Katzaniel

Update: Salinye and Mynx have both dropped out, and Zool will be away for a few more days. Some have PM'd me already, some have not... I'm not about to crack out the whip, just make sure you get it in when you can. I'm not too concerned, anyway; The only person I've heard nothing from is I.M. Clueless, so my plan at the moment is to pitch Gwaihir and Venefyxatu against each other in 2 separate debates, and do the same for Zool and Clueless (it will give him a chance to PM me his points, I hope ) Group 1 remains unchanged and everyone keeps the same topics.

Note: Sign-up is not over. Black, welcome aboard.

This post marks the due date being passed. No more chances to get your date finished. (I don't feel too bad about this, especially since it's past noon the day after the due date, my time). But I wanted to clarify something: If you bought a bachelor/bachelorette and they haven't finished writing their date for you, you are not affected, only them. ex) Peredhil bids on and wins Katzaniel. If I had not finished my date (which squeaked in just under the wire ) it would have meant that I could not bid on a Bachelor.... but Peredhil could still have signed up as a Bachelor; it was my fault, not his. Anyway, sign-up continues... (And Wyvvie, was that post a humourous sign-up or just some humour?) EDIT: Oh, and I wanted to mention, we will consider the excuse of a co-written date with an absent partner as a possible exception to this rule. PM a guildleader to get your case reviewed.

When the song ended, the footsteps went on for a moment more, slowed, then stopped. Gabriel was impressed that Horace had managed the entire song without tripping - perhaps it spoke to a skilled partner, perhaps only to incredible luck - and wondered what the pair were doing now. It occurred to him that Horace might be trying to round out the evening with a kiss, and he shivered at the thought of kissing a demoness. Still, Horace was remarkably earnest and decent as demon's went, and Guido, not knowing any better, would probably wonder at a lack of a kiss. So he would certainly not interfere. The archangel tried to concentrate on another sound, and picked up a drip-drip-drip that he'd long forgotten was there. One did get used to nearly anything after long enough. Still, poor Guido had probably noticed it from the start, and never said a word. Gabriel would have to remind Horace to fix that tap, lest they ever have a second visitor, and probably not one as understanding as this one. When Gabriel started listening again, Horace and Guido had changed location, to the doorstep probably, as they were in the middle of good-byes. "I hadda good time," he was saying. "I'm glad I won ya, Horace. T'ank you fer a lovely evenin'." "Oh, I had a great time, too," she crooned. "Thank you so much for coming." Gabriel stopped listening again. They were probably hugging, now. That was the sort of thing humans did on dates, and Giant Guinea Pigs and Demonesses seemed to pick up the worst habits from humanity. drip... drip... drip.... OOC: The end.

Supper had gone amazingly well, reflected Gabriel. There had been a lack of sincere compliments about the food, but Guido swallowed it without complaint. He constantly spoke of the atmostphere, saying he liked the candles, the tablecloth, the plates. He seemed a nice fellow, and Gabriel stayed silent throughout. After all, Guido or his 'boss' (of whom the guinea pig frequently spoke) had paid good money for an evening with the demoness, and he may as well enjoy it as best he could. "Let's dance!" said Horace brightly. A brief pause, and then Guido: "Do youse have any moo-sic?" A longer pause, and finally Gabriel could stand it no longer. "She doesn't, but I would be willing to assist by singing for you." "Dat would be inneresting," said the guinea pig, sounding intrigued. "I t'ink I'd like to try it." "Wow, thank you, Gabriel!" remarked Horace excitedly. "I didn't know you could sing." "What genre would the gentleman prefer?" inquired the angel, not giving Horace a chance to set the tone. After a brief pause to consider, Guido said thoughtfully, "Do you know Moody Blues' Knights in White Satin?" "Yes, a good choice," replied Gabriel, and launched immediately into the song. His voice was strong, but his tone gentle, and the melody came out a haunting and beautiful version of its normal form. It did not take long before he heard Guido and Horace stepping along to the rhythm.

Yeah, I had read that theory before, and was deeply convinced until I came across that refutation. It really did seem to fit everything. But I should probably duck out of this thread, because I'm one of those infidels who hasn't read HBP yet, and I wouldn't want to get attacked by tomatoes. (*giggle*)

Okay, consider me in as well.

Oh... I had never meant Group 1, 2 and 3 to indicate that you were all supposed to proceed in this order. It was only a way to distinguish the groups. (This might explain why no one has started yet.) I am actually hoping to see all these debates begin as soon as possible, as I have the secret fear that none of them will finish in time as it is... As for your question: Yes, either 2 PM's, or 1 with both sides clearly separated if you prefer.

