Katzaniel

Posted! Now, I'd like for you all to be in Dustin's group. Introduce yourself when you can. I haven't decided when I'm progressing to step 2 (NPC death and roles sent out) but in the meantime you can follow along the schedule I outlined. Dustin doesn't have to meet *everyone* before supper, but I think we probably shouldn't go much farther than that before we know that no one else is joining. I'm not sure how much "time" everything will take; night and day phase may differ each time, so I'll be sure to tell you whether it's a day in the game, or just until breakfast, or what. Real time will be 48 hours each day phase and 24 each night, after roles are sent. If you plan to join but must wait somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks, tell me so I can plan more definitively on when to start. Oh, and Tanuchan, would you like to help me RP Dustin before you go? Basically he sees things. I'm sure you can handle it Game on!

Dustin sat in the hard chair facing the hard-cheeked woman. He wondered why the mental institution would choose to have such hard chairs. Was it easier for them to tell something about a person who was uncomfortable? What was she thinking about him right now? Dustin shifted to lean on his elbows and looked the woman, who had introduced herself as Ms. Triffle, in the eye. Her gaze flickered but her voice did not falter as she continued reading over her list, and Dustin tried to figure out what she was thinking. "The patients wake up at six o'clock in the morning - we find that rising early is a healthy practice. We try to keep you busy, though, so breakfast is at seven and by eight o'clock we will have some activity going on. You will be required to participate five or more days per week, but I'm sure you'll find that you are more than happy to do so. Sunday and Thursday we play a team sport like Soccer, Tuesday is a more independent game like Tennis. Other days you might play Chess or Backgammon or go swimming, there is a lot of variety. The games go on until ten-thirty when we have a councilling session. That's when we break up into those smaller groups I was telling you about. You'll get quite friendly with your group pretty quickly, and I think you'll find it easy to talk about things when you need to. Mr. Shook, are you paying attention?" Dustin wasn't. He was studying the child that had appeared next to Ms. Triffle. The boy was sucking on a lollipop and tugging on the woman's arm. She ignored him completely, which led Dustin to believe that he wasn't real. "Yes. Please go on," he said, shifting his attention back to the woman in front of him. "At noon," she continued, giving him a sharp look, "we break for a healthy lunch. The time just afterward is your own except on Fridays, when we have an outing with your group. On other days, you may read, watch television, almost anything... but we will check in on you regularily until four-thirty, dinnertime. When that is done with, everyone pitches in to clean up, both the supper and the general area. Tasks are alternated every week. In the evening, patients usually play cards or a board game, or talk. This time is also fairly unstructured but patients are not allowed to be on their own until at least eight. Lights out is ten o'clock." Ms. Triffle paused, then pushed a sheet of paper toward him. "Are you still willing to join us, Mr. Shook?" Dustin nodded. He was still nervous, but firm in his decision. He was definitely insane, he could doubt it no longer, and this place seemed pretty nice. He skimmed the sheet and signed it. It felt like signing away his soul, even though they would give him an opportunity every six months to change his mind and leave, and when Dustin looked up again Ms. Triffle bore a pair of horns. He grimaced but ignored the illusion. "Then it's done. Welcome to Canmore Institute for the Mentally Unbalanced, Mr. Shook. I'll introduce you to your group now, and then you may set up your room and join us for supper. Tomorrow is Friday, so for this week only you may choose whether you join us, but I highly recommend it since we are going to the zoo." The woman stood up and led Dustin out of the room. He looked back at the forlorn child before following.

