[Art Exchange] Covert Courtesy Commutation ~ 6/8 gifts are up.

[Gabi]

Oh. Sorry I didn't post this earlier, I thought I had.

Fibre's gifter would like to know if there's anything in particular he wants for his CCC gift: drawing or writing, and also, what he wants the focus to be around.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Sorry for not replying sooner, kind of missed this .

Anyway, I'm going to go with the assumption that you mean five words or phrases that describe Corgatha. I don't think Corgatha is literary enough to like words or phrases for their own sake :p


But words/feelings I associate with Corgatha.


Steadfast
Focused
Protective
Calculating
Vindictive
Mad (insane mad)
Strong
Sacrificing.

[Fibre]

Oh. Sorry I didn't post this earlier, I thought I had.

Fibre's gifter would like to know if there's anything in particular he wants for his CCC gift: drawing or writing, and also, what he wants the focus to be around.

I would enjoy either, whichever you think would work better. As far as focus, I am am open to pretty much anything. If you don't have any ideas I suppose you can never go wrong with cute fuzzy things.

Sorry, I'm not sure this is very helpful... Just be creative and have fun with it.

[Gabi]

OK, the round is over.

Bas did a nice work starting his RPG, but he didn't make the deadline here. He says he'll post his gift later today.

Here are the other gifts:

-WhiteFox has made this gift for Basilisk.
/**
* Artist comments:
Since I already drew Basilisk for Basilisk, I drew Darkshine this round. Love that armour. Not sure what colour it was supposed to be, tho.  buck teeth

Like last time, the quote was just something that came to mind while I was drawing it. Nothing personal against dragons, mind you. The last line came from Shadowrun.

I'm not sure if he's about to give someone a beat down, or bolt in terror. Something sure has his full and un-devided attention.

Bas, let me know if it meets your approval. I'd like to post it to my FA acct.
**/

He also drew this for me! He gets 2 hugs: one for this, and one for finishing ahead of schedule. :hug

-Fibre drew this gift for wuffnpuff.

-In turn, wuffnpuff has made this gift for Corgatha Taldorthar. Nice work trying something new!

-And finally (for now) Corgatha Taldorthar wrote the following gift for... FSharp Sorry,  the file where I kept the assignments got messed up somehow.

The Elemental Princes

Abasathelon waited for the odd feeling of inversion to subside. The years did not weaken it the way that they did to creatures of flesh and blood and bone, but the effort of transporting, along with all of its vassal elementals, seemed to grow heavier with each passing trip. It spent a moment musing, wondering perhaps if it was the weight of memories, of circumstance and sacrifice, that made coming here a more trying task each time.

Here, was a space that disturbed its senses to no small extent. It did not exist in the normal, three dimensional sense. It could not flow here from any ocean, no matter how thin Abasathelon stretched itself, or how quickly it darted.  To come here, it had to fold its home, bend the water in a rather unnatural fashion, and pour in through the hole. Once here, it could flow around, but density did not gradate properly, and it was supported, although by what it could not say. It seemed to be suspended on nothing, although it could feel a firm ocean floor beneath itself. Nothing was above, but Abasathelon, and its followers, managed to cohere despite the lack.

Towards...... there, direction not being ordinarily discernible in this weird netherworld, there was a mass, rising into a pillar for some distance and then flattening out into a disc that was on the top. Abasathelon flowed towards it, followed by a mass of lesser water spirits. It reached the table quickly, or at least it thought it did, but perhaps the lack of sun and season tricked it, for by the time the table was touched by a tendril of flow, old Gwydrihaen seeming to rise out of the edifice, stern and uncompromising. Flanking him was Algol, taller than his "brother" but not as broad, a delicate form's offer of wealth and warmth belied by flashing eyes promising only holocaust.

Pause.

Algol broke the silence, flames spurting from his mouth, dry voice blasting words as if out of a furnace, and declaring "Sila is late."

Glow guttural groaning, the sound of stone creaking answered. "And she has more reason to be here than any of us."

Abasathelon was still recovering from the trip, and struggled for articulation. Perhaps he really was weakening with age. He only now noticed for the first time, the forms that fanned behind both of its brothers. Small, faint, weak. Each had brought vassals, and although Abasathelon had done the same, it fumbled for a moment, wondering why they did. This place was odd, disturbing, but hardly threatening. Why bring forces to guard his back?  At last, it answered, calm, but feeling a bit of force framing its response, "Nevertheless, we have waited too long already. These flesh creatures, they are treading dangerously, impinging on us. It must stop. We must stop them."

