Sweetcherrie

The dice are loaded against him His chances are small (had to find the english version of the dutch saying )

Be bold in what you stand for; and careful what you fall for. No idea who this is from, but I would suggest a small change.... Be bold in what you stand for; and careful who you fall for.

I really like the imagery you use in this one. The poem shows what happens, and where it’s going to, but what I’m missing is where it’s coming from. First line of first stanza reads a bit difficult…the ‘the’ doesn’t feel right I think. Second stanza holds the best line in my opinion; ‘struggling to draw warmth from within’. The fight to keep yourself motivated is well expressed here, and the line even made me think of Buddhist monks that can warm their whole body by willpower alone (but that might just be me, putting in strange links ) Third stanza, ‘pushing forward’, I first had the idea that it was the storm, but upon rereading I think it’s yourself that keeps pushing forward. It might be good to sharpen this image somehow. Great poem, and with a little tweaking could probably be even better Again the images are pretty clear. What strikes me in this poem though is how many times you basically use a different image to say the same thing. I think it might be an idea to compress this poem, and try to make it more compact, but maybe that’s just me. I did like that you were consistent and stayed with the comparison of painting. Overall, again nice This poem was pasted three times above each other…and in a weird way it made sense to have that silly repetition in my head. It reflected the gibberish you were scribbling…I’m not saying that you should repeat the same stanza three times, then again…a bit more would probably be nice…seeing that it’s gibberish. All three pretty nice poems, but definitely liked the first one best. Thank you for posting them.

Stick to your guns....not exactly know what it means, but I've heard it being used before And yeah, words can definitely hurt very much even...

Yay, everybody is growing cubes oh...pssst...the Grow ver 3 isn't bad either

'pardon my french' an apology for using crude language.

nah, looks good to me like this *runs of to find something with a word from the new one*

In dutch we have lots and lots....and lots of sayings and expressions. I don't know that many in english, but still this seemed like a fun game. (and I might get to know a few more this way ) Basicly I start with an expression or a saying, and the next person has to use one word out of that and use it in a new expression or saying, and so on. It's raining cats and dogs.

I think that second post was supposed to be two posts But with the new board software it adds it to the previous post if you reply too fast after each other. Read them, liked them, will try and give some more feedback, but only if you don't mind

I agree with HappyBuddha, definitely cute

A little girl bounces into the recruiter's office. "Where's the kitty?" When Sweet sees someone waiting she stops mid-bounce, and darts over to satisfy her curiosity. "Who're you? Did you see the kitty? Wyvern would probably know, it's his office you know, he's the man, the big kahoona, the-" On her fingers the girl is counting all the different names she can think of, as the flow of words simply keeps going for a while, and Kandara simply has no way of cutting in, but suddenly it's silent. Sweet frowns, "So what did I come to do here again? oooh...yes, kitty!" With an expectant look on her face she stares at the stranger, knowing that the answer was there somewhere. OOC: A nice poem. Welcome (or welcome back?) at the Pen, and I'm sure Wyvern will be around shortly to look at this

Let the Cube Grow!!!! try the Grow RPG as well.....can the purple dragon be beaten? Grow Cube

Dana will be there for all stages subject: Dreaming

Pulling up her nose in an attempt to shut out the smell of unwashed socks, Sweetcherrie tried to stay positive. This is a date after all, and it was clear that Wyvern was at least making some sort of effort, or possibly she just didn’t want to disappoint him. “Looks…err, lovely.” She was just about to walk to one of the tables when her phone rang. With an apologetic nod at Wyvern, she answered. “Hello?” “Oh, hello Christopher, sure if I can at least.” While talking she walked away from Wyvern, and almost stepped in some dog shit. She let out a little cry, and wondered how and if she would be able to get out of eating anything at this place. “Err…” Sweetcherrie looked at Wyvern who was already talking to the waiter with great claw-gestures, probably trying to get a discount or something. She sighed, “I guess I can try….” “Thanks, oh, and Christopher?” Too late, Christopher had already hung up the phone. She had hoped he could be her excuse for keeping this date short, but now she guessed she’d have to sit out the ride. Still, she reflected as she put her phone away and walked back to where Wyvern was standing, in a way it was even fun not to have to care about what you looked like for a change. Yeah, that would be the approach she’d use for this date. Sweetcherrie put on her best smile, and put her hand on the lizard’s arm. “You know…I’m really not that hungry, and I guess you could use your money better than buying me meals that I wouldn’t be able to finish anyways, no?” She winked, and hoped that they would indeed not eat anything at the cheese-place. OOC: Thanks to Patrick for giving Christopher's answers which can be found here

