Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine neither noticed Meesei's hand, nor for a moment had she opened her eyes from when she let the staff go. She had cringed to the point of curling her head forward and covering her face with her crossed wrists. She shivered on, just as paralysed as she was before. On certainty, she was not doing any persuading in her current state.

While Meesei had not seen Sabine in such a state of sustained panic in any peaceful setting, she remembered all too well the way Sabine used to isolate herself in her handmade cloak of hides as a child. In such times, it was not necessarily sympathy that brought her out, nor did scorn move her. It was simply a guiding hand that Sabine was pliable with, both in the metaphorical manner Meesei resolved to give Sabine just now and -- at times like this -- in a more literal sense.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine's panic grew to the point where she was barely listening to Meesei. She held fast onto the staff. "But I did not!" she cried. "I was still captured! They still..."

When Meesei asked for Sabine's trust, she remained holding onto the staff but she at least went quiet. She forced herself to breathe deeper and more slowly, shivering though she was in doing so. After another long moment, she nodded. "I trust you," she breathed.

Sabine shut her eyes tightly, tensed up her shoulders, and let her fingers uncurl from around the staff. Her arms shook in place, remaining raised where they had been grasping the staff. Meesei saw in Sabine's demeanour a trapped animal. Even if she said she trusted Meesei, she looked like a cornered mouse expecting death, or worse.

Modular Pathfinder

"See you later!" Ming reached a hand up to wave to Risha. Their conversation had been rather one-sided; Ming had managed to eat her pork bun so fast that talking between mouthfuls was barely a challenge. Just as well she had to speak, for the thought of fresh noodles piqued Ming's anticipation. Being full from focussing on meat buns would be disappointing.

Their landing was magical. Ming's eyes dilated. Not since they were congratulated for defeating their recent nemisis oni did Ming feel so appreciated, even amongst the multitude of other contestants. A few cherry petals brushed her cheek. She dimly smiled and placed her hand where the petals touched her face.

"Excuse me, my friends," Ming said in an oddly stilted murmur. "I gotta...introduce myself."

In a moment easily missed my the party, Ming disappeared into the crowd.

>Diplomacy to gather information on the tournament history and workings: 21

Just when her absence was noted, one hour later, Ming seemingly appeared out of nowhere behind Kyoumi's seat in the noodle restaurant with her arms in the air and her eyes scrunched shut. "This is going to be so much FUUUUN!" She exclaimed. Her cheeks were flushed and her breath smelled of the liquor they were gifted at the harbour.

Ming threw her head back and cackled her way to a seat. "So, I spoke to this guy heating the soju that said there are all these fun games we'll be playing in the tournament for extra prizes but there's still bouts with other teams for knockouts so we should try not to lose them but we shouldn't cheat because there was this one sorceress from Lingshen who did and she's really annoyed now. Anyway, this other woman cooking red beans told me the sorceress might come back because the guy who won by default when she was kicked out still hasn't had come-uppance or something but that probably won't affect us because the events been going on for over three hundred years now and they have pretty good security and she hasn't appeared since last time. I also saw this half-tiefling-half-orc lady with a nice robe and..."

A bowl of noodles slid in front of Ming, making her gasp and, more importantly, stop to breathe before she turned blue. "Thank you so much!" she said to the villager serving her the complementary meal. Blessed wordlessness followed, along with ravenous munching as Ming devoured noodles like a beast.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine swallowed hard. Meesei's words were what she needed to hear. However, she did not manage to let go of the staff. She held on with a vice grip and quickened her breathing.

She looked to Meesei with some mix of fear and pleading. "No. No, please. I...I cannot. I need it." Her tears renewed shockingly quickly. "I cannot let it go," she whispered. "I cannot think when I even consider it. Please."

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

Sorry if I haven't been active here for a very long time... Sure most of you forgot about me.

I think I might just withdraw properly. I'm never going to be able to catch back up enough to get back into the swing of things.

@Bright_Ops

Oh, we didn't forget about you, mate. You aren't the only one that has ever taken a hiatus from this RP. If you wanted to catch up, all you'd need to do is check out the summaries and dive in somewhere again.

But, if you'd prefer not to continue, that's okay too. Thanks for playing in the meantime! If you want to join again some time, you'd be more than welcome.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine took a half-breath in and out. "Whether I can or not, I still need you." Sabine shut her eyes, trying to stay understandable. "I cannot sleep well. I have nightmares. I get pains in my hands and my stomach. I was rained on when we were near Daggerfall and I thought it was my own blood at first."

She sniffed, wiped her eyes, and looked at the Staff of Magnus. "And I cannot let go of the staff. Each time I lay it down, I...It is stupid, I think someone will snatch it and hurt me."

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

Okay, so I've learnt a few things.

1. Kho was right.
2. Wiktionary does not refer back to which definition of lie that lied was the simple past tense and past participle of, which is great for making confusion of doofuses like Muttonhawk.
3. Lied is only ever the past tense of lie of the 'pants on fire' variety.
4. The proper past tense of lie of the 'down on the ground' variety is indeed lay.
5. My examples for lied should have been lay, though these are still intransitive, which means that Cinead did indeed LAY awake and the man did indeed LAY on his bed.
6. I am not the only person to be confused by all this.
7. English continues to be a poo-poo language for poo-poo heads but it is still the only one I know well enough to write prose in.
8. ROMANS AND GERMANS SHOULD NEVER TRY TO MAKE A COMMON LANGUAGE. EVER. THIS WAS A MISTAKE.

I'll just put this down to my colonial sensibilities putting me lacking in comparison to Kho's intuition on the language.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

I get where you're coming from, Kho. Lay (and fell) are probably better words to use in the examples I gave.

Wiktionary is at least telling me that lay and lied can be interchangeable. The pages on lay and lie are fraught with all sorts of interesting stuff, including notes on formality, so I'm going to go looking some more. Watch this space!

Edit: By the way, 'lay' is still transitive only.

Edit2: LIED AND LAY ARE NOT INTERCHANGABLE unless you are speaking informally. Read on.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

@Kho I'll give you the problem sentences:

Cinead laid awake, staring at the yellowing morning sky. Inga's breathing rose and lowered gently beside him.

@Muttonhawk

I was uneasy about those two sentences. The first one, I found out, was incorrect and the second one was correct. Thing is, I couldn't tell at face value why they were so. I guess I didn't have the intuition in my head to separate 'laid' and 'lied' in that context for whatever reason.

The written rule isn't too hard to understand.

NEEEERRRRD

Transitive verbs have the thing that is verbing (an object) directly after they are written.
- The man LAID 'the book' on the table
- The crane RAISED 'the girder' onto the building
- Cinead LAID 'his fears' to rest

Intransitive verbs don't have the verbing thing right after they are written, e.g.
- The man LIED on his bed
- The crane ROSE under its own power
- Cinead LIED awake, staring at the yellowing morning sky

But you don't normally need to worry because plenty of verbs can do both (they're ambitransative):
- You will EAT 'a meal' three times today. (Transitive)
- You will EAT three times today. (Intransitive)

Thing is, knowing this rule is a blessing and a curse because now I have a reason to be pedantic about something that probably won't be noticed by most people. Stoopit grammar, grumblegrumble...

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

No worries. It's a small detail, in truth. One of the reasons I don't want to learn all the rules of the English language is so I don't get too nitpicky about stuff that no one else notices and transivity is honestly probably one of those things.