Character planning and backgrounds

Syrene

Female. Adult in her mid 20's. Daughter of two Dominants, one with super strength and another with amazing sneaking abilities. Pretty strong, 'though nowhere near Voent. Good at moving stealthily. The two abilities she combines to stalk corrupted beasts through the lands and put them down. Her weapon of choice is a spear with a foot long, leaf bladed tip. She's a bit of a myth to the surviving humans, who dubbed her Falcon and romantisized her story: a mystical warrior, half bird and half human, who melts into the shadows, striking down all who dare threaten men. She belonged to a tribe that was lost in the war. She stayed with her until she just decided to go her separate way (I just didn't want a clichéd 'angsty-at-my-parents-death' hero). She's anti-social, although she's not your sullen/hostile/moody character. Just doesn't talk until she's required to, she doesn't really believe in hiding her past or pretending to raise up an emotional wall. Probably the most experienced of the characters in killing Beasts as of the beginning of the story.

Near to 6 feet tall, with red hair in a braid. Blue eyes, and a lean body. Wears oiled leather. Has a tattoo on her face in bronze dye, made in the likeness of a screeching falcon.

Fenett

Female. Young-adult, almost twenty years old. Dominant. Quite agile in movement, and can move stealthily if she wants. Part of Voent's tribe, 'though she's not related to him in any way. Her weapon of choice is a well crafted bow and her quiver of bronze arrows. Due to her natural born agility, she can fire arrows at a remarkable rate. Father was killed before her birth by disease, and mother died bringing her into the world. Grew up as an orphan with her 'uncle'. He taught her most of the things she knows, but archery she learned on her own. Uncle's pretty old and sickly as of the beginning of the story. She's highly intelligent, but equally sarcastic. Proud of her abilities, even though she hasn't ever been in a real fight. She was taught to hunt, but the closet she ever came to the real thing was when she shot a few birds mid-fight. Still doesn't know how to kill someone, but she's pretty willing to put the theory into practice. Young, eager and with a baseless arrogance that exists nontheless.

She's 5'6. Brown hair. Blue eyes. Has a very distinctive bow, shaped like wings.

Voent

Male. Mid-thirties. Dominant. A hulking bear of a man. Heavily muscled, with broad shoulders. Superhuman in strength. He's the leader of one of the few tribes that survived the wars without going into hiding, the largest collective band of passives and dominants in Ardisia. He became the leader after the line of succession after the old chief's death handed the mettle to his 15 year old son, who was no leader to follow in a time of crisis. The boy was packed off, and Voent assumed command on the virtue of having only one challenger, whose head he ripped off. To be fair, he's been a competent leader. Fair, decisive and having the absolute loyalty and respect of everyone in his tribe. He fights with his axe, and has been known to smash shields in half with one blow. He's passionate, loyal to his tribe and both physically and mentally strong. He's a leader, quite ready to sacrifice himself to save his men.

Voent's 7'3, highly muscled. Red hair, and granite grey eyes. He has a full length beard.

Glenn

Male. Mid twenties. Dominant. Has control over magic, which he primarily uses to boost his already formidable combat abilities. He's a sword fighter, with a 3 foot long sword and shield, made of bronze and leather, respectively. He's the leader of a relatively small tribe that resurfaced after the initial war was over, having been driven out of their hiding spot by corrupted beasts. Glenn's determined to stand up to the Beast, and has convinced his companions to do likewise. As of the beginning of the story, he seeks allies to add to his ranks and begin the formation of the resistance to kill the monster who threatens his world. He lost his parents to the initial war, although he's laid those scars to rest. He's charismatic and determined, although prone to irrational fits of anger. He has an inherent dislike of being patronized, although he's open to suggestions nonetheless.

6'2. Lean body. Black hair, brown eyes. Clean shaven. 

