Lonely Star: Fanfiction/RPG discussion

[Child of the 7th Age]

Pat,

I'll still hold a day or two and see if anyone else has other ideas.

Also, sometime before the actual choosing, could you do a post where Gandalf privately tells Angara that Ulmo would like to appoint him guardian of Meneltarma?

sharon

[piosenniel]

Sharon, I will get the Angara/Ancalimon scene on today.

Are we then proceeding on to the Choosing?
Have all who needed saved a requisite spot for posts before we proceed?

[ November 13, 2002: Message edited by: piosenniel ]

[Child of the 7th Age]

Pat,

I know we are dragging, but our main problem is this--the absence of Helen, since she is the one with the characters who have to work out their angst in regard to the Choosing. I know she needs to set the backdrop for Gamba and Phura. I am hoping she will get the posts up over the weekend.

I have one more post between Gamba and Cami. It's hard to do when hers aren't up and I don't know what's gone on between him and his brother. I guess I'll try to do it today, and revise later as needed. I will continue to reserve spaces for Helen.

sharon

[Birdland]

Please let Sharon know if you have any preferences concerning the geography of Tol Meneltarma - Tolkienesque or fantastique!

Pio - Is there a specific map that you are looking at? My Fonstad does not have a detailed picture of Tol Meneltarma. I understand the concept of the "caldera"; are you saying the slopes of the mountain tip are too steep for use by the hobbrim, and that they could only "live" in the flat portion at the summit?

But since the Hobbrim are mostly ocean-dwelling, how important is this to their future success? I had almost pictured them living on the slopes under the waves, and just occasionally visiting the shoreline of the island.

The posts we've had on the island with the hobbit groups haven't been that detailed that errors in topography could be pinned down, at least not from my perspective. If it is necessary to refer to specific topography, can this be "worked in" later during editing? Without a proper map to refer to, I don't know how we might settle this. Did the "Lord of the Canon" actually supply us with Canon on this subject? [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I'm having trouble picturing this in order to offer an informed opinion, unless I use a picture of Oahu as a reference. Yes! Hobbrims, Hawaiian Style!

Oh, BTW - Congratulations to Helen for receiving her Personal Title! Hip-Hip-Hurray! (Birdie does a Tail Walk and a Leap in her honor.)

[Child of the 7th Age]

Bird,

I think the difference between Pat and I was whether or not a mountain still existed on the island. If you look back a few spaces, you can probably get to the original discussion Pio and I had.

I assumed that Mount Eru would still exist as a mountain in the center of the isle. I felt that the this was a poetic reflection of the fact that goodness had prevailed, and the sacred hill with its crater top would not have been destroyed even by Sauron. My picture is of Angara, the dragon guardian, sitting astride a mountain.

Pio viewed it in more realistic terms--what would happen, geologically, if a large wave overcame a mountain, with only the top crater being left. Hence she saw a much 'flatter' isle with only the crater part of Mount Eru peeping out above the waves.

I hope that's right! Pat, if I explained it wrong, please go ahead and do the honors.

sharon

[piosenniel]

Here's what I'm saying - let's go with sharon's view of how the island looks. I withdraw all objections to it, since really there is no map and no clear cut descriptions.

[piosenniel]

Can someone let me know what game-time day we are on.

Do we have one more game-time day before the Choosing.

Or will the next new day we speak of in the storyline be Choosing Day?

[Child of the 7th Age]

I went back over the posts. This is what I think. It is now the evening of the next day after Ancalimon's speech.

Ancalimon was midmorning Day l. Choosing will be in 2 days time. That means midmorning day 3. It is now evening of day 2. So the Choosing is game time the next morning.

sharon

[Child of the 7th Age]

Do you want to go ahead and have Ulmo do the first Choosing post? In other words, he would set up the scene for the hobbits to answer...... I think I've reserved enough spaces for Gamba, Cami etc. Plus there's always Mith's magic pen.

Is there anything else people want to do first? I'll probably do some brief thing speaking with Angara plus some reflection on what the boy will do. But I have plenty of spaces reserved for that or I can tag on to my last post.

I could probably do a generic post showing how the hobbits respond to Ulmo, plus the first families choosing. Then we could have specific choice posts for Cami and Rose, Daisy, etc. I would reserve a bunch of spaces for Helen and some for Cami to respond back or reflect on what the boy does. We'd obviously have to wait for Helen to do Phura, Gamba, Azraph.

Also at what point would Ulmo (or Ancalimon?) address Angara's appointment? At the end or beginning of the Choosing?

What do you think?

sharon

[ November 13, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]

[piosenniel]

I'll do Daisy's response if you'ld like.

As to the appointment of Angara - what will be the thrust of Ulmo's speech about the choosing? Will the changes start happening after we leave? Or will He dip them in the salt water and they'll arise a little finnier?

