Katzaniel

Sorry, I meant to add these in right after posting the topic. Anyway, it looks like they're there, but don't show up for a given user until you move the option off of "Unspecified" which, I think, should be okay. If anyone can't see the new fields just under the Geld field, please let me know. PS. Given Patrick's new info, it looks like we might not be able to remove warn level for those that can see it. Keep voting, though, 'cause if enough people hate it like I do, I'll delve a little deeper, though I still won't make any promises. Also, anyone else noticed that we seem to have 2 gender drop-downs in our profile? Apparently I'm female *and* not telling.

It's nice to see you here and posting, dragonqueen! I clicked on this poem because I noticed you had written it (sadly, I don't always read all the poetry these days - I don't always read all the short stories, either...) I liked this. I can't comment on whether this is easy to relate to, as I have never drunk alcohol. But statements like "The deliciously illicit / glug glug glug" and "Who knew / bottles actually make that sound?" (a great usage of onomatopoeia and a highly amusing observation) and the last three lines, which I felt I *could* relate to... it all amount to a very good work in my opinion. Thanks for sharing it.

Previous discussion Please, if you have an argument for keeping any of the above-mentioned fields, please say it, because numbers don't always speak for themselves. If every single person votes to remove something but someone comes in on the last day and posts a heartfelt plea to keep it, we'll almost certainly keep it. Conversely, a single vote with no words of accompaniment would not hold the same sway. Furthermore, I wanted to hold a continuing discussion on whether we should use a drop-down box - ie, standardized options - or let people write their own text. And if it's the former, what should the standardized options be? One question that might help us answer this is: If you had a text box to describe your default feedback preferences with a limit of, say, 30 characters, what would you say?

I think perhaps, we may also have been waiting for me. And I'm slow The data: Should we have one at all? Yes 11 or 78.57% No 2 or 14.29% Only under some conditions (please explain) 0 or 0.00% We should have an indicator that isn't the long description, but it shouldn't be visible under the names. 1 or 7.14% Assuming we have one, it should be: An image (note that this may be less cryptic than a number) 1 or 4.76% An image if it can be really really really small 3 or 14.29% A number (like 2/5) 5 or 23.81% A word or two - standardized via a drop-down box 7 or 33.33% A word or two of the user's choice 5 or 23.81% Assuming we have one, what should be the default? (Approximately...) No feedback 3 or 21.43% Only nice feedback 2 or 14.29% Grammatical feedback only 1 or 7.14% Gentle feedback 6 or 42.86% Critical is acceptable 2 or 14.29% Critical is preferred 0 or 0.00% Assuming we have one, should we separate off different types of writing? (ie, Stories vs Poems) Yes 4 or 28.57% No 10 or 71.43% Other (please explain) 0 or 0.00% If there was the possibility of a different level for stories/poems, would YOU use it? Yes 3 or 21.43% No 9 or 64.29% Maybe 2 or 14.29% The conclusions I reach from that: * Yes, we should definitely have one. * Images are bad * Numbers did well enough in the poll but had some good points made against them - I think we can dispense of that option given that we have better, more/just-as-well liked options too. * We seem decently split on whether 1) People can come up with good enough descriptions if we let them do their own or 2) We can come up with sufficient standards to satisfy everyone. What I'm thinking here is that I'll implement this temporarily with basic phrases in a drop-down box and we'll continue discussion to either fine-tune them or switch to the text box. * Although Gentle Feedback was a pretty clear winner from the options in the poll, I neglected to include a "no default" option and that seemed to be well-liked, so I think since we're continuing the discussion anyway I'll put up a tie-breaker poll. (Unfortunately, I think that means that I have to start a new thread, so I'll link it here and close this thread so as to prevent as much confusion as possible). * Although most people said we shouldn't separate types of writing, I saw no real arguments against it, and if we have that high a percentage of people who would or might use it, then I'm going to go ahead on that for now. New thread

Wow, congratulations! Always good to hear good news like that, and good to hear you're still around and thinking of us. PS. Unusually quiet? I haven't this many people (7) logged on at the same time in a long time, though admittedly I'm not usually online at this time of day.

Note: I looked, and you CAN create a drop-down box for input into those forums. Editting the appropriate spot in the poll... EDIT: Whoever voted already in the option that I just split into two, can you PM me and clarify which one (or both) you'd like that vote in? Thanks.