Saena

Female. Around 17ish. Halfling. Had a Dominant parent and inherited his strength. She fights primarily hand to hand, later using a club and shield. She's the Guardian of a group of passives and halflings that went into hiding. Her childhood was spent amongst other children her age, passive and halfling, and was filled with tales of monsters and beasts on the outside world. She was the alpha of her group, the most aggressive and wilful child, and the most stubborn. As she aged, however, the older halflings who guarded the cave before her passed away due to natural causes. Being the oldest and the strongest, she was appointed to guard the mouth of the cave against the monsters she'd never actually seen, but heard and lived in fear of all her life. She couldn't be scared, not for the sake of the little ones she was supposed to guard, so instead she masked her fear under layers and layers of aggression. As such, she's likely to go berserk at the very first sign of danger.

She's beefy for a young girl. Broad faced, with golden hair that's been cropped short.

Ceuron

Female. Late fourties. Dominant. Powerful mage. She doesn't use any weapon, instead relying on her magical abilities. She and her husband Acheron were originally a part of Glenn's tribe. She's the more passionate and emotionally driven of the pair. Wise, some would call her. She has more of a talent and affinity for magic than has ever been seen before, possibly being the strongest human mage that exists or will exist. She's your average grandmother-like figure.

She's dusky skinned, with emerald green eyes and dark hair that's streaked with grey. 

Acheron

Male. Possibly an even fifty. Dominant. Genius inventor. He prefers not to get in any sort of fight at all, but for personal safety reasons, he has what you can possibly be considered a fully functional crossbow, mounted on his wrist. He's the husband of Ceuron, and the more logically driven of the pair. The greatest mind of his era. He's more stern than his wife, less open to conversation and prefers the company of puzzles and metals to humans.

He's got pure white hair, strands of which reach his shoulders. A closely trimmed beard, and tranquil blue eyes.

Ereshkigal

Male. Twenty one. Dominant. Ereshkigal is something of an enigma. A man of very few words, and almost impossible skill. At a remarkably young age, he shows the abilities of a veteran warrior, and a master assassin. His daggers work equally well at fighting face to face, or dispatching creatures from the shadows. If he got his powers somewhere, he's not ready to discuss them. Speaking only in short phrases, most of them laconic, the man's past remain shrouded in history.

He's 6'. Close cropped black hair. Fair brown skin. Dressed in oiled leather. His eyes are a hard brown. 

This is more of a sketch than an actual real as-it-will-be-used-in-the-story biography. Just starting points to mod and add to.

Additional names to store: Voroch. Vesnal. Athec. Quentin. ReChadyn.

Lines to consider:
'Don't you get smart with me'
'Apologies, because you only want the dimmest of the dim for your team, sir'.

'Do those creatures feel pain?

Depends how hard you hit them. 

'Don't think those creatures would actually show up to a tea invitation, would they?' Fenett 

asked distantly.


'That's probably counter productive,' Glenn answered, shrugging.

'Not if I poison it'



'I can't afford to die. I'm poor!'

'If I die, let them know I was a fool until the end'
'It'll help if you wear this hat.

NaNo planning.

I'm going to NaNo this year, and I have four days to get everything in my head sorted out into bits that make sense on a level greater than just 'IT'LLBEAWESOME'. I've already decided that it's going to be fantasy. I can't work with any other idea on such a short notice. I'll be using my Ardisia as the setting (I've worked too hard on that world to not put it to use in an actual story), but in the interests of still retaining some of the challenge of creating a world from the scratch, I'm choosing a different era from the world I created.

If you've read my The Creation Myth, you already know some of the world (and if you don't, you can read it. It's only 1.5k words. Barely a six minute read), and I'm picking the story up from a little time after that in an era called the First Age, or The Era of the Fathers. Basically, a time where the winds of magic flow without any sort of dilution (superstrong spells can be cast), when the only race on the world are the humans (as opposed to the myriad of other sentient species that come to inhabit the world later: Draconians, beastmen, Fenrir, Vanir and Alfr, Dwarves etc) and there still isn't any sort of city or higher organized structure like a monarchy or whatever. The closest it gets is tribes, and I'll get to that in a bit. First, let's flesh out the 'kinds' of humans that exist in the First Era:

The humans are primarily of two types, passive and dominant. The Dominant are basically the humans who are closer to demigods in terms of power. Some have super strength, others supernatural control over the winds of magic, a few can move without making any sort of noise whatsoever. There are some who can even create things out of seemingly useless materials (inventors) and so on. The Passive are closer to you or me, in the sense that they have no special advantage at all, but they are considered to be an asset by the Dominant because they are the ones who mine things, grow crops, take care of the animals, provide basic goods, build huts and all that. The Passive are to the Dominant what cattle are to the Passive: something that's the means to an end. It was a mutually beneficial relationship: the passive feed the dominant and the dominant guard the passive. From what? Little beasties.

