& n b s p ; - The Doomsday Tag

It's hard to believe how quickly and thoroughly the "Information Superhighway" and the World-Wide-Web have become integrated into the daily lives of the general public. Two decades ago, few people outside of universities and the information technology industry had even heard of the Internet, but today people depend on it for everything from news, weather, and entertainment to doing their homework, filing their tax returns, and buying the basic necessities of life.

Depending on anything to that extent is dangerous, and the failure or collapse of the Internet and the World Wide Web would be catastrophic for the entire civilized world.

Couldn't happen, you say? Think I'm just another fear-mongering, nutcase net-kook? Well, before you click that [back] button and revel in your false sense of security, take a look at this graph:

If that's not enough to convince you by itself, let me point out that it's a graph of the increasing volume of traffic on the internet, now dominated almost entirely by the transmission of web-based information.

So far, technological advances have been able to keep pace with this ever-increasing need for information flow. But this could change--even as we speak, there's another, as yet unexplained fellow-traveler that's taking up an ever greater proportion of this bandwidth. Its purpose remains unknown, but it does not appear to be of human origin and its content is not information that is of use to or meaningful to humans.

And yet, every single day, it devours an even larger share of the total internet bandwidth.

As recently as ten years ago, no reported observances of the strange code & n b s p ; appeared in the traffic on the "information superhighway." Today it is already taking up a substantial portion of the total internet bandwidth and it appears to propagate by "infecting" webpages in a virus-like or cancer-like manner, spreading throughout its victim, crowding out or replacing the readable text content that had originally occupied the formerly healthy page.

In the most advanced cases, infected pages may have had nearly all their text replaced by the & n b s p ; virus, leaving nothing but a vestigial "under construction" or "coming soon" sign.

A survey of randomly selected webpages showed that those infected by the virus typically had 10% to 30% of their total bytes consisting of multiple & n b s p ; tags. Web browsers will not normally display these tags, so when an unsuspecting reader loads up an infected page, he or she will probably notice nothing more than what appears to be a slower internet connection--hardly an unusual experience in this day and age.

& n b s p ;'s exact method for infecting pages has not yet been discovered. Whether it is transmitted through a network connection, between pages sharing the same host, or through unprotected cybersex is uncertain. What is certain is that it is spreading rapidly throughout the World Wide Web. If current trends continue (see graph below), within six years, over 99% of network traffic will consist entirely of & n b s p ;s and surfers on the information superhighway will find themselves waiting as long for pages to load as real-life surfers have to wait for a decent whitecap to come rolling up I-85.





The virus-like manner in which & n b s p ;s replicate and spread looks threatening enough, and for now they appear to do nothing more than take up space on the information superhighway while they freely use our precious communications infrastructure to travel around the world for their own, as yet unknown, ends.

Can we really count on them always remaining silent, though? As described above, they typically make up 10-30% of infected pages; that means that regardless of how widespread they may be, they're still in the minority. What happens when they become the majority? Will they then "activate" like a human virus that first establishes a foothold in its victim and only then starts causing symptoms? Could & n b s p ; turn out to be Ebola for computers?

What is the real purpose behind this & n b s p ; invasion? We already know that it's dangerous, quite likely the single greatest threat to our technological society.

Frighteningly, we simply don't know. Whether it's part of some long-reaching terrorist scheme to disrupt global communications, or the beginnings of an all-out invasion by a hostile alien race, the odds are that by the time we do figure it out, it will already be too late.

As a concerned citizen, what can you do to prevent the destruction of the internet? Regularly check your own web pages and those you visit to see if they've become infected; most browsers include a "view source" option that lets you do this easily.

Write letters to your local paper and your congressman demanding that this crisis be dealt with immediately, and watch carefully for any changes in your computer's operation and performance that might be caused by & n b s p ; infection. Check the computers of family members and friends to make sure that they have not become unwitting dupes of the & n b s p ; invasion. If you observe any signs that they might be under & n b s p ; control, take no chances; get to a phone as quickly as possible without arousing their suspicions and report them and their computers to the authorities immediately.

& n b s p ;'s ever-tightening grip on our precious information superhighway means that immediate action is vital. It is only by working together to fight this menace that we have any hope of saving our technological way of life.

& n b s p ; - The Doomsday Tag's Ten Year Anniversary
UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of this IMPORTANT Information is ENCOURAGED.
The Unnatural Enquirer, © 2000 by Trygve Lode (trygve@trygve.com)

Do You Wanna Date My Avatar

Hmm.. you get the picture?

Leave the personal stuff out of the stories. Nothing ruins them faster.

Morning After A Second Wake

A church, centuries old in its rugged architecture and grey, gothic spires, stands atop a hillside overlooking a quaint little town below all nestled in the surrounding horseshoe foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. Behind the cathedral's spires, the first rays of morning light bloom in a myriad of pastel colors.. bringing the first of yawns to the wintry, frozen town below.

Just past the open sanctuary was a small door, so small that a priest must bend over to pass its threshold, that stood ajar. Beyond it, one of the clergy leaned over a small basin stand and washed his hands of the dirt that clung to them. He was getting on in years, soon to reach his retirement from officiating services.. as nights like the last only served to remind him. One of the fold had been lost to the darkness, following her shock and abject trajectory from an opened grave site.

A common ritual that marked the fifth anniversary of one deceased.. the grave was dug up, the coffin pried open from rusted nails that had kept it shut.. and the corpse examined by several of the town's council and at least one officiating priest.

Father Aleksei turned and dried his hands on a small clean towel before kissing the white satin mantel he would soon don as part of his ritual morning dressing. And afterward he bent over to emerge through the rectory door again and into the large sanctuary where already the sun's morning rays splintered into colorful fragments by the stained glass windows. The first psalter of incense was lit and swung three times, back and forth before the altar.. then rehung from it's nearby iron sconce. Like every morning at sunrise, he prepared for the first mass of the day.. for those most faithful Orthodox parishioners of the town below. Unlike the Catholics though, communion was not feasted upon with each mass.. but rather reserved for the Christian equivalent of the Pesach holiday. Neither did they believe in the transfiguration of wafer and wine into the body and blood of their Lord.. for such was an affront to all that was holy.
It smacked of vampirism to those of the Orthodox Church.

