littlemanpoet and Helen, I'm in total agreement about ceasing with the 'gypsy'... as long as you'll permit me to call them 'gypsies/wayfarers' on the discussion thread? In truth gypsies isn't a very canon name considering how it originated, I'll admit most humbly. I don't regret calling them gypsies on the game thread (*wicked look*, but I'm sick and wicked right now), though I am going to edit and name them wayfarers as we've actually come up with the name. But I sparked an interesting discussion, eh? Please note I'm also in a very conceited mood. Comes from writing about conceited characters and acting them out, I suppose. Though it seems needless to say I'm not talking about Liornung. :D

Did I really have Liornung say all of them? *blushes* Ugh, apologies. Let's just leave it in there and put it to Liornung's absentmindedness. I have begun to notice he's a bit absentminded at times. It's rather interesting how you learn things about your characters that you never knew before whilst you were writing, isn't it?

Ahem!

Well, what Liornung meant to say (*more blushes*) is that while he is fetching the water he would like Ædegard to give all their names to the one lassie. "This is Bellyn, that was Liornung, etc." :D

Interesting what I've heard about Raefindan. Maybe we could have the wayfarers/gypsies (I put wayfarers first, is that better? :p ) stick around until the Gondor company shows up just so Liornung can hear what he'd call them.... depending, that is, when the Gondor company shows up. I think eventually the Rohan company will outride the wayfarers. Raefindan sounds like an awfully interesting character. *mutters something about the need to pay more attention to the Gondor group*

Now I'll go edit Liornung's posts and change 'gypsies' to 'wayfarers' and then curl up and watch a movie and take Helen's excellent advice and go to sleep despite all inclinations to sit up late writing and tin whistling. It sounds like our confusion is getting cleared up, which is lovely, though the discussions were grand. If I ever have more time I'll wander over to the Books section for a little while.

By the way, Helen, I'm looking forward to Amroth's discussion with the stray gypsy... er, wayfarer.... if it hasn't occurred already? I'll go check the game thread.

Er... I know I said I'd edit and then go to bed, and while I did the former I thought I'd make another post in reply to littlemanpoet's. Liornung has had some serious words with Miss Argeleafa and has suggested something that might greatly upset Ædegard... then again it might not. I haven't the faintest idea so I left what happens next to you, lmp. Liornung is expecting Ædegard to fly into a terrible rage; if he doesn't Liornung will be awfully shocked so if that's how Ædegard's personality would compel him to be have fun with Liornung's pleasant surprise! :D

If Ædegard does fly into a rage, whether explosive or silent, as Liornung expects him to do, we can have fun with that, too.

Either way Liornung probably won't change his mind. He'll just change Ædegard's. :D ;) And again either way, have fun with either Ædegard's anger or Liornung's shock at the lack of it. I frankly don't know how I expect him to react!

All right, then, I've given you something to work with, I've actually decided to bring a new character into the game (if I change my mind tomorrow I've given myself the father's decision to fall back upon), and having done a lovely night's work I'll bid you all a good night and a good morrow. Or, in better words, 'good night and joy be with you all.'

...songs for the homesick...
 

Nuru, I found myself putting words in poor, homesick Argeleafa's mouth... words from this song.

mp3 here


This (of course) reminds me of my own 'homesick anthem' (for a place I've NEVER been! ... Yet still, the blood is strong, the heart is highland...

And while we're speaking about Argeleafa, Helen, what is your opinion of her? Are you in favor of her joining our Rohan company or would you rather she just went home with her father?

Both are darling songs. My own personal 'homesick' song is a modified version of Carrickfergus, changed to be Carrick-on-Suir. But it is a bit different than the version on the site you've given me (guitar chords! Lovely!). Verse 2 there would actually be Verse 3 and the new Verse 2 would run....

My childhood days bring back sad reflections
of happy times spent so long ago.
My boyhood friends and my own relations
have all passed on now like melting snow.
I'll spend my days in endless roaming;
soft is the grass, my bed is free.
Ah to be back now in Carrickfergus
on that long road down to sea.