It has been suggested that, since users of the Pen have varying levels of preference for feedback, that we should have some sort of indicator that's easy to see and shows what sort of feedback the user prefers. Off the top of my head, the cons: * We already have a feedback description in the profile. * If we include this, people might not bother to read that description. * More space taken up by the side panel with names and other information... The pros: * Nice and easy to see what people want. * People don't often read the profile description anyway. * It's clear to new people that they shouldn't roast someone who's only here to share. All right, that seems to about cover it. Discuss!

Count me in. Do you want me to bug Tam to join too?

Aniel confidently steps into the hall, and immediately wishes he hadn't. Three vampires are coming toward him. Too late now - he closes the door behind him, and heads toward them, still emanating confidence. Inside, he is boiling with fear, and casting desperately about for some sign of the way out. As he comes closer to the other men, they begin to smile and surround him. "To'Kree, man, we've been looking for you." says one, while another puts his hand on Aniel's shoulder. Panic wells - surely this is all an act? They must know that this To-Kree is dead, must have surmised some deceit. But they seem genuine, and Aniel begins to think, Well, why must they know? And if they don't, the course of least danger is to go along with them. And if they do, then running away only seals my fate at this point. And so he lets them lead him into a side room. They urge him to sit down, and one closes the door behind them as the others sprawl themselves into various couches around the small room. Suddenly the atmosphere becomes completely serious. But before Aniel can react, the vampire returning from the door begins to speak. "To'Kree, we have been contacted by Fer-tas. He has found himself a powerful magical ally who is coming here to help us. He wants us to gather everyone that we know to be on our side, and inform them that we're going to force the fight today." So these men are involved in some sort of conspiracy with the man that I am pretending to be, Aniel realizes. Which is good for as long as he can keep up the illusion that he knows what they're talking about. "So Fer-tas is on his way?" he ventures. "He will follow shortly after this new friend. Apparently the guy doesn't talk much, but we're not to be put off by his silence. After we've warned everyone, we need to work with this guy to plan the fight. Of course, Fer-tas needs to confront the imposter alone, so we only need to figure out how to get him there and make sure everyone else sees." "Won't anyone else interfere?" queries Aniel, for whom something is slowly fitting into place. The silent guy - can this be Sardin? Apparently the current Tremere ruler has taken his position from this Fer-tas guy, and his three "friends" are conspiring to put things back the way they had been. "Of course not. Supporters of Ra'learin or Fer-tas, they know as well as we do that once the two face off, we can't touch them. The stronger must rule." "Wait... this guy who's helping us... how do we really know what he wants? If he's so powerful, will he be happy just as an advisor?" It is a dangerous thing to say, Aniel knows, but he needs to know: is this Sardin, and if so, why is he helping? Is it because he has given Katzaniel up for dead and wants to fit himself into this society, or is it because Fer-tas has offered to somehow send him home? With a pang he realizes that either way, Sardin has probably given him up for dead - but with some incredible luck, is on his way here anyway. If he's found a way to get home, then Aniel can go with him. "The only thing we know about that is that this guy isn't sticking around. His payment for helping us is that Fer-tas is helping him to do something else in return, and he won't be staying in the city. But really, if Fer-tas trusts him, that's good enough for me." "Of course. I just... yes, I'm sorry, of course you're right." "Okay, well, let's get cracking then. It took us so long to find you that this guy might be here soon, and we still have to talk to everyone else." They all stand up. "Wait," says Aniel, also rising. "Why don't I wait outside for our new friend, in case he gets here before we're done?" "If you do that, he certainly will." "Yes, but if no one is waiting, then what will he do? Least of everything we want him running into Ra'learin or one of his supporters. I can keep him safe, and start the process of communicating with him." A brief pause, and then a decisive nod. The three file out of the room, discussing who should head in which direction. Aniel follows and then, surmising that they are heading deeper into the building, goes the other way. --------------------------------------------- Sardin follows the vampire that meets him outside the Tremere stronghold. The man glances quickly either way, and then signals him and darts forward. They don't go far before he is being ushered inside a small room. "Sardin!" the man exults, facing him after closing the door. "I know I look like one of them, but I'm not. You must think I'm dead... well, Katzaniel is dead... I'm not saying this very well. Sardin, I am the witch-doctor that was inhabiting Katzaniel's body. She died, but somehow I did not. I'm using my magic to take the form of this vampire. Wait - let me show you." Sardin is shocked, but realizes that what the man says could well be true. There were two life-forces in Katzaniel's body, and he only felt one of them slip away. Shock gives way to joy, and he watches the vampire turn into the man who had always been the face to Katzaniel's tigertaur form, and then back into a vampire. He grasps the man's hand, sorrowful still for Katzaniel, but happy that at least part of her has survived. He starts to gesture, wanting to tell everything that he and Fer-tas have decided, wanting to share that he has found a way back to the Pen. The man nods quickly, though, quieting him. "I know already that you are here to help Fer-tas regain his place among the Tremere. I also know that Fer-tas is helping you do something in return - has Fer-tas found a way for us to go home, then?" Yes, nods Sardin, then looks questioningly. How do you know? "Luckily, I fell in with the vampires planning this rebellion. They will be here soon. Unless there is more that you need to tell me, we may as well begin." A pause, a nod, and he plunges forward. "I may be able to help in some small way. Here's what I remember of my powers so far...."

