Gyrfalcon

Well, it's that time of the year again - time for another roll call to see who's around and who isn't! This will proceed like the roll call last year, with a leading intro to a story given, and then each person will add to the story - you can add as much as you want, though in the interests of brevity, try to keep it to a paragraph or two. *grins* Also, for those of you who still possess a weenie from last year - participation in this role call removes last year's weenie and prevents you from being branded a dreaded... double-weenie! Of course, you could be like the evil Doctor and *enjoy* your weenie status, but you don't really want to use Doctor Evil as a rolemodel, do you? *coughs* Otherwise, back to the technical details. In addition to prose, you can also write a brief poetic piece (perhaps as part of an epic or song) detailing the further (mis)adventures of the intrepid hero and/or any companions he meets. If you can think of something else to do that advances the story, go for it! This roll call will last from September the 5th through October the 17th. This gives you about six weeks to check this thread and reply to it... no pressure, right?

Gyrfalcon grins and shakes hands with each of the three. "Congratulations, you earned your promotion." he says with a broad smile.

Valdar - I just wanted to say that I enjoyed what you've written so far a lot. *grins* I just love the poor demon footsoldier - Bubble. *laughs* Otherwise, good job explaining to the non-WoW audience what a Voidwalker is and generally does, though you might want to include a brief physical description of it somewhere... perhaps Mereana tries to pit hers against Valdar's demon soldier. *evil grin* Looking forward to reading more of this.

Gyrfalcon applauds quietly as Silver finishes this first portion of her tale. "I'd love to see more of your work, Silver... for now, rest assured that your Weenie status has been removed." the half-elf says with a grin before bowing and making his way to another task.

Heya Tasslehoff, Glad you're doing alright (minus the girlfriend situation - sorry about that. =\), and hope the typhoon spares your power line and internet connection!

Welcome back, Silver Dragon... once you get settled in, you might want to consider writing off that weenie award, but it's no rush. *grins*

*looks around* A little late, but I've been out all day... Happy Birthday, Yui-chan! *commands Aegon to make sure her birthday is good!*

Happy belated birthday to you both!

*chuckles* Interesting... Now BBQ parties will have to contend with Snypiuer and crew AND Wyvern... Oh well, into every life, a little rain must fall... or every silver lining needs a cloud... or something like that. Anyway, an interesting and funny story, Snypiuer... I hope that the healing on the guy who burst his lung takes better... *Snypuier feels the last traces of weenie-ness fade from him, collecting in the persona of the Lesser Devine Being of Outdoor Cooking.*

Happy Birthday, Stick and Psimon. Hope you're happy and healthy!

Good to see you, Brute. *grins* You're always welcome!

Welcome back, Justin! It's always good to see you here. *cough* You missed the Weenie Awards, by the way... posting something with 'Buying off the Weenie Award' as the subtitle gets you out of the Weenie under your name, though. Welcome back!

I've been lacking time to redesign my websites - I do plan to switch over to using CSS, but first I need time to learn how to use CSS. *laughs, then sighs* Ah well, I'll show them off when/if I ever get around to making them. *grins wryly*

*laughs* Oh gods... white guys can't jump, and white guys can't dance, it seems. That looked painful. Mm... Wyv, my windows media player handled it fine... maybe try updating to a newer version if your computer will handle it?