During the First Era, the only other species to contend with the humans on the face of Ardisia were Beasts. They were like animals, 'cept so much more stronger and mightier. Mammoths, sabre-tooth felines that stalk their prey silently and grow up to eight feet tall, gigantic eagles with silver steel-like feathers, and so on. The Dominant, of course, could teake on the beasts and spit them out. Their powers allowed them to dispatch herds of beasts with relative ease. The passive, of course, allied themselves with the dominant for protection, and that lead to the formation of 'tribes'. Each tribe usually consisted of thirty or so people, usually with ten or so Dominants with similar powers, with one or two deviating and the rest being the passives. Children between the dominant usually inherited their parents' abilities either completely, if both the parents had the same kind of abilities, or a toned down version of both, if the parents had different abilities. 'Halflings' was the term for a child between a passive and dominant, and they were basically the more stronger workers who could be called upon to fight in case things ever got ugly (which rarely ever happened). Sometimes there even was a tribe of passives, with the halflings serving as the guardians against beasts.

It was all peaceful for almost three decades before the dominants simply got bored hunting the beasts, who could never even match them. They wanted a challenge worthy of their mettle. Something that would provide them with good sport, and so they turned to the only thing that was as strong as themselves: each other.

The First War, as it is known, was a brutal, bloody affair. People all over Ardisia died by the millions. There was no alliance, and any trust that had ever been made was broken steadily, battle after battle. The only bond between men was that of tribes, and anyone else was an enemy who would sink their weapons into their backs or roast them alive if given the chance. Passive or Dominant, many went into hiding, and the killing continued.

The Gods stood and watched. Watched as their pride, the greatest creations turned on each other and slowly edged towards total annihilation. They waited until the humans numbered less than ten thousand, and then created an unholy spawn of sin and darkness.

They let the creature loose on the face of the world, and it cut through man and beast like knives of frost through skin.
It seized the strongest beasts and men it could find, and corrupted them. It turned them into its champions, and tasked them to slay their former comrades. Not even the mightiest could stand before the onslaught. Some tribes tried mounting a resistance, but they were too few, and the attacks were too uncoordinated. The beast alone might have been vanquished by a valiant effort, but never with its champions by its side. Everyone who fought died.

The force of men broke. The beasts hid. The darkness ravaged the face of existence, ever looking for more to kill.

Unified resistance is impossible. The humans are scattered all over the world, and there is no trust between any of them: the war made sure of that. There is no prophecised hero. Magic offers no salvation. And yet, unless something is done, all life will slowly wither and die.

Enter: Syrene/'Falcon', Fenett, Voent, Glenn, Saena, Ceuron, Acheron and Ereshkigal. 

Yes, I decided on the names beforehand. Names are an aodpawkoedai to think of. It took me five hours to settle on these eight. I'll get to defining their personalities and backgrounds tomorrow. Right now, it's enough to have gotten their names.

I don't even know how they're going to beat the Spawn of Darkness and Sin (I haven't decided on a name for it yet), but that's the fun of it. As the author, I get to make up stuff as I go ^^ No. I am not going to make an 'AllProblemSolvedMagicalTrinket', but I'll think of a way. Possibly a majorly bloody way where a lot of characters die. (Thank you to Meli for giving me a good starting point)
Also, I'm going to do an ASOAIF and make POV characters. So, no one main character. So, main characters die. Mwahahaha.

Now, on to the finer kinks:


I've decided that Magic is going to be this force that magicians have access to because of this extra diamond-shaped organ near their heart. It's the size of a fingernail, and it beats like a regular heart, but instead of making and regulating blood, it creates and regulates magical energy. This energy will continue to be produced until it reaches a certain limit, upon which it will stop being produced. The more powerful the spell cast by the magician, the more energy it takes. If a magician runs out of energy, he has to wait until the organ replenishes the store. It'd take two days of not using magic to get the magician's power back to maximum from zero. 