This is where you really want to go for the truth of everything behind Robert Jordan, the last book in the series, and the condition that he had: http://www.dragonmount.com/RobertJordan/

A lone ship heading from familiar shores into an ocean where eddies of current can take the unsuspecting sailor down into raging depths, or off the end of the world... and the stars watch from above, cold and distant from the fate of the world.

It might be more precise to say that the Pen was born from their UBB writing rooms. It was there where many of the oldest Pennites formed friendships and started to define their personas. I'm not sure at what point the Pen was formed, but it was slightly before Archmage started to die, I think; I remember that most of the people from the AM boards went over to the Pen at that point. Although the death was long and arduous - perhaps the Pen was born at the start of that death. (I myself came over at the very very end of that death). Eh. I only meant to explain a part of the Pen's history in a little more detail for those that were unaware of it.

So I just spent most of this morning writing up an email for my friends and family about our trip to Victoria, BC for our honeymoon. It's not exactly the fiction writing that you guys are used to getting from me, but I thought some of you might be interested. Tamaranis and I got into the Victoria airport sometime in the early afternoon, then made our way outside with our bags to get the fresh air and a view of the city while we dragged out our maps. I made the day of some helpful woman who noticed our maps and wanted to know if she could give directions somewhere: no, we certainly are *not* close enough to the inner harbour to walk from here. So eventually we opted for one of those bus things that takes a bunch of people and then trundles along dropping them off one by one. It takes longer, because it's going every which way in the city before we get there, but we figure it's just an opportunity to check out the city - *and* it's cheaper. How awesome is that? So the ride to the hotel took an hour but we're not tired yet, nor tired of looking at all the beautiful trees. Our first nice surprise is the restaurant across the street from our hotel, entitled "The Old Spaghetti Factory". Right across the street! We ended up eating there twice, and it was *great*. You get a big meal for a decent price, and it's really really tasty, and for just a bit more you can add a soup or salad, but you really don't need to because you also get lots of bread with your meal, and afterward some ice cream. Mmmm. Our hotel room, by the way, was great. Big comfy bed, balcony with a good view (we did sit out there drinking tea for a while one day), a huge TV which we never used, and a kitchen complete with dishes and pots and stuff. So we wandered around the inner harbour a bit and took note of the things that looked interesting around there, that we might want to do. Throughout the trip we'd look at that list and decide which one(s) we felt like doing that day. We never felt bored, and we never felt like we had to rush to do everything, we just did exactly what we had time and inclination to do. So it would have been the first or second day there when I went online and figured out which whale watching places seemed good. I had two that looked like the best ones, with naturalists on board and some percentage of outings having a sighting (although one of them *did* claim, "We often have 100% success rate" - meaning, quite clearly, *not* 100%, but they wanted it to sound like it was). Then we headed out toward the grocery store - we wanted to buy everything we'd need to make wraps so that we could save time and trouble for lunches. We eventually got there, but not that day - we were waylaid by a whale watching place that I hadn't seen in my online scouring, so we stopped in to ask a few questions. And lo and behold, they hadn't filled up their 2:00 so if we wanted to go that day, we'd get a discount. Everything else seemed fine, as good as the others I'd noticed, but when we paid and then left (having about 45 minutes before we needed to meet them, a street or two down) we wondered if we hadn't made a mistake. It was discounted - was there a reason? He'd mentioned mist - maybe we should have waited a day or two until it wasn't misty any more. Anyway, we went back to our hotel room, grabbed anything we thought we might need, and met up with them. I also bought a nice rain jacket in case we got wet. We spent a while oohing and ahhing over the scenery of the harbour from our boat, and then Tam and I went up to the deck at the front and enjoyed the wind in our faces for a while. We decided to head to the upper level - and got there just as the naturalists were freaking out about "It's the second time today that we've been the first to spot them!!" So we got to see the orcas (killer whales) right away after they'd been spotted, before anybody who was still on the main level and before everyone on other boats. (When orcas are spotted, the boats all radio each other and then everyone on the water comes to see). And apparently these orcas only come up every four days or so, so if we'd waited a day we wouldn't have seen them. Also, it turns out that we spotted them while we were on our way to see a humpback whale that had been spotted earlier, and the orcas were heading that way anyway. So at one point, we could look one way off the boat and see the orcas, and look the other way and see the humpback. Not that either one was constantly above water. But if you watched, you could guess where they'd come up next, and when everyone got excited you could scan the water around there and usually find them right away. It was a pod of four orcas that we had, and they were a bit out of sync so you'd get one and then three right away after. They were very beautiful. So not only were we lucky enough to see the orcas at all, but there are all sorts of rules about boats on the water near them - not allowed to move closer, if they come to you, you have to turn your motor off and whatnot. But at one point the guy driving (what's he called, the captain? Or is that something special?) managed to get it just right, and we were stopped with our motor off and the orcas came up *right by our boat* and then swam underneath us. So that was pretty amazing. We also got to see some seals. There were some little ones (smooth, black) and some bigger ones (furry, brown). The big ones reminded us a lot of bears. They'd howl and growl at each other, but most of them were too lazy to do anything. There was this one who kept growling at another to get away, but he kept lying back down and he never did chase the other one off. And there were two that were actually