Appy

"So where do you come from? You look like you've been on the road a lot.." Mandy asked, after a question from Apaltra about the city Mandy was traveling to. Apaltra stared into her tankard, seemed to make a decision and took a swig, as if to seal her thoughts. "I have been.. on the road a lot. Because the place where I come from, my home, doesn't exist anymore." Mandy gasped, as she had done often this evening at every little excitement, but the rest of the table gave her the attentive look of people knowing a good story when they hear it. Apaltra emptied her tankard and waved at the waitress for another round. She hadn't spoken of this to anyone, but the time seemed right to finally let the story travel the world like she had. The beer came, and Apaltra continued. "It was a land like no other I've seen, beautiful in every curve of the hills, sparkling with every drop of rain that fell. We were happy, we prospered. Until that one day where I found this first." At these words she reached in her pack and flung what looked like any ordinary leather bag on the table, making the tankards dance, and Mandy gasp again. They looked at her in puzzlement, and Arantyr reached for the sack as if to open it. "I would not do that if I were you" Apaltra said. And right as Arantyr's hand was on the sack it moved violently. He jumped, his chair falling over, and looked at Apaltra with a look of fear. Mandy shrieked and leaned over to Lemmel, who put an arm around her protectively. The others stared from the sack to Arantyr to Apaltra and back. "Wha' jus' happen?" Lemmel asked, looking at Apaltra. It was Arantyr who answered. "I felt..something. A feeling as if.. " he swallowed, and regained his voice "as if disease was creeping upon me, Death leaning in over my shoulder. What IS that!?" He pointed a shaky finger at the sack, which had stopped moving and looked quite ordinary again. Apaltra's was a weary smile as she drunk from her tankard before putting the bag away. Now that they were paying attention they all saw it wriggle in her hand. "That is something we've come to call The Black Pest. And I have to find a way to destroy it..." With this she emptied her tankard once more and ordered another round.

Appy had been watching Wyvern's show and shrieks as the suit explodes. She tries to dive further back-stage, only to bump heavily into Anna, making them both fall over. "Eep! Sorrysorrysorry!" she exclaims as she's trying to get up again, smearing some more make-up on Anna in the process...

Ooooh *squeels with glee*, creepy yet metaphorically deep, I like it! I hampered a bit at the last line of the sixth stanza, but I put that down to not having had any coffee yet. Very smooth read, very strong image. Thanks for sharing.

amusing indeed, where can I get a copy?

Apaltra watched Appy scribble along warily. She was sure she could think of something suitable herself, but the little girl had insisted. Shaking her head she sneaked away and headed for the stage. She was the one who had to do it all, so it should be her who thinks of what to do. Finx, standing behind the curtains, looking with curiosity at the other contestants, noticed her walking up and gave her a nudge with his head as to wish her good luck. She couldn't help noticing the smirk on his face about her being here at all. Apaltra sighed deeply, massaged her temples a bit, and stepped on stage, narrowly avoiding a collision with Tom Atoe. Looking back at Tom Atoe Apaltra wandered on stage and grabbed the microphone. "Err.. oh, right. My answer. Well.." An uncertain looked clouded her face for a moment, but then she drew herself up and continued. "What will I do for the Pen should I win this contest? For one, I can offer to clean up the Garden Party, I heard it's left quite a mess, and no doubt you all would like your beautiful garden back.. Further more I am always available to deal with any security problems around the Keep. No doubt you have very able people in place already, but it's something I'm good at, and those services are yours already, no matter if I win this or not." She falls silent for a bit, contemplating what else she could offer. She would love to offer something special, just for this occasion, but nothing came to her. At that moment Finx poked her inside her head and said: "Why not offer to tell our story? It seems that they like stories a lot here, and ours certainly is worth telling." To the audience it looked as if Apaltra looked at the curtains for no appearant reason, she nodded once, and turned around again. "I was just reminded what you all are here for, and I will offer to tell my tale to all who wish to hear. It is long, it is 'adventurous' as one would say who wasn't there," her eyes grow darker as she says this. "It also explains the scar that runs on my right cheek," and indeed, now that she mentioned it, most people first noticed that Apaltra had a long slender scar running from the outer corner of her right eye all the way down to her cheekbone, "but most of all, it's a tale that should be told." Having nothing more to say, Apaltra bows her head and walks back to the curtains, greeting Finx with a big hug for giving her that idea.

