Katzaniel

Unfortunately I don't know any anime well enough. Fortunately I was going to sit the next one out to catch up on my other posting. Someone should play Blue from Blue's Clues though, that would be neat.

I know that Gyr is just making suggestions here... but I'd like to add my own suggestion: Keep it as it is. I like the repetition in the first and third lines. Perhaps I shouldn't offer advise when I think I lean too heavily on repetition myself, but it can be a powerful tool and I don't think you've overused it. I also like the last line better as is. If you changed it to "won't", it would come across as pleading. "Would" is just a question, and better fits the tone. Sorry, Gyr And thanks for sharing this, disizmrkent.

Yes, I've got some ideas a-flowing. I'll post something this week, I should say.

Wow, totally profound Still, I feel the same. Not I. Every one of you is fully deserving of this. Even for the ones I don't know so well, I have still seen you around enough to know that this is a great cast of newly-risens. Congratulations all! (And be glad that *you* weren't chased by crazy magical rats for your promotion... only good old Ozy!)

Jaquie's first reaction was great relief. Her second was suspicion, about what Arielle's motivation was for telling her about the corner. Thirdly, the unbidden thought, Just how beautiful is Tiffany, anyway? and with that the sudden realization that Arielle felt much the same way that Jaquie did. The customary anger tried to surface but didn't quite make it. All the feelings of relief from catching the bully so quickly this morning, to not having to worry about changing out for Gym, to wondering whether or not Arielle was as good as she seemed, they all pushed the anger down. "Thank you," she said, a trifle gruffly due to long inexperience with the words. A slight pause. Jaquie wished she could see the girl's expression. "This way," was the response, with a gentle touch on the shoulder. "I can follow by your footsteps!" retorted Jaquie, immediately regretting the harshness. Many others would simply have grabbed her hand and tried to pull her along... this girl was naive, but clearly trying not to offend. Not knowing what else to say, though, Jaquie let the statement lie, and followed Arielle to the corner where the pair changed out in silence.

Before and after gym were the worst times in Jaquie's day. She tried to hide it, and she did pretty well, but in the change rooms she felt more alone than at any other time. Not only that Chandler, her only friend, was not there, but that she had to change in front of all the others girls, and never even know who was there. They all laughed and joked with each other, and she secretly imagined that they were looking at her. It terrified her. Every time someone giggled, Jaquie imagined that it was mirth at her own body. She didn't have anyone to compare herself with. She had no idea how fat or thin she was compared to others her age. And changing in front of the strangers she had made of her classmates, she was acutely self conscious. When Arielle stopped her just inside the changerooms to whisper a quick message from Chandler, Jaquie thought to herself that this girl might be trusted. She seemed pretty nice, and eager to please. Chandler seemed to like her, at any rate, and the girl hadn't offered to open the doors or anything ignorant like that. Perhaps the blind young girl wouldn't have been so rash if the changerooms hadn't loomed so close in her future, but after she responded and Arielle had begun to rush off, Jaquie called her back. "What?" "Come closer," said Jaquie quietly. Arielle leaned in so that she could hear Jaquie's whisper. "I..." she faltered, blushed red, and began again. "When we get into the changerooms... Would you mind telling me when no one's looking?"

Back on Allenua, the entirety of the Council was assembled and watching Kregg's reaction. "They seem rather inclined to overreaction and violence." "But perhaps our influence might work them out of that." "If they are dangerous, we should avoid them at all costs. Allenua has worked too hard for peace to allow ourselves to be brought down by vermin from another planet." "But that's just it! We are talking about life! On another planet! How could we just ignore this and go about our own lives?" The Prime Councillors watched impassively as the Ministers took turns speaking their opinions. The potential gains of contacting this race, the only other life that had been discovered in the universe, were obvious. Many believed that only good could come of the diversity that these new people would offer. Others thought that Allenua had almost reached perfection, and this new race held too much potential to spoil it. Usually the lesser Councillors, the Ministers, would discuss the situation from every angle and by the time the Prime Councillors were ready to vote, the Ministers were ready to leave it up to then. Never before had the Minister's power to veto been an issue, but Saffnor suspected that with the lessor Councillors so decidely divided, with so little known about the consequences of any action, and with the Prime Councillors themselves so unsure, it might come to that. Probably not, since the Ministers themselves seemed to have no overreigning consensus, but the question was there. This problem might be as difficult to resolve as some that Saffnor had read as a youth from the histories, where the Council debated for days and never reached a conclusion satisfactory to all parties. There was not much more to say. The Ministers themselves soon understood that anything else would be redundant. Their information was exhausted, and only intuition and opinion remained. It would be up to the Prime Council to decide on the fate of their planet. Edit: I apologize to minority skin users for the need to use colours, and especially for the blue, but we need two opposing colours to distinguish language spoken, and blue versus red seemed to best describe the differences between the two races.

