Fading Out of the Woodwork

[Yuki Kokoro]

It'd be kinda silly to get to 50 posts without joining, so off I go... I hope. ;;

 

*****

 

Fading Out of the Woodwork

 

Yuki paced back and forth along the hall, periodically glancing at the door with “Writer’s Workshop” engraved in it. She so wanted to get in. Rubbing her tired brown eyes she once again hit up against the thing that kept stopping her.

 

It involved applying.

 

She sent an annoyed glance down the hall that eventually led to the recruiter’s office as the thought continued: applying involved writing something... and then showing it to people... An exasperated huffing noise echoed off the walls as Yuki abandoned her pacing and wandered down the hall, past the library and a section of the residential wing, then outside.

 

‘This really shouldn’t be so difficult’, she thought to herself as she forcibly restrained her legs from pacing and sat down in the light snow. ‘The Pen is for improving writing after all, and the people here are very nice. Besides, lack of inspiration doesn’t mean you can’t write, it just means you have to push through and write anyway. If you worry about how everything will turn out you’ll never get anything done.’ Yuki’s inner voice was putting up a very good argument, but it wasn’t doing much for the girl herself.

 

She did take heart from her reception in the Banquet Room however. The wonderful poems she had found there had been greatly enjoyed and now she had even gotten over her lingering sense of intrusion, wonder of wonders. In fact, the acceptance she had found for her comments was what had helped prod her into submitting an application, well, that and two certain Pennites who seemed to think she’d do well here. Unfortunately, that had only provided the courage to try to write something, it didn’t actually help with the writing itself.

 

Sighing, Yuki pulled a pad of paper out of her ever-present pocket of Hammer-Space and sat down to write. She mumbled to herself while she fumbled for a pencil, “Now what could I write a poem about...”

 

*****

 

Many crumpled pieces of paper later she finally had something she felt she could possibly submit. Yuki stared at the piece of paper in her hand, trying to decide what she thought of it. The idea was good, but the implementation… Ah well, she couldn’t find anything she’d like to change, just that ever-present sense that there must be something to change. By her standards, that meant it was finished (at least for now).

 

She strode down the hall and before she lost her nerve and burst into the Recruiter’s office. Hoping her application would even be noticeable she positioned it precisely in the center of the cluttered desk and sat down to wait.

 

Of course the Elder of Initiates was absent for the moment, but if someone had been sitting in the desk, this is what they would’ve seen staring back at them:

 

A request to all Worlds, Plains of Existence, Universes et al.

 

Send me your lost and your lonely

Send me your unloved and pained

Send me those who feel rejected by the world,

Those who have lost their place and their path.

Send them to me and let me help them.

 

Send me also your tender and your comforting

Send me your gentle hearts, and your patient.

Send me those spirits who seek the lost and lonely,

Those who want to help others find their place and their path.

Send them to me and let me guide them.

 

Let them all find their way to me and we shall change our world together.

 

Let me give them mentors,

And help them be mentors.

Let me give them support,

And teach them to be support.

Let me nurture their confidence, that rare flower that must be tended to so carefully

Let me tend to it.

Let me show them that there are still places in this world in which they can be understood.

Lastly, please let me write for them.

And teach them to write for themselves.

 

This is all I ask and all I will ever ask.

Sincerely yours,

 

~ The Mighty Pen

[Loki Wyrd]

I've seen you posting around, I was wondering when you'd get around to appyling. I'm too lazy to read this right now, but I promise I will. Regardless, good luck.

[Alaeha]

Yay!

 

*Hugs*

 

Glad you're applying!

 

I think this is well done. I love the story-type stuff at the beginning even though the poem isn't quite my style.

 

*Rehugs*

 

*Settles down to wait with Yuki*

[purple_shadows]

I love it. i'm glad that you got around to applying. Now, all we have to do is sit and wait until Wyvern shows up.

 

*takes a seat on the floor, or at least, the parpers scattered where the floor may be, and continues brainstorming her english project*

[Ayshela]

Seeing the little group waiting in the Almost Perpetually Absent (similar to Almost Dragonic) Elder of Initiates' office, Ayshela turned away quietly and came back some moments later with laden tray. Setting it down on the table, she turned to the startled group and said "tea, coffee, and sandwiches. Knowing this could be quite a wait, i thought it best to be prepared."

 

Huzzah! i'm GLAD to see you applying, and note formally that it's about time! =)

*hugs*

[Loki Wyrd]

Nice intro. The poem was maybe a little too positive-like for me...that stuff freaks me out. Still, it was an interesting read.

