Tarquinus

Hail, Jester, new king of Necrovion. The Eclipse welcomes your ascension to the throne and looks forward to establishing a relationship with your court. We are sad to lose Peace, our friend and kinswoman, whose water has mingled with ours, and who shall forever be welcome among us. But behold her wisdom in naming her successor! May the reign of Jester be long and glorious!

Happy birthday, gentlemen.

Asterdai sprinted up the stairs to the Hall of the Sun Balcony. “Innocence!” he gasped, his sides heaving. “dst has been taken prisoner by the Blue Meanies and is being held in the Land of Joyless Text!” “So?” Innocence replied, arching his faun’s brows. “And hello to you, too, Asterick.” “We’ve got to help her!” “I’m sure she likes it there. Sounds like a job for a mercenary, anyway.” “Where… who… what do we do?” Innocence sighed with exaggerated patience. “I haven’t done a place in, oh, I don’t know, feels like a long time. As for whom I do, that’s none of your business.” Asterdai spluttered, starting to protest, but Innocence held up a hand. “What do you do? Send out a notice. Offer a wish point or a useless creature or something silly. Have you thought about asking asterisk?” Asterdai blinked. “Ask myself?” “No!” Innocence cried. “asterisk, not Asterick!” A very short, moustachioed blond guy wearing a winged helmet bounded up the stairs. “Je suis arrivé!” He shouted, sweeping off his helmet and bowing elaborately. “Astérix le Gaulois, à votre service!” “No, no, no!” Innocence snapped. “Not Astérix… [i]asterisk![/i] Please.” The little man’s shoulders slumped and he shuffled back down the stairs. Asterdai blinked. “Well, if that’s not asterisk, where do we go to find him?” “Him?” Innocence demanded. “How do you know it’s a he? Isn’t that just a little sexist to assume asterisk is a he? Or that Dusty wants to be rescued by a male?” “O-Oh,” Asterdai stammered. “Sorry, I…” Innocence laughed. “I’m just kidding. asterisk is totally a he.” Asterdai flushed with embarrassment. “I… I see…” “We go to the editing room,” Innocence told him. “All the punctuation marks hang out there.” Asterdai started to speak, but Innocence brushed past him and swept down the stairs into the Archives lobby. Passing into the empty room in the east wing of the MDA, Asterdai frowned in confusion. “This is the editing room?” Innocence ignored him and clapped once loudly. “Dot, Sticks, Queerie, Curve… C’mon out!” “…What is it?” moaned a sleepy-looking question mark, who blinked uncertainly at Asterdai. “Who’s this?” “Queerie,” Innocence said, “meet Asterick.” The question mark blinked and narrowed suspicious eyes at Asterdai. “What does he want?” Asterdai explained: “The Blue Meanies have taken dst prisoner and are holding her in the Land of Joyless Text!” “So?” the question mark asked. “That’s what I said,” Innocence muttered. “It is no harm! Pay no attention to it!” roared an exclamation point, bouncing around vehemently. “So… I came to ask asterisk for help,” Asterdai said, looking somewhat taken aback. “dst hates asterisks!” the exclamation point exclaimed. “Pay no attention to it!” A period looked askance at the exclamation point and advised: “Stop. Wait. Listen.” “Oh, Dot,” Innocence said, shaking his faun’s head. “You’re almost as bad as Sticks.” “On the other hand,” a comma yawned, “it is conceivable, though barely, that dst does want to be rescued, even if the solution is temporary, and would welcome your help, she would greet you with gratitude, but she might seem a little surly, she is very temperamental, while intellectually acute, and is not given to displays of affection, you may have to approach her with care,” and sighed. “Why can’t I help?” the question mark whined. “You ask too many questions,” Innocence said. “asterisk is the best punctuation mark for the job.” The period said, “Wrong. I am. Period.” “We know you’re a period, Dot,” Innocence snapped. “We came to see asterisk.” “Well,” the comma continued, “I suppose the period is the most experienced of us, and could do a good job, he’s a bit blunt, or maybe I could, I am awfully versatile, and popular, cute, and technically useful,” looking at Asterdai hopefully. “Curve, you slow things down,” Innocence told the comma, “and you do tend to run on.” The asterisk somersaulted into the room and bowed to Asterdai with a flourish. “You need a hero; I am he. These other punctuation marks are insecure because of their youth and a certain desire to prove themselves.” “Pay no attention to it!” the exclamation point roared. “Exactly,” the asterisk agreed. The period frowned at asterisk and said, “No. Not youth. You’re younger.” “Nice try, Dot,” the asterisk rejoined smugly. “I am as old as writing itself, and at least two thousand years older than you. In the days of ancient Sumer, I was a glyph called a [i]dingir[/i].” “Yeah!” Innocence said. “He was a thinger! Or a thingie." Innocence begain bouncing around with the exclamation point. "Hey, Sticks, a thingie!” “And as for versatility, I am by far the most talented,” asterisk continued, smiling superciliously at the comma. “I am a query wildcard; I can be used in multiplication; I can indicate corrections, footnotes, and relative insignificance.” “Do I really need a wildcard?” the question mark wondered. “Shut up, Queerie,” Innocence suggested. “It is no harm! Pay no attention to it!” the exclamation point roared again. “Don’t you have anything else to say?” the question mark asked, shaking her head at the exclamation point. Warming to the subject of himself, asterisk talked at a louder volume. “In the land of MagicDuel, I am even more powerful,” he noted. “I can turn text blue, denoting actions, wishes, and emotions. Clearly,” he told Asterdai, “I am the one for the job.” “Well, I suppose so,” Asterdai said, looking at Innocence, who nodded with approval. “Come along, then.” “The Land of Joyless Text is more a state of mind than a physical location,” Innocence observed as the three headed south from the MagicDuel Archive lands. “I think we’ll probably find Dusty at the Gazebo of Equilibrium.” Sure enough, they encountered dst and Mur, who was clad in Roman platemail and clutching a long pole topped by an eagle and a placard bearing the letters SPQR. dst stared at Asterdai, Innocence, and asterisk as they approached, and Mur hastily concealed a copy of [i]Rome: Total War[/i] under his blue cape. “Yes?” dst asked. “We’re here to save you from the Blue Meanies!” Asterdai exclaimed. “We brought asterisk!” But dst recoiled in horror. “asterisk?” she moaned. “He’s their best weapon!” She pointed at a group of people pretending to fight using text. “Of course!” Asterdai said, slapping himself in the face. “The Blue Meanies…” asterisk bellowed malevolently. “I have you now!” he crowed, leering at dst. Innocence rolled his faun’s eyes and wandered away. Asterdai looked around for help. The little blond guy leapt onto the scene, swatting asterisk with the flat of his blade and turning on Mur, who swore and drew his Iberian gladius. Asterdai scurried away as dst set a drac-heavy ritual, and a huge fat guy with a red moustache and pigtails ran up shouting “Sono Pazzi Questi Romani!”* He and the little blond man ran away while dst’s ritual eviscerated asterisk, and dst sighed, relaxing in asterisk-free serenity. *Italian for “They’re crazy, these Roman(ian)s!”