Suir... Darling little river... and all the lovely people that I knew... I'm making myself homesick, I'm afraid, and I can't let myself do that. I had a bad enough spell in November and December and I'm determined to have a lot of fun here. I dreamt I was back home last night, as a matter of fact.

So you're homesick for Scotland? I have never found myself in truth homesick for Scotland though I have gazed from time to time wistfully towards Cawdor Castle. Alas that it should fall upon my family that we were descended from the Campbells of Cawdor (alas Cawdor is now for the tourists and not for its rightful owners... I'm in a story-mood today, and that idea is sweet to think on... the rightful owners. Can the tourists all be minions of the enemies of Bonnie Prince Charlie? We can watch the Battle of Culloden from Cawdor ;) ), though I do hope we're a better lot. Hold! I mustn't talk about my family history here, though it is a favorite subject of mine. Unless you consider it getting to know me better? ;)

Aylwen? What about you? Are you in favor of Argeleafa joining the company or not? littlemanpoet? I'm afraid to make up my mind for myself. I might not be thinking quite straight in my illness... then again I might be thinking straighter than before and doing something wonderful....? Maybe? In my personal opinion Argeleafa is a sweet girl, but I don't know if she should actually be part of the company.

homesick wayfarers
 

Nuru, I'd better not vote, as I have just saddled myself with ANOTHER Mellon!! We're just such a Friendly group. Although, I suspect (and hope) that Ædegard will rename the grimy young Mellon in a big hurry.

Maybe he'll even call him something nice. :p

I learned "The Water is Wide" as another lament entirely. Guess I'd better bone up on Carrickfergus!

Aye, always have been. It's in the blood. Mountains and hills call, so does the rain and the fog. So does the cold grey sea. Spring air calls me to the reel, or to a pipe.

timing, travel, and stubborness
 

Nuru & lmp, this is delightful! I like these Wayfarers. I'm pondering Amroth's response.

One thing to keep in mind is that Alak is waiting (breathlessly) under the eaves of Lorien to join the game. Stopping to rest Amroth right now will hold her back from joining the action and I'd rather not do that. So I'm thinking of having Amroth's stubborn reply be, "I'll rest when I get to Lorien and not before." I'm still percolating how to do it, since Liornung's plea was so persuasive...

On another note--

In past games I've found that it helps to keep the game moving if you have a good guess who has the opportunity of posting next. This isn't a rule, or a controlling thing.. it's just so that we have an idea who is on when, in case it will help move the game along (generally I've found that it does.)

What I think I know:
mark12_30 is generally on early morning, lunchtime, and late evening Eastern Standard time... and whenever else I can pop a window up. :p
littlemanpoet is generally on evenings, Central time.
Alak is generally on Evenings (Central or mountain time? I forget)
Imladris checks briefly afternoons and is on in the evenings Pacific time.

Now for the wild guesses. For Aylwen , Orual and Nuru I didn't know where to begin guessing! I did a post-search & looked at yoour recent post times... I hope that wasn't too nosey?

Aylwen Dreamsong: Previous posting pattern of noonish and evenings Eastern time?
Orual-- Looks like Noonish & evenings, eastern?
Nuru-- Previous posting pattern (Eastern Standard time:) 1 AM, 1 PM, and sometimes 4 -6 pm. Somehow I don't think you're on the east coast...?

Again, youare all free to tell me to mind my own business. But if we post leaving specific openings for another gamer, understanding the schedule does help to keep things moving. Sometimes leaving multiple openings is also helpful.

Helen, I am looking forward to joining the action, but don't let me hold back something that could be really great. I'm fascinated with these wayfarers also, so it is fine with me if you want to explore your possibilities a little longer. I will post this evening for Erebemlin.

My posting times...I always check in in the mornings, and can post in the evenings, especially Monday, Wednesday, and the weekends.

Have a great day!

~ Alak

Alak-- okay! So, a one-day delay, then... Amroth will put up a mild argument and then 'crash'.

Fairly...I don't like to spend a lot of time on in the afternoons during school (which just started up again) because then I eat up all my homework time *cough*. I pop in for about thirty minutes, catch up on stuff (chat to my friend that is across the ocean), and post in the evenings.