Father Aleksei crossed himself and whispered the final rite of prayer before he turned to await his early morning flock.

In all his seventy-five years he had never once officiated over the exhumation of a corpse and found a fattened, blood sucking monstrosity laying in its place. Many times over the decades he had wondered whether such myths even held any truth in them. But there were always the whispers and the beliefs.. a friend of a friend who'd heard tale of unearthing a fetid vampire suspected of terrorizing the folk of any given town. But not here. Not in this peaceful little provinçial town all nestled in the heart of Carpathian Mountain foothills. Last night proved no exception either.. on the fifth anniversary of Gavriil Kinski's untimely death.

Just as he had expected, the corpse.. was just a corpse. The skeletal remains of bone and dust, withered away beneath shreds of disintegrated clothing. Nothing more. Nothing upon which any ghastly abominations need be performed. There was no smashing of the skull with a sledgehammer. No pounding of stakes through its center to pin it to the ground. And no incineration of its blood-filled vital parts, so that its ashes might be mixed into flour cakes and consumed by the living to ward off the vampire. He was simply reburied with quiet dignity.

"God be with you," he said quietly to the young lady who had entered and seated herself in a pew.

That Thing You Write - Antagonist

3. Antagonist - sometimes referred to as the villain, the bad guy, or nemesis, this is the character who opposes the protagonist or hero. The antagonist is the necessary element which provides a story's conflict.

The Templar Brian de Bois-Guilbert for example, in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, is an evil nemesis from beginning to end, while Cedric the Saxon's character plays only minor antagonism to the hero, Wilfred of Ivanhoe.

Sometimes the antagonist is not always so clear cut, such as when the perceived villain turns out to be other than what the writer originally made you believe about him. The Harry Potter novels are filled with delightful, shady flip flops between character tendencies toward hero and villain, designed to keep an audience guessing and always surprised.

Also, the antagonist does not always have to be an actual character, but is sometimes just a force which works against the hero in the tale, such as a rash of bad luck, a severe storm, etc.

That Thing You Write - Allusion

2. Allusion - Within one literary work, it is the practice of making reference to another work, such as a film, a work of art, a book or novel, or even a real event. While allusions may be used to draw upon the collective understanding between writer and audience, they do occasionally run the risk of alienating those in an audience who have no familiarity with what has been alluded to.


One of my favorite allusions is a reference from To Kill A Mockingbird, which comes from the movie Benny & Joon. After Benny discloses to Sam that Joon suffers from chronic schizophrenia, Sam sneaks down to the kitchen, staring at Joon from the stairwell. After spying him from the corner of her eye, Joon asks him: "Having a Boo Radley moment, are we?"

Of course, for someone who has never seen or read To Kill A Mockingbird, this line would not be obvious in drawing reference between Sam's blank stares and Boo Radley's blank stares.

That Thing You Write - Alliteration

Coming up:
A list of fifty-three commonly used terms used by writers of fiction.


1. Alliteration - the use of repetitious consonant sounds in a verse or sentence, more commonly used in poetry, but many fiction writers sometimes make use of it (sometimes without even realizing it) to convey rhythmic styles in narrative or dialogue, place emphasis on certain mental imagery -- or for humorous effects.

Most often the use of alliteration will strike a chord in the flow of speech and literature, giving it a comforting sound or rhythm. Such as in Shakespeare's Sonnet XXX:
"When to the sessions of sweet silent thought...."

Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream:
"Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
He bravely breach'd his boiling bloody breast."

Robert Browning's A Grammarian's Funeral:
"No! yonder sparkle is the citadel's
Circling its summit.
Thither our path lies; wind we up the heights:
Wait ye the warning?"


And of course some extreme and rather humorous examples of repetitive consonants for example:
A big black bug bit a big black bear and made the big black bear bleed blood.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
She sells seashells by the seashore.

Drop Dead Fred

Yeah, it gets the watermark every few minutes. Came out kind of cool, though. I spliced the entire movie up into nine equal 10-minute segments and one 7-minute segment.

Not going to post the rest of them here, though. Sorry.

A New Look For Eddie

I wanted to go for something that would adequately show the truer age of this character, and fortunately the fellow I chose is no longer the twenty-five year old bass player for Guns -n- Roses.

Worked out rather nice. And once again I found this marvy photo with TONS of red shit in the background that had to come out. Not an easy chore when the photo's subject is blonde.

Just like the previous image set, large chunks of his hair had to be literally cut from the image and redrawn with paintbrushes.

A little work there, but I was pleased with the colorful neon motion that the new background image supplied. It transformed the whole feel of the photo from tired looking.. to almost amphetamine rave.

Visually Enhancing PBs

About a year and a half ago when I created this character of Eddie with his notorious sunny disposition and moral righteousness, he was also the proud recipient of one of my first attempts at creating a Photoshop graphic that animated paintbrushes, rather than a series of movie stills.

So the first chore, (and I seem to have a habit of always finding images with a ton of bright red crap that needs to be fixed!), was to remove the big red text splattered right over the main part of the picture. No cropping on this one, since it was already badly cropped on the right side to begin with!

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So the second image wound up on Eddie's profile page for about a year until the story was moved over to The Storyteller's TriQuetra. Back then I had not yet discovered the value of saving my psd files after the finished product, and when the little space on the graphic for a scrollbox was no longer a necessary component of the character's profile, it was not a matter of simply going into Photoshop and removing that layer with the click of a button. It was more like.. starting all over from scratch.

