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 Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 7:28 pm
Hey all. I'm new, and I've gotten two characters whose stories I'll keep here (I'll put them up as soon as I finish the second). Thanks Zephy for pointing this out.
Until I have anything posted to distract the lions from eating me, I will meanwhile distract them with a cat poem, which can be read in yet another way from an RPer's perspective.
Curiosity
may have killed the cat; more likely
the cat was just unlucky, or else curious
to see what death was like, having no cause
to go on licking paws, or fathering
litter on litter of kittens, predictably.
Nevertheless, to be curious
is dangerous enough. To distrust
what is always said, what seems
to ask odd questions, interfere in dreams,
leave home, smell rats, have hunches
do not endear cats to those doggy circles
where well-smelt baskets, suitable wives, good lunches
are the order of things, and where prevails
much wagging of incurious heads and tails.
Face it. Curiosity
will not cause us to die--
only lack of it will.
Never to want to see
the other side of the hill
or that improbable country
where living is an idyll
(although a probable hell)
would kill us all.
Only the curious have, if they live, a tale
worth telling at all.
Dogs say cats love too much, are irresponsible,
are changeable, marry too many wives,
desert their children, chill all dinner tables
with tales of their nine lives.
Well, they are lucky. Let them be
nine-lived and contradictory,
curious enough to change, prepared to pay
the cat price, which is to die
and die again and again,
each time with no less pain.
A cat minority of one
is all that can be counted on
to tell the truth. And what cats have to tell
on each return from hell
is this: that dying is what the living do,
that dying is what the loving do,
and that dead dogs are those who do not know
that dying is what, to live, each has to do.
Alastair Reid
Coming soon: My pup Tharon's winning contest entry.
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Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 7:42 pm
Well, I lied, I'm putting up my first character's story now. It probably wouldn't count as an SoA journal if I didn't, right...? This is for Tharon, a pup in a pride that has not been officially created (or approved?) yet, and my second character (though the first with a completed story). For the contest, I answered the prompts in the first person, and I had a lot of fun with it. If for some reason you're reading this, I hope you enjoy it, because it will not teach you how to stay on a bull for more than 4 seconds, bake a cake, manage stocks, or sail a Greenheart vessel into the Antarctic and lead a team through the impossible wilderness and, finally, to safety a year later. Thank you. I was the first.
Name: Tharon
Meaning: Vigilant Walker
Personality: I'm the smartest pup ever because Uncle Aheero said so! I'm going to be big and strong. I like to explore everyplace and I'm usually getting in trouble because I go too far but I always think that where I stop is right before the place I'd find something important so I keep going and Mommy yells at me. I don't get to be big and important like the Dames do but that's okay because even the sun visits the sky sometimes and even though the mountain and the earth spirits are the most important or whatever and nobody worships the sun the sun's important too like me and the sun protects us even if the sky only lets it visit and the other spirits won't talk to it like they won't talk to me.
Prompt Number: 1
Prompt Reply: I'm not just any pup! I'm the eldest of all my mom's pups and Mom says I'll be big someday and I'll have to look out for my brothers and sisters and they'll be big someday too and we'll grow strong like the old pack was in the old days before everything was bad like it is now. It'll be like it used to be, I guess, only this time the spirits won't hurt Mommy's friends.
I don't know why we have to take this stupid test but mom says that there are no stupid tests and Uncle Aheero says I have to do it to be responsible to be a knight and I'm going to be a knight someday. I'll show everybody! So I'm doing it. Uncle Aheero says if the knights are strong it makes the spirits happy, too, but I don't like the spirits. He said I shouldn't say that but Mom said I shouldn't lie, so you just keep it a secret between you and me, okay? I don't like the spirits. I wanted to ask them why they made Mom's friends go away, and she said I shouldn't talk like that, and only the Dames are very good at talking to the spirits anyway. Mom knows everything. Why can't I talk to the spirits too? I want to tell them to give Mommy's friends back.
