hazy representations of people she knows. After about an hour of exploring in this manner, Inbi is surprised to see Gryphon and Sweetcherrie appear. They don't look like anyone else does here; they're mistier, somehow, and tinged blue. Their faces also reflect shock and fear and even pain. Inbi casts around, wondering what it means. No one had mentioned anything like this. She hadn't even tried the cloak's regular operation yet, and something seemed to be wrong. Inbi does not hear the panicked message sent by her friends, because she is too far away, deep in the forest outside the keep, and asleep to boot. But by virtue of the cloak's mysterious powers, she gains an intense sense of their need. Gritting her teeth in concern, Inbi tries to lay herself into Sweetcherrie's representation, as she had been told to do in order to visit a dream. Inbi doesn't see the rescue group appear all at once around her, just before her vision goes temporarily black. Instead she wonders vaguely, before the sense of falling overtakes her, whether this will work at all, and whether the need was real or part of a dream.

Specific Rules can be found here. Judge Katzaniel presiding. The resolution is: "Be it resolved that a slug is more dangerous than a cricket." Arguing for the Negative (against the resolution) is the long-lived Black. Arguing for the Affirmative (for the resolution) is Patrick, shapechanger extraordinaire. Well, he's getting better, anyway. Patrick will start us off. Let the debate begin! Katzaniel starts her watch and settles down to listen. EDIT: Big oops!

Vlad has regretfully stepped out, so I will go ahead and put the debates up. Sorry for all that time I spent not asking Vlad what was going on, and just ... waiting. EDIT: Links: Black for A Slug is More Dangerous than a Cricket Patrick for A Slug is More Dangerous than a Cricket

Dear Mr. Falcon: We at the World Office have reviewed your case and found nothing unusual. We regret to inform you that your life does not seem to be out of the ordinary in any way, and thus no immediate changes are in order - but there is some good news. We have chosen to reveal to you some proprietary information in hopes that some good may come of your choice to communicate with us. We do, after all, encourage feedback. What you need to realize is that there is a correlation, albeit a rough one, between what one can loosely term as "effort" and the point in your life at which the desired outcome is achieved. Thus, one who commonly reverts to the simplest path will find that their early years are quick and easy, but will soon discover that their failure to put away funds, nurture a relationship, or live a healthy lifestyle means a difficult and not so enjoyable future. One who instead puts their full effort into everything they do will most likely live a difficult youth, but garner a comfortable retirement. Of course, this does not always happen, and there are many factors in play, such as length of life and overall behaviour rating, but since your specific case seems to be typical in most ways, we can only assume that you will achieve your happiest time of life just after midlife and not find a decline in average quality of living until you approach elderly status. One option that is open to you is changing your whole style of living, but we would not recommend that. Results are unpredictable and rarely as desired. You would probably live out the remainder of your youth much happier, but eventually find that the reputation and income you had been working at were gone, and you would end up with fewer better years than either the one who slacks off from the start or your original destiny. A second option is to change your effort in just a few key areas. If you are impatient for a relationship, for example, you could simply relax your standards and go to a disreputable bar. But again, you must keep in mind that it may be harder to find a long-term relationship in the future if you go this route. It would probably be irrelevant at this point to go into all the behaviours that you mentioned. We will only to remind you that every person receives their particular outcome in a different way, and that by the end of your life, you should be just as satisfied as the average liar, cheater, jerk, or slacker. We hope this information answers your questions satisfactorily, and we thank you again for the feedback. -The World Office

*sighs* I shall PM Vlad right now about getting me those points. If he can't or won't, I'll let you and Black debate each other without him.

Awww, why doesn't the poor Gwaihir stick to the things he's better at, right from the start? Falling flowers and congratulatory butterflies is certainly a worthy way to announce a promotion. Katz grabs a fluttering lily and takes a deep whiff. Mmmm, thank you Gwaihir! I'm greatly honoured to join the ranks of those full members before me. And... wait... that means a whole new forum to explore! (I might just be missing from normal activities for the next little while... *grin*) And I can't wait to see my shiny new title after posting this. Thanks again! EDIT: *grin* Maybe I'll just wait a little bit, first. Suspense is good for the character, I hear. Or something.

