TLT ~ Headcount Question

Should we redo the headcount? If so, then when? I still have everything saved from the last headcount; it’s just all the time and effort that needs to be put into sending the messages and removing members that don’t reply to it that needs to be done. I want to move forward once again and we can’t really do that without knowing who wants to be actively involved. Once that is cleared up, we can move onto the fun stuff, like passing out gems and such.

KoC: (Kaif & Laila) Between A Master and Slave

Kaif’s tent felt strangely foreign to him when he returned. He had been absent for barely a day, having left only the previous evening. It felt like a lifetime ago. So much had happened within such a small space of time, that he felt profoundly changed. Little less than a day ago, he would have felt grateful for the tent’s generous shade, its calm interior and luxurious light furnishings. Now, it all seemed so vain and futile to have such extravagance as silk and porcelain in a tent made for war. Irritated, Kaif fastened the tent flaps shut again.

A basin of water had been prepared for him, and fresh clothes arranged on his bed. Kaif felt impatient to get out of his uncomfortable servant’s disguise, which was coarse and itchy. The light silk leggings and shirt which were laid out for him seemed more inviting than ever. Removing the heavy tunic, he splashed his face with the cool water in the basin, regretting that he did not have the time to bathe properly.

Drying his face with a towel, he heard women’s voices beyond the tent’s entrance. He paused to listen.

“Go in now,” said a gentle, older woman’s voice. “You can wait until Lord Kaif arrives.”

The flaps were unfastened, and the two women appeared at the opening. Both seemed rather taken aback that he was present. The older one, who had spoken before, wore an astonished expression.

Laila stood very still as a gentle breeze blew her silk skirts around her legs. Her hands were folded in front of her and her eyes were to the ground. She did not dare look up at her new master, especially as they were unannounced. He could easily whip her for coming unannounced and early. She felt fear pulse through her veins as she heard Shaadiya speak.

“I am terribly sorry your highness. Shall we go and come back after you have washed and rested?” Shaadiya spoke carefully.

“No, it is quite alright. It was I who was early,” explained Kaif, reaching for the silk tunic. “Please, stay.”

Laila looked up at Shaadiya as the older woman gently nodded and squeezed her hand.

“It will be alright.” Shaadiya spoke softly only for Laila to hear.

Kaif watched as the woman reached forward and pulled the silk robe away from her shoulders. Beneath it, she wore a thin shift which bared her arms and most of her legs. Silhouetted against the strong sunlight from outside, the outline of her form was plainly visible. He could see the curvature of her waist as her arms dropped awkwardly to her sides. Her eyes stared down uncomfortably.

The chaperone gently nudged her forward and, her duty done, turned on her heel and left the tent, the flaps rustling behind her.

Laila frowned and bit her lip to keep back tears. She was alone in the tent with her new master and had no one to protect her should something happen. This had all happened before and she was deathly afraid. She did not look up at Kaif nor did she move from her spot.

She stood meekly near the tent entrance, seemingly clinging to the minute freedom offered by her proximity to the only way for escape. Her large eyes were downcast, her body suspended in a pose not unlike that of a frightened gazelle, ready to flee. It was clear to Kaif that she was terrified. It puzzled him, somewhat, to see her express her apprehension so readily. He rethought his previous conviction that she was the spy, but remained vigilant, and cautiously reminded himself that there was a very real chance that this pretty girl was the Hashshashin spy sent to undermine his position.

“You may sit,” he suggested, hoping that she might raise her eyes an inch so that he could examine them. She obeyed quickly and quietly, keeping her eyes lowered.

Kaif finished dressing as discreetly as he could. Looking to his new slave again, he examined her nervous posture. “I hope you are comfortable? You look well; I assume you have been taken care of?”

Laila did not lift her eyes from the ground as she sat down. Her hands were folded in front of her. She was a bit stunned that he had yet to raise his voice or hand at her and she was ever so tempted to look at him, though she did not dare. She weighed each question he asked carefully before she spoke.

“Y...Yes master.” She replied her voice cracking. When did she become so scared and nervous? She wondered. A long time ago she would have had a firm and strong voice. Not a scared child’s voice. She chewed the bottom of her lip to keep from crying.

“Please, don’t be afraid. Look at me. What is your name?”

Laila jumped a little when her master told her not to be afraid of him. When he told her to look at him, she closed her eyes, then she opened them and took a deep breath. A slave wasn’t supposed to look at their masters. That had been drilled into her mind and her soul. However, a slave was also to obey its master’s wishes. She was did not want to break any of the rules of slavery. So, she very timidly lifted her dark eyes up towards her master’s.