And there you have the last, final result from this particular animated graphic on the third image. There are still a ton of flaws, and I'm definitely not a Photoshop professional. So, please.. keep the chuckles down under your breath.

The Death Of A Whore

Search yourselves cunningly, I pray you, analysing your inmost thoughts. And first you shall discard all those gross obvious hindrances to your Will: idleness, foolish friendships, waste employments or enjoyments, I will not enumerate the conspirators against the welfare of your State.
(Aleister Crowley)

It is an insignificant town that sits at the foothills of the Heroesbane Range, so insignificant that I do not recall its name. Nevertheless it brims with an age-old profession wherein painted women lurk about the Inns in search of lonely travelers with whom they might grant a sexual favor in exchange for a bit of bread.. or perhaps a coin. And while the town remains nameless in my mind, the whore does not.

I was accosted by more than a few before I relented and allowed one to capture my eyes and my attention. Evelyn. I suspected that at one time, she must have been very pretty. Long before the ravages and usury of time had caught up to her. For now, her smile is sad and her eyes filled with a hollowness. And I pity this woman, who for a piece of bread was willing to spread open wide and bare her very soul to me.. a stranger.

As for me, I cannot defile her. Not like that.

Yet she assured me she was quite willing to succumb to any secret proclivity, no matter how vile.. for the right price. And I am sure she has seen more than her share in her lifetime.

But I shall not take what is precious from her. I shall not know her in such a carnal manner. Though I doubt she was aware of this before she breathed her last and fell backward upon me, bathing me in the warm succor of her sacrifice.

And for this, I kissed her upon her cold brow as a father might. And I left her several coins for her passage into the next life. May she fare better than she did in this one.

A chapter from The Necromancer's Handbook
as played out in an excerpt from the story Vale Of The Enclave:





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Sleeping With Eddie

(Selection from Ugly Vegas)

Eddie's voice cut to the quick and with a hushed gasp, the Baroness looks to its source. The doorway.. So he'd either been watching all along or he came moseying by at the end to show good 'ole Rudy the door. Like the delivery man, Lara feels guilty, kneeling there, her lips shiny with another man's ejaculate. Guilty that she'd crumbled so easily to the will of not the lesser man but of Eddie. She licks slowly at the sore spots on her mouth but doesn't get up from her kneel.

"Is it because I've been with so many men.. that you don't want me?" No blow jobs because her mouth is a dumping ground. No sex for the same reason. Maybe that's why Quist is as stand-offish as he is.. and why he prefers to merely watch her take on man after man.

Gone in Sixty Seconds. Rudy dashed from the penthouse suite without ever looking back, leaving the blonde foreign bitch and the Vegas Snowman to their lonesome once again. Eddie remained there in the doorway, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared down at Lara on the bedroom floor as she seemed once again to beg something from him. The girl wanted.. to be wanted. Wanted by him, no less. And yet he remained there, staring down at her with the same stony, passionless expression all the while. Gone were the shits and grins from his previous egging of Rudy the clothing delivery guy. And what seemed a fun game, was now quite over.

It was amusing the way a broad concluded her worthlessness if she got rejected the least little bit. And here this bitch, Lara Mortonmere could have any dick she wanted. Any dick at all. Eddie didn't answer her. His mood seemed to have changed a bit in the past half hour or so.

Lara doesn't do well to be stared at. Her hopeful expression falters as her eyes seek solace in a stare to the carpet, down and away from Eddie. She's a vision. Honey skin, long blonde hair, features that make a man's mouth water but he makes her feel like soap scum ringing a neglected bath tub. He wasn't going to answer. Or maybe he didn't need to but with a clipped nod, she at last rises from her subservient kneel to look about for something to where. None of her clothes await her in the bed room.. she'd shed them prior to her arrival here so with a barely audible sigh, she tries to edge past Eddie, trying to hug the wall opposite from him so she wouldn't be the added spark to his powder keg. His silences frightened her.

Eddie stuck his leg out there inside the door's frame, refusing to grant her passage to the other side, still garbed in a filthy pair of Levis that he'd never bothered to zip up.. ever since Rudy had entered their suite to deliver clothes. His tip far more generous than the twenty bill Lara had originally intended to give him -- two sips off a spilled beer and a blow job.

"Go to bed, Baby Doll," he finally broke his silence at last.

Blocked from passing, her dark eyes fly to his face.. but seeing no fury edged there in sharp relief, Lara allows herself a shaky breath. All that was in her wanted to slide her hand down the exposed patch of flesh between the flaps of his jeans, to make him happy.. and liking her better but touching Eddie could spell disaster. With a bite to her bottom lip, she brushes her fingertips over denim alone, one of those flaps batted away from his stomach to better the view. She's in love with Quist.. in her own way. In their own way.

"Yes, Eddie.." she whispers, retreating from him to pad back over to one side of the bed. Obediently she slides beneath the covers, turning down his side.. in case he wished to follow.

Eddie kind of liked the broad. Funny that. For the man didn't much like anyone at all. That is not to say he disliked anyone. e was simply indifferent.. to the whole human race. A social pariah who could easily enough turn on the charm and pretense, in order to get what he wanted. Until the scene was over. He'd not endure a close relationship for any other reason, than to gain something for himself. He'd tolerated Rudy just long enough.. not so much to sate his penchant for voyeurism, but perhaps to sate the hungry whore, Lara. Who seemed.. insatiable. Look at her! Still wanting something more.

Eddie remained there, standing in the doorway with both arms folded over his chest for several minutes after the broad turned back and crawled into the big, king-sized bed. It seemed he might have been contemplating leaving.. the way his jaw twitched once or twice.

"Don't go.. stay.." She whispers. No longer reclining with her head on the pillow, Lara lifted up to gently pat the spot beside her, straightening the pillow slightly. He hadn't followed and the Baroness can sense she is about to lose him to beer and the boob tube.

"I could rub your back, Eddie. Or .. we can just sleep. When was the last time we slept?"