Well, if you want to PM your partners and discuss having one debate follow the others, and if you all agree, that's certainly possible. I'd been picturing them all go on at once, but I suppose I can see reasoning to not do that. On the other hand, I could simply request that each debater send me (in point form) the points they'd like to make beforehand, and then they can expand as much as necessary, but are only allowed to cover the points mentioned in that PM. That would prevent any in-debate brainstorming. Okay. *ahem* I like that. Since I'm supposed to be in charge (no, I don't like ordering people around) and there's certainly no time for a vote or anything like that, I'll just ask that each of you PM me your stuff when you're ready. Also, I realize that I didn't give enough time to prepare, so I'm going to prescribe the due-date for this as Thursday July 21st. When all three people in a group have sent me their points, I'll just start a thread for the debates, introducing the topic and debaters. (Since I sense a certain reluctance in the area of starting it up.) I hope that satifies your concern, Vlad. (Though when you talk, I can see just how much I don't know about debate...)

"Mine, mine, mine, mine...." Gee whiz, you guys, don't you think of anyone else?

I don't know where I am, but I'm not bothered, at least not yet. Instead, I enjoy watching the water flow through a gold and green fountain. The colours look very nice together, and the fountain soothes me. Finally, I stand, and make my way down the street. I'm aiming for the large ferris wheel that simply sits there, right in the middle of the city, perched on green grass and in between streets and people. I wonder vaguely whether it ever gets used, then turn left and keep walking. This road is lined on either side with shops of all kinds. At one I buy a shirt showing a triangular building; this seems to be on all the shirts. At another I buy a tie sporting a mouse with black, exaggerated ears. After coming out of the second shop, I consider going closer to the four-legged structure to my right, but decide against it. Traffic is zooming incredibly fast all around the squat squarish building, in circles right up to the base of it and zipping by even faster on the outer edge where I stand. No, I decide. Instead, I will walk to that museum I keep hearing about, and maybe stop and see that pontificating man...

Note, I had a question, and you do not need to participate in Part 2 if you do Part 1, or the other way around either. You can do both, but don't have to, and of course if you do both you won't get geld for finding the similarities of your story/poem to others.

I think I'll stop it here so that I can assign topics and whatnot, and give a chance to plan/study before beginning. Vlad, I like the idea of 9 people better than 8 (Zool PM'd me) so I'm going to put you in there as a debater. And if I ever do this again, I'm going to ask signees to include a statement on whether they've ever debated before and how good they consider themselves, so that I'm not pitting novices against experts... As it is, I'm purely guessing... Group 1 BIRT a slug is more dangerous than a cricket. Round Affirmative Negative 1 Vlad Black 2 Black Patrick 3 Patrick Vlad Group 2 BIRT apples and oranges cannot be compared. Round Affirmative Negative 1 Salinye Clueless 2 Clueless Zool 3 Zool Salinye Group 3 BIRT the pen is mightier than the sword. Round Affirmative Negative 1 Mynx Gwaihir 2 Gwaihir Venefyxatu 3 Venefyxatu Mynx Note that it doesn't matter whether one round ends before the next begins... in fact, I suspect that we won't have enough time to finish properly unless we start them all at once. I want to give another few days for each of you to plan both your affirmative and your negative arguements (in a real debate, remember that you have all of ten seconds after your opponent finishes speaking before you're supposed to be talking, so you need things planned beforehand) and then feel free to start the debates. In the Cab room is probably best - I'll link 'em from here so that people can watch them unfold. Good luck!

Part 1: Sign up to play (preferably in PM, because signing up publicly may give away information important to Part 2) and I will PM you a list of ingredients for a story or poem. (Putting it here as there seem to be fewer things planned for this room). The ingredients will not force you to center your story around a given person or plot. Rather, some examples: A main character must be blonde. A lampshade must figure prominently into the story. The location must be France. An ant must be at least mentioned. So you can have a male or female blonde, you can mention the setting as some city in France without ever mentioning France specifically... you can have a poem about someone dancing in a bar with a lampshade on their head and accidentally stepping on an ant, or it could be a story about a couple arguing about the colour of their furniture versus a lampshade, and maybe it starts with the woman screaming about mosquitoes and ants in the house.... It's really very much up to you, as long as it includes all of the elements given. Geld for contributing here: 10 per piece, up to 2 Due date for your piece: Wednesday July 20th Part 2: After all the stories/poems are written, geld will be given for finding the various themes. Note that depending on the number of writers found for Part 1, there may be 2 or 3 groups of themes with 2 or 3 or 4 pieces in each, and there will be no hints as to which contribution belongs in which theme-set. (This is why I don't want everyone signing up publicly... then people can just look at the order of signing-up and guess that the first 3 are probably in the same group, et cetera.) Geld for contributing here: 1-3 for each element found. Must name all pieces with said element. Varies depending on difficulty. Due date for guesses: Wednesday July 27th