If Angara is announced at first as the Protector of Tol Meneltarma perhaps some of the ones still wavering will feel more comfortable in choosing to be Hobbrim.

[Mithadan]

Re: Ulmo, you guys tell me about the shape change (unless one of you has decided to play Ulmo which is also fine).

[piosenniel]

I'm a little unclear on this myself.

Sharon, Helen - what do you see happening here?

[Child of the 7th Age]

Pio,

That would be good if you did Daisy.

Mith,

I hope you will be Ulmo.

Concerning Angara....I think it's a good idea if she is named Protector at the beginning of the Choosing. Plus, this is one post we can definitely do even if Helen isn't back yet.

About the hobbrim changeover: (Cami goes into a corner and hides her head, as she has no idea how that will happen!)

I've thought about this and, like Cami, am not sure. I'd be happy to hear suggestions or comments. My gut feeling says that the physical change should occur immediately when Ulmo raises his sceptre at the end of the Choosing. Is that too corny? Maybe the hobbrim to be are led into the water, and it happens underwater so we don't have to describe the transformation, just the end result. Is it possible that Levanto and/or Bird as the Dolphin helps to lead them out to the depths where Ulmo will do his magic sceptre thing? All the hobbits stand on the shores looking out to the ocean, as they see their dear kin disappear. Poor Gamba!

Again, wouldn't they return to the isle and the beaches later that same day, towards evening? So there can be lots of finny/furry reunions, and the two kin can get used to each other.

Boy, am I lost here! I can do a description of the general choosing process near the beginning, but someone else better do this thing about leading the hobbits into the drink and transforming them. Maybe a set-up scene by Pio or Bird, and then have Mith do Ulmo again? I'll be happy to stay on the land and describe the hobbit reaction to all this strangeness! I assume Helen will want to get inside Gamba's head and describe what he's feeling.

Also, to be truthful, I have only a vague idea what a hobbrim looks like. Maybe we did this before and I forgot. Can someone describe one? I mean here in the discussion thread. I guess they must have a dual system of lungs and gills? Otherwise how could Kali have had dinner with Levanto in underwater Gondolin? Do they have webbed feet? What "color" are they?

Also, btw, do Levanto and his folk decide to hang around Meneltarma? Maybe not if you want Levanto to accompany part of the Shapechanging adventure?

Also, when do we get our party?

sharon

[piosenniel]

What a picture I have running in my head:

Ulmo as John the Baptist!

How about we not get too detailed - I think I recall the Hobbrim having webbed fingers & probably toes, curly hair like Hobbits, no obvious gill system alá the creature from the Black Lagoon.

If you want, I can have Angara gently herd her new charges toward the water where Ulmo awaits them. Mithadan can do the Ulmo speech and cause the waters to quickly rise over them - provoking much consternation among those friends and family left on the beach. Then the water recedes and Angara can lead them ashore? Something like that, eh?!

Party next week? How do you want to do this? A big general party with a brief interlude for exchange of rings or . . .? Will we leave soon after the party?

*humming along with the Talking Heads 'Take me to the River . . .'*

re: Levanto - he should probably go back to the Fourth Age. Though, won't we probably be in hot, arid climes for most of it?

[ November 13, 2002: Message edited by: piosenniel ]

[piosenniel]

I will be gone most of the evening tonight, but when I come back, I would like to post for the day of the Choosing.

A general descriptive post that simply gets us to that day.

OK?! with y'all?

[Birdland]

OK, OK, I found you a picture of a Hobbrim:
Nah! just pulling your leg. It's a Victorian Water Baby. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

BTW Pio - I agree, I don't think it would be fair to drag Levanto through the South Lands. He needs to return to the Fourth Age and his home, but I bet he will help to keep an eye on the Hobbrim from now on.

Awwwwwwww! Levanto has "grown"!

[Birdland]

When you hold them in your arms one day, don't forget to give them a kiss from Auntie Cami."

Wahhhhhh! Pio, you are going to name one of those twins "Cami", right?

[Child of the 7th Age]

That's the second person in less than eight hours to call Pio a "good mother"! Hope she's not getting a swelled head!

I love the water baby, Bird. Looks just like Kali---NOT!

Hey, no fair cheating! Levanto can't keep an eye on them, since the island is hidden from all.

sharon

[Birdland]

Hey, no fair cheating! Levanto can't keep an eye on them, since the island is hidden from all.

Yes, but in the Third Age, the Mer-People were vaguely aware of the existance of Hobbrim, rather like the Elves are vaguely aware of the existance of Hobbits, but really didn't pay much attention to them, thinking it "beneath them". (Remember what a snob Levanto was about Hobbrim in the beginning?)