Together they'd been awake for more than one day, possibly two. The past hours bled together and she wasn't sure what day it was. And she should be more worried about the American police and that lech, Carlo whatever, but right now, she only wants Eddie Quist to like her. Just a little. Especially after Rudy.. because for some reason or another, Lara is sure that whole episode is all her fault. She'd failed some test. She should have said no.

She ought to be crashing soon enough after her last hit of coke -- especially after the three-day no-sleep marathon. And whether the insatiable little crack whore realized it or not, Edward Quist meant to take care of her needs. Food, sleep, sexual gratification in one way or another, and permission to use the crapper any damn time she needed. The bare essentials for survival. What was odd.. was that he cared at all. Eddie could just as easily crash out on the couch in front of the tv, and seemed to have every intention of doing so. That is until she rose up and gave a pat to the fluffy king-sized pillow in its crisp white linen case.

His arms unfolded and at last he pushed himself from the door frame and right into the bedroom. Near the bed he turned his back to her and tugged his filthy Levis right off. They were stiff enough almost to stand there on their own -- and even walk away. And right afterward, Eddie sat down on the edge of the bed with his back to Lara, and stared out at the glittering neon Vegas panorama out the large bay window. He hadn't slept.. since he met the bitch.

"Been days," he said quietly.

In her own right, Lara plays a little hard ball. The sheet does lovely things to her beautifully full breasts, sliding down their firm, tawny slopes to catch for a breathless moment at her nipples before falling away to her lap. She crosses her long legs when he approaches, turning towards him to ever-so gently run her hand down his back. It is soothing, not sexual for his words bring it home how bloody weather-worn they are. She doesn't say anything more, worried she might topple the precariously balanced apple cart and screw herself out of this tiny concession. She gets to rub his back. First only one handed and tentatively at that.. but finally Lara gathers her legs beneath her to kneel naked behind him. She feels something.. a connection. It stands out from the pleasant buzz in her head. Eddie needs her. He wouldn't hit her.. or get angry if he didn't feel something. She runs her hands over him slowly sometimes going as high as the back of his neck, sometimes as far as the ends of his shoulders.

Eddie didn't writhe or twist the way most would do under such a slow caress of hands. Instead he sat there motionless.. lost in some kind of daze in his own world where none were privy to enter. And for several minutes he simply tolerated the woman's closeness; didn't shove her away. Then after a particular long and silent spell, he asked very quietly:

"Why'd you suck him?"

One would think that question would be a shocker but Lara is either too tired to feel that emotion or she saw it coming. So how to answer it? She stares at his shoulder in thought, making tiny figure eights on his warm warm skin.

"At first.. because you wanted me to, Eddie." His shared wink.. his offering her up like his own little complimentary gift. It had made her feel good to be considered his property, even if that later waned.

Cock sucking seemed such a selfless act; nothing at all in it for the one who knelt and sucked. It was the purest act of giving from bitch to alpha.. and one he'd seen plenty of in all his years behind bars in the Leavenworth federal penitentiary. So why had she chosen the subservient cock-sucking when she could have had herself a nice fuck between the legs, replete with kisses and hugs and shit? When it seemed Lara hadn't gotten the gist of his question, he turned his head aside and glanced back at her with a stretch from the corners of his eyes.

"Why didn't you just let him fuck you, instead?" He laid his hand down right atop the broad's knee.

Lara frowns slightly and when the pretty lady frowns, her lips pooch out in a lovely pout.

"Because.. I wanted someone else."

Women were finicky like that. Even whores could go strange and prefer the man who got them hot and bothered in the first place to sate them. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered and she might've richly enjoyed riding Rudy's thick prong but not when Eddie wasn't her lover too. The fact he hadn't taken the plunge -- but wasn't adverse to doing so with other women, aka that despot bitch, Rebecca -- made Lara feel like she wasn't good enough. And it also made him three thousand times more alluring. Lara wanted what she cannot have.

"Did I do bad by not fucking him? I thought you wanted me to make him happy, Eddie.. I'm sorry.."

Lara was given a glimpse inside. Just a mere glimpse where she was no longer the outsider, but the third wheel Rudy was instead. Rudy had been the set-up, afterall. The one meant to put on a show and perform; the one meant to be useful and butter up a hungry whore's cunt.

"Don't be suckin' dicks no more, Baby Doll." Eddie squeezed her knee, deciding right then and there that he didn't like the broad suckin' the dicks of johns.

"I don't want you doin' that." And that was that. Though interestingly enough, he'd tolerated her sucking his own flaccid cock right before Rudy had arrived with his delivery of clothes. But.. that was different. Lara was his bitch.

Eddie pushed her knee aside and finally laid himself down on the bed, stretching out flat while staring up at the ceiling.

But. .but.. he'd insisted she suck the cabbie's dick! He was going to beat her black and blue if she did not and by his own admission Eddie had richly enjoyed playing voyeur to her oral skills. Lara doesn't argue with him though, she only nods while trying her best to use her tongue as a squee-gee and get rid all the remnants of Rudy's cum out of her mouth. Eddie didn't like what she did, even if the delivery man sure did.

"I promise.. I won't any more," she whispers, moving aside when it appears he wants to stretch down on the soft coverlet. She runs her nails up and down his nearest arm, studying the many tattoos that cover it as well as his shoulder.

The felon could change his mind on a dime, and very often did without a hint of warning, either. Whatever went through his head, his own logic, his own warped perceptions.. he wasn't much for sharing. Though it was a fairly safe assumption that much of his psyche had been shaped from not only the decades of imprisonment.. but being reared at the hands of a non-functioning alcoholic mother and her myriad of abusive, live-in lovers. And for as much as he hated the white-trash cunt.. here he was tangled up with a woman who was probably just like her! Odd that. But then again, people did tend to live out their existence in tail-chasing cycles of repetition.

