Around Seed's birthday last year, I wrote a prologue for a story about Seed, that likely would have led to him handling his origins and some manner of conflict with the forest (or, rather, the collective tree hivemind-thing) over the very nature of his being. Or something like that.

http://www.endlessforest.org/community/story-prologue

Now, I never did anything with it, since I didn't really know what I was doing at the time. But it's always been in the back of my mind. I think I have some ideas on what to do now, and it may even involve some community participation towards the end...

But would anyone care? Would anyone want to read that? I don't mind if you say no -- it saves me some time.

((Gah. Fail. Fail... Anyway, if I had to cut this poem down to two lines, it would be the first and the last ones, which were inspired by a little exchange I noticed under her bio. Originally they were the last two lines, but as a framing device...I kind of like this better.))

((Gah. Bad and short. I am apparently awful at doing gifts, who knew? You deserve better, Dannii!))

Yeah. When you mix in midterms and the fact that the computer I'm on about 3-4 nights a week is no longer willing to play TEF, I've had a busy few weeks. So...I'm sorry I haven't been around, but I hope to find a way to bring myself back fully into this community.

Yup. By my accounts (which may be a little off), today is Seed's second birthday, thus marking that I have been a member of this community for 2 years!

I mean, wow. I don't feel like an oldie, but there you go.

So, yeah. Seed'll be on and off throughout the day.

Happy Valentine's Day, My Dearest.



(( This has been a special holiday edition of Seed's Poetry Corner Today's part of the secret phrase is "ve."))

I did two little things for Sithrim: the first is a haiku of a bunch of names I thought of him, the second is a longer poem written with Krym's admiration for his dad in mind. I was clearly in a heavily anaphora-filled mood tonight.

[=#FFA824]
Shy deer are awful. Oh, sure, they think they're so vulnerable or whatever, but really...all they are is mean. Take today, for example...

I was playing with Virgil, trying to get my spells in order. And the deer wakes up. and she just starts backing away like I've done something wrong. AGAIN. This is the third time this week! What, do I smell bad? Did someone go around saying I'm a jerk?! WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME, HUH?

And I do the nice thing, I really try. Really. I try to approach her slowly, and I try to keep my distance. All the nice things you're supposed to do for shy deer despite the fact that it's not you who has the problem with them, you know? I didn't mind -- I wanted to make a new friend. I don't really feel like I have enough friends. Virgil's a great pal, and all, but he and Vala and my parents are all there is in my life, you know? And that won't do -- I wanna be friends with everyone! Nothing less will do, ha-ha!

...where was I? Oh, yeah. And after a while, I started getting frustrated, so I decided to wait a ways off until she and Virgil were done. I could take a hint, see where I wasn't wanted, all that. If it made them happy, I...well, OK, I pretended I was happy with that, but I just started getting more and more frustrated. I hadn't done anything wrong, and I was the one being left out in the cold. I decided that I wasn't going to take no for an answer -- she was going to get over her fear of me, whether she was ready to or not! ...Or something like that. I wasn't really thinking, I was just sort of feeling whatever came my way. And it was just really angry and frustrated -- I wanted to be her friend, that was all! Why couldn't she accept that!? Anyway, so I started going right up to her,to get her to meet me face-to-face. And, to my shock, she started running. I started pounding after her too, and I think Virgil started running after me.

I awoke and noticed my nephew asleep on the hill. I had heard he had been having trouble recently. He looks so worn and peaceful, all at once, asleep. I used to sit with Lemon like this -- I wonder if she knew? How nice it was, to watch her sleep...Sitting there, watching dreams flit across this young stag's face, I couldn't help but miss my little sister. I've mostly accepted that little pain in my heart when I've thought of her, long before she announced she was gone. So sitting there, trying to comfort a sleeping deer who was once a fawn I took as part of my life...It was a little startling, how it hurt so much and felt so much like being home. I sat there, and watched the horizon change from blue to pink and back again, cycling as if day and knight were passing in the distance, over and over again.

After a while, another younger deer near to my heart arrived -- Dyana, my young apprentice. Shje came skipping up, like a fresh spring wind. I wondered if my journeys with her wopuld mean I would leave my spot -- but then, Aleit rose up to his feet. Dyana looked so surprised! She's still very shy. It took a little coaxing to get her to accept Aleit as a friend. But after that, it was easy to get the three of us to dance. We danced so long that Aleit and Dyana couldn't stay on their feet the whole while, but nodded off. So we settled to sit on the hill, with Dyana cuddled between Aleit and I.

Aleit left after a time, and Dyana and I began to wind our way back to the old forest, where we met another fawn who danced with us. But as the fawn dashed off, I realized it was time that I move on as well.

I decided that since everyone else was doing fanart to contribute to the community and whatforth, I would -- as time and whimsy struck me -- do likewise. I'd pick either a specific person or a random deer and do a little neck-up shot. Because I could.

My first? Solitari Tonto. Don't ask me why -- he was there. He was also really, really hard to draw, since I had not a whole lot of sense of his character or how to translate his look into my style. I just made him look happy, just because.


I'd say sorry that it stinks, but hey: it's free art. Everyone likes free art, right?

Tune in...whenever, when I do...whomever!