fighting each other a bit - they didn't even notice the little seal who'd started out between them and had to escape to avoid getting stomped on. We got some really neat videos of both the orcas and the seals, so when we get a chance, we'll show you all. I think the next thing we did was the bug zoo. When we got inside, we started worrying that it might be just for kids, and there sure were a lot of kids there, but I'm glad we went, anyway. It was pretty neat. We got to see stick bugs and leaf bugs, and how hard it is to tell the difference, especially the leaf bugs, to real leafs. Usually they look like browned or torn leaves, not symmetrical like you might think, because they don't want to get eaten by things that eat leaves any more than they want to get eaten by things that eat bugs. We also saw a colony of ants, where they pointed out to us how the bigger ones are soldier ants, and they showed us where the ants "bury" their dead (in leaves). We saw some hissing roaches, which apparently hiss to keep away their main predators, lemurs, whose main predators are snakes, whose hissing the roaches are emulating. These roaches do not bite or sting. They are not dangerous in any way. They're about the size of a pink eraser (a little fatter), and not only are they not dirty, like you'd think, but they're actually antibacterial so *we're* dirtier than they are. Tam commented that the cat would love one. We also saw tarantulas, and because I don't like spiders very much, but I have gotten over my phobia of them, I made myself hold it. I will admit that I didn't hold it long - he kept handing it to people and then talking for about five minutes; I held it on the condition that he was ready to take it back immediately if need be, and I held it for about 30 seconds - but I still did it. Tarantulas are pretty neat because they have hairs that they throw like porcupine quills at enemies - itchy for humans, more dangerous for other bugs. I also held a scorpion. The guy showing us the scorpion kept flicking its tail and then lifting it up and swinging it and stuff, to show how docile it was. I didn't hold it then - not right after he'd made it angry! - but just before we left, another group was going around, and *she* didn't do any of that. No one else in that group would hold it, though, so I figured I would. It was kinda neat. We also went to Butchart Gardens. We couldn't walk there from our hotel room, but there was a bus depot about a block away that went right there, so it still worked out well. The Gardens were made from an abandoned limestone quarry, starting more than 100 years ago and being built onto even today. There's not a lot to say about them except that they're quite beautiful. Oh, and that there's this neat fountain (put in by the Butchart's grandson) that moves around as it sprays water, and it sprays varying amounts of water so that it goes higher and lower and from side to side; it's really neat. There were some rhubard-like plants at its base, which I thought was interesting. Also, the Japanese section of the gardens were neat: very minimalist, but very very pretty. We found a miniature waterfall there, too. And a long piece of bamboo set up with a lever partway down; it was kind of like a drinking bird in that it kept filling up with water, falling down, emptying, and falling the other way. So cool. Lastly, I should mention that I was attacked by a tree in these gardens. We were resting on a bench and it hit me in the head with an acorn. How rude. Another thing we did is that we took a day trip to Seattle. This wasn't really planned, except that we knew that Salinye and her family lived there and that we'd be close to them, but we didn't really contact them until probably the second day we were in Victoria. She emailled back a day or two later saying that my message had gotten sent to her junk-mail folder and it was lucky she'd found it at all: was she too late? Nope, so we called her and talked a bit about how we might get down there, and eventually settled on a kind of complicated route. We took a ferry to Port Angeles, where Tamaranis got to stand on American soil for the first time in his life, and where we both had these amazing deli burgers in some little restaurant there. Then we took a bus which took a ferry to Seattle. (Yes, the bus drove onto the ferry. We were allowed to get off if we wanted, but we had to be back on the bus before it drove off the ferry again.) We met Salinye; I had been vaguely worried that there wouldn't be much to say in person, but there were no worries there. Her husband turned out to be a geek, so that helped. They took us to an authentic Mexican restaurant, as they had heard that we didn't have any here. They also showed us the Fremont Troll, which is a great big troll made of cement, climbing out from under one of their bridges. It's crushing a car with one hand, so that tells you about how big it is. We also got to meet their kids, who were pretty adorable. The last day, we went to the Royal BC Museum. We'd also been considering going to the Miniature Museum, but there were a lot of miniatures here, so we didn't feel like we'd missed much when we didn't have enough time for that. Their travelling exhibit at the time we went was about the Titanic. The best part about that was that they had actors coming out into one of the rooms and telling the stories of some of the passengers. They were dressed like the people they were supposed to be, and they were very descriptive; it felt eerily real. The two that we heard were the Captain and the "Unsinkable Molly Brown". She was a first class passenger, but a suffragette and philanthropist: when she got onto one of the lifeboats (we missed this part, but apparently she was forced on after helping many others get on) the guy who should have been in charge was panicking - it was her who made everybody row so that they wouldn't get cold. There was also a really neat "century" exhibit there. I thought at first that it would just be about life a hundred years ago, but it covered everything *starting* a hundred years ago up to today. And it had really lifelike reproductions - up to the point where one area had wind blowing in a window (I walked around and there was a wall on the other side, so the wind was definitely intentionally inserted) and no matter how far I peered through windows or around corners, it looked like it kept going. At one point, Tam thought that we were missing part of the exhibit because there was a gate that looked to lead down an alley, but we couldn't open the gate. It was just part of it all though. It only *looked* like it led somewhere. So, that's about it. We both had a great time: we commented on multiple occasions how nice it was. It was the perfect holiday.