Note: New people are always welcome, but as we are short-handed right now, you are encouraged even more strongly than usual to join. My plug: I like these games because they are very much like usual roleplay stories, but they have a definite beginning and ending and you can decide to stretch yourself (or not) in a lot of different characters and a fairly short time period. You're not required to join more than one, but if you do join in please be available to post at least once every 48 hours until your character is out. Thank you! (Rules) (OOC Discussion) Players (To be Editted as needed): Nave as Woof - thinks he's a dog Gnarlitch as Itchy - general troublemaker Vahktang as Milos / Aic - everyone from "One Flew Over the Cuckoos's Nest" Ozymandias as Lamont - crazy somehow or other Eyremon as Eyremon - is fighting some sort of war dragonqueen as Rena - thinks everyone's out to get her MTUFoolish as Mike - thinks he's Michael Jackson Dean as Napolean - not really Napolean Jammeez as Jammeez - big troublemaker NPCs Katz/Tanuchan as Dustin - sees things

Tanuchan, I never answered your question (about being an NPC when you get back)... I'd say it might depend on when you come back, but I'm certainly willing to try if you still want to when you do. Anyway, the tally (I don't think any of these are the chosen names, but whatever ): Nave Gnarlitch as Himself Vahktang Ozymandias as Crackers Eyremon Jammeez - if we can wait dragonqueen MTUFoolish as Spinach Dean as Napolean I think that's enough to do the thing with, but we'd only have one wolf.. right? Anyway, I'll make a first post (I won't say when, because I'm bad for saying, "I'll post such and such in an hour" and never doing it...) and you guys can begin introducing your characters before the first murder occurs. Hopefully some new people will join or it'll be a short one.

Just one minor thing, but I think you need to consider making the last names more random. (For the 95% of the people here who can't have noticed: Harper, Martin and Layton are very prominent Canadian politicians). At Harper and especially at Martin I found myself wondering if the character was supposed to be calling politicians, except that it didn't seem to fit or make any sense, that they'd be calling them at home and whatnot. This was very distracting in an otherwise excellent piece. Well done.

Wow. I really liked the style of this, and the message. One mistake I noticed is "three-later-word" should be "three-letter-word" (unless I missed something). Boy I wish I were better at doing positive feedback, this reply is so short... but other than to say I liked it, I'm not sure what else there is. I just think you used all the right words in all the right places and hit the right mood with the line lengths and so forth, and I liked your style. Cheers. Edit: Yikes, making my comment more cohesive.

Whoa! When did Gyrfalcon finish his title? ...Sorry. I hadn't meant to reply to this, because I dislike that type of noodle very much, but I just had to ask...

As Tanny pointed out to me, she can't win because she's not part of the guild, and she can't join the guild because she's not yet a QuillBearer. I want to pass on this Shiny. If I extend this, will there be other people participating, or do I need to think of a new contest?

My own grandmother is a testament to the fact that you can be 80, have 20 major things wrong with you, need 30 pills a day to live (no exaggeration) and surrounded by other people your age, sick and often dying, and still want to be alive. I'm sure you know that - the poem was only meant to reflect one side of the reality - but I needed to say it anyway. Welcome back.

The main room? You mean the Cabaret room? I dunno, maybe if no one else responds in the next few days. Unless someone else wants to post it. Jammeez: I'm sort of basing my perceptions on One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest and even the one from Patch Adams, I guess that's about the same as Girl Interupted but I saw Awakenings so long ago that I won't even try to comment on that one. And I'm not sure about what Poe's version was like, but I think the answer to that must be modern. As for Tam's question: Maybe we could consider delaying it a week or so. How many people would be able to play if we did that? More? It will depend on how many new people we can recruit, like Eyremon mentioned. I'll tally characters later.

It seems so much easier than it did the first time I was shown this, long ago. Maybe I'm more pattern oriented than before. Even though most might claim that there's no pattern involved, there can be. And somehow it seems fairly obvious now. More confused than before? Sorry.