Horace had managed to get through the portal for the carnival, thinking it might be a path to the underworld. Upon seeing the beach, she sighed, realizing it was yet another false trail, but decided to take a look around first. She'd been all over the world before finding the Pen, looked everywhere she could think to look, and despite herself she liked it here. She may as well participate a bit if she was going to stay. The demoness found her way to Wyvern's booth. "This looks interesting," she murmured, forgetting about vague warnings of a red wyvern that should be avoided. On the almost-dragon's instructions, she pried a board off the side of the booth and set it up on the sand. Horace had an odd way of manipulating reality by accident. She wasn't very intelligent, and sometimes when she didn't realize something wasn't possible, it happened for her. She stood on the rotting wood and waited for the waves to come in. The demoness had no clue how to surf, just the idea that when the water came in, she could move around on it, like a skateboard on the sea. So, that's exactly what happened. As soon as the wave touched her board, Horace kicked off. "Wheeeee!" she shouted as she vaulted herself over "wave-ramps" and wobbled around the bumpy surface of the water. "This is really fun!" She saw a large wave coming and skated toward it, kicking off the water for greater speed, then soared over, wheeled around and came back. Wyvern by this time was watching with ever-larger eyes. He saw a magic trick that could earn him vast amounts of geld, and he rushed over. "How do you do that?" The words tumbled over one another. "Show me how, or at least promise to perform for me! Teach me that, please!!" He was waist-deep, now, wading toward the young woman on the wooden board in the sea. She came to meet him. "Do what now?" "Do that!" Wyvern cried excitedly. "How do you stand on the water like that?" Horace looked at herself. She looked at Wyvern. Her brow furrowed. "It shouldn't be possible," Wyvern was saying. "A person shouldn't be able to just stand there like that. Or kick off the water without, you know, doing it right. She's treating water like it's solid! This has gotta be worth something." Horace was looking even more confused. "Am I doing something unusual?" she asked, trying to figure out what the almost-dragon in front of her was going on about. As she began to realize that water wasn't solid, Horace began to sink down into it, without really noticing, until finally she was waist-deep as well. "I must have just figured out the trick to it," she said, half to herself. "I don't know what I did, surely no different from the way anyone else surfs." Then she wandered off, leaving Wyvern standing in the water, not hearing his protests.

Applauds both Justin Silverblade (who seems to have summed up many differring opinions into one opinion) and Quincunx (whose post is very thought-provoking, among other things). "Love" reminds me of any of a number of physical and mental irregularities, which always come with a list of symptoms. If you have more than 4 of the listed 8, go to a doctor because you might be infected! Hard to tell though. The point being that both Love and Disease manifest themselves in a variety of ways, depending on the person, depending on the degree to which you have it, depending on whether you're trying to fight it ... mostly just depending on luck and random factors.

This is an official notice that any Bachelorettes not finished their previous Date as of Monday July 18th (eep, like maybe me) cannot vote on Bachelors, and any Bachelors who have not finished a previous Date (as of the same date) cannot sign up to be voted on. This is not a punishment, rather a way of ensuring that you get what you pay for. You've got nearly two weeks to wrap it up, and I hope that's enough for everyone. Sign-up can begin now and will last a little past this due-date. PS. For those unfamiliar with these auctions, male Pennites can sign up to be "auctioned off" for a Date, which they will have to write. (Examples abound: Try searching "Bachelor" in the Assembly room). Females bid Geld (earned at other events throughout the Carnival) to get the male(s) they want.

Sorry I'm slow LD Debate? Hrm, if I had found that format in my debate books instead of having to modify the ones I did find, it might have been a lot easier for me, huh? Or is that the name for the type of topics, and not the format? Patrick: Hm. PM might be better, so that I can filter anything that looks controversial. Vlad: Thanks for offering both. I guess that'll depend on how many sign up. (End date to sign up, by the way, will probably be in about a week.) And thanks to those that have PM'd me with preferences. I expect it will be more fun all 'round if I have an idea which topics everyone is interested in doing.

JD: I'm pretty sure you don't have to be a member to play. Welcome to the Pen, and welcome to the werewolf games. Gryph: Sorry, I'm gonna have to sit this one out. I'm back in class, and busy again. I was lucky to get killed when I was in the last one.

