Well... now there's an invitation!

L'ame Immortelle in your signature looks interesting. She looks like she would like to dance. So would I.

69 looks at this thread at last count, but no Chrysalis. I think I've been stood up for this dance. Story of my life.

Sorry, just saw it.

And I was thinking "Do my eyes deceive me or is there an entire thread devoted to me?"

For now that you are at the crossroads
Wayfarer, your sword won’t help you out
Gold and rubies are worthless here
I’ve taken you by the hand
For you must come to my dance

need a partner for your hike, pbangarth? This seems a most intriguing venture...

How deep can you go before you go mad?

The leader of this dance invites all.
In an insane world, madness is the only sane response.

Dear lady, I value neither gold nor rubies, for I have forsaken my Empire long ago. And I have chosen this dance, knowing the realm that awaits me beyond is free of the illusion of both empire and gemstone.

Now you stand at the crossroads of my mind, paths lead in many directions. Overhead the crows of dissent do hover, the farm land is caulked and salt-laden, and yet do people toil in the fields of despair. One path leads to the fansy of tomorrows that will never be, another to the ruin of yesterdays long lost.

I wonder what Freud would have to say about this.....

Probably, "What am I doing in this person's mind?" and "I should have brought a shotgun."

Wheres Razputin when you need him...

But i will follow the Chesire Cat down into the rabbit hole for some delicous cake.

The cake is a lie.

I contemplate the fate of the workers around me. I share a cookie and a beer with one nearest. He tells, me, in the moment of enjoyment of the flavours, that the Aymara of Peru perceive past and future differently from most of us. The past is known, seeable, and therefore before us. The future is unknown, unseeable, and therefore behind us.

I choose the path of futures long lost.

Reading the poetry and thoughts stated in this thread beats small talk with co-workers complaining about office politics, weather, food, and it being Monday.

Interestingly enough, there's actually more negative comments on Wednesdays than Mondays. However, I would like to add to that list an office with a crappy AC unit that can't keep up with the sun coming through all the windows.

The road once dusty, turns into a paved road, the line of its markation barely seen. The surroundings are large stone buildings, none occupied. Everythign has been built as if for people twice your size. The the gothic facade of the cathedral still stands facing the square. The statue of an angel in its epicentre holds a sword, manacles hang loosely off its pedestal and its face pockmarked with gun fire runs with rivulets of blood.

The crows have followed you, but have disappeared into the ruins.

The place is empty but for the droplets of dirtied rain.

Well, this rates as one of the weirdest courtships I've seen in a while.

But still not as weird as the one with sacks of oatmeal, the bailing wire and the... well, we don't talk about that. Not where children might see it.

Even angels, or maybe especially angels, need a little kindness once in a while. I will wash its face, hands and feet as well as I can in the rain, and remove the manacles. (Hmm... into my backpack.) "We're not all like that, you know," I say. I don't expect the angel to respond.

Cathedral, huh? Wonder what's in there....

I really missed something here, eh? ^^ Is Chrysalis the only woman around or is this interest of another reason?

Chrysalis isn't the only woman around here, though she does have a very interesting perspective which is drastically different from some of the others around. (And she's damn cute to boot. )

Edit: If you need help discerning PoVs, do a search for Chrysalis, TigerEyes, DaddysLittleNinja, and Transkirsakali. My apologies to other ladies which I may have missed, but I thought those four would give a good cross-section of the females posting on DSF.

No, thank you very much.^^ I am not here to get a new girlfriend, i have a very special one.^^ I was just wondering about the interest at all.

So she is cute? Oooook...sounds like you know her RL. MUAHAHAHAH...!!!

time to find myself a top hat and walking stick it seems

Machiavelli-Nope, we've never met. I've spoken with her some, read a few things and seen a picture on the web that I am led to believe is her.

Strange minds tend to eventually be drawn to each other. They usually establish an unusual method of communication that doesn't make sense to casual observers.

Think Malkavians from Vampire: The Masquerade, except not requiring the crazy.

It's probably dangerous.
I, knocking, launch a Salvo at the Door,
proclaiming, "hello Dolly!"

Oh what a pity,
It appears no one is home.
Dejected, I leave.

I hear the door creak
and see a face with eyebrows,
a consummate V.