Mom says the spirits are in everything, like the mountain and the water and me and Uncle Aheero and everyone and the wind and the clouds and the sun and everything. It's kinda confusing but mom says the spirits come from the sky and the mountain and live up here forever and are responsible for everything but I'm smart so I ask about stuff and I knew about the rockslide because everybody knows about the rockslide so I asked Mom because she knows everything too. Why did the spirits hurt Mommy's friends? Mom was angry that I knew so much, I think, probably because I'm a boy and all the girls think boys are stupid and try not to let us touch them because then they'll be stupid and the pack will go away but it's not fair. So we chase them around and I think maybe if we touch them all the spirits won't talk to them either.
But anyway I think if a rockslide hurt all my friends I'd eat the spirits and then I'd dig a hole so that when they came back because Mommy says the spirits live forever they'd fall into the hole and instead of making rockslides they'd just keep coming back and falling into the hole.
Uncle Aheero knows almost everything Mommy does but not quite so much because he's a boy like me. He says I have to think about what being oldest means and I think it means I get a lot of tests like this but that's okay because Mom says there are no stupid tests so I'll be good at this test too! I guess being the oldest also kinda means being good at tests so that when everybody else in the family gets the tests they can say but older brother what did you do when you had to take the test and then I can help them.
I think that part of being the oldest is that I kinda do that but I also do other stuff too. Mommy would be upset if she heard some of this but I told you she taught us never to lie so I'll tell you something else and you don't have to lie but you shouldn't tell anyone! Mommy says her friends were warned about the rockslide so the spirits look out for us even when they're angry because I guess maybe we broke something the spirits liked and they get mad like Mommy does sometimes when we break her stuff but she still loves us so she doesn't eat us. But the spirits didn't wait long enough for Mom's friends so her friends went away so doesn't that mean the spirits don't love us anymore?
I guess I was kinda born to keep an eye on things because Uncle Aheero says that's how I got my name. When I was a pup but a smaller one I mean I would climb away from the litter all the time and Mom said I was a pawful and Uncle Aheero said an awful pawful and rolled around and laughed like he does sometimes and I don't know what awful means but it wasn't funny. Anyway I got really far one day before Mommy caught me and yelled at me and when I got back Uncle Aheero noticed my fur was coming in and he said I had snow on my feet like Dad. Dad is somebody Mommy won't usually talk about but she does sometimes and I think it's probably because the rockslide made Dad go away too. I don't like the spirits for that either because Uncle Aheero says Dad was so strong he could sneak up on an eagle in the snow and eat him before the eagle saw anything, and eagles see everything, except stuff behind them I guess, which only Mommy can do so that's pretty good. He said I was the same way and when I was really really small I wandered off and he said my fur was just coming in then and when Mom yelled at me and brought me back Uncle Aheero said look he already has snow on his feet and I opened my eyes for the first time and there it was just like he said I had snow on my feet.
So he said Daddy was vigilant or something and I don't know what that means but that's why he always had snow on his feet. So I asked Uncle Aheero and he said that Dad was big and strong like I'll be someday and he couldn't talk to the spirits either but he could protect everyone like I guess he protected Mommy. He went alllllllllllll around the mountain and even through the snowy parts and Uncle Aheero says he was so good at it that the spirits gave him snow on his feet to prove how brave he was to keep watch over everyone all the time and that's how he got them and I guess he gave them to me before the spirits made him go away.
I guess that's pretty much everything and I guess you're probably tired now and I sure am so I should probably stop. Is this enough? Even though I can't talk to spirits because I'm just a boy I'm going to be big and strong like Dad and protect Mommy and my brothers and sisters and help them with tests because that's what the oldest brother does and I'm going to be the best older brother ever and I'll go allllllll over the mountain just like Dad. And if the spirits ask for the snow back I won't give it back even if Mommy makes me.
Desired Future Rank: I'm not grown up yet!
Future Plans? Be big and strong just like Dad and help my brothers and sisters with tests and protect everybody.
Anything Else? Jeez you keep asking questions just like Mom does. I don't know what else to put. Can we have some bunny now?
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