Eddie reached up with that same arm Lara was fingering, only to curl it around her and drag her right down to lay against him, opening his door just another hair.

She wants desperately to be a good bitch. To please him until he passes out, but Lara's body betrays her once snuggled against his side. She lays her head down beside Quist's shoulder and her hand which had been lightly stroking up and down his arm, makes its passes instead to his chest, yet slower and slower. He was holding her. It made her feel so good she forgot all about her foibles with Rudy and about hunter Blair and the American police. With a happy sigh, Lara closes her eyes to what seems like the first time in centuries since she's allowed her lashes to fully decend.

"You smell so good.." she mumbles and passes out completely.

Sleep doesn't come so easily to Edward Quist. He's been somewhat of an insomniac.. or perhaps just a very light sleeper, for most of his life. It was part and parcel with survival. And he was the quintessential survivor in the kind of a life that would have left most a victimized casualty. Eddie's instincts are damn near bestial in a dog-eat-dog, cut throat world.

And for as many hours as it took while the bitch slept soundly and wrapped in his arm, Eddie drifted in and out of sleep.. blinking his eyes wide awake at least twenty times or more all throughout.. in a good fourteen hour pass.

Getting A Story Hosted on The TriQuetra dot Net

It's easier than you think.

We've tweaked our application process just a wee bit, again. This time we are making it crystal clear that we want YOUR fabulous stories here on our Storytellers section of TQ's forum boards.

Most of our current stories are written out live in our chat rooms. Here is a screen shot of what our Chat Rooms look like, in case you were wondering if they're as gorgeous as the rest of the site. (They are! Go ahead and click on the image.)

But we don't stop there, like many other sites do, which cater to one or the other. On Storyteller's TriQuetra.. we love BOTH in-chat stories and play-by-forum-post stories!


If you've got a GREAT story, we've got a GREAT site to host it on. Fill out our Registration and get started today!

Finding Home

To date, there are a zillion story boards out there that fold up and close just as quickly as they came to life. There are also a good handful of sites offering chat rooms for story-based role play as well.

But in my experience with the chat room based sites, (and I’m narrowing my input down to chat role play only, as that is where my forté rests), they are either entirely un-moderated so that anyone can walk in and disrupt, or they are so overly moderated that they squash creativity. Some just make you download a bunch of software onto your computer to use their chats (ugh!) -- like IRC and AOL.

But what if there was a site that offered nifty little chat rooms, space for colorful character profiles, forum board space, and freedom to create any story you wanted without any kind of harassment or censorship.. or rules regarding the type of character/story you wanted to play?

And yes.. not too long ago I was writing on a particular chat site where I wanted to create a vampire character. Just an ordinary, walking-dead, blood drinking vampire. But I was informed by an administrator via email, before I ever stepped foot into a chat room.. that vampires were not allowed in one of the taverns. Only vampyrs were allowed.

On that same site, my writing partner and I were chewed out by a girl for playing a scene in which part of a forest was set on fire by feuding NPC characters. She got a little hysterical, stating that if we burned down the forest (and she wasn’t even playing in our story to begin with!), no one else on the site would be able to enjoy the room anymore!

It’s laughable now. She needed a little slap to the head to come back to reality, is all. But during the time, we had nowhere else to go to write our story and do our own thing. She was a constant nuisance, many times disrupting our scenes by posting out-of-character chatter into the room at the same time, or bombarding us with private messages plastered all over the screen.. threatening to "tell management" that we were breaking all the rules!

So.. back to finding home. What is it worth to be able to toss up your own story, write it any way you desire, burn a few cyber trees along the way, and say, "I’m a vampyr, but I shall not enter into taverns which openly discriminate against vampires," or vice versa? What is it worth to hang out on a site where people are not only expected to be nice.. they ARE nice? What is it worth to not hear the peanut gallery gasp in the background and threaten to report you to "management" if you brazenly type the F word into your chat room or on your board?

Affecting An Effect, In Fact

Affect and Effect are two English words with fairly similar meanings, and fairly similar pronunciations as well. Yet although they are not true homophones (words which sound alike), there is enough similarity in them to cause a lot of people a bit of confusion. Even folks who use them frequently will very often find themselves stumped over which word is the correct one to use.

The word affect is almost always used as a verb in English. It means to change or alter something. Her death affected the survivors in a profound way. How will my vote affect the outcome of an election?

But the word effect is most often used as a noun in English, and is characterized by something that is produced by an agent or cause. The result or consequence directly related to a sort of catalyst. The effects of her death left the survivors in a daze of disbelief. Cause and effect are necessary to formulate a scientific theory.

Affect may rarely be used as a noun, but its usage is nearly obsolete and a bit pointless to dredge up out of archaic retirement.

Effect also, may occasionally be used as a verb, and is a wee bit more common than the noun uses of affect, but probably best to simply steer clear of adding more yarn to an already tangled web.

Easiest to remember: A for action word -- A for affect. It makes a good effect, overall.

On A Side Note

And this, of course, is completely just for fun.. The Flat Earth Society is a web board I stumbled upon some time ago. Needless to say, it amazes me what people will believe in the twenty-first century.

Under the section header Flat Earth Questions & Clarification, a Curious Guy (bl4ke360) posts the question: "Why do you all think gravity doesn't exist? Is it because it's invisible? Do you know another force that is invisible? The wind. Does anybody think the wind doesn't exist because you can't see it? Don't think so, but you can see its affect (sic) on things, like you can see gravity's affect (sic) on things."

Robosteve (a supporter of Flat Earth Society) responds: "We say that gravity doesn't exist because we accept Albert Einstein's theory of General Relativity as valid."

Curious Guy (bl4ke360): "The last time I checked, Einstein believed in gravity. I'm pretty sure he knew what he was talking about more than you think you know what you're talking about."

Robosteve: "Please read the Gravity sticky."