“Laila,” she said in a frightened voice, half expecting him to pull the whip out on her. He returned her gaze firmly, but made no move to strike or punish her.

“Laila,” he repeated, certain that the name was given to her by a slave master; not her own. But Kaif did not press further. If she was a spy, then she was a reluctant one. If he won her confidence, he needn’t fear for his life.

“You look different,” he said, holding her gaze. “Dark of eyes yet fair of skin. How did you find yourself in the Holy Land?”

Her new master was not the only one who had noticed that she was different then most of the women in the harems and the Holy Land. She lowered her eyes back to her sandals and twisted her fingers in her lap.

“My master was a Templar Crusader who took me here with him and sold me to the slave trader.” She spoke truthfully. She was not used to speaking so much and she was a little surprised that her new master had not raised his hand at her yet.

“But you were not born a slave? Do you not yearn for freedom?” asked Kaif, hoping that the boldness of his question would not further intimidate her.

Now, Laila stared at her master with a stunned expression on her face. No one had ever asked her if she yearned for her freedom. Of course she wanted her freedom more then anything else in the world. She wanted to be home, in Glastonbury with her family and friends and her people. She wanted her life to make sense again. She knew that would never happen and once again she weighed her answer carefully before she spoke.

“I…I…I b.. Believe every slave yearns for freedom sir.” She stammered out and looked back down at the trim of her sandals. She was going to be beaten for sure now.

“I would give you freedom if I could, Laila,” said Kaif. “But it is not in my power. If I had a caged bird, who had been taken so far from her home that she had no chance of flying back to it, would it not be cruel to abandon her into the desert?” Kaif paused, watching her brown eyes widen.

“But even though you will be confined to my tent now, you are free to do as you please within it. You will find it a lonely home at worst—my duties with the siege will mostly prevent me from visiting during the day,” he finished, feeling that the less time he had with her, the less likely it was that she would gain any information which could compromise his position. But, while he wanted to distance her from himself as much as possible, he could not deny the logic of keeping her near, to watch her more closely. He doubted he could trust himself, however, not to fall prey to the girl’s fragile gaze and meek manners. He was already surprised at himself for having gone so far to comfort her. He was not so insensitive as he thought.

“The Sultan awaits my presence at the siege,” said Kaif, rising. “I must prepare, excuse me.”

As he stood up, his eyes fell upon the mantle of silk which the girl had entered wearing, lying discarded near her feet. He moved nearer, reaching for the garment, feeling it was unfair that he was fully clothed and she was not.

She seemed to draw away instinctively as he came near, but Kaif stopped, not wishing to be any nearer than necessary. He leaned down, offering her the robe. “I think you will feel more comfortable with this.”

His offer was met with a stunned expression and a moment’s inaction. Kaif had to dangle the garment before Laila gingerly reached for it. He turned around to allow her to dress herself, and to make himself ready to report for duty.

When he next turned around, he saw that she had retreated into the far corner of the tent, hiding her face behind her knees, the silk mantle of pale gold obscuring all but her uncertain eyes. He knew that those eyes had been watching him cautiously, because they had darted quickly towards the silk cushions around her, focusing on the delicate silver thread embroidery on them. The robe was wrapped tightly around her body, and she clung to it as though it might protect her from a lascivious master.

“I am not your last master,” he said, trying to adopt a comforting tone. “And whatever you experienced in his service, I doubt you ever will in mine.” He paused. “I see far too much fear every day. I would rather not see that same dread reflected in your eyes.”

It seemed to take Laila forever to work up the courage to speak. “I will try not to disappoint you, master.”

Pan Piper ~ Latest Pan Historia Update

Posted by: "Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp" wyattsearp@hotmail.com wyattearpreally
Wed Jan 9, 2008 1:22 pm (PST)

The current status seems positive. Our systems administrator/ programming guru is hard at work restoring our systems.

After the site comes back up he will continue to work hard to build in several back up systems to further decrease the possibility of problems, including a mirror server.

At least our domain is up and running again with news updates (www.panhistoria. com).

People can still used Pan's Den at http://p208. ezboard.com/ bpansden where we have an active chat room going.

Also www.panerotica. us is working again, back to normal. Any intermittant access issues would be caused by the DNS resolving after the fix last night. Please remember this site is not suitable for younger members.

Hope to see you all on Pan soon.

TLT ~ Headcount & Cast Lists News

Even though you most likely already know this, I’ll just post it anyway to keep you updated. Now that the Headcount is over, I’ll be working on all the Cast Lists, which I’ve been slowly updating for a while now. I just mostly need to remove quite a few people, add a few, and probably gather some details from a few or more members, and then they’ll probably be done soon (I hope!). So, I’ll post them here sometime in the near future, which means more posts for us (here and at TLT!).