Ooh, ooh, mental asylum! I love how ideas just pop into your head sometimes. Maybe I won't even have a vote, depending on what people think of this idea. We all are in a mental asylum for some reason or another. You can be self-committed if you want, and sane or insane as desired, as long as you have some semblance of sanity on which to base votes and so forth. Wardens are off-limit, I'll play those when needed. The "wolves" are really patients with some sort of multiple-personality disorder. In order to avoid stereotyping actual deseases, I'll make up a new one. Lupus Anomolous, how's that? Switching between personalities is totally random. This means the wolves can all truthfully roleplay scenes where your characters think they are innocent, as well as plan strategy at any point during the day or night phases. Seer can just have visions, easily enough. For full RP effect, you might consider (depending on the character you choose ahead of time) being sane, but thinking you are insane because of these visions. Anyone can RP a vision IC if they so desire, but no one will know which one is really real. Of course doing so might make someone think you are the seer and so is dangerous - but it might also make people avoid voting for someone, and so be helpful. It will be interesting to see if anyone bites on that one. Baner maybe has some pills stashed or something that can help the wolf come back to their innocent personality. I guess that means we have a hunter instead. I don't remember what rules we used for that before, I'll look it up later to see if it fits better or not. I have one special request - I'd like people with special roles to RP as much as possible in their PMs, so that when this is written up in the Assembly room (I'd like to do it, if no one minds) I can include it. Opinions?

Well, I've spent the last hour or so trying to catch up but there were three pages of newly replied-to topics, and I haven't gotten there yet. In case no one has noticed I've been busy for the last little while and barely catching up before having to leave again... this will continue for another few days but hopefully by the time this WW ends I will be about ready to host the next. Plus give it a few days for everyone to sign up, I should have time again by then. What I'm saying is, sure I'll mod. A few people signed up and then had to remove themselves, so I'd like everyone to resign to this one. Give me a little while to refine my ideas and I'll post a vote on the topic. Meanwhile I need to skitter away to my economics assignment. See y'all in a bit.

18 per year? That's a lot of succubi.

I'll make a long awaited return. No? Alright, then I'll just slip back in unnoticed. No? Well, whatever. I'm in.

I do hope that whatever is keeping you away clears up soon. I'm very sorry to see you go, Deggy.

The young girl panicked as she saw clearly that no one was going to be able to come to her rescue. Why had she joined this group, anyway? She might have saved Alric's life by coming when she did, but the two assassins would just kill him after they'd finished her off. And if she ran, they would chase her down. Nothing for it but to stand and fight, even while seeing her own death in their eyes. Shanna grasped the dagger, holding it in front of her to ward off as many blows as she could. The first assassin struck, and Shanna blocked it, but she could tell it was only a test. The second man saw her feeble efforts and moved to deal with Alric, who was beginning to stir but obviously not well enough yet to defend himself. Shanna desperately flailed with the knife at her opponent, but he skillfully deflected the attack and turned it on her, slicing into her shoulder. The girl's parry came too late, causing her arm to brush on his, and she felt the flush of pain.... Ia the demon watched helplessly as the hated creature attacked her newly aquired body. She had waited so long to inhabit someone, and now the useless woman was going to get herself killed. And then, when the skin of the male human touched her own arm, Ia screamed with hate and surged with power. Only the touch of a man could trigger enough emotion to allow her to overtake the original owner of a body. Oh, how she hated men. Blessed hate now, though, for Ia felt the touch, felt the hate stream through her, felt the power return to her. She grabbed the creature before he could cause them to lose contact, went wild at the continued feel of a man under her hands, and without thinking she disembowelled him in an instant. Then she realized what she had done, felt his life slip away from her, and launched the body toward the second of the three men, both fearing contact with the despised creature and hoping for it, since it was the only way to kill him. Shanna felt the blade in her shoulder, understood that she'd failed to block the blow, and then blackness hit her. It felt like only half a second, but shaking her head to clear it, she realized she was hurtling toward the other assassin. She had no time to notice anything else before the man put out his hands to stop her and she was propelled right into them. The blessed pain of touching the man streamed once more into Ia. The creature's hands had touched her head, but she grabbed his wrist and cackled at him, enduring the searing hate in order to better plan it this time - and to savour his death as much as possible. Pleasure welled with just the thought of ridding the earth of this man-beast. She could grab the third one, too, but that would diminish the feeling the death. Instead, Ia dragged him toward the man that was lying by the tree, then began to cut at him systematically. She was barely even aware of his efforts to resist, but she felt his fear and hurt and she capitalized on it, dragging the blade along his leg at one moment, twisting it in his eye the next, running it down his back. The pain of a man was the most excellent thing in the world, and it made the feel of him in her hand bearable. But then Ia saw that the creature was about to die. Placing the woman's body so that it would fall upon the third man, who was now awake and watching in horror, Ia drove the knife deep into the assassin's heart and felt the death with every fibre of her being. The blackness had hit again, and this time when it cleared Shanna found herself falling. She twisted in the air, trying to get her balance, but managed only to make herself land a few inches to the left. Luckily, it was opposite the direction that Alric had chosen to launch himself, weakened but driven by fear of the Shanna he had just witnessed. Shanna landed on the ground, breathing heavily, and then looked up to discover the mangled bodies of the assassins. "Oh my god!" she breathed. "Alric, what did you do to them?"