Flame blasting again. "YES! YES WE MUST!" A penetrating glance from Gwydrihaen resulted in some modulation of the voice. " I have had over fifteen of my vassal spirits, creatures of flame that look to ME for protection, already bound by these humans and whatever other flesh abominations they've since spawned. I know you've all had the spirits that depend upon you torn from your halls to fetch and carry for these creatures that live threescore years or so."

With strength came memory, and Abasathelon replied with "But their calls are proper. I have not been bound, but I have been called, and to go to the place of summoning, to sit in the circle, it feels right. To turn away brings excoriation. Perhaps we should just-"

Algol's cry of "You Id-" was cut off by the deeper bass of Gwydrihaen's rumbling. "But it is not their power that binds us. They merely inherit, from the people's long gone, stealing rituals, weaving symbols. They know not a tenth of what they are tapping into, and could never approach the power to put the Strictures in place to begin with. The Kayalaithians, we could suffer. They were eldritch and terrible, and to resist was to be obliterated. But to bow before these scavengers. I will not submit to it."

A bit of vitality crept into Abasathelon's voice. It doesn't matter. The Strictures are the Strictures. If we are called, we must obey. It is the call, not the caller, that we are drawn to. That these mortals are not their creators, is that even a relevant point?"

Algol's eyes blazed brighter, and he smashed a forearm against the plinth.  "You speak as if the Strictures were something that was in our benefit. They were the terms dictated by conquerors. But these mortals are different. They still have not a tenth of the power needed to contend with us. We can bring floods, and earthquakes, and eruptions. We can assail and wrack their cities, scatter them to Sila's winds. They only seem to amass the sort of power to even fumble chains onto us when concentrated in their swarming stone hives. Where is SHE ANYWYAY?"

Abasathelon felt, for a moment, a solidity that it was not used to experiencing, that for an instant it was in a set, rigid, defined place and no other, no bleeding loss of density defining its being, but a pure boundary. Then, an instant later, it was gone, and Abasathelon felt a comforting indistinction pass over it.  Dancing on the table was a small form, two arms and two legs, surrounding a central trunk, with silver protrusion  hanging loose from a mass highest vertically on the thing. Looking at the form, different from the manic currents of air  that it was used to disturbed Anasathelon in a vague sense it couldn't articulate. At its side, Gwydrihaen also shifted with unease, almost fidgeting.

Algol, was quicker than his siblings, let off a burst of flame and snarled. "You! You were bound tighter than any of us, you were personally called and tied to a circle, like some petty bonfire-spirit. And yet you take their form?! Are you a traitor, or has your enslavement simply broken your mind?"

Sila laughed. The others had expected a voice as different as her outer appearance, but the alabaster, delicate throat let out a vast, screaming roar, the voice of a hurricane. It gave a reassuring promise that whatever else had been altered, Sila's power and stature was intact. " I spent five summers shackled in Draygen's tower, till the old fool died, but I, all of us, spent far longer in  Kayalaithian service. My mind is stronger than that. I am here, as I am, because I have seen the face of these mortals, and I tell you, they hold no terror over me. Why have you all brought your servants, your supporters? Was this not always a place of peace, of truce? Are you afraid of being called right here in this council chamber?

She glanced to her right and left, eying up Abasathelon and Algol. The water spirit she knew, was something of a weathervane, but Algol was inimical in general, and she was sure he had some crack-brained scheme for annihilating these new swarmers.  "Make no mistake, these newcomers are far stronger than the Kayalaithians ever were. Their Arcana is weak, they die in swarms, they are made out of soft smooth flesh that can be cut or pierced. But because they are weak, they've come up with ways of organizing themselves in a way that our former conquerors never have. They fight one another, but the vitality of the species is not sapped as a result. Parts of it, yes, but never the whole.

A rumble across the table from her. "But, if it is as you say, why are you unafraid of them? Greater than the Kayalaithians? If they are greater, they will bind us tighter than we were before. Perhaps Algol is right, we should smash them while they are nascent, prevent their rise"

Almost on top of him, Algol snapped back that "nothing could be more foolish! If we strike at them, sure , we may kill many of them, perhaps even most of them. But their energy, it will, Draygen oft quoted a proverb of theirs, that necessity is the mother of invention. If we fight, if we make ourselves their greatest enemy, then they will strike against us, and they will enslave us. Why do I not fear them? Why did I take their form? Because they do not look deep. They live short lives, six, seven, eight decades at the very most, and when their bodies fail, their knowledge dies with them. If we hide from their sight, if we take forms that disguise our true nature and pose no threats to these mortals, they will soon forget what we really are. They might chase our interim forms, but they will lose our inner essence, and they will soon turn to other pursuits. All other courses lead to our destruction.

A flash of flame, "Her mind is broken by her captivity to these scum. I vote for war, with me and all my vassals. We will scatter them, disperse their collective knowledge that can be a danger to us."