Our original plan had 10 posts to this story. With luck, at the rate I'm going, it'll be finished 4 years from now! Also, I thought I had already started this post somewhere, but I remember hating it, so it's probably best that I didn't post it as it was. This one, though not great, is much much better than the version that exists somewhere on one of my computers. I do think this will go faster now that I've gotten past the concern of whether to go back and fix the bad writing, or go ahead and finish the story. In a way, since the bad post seems to have been lost, I did both. Cheers to that.

Aniel is wakened by a light cough. Groggily, he opens his eyes. It takes a moment to register his surroundings: he is laid out on a bed of some sort, propped up; he is in a small room, separated from the door by a guard, hunched over on an uncomfortable-looking chair, reading a book. Aniel deduces that it was the guard, apparently a Treme, who had coughed, but he is not paying any particular attention to his prisoner; apparently, he has not realized that Aniel is awake, but any movement would surely lose him that advantage. The witch-doctor continues looking around, careful not to move his head too much or too quickly. There isn't really anything else useful: no windows, nothing within reach that could be used as a weapon. His only advantage is the partial inattention of the guard. That, and a vampire tooth tucked into his pocket. He can feel the teeth from his necklace resting under the neck of the coat he wears, so it seems that they didn't search him too carefully. He closes his eyes and grimaces, though, failing to remember how these teeth had served him in the past. With nothing else to do, Aniel lays his head back, then closes his eyes a second time. Think! he admonishes himself, then allows his thoughts to wander. The only clear recollection of himself that he has is the fight in which Katzaniel brought his regular life to an end. The fight in which he had turned himself into a lion to fight the tiger that had been raiding their village. Without quite understanding it, he realized that it must have been his shape-shifting magic that had somehow put himself into the tiger's body - deep inside, for his consciousness had usually been overridden by Katzaniel's. Nevertheless... that fight... it was the one example he had of his prior abilities. He knows from that fight that he can change into the shape of an animal. Does the spell need any material components? Could he perform it here? Would it do him any good? Does it have anything to do with the teeth? As he concentrates on those thoughts, the solution slowly comes back to him. Most of his spells do need material components, he thinks, but the only thing he needs for this one is the tooth. Probably the tooth from an animal that he has killed by his own hands, or something like that. So - does a vampire count as an animal? Did he kill this one - or did Katzaniel? Would it count if it had been her? Aniel mentally shakes himself. He doesn't even know whether that's the exact stipulation - it just seems sort of right. He doesn't even know for certain whether he still has the vampire's tooth - moving his hand to check might alert the guard. But he does suddenly remember the way in which he must rub the tooth, the words that he must mouth in order to invoke the spell. It bothers him that he doesn't know what the words mean, but somehow Aniel is quite confident that he is remembering the words properly. And so he decides on a course of action. Slowly, painfully slowly, he begins to inch his hand toward his pocket. Only to be stopped, after a moment, by a tug around his wrist - he's been handcuffed to the bed. Dammit. Perhaps his other hand... slowly... slowly... he meets no resistance. The guard turns a page; he freezes, then starts moving again. It is critical that the guard doesn't look up and realize that he's awake until he's ready. Finally Aniel gets his left hand to his right pocket and clutches the tooth. Good - he won't have to use his back-up plan of turning into a different animal and mauling