[Peredhil]

Peredhil walks by and stops to talk with Door for a bit. On hearing that Melba is out of the room, he frowns, but his face clears when he hears Ayshela has provided for snacks.

 

On hearing that Wyvern hasn't been seen since he received a brochure on "Flamingos, Lawn Gnomes, and YOU", Peredhil sets off to find the wayward Elder.

[Wyvern]

Yuki Kokoro twiddles her thumbs and leans back in her applicant easychair, happily chatting with the numerous Pen members who had gathered in the Recruiter's Office to comfort her. She had been sitting in the Office for quite some time now, but had heard numerous stories of the reptilian Elder of Initiates' "Almost Perpetual Absences" and thus was fully prepared for a lengthy period of waiting. Turning towards Alaeha and reaching for one of the delicious panini sandwiches she had brought from Celes Crusador's Cafe, the applicant's thoughts of lunch are suddenly interrupted as two huge men carrying a fidgeting sack burst in through the Office door.

 

The well-built men immediatly open the sack and toss Wyvern out of it onto the cluttered floor, adjusting the badges on their chests that read "Zoo Security" and glaring at all of those present in the Office. Pointing a muscular finger to the overgrown lizard squirming on the ground, one of the officials growls:

 

"Dis' guy one of yours?"

 

The Pen members in the Office all stand in silence for a long moment before purple shadow finally mutters:

 

"Yep... looks like our Elder of Initiates."

 

"He was caught trying to steal flamingos from 'Beckpecka Bradley's Animal Safari' Zoo..." grumbles the other security guard. "With da help of deese."

 

With that, the guards reach into their sack and toss out three lawn gnomes, which clunk hollowly on the Office floor. Those gathered in the office stare at the gnomes blankly, in silent awe of Wyvern's stupidity.

 

"Anyway" mutters the first guard. "We've gotta talk to the people in charge of dis organization to get reperations for all da hummingbirds your boy scared in this fiasco. After all, a hummingbird that's too scared to tweet is a very sad thing... I take it we go to dee, aaa, Elder Tower to meet dis Ozymandias fellow yes?"

 

The members and guests in the room frown and slowly nod.

 

"Thank you for your time." mutters the second official as the two of them depart from the Recruiter's Office and head towards the Tower of Elders. Wyvern slithers on the ground of the office like the lizard he is, clawing the brochure he carries labeled "Flamingos, Lawn Gnomes, and YOU" and whining:

 

"Not once does it mention here lawn gnome loyalty, not once! Even Lazy the Elder Dwarf would have been better than those immobile idiots. What a decieving book... and it had my heart set on going into the fancy flamingo feather coat industry too." *sniff*

 

Wyvern slowly lifts himself from his position on the floor, angrily tearing the brochure to shreds before bowing to Yuki Kokoro and muttering:

 

"Exxxcellent to see that you've finally decided to apply, Yuki." hisses Wyvern, quickly snatching her application and reading it over. "And a very good application piece at that."

 

Wyvern scratches his scaly chin for a moment as he notices a striking detail, and then mutters:

 

"Say, what is this pocket of Hammer-Space thing you've got? Sounds intriguing... can it be used for storing a wide variety of hammers? If so, we should go into the tool business."

 

Those who have gathered in the Office cast Wyvern a few nasty glances that read "you've caused enough trouble for one day," which makes the lizard immediatly stutter and stamp Yuki Kokoro's application ACCEPTED.

 

"I'm hoping the pocket doesn't have anything to do with M.C Hammer...?" the lizard adds as he hands Yuki her accepted application. The greedy Elder grins briefly before being promptly clobbered over the head by three different sizes of Anti-Wyvern Mallets for mentioning the name of such a heretic.

 

;-)

 

OOC: A very well written and ACCEPTED application, Yuki Kokoro. Welcome to the Mighty Pen! I'm very happy to see that you decided to apply, and am definitely eager to have you as an active part of our community. Once again, welcome!

[Loki Wyrd]

Well, well...welcome to the glamorous life of the initiate. I bet I can go find you a nice clean spot on the ground to sleep on, and if you're lucky you may get thrown the occasional scrap of food. It's unintentional I assure you, but it doesn't make it taste any worse.

 

Congrats on your acceptance.

[Yuki Kokoro]

*laughs* Why thank you, and I certainly would enjoy that place to sleep.

[Loki Wyrd]

I might even be able to scare up a blanket, but I'll be expecting a tip.