Curious Guy (bl4ke360.. who turns out to be more intelligent than curious) responds: "Please read:" ->

Robosteve (Trying to sound a little smarter now): "Have you read the Gravity sticky yet? On FES, we make a technical distinction between the terms "gravity" and "gravitation" that is not always adhered to in colloquial language, or even normal scientific practice."

Johannes Kepler (Who quickly rallies to Robosteve's and Flat Earth Society's defense by admitting they've never read anything scientific) joins in: "You haven't read that yourself, why should we? Clearly we understand the subject."

DorkDestroyer (Rallies to support Einstein's theory on General Relativity in relation to Gravity, by challenging the Flat Earth Society defenders ..): "Feel free to provide a quote from GR which says gravity doesn't exist."

John Davis sums it all up and the topic is concluded with: "One of the main points of his (Einstein's) work is that gravity is a fictitious force. Its (sic) the cornerstone to much of the text you link. If you read and understood that, this would be obvious."


And there you have it. Gravity is all in your imagination, folks. Boggles the mind, doesn't it?


For better forum reading and entertainment though, don't forget to stop by The TriQuetra dot Net.

Who, Whom, and Who'd-a-Thunk

While a spell checker can easily cover a multitude of sins, grammar flubs are a little trickier to cover up. So for those of you who are interested in knowing how to solve some of the most common grammar riddles, I will give you some simple, easy-to-use rules for the English Language.

To Whom Or Not To Whom?

It's a very simple rule in this one: Who is a subject. Whom is an object. Who does something. Whom has something done to it.

For example: Who does it to whom.
If you're still befuddled, try substituting he for who and him for whom.

Unlike some of the other similar sounding words in the English language, such as Your and You're, Then and Than, etc., Who and Whom mix-ups, for some reason, tend to fall out from under much scrutiny.

However, when in doubt, the Rule is to always default to Who.

A misused Whom will most assuredly ruffle up the Queen of England as well as your junior high school language arts teacher, and a small handful of people like me who have a chronic urge to correct a grammar faux pas with an imaginary red pencil.

Writing should be fun! Never a drudgery. So we at The TriQuetra dot Net offer this and a multitude of other self-help tools for whomever may be interested in improving their craft -- whether writing or graphic design.

Twitterpated

I don't get it either. But follow me on Twitter anyway. Ok? Cool.

Tweet-flash: I'm staying up really late. Again. I'm tired. I should go to bed.

Purple Prose Parody

The term "purple prose" is derived from a reference by the Roman poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BCE) who wrote in his Ars Poetica (lines 14-21):

Inceptis grauibus plerumque et magna professis
purpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alter
adsuitur pannus, cum lucus et ara Dianae
et properantis aquae per amoenos ambitus agros
aut flumen Rhenum aut pluuius describitur arcus;
sed nunc non erat his locus. Et fortasse cupressum
scis simulare; quid hoc, si fractis enatat exspes
nauibus, aere dato qui pingitur

( "Your opening shows great promise, and yet flashy purple patches; as when describing a sacred grove, or the altar of Diana, or a stream meandering through fields, or the river Rhine, or a rainbow; but this was not the place for them. If you can realistically render a cypress tree, would you include one when commissioned to paint a sailor in the midst of a shipwreck?" )


Purpureus meant lustrous or dazzling in Horace's Latin. Purple dye was rare in the Ancient World, with only the wealthiest able to afford it (this is why purple robes and trim came to be associated with the Emperor and, later, European royalty). During the Roman Republic, social climbers would sew purple cloth onto cheaper clothing to give an appearance of wealth. This was regarded as pretentious and gaudy.


It should now be abundantly clear what Purple Prose is all about.. the overuse of flashy little archaic words and phrases which force a reader to become tangled up in them and easily lose sight of what it is the writer is trying to say. Some of them have been so overused that all of us might even be guilty of a little purple now and then. And while this exercise is meant to be humorous and entertaining -- in the end, I hope it sheds a wee bit of light on the engaging art of Creative Writing. Afterall, it is the goal of a writer make the reader lose himself in the story so completely.. that he forgets he is reading mere words. Rather than make our reader stumble over bizarre words and phrase choices so much that the entire gist of the story seems a blur, at best.


For details on this fun Writing Challenge -- visit and get the full scoop on The TriQuetra dot Net. Register today and submit your entry!



Challenge

Rewrite the following passage taken from Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage in your best Purple Prose.

"The youth fell back in the procession until the tattered soldier was not in sight. Then he started to walk on with the others. But he was amid wounds. The mob of men was bleeding. Because of the tattered soldier's question he now felt that his shame could be viewed. He was continually casting sidelong glances to see if the men were contemplating the letters of guilt he felt burned into his brow. At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage."

Once completed, submit your entries to this forum by hitting the Reply button.. so we can all admire it and Vote for the best!

The City of Pompeii

Join Us | Cast | Set | Theme | Forum

I met an Artist the other day while browsing the seedy shops and local flavor of the Marina Road on the waterfront of the Bay of Naples. He introduced himself to me as Svettio. He is, like most of his kind, a pauper, working for handouts and bits of coin. Yet he is unlike the others in that I sense in him a communal flame that burns by the fire of the Muses, and like me, he is driven.

I watched him for many hours, painting at his easel like a madman. Svettio wore no shirt, and his hair and chest were flecked with the multi oil colors of his palette. For a long time he paid me no mind, yet at some point the Artist became aware of me and graced me with a bit of coy flirtation.

Later that night, when I spoke to Marius of the Artist, he tried to dispel some of my notion that the Artist is as infatuated with me, as I am of him. Marius says that all gypsies are hustlers, and that I am just an unwitting mark. It is simply that Svettio assumes because I dress in fine clothing, that I have coin to squander.

But I cannot subscribe into this theory. I admire the intelligence and insight of my Master, but I am sure on this account.. he is wrong.