Appy looked around in awe. Every single wall and ceiling was covered in pretty pictures. Completely forgetting that she was lost she grabbed her always-ready piece of paper, a crayon, and started drawing. One of the pieces of paper got caught by a small gust of wind and flew out the doors, towards the PenKeep. Someone wanted her home again, but first she needed to be found. What was on the paper seemed to be two stickfigures, trying to poke eachother's eye out.. or that's what it looked like at least...

(OOC: Some role-playing from Sweetcherrie and me... Those affected know they would be/are and can post now ) Sweetcherrie waits patiently, and notices that the longer she waits the more she needs the toilet. She tries to put her legs together and forget about it, but somehow it doesn’t really work. Surely she would have time to quickly go to her room, and get back in time for the fourth round to start. She runs off, but upon entering her room she steps on a roller-skate that Sweet had left lying around and flies head first into the age machine. From the shock of impact the machine starts working, and a moment later Sweet steps out. The girl knows that Sweetcherrie would have to come back soon, but as children are she doesn’t worry too much about it, and happily skips off towards the carnival thinking she will have more than enough time. When she passes by the stage of the beauty pageant she sees Appy, and runs over to her. "Hiya, whatyadoin?" Appy looks up from the paper she was scribbling on, “Oh hiya,” she smiles. Sweet tries to look over Appy’s shoulder on the piece of paper in the girl’s hands as Appy explains what she’s doing. “Just trying to figure out what my sis could answer to that question in round four.” As Appy notices Sweet trying to look she quickly hides the piece of paper from view. “Nuhuh, don’t look! You'll use it yourself!” “Nuhuh,” Sweet says, and shakes her head vigorously, “Sweetcherrie already knows what she will say.” Appy’s eyes grow big, “Oooh, that's.. that's good then.” she looks demurely at her scribbles, “I have no idea what Apaltra could say really.. but something will come to me, I'm sure!” Sweet nods, “But you know.. I'm a bit worried.” “Worried?” Appy asks. Sweet nods and whispers, “They are all sooo good.” “Ooh!” Appy whispers as well now, “Yeah they are... I'm not sure if we can win anything at all! Specially with that Anna competing.. she looks way nice…” she finishes wistfully. “Yeah, and she even wore the same dress as Sweetcherrie did, well almost at least.” “I saw that! ... Apaltra doesn't even have a dress.. just not fair!” Sweet shakes her head, “No, and all those snapesniffers, they have their own dresses always with them.” Both girls think for a moment about this, and Sweet’s face suddenly lights up. “I know how we can look as pretty as Anna…” Appy’s eyes grow big again, “You do?” “Well,” Sweet says, and starts whispering in Appy's ear. Appy giggles once or twice, and nods. She then shrieks with laughter. “Ooh that’s brilliant, let’s!” “So we'll do that?” “Yes!” Appy jabs the air with her finger dramatically, “To the dressing room!” Appy wants to run away, but Sweet stays where she is, and Appy turns back looking at her friend with a question on her face. Sweet looks very seriously at her friend , “You have to swear that you won't tell _anybody_.” Appy mimics the serious face, “Of course not! It'll be our secret,” she looks pleased with herself at the idea. Sweet smiles happily, and follows Appy towards the dressing room. The girls stop at a door, and Appy looks left and right. “Sshhhh,” Sweet hisses and puts an unnecessary finger to her mouth, “We have to be very quiet” Appy nods silently and turns the handle carefully, opening the door slightly, and peeks inside. “Ok no one's here, let's go” She whispers as she slips in the room and looks around. Sweet slides in behind Appy and makes sure that the door is closed so they won't be disturbed. Once inside she glances around, and sees a big cupboard. She dives into the clothes cupboard and emerges empty handed, but with a big pile