the guard. At least, not yet. In another moment Aniel is ready. He pretends to be waking up, to be trying to stretch. "Wha-?" he shakes his handcuffed hand. "What is the meaning of this?" The guard is already on his feet. "Don't try to escape!" he warns. "Why should I - but what should I escape from? Why am I being guarded? Why am I tied down?" "Wait a - To'Kree?" the guard suddenly leans closer, studying Aniel's face. "But they told me they had a human. A human who had been hiding in the alley. And that they cleaned up the corpses. How did you survive?" The witch-doctor suddenly realizes that he hasn't changed into just any vampire, but rather the specific vampire whose tooth he stole. That's okay, he thinks, in fact, better. I can still use same the story, and he's more likely to believe it because now he recognizes me - knows me as one of the guys they sent to that alley. I only have to hope that they didn't mention to him that they found this guy's body - maybe even went back and found that I'd stolen his clothes.... "Oh - that. They were beating us so badly, I tried to escape from the fight. I needed to report back, after all." He tried to make himself sound pleading there, like someone who had deserted, but had found an excuse for his own actions, and was trying to convince someone that he was acting for the best. "I hid behind a dumpster," Aniel went on, when the guard didn't answer immediately, "and I even went so far as to change myself into a human in order to be disguised. But after they won, they found me. I think that my disguise caused them to only knock me out instead of killing me. Anyway, when I came to, I left the alley - only to discover our friends waiting outside it. But I was still pretty disoriented. I must have seemed suspicious." Perhaps if he asks me about having been stripped, I can say that I was embarrassed to mention that part. That might not seem so strange. Aniel watches the guard thinking about his story. His only real concern is that he knows nothing about the magic it would take for a Treme to turn himself into a vampire. Is that something that a common soldier would know, or use? Also, this guard seems to know the vampire that he has become. Hopefully he won't start asking specific questions. To forstall that, and because it seems natural anyway, Aniel shakes the handcuff again. "Anyway, can you get me out of these? We should probably explain to the others, get this sorted out as soon as possible." The guard shakes himself. "Of course, To'Kree. I was supposed to bring you to see Gorant when you awoke, anyway. He'll want to question you directly either way I guess... but you don't have to wear those demeaning hand-cuffs." As he leans forward and unlocks them, Aniel mentally lets out a long sigh of relief. This is the point in the plan where he needs to think fast, though. Aniel does not want to be brought in front of anyone else, have his story judged again and more thoroughly, and then - what? Be sent back back into the soldier's ranks, at best. Now that he is standing and the guard trusts him, he should be able to find a way to knock him out without raising the alarm or making a mess, and then get the hell out of there. That's all that really matters. And once in the hallways, a man who looks like a vampire should be able to escape easily enough. So as they turn around to go out the door, the guard already talking cheerfully about how clever To'Kree had been to turn himself into a human, Aniel lingers behind. The chair - bulky. The book - too light. He could hand-cuff the man, but what would stop him from shouting? He could try to suffocate him with the pillow, but he doesn't know if he is the stronger. He runs out of time for thinking when the guard re-enters the room. "To'Kree? What are you doing?" Hoping for the best, and without even really knowing what he is doing, he punches the vampire in the face. Luckily, he goes down immediately. Aniel acts quickly, not knowing how long he has. He hand-cuffs the unconscious guard to the bed and without stopping for another moment, steps into the hall.