Pan Piper ~ Pan Historia Updates

I take it that neither of you have joined the Pan Piper and haven’t been getting Pan Historia updates, so I’ll post them here since our community has been quiet.

Current Status Report
Posted by: "Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp" wyatt@panhistoria.com wyattearpreally
Sun Jan 6, 2008 12:22 pm (PST)

Nothing is as simple as it first appears. Due to the severity of the storms in California, particularly in the Sierra Nevadas where the server is co-located at a small hosting company, there are several problems that will delay the return of Pan Historia for longer than previously anticipated. The backups did not perform as anticipated and so the rebuilding of the site is more complicated than previously anticipated. We don't expect any more serious setbacks however the conditions necessitate the tech guy be onsite to perform the needed repairs and technical functions. However storm conditions still prevail and so it might be a day or two before it's safe for him to travel. Once in situ his first priority will be to create a full backup of the site before messing with anything. Then it may take 1-3 days further, depending on the damage to the original server, before we're operating.

In other words - please be patient. I cannot authorize our Mysterious and Serious Programming Dude to risk life and limb for Pan Historia on hazardous mountain roads during blizzard conditions. I will continue to keep you informed as events unfold. Remember -we're the little minnow swimming in the big ocean of the internet.

Kaif post: Growing Suspicions

“Welcome back, Kaif,” said the Sultan, giving his nephew an encouraging pat on the shoulder. Kaif forced a smile in return, but found he had nothing to say.

“I will allow you a day’s rest. You seem very tired. After that, however, I expect you to return to your normal duties—that is, aiding the command of troops and so forth.”

“Thankyou, my lord,” returned Kaif, a little relieved that his uncle did not wish him to resume his duties as a spy. “And I will.”

“Now go rest. We will speak more once you are less weary.”

“But it is broad daylight, my lord. Surely there are more important things for me to do?”

“I suppose your superiors are expecting you to resume spying on me,” said the Sultan, looking at Kaif with a piercing stare, which was aimed more at his Hashshashin enemies than his innocent nephew. “So it might be advisable to keep yourself visible.”

“I have been meaning to tell you, my lord,” begun Kaif carefully. “I think they suspect my disloyalty. I am certain a spy has been placed to catch me out.”

The Sultan’s face grew a fraction grimmer. “Then you must be all the more vigilant,” he said simply. “Make sure you do and say nothing to compromise your position. And trust no-one.” He paused, eyeing Kaif warily. “Discover who it is as soon as you can, and find a way to eliminate him.”

Kaif did not say that he suspected very strongly that his spy was actually a woman, and that it was the Sultan’s own hand which had brought her there. He pressed his forehead into his hand, growing ever more uncertain about how to proceed.

The Sultan easily sensed his discomfort. “Do not worry so much, Kaif. There are more pleasant things to concern yourself with. Should I have the girl sent to your tent?”

“I…yes, my lord.”

“Good. Change into your own clothes, and I will expect you to report to my pavilion at the siege by the afternoon.”

Since Pan looks like it might be a while...

Why don't we use this community to keep up with posts? Joanna and I discussed rolling ahead with Laila and Kaif's storyline instead of waiting around being bored. So I think if there's any posts we can do while we're waiting, then at least it won't be a massive waste of time by the time Pan is working again.

Making use of gems in TLT...

I've been thinking of a while that we haven't really used the gems feature as effectively as we could, so when Ary sent me a message about it a couple of days back, I realised it was about time we did something about it. So here is my proposal.

To encourage frequent posting (especially with our new members) I think we should start a competition for a month or so where writing a certain number of posts since the beginning of the competition earns you a different level of gem. For example, a member who has written 5 posts might get a Ruby, 10 posts might get a Sapphire, etc.

Now, here's what we need to discuss.

1) How long? We should give people ample time to get their gems...right now I'm thinking we won't have a cut-off date? So have the competition a permanent part of TLT? If anyone reaches the "diamond" stage, perhaps we make them a special plaque commemorating all their gems? Any other ideas on what they should get?

2) At what intervals does a writer receive gems? I was thinking we should start at 5 (or maybe less) to encourage people to go the mile. Should we do them at intervals of 5, or make them get harder as they go along? If we did make them harder as they went along, I think we should start easier than five....but I really don't know at this stage.

3) What order should the gems be given out? We might need to do some research on how the ones we have rank in order of value.