of clothes behind her. Appy starts rummaging around at the big mirror's and tables which are along the walls. “Nothing here, only Anna’s dress.” Sweet sighs. “I found something!” Appy holds up a tiny feather, “It’s soft, do you think it's Patham's?” Sweet looks closely, “It does look like it's his.” Suddenly she sees a make-up case and bounces over. “Alrighty!”, she shouts loudly, but quickly claps a hand in front of her mouth and stares at the door, hoping no one heard her shout. “Look at this!” Sweet exclaims in a more hushed voice, getting all excited with the idea of painting herself. She sticks her hands in the make-up box and grabs a lipstick. “Do you also want lipstick?” Sweet asks, and holds it up for Appy to see. “Oooh I never did that...” Appy wanders over slowly, as if she's not sure. “It's really cool, I did it with Sweetcherrie's lipstick a lot. Just sit down here,” She pushes her friend in the chair in front of the mirror, takes the feather from her hand and puts it carelessly behind her on the make-up table. “How's that supposed to go?” Appy asks while she gets comfy, trusting her friend. “Now what do I do?” “Just sit very still” Sweet says and carefully starts putting lipstick on Appy's lips. Appy tries various pouts and pulls faces in order to try and help Sweet resulting in some of it ending up on her cheek. “Oops, don't worry I'll fix that” Sweet grabs behind her without looking and her hands find a piece of fabric. She starts wiping off the excess lipstick. “Now that's better,” Sweet says, and lets go of the cloth that now has big red smudges in it. “Do you also want on your eyes?” “Ooh yeah! But you should have some as well then,” Appy answers softly looking somewhat shy. Sweet nods seriously, “You can do mine after, ok?” “Okay” Sweet sticks the lipstick back in the make-up box and takes out the blue eye shadow, “You need to close your eyes...” As Appy closes her eyes, Sweet starts painting the blue on her friend's eyes and uses the same piece of cloth to correct where she went wrong. She then steps back and looks at her friend’s face. “I think you look really pretty,” Sweet says honestly, “Do you want to do me now?” Appy opens her eyes and looks at her smudged, clown-like face in the mirror. “Woooow, that's so cool!” She jumps off the chair and goes for the lipstick, “Uhuh! Your turn!” Sweet sits down and sticks her lips forward, and Appy pokes at Sweet's lips with the lipstick, regularly grabbing the piece of cloth to correct her work until... “Hmm, this one's all dirty already,” she says, and grabs a different piece of cloth. Sweet smacks with her lips as she has sometimes seen in films, “Can I get green on my eyes?” “Sure” Appy replies and smiles widely. Sweet squeezes her eyes tightly shut, as Appy goes through the make-up case and finds some green eye shadow. She then also pokes at Sweet's eyes with the green powdered stick. “Is it getting pretty?” Sweet asks, keeping her eyes tightly shut still. “Uhuh! Just a bit longer...” She pokes and smears some more and steps back admiring her work with a big smile. “There! All done.” “Yay!” Sweet exclaims as she opens her eyes and looks in the mirror. Sweet's eyes grow wide as she sees the end result and she falls silent in awe. “Now we're both pretty!” Appy says. Sweet nods happily, but turns around with a shock as she hears someone walking outside the dressing room. Appy looks at Sweet, slightly panicked, nods once and runs to the door at top-speed. She opens it, looks around the corners, and makes 'hurry up' movements at Sweet with her hand. Sweet quickly wipes all the make-up back in the case, leaving the table empty before also running to the door. In a whisper she asks Appy if she sees someone. “Not yet, but we should hurry, there's someone coming around the corner!" The girls run out of the dressing room, both covered in red, blue and green. Left behind are a broken lipstick, two ruined eye shadow brushes and a very, very dirty bikini packed together in the also smudgy beauty case. Floating above it, and gently touching upon it, is a small feather….

