Post Here: Your Kudos and Comments to the Stories Written

[manekineko]

Lots of good fun, and good backstory for Wragg! He's such an interesting character.

[Sroth]

Thanks
I know his 'piratey-ness' can get cartoonish sometimes, but hopefully it's never over-the-top 

[Mixxi]

"Ill Nature", "Loose Ends", and "Vignettes" -- some very nice stuff showing up on the shelves here. Xerali, Wragg, and Cemlyn (Tutankhons), you all bring me back here to read and re-read. Very rich, layered, and complex. Although, honestly, Wragg's the only one I'd like to go drinking with. 

[Elly]

Loved that vignette, Rumze. Fascinating approach to the character. Looking forward to reading more.

[Jezerai]

I enjoyed the story, Vilidius, even though it still feels as though you are both sneering at and patronizing those of us who were present in the years you were away. 

[Vilidius]

I enjoyed the story, Vilidius, even though it still feels as though you are both sneering at and patronizing those of us who were present in the years you were away.

Thanks. I'm really not though, sneering at or patronizing anyone. I couldn't have written the story if I didn't feel the pull of both arguments, and of both answers.

Despite the bureaucratic debates over how we do things (which I would never want to continue here) I've come around to a less structured way of considering the problem. There's a tension here. It's an inevitable, underlying, unavoidable tension, between old and new. It's never going to be "solved." It exists in any organization with our history, gaming guild or otherwise. It's just there.

The only way to relieve that tension as much as possible is for everyone to at least acknowledge it, to "get it" as much as possible, and to keep it in mind. I decided to express my "getting it" in story form. Seemed more fun that way. Also, Namae really got me started with her reference to "caretaking." I was thinking about this before bed last night.

I may or may not have captured the sentiment properly, but it isn't badly intended.

[Vilidius]

I haven't even read it yet Jez, and I already love your story. Reading it immediately after this post. We need to settle every single Saga debate like this in the future!

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!


Update: Read it now, and certainly appreciate the writing, which was never in doubt. I will say that while it captures the way you feel about certain things in the guild, I wonder if you've been as fair to "my" perspective as I have been to "yours." I really did write The Caretakers with a deliberately positive and hopeful message. It may or may not come through exactly as I intended, but I think it's unmistakably there. Your story only ends in ruin, which strikes me as sad. Now, if they'd proceeded to rebuild together, with much lost (perhaps some unnecessarily so) but also much gained, I think that would be fairer to my point.


Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra?

[PinkRose]

I hope every Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra ends with
Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel.

Let's try to keep the battle to a dull roar in here, please.

[PinkRose]

Nicely done, Jezerai. The story really works.
If only the Jets and Sharks could resolve their disagreements the same way.

[Jezerai]

Well done, Merila!  I like how your dialogue advanced both the plot and our feeling for the characters involved.  You have a very nice sense of timing.  It felt very organic!

[Mixxi]

Beautiful, Merila. I can feel the pull of Arah just reading this.

And Merila and Venitus...very intense.

[Talon]

Nicely done, Merila.

I feel very in touch with the two of them. A nice sensible couple. In dealing with one another, at least. Maybe not when it comes to the heading to certain doom part.

[Mixxi]

Very much like the new installment of the Orr tale. You really caught that scene from last night perfectly. It was a ton of fun to RP it with you guys.

[Talon]

Really sorry that I missed the roleplay.
The story recap is done magnificently. Makes me feel like I was there, lurking in the corner.

Great work! And the plot thickens.

The callous use of the Charr was an interesting development. ((If she has a company then I hope we can organise an alliance of a sort and organise a second group if necessary to include her))

[Vilidius]

This is overdue, but I do appreciate the new ending to The Warrior far more Jezerai, and thank you!

I also have to acknowledge Namae's Gilgamesh. When we started writing RP-fic to illustrate our policy differences (and seriously, I still think the mere fact that happened is cool) I think Namae stopped it cold with Gilgamesh. I stared and stared at that story, trying to place it properly in context of our dialogue and gauge it's meaning. And I still don't get it. Not at all. But I thought about it for so long it was too late to continue the exchange. So maybe that was the point of it after all.

[Namae Nai]

Kudos to both Jezerai and Vilidius. I enjoyed both the Caretakers and The Warrior. I like how you took a debate and channeled it into a creative form, so we could see it play out without having to take sides or form ranks. And we got two great stories out of it.

I also have to acknowledge Namae's Gilgamesh. When we started writing RP-fic to illustrate our policy differences (and seriously, I still think the mere fact that happened is cool) I think Namae stopped it cold with Gilgamesh. I stared and stared at that story, trying to place it properly in context of our dialogue and gauge it's meaning. And I still don't get it. Not at all. But I thought about it for so long it was too late to continue the exchange. So maybe that was the point of it after all.