Wow. I was absolutely, well 95%, convinced that Tanuchan was a wolf. I was 80% certain that her partner was Ozy. If you hadn't killed me, Ozy, you might have had a better chance, but I guess you were hoping people would assume I was killed because I had it right. But.... Tanny... how did you not see that Quincunx was the Seer and had tagged me as innocent? (The post with the knives). I was certain that you wouldn't have missed that, and therefore were a wolf. Plus I had suspected your very first post. And dragonqueen? I guess we were very lucky, getting her right off.

Oh, and Topics. Be it resolved that (BIRT)... ...Magic is more powerful than melee in battle. ...Apples and oranges cannot be compared. ...American spelling is an improvement over British. ...A slug is more dangerous than a cricket. ...Luigi is more fun to play than Mario. NEW: ...The pen is mightier than the sword. ...Parents annoy teenagers more than the other way around. ...Hats show someone's character better than shoes. More may be added later. (Suggestions are welcome). Let me know, here or in PM, if there's any topics you can't / don't want to argue. Like if maybe you've never played a Mario Brothers game. Or something. Or if you're really inspired by one of them, let me know that too.

As Valdar would say, (or close): Linkies! Bachelor AuctionIntroduction Beauty Pageant Round One Round Two Round Three Round Four Round Five Awards Campsite Portal Carnival Swap Meet (Wyvern) Fishing / Treasure Diving Item Auction Kid's Club Kissy-Wissy Snookums Pie Man and a Caravan, A (Venefyxatu) Mighty Pen Debate, The Sand Castle Building Contest Sausage Poems (Lord Panther) Spot the Similarities Stranded Surf's Up, Security's Down (Wyvern)

A yellow-toothed carnie smiled crookedly in his booth by the water's edge. Long wooden poles sat leaning against the wall of the booth, with thread all wound around them. Pails of squirming pink worms sat out on every ledge. Colourful canoes lined the shore. And strange silver body-suits were piled in the back. It didn't take long after the carnival's official opening for a curious crowd to gather. The man waited for all the interested onlookers to arrive before saying even a word, and the people grew more and more curious. Finally, he began. "See here," the carnie stated with a grin. "This pole, and this thread, it's called a fishing pole. If you're clever, you can use it to catch a fish." The man went on to describe standard methods for rowing a canoe and fishing, activities uncommon among the folk of the Pen. When he finished, some of the crowd began to dissipate. The carnie's smile spread across his face; he wouldn't be the first to talk, but he knew the people would be back. Finally someone asked, "Then what are those suits for?" "Well well, I'm glad you asked. What are the suits for?" he reiterated, raising his voice for the retreating people to hear. "They are for treasure!" He grew more obviously satisfied as the crowd swelled again. He clearly liked to entertain. "How so?" asked one onlooker, impatient for the explanation. "It's called Deep Sea Diving," the carnie boasted. "You put on the suit, and you get a can of air strapped to your back. And you go under water in search of the many treasures that sometimes sink to the bottom." A murmur went up. "Prizes for the biggest fish, and cash payment for any antique items or gold found on the bottom. Anyone interested?" The man grinned, knowing full well that the answer was yes. OOC: Prizes won't actually go to the biggest fish, but rather the best telling of either the fishing or the diving experience, regardless of your character's luck or lack or it. 5 for participation, additional 20 and 10 for 1st and second place respectively.

Unfortunate timing gamewise, but I won't be posting any more this day phase, unless it's somehow extended a little. So please don't say anything directly to Cook and expect an answering post. Feel free to RP a reaction yourself, though, she's a pretty easy character to borrow.

"...So that's what I think is going on," Cook finished, looking toward the door and already planning about the spices for tonight's dinner. "That's interesting," John replied, trying to sound casual. "I've heard suspicions about you." Cook made a sound that came out halfway as "Me" and the rest of the way as "What!?" She sputtered for a moment, then visibly calmed herself, and replied, "Lenny never caused me any trouble. And maybe I look suspicious because DJ was always around the kitchens and in the way. But Mary? How could anybody think I would hurt Mary? I like her as much as any adult! More even! And the vault doors... I think opening them is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! How could anyone...?" John rearranged the things on his desk a little. "You mean liked." He glanced at Cook and cowered momentarily from her glare before recovering himself. He cleared his throat. "Ms.... Cook. I'm not saying that I suspect you. I'm just saying, there are rumours." Cook shook her head. "I think the whole thing is nonsense. I..." The woman lowered her head and cut off. "Well, keep an eye out for Kyraine at least, will you? I've got to go." She hurried out of the room, determined to tell as many others as she could.