*signs up for the part of interviewer and possibly columnist (inspiration permitted )* Looking forward to this Can't think of a headline at the moment, but I'm sure I'll find one Good luck!

They complete eachother, very nice work.. I love simplicity like this

That was ... simply... heart-breaking I thank you

After Wyvern cleared the stage, trailing pieces of 'important' papers, Apaltra strode on again. She cleared her throat and waved away some ashes still floating about. "Hello again. I am supposed to show you my talent now, as Appy so kindly told me while trying to push my staff in my hands. But magic isn't a talent of mine, it is something that was given to me, together with the staff. Mine's a different talent, but to show you fully, I need assistance." The last word barely spoken a rumbling noise was heard, behind the audience. Building up volume Finx let out a giant roar, startling most of the people, especially those in the back. "I give you my companion and dearest friend, Finx!" The enormous lion now walked between the audience, it's tail swishing lazily, mouth half open and a sparkle in his eyes as he surveyed the people he walked past. "Not to worry, the roar was actually laughter. He is glad that I am finally introducing him. Now that you all get to know him, he thinks he won't have to hide on the grounds anymore" The lion fixed Apaltra with a stare that said so much as "You had better be right about that." Apaltra laughed and said: "And of course he is right, no more prowling, unless you feel like it of course" She winked as the lion jumped lightly on the stage and put his big head against Apaltra's shoulder, as if to greet her. Her hand on his head, Apaltra continues her speech to the audience: "As you all can see, Finx is not a normal lion, he was an adult when we first met, and he will live far beyond my years. We can talk, in a way which can best be described as telepathy. He told me it's quite rare for humans to even see his kind, let alone talk with them. For this, and other reasons, he has decided to travel with me." Apaltra grabs one of Finx's ears and pulls it gently: "Curious little kitten, isn't he?" Before the audience could comprehend it, Apaltra was on her back. Finx had pushed her over with a flick of his head and the rumble in his throat told the audience he didn't like that joke too much. Apaltra however was laughing again as she got up. "Aaanyways.. again I say, this is not my talent, although one could say that being able to talk with him IS a talent, since it cannot be learned. But as I said before, Finx is here only to assist, and to make you realise the potential of the talent I am about to display. You noticed his strenght, the ease with which he pushed me over just now. He hasn't even shown his claws yet." Irreversibly most people in the audience looked at the enormous paws, and up again at Apaltra as she continued: "I will put my own strenght against his" Appy, in the curtains, gasped, "And to remove some worry from my sisters side.." Apaltra smiled again as Appy walked on stage "I will give her a word with which the fight will stop immediatly" She whispered something in Appy's ear, and the little girl nodded, a determined look on her face now. "Also it might be nice if you could tell the audience what is happening, or just happened.. think you could do that?" Appy nods again, grabs the microphone and walks to the left-front corner, as far as is possible while still being on stage. Appy's voice sounds almost weak as she first speaks, but soon it's as clear as usual as she explains that Apaltra will take off all her weapons "Of course she does this to prevent herself doing too much damage, as well as preventing Finx doing even more damage to her." Apaltra puts down her long sword and produces still more knives and darts from pockets all over her garment. At long last she takes off her cloak and flexes a few times, almost as if she's showing off her well-proportioned body and most sensible woodland's clothes. Finx in the mean time paces the stage, the low rumble permanent now, his eyes fixed on his friend. "I will try to explain as fast as I can, but I might skip a few points, you will know why, once they start. They will start with simple sparing." And as Appy says this Finx bunches some muscles and launches himself towards Apaltra, going for her with his paw. Apaltra simply steps aside, and pushes him on his side, as if to fling his hind legs away from her. Finx lets her do this only to make a full turn and pushes Apaltra with his head, sending her to stagger away from him. "As you can see, Finx is a lot stronger. But you will notice soon why it is Apaltra that needs to be stopped..." Apaltra regains her footing and circles Finx, trying to keep her eyes on all four legs and his head. Finx again bunches his muscles and this time, by feigning, hits Apaltra fully with his head, sending her flying off the stage, behind the curtains. "Oh dear, now you've done it.." Appy says as she stares at the curtains. As Finx turns to Appy with a look that clearly states "You're funny" a blur emerges from behind the curtains and lands on his back, making him start and turn, growling. A hand on his ear twists it painfully, and the only way out it seems, is for Finx to roll on his back. The scream heard comming from under his upturned body is bone-twisting, but it doesn't sound like pain. It brings Rage. Appy, her fingers in her ears, talks quickly "This is what I meant before. Apaltra's gone into her state of Rage, deadly to most people to go into, for it usually brings with it.." Appy counts on her fingers, "The inability to recognise danger, the reduction of one's own defences, and last, but not least, the inability to recognise when to stop." The lion is now moving almost as fast as the blur that's attacking him, his paws scrape the stage sending splinters flying into the audience, his jaws and head move furiously, trying to get hold of his prey. They remain empty as Apaltra seems to dodge his every attack and in the mean-time red gashes appear out of nowhere all over Finx's flanks. Then it seems he has her, as his jaws close on an arm. And indeed, for a moment Apaltra is visible again, standing over Finx, her other hand clawed, posed to strike Finx directly on the head. "JOKER!" Appy screams. Apaltra's head shoots up towards the sound, sees Appy's face, and as fast as it started, it's over. Apaltra relaxes completely and Finx releases her arm, catching her now almost limp body with his own. Appy shivers once, but regains her posture and turns towards the audience. "As you understand, that stopped the fight. Had I not.." Appy shakes her head but continues, "I should first tell you what I didn't finish with. With Apaltra's Rage, only the last danger counts: The inability to know when to stop. This was a talent recognised by a mutual friend of ours, and trained to the fullest with his help and knowledge. This was before Apaltra gained access to any magic. After that, it became only more dangerous as you could see from her speed, and this..." Finx turns carefully, and shows the hand that was going for his head. Slowely moving away but still visible is a skin of stone. "This too she seems to use on instinct, as using magic requires a lot of concentration normally." Apaltra sighs deeply and spits on the ground once, as if to loose a disgusting taste. She embraces Finx's head for a moment, thanking him, and gets up on her own feet again. Slowely colour comes back to her face, and her eyes loose the far-sight look, becomming more focused on the present. She checks her arm, sees that it's bleeding, but not heavily and disregards it for the moment. Appy smiles as she gives her the microphone, stepping aside. "Well said, Appy, and I thank you for paying attention so well..as well as using that word once more" Appy blushes slightly as Apaltra also thanks Finx for his assistance and then turns to the audience and judges. "I hope I didn't cause any discomfort tonight. I was told that my scream can do that to some." Apaltra looks at the judges, "But I doubt they would've allowed that..." Turning back to the audience she explains that, while she always has access to this Rage-state when fighting, it won't come out unless she wills it, as she did tonight. Smiling she wishes the next contestant luck, and thanks the audience for their attention. Then, putting her hand on Finx's head again, Apaltra bows once and walks off to collect her cape and the heap of weapons.