"A Child Said, What Is The Grass", Walt Whitman [quote]A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it is any more than he. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven. Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped, Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose? Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe of the vegetation. Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic, And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones, Growing among black folks as among white, Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same. And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves. Tenderly will I use you curling grass, It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men, It may be if I had known them I would have loved them; It may be you are from old people and from women, and from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps, And here you are the mother's laps. This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old mothers, Darker than the colorless beards of old men, Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths. O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues! And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing. I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men and women, And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring taken soon out of their laps. What do you think has become of the young and old men? What do you think has become of the women and children? They are alive and well somewhere; The smallest sprouts show there is really no death, And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it, And ceased the moment life appeared. All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.[/quote] "As I Walked Out One Evening", W.H. Auden [quote]As I walked out one evening, Walking down Bristol Street, The crowds upon the pavement Were fields of harvest wheat. And down by the brimming river I heard a lover sing Under an arch of the railway: 'Love has no ending. 'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you Till China and Africa meet, And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street, 'I'll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry And the seven stars go squawking Like geese about the sky. 'The years shall run like rabbits, For in my arms I hold The Flower of the Ages, And the first love of the world.' But all the clocks in the city Began to whirr and chime: 'O let not Time deceive you, You cannot conquer Time. 'In the burrows of the Nightmare Where Justice naked is, Time watches from the shadow And coughs when you would kiss. 'In headaches and in worry Vaguely life leaks away, And Time will have his fancy To-morrow or to-day. 'Into many a green valley Drifts the appalling snow; Time breaks the threaded dances And the diver's brilliant bow. 'O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist; Stare, stare in the basin And wonder what you've missed. 'The glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the bed, And the crack in the tea-cup opens A lane to the land of the dead. 'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes And the Giant is enchanting to Jack, And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer, And Jill goes down on her back. 'O look, look in the mirror, O look in your distress: Life remains a blessing Although you cannot bless. 'O stand, stand at the window As the tears scald and start; You shall love your crooked neighbour With your crooked heart.' It was late, late in the evening, The lovers they were gone; The clocks had ceased their chiming, And the deep river ran on.[/quote] "if everything happens that can't be done", e.e. cummings [quote]if everything happens that can't be done (and anything's righter than books could plan) the stupidest teacher will almost guess (with a run skip around we go yes) there's nothing as something as one one hasn't a why or because or although (and buds know better than books don't grow) one's anything old being everything new (with a what which around we come who) one's everyanything so so world is a leaf so a tree is a bough (and birds sing sweeter than books tell how) so here is away and so your is a my (with a down up around again fly) forever was never till now now i love you and you love me (and books are shuter than books can be) and deep in the high that does nothing but fall (with a shout each around we go all) there's somebody calling who's we we're anything brighter than even the sun (we're everything greater than books might mean) we're everyanything more than believe (with a spin leap alive we're alive) we're wonderful one times one[/quote] "Medusa", Sylvia Plath [quote]Off that landspit of stony mouth-plugs, Eyes rolled by white sticks, Ears cupping the sea's incoherences, You house your unnerving head -- God-ball, Lens of mercies, Your stooges Plying their wild cells in my keel's shadow, Pushing by like hearts, Red stigmata at the very center, Riding the rip tide to the nearest point of departure, Dragging their Jesus hair. Did I escape, I wonder? My mind winds to you Old barnacled umbilicus, Atlantic cable, Keeping itself, it seems, in a state of miraculous repair. In any case, you are always there, Tremulous breath at the end of my line, Curve of water upleaping To my water rod, dazzling and grateful, Touching and sucking. I didn't call you. I didn't call you at all. Nevertheless, nevertheless You steamed to me over the sea, Fat and red, a placenta Paralyzing the kicking lovers. Cobra light Squeezing the breath from the blood bells Of the fuchsia. I could draw no breath, Dead and moneyless, Overexposed, like an X-ray. Who do you think you are? A Communion wafer? Blubbery Mary? I shall take no bite of your body, Bottle in which I live, Ghastly Vatican. I am sick to death of hot salt. Green as eunuchs, your wishes Hiss at my sins. Off, off, eely tentacle! There is nothing between us.[/quote]