Like a brown paper bag which someone very, very carefully crumpled, putting each crease exactly where it ought to go - and then smeared upon it a layer of milk, or the thinnest white paint... just so....

Nice! It really struck me. You really feel for the narrator, reading this. Minor mistake/typo: "old, comfy, jumper" should just be "old, comfy jumper". (On a personal note, welcome, both of you, to the Pen. You're both too new to know me yet, as I haven't been around for a while, but it's nice to see new faces brightening things up.)

I didn't think I ever would again, but I currently have enough time that I could run my game(s). I don't even remember the details of the ideas except that I wanted to twist the normal rules in two different ways at once, and that it would take a lot of time on my part to do. Also that it's written down earlier in this thread so I can reconstruct the thought process and figure out the mechanics whenever I need to. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, I'd like to be put back on the "Mods, Ready and Willing" list.

Awww, I missed it. Sorry Wyv, I think you even PMd me about this before I went AWOL, but I never found the time. I'm sure between Tam and I we have some good, little-known story tunes. I'm really sorry I didn't get to it when I should have.

Anyone miss me? So, uh, sorry for the long, unexplained absence. Wedding planning kind of took over my life for a while there, and after I'd missed about a month, I was too scared to log in here because I knew I didn't have time to catch up properly. But the wedding is over (yep, it went well), and the honeymoon is done (we went to Victoria, BC) and I'm back at work, but only part time. I'm actually really excited about that, because among other things it will give me time to work on various personal projects like getting myself a game portfolio and working on my latest scheme for a novel that I might actually write to completion. (Not that I've ever actually given up on a story. I want to finish them all, someday.) So, I plan to dedicate a few hours a week to the Pen. Patrick, I haven't forgotten that I promised you some images for the black skin. If you didn't find someone else to do it. And I know I need to update the search list in the Piazza. I have completely neglected my guild leadery duties, and I still have plans for the SWG. Of course I need to find out what the current Elder issues are and offer my help on anything I can help with, and I certainly plan to catch up on some of the stories and poems and things around here. And, just to tease you guys a bit with this info before I actually do it, I plan to find that picture thread and possibly post a few pictures of the wedding for you guys. So, it will take me a long time to catch up and get back into things, but I should be back for good now, and able to dedicate as much time to this site and to my writing as I ever did.

Just over the chatbox on the left, you should see a drop-down box. Change it to "The Mighty Blue Pen" and you'll get the nice, soothing colours that apparently very few of us use.

Aaaand it's working. Just a note: there seem to be two "Mighty Pen" links side by side under the Invision logo. One works and one does not. Until we can get rid of the bad one, use the one that works. Or the other link just under those.

Right, so the last time the Portal was broken, Yui had to change the code in order to make it the default page again. I've tracked down the lines she changed, and they're very different in the new version. So I'm working on getting the Portal back, but it might take a while - it the meantime, go to www.themightypen.net?act=home if you want to see it.

1 2 And this one...

Test. 1 2 Right, so tables work in *this* skin...