Since being accepted as a member of the Tata-Ri'n Elite Maqqara Squad, Kregg had seen many strange things. Still, the podlike machine that was making its way toward him was beyond any of it. For one thing, it was crawling unhindered by the countless ruts and peaks in the gravel. For another, he himself had witnessed it fall from nowhere and, in landing, create a hole deep into the earth, then climb out unbothered and unscathed. He was even fairly certain that while falling, it had exhibited none of the projections that currently decorated its metallic surface. Kregg dearly hoped that it was insufficiently equipped either to see him from this distance or to kill him. Both wishes were belied by the fact that as of about five minutes ago, a spherical object had been raised from its top, whirled around, and stopped when it was exactly facing him. Then a cylinder had grown a little ways forward and disappeared before he could react, when the pod had begun making its way, at an accelerated pace,toward him. Kregg decided that the risk involved in giving away his position to the Ren'Rack was favourable to what the machine might do upon reaching him. Besides, it was always possible that the thing belonged to the enemy. It was a foolish thing for which to hope, Kregg knew, since the Empire of Maqqara would be decimated if the Ren'Rack really had that much unknown technology and was willing to risk unveiling it, but if such was the case then they already knew that he was there. Selecting his most powerful gun, Kregg carefully aimed before letting loose on the pod with everything he had. When the dust settled, it became clear to Kregg that the Maqqara had no hope. The machine had not sustained a single dent, and was blithley continuing its dogged trek toward him.

Saffnor stared in amazement at the video landscape that was coming through to him. As one of the Prime Councillors of Allenua, he knew that it must have gone through many layers to reach his office, so did not question its validity, but the obvious assumption led to astounding implications. Could it really be true that these buildings had been put together by a form of life other than the Allenua? Without waiting another moment, Saffnor sent a message to the other two Prime Councillors, who would at this moment be watching the same video and drawing the same conclusions as he. There would be a council meeting tonight, and at it would be made the biggest decision that had faced the Allenua in four centuries.

The little room consisted of a tall dome-topped structure in the center of another dome. The person standing in the glass-like center was waving her hands and arms around in dance-like movements, speaking at the same time. She had six fingers on each hand, was six feet eleven inches tall and had silvery hair. Her chest was flat as human standards go, her limbs long and thin. The language she spoke was Allenua, the same as name for the planet on which she stood, and the race to which she existed. Her movements communicated to the computer that was all around her, its sensors at various points in the small structure and its screens covering the entirety of the larger dome. Resla was currently an employee from the Ministry of Science and Research. She was one of those working on collecting data to make a comprehensive map and encyclopedia of the currently unchartered planets from from the Allenua Cluster. She watched intrigued as the probe climbed a hill, noting the dry dirt that covered it. The temperature rose slightly with the ascent, and Resla began dictating hypotheses on the reason. She stopped abruptly, however, when the probe reached the peak. The video showed clearly a ruined stone structure. There was no doubt in Resla's mind that the pile of smooth blocks was not natural. Whether the creatures that had made it were still alive was uncertain, but even the fact that they had once been there was phenomonal. The young clerk did not waste time. She immediately waved her hands in the motion to make a copy of the image and send it to her supervisor.

As explained in more detail in the Greenroom, I am restarting this thread from scratch. I will post a summary of the important information so that new players need not read all of the past discussion, but anyone who wants to participate is required to read all future out of character comments, which will occur in the OOC thread in the Greenroom. As such you must be a member of the Pen, but I place no other restrictions.

Thank you, Alaeha. If anyone else feels the same way, I urge you to post here or PM me, since I'm judging whether or not to run it based on whether we have enough people for it to work. I'm not sure how many is "enough", but I think we're nearing it. (That and whether anyone steps up to agree to help with the stuff I can't do, namely making the thread visible only to participants and being ready to delete the thread a little ways into it if anyone is getting uncomfortable). Thank you Joseph, as well. I think I shall do that. Rules again. Okay... and trying to be more clear this time. 1. Anyone who is interested in participating will create a new account and PM me from their original account so that I can make sure they are really a member. 2. Once we have a list of the participants, I will send the new account names to someone with the power to make them my Guests, so that they can see the thread. (I already have a volunteer for this part). 3. Inside the thread, I will post a list of the original names so that everyone knows who is involved. I will also post a list (in a different order ) of the new names, for easy reference when "voting". 4. By "voting", I mean sending me a PM along the lines of, "I think Ryan is really Merelas, Eleanor is Ayshela and..." (Disclaimer: I made up these names ). You do not have to send me any of this, it is just for the fun of seeing who can guess the most people. You can also send multiple PMs, or change your vote at any point. As I will be using a spreadsheet to keep track of it, you don't need to worry about it being too confusing for me. If you give me permission to post your guesses, I think it would also be fun to post the whole table of who was whom versus who thought who was whom (if that makes sense to you). 5. I may also play the little party game where everyone is given a card (like from a deck of cards) and you're supposed to find the person with the same card as your own. This would also be an optional part of it all. 6. We all roleplay ourselves at the dinner and dance. This would include posting a general description of yourself and acting much like you yourself would do if we were doing this in real life. You may ask each other questions, but no one is required to answer anything. I hope there will be enough for us to "do"... I'm going to include a buffet, a bar, a band (and the letter of the day is "B"!), a dance floor, lots of tables... and if anyone has any other suggestions, I will be glad to add more to it. 7. Once all the votes are in, or it seems to have wound down, I will end it, posting the winners for matching personalities and possibly the card game too. And did we say that we wanted it deleted afterward? If only our new personalities have access to it anyway, I guess it won't matter much if it's deleted, so we may as well decide right now that after it's over, and everyone involved has seen the end of it, the thread gets deleted. If anyone wants to salvage bits of their own roleplaying or descriptions, we could start a suitable thread for that in the Courtyard before deleting it. All clear?