[url="http://languagearts8.wikidot.com/bob-ewell"]Team Ewell[/url]!

The contest still runs to month's end, I hope. I will post a submission either way, since my entry isn't about a reward but a fun piece of writing.

[quote name='Grido' date='20 January 2010 - 11:50 AM' timestamp='1264009835' post='53125'] If alts gather information for the main that the main would not otherwise have known, that is alt abuse. If you use an alt to scout the area ahead of where you are to look out for possible people that might attack you, that would be alt abuse. [/quote] I am guilty of these two things. I consider them more "borderline" than outright abuse, but I'll stop.

I know you respected or at least sort-of liked me as Tarquinus and hated me as Keith, but as me, the player, I am sorry to see you go. To cop a line from Garrison Keillor, be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

Happy birthday, my friend. Strength, honour, and cake.

I carry torches from a sense of duty, as Tarquinus is loyal to the land of [s]Loreroot[/s] Narnia and feels obliged to do his part for [s]the alliance[/s] Aslan. The contest is [s]no fun for me whatsoever[/s] Sparta.

It's up for me.

Intelligence is absolutely critical to a successful campaign. If I have any complaint about the Loreroot forces' efforts, it is only that we were not positively deluging each other with intelligence - status reports, disposition of enemy forces, etc. No: not all need fight, and strategically speaking, many [u]should[/u] not. But the less glamorous task of lookouts and other auxiliaries should not be undervalued at all!

Welcome. As far as I am concerned, you should ignore people who assail your roleplaying or dismiss it as "stupid" -- even if it were true, saying that to a player of MagicDuel would be a bit like handing out speeding tickets at a race. This community has roleplayers of all degrees of experience, skill, and level of interest, from none to considerable. I find that most people are supportive and welcoming of new players, even if many, with good reasons, express doubts about secondary or tertiary characters (alts). I offer but one word of advice, and that is to attempt to be considerate. If you wander into a scene where nobody is speaking in-character, don't force your RP on them (unless you deliberately wish to be viewed as obnoxious). Those of us, such as myself, who value good roleplay, have reason to hope that our courtesy will be returned by those who do not share our values. Enjoy your time in MagicDuel, and don't be shy about asking for assistance.

I already bid that, friend, but 2 gold, 5 silver (or 35 silver) for the claw-tokened angien.

1 gold, 3 silver (or 18 silver) for the Imperial. 2 gold (or 30 silver) for the claw-tokened angien.