I was going to wait until these were all posted, but I'm too excited. That'll have to be another update. The point is, I've written ten of them; a major milestone! I will, however, continue to write these for anyone who wants one. Pennite Character Degenero Angelus Degenero Angelus Gwaihir Gwaihir Jechum No Link Mynx Mynx Orlan No Link Patrick Durham Patham Salinye Salinye (Probably not there yet) Sweetcherrie Sweet Vlad Vlad Yui-chan Yui-chan

Been far too long. The Dreamer (with apologies to Zadown) A dream. Yes this is definitely a dream. Two doors are to my right, their dark wood stark contrast to the blinding white around them. Three more to the left, and at the end of the hallway, which seems to grow and shrink in size when I look at different places along it, another door. Yes, a dream. What else could it be? I'm not awake; I don't even need pinching to know that. When I look down at where my body should be, there is nothing. The hallway continues to wax and wane, but it doesn't make me dizzy. Just leery. I try to investigate the doors: their handles, the wood, the border. But, as dream things are wont to do sometimes, they skitter away from view, or blur, or make themselves be forgotten upon looking away. I begin to feel compelled to choose a door. There isn't really anything else to do, short of waking up, and I haven't mastered that yet. So I walk to the middle door on the left and put my hand on the knob. I stop, realizing that perhaps I should find out what was behind me, first. So I turn, and see an endless hall, continuing into oblivion in that blinding white. I don't even bother to try walking down it - I know how these dream things work. One could walk for a day along that hall, then look back to see that they are no further along it. So I turn the handle and go in. Instantly upon making the choice, I find myself in another hall and hear the sound of a closing door behind me. I turn, suddenly confused how I had turned the handle at all when I had earlier had no body. Inconsistencies, but such is the way of dreams. Strange that I had not had to walk, though. Behind me I see another endless expanse of white hallway, and it almost makes sense, but understanding cackles and scampers away. In front of me are more doors, but arranged in a different pattern. Two on each side, and none straight forward. I shrug, or imagine myself shrugging (the two seem to be one and the same) and pick the first on the right. The choices are random, in a way, but at the same time, not. There's a familiarity, a sense of normality about that choice, which almost makes it no decision at all. I once again find myself in a hallway, uninterrupted wall behind and an array of doors in front. I choose, go on, see the same. I choose again, again, again. There is a fleeting sense of déjà vu in each decision but it's hard to think - the force compelling me to move on is stronger, and soon I am running (or at least zooming) from one door to the next. I don't know how long that continues, but at one point I halt. There is a vague feeling of finality, or conclusion, or ... that's not quite it ... impending importance? There are only two doors this time, both on the right. I enter the closest and suddenly I'm zooming again. No pausing, no choosing; door after door whizzes past my vision, an endless hallway of doors, and there are two conflicting emotions prevalent: that of moving quickly through traffic in a sports car, hair flowing in the wind: exhilaration; and that of crashing, helplessly, ceaselessly, through something, many somethings, large and sold: apprehension, to say the least. The cascade ends, flying one instant and stationary the next, and I stand once more in the first hallway. I know it's the first hallway, the certainty possible only in dreams, though I saw many with that same configuration of doors throughout this journey. I begin again, still unthinking. Middle door on the left, first on the right - I know this drill. Faster and faster until I reach the end; the same sense of finality; the hurtling through again and arriving once more at the start. No thought required: this is easy. Middle on the left, first on the right, the answers are obvious. It feels like a multiple-choice exam that I've written a thousand times before. Soon I'm not even pausing for the last door any more. Then I feel myself wrenched in two: the self in the hallways, pausing, suddenly concerned, and the self who is groggily turning over in my sleep. That brief moment, and I'm back. Just the hallway self again, but with the added awareness of the other self, somewhere far away. I pause to think again. I don't remember anything about my real-world self, but I realize that's not necessary. The important part is the realization that the selves are connected; this dream, these doors, they represent choices. Of course they do; how could I have not seen that? These are all choices in my everyday life, and I've been making them without thought, concern for consequences, and I've been trapped in a loop, no doubt a destructive pattern. It's not easy - in fact, the compelling feeling returns in full force and makes it very, very hard - but determined, I make a different choice. The door on the left when I'd been going straight forward. Then I wake up. Day. Yes, this is definitely a fresh new day. Sun shining through the window, decisions to make. Yes, I'm awake. What else could this be? I'm awake, and alive, and everything is about to change.