"Yes", Gwydrihaen groaned. "I will send my forces to make the ground shake and to wrack their crops that they grow in my essence."

Abasathelon, seeing the way the meeting was headed, reluctantly nodded its assent. "The waters shall forever be a hazard to these mortals. Long stretches of water will be barred to them, and rising floods will drown them. It is spoken. Algol, will you please join with us?"

"A peal of silvery laughter and a cry of "fool" was their only answer.


********************************************************************************************************************************************


I'll run some thematic commentary after it's read. Dialogue heavy, but I like dialogue.

[Edit: sorry, fixed.]

[Sprocketsdance]

Fibre... oh.. my.. dear... XD!!!!!!!!! That's awesome! XP  and.. I have clothes! Honest!.. >.> 

But thank you that brought lots of giggles  and the dog is just adorable

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

*coughs* My gift was for Fsharp.


I can't make any real comments to your piece Wuff. I'm at work, and for some odd reason they don't give speakers to library computers...... I'll give it a listen when I get home.

[Gabi]

Sorry. I thought F# first, then I realized I'd received no news for him and wondered if he was even playing. Then I thought it could be WhiteFox instead.

I'm afraid my file was overwritten with something else, but I think I've been able to reconstruct it now.

FSharp owes WhiteFox a gift. I'll see if I can contact him.

[Lisky]

apologies Fibre, i'll have your gift ready tomorrow morning... most of my attempts at cute kinda came out fail-tastic... i've been plugging away when my art muse has been around, and i've been getting better with each attempt... so yea... i'll post as soon as i finish and ink my current one.

Sorry about the delay.

[Fibre]

Fibre... oh.. my.. dear... XD!!!!!!!!! That's awesome! XP  and.. I have clothes! Honest!.. >.> 

But thank you that brought lots of giggles  and the dog is just adorable

Glad you like it! This was fun to do, I know it's definitely got drawing issues again of course but I think I learned a lot doing it. It's pretty much the first time I tried doing a picture non-digitally, and I made a few mistakes doing that as well, plus it turned out to be difficult to get a decent-quality digital version with a cell-phone camera... I have a half-done digital coloring of it as well that I'll try to finish up eventually.

And I didn't mean anything by the sparsity of clothing in the closet, at the moment I just fail at drawing cloth.

apologies Fibre, i'll have your gift ready tomorrow morning... most of my attempts at cute kinda came out fail-tastic... i've been plugging away when my art muse has been around, and i've been getting better with each attempt... so yea... i'll post as soon as i finish and ink my current one.

Sorry about the delay.

No problem, take as much time as you need, and thank you! I am looking forward to seeing it.

[WhiteFox]

He also drew this for me! He gets 2 hugs: one for this, and one for finishing ahead of schedule.

That's the thing about hugs. You can't give them without getting one back. 

For the record, I was not just on time. I do believe I was three days early, your welcome. 

FSharp owes WhiteFox a gift. I'll see if I can contact him.

I am a patient sort. It'll be done when it's done.

whuffin': That. Took guts. The song is awesome, by the way.

...I know it's definitely got drawing issues again of course...

Issues? What issues? That is one adorable puppy, 'nuff said. I see no phail here.

[FSharp]

FSharp owes WhiteFox a gift. I'll see if I can contact him.

I am a patient sort. It'll be done when it's done.

Ugh. I'm really sorry. Deadlines are a point of pride for me, but I've been ... well, you know the kind of sick where you can  feel your soul throwing up? I don't know what the highest temperature I hit was, but I'm pretty sure at some point I crossed over from babbling incoherently in my fever dreams into uttering prophecy.

Anyhow. Mea culpa. I'm still busy with getting caught up on work and putting my house back in order, but I anticipate having the gift ready by the end of this week.

Cheers,

F#

[Gabi]

Mea culpa.

It's not your fault that you got sick. Just post it when it's ready, and welcome back.

[Lisky]

apologies for Fibre, still doin sketches... going on to about 2 dozen, and none really seem all that great... as such, under Gabi's suggestion, i'm putting up one of the better ones until i can get one that, personally, i feel, fits well...

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e268/EWork88/FibrePlaceholder.jpg

[Fibre]

apologies for Fibre, still doin sketches... going on to about 2 dozen, and none really seem all that great... as such, under Gabi's suggestion, i'm putting up one of the better ones until i can get one that, personally, i feel, fits well...

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e268/EWork88/FibrePlaceholder.jpg

Thanks Bas, looking good! Don't be too hard on yourself...

[Lisky]

I'm considerably better at situational cute, vs. cute things , though thanks... i'll hopefully get something drawn and inked in the next few days

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

To Gabi, who organizes this all. You don't really get enough appreciation from us. Anyway, I thought of what you said in chat the other day, and thought maybe an infusion of silliness might be good, so in that vein, I give you a Peter Nguyen essay, on the subject of William Shakespeare.