Gyrfalcon stirred uneasily, something twanging at his senses, even as he slept peacefully. Something that was not normally there... but then it disappeared just as swiftly, and the ranger settled back into a deeper sleep, not even stirring when Daryl trotted in and stepped on him a few times settling in at the foot of the bed with a wide yawn before blinking, his sensitive nose bringing him a faint whiff of perfume that he most associated with Yui-chan. Dragging himself out of the ball he had been curling into to, Daryl jumps down off the bed and trots around, sniffing here and there, looking in the most shadowed corners first. The werefox quickly found where the traces of Yui-chan’s scent were strongest and follow them to Gyrfalcon’s desk, and the note there. No matter how sensitive his sight was, he couldn’t read what was written, but he decided to make sure the half-elf checked there first thing in the morning... after all, if it was extremely important, Yui-chan would have shaken Gyr awake to tell him so... With a satisfied yawn, Daryl jumped up onto the bed once more and curled up, swiftly falling into satisfied sleep. The dawn’s rays splashed across the half-elf’s face, bringing him to groggy wakefulness. Yawning and pushing himself upright, Gyrfalcon stared in bemusement at the furry ball curled up next to his feet. “Daryl...” the half-elf said in resigned annoyance. “You take this fox thing entirely too far sometimes. I locked my door for a reason.” Daryl grinned and wagged his tail briefly before yapping and yipping in Fox. “Well yes, but you see, a real pet would beg and whine at the door until you woke up and opened it up to let the pet in... Me? I just shift, pick the lock, come inside, and shift back. Quick and simple.” Gyrfalcon sighed. “I’ll need to talk to Salinye and get some magical locks that don’t involve keys... so certain werefoxes will sleep in their own bed!” Daryl looked up at Gyr with big, luminious eyes. “Don’t you love me anymore?” he said in a saccharine voice, lower-lip trembling. “No.” Gyrfalcon said flatly, then sighed and reached out to ruffle Daryl’s ears. Daryl grinned and ducked his head out from under the half-elf’s hand. “By the way, I think there’s a note for you on your table.” he mentioned before jumping down and trotting to the door, deftly jumping up to pull the handle and letting his weight swing the door inward. With a flick of his bushy tail, he was out the door. “Thanks, Daryl.” Gyrfalcon called after the fox, curious as to how that note would come to be there. Getting up, he stretched briefly before walking over and reading the note that Yui-chan had left their last night. “Hm... I wonder what present that is.” Gyrfalcon said as he went to get dressed. “Hopefully, it doesn’t involve sake bombs... Once was enough.” shrugging on a light shirt, he eyed the map... the location was very close, a small clearing outside the Pen. He could easily travel there in two or three hours. Whistling to himself, Gyrfalcon went downstairs to find breakfast.