*hugs Arwen* Happy Birthday sis, one day I'm comming to celebrate with ya Happy Birthday to you too Arawn, even tho I don't know you that well

Apaltra rushes on stage, her cape billowing behind her and still wearing the same outfit she had in the first round. Taking no notice of the audience or the judges she crouches down next to the sobbing Tom and places her hand on his back. At this point Tom starts sobbing even louder, but as she whispers something in his ear he seems to calm down and now looks up at her with big watery eyes. "Appy, my staff! I know you have it!" Apaltra shouts at the curtains. After a big crash and a lot of muttering Appy strolls out, trying to look casual, holding a 6 feet long staff with some difficulty. It seems to want to get away from her. Her hand still on the cauliflower Apaltra grabs the staff halfway up and starts muttering under her breath. Long, dark-green leaves sprout all around Tom and start wrapping him gently, like a mother holding her baby. Apaltra keeps muttering, now at Tom, and a look of bliss crosses his face before he seems to fall into a deep, unconcerned sleep. For the first time Apaltra looks up at the audience and the partially soaked judges. "This little guy needs tending to, consider this my second round." She gets up, carefully scoops the wrapped up Tom into her arms and looks at the judges again: "These are the only clothes I have anyways..." Appy drops her head in her hands dramatically After a look of embarrassment Apaltra turns sharply and walks off stage with long strides, leaving Appy to stand there, still with her head in her hands and muttering something about "dresses, I should've gotten her dresses..." At the shout of her name from her sister, she too, leaves..

Good that you went to the ER, I hope you keep getting better.

- A not-so-soft whispering can be heard from behind the curtain from which the next candidate is supposed to emerge - "Stop pushing me! I don't know what made you sign me up in the first place, you know I don't bother with those sort of things!" "Yes, because you don't need to! Don't you see? It's perfect! Common, you've been serious for waaaaaaaaay too long already, get out there and have a little fun!" "I'm gonna...." - Almost falling on her face a slender young woman, dressed in what appears to be a ranger-outfit with a big dark green cape, stumbles onto the stage. With some arobatic moves she manages to stand straight again, all the while glaring at someone who's hiding behind the curtain. She brushes a few strands of blond hair out of her face, notices the audience and judges... and freezes in her step - - some desperate and fast whispering comes from behind the curtain again, the voice sounding very much like Appy's - "say something!" - For the first time Apaltra notices the microphone and walks towards it. After staring at it for a while she appearantly has decided that it's not going to attack her and she walks even closer to speak into it - "Errm..Hi!" "you're supposed to introduce yourself!" - Apaltra snorts at where Appy stands and with an annoyed look grabs the microphone - "My name is Apaltra. Hello and well-met I'm sure" - and with that the slender woman turns halfway to leave the stage again as there's more fast whispering from behind the curtain - "that's not enough! you're supposed to tell them all about yourself and such, y'know.. and make them like you!" - Apaltra rolls her eyes, sighs deeply, and turns back to the microphone - "Well ok, fine. Since my little sister won't let me leave the stage without me telling you more, I guess I will. My full name is Apaltra D'Wilde, and yes, Appy overthere" - points at the curtain - "IS my little sister. I have travelled a long way to this Keep, and have seen many things which you probably wouldn't want to know about.." - a small groan is heard from the coullissen but Apaltra ignores it - "...and, well I guess I'm pretty good with what my mentor called 'green magic' although at the moment I can't seem to find my staff.. - glares at the hidden figure - "This of course only cripples my magic a bit, I am not at all defenseless!" - With a big gesture she flings open her cape and as she starts taking out knifes and darts and pieces of cheesewire her voice gets the boring quality of someone who can go on a long time about the various weapons she's carrying and what all you can do with them while not caring what the listeners might think of it. At this point Appy runs on stage and starts pushing her sister towards the sidecurtain - "What are you doing?" - Apaltra protests - "At least this is interesting!" "You'll bore them senseless, leave while you're doing good, right?" - As she's fending off Apaltra, Appy gains control of the microphone - "My big sister Apaltra! Isn't she great?" - Both exit the stage, Apaltra in a flurry of arms and protests, Appy steadily pushing her, not caring a bit about her sister being a lot bigger - [edit]OOC: oops, seems like we're comming from all directions, hope you don't mind. I hadn't noticed Patrick's post before and sorta need that curtain