With his cheek lying on his arms, and his hoodie drawn over his head, Sven was drowning himself in self-pity. His test results should’ve been there ages ago, but they simply hadn’t come. The teacher had promised to call him when the results were there, but he’d only called to say that they couldn’t find them back, and that Sven would probably have to wait till tomorrow, but that they would then surely have them. Sven had hated each and every day of high school, not because he didn’t have friends, but simply because the studying had been hell for him. He simply wasn’t an easy learner. When he was around the age of twelve they had discovered that he was dyslectic, and that on top of his very short attention span, had made each and every homework assignment living hell. He turned over, and lying on his back he stared at the Marilyn Manson poster at the ceiling. He wished he could’ve gone to the last concert, but his parents wouldn’t let him go because he’d just scored an insufficient on math. The rest of his room went with his personal style. The walls were painted black, and instead of electric lights he only ever used candles, and most of those were skull-shaped. He drew the black hoodie closer around him. He hated waiting. Downstairs the phone rang, and his heart started beating a little bit faster, but no scream from his mom came up the stairs. He wondered if he should go to this story telling thing he’d heard about. It had sounded rather lame at first, but when he had also heard that it was the audience that gave the storyteller the subjects, he'd thought that he might as well go, and try and make it as hard as possible on this person. He stared at the poster some more, and then made up his mind. The least he could do was try and share his misery with others. He flaunted down the stairs, and yelled to his mom that he would be out. He took the piece of paper that had announced the story telling out of his pocket, and followed the path that had been indicated on the flyer to this thing called ‘Pen Keep’. He wondered what idiot would ever call a building this, but then he shrugged it away. When he’d finally found the room, he was disgusted with the very brightness of it, but since he’d decided to this he was going to stay as well. He settled down, and noticed the skulls in the corner, they looked pretty real; maybe this wasn’t such a bad place after all. He listened to the old hag without disrupting her, but when she was finished speaking he was the first to put his hand in the air. When she nodded for him to speak, he cleared his throat. “How about something about keeping your promises…” Sven thought about his teacher, “Something with an elephant.”

Congratulations Black

With all that had been going on Sweetcherrie was getting rather tired of this place. Mynx falling out of the sky was just that little bit extra that almost made her wish she was at home, having a nice warm bath, instead of being here in these cold caves. She looked at the note in her hands and wondered if Inbi would still be able to hear her, and suddenly she started giggling uncontrollably about the whole situation. This had been supposed to be a simple cleaning job, and instead she found herself standing with a dream paperized Inbi in her hands, Mynx falling out of the sky, and caves that led nowhere. Having to sit down before her knees would give way she continued laughing on the floor. “You know, if I wouldn’t know any better, I’d say we simply have to wish for things hard enough to make them happen.” She hiccupped from laughing in between words. “I mean, I wished for help, and we got it….falling out of the sky even!” Sweetcherrie poked in the rock bottom, “You see this isn’t hard, it’s soft…soft!” The ground under her was indeed starting to feel like a soft mattress, and each time she poked, her hand disappeared deeper into the ground. Sweetcherrie wobbled up and down on the floor now, a big grin on her face. “You guys should try this, it’s fun. Maybe I should wish for a couple of drinks for all of us, or a bar around the corner.” Behind them they suddenly heard noises, as if a large group of people was standing just around the corner of the next cave-wall. Sweetcherrie’s face turned more serious, and her laughing faded away. “Wow, this is really ‘be careful what you wish for’.” She’d said it dryly, but even she didn’t feel like laughing about it anymore. Holding on to the wall she scrambled up and stepped away from that part of the floor that was now almost wobbling as jell-o. “Think we should have a look?”

Looking forward to a great party, and prepared with a plastic sword in her right hand and a tin shield in the other, Sweet storms into the Cabaret Room. She drops a big bag in a corner, and looks around with a happy smile on her face; this must be absolutely the first birthday party where they act out a massacre. “Where’s the massacre? I wanna see bloooooood.” Upon seeing that everybody is still unharmed she jumps to the person nearest to her, and stabs one of the cheerleaders with her plastic sword. The poor girl screams, and instead of defending herself she runs to hide behind Wyvern. Disappointed with her opponent’s reaction, Sweet sticks her sword in the pocket of her dungarees, and walks back to the bag. Headfirst she dives in, and only moments later the little girl emerges with arms full of plastic swords and shields. “See, I was afraid already that nobody had brought anything to defend himself, so I thought I’d bring some spares.” With these words she starts handing out the swords and shields to the people around. When everybody is armed with a plastic sword and tin shield Sweet storms up to another cheerleader, and screams, “En garde!” OOC: Happy birthday to all of you