Gyrfalcon couldn’t help but chuckle to himself, wincing to himself a bit as he watched the antics of the Pen Dwarves on the stage. It seemed that once again, Almost-Draconic quality had lived up to its... well... standards, low as they were. Shaking his head, he laughed softly as FedEx-ophek fell over. Taking a deep breath, he frowned as a faint hint of lavender tickled his nose, then swiftly reached up and gently caught a pair of slim wrists. “Guess who, Salinye?” he asked with a broad grin. “I never could sneak up on you. You always hear me.” Salinye said, and he could imagine the hint of a pout at having her surprise spoiled. He made a note to let her sneak up on him next time if he caught her – it wasn’t good to always spoil her fun, enjoyable as it sometimes was... “I didn’t hear you, it’s the lavender.” he replied, still grinning. “I’m not wearing lavender.” she objected. “You don’t need to; it’s there all the same.” He replied. “Hmmm, I see. Are you going to let go of my wrists now?” She asked, tugging at his gentle grip. Gyrfalcon paused, trying to think of a suitably witty reply when she leaned over and wrapped her arms around his chest in a hug, kissing him on the cheek. “Happy birthday, old man. What is this? Year 5002? 5006? I’ve lost count.” Gyrfalcon laughed as he let go of her wrists. “Well, that makes two of us. Have a seat.” he said, shifting over to make room for her as she gracefully sat down next to him. “I got you a card.” she said with elaborate understatement. Already suspecting, he took the card from her and looked at the front, beginning to laugh even before he opened the inside to read the inscription “To Salinye, Love Celowyn”, the gift a running joke between them. He put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed gently. “It’s perfect, I should have known. But how did you get it out of my bureau?” She shrugged. “I told you that you’d eventually regret granting me access to your tower.” “Mmmm, I see.” He said, grinning faintly. “So, any birthday wishes?” She smiled knowing; he wasn’t one who was much for his own celebrations. “I don’t think so, what can I wish for when I have everything I want?” he replied with a shrug. “Peace in your thoughts?” He scoffed at this suggestion. “When you find someone who can grant that, Salinye, then I’ll gladly accept that gift.” he said with a faint smile. “Speaking of gifts, I do have something for you, but it’s not finished.” She blushed slightly and hoped he wouldn’t notice the slight burn on her right hand. Over the last year she had delved quite heavily into enchantments, and occasionally one wouldn’t work out as expected the first time or twelve. “That’s alright, Salinye. I’m sure whatever it is, it will be wonderful.” he said, wondering where that burn had come from, but trusting her to be able to take care of herself... and trusting in Peredhil to be able to care for her if something blew up in a more spectacular fashion. She laughed and shifted forward about to rise. “We’ll see. However, I should probably get out of the way, I see a lot of people arriving who will want to speak with you.” He pulled back gently on her shoulder stopping her from standing. “Stay. Since when have you been afraid of a social?” He grinned. “Alright, I just didn’t want to get in the way. Just know, I might confiscate half your gifts.” He smiled at her knowingly. “First of all, you’re never in the way and secondly, if you didn’t take the gifts now, I’m sure I’d just find them disappearing one by one from my bureau anyway.” She rolled her eyes and smirked. “Don’t be silly. I’d never have the patience to take them one by one.” Before the banter could continue a red furball in the form of Daryl leapt onto her lap and licked her chin. “Hello Daryl.” Salinye said with an amused giggle. She scratched him behind the ears as he snuggled into her lap, looking around the room distractedly. Smiling his appreciation, Gyrfalcon thanked Mynx and Akallabeth for their well wishes before they wandered off, talking quietly together, completely oblivious to what would come next. Gyrfalcon winced at the off-key blats from the tuba in the orchestra section, then chuckled knowingly and gently directed Salinye’s attention to the spectacle of Wyvern flying through the air out of the Tuba, landing on poor Mynx and Akallabeth. Salinye’s laughter joined his, musically weaving through his lower-pitched chuckle. The half-elf blinked curiously as Tzimfemme, wielding a strange device, advanced on the heaped trio, pulling Wyvern off the other two and then grabbing their shoulders. The trio blinked out of sight. “I wonder what’s going on?” Gyrfalcon mused. “Hm?” Salinye said, having scanned the hall one last time and relaxed for the moment with no Yui-chan or water balloons in sight. “Oh, Tzimfemme grabbed Mynx and Akallabeth and just disappeared.” Gyrfalcon said. Salinye’s slim hand rose and pointed at the stage. “Ah, there they are!” she said, and then giggled as a bewildered looking pair dressed up like Gyrfalcon appeared on the stage. Gyrfalcon chuckled as well at the unlikely pair of look-alikes, one an anthropomorphic tiger, and the other simply looking uncomfortable in the trappings of a ranger. Salinye gently touched his elbow to direct his attention to the half-elf shifting from one foot to the other in front of Gyrfalcon – Elrohir, Gyrfalcon’s favorite of Peredhil’s sons. “Hi!” Elrohir stammered, blushing as he quickly handed Gyrfalcon a gift-wrapped present. “Uh, happy birthday. Anyway, uh, here!"” Gyrfalcon chuckled as he stripped the wrapping paper away to reveal... an Almost-Dragonic ™ Brand Cleaning Kit. “Thank you, Elrohir.” he said gravely as he set the kit aside for later experimentation to see what it could be used for, since it was almost guaranteed to melt even as magical a katana as Redemptio. A series of well-wishers followed, and Salinye enjoyed teasing Gyrfalcon about the entire population of the Pen turning out to wish him well, enjoying the fact she managed to evoke a blush in her favorite half-elven ranger. A hurtling streak nearly took the loveseat over as Sweet hugged Gyrfalcon, waving a picture blurringly in front of his face as she announced the picture she had drawn for him. Gyrfalcon watched as Sweetcherrie and Venefyxatu ascended to the stage beside the duo already standing there, laughing softly at Sweet’s many questions for Mynx before Venefyxatu called the girl over. Gyrfalcon’s laughter ceased as the drawing became real, a cannon pointed in his direction, with a pair of warriors loading and priming it. Swallowing slowly, Gyr positioned himself discreetly to launch himself Salinye’s way should the cannon go off. Sweet was staring down the barrel of the cannon as it was lit until Venefyxatu whisked her upward with his magic, and Gyrfalcon threw himself at Salinye as the wick burned down into the barrel, driving the pair of them clear of the loveseat and the danger. The resulting explosion shook the Cabaret Room and covered the three still on the stage in soot, Sweet plunging into the expanding cloud of dust and soot to land somewhere on Wyvern, from the groan. As the ringing in their ears subsided, Gyrfalcon looked around cautiously, but there was no sign of the cannon or the warriors remaining. Beneath him, Salinye opened one eye, then the other, shaking her head slightly at the ringing in her ears. Then her eyes narrowed. “Why ranger! I never knew you felt that way about me!” she said jokingly. Daryl wiggled free from between them and turned around with a wide foxy grin. “Well, since you already have her trapped, why don’t you just kiss her now?” he commented in Fox, which both of them understood perfectly. With flaming faces, one and a half elves and half a human scrambled upright and dusted themselves off. Coughing to cover the flaming redness in his face, Gyrfalcon approached the stage. “That... was an excellent picture, Sweet. Thank you.” he said weakly, nodding to Venefyxatu. “Excellent work translating it to reality, Venefyxatu... truly.” he said. Venefyxatu coughed, slightly embarrassed at the results. “Thank you, Elder.” he said, bowing slightly. Gyrfalcon walked back to the loveseat, shaking his head to try to rid his ears of the ringing... and because he had just seen endless potential for trouble without Wyvern involved in any way... OOC: Thank you one and all for your well wishes! My birthday was very nice and peaceful, for which I was grateful. *grins* I would have responded earlier, but my provider decided to not be able to access the Pen yesterday night.