Now I have a question: In the beginning of the story, Kali was all alone, right? This was Fourth Age???...riiigght??? Well, we settled the origin of Hobbrim, but we haven't really covered where the Hobbrim went in the Fourth Age, have we? And when we go back to the Fourth Age, are Hobbrim still "gone missing?" or have we changed history in some way that they aren't all scattered now? (Birdie is really going to have to go back and read over this again.)

[piosenniel]

I hate get all 'canon-y' on you, Sharon - but I don't believe Tol Meneltarma was hidden from all creatures. The Silmarillion say only that:

Thus it was that great mariners among them would still search the empty seas, hoping to come upon the Isle of Meneltarma . . . But they found it not.

I see no reason why the Mer-peole would not have come upon the Isle now and then.

As to Kali - I thought he and his family had been separated from the rest of the Hobbits back in post-Beleriand times and were not captured and taken back to Númenor (at least this was one of the premises we were working with at some point). His family had wandered to other places in the ocean and had contact with other sea creatures.

NOTE - ALL:

We are now at Choosing day, early morning.

I think Sharon said the Choosing itself would happen mid afternoonish.

Shall we wait for Helen to return before we proceed? Or, how do you want to handle this?

[ November 14, 2002: Message edited by: piosenniel ]

[Birdland]

Pio - I have asked you a question at the end of my last post in the story. Do you want to pick up the "conversation"?

[Child of the 7th Age]

First, regarding Kali.....It is hard to keep everything straight. I went back and checked the earlier story. Kali was the last of his kin to survive. His mother and grandmother and all the others died out. They were all living somewhere in the Bay of Belfalas when the tale began.

When Ulmo created the first hobbrim, there were two groups. One was kept on the coastline of Numenor; the other was given the time travel device and told to swim towards the east and wait for a ship that would bear the flag of the lonely star. The group sent east was about 35 in number. They established a community, had children, and their descenents waited there till the early Fourth Age when only Kali was left. Then we came. If Kali had died before the Star appeared, Ulmo would have entrusted the device to the hobbrim in Numenor and told them to swim east and wait for the ship. (This is in our story line itself.)

This does raise an interesting headache. Time travel is so hard to keep straight. In theory, Meneltarma should be in the Fourth Age, shouldn't it? Otherwise, you still have that splinter group loose in the Bay. I don't know if we want to deal with this, or just assume it's part of the whole mystery of the isle. Maybe Meneltarma is just a hidden, timeless place like Lorien which seems to run by a different clock.

Of course, we could always change something in the fanfiction if people preferred.
---------------------------------------------

As far as the Choosing, I thought we were definitely going ahead, and I was going to reserve a lot of spaces for Helen plus some for me to respond. I thouught the hold up was Mithadan because he's so deeply involved in the Chasm. I was waiting for him to do the beginning post. Wouldn't Ulmo need to arrive to begin the choosing?

Should we just reserve a space for him, since he can post under any name and he can fill in later? Or, Pat, do you want to go ahead and do Ulmo? (Please not me. I don't have the voice!)

Then we would do the responses by the different hobbits. I know Helen has to do the following: Gamba, Azraph, Phura. I don't know if there are others. I assumed you would do Daisy. I had originally thought to do a general description of the hobbits' response to Ulmo--probably the first post after Ulmo, and tag on the choice by Cami and Rose in the same post. I don't have it written, but I'd be glad to sit down and slap it out anytime today.

Our real problem is that we have two missing, both of whom were supposed to do a lot in the Choosing.

---------------------------------------------

Regarding the isle and Levanto. No problem. I was half-teasing. He's a welcome visitor anytime.

This is more out of curiosity than anything. Do you think that the isle was protected from the eyes of Men with some sort of veil, or not? Could Elves, mermen, etc. visit it then? Could Men, if they chanced upon it?

If Elves and mermen could visit, it would be a little less lonely than sticking the hobbrim off somewhere with no hope of visitors of any kind. I think I said somewhere in the description that "no one" could come or go, so I might need to modify that slightly. Just let me know.

sharon

[ November 14, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]

[Mithadan]

I'm buried under both with The Chasm and real life. I can do the Ulmo post by midmorning tomorrow. If someone else wants to do it or you want to leapfrog, go ahead. I favor the idea of the Hobbits choosing the sea wading in and being covered by a wave. They disappear causing concern on shore. Then a head pops up, Phura, followed by another etc.

[piosenniel]

*Hauls the large green scaled Vala off Mith's back*

I'll post the Ulmo scene tomorrow - Saturday at the latest, unless I hear you are dying to do it! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[Child of the 7th Age]

Pat and Carol--

I will go ahead and do the beach scene later tonight. This is how I see the posts setting out:

1. Reserve space for Helen
2. Beach scene with hobbits (sharon); lead in to Ulmo's arrival; Ancalimon stands up and asks every hobbit/hobbrim to chose.