*Apaltra sighs and sits down on one of the many pieces of rubble lying around. There didn't seem to be any escape from here, apart from being rescued.* "Well then, a letter-in-a-bottle might reach someone who can help" *sighing again Apaltra grabs her pen and starts writing on a piece of parchment* To anyone who reads this, It seems I am stuck on this wretched island... even though I am not sure it IS an island. The only thing I'm sure of is that it's circular, and there's nothing outside but "hmm" *Apaltra taps the pen against her lips while trying to think of how to describe her situation best* blueness... as in, sky blue, but I'm not sure that it IS sky. The island itself consists of several rings of what looks like canals. At least, there's water in them, and it seems to belong there...The buildings and architecture look unfamiliar to me. They are old.. very very old. It seems that I'm the only one here, which I think is a good thing. Looking at some of the mosaics I don't think this civilisation was very nice. Well, I hope someone finds me soon, I have no idea if this stale air is being refilled. Yes, it feels like I'm in a cave, which is silly since all around me it's blue.. but the air I'm breathing is as old as the buildings. *folding the little parchment Apaltra takes out a little bottle and finishes the letter-in-a-bottle. As she gets up she realises something* "Oh dear... erm, where to throw it in?" *after a moment of thought she shrugs and flings it as far out in the blue as she can, hoping with all her might that by some sheer coincidence it'll find a way out to civilisation*

Am I the only one for whom that linky upthere brings me to a microsoft page? Ebil linky!

Several hours later she knew all about how Arantyr, a slim young man with a pleasant smile, was traveling from town to town, looking for interesting artifacts to buy. How Mandy, the only other woman at the table, was traveling from her village to the big market in a town not far from where the tavern was. The sturdy blond man, who had introduced himself as Lemmel, was traveling to the same town to participate in the yearly tournament there. Obviously he had taken a liking to Mandy, the way he smiled at her all the time, and he listened intently to every silent word she spoke. But all this time, while each of them told their story in bit and pieces, none came from Donegan. All he did was encourage laughter with funny remarks, or listen with an interested look, whenever Arantyr was telling about the artifacts he had already aquired on his former travels. As the beer kept flowing, tongues became looser, and Apaltra, because of this, started talking about her life aswell, and why she was traveling. Alone.

After some short introductions of the people at the table, most of whom had been traveling in the same direction and had decided to keep eachother company, the barkeeper brought a big piece of bread with a slice of the roast on it for Apaltra, and mugs of beer for everyone. While cutting a slice of the roast she turned to the bald man again. “You know, you never actually told me your name, did you?” The meat felt good in her stomach, and the beer wasn’t as bad as she thought it might be. The bald man laughed and agreed that he hadn’t. With a serious face he put a hand on his heart and said “They call me Donegan, but if you want, call me Don.. most people tend to do so after some time anyways” He winked at his companions again who burst out laughing, the one woman called Manda getting a slight blush. Appearantly this man had more faces then she had initially thought. He surely hadn’t been this.. this frivolous when they had shared the fire. In fact, he had seemed very serious and silent at the time. She smiled at him and said “Very well, Don it shall be.” and turned back to her food which was too good to let it getting cold.

