Gryphon

I've got a couple of books on the go at the moment. I'm re-reading both Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling, and I'm re-reading Monsterous Regiment by Terry Pratchett. Both are on the menu because they're fun and reasonably light reading which fits in well when my time seems to be taken up doing other things.

Congratulations you two that's awesome news... I wonder if we should have some kind of ceremony or celebration here at the Mighty Pen Keep also.

Zane looked from his shoes to Kelly and back a mixture of disgust and ... speculation? on his face. "Well... that was gross, and now I need to clean my shoes.", Zane thought, "She's drunk enough, but kissing someone who was just sick... yuck." Zane looked around to see if any of Kelly's friends were going to help clean her up before putting on his very best winning grin. "And I thought they smelled bad on the outside." When the line didn't seem to score any points with anyone nearby he cautiously approached Kelly trying to keep out of spew range. "Hey don't worry about the shoes, I'll clean them in a moment, how about you clean up a bit and I'll catch up with you later." Zane then heads for one of the less gory bathrooms to try and wipe Kelly's dinner off his feet. On his way he passed Dan Gray and thought, "Guys who dress up as chicks... more yuck." ~~~ OOC: Accusing Dan Gray / Mithrandin because in Zane's world there are just some things you do not do.

Zane wandered the party generally having no luck with the ladies at all. "It's so unfair.", he thought to himself, "Staff party, booze flowing freely, you'd think a guy would be able to get lucky but no such luck." The crowd parted briefly and Zane caught a flash of red... bright bright r.. no, scarlet, oh yeah, the chick dressed as the Scarlet Pimpernel. Zane started in her direction trying to come up with a good opening line, something that would make her laugh. On his way he passed someone all in black done up as some kind of Necromancer and a brief distraction flitted across his mind. "It was awefully dark up there when the playboy girl fell, someone in black would have been able to hide in the shadows awefully well." Moments later the thought was gone and Zane strolled in the direction of The Scarlet Pimpernel with a grin ready on his lips. ~~~ OOC: Accusing Blby the Necromancer for being a sneaky guinea pig in the darkness.

Works for me Tanny. Incidentally I'm still trying to come up with something that's worthy of being a werewolf game. How many games are currently pencilled in so that if I'm added to the end of the list I know roughly how long I've got.

Zane grabs a beer from the bar and drifts towards the edges of the crowd. Rough crowd tonight. No-one seemed to be interested in chatting and socialising following the unfortunate accident that happened to the playboy bunny... and it must have been an accident. Why would anyone want to kill people at a party? A strange movement caught his eye and moments later Zane spotted someone who didn't seem intent on escape or oblivion... Someone in a catwoman costume... Hot. Ignoring the rest of the crowd for the moment Zane started in catwoman's direction only to notice that she seemed to be making notes on her PDA. "Hey catwoman, looking good! Don't tell me they've got you working tonight at the party. Come on, let me get you a drink."

Neither really... just being polite in the OOC thread. Or perhaps just playing a different level of the same game.

If I go out first round all it will achieve is ensuring that I get to have no fun playing a socially ignorant nerd-type IT minion... and I'd really like to make it to day two for a change.

Sorry Tanny, that was all me with my 'L337' spelling skillz. Consider it corrected and me suitably chastised.

Thanks Ozy, I do try to stick to character, even when it has a tendancy to get me killed early. It's not my fault Zane has all the social skills of a brick... or a stereotypical IT nerd. Ok.. so it is my fault, but I'll play him true to his character anyway.

Zane grabbed the arm of the person next to him oblivious of the smears of dip that he was trailing across the arm of their costume. With a true lack of social grace he started talking loudly to those all around him, somehow strangely bringing to mind the annoying yapping of the Jack Russell terrier that earned him his nickname. "Oh my god, dude, did you see that? She totally fell... such a waste too... I so wanted to get with her after this party too... Man, did you see someone else up there? Who would push a looker like her off a balcony? It'd have to be someone jealous of her looks or something. Man, what a waste of a hot chick." ~~~ OOC:Accusing Danelle Cortéz/ Tanuchan because anyone who can make a big bad wolf costume look hot must be a jealous female rival... to the playboy bunny... yeah.

Zane wanders into the party and immediately heads over towards the buffet helping himself to a handful of chips before moving off to drift through the party leaving a faint smell of dip in his wake. He laughs loudly on seeing the 'Weasley' antics and follows in their wake across the floor to see what else they'll come up with next. As he passes the Green Dragon Ranger he waves his hand mysteriously and says "These are not the droids you're looking for." before bursting out laughing and goes in search of some more snacks.

Zane 'Jack' Russell. He's a short, blondish guy with a mop of hair who works as an underling in Atlas Corp's IT department. He's dressed as Luke Skywalker dressed as a stormtrooper... because he's "A little short for a Stormtrooper" as he's fond of telling anyone who asks. He's also a shameless Star Wars fan and as an unfortunate side effect of being a computer techie type he's got very little in the way of social interaction skills... but them's the breaks.

Once again the tracks had been almost impossible to follow and the clutter of other footprint of the villagers had destroyed what remained of the trail... still it did seem strange that they weren't heading into the forest like last time, perhaps following them might lead to more evidence... Following the non existent remnants of the trail left Aaron staring at the forest from the other side of the village and he sighed. Nothing. Still... Looking around he saw Captain Mario Delas nearby. True the wolf tracks appeared to have good legs, but who could tell what the transformation would do to a man... and was the old captain looking a little... hairy... today? ~~~ OOC: A vote for Venefyxatu - Captain Mario Delas.