3. posts where the characters choose: first a general description and Cami and Rose (by sharon);

then Daisy;

spaces saved for Helen--Azraph, Gamba, Phura);

space saved for Cami to respond.

4. Bird does post where she and Levanto lead hobbits into the water.

5. Mith does post where he waves scepter.

6. Sharon does post where hobbits have heart attacks.

7. Somone does post when hobbrim come back to the shore.

How's this? I will be saving many spaces for Helen if she needs them.

sharon

[ November 14, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]

[mark12_30]

Heart attacks?????

[piosenniel]

Ta da! Ulmo has come and drowned the Chosen!

Time for a Hobbit reaction - then Ulmo can thee and thou a little more.

I'm getting the idea we better wrap this story up soon per the memo from the Chasm consensus.

[Child of the 7th Age]

This close to the end?.....Mith wouldn't dare shut us down! Mutiny on the Star!

sharon

[piosenniel]

Cami knelt down on the grassy knoll . . .

Was Lee Harvey Oswald kneeling next to her?

Sorry! LOL! The image of an Ulmo sniper suddenly sprung to mind!

[Child of the 7th Age]

Agh, rolling over laughing, I have to revise. That was one of the saddest days of my life! sharon

[mark12_30]

On a blander, more dismal note, I've filled in several posts on page ten. Plenty of Angst for all. Enjoy!

[Birdland]

OK, Birdie's crying. Sharon, Pam and Helen - those were all so beautiful! Well done!

[piosenniel]

Notice of time limit

We need to respond to Mithadan's "IMPORTANT RPG FORUM ANNOUNCEMENT -- PLEASE READ" post in the Freestyle RPG Room.

How long do we need to bring The Lonely Star to a conclusion?

Would three weeks do it? Do we need less or more time than that?

Shall we skip the party and make a short partings of the ways scene, load the Hobbits on the boats and sail off on a smooth journey to ?(where exactly was it we had decided to drop you off?)

Then a few remarks of how we all go settled and *Finis*

[Child of the 7th Age]

Pat,

Skipping the party ......NOOOOO!

I would prefer not to alter the story line unless we felt that this was preferable in terms of the RPG itself. Does anyone feel it would be better not to have the party in terms of our story?

We have been at this for months and months, and have invested much time and effort.
Perhaps it would be best to communicate honestly with Mithadan. (Hi, Mith, are you out there somewhere?) Tell him we will do our very best to complete in three weeks, but if we are a week short, surely there could be some grace. Mith did not specify a time frame within his announcement, so it's difficult to judge.

The hard thing recently is that we've had folk away. Does anyone expect to be physically away from the computer in the next three weeks? If we knew someone had to be away, perhaps we could figure out ahead of time how to deal with that.

Another possibility.....worst case scenario, we could write the later summaries of what happened to our characters for the fanfiction and not the RPG.

I hate to lose the party, but if everyone feels this is necessary, I will go along.

sharon

[Mithadan]

Please reread my post. No one is being shut down. I Have asked how long it will take to conclude long running RPGs. If this crew has misunderstood what I said, then the rest of the site must be in a tizzy. [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

FYI, I think that I can estimate the windup time for this one myself.

[mark12_30]

...hey, I just work here...

Seriously, I'll flex. I have one more post that I aboslutely HAVE to do, and after that, I'll go with whatever y'all (but especially Sharon) wants to do.

Having said that, this RPG seems to have an inexorable, unexplainable RYTHM of its own. Good luck putting a time limit on it; I'm not sure it's possible! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[Birdland]

If this crew has misunderstood what I said, then the rest of the site must be in a tizzy.

That ain't the half of it, Mith. I think once people finish watching their DVDs and start reading the posts, you'll find that there are lots of players getting a little nervous.

I guess we're wondering if long stories like "The Star" will be a thing of the past from now on.

[Child of the 7th Age]

Helen,

Cami was both flattered and startled by that proposal of marriage, although he's definitely not her type. I have included a reflective response at the end of your post.

For any who would like to see this interchange, it is at 11/12, 5:24 p.m.

I also edited my post of 11/13, 2:35 to include an answer to Gamba's question as to whether hobbits on the Anduin live in caves.

I think that's all the earlier editing I will do unless you see the need for something else.

sharon

[ November 17, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]

[Child of the 7th Age]

According to our list, the next major event is the exchange of rings and the party.

Wouldn't Pio be the one to tell us that the happy couple will exchange rings? Who would offer to "throw the party?" Perhaps Idril, and then delegate the actual preparations to Bird and Cami? (I assume you will be talking to Idril about this?) I assume we'd have a post or two about party preparations and then the exchange of vows and the party itself.

Will this work? Any other ideas? Pat, this is your wedding (the groom never really counts!), so let us know what you'd like.

sharon

[Child of the 7th Age]

The wrong decision? Where is that dratted Elf? I'm going to kill her.

Your poor husband.....

sharon