*Appy didn't even read Order of the Pheonix yet.. so no spoilers to that one either please!* I'll be in this corner now, sobbing

*Appy bounces along the beach when she notices a table to sign up for Beauty Queen stuff and comes to a screeching stop* "Hmmm..." *She hops off her skippy ball and wanders over to the table, sits down on the handy stump of wood someone left there and stares at the sign-up list* "Apaltra should sign up! She's beautiful!" *After that exclamation Appy grabs the pen and starts working on the A* -Stumpy jiggles and look up- "Eep!" *Appy jumps up and looks down at the stump of wood* Get off me! -Stumpy gives Appy an annoyed look- "Oh wow! I'm sorry! I didn't know you were someone.. or something.. alive I mean!" *Appy giggles a bit after having a better look at Stumpy* "You're cute! Did you just sign up?" Yes I did and I will win. "Well, I'm signing up my big sister, so you don't stand a change of course, but I'll cheer for you!" *Appy beams at her own generous gesture* -Stumpy smiles as much as a tree stump could- *Appy looks again at the paper and notices the last name on the list* "Well, Stumpy, I'm sorry I sat on you.." Its ok *Appy smiles* "You were comfy though" *beam* Thanks... -Stumpy wonders if thats a good thing- *Appy thwirls the feather in her hand, turns back to the paper and finishes the name Apaltra with the tip of her tongue sticking out of her mouth* "There!" Signing up your sister huh...does she kow? "Not yet...." *Appy grins widely, grabs her skippyball and runs off towards the Keep's groves, shouting over her shoulder at Stumpy* "Thanks again, and good luck! I've gotta go find my sister now to tell her!" Nice meeting you, c-ya "Bye!" *And with that, Appy dissapears into another sunset" OOC: in other words, I'm signing up my character named Apaltra, Appy's big sister... and a big thank you to Black9 for creating this post with me in IRC! (in case it wasn't too clear, he's the one between the - - and in bold type )

*redirects the tea to New Orleans* Hope that worked...

Alrighty then, pm send. I'm going to guess already though and possibly ruin it for everybody else *grin* Z: Statue of liberty island.. what's it called again? Liberty Island? Gwai: Hawaii? Venefyxatu: Rome? Tanuchan: Amsterdam?

"That was a very good meal again." His daughter looked around the corner of the little alcove where she's working away the dishes of tonights meal "What? Speak up, I can't hear you above the storm!" Feeling slightely annoyed at this Hion repeats himself. "I said, that was a very good meal again, daughter of mine!" Miarna's smile warms his heart and he smiled to himself while she returned to her task. His attention was drawn to the slightest of noises near the front door. As he noticed the little piece of parchment on the ground he felt the pressing need arise to open the door and have a look at who put it there. As silently as he could, Hion got up, walked over to the parchment, picked it up and opened the door just so that only a small beam of light from the candle escapes into the storm. The figure and horse look unfamiliar, and in this light, there's no telling what he - or she, Hion thought, consciously - might look like. It looked like the rider was busy with something in his hand, but before Hion could decide if he wanted to stop him, the rider kicked his horse and drove off. This left Hion with only the piece of paper in his hands and the feeling of a missed chance. He had no idea what that chance would've meant for him, but he had followed such feelings and ideas all his life, and wasn't about to stop now. Not even for his daughter, who insisted that he take it easier. As he walked back to his chair, he opened the parchment and read: Thirteen strikes of the clock after the crowing of the rooster meet me on the square in front of the general's headquarters. The Arcane can quell rising fires on water as well as underground A clear sign of interest must be given To the outside. "Is something wrong father?" Only after hearing Miarna's voice did Hion realise that he had been standing in the middle of the room, staring at the opposite wall, for the past few minutes. He shook his head. "Nothing wrong, nothing wrong.." He clenched his fist, concealing the parchment, and put it in his pocket. While he continued on his way to his chair he said: " And where did that pretty flower in your hair come from? It must've taken Jertam days to find it, it's a rare variety and not easily found." Sitting down he put a smile on his face while he looked at his daughter's blushing features. The rest of the evening he listened to her account of today's 'adventures in town', as he liked to call them, and of course, what Jertam had all said or done. Not once did he dare to think of wether he would follow the parchments instructions or not. Time would tell him, it always did...

do you have to be stranded to guess?