Cheers,
Istawen

Yes, I suppose it does seem obvious I'm not on Eastern time. I really don't have any set time for getting on. Generally I will get on towards evening when the day is finishing, sometimes in the morning... it just depends on when there's time to spare.

Now, Alak, are you just saying that to be polite or do you really not care? It would be quite simple to handle. Amroth can stay and one of the Rohan company could do a brief paragraph describing what happened next (how Argeleafa joined them, etc.) and we could bring the day to a close very quickly. Or we could just linger. It depends on how you feel about it.

Nuru, I promise I'm not just being nice. I am captivated by this story as a reader, not only as a player. I think if you can do something great with the wayfarers, or Argeleafa...do it. I would prefer to wait to join (I have a couple of posts up my sleeve before Erebemlin joins anyway), than to hinder creativity. :)

Mid-Afternoon to evening Eastern Time, for me (close enough, Helen! ;)) but on weekends it's any old time.

I'll be getting a post up soon, promise. :)

Have a great day,
-Aylwen

Three day absence
 

My posting time is either in the afternoon, 3 to 5 (eastern - believe it or not, Michigan is on eastern time) - or in the evenings, 7 or 8 to 10 or 11. And Saturday mornings, and Sunday afternoons.

I have a writers' festival to attend Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this weekend, and I don't know if I'll get a chance to post here or anywhere. You're all doing a great job of carrying my characters, so feel free to do so.

Seee you soon (Sunday).

bon voyage, lmp!
 

lmp, may your writers' conference be a rich blessing to you.

The rest of us:

Rohan: In case you're asking "what's going on with "Pig/Boar/Mellon2"? He's demonstrating how he got his name, for one thing. For another, Amroth won his loyalty by treating him warmly and affirming his humanity, but he's highly sceptical of seeing the same from the others. The wild behavior is (a) jealousy over his newfound NewFriendAmroth-- mine, mine, you can't have him; and (b) defending NewFriendAmroth from the highly suspect and unproven Others.

Amroth is passed out cold and won't wake up for a good two or three sleep cycles... so you've got plenty of time to tame the wild boy. But you've got to keep him from dragging Amroth away in the meantime.

Watch those teeth.

Ravion's Ramblers: Let's get a solid 2 days of travel in so that Imladris can bring her Nassssty Merchantssss into the picture.

Helen, I did get the impression that Pig (he really needs a new name; Liornung is never going to refer to him as that! Amroth calls him Mellon.... should the other group members pick up on that?) was a bit jealous. Liornung is generally a very understanding type but he does have faults and considering he just got bitten by a fierce wayfarer lad he probably isn't feeling too understanding right now, though I don't believe he'll lose his head. :D I'm thinking of Argeleafa take a hand at bringing the lad to reason. After all, though she was only with the wayfarer group a short time the boy would still be more familiar with her face than Liornung or any of the other Rohan company.

Well, she'll consider worth a try, anyway. :D

Great posts, everyone!

I'll post but mine will be brief... I'm trying hard to catch up on some sleep tomight. "Mr. Scott, force yourself to relax..."

Have fun and don't wait for me!

the tension mounts...
 

Imladris, Orual... LOVE IT!

...and I wonder when Amroth is going to wake up to...

Kudos, Hi-fives, and the clear ringing of silver trunpets
 

Imladris has finished Moria! A rousing ending, the stage littered with gore, corpses and appropriate pathos. Well done!

Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!

Grammarcy?
 

Hi all,

Ravion's Other ranger has entered the firelight. Nuru, Aylwen, lmp, have sme fun with him... If the ranger is left with the mistaken impression that WildMellon is the crazy blacksmith, so much the better. (More stress for Mellonin later...)

Hey, guess what I just bought? Strunk & White's Elements of Style. Great bedtime reading.

On the more mundane note.. I keep thinking that one of these days we will have to take steps to clean up the typos we have drizzled along the way. We could set up a routine before the thread gets so long it's a hideous chore... Or leave it all til the end, and do it all at once... somehow.

Any suggestions? Or am I crazy for even thinking about it?