I've met with Svettio several more times since that first encounter, and he has assured me on each occasion that I am far too beautiful not to be captured on canvas by his hand. The fee is so nominal -- just six sestertii.

On our last meeting he took me to his studio, which was little more than a grotto chisled into the stone support beam beneath one of the piers, and I became for him a welcomed succor wherein he emptied his lust into me between ravaging kisses.

I fear I will do anything to obtain those six measly bronze coins.
I am not a hustler's mark.

I am the possessed lover of a rising star -- Svettio the Artist.
And I believe his name shall be upon the lips of the avant garde, not only in Pompeii, but in every city within Rome's vast empire.

In every house.

And beating with passion in every breast.

Jackpot

Tossing a hand up to the top of the car, he uses the bit of leverage to climb out.. only to slam the door shut. Eddie turns and crouches down between car and motorcycle, shielded from plain view for those brief moments it took him to unbolster the sawed off shotgun he'd kept right above the drive chain. Down upon his haunches still, he turns and reaches up to the door handle, yanking the heavy Impala door open once again as he climbs back inside. The shotgun is shoved under the seat for the time being. Yet the very sight of it causes Becky to blanch a bit.. moreso when he turns to face her. Eddie draws his switchblade out again and the blade magically springs from its sheath. He holds it just under her jaw. He tells the other broad, Lara, "Drive, Baby Doll."

Becky has a sudden Epiphany.. and not the good kind either. "Are you.. are you going to kill me, Eddie?"

"No," he leans close, whispering into Becky's ear. The feel of it makes her close her eyes and simply pray he is telling the truth. But then again, truth is relative. Edward Quist will not outright kill her. Yet Becky will die of natural causes before the night is through. For at some point between Mac's Truckstop World and wherever it is they are headed.. Rebecca Davis will bake under the hot Nevada sun as temperatures soar into the triple digits inside the trunk of her own late model Chevy Impala. It is only after they burn rubber skid marks from parking lot to interstate frontage road.. and well out of view of gawking onlookers peeking out the diner window and perhaps laughing to themselves about what a crazy fucked up world it was when people flaunted their alternate threesome lifestyles right out in public -- only in Las Vegas, of course -- that Eddie deeply kissed the knocked-up bitch.

--------------------

For the rest of this story and more exciting threads just like it -- check out the forums in Ugly Vegas!

The Vale of the Enclave -- Join Us!

From an era predating time and recorded history comes the tale of the Enclave -- a distinct phratry among the ordinary folk whose settlements stretched from sea to sea along the continental landmass known as The Vale. Typically those numbered among the Enclave society received their inherent membership by blood, passage rites from parent to child among the tribe's elders -- although it was not unknown for one born completely outside the congregation to find his or herself duly sworn into their ranks.

Consisting of powerful sorcerers, apothecaries, mages, fortune tellers & seers, alchemists, and necromancers, this once powerful council eventually broke apart into two distinct factions after centuries of bitter feuding and disagreements -- those of Warlocks, and those the Druids. They remain to this day inextricably woven together at the core, yet the bitterest of enemies over fundamental precepts regarding the distinction of sexes and the worship of deities. Neither side will give an inch toward truce. Neither will admit to any wrong-doing or treachery. And neither will accept the other as any part of the true Enclave.

Over the centuries, each group has both risen to power and been defeated time and again. The last war saw the entire city of Faltha obliterated under the curse of the Black Plague, and all the remained had been burnt to the ground in offering to the Druid goddess Shalindr'a. More than a thousand souls in this Warlock stronghold perished in less than a week. The result of which shifted the tide of rulership into the hands of Druids.


For more than half a century now, the ordinary citizens of the Vale must comply with Druid precepts and law. They must participate in the bi-annual lottery at each equinox wherein a pilgrimage must be made to the southern regions of the Vale below the barren summits of Wyvern's Spine -- the legendary lair of dragons. It is there, under Druid law, that they must sacrifice a virgin girl from among them, to appease the dragons until the next equinox. Failure to comply results in swift and terrifying punishment.

Prophecy declared that a Warlock would rise, like the mythical phoenix from the burning ashes, bringing with him the defeat of Druid tyranny. In their desire to squash what may well be true, the Druids unleashed a horrifying disease upon the Warlock stronghold, in hope of solidifying their own strength and supremacy throughout the Vale. For decades they have awaited, both Druid and ordinary Citizen alike -- to see whether the prophecy had been true.

The Vale Of The Enclave is accepting fantasy writers!
Interested?

Contact Warrick Erebus for story entry and questions.

Or browse the Vale Of The Enclave website.

AvP Euphoria -- Join Us!

Dtai'k-dte sa-de nav'g-kon dtain'aun bpide.

"The Fight begun would not end until the end." ~Old Yautja saying.

The mining satellite, U-4EA (referred to with no small amount of tongue-in-cheek as Euphoria) is a carbunkle on the butt crack of the universe. A decade ago, when an ore vein hidden deep within the planet's core did not pan out to the magnitude they'd hoped, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation turned the remote satellite into a refuse pile where cast-off employees can go and remain available for future uses, both good and bad.

U-4EA, a loser's last stand will stand as battle ground between the two most deadly species in the universe. Predators & Xenomorphs. AVP -- Euphoria.

| STORY PREMISE | SETTING | CAST | APPLY | STORYTELLER'S TRIQUETRA |

More Tall Tales

In the previous post we did go over the different role playing and writing styles, and the categories that folks often get pigeon-holed into. The intent here is not to knock personal preferences, as most of you have already noticed by now that the vast majority of online role players will fall into Group-A -- preferring the chit-chatty relationship settings over the action/adventure stories. And that's fine if that's the sort of role play that makes you happy. But for the small percentage of folks who've grown a little bored with the chit-chatty relationship settings that turn out to be the same basic scene day after day.. rest assured that there are others like you, and you're not alone.

