From: jason@grinch.txt.com (Jason in the Hood)
Subject: Re: Introduction; and Welcome!
Organization: Textural Software, San Jose, CA
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 22:48:18 GMT

KAREN R. CLEVELAND ANNOUNCES TO THE WORLD:
>HI :)		

Yoouww.  I think they heard you at the south pole... ;)

>I guess since i just had to post that yesterday i should at least 
>introduce myself.  I'm Karen Cleveland, a full time student in South Dakota 
>I have been reading and enjoying alt.romance.chat for about 2 months.  
>I finally got enough courage to post!  So hi everyone from South Dakota.	

  Many of the residents of ARCland gather 'round to welcome the latest
arrival to the land of *hugs* and *chocolate*.  Several people are talking
at once, and the exuberant din of voices is loud (many people think Karen
is deaf, having to yell so much).  As happens sometimes, the conversation
took a sudden _stop_ when everyone stopped talking at once; perhaps to
take a breath, perhaps to listen...

   Sounding over the silence of the moment was a sound above what is
normally there; a sound that caused the momentary lull to continue well
beyond what would be a normal pause...

  Standing in the middle of the group, Ms. Cleveland starts looking
uncomfortable, and glancing around, as all the faces of the people
beside her get a puzzled look and begin glancing around.  "What?  What's
happening??"

  Slowly, the sound gets louder, and deeper...  Almost, a whistling,
and yet... odd overtones make it more than that...

  Suddenly, every face turns skyward!  The sound deepens and can now
be clearly coming straight down!  Before anyone can even _move_ much
less take cover, a glinting shape lands directly in front of the visitor!
The wind of it's decent flows down over ARConites, cold, as from the highest
reaches of air... Clean, smelling of newness...

  As the breeze passes, the ARCers look at a golden shaft standing out of
the ground;  graceful feathers line it's top...  Unhasting, the shaft begins
to glow; almost shy, a warm and pleasant feeling flows over where cold air
was blowing but moments before... displacing it, filling the void thusly
created with a cozy familiar warmth...

  Almost in a daze, Karen is drawn to the shimmering shaft... reaching
out a hand, she gently tugs on it...  to the disbelief of others, it
gently seperates from the land...

  Lying in her hand is a golden arrow;  the graceful curves of the feathers
reminding those on land of those on wing;  the carefully shaped point
reminding them of the hardness of life, and the choices they must all make.

  As they stand there, gazing upon the golden gleam in her hand, it begins
to shimmer all the more...  Images, soft, happy, dark ones that echo
strangely of the taste of chocolate, pervade the group.  Karen, holding
the arrow itself, gets even more of the feelings that the rest of the
group;  she can taste the chocolate, feel the pies and various actions
that have occured here in the past months... feel all the happiness and
love, and of sorrow cleansed and fulfilled...  For such has the arrow seen
in the months it has been in flight.  For it is a recording arrow; what
it has seen before, it now plays for the recipient...

  The last image/feeling/thought the arrow broadcasts is a strong one
of welcome...  everyone standing near knows they belong to this land,
and are always welcome... to Karen:  it means she has found yet another
home, one that in times of trouble or despair she can turn to, and it
will always be there...  Of the gentle love that pervades the kingdom
she now inhabits.

  With the last burst of emotion, the shimmering recedes, and with it...
the arrow shortens, until there is just a golden feather left, lying
in the hand of the newly welcomed ARCer.

-- 
|Official Wandering Archer of the RFA
|
|UUCP  jason@grinch.txt.com                 Who wills, Can.
|VOICE (408) 321-6509                         Who tries, Does.
|LOCAL Hey, Jason!                              Who loves, Lives.          o_.
|Disclaimer:  Not me! I didn't do *THAT!*                                 <|
|Local Disclaimer:  I'm not here!                   A. McCaffrey           4