--mark12_30

ps. Immy, I *so* love how Aeron's own traps close in on him. Beautifully done.

I, for one, would rather fix any mistakes in my posts now, than wait until the end. Please, if you see anything in my posts, don't hestitate to correct me (be gentle ;)). I always proofread but I'm far from perfect.

Yes...I think that I'd prefer to fix the typos now...let's se...three in just last post? I have faster fingers, thoughts change in midsentence...then the fingers can't keep up with them. ;) What can I say...I once skipped half of the sentence...

Anyway...

A toast! *holds glass*

And...

Why thank you. :)

...my typos could be registered as deadly weapons...

How about I start running pages of the thread through Word and send results via PM as neccessary?? It'll take me a few days to get to it.

I'm off to early dreams tonight-- exhausted; too much music that went late into the night. Please, keep the game driving forward. If somebody wants to wake Amroth up and send him (and Echo) galloping towards the Edge of Lorien, that's fine. Just please let Alak and I do the introductions between the elves an the Pseudo-Elf.

Phew!
 

I finally caught up on everything that got posted by last NIGHT. Now I have to catch up on everything that got posted TODAY!.

Just two points for everybody's attention:

(1) Ædegard is being altogether too even tempered about this Easterling. Of course, I wasn't around to take care of things, so oh well. I can make up for it. Ædegard is a bit of a Rohirric bigot. It's the only way to put it. He can abide Gondorians, and would love a hobbit, but anybody else earns his suspicion, at best.

(2) Maybe I'm just being a language persnicketer, but I have a really hard time with a Gondorian Ranger using words like "extrapolate". That kind of speech ought to come from Raefindan, if anyone, and Gwyllion should be getting stuck on the word, wondering if Ravion's mad, or is saying something about extra potatoes!

Let me know what you think of my notions, please. :)

lmp--

Language persnicketers rock! Thank you for your input. I guess it was probably me using the word "extrapolate", not Ravion. I'll go and change it. Thanks!

~Orual

Orual, these first two paragraphs in your latest post gave me the impression that you think that Gwyllion is his older sister, when in fact she is his younger sister. At the beginning I had him lie about her age and tell the others that she was his older...now he slipped and he told Ravion that she was two years younger than himself.

Cheers!
Imladris

Ædegard's *cough* tolerance level
 

lmp-- Suspicious Ædegard! Right-ho, I shall edit later this morning, and then let you know by post # where I have edited. There are a couple of places you could paste some real animosity into my posts if you'd like, I'm thinking anywhere WildMellon stands over Amroth-- that should make Ædegard bristle? PM any inserts you'd like (or post 'em here) and I will gladly paste them in. I will edit in any case.

Thanks for helping me keep your character honest!

;) :cool:

And Orual: Continuing Kudos on Ravion's Inherent RangerNess. Bent weeds and brown grass... :)

Ædegard edited
 

lmp, I have edited posts #129, 136, 139. Please let me know if they are OK now, and if there's anything you would like to add.

I think I was the main problem? Glad you said something.

:smacks forehead:

Thanks, Imladris! I don't know where my brain was last night when I typed that up...I just mistyped. You know how that happens? When you know what you want to write, but it just comes out a different way entirely...I'll go fix it posthaste.

Hehehe...do I know that Problem? *laughs* He and I are old aquaintances...yes we are.

*grin* *caper*
 

You guys are da BEST. ~*~*~ Ahem-- Well Written, Everyone.

Orual-- *lovely setup*. Let's keep Erundil on track with WildMellon and let him ignore Amroth (Amroth can either sleep thru the whole discussion or depart for Erebemlin's bonfire as soon as he wakes up.)

I realise character development is taking a great deal of maneuvering, and that game-time is progressing at a crawl. But I think that's okay for now. I'd rather let it unfold with all the lovely character development for now. I suspect the pace will pick up soon enough.

When (and if) the team agrees that we want time to really fly, we can go to the travelling-day-per-post idea, and show the meaning of haste...

The silence is deafening. Was sending Amroth off in a wild rush to meet Erebemlin a disruptive thing to do? Let me know if you want me to edit!