"No Dolly or Dame are here,
Of damsels, darlings, and like," he proclaimed,
"we have None." The door closed shut.

Chrysalis' persona on this forum is complex, attractive and hard to predict. Such a landscape is delicious to explore, regardless of ancillary characteristics such as gender. I am an explorer, by personality and profession, and would rather wander through Chrysalis' mind than argue over the relative efficiencies of bullet calibers or the definition of 'core book'. Bullets and core books are important to Shadowrun, but I am happy to let the experts in that field do their thing. I fancy myself to be a discoverer of human truths, which also pertain to Shadowrun. Frankly, I am amazed that such an intimate contact between two who have never met (one inside the mind of another, and open to the dangers and wonders there) can play out in such a public forum. Surely both Chrysalis and I are vulnerable here, on a stage in front of thousands. How cool is that? Is this not an example of virtual life that is at the heart of Shadowrun?

'Malkavian', huh? First time I've been called that! Not the first for 'strange', though.

Not sure about that, I've seen a picture on the web that I am led to believe was him.
EDIT : But then there's the difference that some people make between the poster and the person who actually types the poster's posts.

Meh, I tend to probe strange minds while keeping my own mind cryptic or hidden. Many times my purposeful approaches appear completely random to outside observers.

A single tear rolls down its face. The cleaning has ended with the sun peeking through blackened clouds.

Past the cathedral's arch its doors long since gone, reveals a deep entrance expanding into the nave. Of its aisle pillars only a few remain, the scaffolding around them waiting for the press of tools and workers. Ahead the stage of the altar is lit streams of sunlight, its interlopers have their exits and entrances. In this place one plays many parts. The acts being seven ages.

I notice I am getting alot of attention as of late. I am not simple, my life has not been simple, complexity is what makes me who I am. Why should I hide behind simplicity? I am.

Consider yourself a character worth psychological probing.

Ahh the simplicity of complexity. Or was it the other way around? Anyway, do people make things more complex? I for my part enjoy the simple joy of this thread without further questions about the background.

Hear,hear!

*arched eyebrow* Query?

Poor Shakespeare, limited by his craft to pigeonhole us all into only seven categories. Well, I have my satchel and a shining face, but I come willingly to learn at this altar. And though I am closest in age to the justice, my belly is not quite so round or lined with capon.

No, I am more like Tennyson's Ulysses, aching for one last great adventure, and for whom

"...all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move."

So, I'll stand at the altar and bask in the sunlight. The light is more real than the altar or the decay. "I don't believe this tableau," I say. "Show me who you really are."

I stand beside you. "Usually for you to know me, you have to take the journey, you have to pass through each tableu of symbology to be able to build up to the final conversation. But I am not one of convention, but do wish to make people understand who I am, and in this realm what I can be. The sun which you call genuine is your doing, the vista is my counterfeit."

An appropriate name, then?

I must say I always appreciate when personalities appear among the words on these forums.

to know someone, truly, is to know them presently. their past may be important, to them, but if you weren't there, you should only be concerned with how that past helped shape who the person is now. to know yourself, your past should not be important to you, except in how you know it has shaped the you that you are now.

maybe chrysalis is my favorite poster on DF because she has mentioned personal life events that are, at least in some ways, similar to mine. maybe it's because she takes a very "graduate-level comparative literature" approach to interpreting shadowrun that i, in my over-educated postmodernist ways, appreciate greatly and identify with. or maybe its because, as a transgendered person, i find the idea of a "chrysalis" and what it represents to be intensely relevant to my life.

but whatever, in the world of forums, a good post is a good post, and she has got plenty to her credit!

Hi Shuya,

Thanks for the nice words. I was meaning to ask in what way are you transgendered? There are all sorts of degrees transgenderism, so I was wondering about yours...

If our creations of light and darkness cross each other in this realm, then, do we not form a chiasmus, you and I? Perhaps that is how I managed to short circuit the pathways you have worn in this world. I know them already ... in fact, they are reflections of my own.

"Or perhaps, I simply wished to move faster than I should have. I am not you, nor you I, even though our lives have intersected.

[Sorry, Chrysalis, various games here on DS and my writing have drawn me away from this exploration. Seeing as this is a mind game, I guess I have been practicing cogitus interruptus. I'll be back after some sleep.]