I go away for a few days and what happens? I come back to not just one love letter, but seven! You guys are hilarious. Um... mass mailing: Dear suitors: Well, one of my favourite singer/songwriters once said "Blonde Over Blue", but that doesn't help me choose between the eight of you, and he wasn't even talking about choosing. At any rate, Tanuchan offers a doomed love, Arian has already sold his soul, Xaious can't cook and Regal can't clean (I have no choice but to be picky... you're both out!), Salinye has a stalker that would include me by extension, and Finnius, as evidenced by his extended name, is fickle. This leaves only Gwaihir and Ozymandias. Sorry Gwaihir... you're cute, but Ozy's letter was much more romantic. Come here, baby! Unless, of course, there are more suitors?

*is taken aback* Have you ever seen us angry at someone for leaving? *is very glad that Salinye is back* I hope you cleared up RL to your own satisfaction. We've all been missing you - I know this because even as rarely as I'm on IRC your name floated by occasionally. This was always along the lines of "I wonder where Salinye is?", not "Boy are we gonna roast that girl when she gets back!" We luvs ya.

Sorry to crowd up your thread with all these replies, Zadown, but... Imagine my surprise upon entering the Pen and discovering a PM from Finnius pouring his heart out to me with a confession that he's falling in love with me... You just can't do that to people, Finnius! Although I must say he was right about my eyes.

Oh, a love letter... I'm only 21 (as of today) and never had a boyfriend before this one, and he doesn't write love letters. I've never kept any bad mail, either. So I guess a lot of it is lost on me. The title, ehh, that makes a lot more sense then.

I want to apologize to everyone, a little bit for my rare posting as of late but mostly for my rare posting in the coming week(s). Life is hectic as I have staggered midterms and final exams, but that's not even what's keeping me busy. I'm looking for a co-op job for the fall, which means applying and interviewing. I've done four interviews so far, have three coming up next week, and then I've been asked to help give interviews for a teaching position opening up at the university. (Which, by the way, is a really neat experience that I mainly lucked into. I get to ask questions and will have (minor) input on the final decision!) All of this means that the Pen interviews aren't really taking place as often as I'd hoped. Madoka, I will have to install ICQ, but I'll undoubtedly try to secure the nick "parmeisan". Since it's a mispelling of a seemingly random word, I've never found it used by anyone else... but I'll be sure to mention my nick here as well just to be sure. I have managed to interview Orlan, and got his permission to post the interview, so I'll be doing that, but I haven't written the actual description yet, nor do I plan to interview again this weekend. Perhaps I can catch someone some evening this week. Although I might have to find a new word to use, I'm getting tired of saying "interview".

So, there are only a few more days left on this. Tanuchan has made a great contribution with her poem, but if she wins I wouldn't want it to be because of a lack of competition. I hope people didn't think they were required to do it as a poem - you can do it however you want. Just roleplay an orange. And have fun doing it!

I felt that the first 6 lines were mostly there for explanation, but was still left confused. If you wanted us to understand the background, I think you need another line or two. If not, then for me they were out of place. After those lines it launches into what I see as the actual poem. I enjoyed it. I liked the style. I'm sorry, I've never been good at explaining what I do like about things, only to say that I did like it. And I did.

Wow. I'm not sure exactly what it means, but it evokes an emotion for almost every line. Beautifully written, Falcon.