Snypiuer

Waiting for the final Wheel of Time to come out in paper back. Other than that, I haven't been able to get to a bookstore and see what's out there for quite some time now. Seems that no matter how much detail I can find online, I just don't know if I want to buy a book until I have it in my hands. The feel of once mighty vegetation, brutally torn down and violently pulverized and converted into paper and formed into a book for my perusal . . . well, THAT just makes reading so much more satisfying!

Glad to see your muse is visiting more often! Like what you've been sharing, THANKS.

I took it as only 1 pair visible at a time.

Imma hug a llama!

I like how the story MAKES me want to know more. Not only about what happened, but what will happen. Not much to say about how to improve it, it's good the way it is! Let's see where you take us.

OOC: I LIKE this story! Only things I can see, are few few misspellings and 1 or 2 grammer errors - no biggie. You kept my interest with hints of the past and I find myself wanting to learn more about that, as well as wanting to see what is to come. Can't wait to read more!

Thank you!

Actually, I should elaborate. Magic can be explained already. Alaeha touched on it: it can also be found in "The Lords' Prayer": A very common misconception is that magic is 'done' on our plane of existence. Magic actually manipulates the Astral Plane. Everything in our plane of existence is also in the Astral Plane, but not everything on the Astral Plane exist here. By changing the Astral, our plane then conforms to that change. A scientific explanation can be found in quantum entanglement, where particles become connected in a way that, regardless of distance apart, the manipulation of one particle immediately causes the same effect in the other. All this being said, I believe that magic CAN be explained and repeated. It just falls outside the reach of science - maybe this will help. At some point, every young person searching for answers and questioning what they are taught will come up with the BRILLIANT and absolutely original question that no one has ever asked: If God is Omnipotent, can he create something so heavy that even he could not move it? Our, totally, original deep thinker has managed to put forth an impossible situation. If he CAN create something too heavy, the fact that he can't move it disproves his ominpotence, as it does if he can't create something too heavy. Our young genius has out done us! Unless you use magic. The correct answer is: Yes. He can create something that even he can't move. BUT, he's God, so he can move it. THAT'S the paradox of magic. Impossible things can be done and even explained, just NOT by science. Magic can be refered to as the 'science' of the impossible. A branch of inquiry and explanation equal to, but seperate from science. Of course, this is simply what I have come to believe from what I have researched.

Very interesting. I, myself, am an Athiest. But, find the study of theology and metaphysics rather enjoyable. While it is true that many fields of study were once occult knowledge, I have always believed that Magic is seperate from these fields. It encompasses everything that CAN'T be explained with science. Not that they will never be explained, just that it falls outside the realms of science. If that makes sense. As to it not being about religion, most of todays major religions actually practice ceremonial magic, without even realizing it. Prayers are remnants of incantations and masses contain traces of magic rituals and ceremonies. Finally, the tarot. It's main purpose is as a guide and road map, divination is a side effect. Just my opinions, of course !

The tall, thin man approaches, with a slight tip of the hat, he says, "Ladies!" and taking the pale womans' hand, he brings it to his lips and gives it a kiss, all the while looking her in the eye, "Madam. This fine young ladies' Body Tree sounds like a wonderful thing. But, a person of your station should need not travel to have a meal! In fact, not only should your meal come, willingly, to you, you should look elegant as it does." He pulls out a gossamer shoulder wrap, "THIS, my dear lady, is made of Doubt Lace. Not only is it an elegant and VERY flaterring fashion accessory, it also causes those within the wearers vacinity to doubt their own thoughts and feeelings, and to, instead, rely on WHATEVER the wearer tells them. A woman of your intelligence and sophistication can surly see the useulness of such a garment."

He had learned of the Labyrinth from an old Dwarven drunk, ancient even for those of his Blood, in a filthy pub that even the rats avoided due to the clientel. The story seemed nothing more than fantasy, but there was something that kept itching at the back of his mind that it just might be true. He paid more coin than he had to spare filling the old sot with mead and a house brew that could have been better put to use as a floor stripper - that is, had the proprietor had even the slightest interest in discovering the true nature of that which he walked upon. In the end, the old one slumped forward and looked up at him through blurry eyes and mumbled of a secret pass through the mountains. When he found the pass, he knew the Labyrinth was real. The pass was dangerous and, on several occasions, nearly took him as just another fallen wanderer. As he exited the pass, he saw a wall stretching as far as the eye could see in each direction. He thought to himself, "Now that I think of it, that old bum never did say where the entrance was." Looking left and right, he pulled a coin out and flipped it high, "Swords south, Crown north. At least the walk will give me time to come up with a name and background to give anyone I run across." The coin landed with a soft thunk in a clump of grass at his feet and he looked to see which direction the fates would take him.

When it comes to games, I tend to have my 'world' in sections and have a list of possible occurances for each. I find that this helps when players go 'out-side-the-lines'. I always figured that scenes I want to happen will happen when the players stumbled upon them. Having a, somewhat, predetermined situation for each section helps with game flow. I'm not saying that certain events WILL happen in any given section, just that I have several that are POSSIBLE for each. One possiblity is that nothing will happen - that's when I give a brief narrative and move on.