Weapons in the story are going to be the classical swords, spears, and all that jazz, 'cept they're not going to be magical or even made of steel. They're going to be bronze, which is more realistic of the early ages considering that tin and copper can easily melt and bronze isn't hard to work. Which is to say, realistically speaking, expect a lot of characters to end up with bent or shattered weapons during fights.

Now, time to take my thinking cap off and take a rest. And then back to thinking again tomorrow.

Chrono Trigger

Lower thine guard and thou'rt letting the enemy in. 

Le Badass Mr Frogster x) He's a character from what I consider to be my very first obsessively played favorite game: Chrono Trigger. 'tis a quirky little game from the 90's. 16 bit graphics, that are in no way 'WoW' worthy in the face of games today, but the music (God, the music <3) and storyline's quite amazing (as only a game with time travel can be). Gameplay's pretty easy. Even gamers who fail at every other game can win at this x) It's amazing, really, how they can make such simple mechanics so deeply interesting O.o 

"If history is to change, let it change. If the world is to be destroyed, so be it. If my fate is to die, I must simply laugh."

 I'll probably re-play it for the seventh time. It never gets old.

S.P.E.L.T 2012

Well, I think it goes to show how little I blog when it's been one whole year since the last Society of Pakistan English Language Teachers (S.P.E.L.T) conference, and the entry I made about that one is only, like, a dozen or so posts back. I should blog more. *Makes a mental note*.

Anyhow, yes, I was (again) a part of the student presenters who were given the platform to express their thoughts in a presentation in front of a room full of English teachers (And have a legit reason to wear a suit. Really, that's the main reason). I was asked if I wanted to participate again sometime during the last month, so why didn't I mention this before? Simple: because I have this philosophy that's pretty deeply etched into my psyche that any situation that you think about will not happen, ever. If you really think about something good, picturing everything that could happen and how awesome it'll be, it never will happen. Therefore, I always imagine bad things that could happen to me, and they never do. Avoid dwelling on the good things. Let them be a surprise. ^^ Keep things you don't want at the forefront of your head. Even if they do happen, at least you'll be ready for them.

Anyhow, so this is how it played out: This time we were given a chance to not present as a group, but instead give an individual presentation. That is, only you're the speaker for 55 minutes. Tradeoff was, though, that you had to write your own Abstract (pssssh) and make your own presentation (psssssh). I thought that was a really good deal, and since I love public speaking, I said I'd do an individual presentation on a topic that I could legitimately talk about: Writing. Shameer said he'd do an individual presentation too he chose the topic 'Assess our cries......if not our performance!!!' as his topic title. It was supposed to be about assessment of students, I think, and Saad, Aitzaz, Basit and Harris weren't so sure, so they grouped together.

Anyhow, I was hyped, to the point where I was again daydreaming about things I'd say and the stuff I'd do, so I violated my own law (and I only proved myself right, as you'll see in a few). I was so excited. It was going to be so fun. Me, a classroom of teachers, and WRITING! I wrote my abstract, which is basically a 200 or under word document that basically states what your presentation is about. Your abstract makes or breaks your audience. A good one will reel in the folks, and a bad one will leave you with a lot more free time than you had anticipated. And I made my presentation. And then I waited.

What happened? S.P.E.L.T people called Ma'am Sabahat and told her that there was no way in the world they could spare three separate presentation slots for learners in a teacher-centric conference. Ma'am Sabahat told us that she was bargaining for two, at least, and so we had to cut the number of presentations, which meant that nobody could fly solo. We'd have to manage. I was a little bit put off, but I said 'okay'. I selected Basit and Aitzaz as my co-presenters and Shahmeer got Saad and Harris. Presentation time also had to be cut short. Which meant that instead of the 45 minutes I'd planned to talk on (55, but 10 minutes are for the discussion time), I'd have to settle for 10 minutes. Grit my teeth, told myself 'something's better than nothing' and said okay, and got to drilling my co-presenters on what they had to say. The guidelines, at least.