Katzaniel, Your sharp mind, and sharp questions force me to think about what I’m saying and writing. You’re not afraid to say what you think, and this is a quality I have high upon my list. Working together with you on various projects has been a great pleasure, and I hope that we’ll be able to continue like this for a long time still. Gwaihir, Lately I’m finding out how great you actually are. I’ve called you Guardian Angel of GL’s in PM a couple of times, but you truly are an angel. You stand for what you believe, and are willing to fight for it. This has already given me the will to keep fighting as well a couple of times, and this sort of support is worth more than I can express here in a few simple words. Akallabeth, It’s been a while since we spoke, and I miss it. I hope life will give you time to visit back here every now and then. Wyvern, We have very different opinions about a couple of subjects. Nevertheless, I’m very, very grateful that you are always there for a good talk. I admire your love for the Pen, and am trying to take your positive feelings as my example on how to post. Morgane, Not sure if you ever get to read this, might have to give you the link before you do However, I do want to say thank you for being there. You have a great sense of humour, and laughing is so very important. Gyrfalcon, I should come round more often for tea or a coffee in #thepenkeep, I greatly enjoy RPing with you and Daryl. Guess, I’ll have to kick myself out of bed early a bit more often. Peredhil, Your unwavering believe in people has given me strength a couple of times already, thank you for this. Cyril Darkcloud, Not only do I admire your writing, but also highly respect the way you stand behind your own principles, and respect others in theirs.

Dear friends, Yes, friends. I’ve come to consider the people around here like this, but lately I’m getting more and more upset about the general negative atmosphere that hangs around this place….. Soooo, instead of adding to this, I decided to bump this thread and give a little bit of TLC here in hopes of reviving some of the thoughts that I felt when I first got here. Starting randomly here, but will continue till I’ve addressed all the people that I feel I should address Appy, Mindtwins, nuff said *hugs* Patrick, From the start we’ve gotten along, and even though I can react a bit shortly at times, you continue to be there and listen. I would like to apologize for all the times I might have reacted snappy, you’ve never done anything to deserve that, and I am glad that you are my friend. Venefyxatu, How I love writing together with you You manage to spark my imagination, and I thank you for that. I hope you will find time to come around here more often; I miss having you here. Gryphon, My partner in crime I couldn’t have wished for a better partner to dive into the adventure of the AVV. You manage to hold back some of my enthusiasm, and guide it towards more realistic paths. I think we make a great team. Kitty, You make me laugh, and that’s so needed nowadays. Your sarcasm has managed to pull me through many mornings, and I just want you to know that you are greatly appreciated by this silly girl on the other side of the world. Will be continued…

Thank you

*sighs* I guess the most sensible route for me would be to walk around these sort of posts in the future, because I see no other way on how to react to a post like this than with humour. And just to reassure people, I normally don't tend to go out and purposely hurt people with my posts, and was probably assuming that nobody around here does...my mistake...shouldn't assume. I'll just have to keep my humour in PM from now on, making sure that I know the person I'm talking to

Does one have to exclude the other?

Hmm....I was going to leave it with my previous post, but reading Gwai's reply, I simply have to add my voice. Of course this is not only a writing forum (funny enough I've had some major discussions on exactly this topic lately). We also come here to socialize, and some people only come here to socialize, which is all no problem, but (and this is a big BUT....err yeah ) I do feel that writing is a major aspect of the Pen. And I have to agree that writing is indeed not only story, poetry, prose...or whatever genre you chose, and can be commenting or discussing things, but when your first post on these boards is like this.....then to me it comes across as if the poster hasn't read too much before posting that post. This for the simple reason that he or she would've seen that it's not the normal way of posting here, and also not the best possible subject either. And I'm no psychologist at all, but if someone has been lurking for a long time, (somehow affraid to post maybe), don't you think he or she would come with a less provocative post? If I wouldn't be allowed to tease people anymore....well, it would take a whole lot of fun out of it for me.

Me adds her voice to the thank you's, I love some of the new toys I've checkes all subforums of the AVV, and all works fine, except for the Compass. I seriously have no Mod options there, not under forum options, nor in the drop-down box where you can close, delete, etc.