I don't remember reading your showing up to class? Sorry bud, but at Xavier Collegiate you gotta write that you're there or else you're not! Mwahahaha! Sorry if I just missed the post ...And happy (probably belated by now) birthday. Oh, and thanks Celes. I'm really enjoying this one.

"Wow, Chandler. I'm not sure exactly what you wrote in those letters but I'm glad you convinced almost everyone that it wasn't you." Jaquie smiled in Chandler's direction. "And clearly I should have believed you all when you suspected Matthew... but he's never done anything like that before. I wonder why he's never touched Lia?" "Yeah," replied the teen. "I'll tell you about the letters at lunch if you want. Right now, we'd better get to Gym, or Mrs. Asmundson will make us do pushups..." OOC: Heh... now we can have lots of fun with Gym class! Edit: for clarity

*groans* Bad pun, Gnarlitch! Bad! ..The lead isn't a blind cat, is it? I can't remember the play all that well... Lady Celes: I just wanted to say hats off for playing a much better "dumb" character than me... I'm finding your posts very amusing! Loving it. (And also, to point out that the word "sights" means something along the line of seeing.. I think you mean the word "sighs", like where someone sighs in exasperation at someone else.)

You're welcome. Does that mean you won't vote for me now? Ooh.. Chicaco or Cats would be pretty neat, too. Although since Jaquie isn't involved in theatre in any way, I don't have much say, do I?

"It just doesn't seem like Meat's style, Chandler. I despise the guy, but he's never put anyone in the hospital before," Jaquie whispered. "The way I see it, nothing like this has happened in Xavier for as long as we've lived here. So what's different now?" Chandler looked around the room. "You don't mean the exchange student?" Jaquie shook her head sadly. "I hate to say it because it comes out as racist. I don't have any problems with Germans, you know that. But we never had any trouble before Bina came over." OOC: A vote for Jammeez - Bina Jamhausen

It's kind of difficult to give us 24 hours in the first day phase and expect us to just start voting. Not many of our characters have the disposition to just begin flinging accusations. At any rate, I'm sure we'll do the best we can. I for one plan to come online in about a few hours and post a vote regardless of any good IC reasons.

Mr. Blackburn hands out the quizzes, and Jaquie can hear him shuffling between the rows, the papers softly hitting the desks each time he pauses. He makes his way to her and she reaches out to receive the usual disk, which she slides into the drive and adjusts her headphones. "You may begin," intones Mr. Blackburn, and Jaquie presses a button to start the quiz. While the monotone computer voice is preaching questions to her ear, Jaquie types the answers on her special silent keyboard. She wonders vaguely, not for the first time, what it must be like for the other students, writing on paper and being able to switch quickly between questions. Crushing the thought, Jaquie's mind wanders instead over to Chandler. She'd known him for two years now. They went out to movies and stuff all the time. But he'd never really asked her out. Jaquie's mind went over all the usual arguments: Perhaps he considered that they were dating. But he'd never tried to kiss her. Well, obviously he's just shy. She'd never tried to kiss him. The fourth time the voice in her ear had to repeat its question, Jaquie started back to reality. Oh yes. She knew the answer to this one, but as she began to type it up the buzzer sounded. Jaquie actually jumped at the sound. How long had they been writing? She hadn't been distracted all that long! But then Mr. Blackburn started talking, and all thoughts of the quiz were discarded. People began gossiping almost immediately. Jaquie heard someone say, "At least we know it can't have been the blind girl." "If that isn't the height of ignorance!" cried Jaquie, to the surprise of many of the students who hadn't even heard that particular comment. Chandler must have been included in that group, for he murmered, "What is it?" "A blind girl can't beat somebody up?" she mimicked loudly. "I'm not even sure who said that, but I know right now I could beat you up. Obviously I could, for I would have the advantage that you wouldn't be treating me seriously until your nose was already inside your face!" Everyone was silent for a moment. "Do you think I couldn't see you, so I wouldn't know where to hit? My ears are fine and I could easily hear your movements. And once I had you, you'd be on the ground so fast you wouldn't be moving anywhere else for weeks! You arrogant, ignorant, annoying, wo.." Chandler was shaking her shoulder. "Jaquie!" he said fiercely. She stopped, but didn't bow her head, just kept looking straight forward in the direction of the original voice. Not before long, the conversations had started up again. Jaquie even heard some whispered ones about what she had just said. No matter. If they wanted to persist in ignorance even after being told otherwise, that was their perogative.