I am grateful this was moved rather than deleted, though it all seems pointless to me now. dst and I are unlikely to see eye-to-eye on the topics of roleplaying and poetry if nothing else. I do want to add - Amoran and I have taken pains not to continue to, uh, be explicit in MD. I want to repeat my thanks to Mur for having the kindness not to ban us and to create a private space in the game for people who want such a thing. And I want to apologize to anybody I have ever offended with explicit RP. [b]Edit - for those who care to sound off, I guess we'll leave this topic open for a day or so. I will ask for it to be closed soon, though.[/b]

Actually, dst, I'm indifferent about the whole thing. From all your stalking and chat-log pulling, I'd think you'd know I have found another venue. I did not speak up on the cyber-sex thread because I didn't see what good voicing my opinion would do. You weren't listening then, you aren't listening now, and you are unlikely to ever listen in the future. YOU, my dear, are the hypocrite, a seasoned rule-breaker who has appointed herself one of the moral authorities of MagicDuel. The comic irony of that is deep. So... you stayed because you didn't see a single RP thingy. Good for you. When people started roleplaying, you were confused and disgusted. Admit it: outlawing the cybering won't make MD a better place for you. You hate ALL roleplaying. Yes, I do say if you have no training in art, you cannot appreciate art as an artist can. I've known scores of people to dismiss things such as modern art and oh, I don't know, maybe poetry, out of sheer ignorance. Your exposure to roleplay and the roleplaying world is ankle-deep, but you speak as though you have plumbed all the depths and intricacies of it. You have not. You speak almost entirely from ignorance, and like most ignorant people, you hate everything you do not understand. I wouldn't bother threatening someone as self-centered as you. You have always been quite open about your flagrant disregard for anyone else's point of view. No idea, do I? Hmm, whatever you say. I recall voting on your stigma, and I recall the events of that time. For the record, I voted against giving you the stigma... because I am a big softie. I have always known I was doing a thing that could get me banned, and I was always prepared to pay the consequences of my actions. You don't read well - because you are not paying attention - and thus you didn't see my remark about what Mur has done and his record of being lenient on this and other matters. Like people such as yourself. As nearly as I can tell, Amoran opened this topic because the rule seems to be something you and people like you pressed Mur to institute so you could get the people you don't like banned. You still don't have the spine to admit that your stance on this issue is really all about the people you don't like rather than any righteous horror at what they have done. Your concern for the MD community is entirely and demonstrably confined to issues and people that affect you personally.

1 gold and 5 silver (or 20 silver) for the angien with Claw I and II.

They shouldn't, though some people seem hell-bent on bringing sagging bosoms, acne, and facial tumors into the fantasy world.

Yes, welcome. I think you'll find many of us are willing to help you without spoiling secrets or puzzles.

I'll bid 12 silver for the claw I & II tokened angien.

Happy Birthday.

10 silver for the Imperial Aramor with Claw II.

Aeo, in his post about the auction, Mur began by saying "this one, I play." I'd like you to think about that for a moment. Mur's had an idea, and perhaps - perhaps - he didn't think through every angle of it before running with it. He's impulsive like that. Is it absolutely necessary for you to feel personally victimized by a whimsical notion? And more importantly: is Mur never allowed to play? I'm the reverse of you in many ways - I am older, I work, and I have spent a fair amount of money on MagicDuel. I don't have (to borrow a phrase from Douglas Adams) a whelk's chance in a supernova of buying any of these items... and I never will. Why? Because my interest in MD is always in different directions. I like fighting, but not merely to win. I like it when fights have some degree of strategy, and even now, with tokens and 6-drac rituals and everything, tactically brilliant fights are still sometimes fought. I like roleplaying, but most roleplaying in MD gives roleplaying a bad name - and I'm not talking about adult-oriented behavior or the pure obnoxiousness of certain immature players. I'm talking about people who get lauded for "roleplaying well" ...who constantly break character and pretty much ruin the illusion of the fantasy world by remaking it in the image of the mundane one. The point is, I don't care about becoming materially wealthy in MD, owning the rarest creatures, hoarding all the inventory items for no apparent reason, or anything like that. This auction is for the people that do. It disgusts you: fair enough. Leave it at that. Personally, I'm amazed at how much silver and how many heavily tokened creatures some people have managed to acquire. I can't be motivated to do the same, period. I am very sympathetic to many of the things you say, but I feel you have expressed some of your grievances inappropriately and in the wrong place. Because of that, I worry that the genuinely legitimate grievances you have will be lost in the shuffle and cacophony of people shouting "BOO!" P.S. Dumbstruck is a word, and a good one.

I will very probably be available to sponsor future quests.