And then on the first day we practiced, Ma'am Sabahat was like 'No. No. No. This will not do at all'. Apparently, my presentation wasn't even centered on one topic. I jumped from problems writers generally face in Pakistan, to the Fantasy genre, to the advantage of having writers, to the issues with students. She told me it HAD to be focused on one issue, and since we were learners going to a teachers' conference, we should take it in a way that centered students. Again, I was sort of put off, but I said fine. I'd still get to say what I wanted to say, one way or another.

So our presentation became student-centric, and how we needed to remove some issues with the education system that were stopping writers from developing. And then afterwards, as the final draft was completed, it was about what teachers can do in their daily lives and teaching schedules to encourage their students to write. I wanted to talk about the fantasy genre, the problems in the classroom, and how awesome it is to just write stories, and I managed to incorporate all those elements into my presentation. I was pretty well satisfied. I started to day dream again.

'Oh, bloody hell.' - Everyone

And, yes, my theory again struck true. How? S.P.E.L.T organizers couldn't even give us two presentation slots. They'd give us one. One 55 minutes for two presentations. 25 minutes per presentation. I'd only get to talk for six minutes. I was depressed that day. 'I couldn't convince you to by a knife in six minutes, how the bloody hell am I supposed to convince a roomful of teachers to introduce new teaching methodology?'. It was breaking point for me, and I went to Ma'am Sabahat the next day and I told her flat out that I was NOT going to go there to talk for a stinking six minutes. You know what she said to me? 'Stop being such an idealist. You're getting a chance to perform in an international conference. You're getting a certificate that'll be one of the very few that you'll get during your school life that will actually HELP your C.V and improve your chances of getting into a better institution. Six minutes or two, do you really want to sacrifice that for, what, pride and petty ideals?'.

What do you even say to that? I was like 'o.o...Okay. So, I suppose I'm staying' (paraphrasing here). And we went back to practicing. It was horrid. Shortening down everything to mini-bits. Cutting down our examples and content. A LOT of us went overtime. What's more, my team was seriously confused. Nothing was being linked back to writing, and how everything'll end up improving things for Pakistani Writers, and on top of that Ma'am Sabahat was at her nerves' end. She kept telling her that if this was how things'd stay, she was not going to take us anywhere. She's been a S.P.E.L.Ter for two decades, and she had a reputation to protect, and she was not letting us jepordize that. 'course, I knew she was just saying that to shame us into becoming better, and it did work. We slowly improved, and Ma'am Sabahat helped my co-presenters actually GET what I was trying to convey through my presentation (Thank God) and even gave them a few bases for examples we could use. She was really strict in saying that we were NOT going to use the exact same examples, but improve upon them and add our own touch.

'It'd be really ironically hypocritical if your 'Students' Mistakes' slide has a subtopic 'The Issue of Memorization', and you're propagating it though memorized examples'.

And so, we practiced and practiced and practiced and I wasn't even thinking about the conference anymore. We had to stay back from school until 5:00 pm, and it was still pretty hard (considering our assessments were on), but we did it anyway. 

You know how my theory was strengthened even more, though? On the last day before the conference, this Thursday, we got a call from the organization that told Ma'am that even though they couldn't give us two separate slots, they could give us a Workshop slot, which isn't really for presentations, but it's 1 hour 50 minutes long, and we could share it there. 

1 hour 50 minutes. 55 minutes per presentation. I could speak for 12 minutes.

I was ecstatic. Literally thrilled. I got so hyper, I started to annoy Shahmeer, but I didn't care. Not in the least bit. I could now expand my content and add examples and now I could talk. My speaking time just doubled, and Aitzaz and I were laughing like lunatics because we were the two who were going overtime, and now we could talk so much more than we used to.

Also to mention : I went shopping on Thursday night. I was looking for a casual-looking coat. What did I get? A FEDORA. That's right. I am now the proud owner of an awesome black fedora. :> How's that?

 Anyhow, I went to school on Friday dressed like a 70's detective.

Horrible picture, but awesome fedora. I couldn't leave this one behind. 