"And mine, for those who just arrived, is Shanna. I am sorry to say that my skills are few; however, I can cook and I know something of healing wounds. In the desert there is nothing to cook or even eat, so I too would prefer the forest."

How about Xavier Collegiate, from the town of Xavier. It would be a little less obvious homage to the X-Men I've never even heard of Godspell, man. Our school did do Grease, though, so you're not totally out to lunch Not that I'm in it... but Little Shop of Horrors sounds like a good one for you guys to put on... I'd totally go! Our school mascot should be a wolf. Or at least a wolverine. C'mon... the Xavier Wolverines? How cool is that? And it's a little bit like a wolf, besides being the only animal other than humans to hunt for sport, so they're even one up on wolves.

Jaquie gets to the class with a couple of minutes to spare, and sits in the space near the front since it's the one nearest the plugin. She sets up her laptop, devoting a small part of her brain to listening to the aimless conversations going on around her. Sometimes she regrets not having these people for friends, but most of the time she realizes that they all pity her and she just can't stand their arrogance. Today, as she listens to the girls in the back talking about the cheerleading uniforms, Jaquie also thinks just how stupid most of them are, and is very glad that her blindness allows her to actually see more with regards to people. An easy way to filter out the unworthy. Hopefully Chandler will come soon. He's about the only one in homeroom worth talking to.

Jaquie strolled along the pavement leading up to the school. Tucked under her left arm was a laptop case, and in her right hand she held a white cane. Unlike most blind people, she wore no sunglasses. People could stare at her unmoving eyes as much as they wished; how could it possibly bother her any more than it did them? Even when there was the telltale pause in the sentence of someone she had just met, when she knew without asking that they were looking at her, she didn't mind. Let it bother them. If her misfortune bothered them for whatever inexplicable reason then they deserved to be bothered by it. When she was halfway to the doors, Jaquie's toe struck something that was usually not on the sidewalk there. Only now putting the cane into use, the young girl felt around for a moment before exclaiming, "Meat! Are you suntanning?" "For your viewing pleasure," he retorted to the raucous laughter of what would be his two buddies. She heard him standing up. "Then you won't mind me feeling you up, since that's how I see?" A couple of chortles from some of the other students. For Jaquie, that was all that they were. Not very many of them would stand to talk to her especially, they were all too bothered by her blindness. But they helped to fuel her, helped to keep her wanting to live, by laughing at her jokes. "Why, if you don't mind the same." Jaquie could hear the grin in his voice. "I'm glad to hear you think I'm worth it, but no thanks," she said, then stepped around him to the left, the opposite direction she'd heard his buddies laughing. Thankfully the other students stepped out of the way for her. And thankfully Meat didn't taunt her any more just yet. There'd be more at lunch, she was certain, but at least she could get to this morning's class. When she got to the door, her hand brushed against nothing while looking for the handle. Someone must be holding it open. "Thanks but no thanks," she said angrily, pushing open the other door and passing through. "Being blind doesn't mean being a cripple," she huffed, and went to class.

Yeah, Buddha's got the idea.. I'd be friends with anyone that doesn't instantly treat me "too nice". You will all know your characters better than I, so tell me here if you think you pass the test - and would want to be her friend. I'm getting the idea that my character isn't actually going to be a very nice person. She will misconstrue almost anything. However, if you manage to treat her sufficiently normal that she likes you, she will (then and only then) accept occasional offers of help. On the topic of the bullies, perhaps they didn't actually beat her up but just give her trouble a lot. If they did beat her up, then probably they got in trouble for it, and then Jaquie (am I spelling that normally?) would have gotten angry that they got in trouble and not her because she's blind, thereby causing a big kerfluffle with the principal and teachers and probably we don't want to get into that. I forgot to mention earlier, she's got a laptop with headphones for reading and writing so she doesn't have her own assistant. Are we all in the same grade? Class? It would be easier if we could all assume that we know to some degree everyone involved. Foolish: That might just be a trade secret I was about to ask that earlier, but it might be wiser to just wait and see.

Sure we do! You killed the ones who would have... By the way, I'm never trusting anyone named Marcus/Markus again.