He mentioned not having much time (or was it inspiration?) to write this summer, so I fear we may not find out very soon.

Aaactually, I think this format better expresses my thoughts: Their mouths, that shout with wordless cries. 2 Their anger shows, but through their eyes. 4 The white expanse, interrupted 6 by snowy forms; filled, corrupted. 8 Marshmallow men, in stance to fight. 10 Bullets absorbed seem still to bite: 12 as giant forms reel back in pain, 14 mouths open wide then sneer again. 16 With large pale gun each creature kills 18 but silence reigns and white blood spills. 20 No sounds echo through eggshell gore; 22 no hue or cry in this odd war. 24 Edit: Spacing in line numbers.

(Lines 21/22) After reading through both critiques (and having a looong time to think about it ) I decided to go back to the original "no sounds echo/through eggshell gore". I don't mind that it draws attention to itself and I kind of liked it better anyway. (Line 12) Added a colon for (Lines 13-16) where I decided rather than remove or ignore the contradiction, I would clarify it. I hope this helps. I'm considering changing the punctuation, to a comma introducing these lines and no comma in the middle, but a colon seems to be justifiable given that the contradiction requires an explanation. (Lines 5- Reworked. This seems nearly as forced to me, but I'm not sure if it's just because of the punctuation and the fact that I'm not used to forcing a break in the middle of a sentence. Part of me says it works, it's great, just pause there and it sounds fine. The other part says no, you can't mix words around with such disregard. At any rate, I'm pretty sure something works better there than a semicolon but I can't think what. Maybe if I snuck a dash in at the start of the eighth line? Maybe another colon? (Format) Should I try to have more standardization on the indentation? I can't imagine it working properly by just moving lines 17-20 over; I would have to rework something. Their mouths, that shout with wordless cries. 2 Their anger shows, but through their eyes. 4 The white expanse, interrupted 6 by snowy forms; filled, corrupted. 8 Marshmallow men, in stance to fight. 10 Bullets absorbed seem still to bite: 12 as giant forms reel back in pain, 14 mouths open wide then sneer again. 16 With large pale gun each creature kills 18 but silence reigns and white blood spills. 20 No sounds echo through eggshell gore; 22 no hue or cry in this odd war. 24

A bad mistake has been pointed out to me, here. Knight posted in the Introduction thread but not the sign-up. Who knows how many poor souls that, like me, bidded from the sign-up list and missed him? Consolation can be found in the fact that Xaious did not, in fact, sign-up, but only posted in that thread - oops. (Gosh! And he was bidded on, too!) Wrenwind is hereby being assigned Knight (who knows, maybe that's who she meant, after all). Cheers, Katz, about to embark on Semester 8

PS. Appy won *both* of Venefyxatu's characters for reasons mentioned above. Unless someone wants to fight for the other one.

Disclaimer: This is harder than it looks. You'd think that I could get everyone with 2 bachelors before loading 3 on some people, but sometimes someone bids for all popular bachelors and then what? Unless I've got you on MSN (like Sweetcherrie) I can't assume you're okay with someone you didn't bid for. So, I hope the people who only got 1 don't mind, and I hope the people who got 2 don't mind either. PM me if there are any issues. Bachelor Winner Black9 Tanuchan Finnius Yui-Chan Gryphon Mynx Knight Wrenwind Lord Panther Tanuchan lumpenproletariat Sweetcherrie musicevangelist Arwen Patrick Durham (Link!) Arwen Peredhil (Link!) Wrenwind qjunon Katzaniel Racouol Sweetcherrie Venefyxatu Appy Wyvern Sweetcherrie Xaious, Master of Time Wrenwind YanYanGanaffi Katzaniel EDIT: Editted to reflect changes mentioned below. EDIT2+: Links.