It hadn't been Aaron who found the paw prints at the Masons farm but he had made some attempt to track the beast back into the forest in order to dispose of it. The memory of that chilling howl was strong in his mind, as it was with many of the other villagers and a feral wolf could decimate the villages livestock. The trail was difficult to follow at best, eventually vanishing even beyond Aaron's skilled tracking abilities and as the forester stared at the ground where the tracks vanished into a stream with no apparent sign of re-emerging on the other side. This had to be brought to the attention of the other hunters in the village. A wolf that showed signs of knowingly avoiding detection? Such a thing was unnatural. A chill wind seemed to blow out of the woods sending shivers down Aaron's spine as he turned and headed for the village, taking great care to leave no trace of his own passing so that the unnatural beast couldn't follow him back home.

Aaron. Last name unknown, commonly called Longbow. Aaron is a forester in his mid to late 20's and can often be found walking the paths of the forest around the village. He keeps to himself a lot - not that he's stand-off ish, it's more that he just tends to prefer his own company to that of most of the village. None the less, he's often looked upon with something approaching affection by the locals who see him as a protector. His habit of providing the occasional rabbit or pigeon to families in need of food might have something to do with this - certainly he's good with the bow he usually carries with him. Boys in the village can often be found nearby, hoping for tales of the deep forest or lessons in tracking, hunting, snaring or whatever else Aaron might talk about to those who are eager to learn and their parents tolerate it because there are worse things that children can grow up learning than practical forestry skills.

Had a white lion cub pounce attack your jacket? While you were still wearing it? Coaxed a 200andsomething kilogram tiger into getting up when it just wanted to lie down and rest? Posted a link with proof of one of your have you ever questions? Sorry folks, I've no clue why my link doesn't work if you just click on it. Either copy and paste http://haydnc.my-php.net/pics/DSCF0764.JPG into a fresh browser window or prepare to be spectacularly disappointed by what appears to be a non-working link to a picture that does exist.

As a footnote to Mynx's review of TMNT above... I liked it. There were one or two places where the sequence of events could have done with clarification through script writing, and I'm afraid that she and I disagree both about the 'continuity errors' and the turtles looking like frogs... but we do both agree that it was fun - and probably better suited to a dvd hire than the price of a full blown movie ticket.

Went with Mynx to see Shooter a few nights back... Firstly I'd like to say I had a great time at this movie. If like me you sometimes feel the need just to tune out, putting your brain and belief on autopilot then you'll probably quite enjoy the show too. What ever you do, do not go to see this expecting advanced plot, massive in depth character development and stunning dialogue. It's not there, not in any significant amounts anyway. It's not supposed to be there. This is, in a nut shell, an old school action flick. We get enough info on the main character to show that he has a history of luck and / or courage (or is that stupidity - who knows) when under fire, literally since he's an army sniper, we're also shown that he loves his pet dog and he's living the standard life-in-solitude that seems to come with highly decorated US troops who want to hide from their government and / or past life so that they don't get pulled back into active service. It never works of course. The rest of the movie consists mainly of shooting things, explosions, occasional funny one-liners and ... did I mention explosions? Yeah, I think I did. During all the shiny the main character Bob Lee Swagger (Wahlberg) gets to run around looking tough, occasionally whipping his shirt off to show the ladies his muscles, or something, while he works through the 'conspiracy' that has set him up to look like he killed some important personage. I can't say any more really without giving away the plot points.. oops... too late. Seriously though, it's a fun movie to go along and switch off to - but if you have trouble suspending your disbelief or you don't really like no-thinkers don't get it, or hire it on DVD when you're in the mood for a laugh or something.

For the record my inactivity wasn't a huge factor in the Gravedigger role not coming into play. The only person who I had any kind of alliance with was a Wolf so I was saving the power in case my 'Ally' went down... In short I picked the wrong side again and while I was playing there was no-one around who inspired me to resurrect their character. Little did I know that the one I was saving the power for was the one who needed it least.

My most humble apologies Patrick for my absence in this game. I totally forgot I had a work conference running right through the middle of the time the game was going to be on. I see it didn't make a lot of difference to my character's lifespan, but non-the-less I'm sorry for the unexplained absence.

Happy birthday Tanny!

Thanks everyone. My birthday (at least) was actually pretty good this year. It is strange in a way. I'm not used to them being comparatively relaxing and being followed by a feeling of general enjoyment. All in all I had a really good one.

Name: Billi Zane Clan: Ventrue History: Billi was embraced at the age of 23 some 50 or so years ago just because she didn't listen to her mother and she stole out one night under the cover of darkness to be with someone who turned out to be exactly the wrong sort of man. Instead of being a temporary plaything of some rich and powerful young businessman a handful of insightful comments made at just the right moment convinced her sire that she might be of use to his business and the clan... eventually. For now however, despite showing a surprising grasp of business practices and being able to maneuver smoothly in the world of inter-business politics Billi still has a lot of growing up to do. Her latest trick is to dress up in a faux-vampiric-goth style and go to 'hang out' with whatever outrageous crowd she can find. There is a good chance that this is only done to infuriate her sire and other occasional mentors from clan Ventrue.

I'm in. I don't know much Vampire, but I'm thinking that I might come up with a character in clan Ventrue. More details later.