Everyone--

My computer is on its last legs. I want to warn all of you that my ability to post may be spotty in the near future, unless and until we get a new computer. I have access to public computers, but not all the time. I'll try to get on as often as I can, but I probably won't be able to post as regularly for a while.

I'll let you know as soon as my situation changes.

Thanks!

Thanks for the edits, Helen. Under your hand, Ædegard has become again very much in character. He isn't going to immediately trust Erundil either. I'm a little dry in terms of creativity right now, so please feel free to use Ædegard and Raefindan. Sorry to disappoint.

Helen, a very uncomfortable Erebemlin has turned the focus to Wild Mellon. Let me know if that is satisfactory.

Also, Celegtâl and Caranduin are still outside the forest and will see the others from the Rohan group coming. They know not of Amroth and the boy, so we can play with that. :)

Alak, that works just fie. I'm thinking that Amroth would still be quite weary at this point-- pondering a relapse into fever, maybe. He's pushing his poor blacksmith's body too hard, and his elvish spirit is too hot for it anyway... so to speak.

Wild Mellon: I'm thinking he's seventeen like Mellondu, but (mal)-nutritionally stunted to the size of a fifteen year old. I guess if that's still too old (we have called him young several times) I could go with sixteen-but-looks fourteen. Any objections?

Having lmp and Orual on limited-posting is a challenge! I think the rest of us should just plow ahead.

Rohan troop: Nuru, lmp, Aylwen, and now Orual: dive in anytime. If Orual doesn't post soon we can all carry her new ranger til she returns. Alak-- Fun! I'm glad you "posted" elves to look out for Ædegard & co.

Gondor troop: We need to get past the mouth of the Entwash (the delta) and get to the Sarn Gebir area. Let's make some tracks; our characters can "argue" along the way! Immy, you and I can carry that group til Orual and lmp return to full-strength. Raefindan will ask Ravion for archery lessons when they stop "tonight" (gametime) so Mellonin, Gwill, and Aeron can have some time to talk.

Meanwhile... Lord? Could you get Orual a new computer? ...please? Or if not, then at least a way to post? :cool:

Helen, you have a way with prayer.

I've been lucky enough to be able to use the library computer until we get a new computer, which should be soon--my entire family is having issues with a lack of Internet, so we should get it within the week. Hopefully.

So false alarm!

Anyway, I've posted for Ravion and Erundil. Erundil's is short, as I wasn't exactly sure what was needed. Tell me if there's anything more you guys need.

Orual: Erundil's post seems very appropriate to me as is, given the circumstances.

I am quite delighted to see you-- and your rangers! Hurrah!

Language points
 

Just a couple language notions. But tell me if I should just mine my own business.

I'm choosing to by NOT picky about descriptions.

Character words and thoughts are another matter. :D

Actually, these aren't even suggestions for change; just points to ponder, and if you feel like using them, great. If not, that's fine too. But I'll let you know if there's one or so that I consider "egregious" (latinate).

post #167:
Latinate: demanding / Anglo-Saxon: urging

post # 168:
Latinate: languish (great word by the way!) / Norman English: moulder / Anglo-Saxon / waste away

Actually, that's all for now. I'll shut up now.

LMP

"However Comma"
 

lmp,

Please don't shut up. No-one admires monks more than I do. Nevertheless, I'd hate to end up with a troop of italian gondorians tracking an eored of latin-monkish rohirrim talking to a gaggle of french elves.

That said: I did edit, and substituted urging for demanding-- but it wasn't urging on Aeron's part, it was clearly an ultimatum-- my sister comes or forget the whole deal. So what's Anglo-Saxon for blackmail?

Good night, all-- I had hoped to post tonight but early tomorrow will have to do. Don't wait for me if you feel like posting!!!

And no, Alak, it's not 7:30 my time. It's 10:30! :p

*waves and yawns*

For Nuru, wherever she is (I hope all is well) :

Come by the hills to the land where life is a song
And sing while the birds fill the air with their joy all day long,
Where the trees sway in time and even the wind sings in tune,
And cares of tomorrow must wait till this day is done.


...Amroth should listen...