... and floated across the room to land on the agent's shoulder. "Helllllo, Mike," it said in a voice that promised iminent danger for the man. "Your insurance covers loss of limbs and damage to internal organs, both. You will pay up, now, won't you?" Mike the travel agent went pale and ...

I'm seeing a definite trend here, in the answers to "Do you feel like being shy makes the dating world harder/easier?" But I wonder if we replaced "quiet" for "shy" if there might be a difference. I am a very quiet person. I used to be a very shy person. My life has changed considerably with the change, and I can tell you all that the difference between quiet and shy is not as subtle as it might sound. A shy person has trouble getting up the courage to say things, whereas a quiet person has the confidence to express the things they want to express, but usually decides to stay in the background. Now, I wonder, will there be any who argue that being quiet makes the dating world easier? I can see that it might, since you filter out many of the sort of people that a very quiet person might not want to date anyway, ie the loud or aggressive. But I guess it might work the other way around, too. Ehh.

"...It's a done deal, old bean." Katzaniel looked slightly taken aback at being called 'old bean' but regained balance quickly, only to realize the full import of the statement. She mouthed the words "Done deal?" then sprang back into form. "Oh yes, of course. Good doing business with your, sir. I'll just tell Wyvern, then, and execute the actual trade for you both. Be right back..." She rushed off to the Swap Meet, relieved that the bargaining had reached an end.

Wow, you really are getting good. You have a consistent lack of apostrophes (see example below if you're not sure what I mean) and capitization of "I" (unless that's a style thing) and you've used the wrong form of "you're" and, ehh, "dam". But there's good rhythm (I haven't tried counting it or anything, but it sounds good and that's what matters), and none of the rhymes stump me up, either. The content is quite interesting as well. I don't mean to be like this But i think i'm in love, But it doesn't matter Because it's just not enough. The only thing (aside from minor grammatical mistakes) that I noticed as being change-worthy was the double "but" there. The first one doesn't seem to fit, because you're not contradicting the first line in that stanza, at least not how I read it - you're supplementing it, in a way. You're saying, "I don't mean to be like this, I *am* in love with you, but it doesn't matter anyway, that's why I'm like this", right? Rhythmically, the "but" helps, however I think for the sake of clarity you should use something else, maybe "I really do think I'm in love" or "I mean, I think I'm in love" or "After all I think I am in love". Heh, I've gone on about that long enough. I did like it, or I wouldn't be commenting at all; I just like to say something I liked and something I think could be improved. Good job.

Katzaniel marks down the newest bids, and without stopping the usual auctioneering monologue, leans over and riffles through her coin purse a little. She thinks, looks at the item, moves her head back and forth in a "should-I-or-shouldn't-I" manner, and finally returns her attention to watching the crowd.

If Horace was smart, she might have pretended to lose interest at this point. Or tried to wait until the last moment before bidding again. Or at least looked confident when she made her final bid. But, as has been mentioned numerous times and proven beyond doubt, Horace is a few colours short of a rainbow. "Erm... 23?"

"Um," Katzaniel muttered. Wyvern turned to her. "What?" "Um, he's raised the bar again..." "What!?" Katzaniel pulled out a piece of paper and read from it carefully. "'Hmmm, one-upmanship, you say?'" She glanced at the almost-dragon. "This is word for word, mind you. I'm sorry, but he goes on... 'I am above the law. 35, the unabridged notes and the Tzim/Star blackmail photos of the Hampster Incident.'" A brief pause, then the tigertaur rushes on, "I'd recommend not offering any more than that. In fact, the way his eyes glowed when I told him what you'd said... I might almost wonder if lowering your bid might not work better. Anyway, up to you... it is such a wonderful, er, glove."