Being struck by a car and suffering only minor bruising because the idiot was starting from a full stop. Also known as why I hate certain crosswalks where the traffic laws are ignored.

Coolness. Yeah, sorry about the HTML thing, but it just didn't like anything written before I flipped the switch. =\

Happy Birthday, Canid!

Vlad - it'd help if I turned on HTML for that forum, first. *grins* Update: Alright, after a bit of troubleshooting, HTML will work in the FAQs forum. You don't need to go whole-hog, simply surround the links with [ dohtml ] and [ /dohtml ] (minus the spaces, of course.) Unfortuantly... any post from before I turned HTML on won't use HTML, from everything I can tell. I tried everything I could think of to force them to change over, but I couldn't get it to work. >_

Good question, I think it can be enabled or disabled, but sometimes the boards don't like some HTML expressions and tags. Hm... the FAQ forum is currently set not to allow HTML, but it can be enabled and you use the [ doHTML ] (minus spaces) tag to work with HTML in a post.

Happy Birthday, Mynx. Remember, you're not another year older, you're another year younger. I know, don't you hate that stupid expression? Anyway, hope your day is/was filled with huggles and presents and joy.

Many Congratulations, Ayshela, glad to see you among us. Oh, tell me what you wish to be Elder of, it's tradition!

Very nice, Vlad, I like the layout a lot! The questions and answers are neat and concise, though if you want to spend some time digging into the HTML of the page, (boo!) There should be a way so clicking on the links in the post moves the window's focus down to the right question. If you want, I can dig up the HTML code to do that.

A whisper drifted through the hallways of the Pen, sliding deftly under doorways and through illusions, seeking certain ears. A few heard the whispers that were not intended for them, but smiled and went on with their business, working quickly to finish preparations. Three however, stiffened as the whispers reached their ears, a summons to the Cabaret Room, issued by one of the Elders. They walked separately through the strangely empty corridors of the Pen, yet met in front of the closed doors to the Cabaret Room. Sweetcheerie, drummondo and Patrick Durham exchanged curious glances before Patrick took a deep breath and tried the handle to the Cabaret Room. It resisted his tug, however, firmly closed and locked. The three exchanged confused glances – they knew that they were to enter the Cabaret Room, but now the way was blocked, and they couldn’t help but wonder if the message they had received was wrong, or if they were supposed to seek alternate means of entry. drummondo sighed and started down the corridor again, thinking to try one of the Cabaret Room’s many side doors. Before he got two steps away though, the lock clicked open and the door swung inward on silent hinges. They took deep breaths and then slowly entered the Cabaret Room, confronted by silent ranks of Pennites, forming a corridor from the doorway to the center of the room, where the Elders waited for them. Any thoughts of retreat vanished as the doors thumped closed behind them, and the three swallowed their nervousness and marched towards the Elders, bolstered by encouraging expressions and gestures from the ranks on either side of them. “Thank you for coming.” Gyrfalcon said when they reached the Elders, speaking calmly yet loudly enough (with the aid of a bit of magic) for the assembled ranks of the Pen to hear. “There is a change to the Pen’s membership structures that affects you three, and I though it best that you hear of these changes before the rest of the Pen.” Sweetcheerie swallowed before responding. “And what change would this be?” Gyrfalcon allowed a grin to split his solemn expression. “Why, your promotions of course.” he said as the members of the Pen allowed a swell of applause to pour forth for the suddenly giddy-looking trio. Gyrfalcon chuckled. “Honestly, there was no reason to look so nervous!” he said with a grin before glancing to the side, where Wyvern waited hopefully with a suitcase clutched in his scaly claws. “On the other hand, that expression on Wyvern’s face would make you flinch, I suppose. No selling Almost Dragonic rank plaques, rank tags, or any special deals for the promotion, Wyv.” Wyvern hissed in protest, his tail drooping from its jaunty angle at Gyrfalcon’s words, then sighed as stern glances flashed at him from all over the room. “Alright, alright, I promise to be good, honessssst!” he hissed. Gyrfalcon shook his head and grinned before turning his attention back to the three newly promoted members of the Pen. “To Patrick Durham, congratulations on your promotion to Page, continue to contribute to the community both with your presence and with your works, and you’ll soon become a Quill Bearer.” Gyrfalcon said with a grin of pride for the Pen’s newest Page. “To drummondo and Sweetcheerie, congratulations on your promotions to Quill Bearer, they are well-deserved, and we look forward to when you choose to take your Quill Quests and advance even further.” he finished, likewise smiling proudly for their accomplishments. Gyrfalcon bowed in respect to the three newly promoted members. “Congratulations once more, you’ve certainly earned it.”