The Keynote presenter was a lady from Melbourne, Australia named Judith Grace McNaught. There were two Judiths, so she called herself Jude, and the other one was Judy. ^^ She wasn't really a compelling speaker. She had good content, and a good topic (Teachers: Novice, Experienced and Expert), but she really wasn't able to make her presentation all that captivating. Last year, the Keynote speaker was an Austrian named Peter Grundy, and he was AWESOME. To the point where I wanted to take his autograph, but whatever. She was still an interesting lady. :]

I attended her presentation the next day. It was about using cuisenaire rods to teach English to students. THAT was interesting, and she worked really well with the four dozen or so people who showed up (Which included me and Aitzaz). She kept it interesting and really fun. In the end, she made us divide into groups and gave us a box of rods. Each group was given a theme, and had to create something out of the rods. After that, half the group had to stay with the creations and the other half had to go around and look at other teams' creations and ask their half who stayed behind what they had made. Our topic was 'Something you saw on T.V'.

There was this bald-guy in our group who said that he wanted to do something on the news. An accident. I expected that, and I said 'Shouldn't we think outside the box? I mean, really, the very first thing you'd think of when you got that topic would be something horrible on the news. How about something more fun?'. And then we thought for a few minutes before the same guy said 'How about an award ceremony?', we took up that idea. Here's what we made:

The black-boundary with the green and red in between is supposed to be the parking space. The red-trail that leads to green was the red-carpet. The standy-up yellow-brown-green-blue-purple rods on the fringes are pillars. The rows of brown-purple-green and red with the woody-skin blocks are supposed to be the audience sitting on chairs. The orange-blue-yellow rectangle is supposed to be the stage. The red on the stage is supposed to be the announcer and his podium. The small green with wooden pieces is supposed to be the honorary guests' table. And the larger-green wall is supposed to be the backstage area. It was really fun, working with this group of a dozen or so people whom I've never met before, were so much more older than me, but were still so eager to participate and make sure nobody was left out x) 

Presenting: Mrs. Judith 'Jude' Grace McNaught!

After that, PHOTOGRAPHY SESSION!

Our presenters' cards. :>

I'd say 'Titanic Pose', but then Aitzaz is supposed to be Kate Winslet and- BAHAHAHAHA.

After the cameras had stopped clicking, and all the dust settled down, we went to the auditorium again to listen to the Plenary. The topic was Teacher Research, by this British dude named Simon Borg. All you need is this one eloquent quote from Harris to know how it was:

'It was really, really amazing, what he did. I deeply regret I wasn't able to record the presentation. The next time I can't go to sleep, I could have played it. In fact, mail the doctors. I've found a cure for insomnia'.

Simon Borg.

Simon Borg's presentation.

After that, I attended this presentation on Critical Thinking by this mentor-student. The 'mentor' was over 30, really energetic and reminded me of my friend Sherry. 'course, having said that, I totally embarrassed myself in front of her by getting confused when she asked me a simple question, but I tried to save face during the question an answer session by being the most involved. ^^" Err, moving on.

The third presentation I was SUPPOSED to attend was Ma'am Sabahat's. 

Okay, our Director is a really, really talented presenter. She knows how to handle the audience, and present her ideas in such an amazing way. I was really looking forward to her pres. Her topic was awesome: 'Parents: the neglected sake holders of academia'. And you know what the organization did? Mismanagement. There wasn't a projector, so they proposed that we move to the auditorium. We did that, and it took 20 minutes. Out of 55. So, we hooked the laptop to the auditorium projector, and then nothing happened. They called their technician who blamed it on the laptop. (Seriously, dude? Seriously?). And after that, we just sat around twiddling our thumbs. Basit said that Ma'am had all rights to complain to the management about this, but she was cool with it. She said she saw it coming, and she didn't really care about her presentation as much as she cared about ours. So what'd she make us do? She made us practice. In the auditorium. During the time her presentation was supposed to take place.

Wow.

After that, PICTURES!

Left to right: Me, Harris, Shahmeer (keeling), Basit, Saad, Aitzaz.

...Harris and I look like brothers O.o 

And after that we went back and stayed at the Army Base for the night. ^^ Shahmeer's uncle's in the army, so he was able to get us Mess rooms. They were pretty comfy. Flash-forward to Sunday:

The background was lovely. :]

Let me repeat myself: I was SO made to wear a suit.