November 22nd, 2009

THE INFLUENCE OF SHAKESPEARE!

By

Peter Nguyen

   William "Jimmy" Shakespeare was a profound impact on Western civilization. He revolutionized theater, song, and dance, with his varied portrayal of aliens, from sympathetic natives being exploited by humans, to clock smashing psychos in lead suits bent on obliterating humanity. This then is my thesis statement. He also tackled many social issues and revolutionized special effects, most specifically the fireball killing Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet.

   By far, Shakespeare's best play is "Titus Andronicus". He wrote this play after seeing a bear being shot in a zoo, inspiring him to write a tale of lust, revenge, and mutilation. By doing this, and realizing the all important principle  that enough blood and guts can compensate for bad writing and acting, he set the stage (it's a pun, get it?!) and created the whole genre of slasher fic. So, in effect, you have Shakespeare to thank for the brilliant Saw movies, thus cementing

But that isn't all. Shakespeare also invented many phrases that are in use in English today, like "To thine own self be true", "To be or not to be" "Got milk?",  "Now is the winter of our discontent", "Always Coca-Cola", "The beast with two backs", "All of your base are belong to us" and "L'Etat, c'est moi." Without Shakespeare, we'd all be speaking Latin, which is what everyone was talking before he came and forced everyone to talk in English. AND THAT WOULD BE BAD BECAUSE LATIN HAS NO PUNCTUATION OR EVEN LOWERCASE LETTERS AND ITS GRAMMAR IS IMPOSSIBLE AND I HATE YOU MR LENSON FOR FAILING ME IN THAT CLASS.

Furthermore, Shakespeare stimulates the modern economy. Thanks to him writing over six hundred plays, all of which are famous and considered good by English teachers, (They don't let you become an English teacher without visiting the tomb of Shakespeare, where his ghost hypnotizes you into loving his work), he keeps thousands of people employed, who otherwise wouldn't have anything to do in high schools across the country, and there would be more kids smoking weed in the halls like Tommy Keane.

In conclusion, Shakespeare was a upper class twit, who liked to smoke Cuban cigars and stick caviar up his nose and wore a monocle. It's a good thing he's dead, but it's also a shame, because he had a lot of influence on who we are today. Please give me a passing grade, it's embarrassing to be so much older than all the other kids in your class.

[Gabi]

XD That was quite funny. Thanks, Corg!

Did what I said about laughing inspire you to post this? In any case, thank you.

[WhiteFox]

Corg: *Snrk* Bwa-ha-ha!

Wipes tear away.

Ahem.

So... are there any plans for another round? I know my gift isn't in yet, but I don't want to hold things up on my account...

[Kipiru]

Corgatha that was hilarious!

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

I'd be up for another round

[Liatai]

I'd like to sign up, too, if I can.

[Kipiru]

I'll join in for the coming round as well!

[Sprocketsdance]

whuffin': That. Took guts. The song is awesome, by the way.

Thanks White! ^^



Oh, and I'm up for another round 

[Lisky]

As am i... new sketchbook seems to have boosted my muse greatly... still finishing something up for Fibre in the meantime... but i've got free time, and muse to boot

[WhiteFox]

I'd be up for another round

I'd like to sign up, too, if I can.

I'll join in for the coming round as well!

Oh, and I'm up for another round  

As am i... new sketchbook seems to have boosted my muse greatly... still finishing something up for Fibre in the meantime... but i've got free time, and muse to boot

I have a vague feeling this is some how my fault.

[Sofox]

Yes, I was away for a bit (from the gift exchange), but now I'm back!

Please sign me up for the next gift exchange(exclamation mark).

[Jairus]

I think it'd be fun to join in for a round, and I've got some free time. Count me in!

[Gabi]

OK, let's try to keep things orderly.

Kipiru, it's nice to see you again, but I'm afraid you'll have to finish the gift that you owe WhiteFox from round 6 before you can sign up again.

Bas, you've at least posted something, so you can join.

WhiteFox, Corgatha, Liatai, Wuff, Sofox and Jairus are in as well.

I'll keep sign ups open for the day and start the new round tomorrow.

[Kipiru]

Kipiru, it's nice to see you again, but I'm afraid you'll have to finish the gift that you owe WhiteFox from round 6 before you can sign up again.

Got it Gabi!

[WhiteFox]

Kipiru, it's nice to see you again, but I'm afraid you'll have to finish the gift that you owe WhiteFox from round 6 before you can sign up again.

I'll keep sign ups open for the day and start the new round tomorrow.

If kip gets his gift in before the round starts, can he join in?