A tall, thin man with a pin-stripe suit and a pencil-thin mustache, sidles up next to Stick and puts a friendly arm around his shoulder. "Why, my, my, myyy. Aren't you the Man! If you ask me, you don't need to find a party, because it will come to you! All you need are the balloons! And do I have the balloon for you!" The man bends in closer and says softly, in a conspiritorial voice, "Now, I don't just sell these balloons to anyone. But, I can see that YOU are not just anyone!" With a flourish, the man pulls out a balloon (that's right, ONE balloon). "I give you . . . the SNAKE BALLOON!" Stretching the balloon between his hands, he continues, "Now, to the untrained eye, this seems like nothing more than a long, thin balloon. But only a fool would believe that this, magnificent, item were a mere balloon. And you, my friend are no fool! I can see by the spark of intelligence in your eye that YOU can see the TRUTH of it's granduer and I GUAR-EN-TEE, that with a few short breaths, YOU will be the sole possessor of the WONDERFUL Snake Balloon and the party will soon begin!"

PM me some cards!

Jordan, until him, I thought no one could get emersed in so much detail as King - I swear I've read a book of his where he takes, something like, 2 pages to describe a candy wrapper blowing by. I agree with pretty much everything you put forth. There are times extreme detailis needed and there are times when a quick gloss over will suffice. But, I'm like BPO, MOST of my writing is spur of the moment, stream of thought, 1 draft stuff - I start rewriting and I NEVER finish. On the game front, I was always one to roll for a chance something may happen and go from there. Nothing happens? Give a brief synopsis of that part and skip ahead. In the end, I believe it's up to each inividual to decide what they 'feel' should or shouldn't be included - doesn't mean they'll be right though!

O.K., I've added some skins and a couple of little things. Check out the links when you point at them and we now have a little picture in the menu bar. I have a LOT more skins to go through, but I need to get to reading EVERYTHING I missed! We've had some good activity and we REALLY need to keep up the momentum. I know: You: Snypiuer, YOU'RE the worst one at not contributing! Me: And I can't spell all that well, "For I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me." You: Well, quoting Winnie the Pooh isn't going to get anything done. Me: Winnie the what? You: *SMACK!* Me: OWWW!!!! Soooo ( "a needle pulling thread." - Rodgers and Hammerstein), I'll TRY to do better and HOPE everyone else does also!

Hmmm, there you go. Now THAT'S a question. We need to first define 'art'. What is art? My, PERSONAL, belief is that art is a proficiency. A scribble is not art. A childs' classroom assignment ceramic mug - not art. You can fight a war and even win it, but if it was by shear brute force - not art. Even very good pictures or sculptures can be lifeless and sterile - not art. Basically, I believe art is not the action itself or how well it was done. Rather, does it invoke thought? Impart emotion? Make a statement? No matter what it is, if you can say yes to these questions, then it has been done 'artfully'. And if you have done something artfully, you're an artist. At least in regards to that ONE thing. I think it is fair to say that you would need to have SOME consistency to be considered an artist in general. So, art is not the action, but the execution of that action, which defines whether it is or isn't art. But this is just based on my personal view.

I find that I, myself, end up having to go back and figure out why I gave certain names to certain places, people, etc. in order to make the story uniform. Yours, seems to be pretty cohesive. Shouldn't be that hard to tie things together. This is one of the stories I ALWAYS read - sometimes it takes a while to respond, but I ALWAYS read EVERY addition. My one critque is the usual. You NEED to write more!

BPO! WAKE UP! No sleep . . . NOOOOO SLEEP! Sorry, just need more of this story!

O.K., still reading this. One thing I would say is, format. I, personally, have the habit of losing my place. This comes from the fact that I don't, so much, READ a story, but SEE it. There's, most likely, some place in my brain that recognizes 'C-A-T' that spells cat. But, to me, I see a cat in my head. The actual animal, not the word. I mean, I see the word, but it doesn't, consciously register as a word, but as the cat in my head. Anyways, this leads to me losing my place. A LOT. Takes me forever to read things. So, you need breaks. Only thing is, I don't know where. The story, pretty much works as is - as far as I have gotten, at least! It's more for me. I need to be able to pin point where I am when I lose track. And your writing is so wonderful, I lose track COSTANTLY. I also have the habit of expanding what I 'see' when I read and end up straying from what is written - hence, ANOTHER reason for the whole 'losing my place' thing. The more I like a story, the more I lose my place because I get so involved and I begin to expand it in my head more and more, until I'm lost and I need to be able to go back to the beginning of a paragraph and your pragraphs are so long that I find myself rereading vast amounts of the story - BUT, the long paragraphs FIT the story, so - ARGHHH!!!. I may not be able to finish this one. I let you know when I do!

ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Head HURT! You are FREAKING me out! What scares me, is how you write the way I think. At least when I got things under control. Most times, my thought process is so haphazard that this would be a version of me being coherent and focused. I LOVE this story. Thank you!

It's nice when someone can express what many feel.

There is some problem with IPS with this. Supposed to be fixed, but other sites reporting still having this and other related problems. Will do what I can though!!! Looking at THIS skin, it may be a color problem. Will see if I can find the code for it and see what happens!

I didn't create it, so I do not have the swords by themselves to re-create with a transparent background. I do have some idea for a new banner for this skin, but it will take a while. I use Paint to do EVERYTHING because I, basically, have no idea what I'm doing and it is easy to work with. But Paint is VERY basic and I don't actually don't know how to make a transparent background with it! I just take a part of the header background and make a Logo using that as the background and hope it lines up. I will get it done as soon as I can!

Need to work on CBox, but going with a new default skin until I can get some others working. Let me know what you think!