'We solve problems. Problems of a...Particular nature'

MAFIA BOSS! Totally Shazzy look. :>

So, after that we had our presentation at 11 am. Like I said, ours was a 1 hour 50 minute presentation, divided in two. So, the first presentation would be 'Assess our cries......if not our performance!!!' and then 'Writing in the Modern Era'. Ten minutes before it began, the people starting looking for presentations to attend, and we were getting slightly on edge because nobody was coming into our room. And then all of a sudden, a dozen people filled in and seated themselves. We sort of just stood there, and then one of them 'Ahemed' at me, and asked 'Is this the Writing in the Modern Era presentation?'. I said 'Yes, but before that we have another presentation 'Assess our cries'. It's in the schedule. Writing in the modern era begins in fifty five minutes'. They were like 'Okay, we'll be back after fifty five minutes'.

You have NO idea how much that stroked my ego. Aitzaz, Basit and I were positively cracking up at the looks on Shahmeer's faces. These people came to see Our presentation, not theirs. And that was almost as awesome as having been asked for an autograph XD I must admit, I was getting slightly nervous (which is most unlike me. O.O I never get nervous before a public speaking opportunity) and that totally set me at ease. 

Anyhow, presentation started, we sat through the first presentation, and then our turn came. The Discussion session for the first presentation took, what, ten minutes, so we had a LOT of extra time. The audience looked seriously bored, so I tried doubly hard to win back their attention. How'd I do that? By being doubly loud, clear and lighthearted. I'll post the videos of my part as soon as I can, but later. You can judge how I did later. :P We all went overtime, and yet we ended right on cue. XD I talked for 19 minutes. 25, if you include the discussion session (lasted 17 minutes). Like I said, videos later. 

The presentation was a smashing success. Four people asked for my Email and facebook I.D. One of them said that his kids were writers, and he really wanted to introduce them to me ( :') ) and two people even said that they had attended our presentation last year as well, and that they were seriously impressed.

I was like 'WoW'. I couldn't tell you what the face of the guy who delivers milk to my house everyday looks like, let alone the three kids who gave a 55 minute presentation a year ago. And yet they remembered! And one of them personally told me that she was really, really happy that artistic talent was still alive in Pakistan, because she thought that we were running short of writers and all that, and how I'd totally managed to change her point of view. It was lovely. I swear, I won't forget those two's faces. I'll be looking out for them if I go to the S.P.E.L.T next year XD

AND THEN MORE PICTURES. IN SUITS.

Left to right: Shahmeer. Harris. Saad. Ma'am Sabahat. Aitzaz. Me. Basit.

The Awesomes. :> 

'Writing in the Modern Era' presenters. 

Me and Harris...I'll have to ask my dad if I seriously don't have a long lost brother o___o

I WAS SO MADE TO WEAR A SUIT.

After that, we went straight back to our homes, since everyone was tired and in no mood to attend another presentation. ^^' Shame. There were some interesting ones planned. 

Anyhow, it was an awesome experience. :') Before I go, though, I have one last thing to say: I DID IT, LAILA. I DID IT. 

We didn't stop at Say'yid Book Palace, but there was this shop named 'Mr Books', which ('though has a dorky name) was just as good as SBP. AND I GOT ALL OF 'A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE' BOOKS IN ONE GO!

I had to borrow money from Ma'am Sabahat, Saad and Aitzaz (because I forgot my wallet at home) and had to pay them back later, which cost me roundish three whopping thousand rupees, but IT WAS SO TOTALLY WORTH IT. I FEEL LIKE A HOLE IN MY LIFE HAS BEEN FILLED. 

So, yes, it was an awesome experience all around :'] Sorry for the superdy long post. I hope I didn't bore you XD. I just had a LOT of things to say, and I suppose this makes up for the lack of activity. :P

I'll make a follow up post with the videos in a bit. Just need to convert them from AVCHD to MP4 format >>' My part video is 1.5 GB and the QA is 780 MB. I need to convert them and resize them to make them uploadable. I'll see how well that goes.

Until then, Bob. Until then.