As for Gilgamesh... well, if I just came out and had to tell you the significance then I'd be a terrible writer/communicator. Which I am I suppose (based on how I wrote it) so here goes. I don't post stories very much, so they have a tendency to be addressed to an audience of just me. The only thing that's changed of late is I started putting things like this in the Library section instead of my blog, or just keeping it on my hard drive.

This story derives from my thoughts on the debate itself as it was in progress. You're right of course, one of the points was to reframe and stop some of the negativity completely by just being a really long block of text. So score one on that account. But I think I failed because I didn't include or weave in enough of the backstory in Gilgamesh to get proper context, and the source is a little obscure. I didn't manage a story that could be enjoyed for it's own sake by someone other than me.

Quick primer on the Epic of Gilgamesh (Thanks Wikipedia!) : "The first half of the story relates a friendship between Gilgamesh, divine king of Uruk, and Enkidu. Enkidu is a wild man created by the gods as Gilgamesh's peer to distract him from oppressing the people of Uruk. Together, they journey to the distant mountains to defeat Humbaba, its monstrous supernatural guardian. Gilgameshs' victory is so astonishing that it wins the affection of Ishtar, the goddess of love, fertility and sexuality. When Gilgamesh spurns her advances (pointing out that she destroys all her lovers) Ishtar flies into a rage, and convinces her father, Anu, to unleash the Bull of Heaven onto the earth as revenge. Enkidu and Gilgamesh of course kill the Bull of Heaven in an epic battle outside the gates of Uruk, but as a punishment for this transgression against Heaven the gods sentence Enkidu to death.

"In the second half of the epic, Gilgamesh's distress at Enkidu's death causes him to undertake a long and perilous journey to discover the secret of eternal life. He finally obtains an herb that would grant him eternal life, but as he is resting from his long struggles a snake slips in to his camp and devours his herb, granting the snake the ability to shed it's skin and become young again. Despite this seeming defeat, in the end Gilgamesh decides that his legends and the city he built are all the immortality he needs."

In a sense, what I'm getting at is the importance of legends, and keeping alive the fires of what was. Gilgamesh is a Warrior of Jezerai's tale, told in a different setting. In another sense, he's answering the Caretakers.

"That, and one more thing. Every hero wants to leave more than a footprint in the sand. Nothing lasts forever, but forever is a long time. True stories should at least endure for an age. We have a covenant with the past, and with the adventures that were. By honoring them we honor ourselves. And we offer promise to the future. To those who will come. That even when their halls are dusty, and their armor dull, and their stories half-forgotten, yet the history will remain and will be cared for. That's why they will build here, over these old bones. That's why they will come here and join us."

"At the end of it all, not one thing shall remain for me and that, I understood then, is my sole reward."

Anyway, I completely understand and apologize. I will try harder next time to make things more accessible, I just wanted something quick and fast that touched on the subject and could be my contribution. Despite my original statement, I didn't want it to end with me submitting to just being a caretaker.

[Jasyn]

As for Gilgamesh... well, if I just came out and had to tell you the significance then I'd be a terrible writer/communicator.  Which I am I suppose (based on how I wrote it) so here goes.

In that case, during the era of my matriculation, my requirements to study literature and poetry most certainly were a waste of time filled with pointless debate about deeper, hidden meanings and archetypical symbolism.  They must have all been terrible communicators because it would have been so much simpler if they straight up told us we were just reading an opiate induced hallucination.

Anyhow, don't sell yourself short, Namae.  Initially, I may have clicked on the story and thought "OMG! TLDR;" until I realized large fonts and pictures were trying to deceive my senses.  I'm not intimately familiar with the legend of Gilgamesh, but I read every word of what you wrote to its conclusion, and by the time I got there, I "got it".  Your commentary has affirmed that.  Very well done.

[Elsavette]

 Just wanted to say that I have been enjoying:   
(WS) The Sound of Two Aurin RPing (Shaylene and Fawkes)

I think it's great that the two of you write stories together and both characters seem very likeable. I look forward to meeting them in game soon.

[GutsMcGurt]

Just wanted to say that I have been enjoying:   
(WS) The Sound of Two Aurin RPing (Shaylene and Fawkes)

I think it's great that the two of you write stories together and both characters seem very likeable. I look forward to meeting them in game soon.

Thanks ^^.  We both work 9-5 desk jobs so it's primarly us just RPing back and forth when we get a chance.  We weren't sure where to post it at first, but looking at the rules for the study about open/closed RP, the Libarary seemed more fitting for this moment.  So depending on how work goes for us, you could see us on here alot  .