You want thrills. You want action. You want thickly woven plots that keep you on the edge of your seat. Suspense. You want characters who keep you guessing. Villains and swashbuckling pirates. You want excitement and...

Danger!

It is imperative that you surround yourself with players who want exactly the same. That is NOT to say you want to be involved with power-mongers who try to win in every scene. Affectionately known as the God-moders, these are the ones whose characters will frequently possess mind-reading skills, supersonic hearing, and x-ray vision. They will try to kill off your character in a single sentence, but their characters are always immune to any sort of counter attack.

Instead, you want to look for and surround yourself with one or more players who possess no mental baggage or trust issues. Because in order to have high style, collaborative fiction storytelling, you've got to be able to trust as well as be trusted. It's never about winning afterall. It's about leaving a scene after an hours-long writing session with a smile on your face, knowing you moved the other player(s).

Have you moved anyone with your storytelling lately?

Join us on The Storyteller's TriQuetra!

Tall Tales

Best-selling novelist Stephen King was once quoted in Publisher's Weekly as saying, "Don't give them what they want -- give them what you want." By most online role playing game standards, Stephen would be labeled a God-Moder.

There seems a general consensus of late in the online role play gaming forums as to what constitutes good and worthy storytelling, where lines are drawn right down the middle. You go to Group-A if you prefer a character-based story, and Group-B if you prefer a plot-based story, where you're likely to be labeled as a God-Moder, too.

(Note: In response to thread on RPG-Directory's discussion forum thread Roleplay Talk)

Time to drag out the old college Holt Handbook and the Smartin's (pet name given to St. Martin's Guide to Writing), as well as the Guide to Writing In The Disciplines, and the latest edition of The Writer's Handbook. Folks, there is no such thing in any writer's manual that divides written stories into plot-driven stories and character-driven stories. Writing always has, and always will be divided into two classical categories from which a myriad of genres arise -- Fiction and Non-Fiction.

A fiction story must be driven by a plot AND characters. To remain interesting, it must have an amazing plot and exceptional characters. The rules have not changed in this. Nor will they.

Fiction writing that lacks any sort of plot and deals only with characters jabbering in a restaurant in one scene, then jabbering in a living room in the next scene, and a little romance tossed in for extra measure -- is not a story at all. It's a soap opera. And what you very often get online isn't even truly fiction in this type of writing element. It tends to cross over into the real thoughts and feelings of the person behind the monitor.

Don't get me wrong. I love a good true story just as much as the next guy. But even true stories and non-fiction instruction manuals endeavor to make a point by the time you reach the end. If they didn't, and they just rambled on endlessly, no one would read them. And every publisher in their right mind would be issuing the pink slip of death.

Oh but hey.. in a virtual world of pointless writing no one can ever be erroneously accused or (gasp!) guilty of God-Moding. Hmmm. Sounds like another article in the works.

Join us on The Storyteller's TriQuetra!

The Storyteller's TriQuetra -- Join Us!

The Storyteller’s TriQuetra is a unique and innovative
writer’s community, created to engage storytellers from
all walks of life and offer a chance to indulge in their craft.

While roleplay games spring up and fade off, TriQuetra
gives serious writers a place to grow and a diverse platter
of 'verses to select from. We also promise to keep the
light on. TriQuetra is a multi-dimensional platform that
includes both play-by-post roleplay, chat rooms, and
play by post forums plus much more!

................................

Become a Member
You're not going to find a better place to grow your
characters, spin your storylines, and immerse yourself
in the world of exquisite graphic making. A role player's
haven comparable to TriQuetra isn't out there. Click Here
to get your very own Storyteller's account. It's Free!

................................

TriQuetra 'Verses

Create a 'Verse
Interested in creating a haven devoted especially to your
storytelling skill? The 'Verse are TriQuetra's chat room
and forum-based storylines and while any member is
welcome to join a current 'Verse, some of us won't be
satisfied unless we have our own turf. Click here for
details on starting your own 'Verse on TriQuetra.

................................

Building All New Worlds

Good things only get better over time. Fine wine. Ripe cheese. Artists -- whether they be musician, painter, writer -- they seem to mellow and actually improve with age. The same might be said of longevity in the world of interactive storytelling where the group of writers and players have grown comfortable and close-knit over long periods of time. At least in an ideal world.

Sadly, for the vast majority of subscribers to internet role playing venues, the opposite is often true and over time you begin to realize you're surrounded by a lot of really miserable and obnoxious people who love to spread their disease around. Or the chronic underachievers who've never improved their ability to even write a coherent sentence. Makes you often wonder what it is about a text-based medium that attracts the illiterate.

So there I was, taking a personal assessment after twelve long years dedicated to a particular site with their own ftp storage, user-friendly chat rooms, nifty little profiles to manipulate with my own html creations, etc. But all around me were the same, disgruntled people, who year after year and year had never much improved their storytelling ability, their grammar, or their general outlook on why we even log in to the internet at all.

That's when a friend and I got together and began hunting search engines and toplists for other places where we might join a role play community and search for people who were like us. You know, the kind who want to write great stories and have lots of fun doing it.

Well, we searched and searched. And we finally joined one we thought looked pretty cool. Lots of member names listed, and a nicely written creed on the front page regarding a genuine love for great writers and storytellers. That was us! And my friend and I made the plunge.. leaving our old site of more than a decade behind.

On the new site we wrote for months. We wrote our hearts out. And though we got several pats on the back for writing in a style they'd never seen before, less than a handful bothered to come write with us. On top of that, I realized that much of the community there was not so very different from the one we'd left. A lot due to mere complacency and a lack of interest on the part of the staff. And a few people who were.. well.. a bit obnoxious and rude.

So, there we were back to square one again. Should we leave and look for a new site? Or..

How about we just create our own site! With chat rooms and forums and everything! It was the million dollar question, really -- what would you do differently if you had your own site?

Here's what we did! The Storyteller's Triquetra