NEW OBSERVATIONS – 13

* Moo:  a virtual community where people come to perform, construct texts and objects, exchange information, play out their fantasies, have meetings and discourse, all in a text-based programming environment. There is a clear and cogent irony in taking familiar stories, plays and fables and putting them in moo context.

telnet to moo.hawaii.edu 9999,

connect Guest,

@go The Farmyard

a tidy farmyard adjacent to a great forest. It is early morning and the dawn light reveals myriad bits of stirring flora and fauna reflected in the shattered mirror of the dew. You see Jauntyclear, .Pert-a-Iot, Chorus,Cold~Fox, Cato’s~ Guest, Baths Wife’s~ Guest, Choicec Guest.

Obvious exits: west to The Woods.

Choicec Guest teleports in.

Joyce~tick has arrived.

Usher escorts you to your seat.

@examine Jauntyclear

His comb is redder than coral, his bill black like jet; his legs and toes azure, his nails whiter than the lily, his body like burnished gold. He knows by instinct the daily movement of the heavens for when they move fifteen degrees he crows in a way that could never be bettered.

@examine Pert-a-Iot

a dazzling beauty, poised and articulate, clearly Jauntyclear’s favorite wife and sister.

Chorus rises up from sleep.

 Cold~Fox goes west.

Chorus says, “Light creepes over the lande and my ears hear the beautiful crowing ofJauntyclear, whose vois  is merier than the mery orgon

@examine Chorus

other wives and sisters of Jauntyclear. Their secondary status to Pert-a-Iot gives them less attention but much more free-

~~ .

Jauntyclear mutters and groans loudly in his sleep.

Pert-a-Iot says, “0 herte dear, What eyleth yow, to grone in this manere?”

Macrobius’~Guest teleports in.

Jauntyclear says, “Madame, me mette I was in swich meschief that yet myn herte is sore afright. I saugh a best.”

Cold~Fox is thinking about you in the The Woods.

E pages, “he means me!”

page Cold~Fox with “aren’t you the sly one?”

Jauntyclear says, “Was lyk an hound, .and wolde han maad arest Upon my body, and wolde han had me deed. This caused me my gronyng, doutelees.”

Cold~Fox has received your message …

Knight’s~ Guest teleports in.

Cold~Fox is thinking about you in the The Woods. E pages, “dont get smarmy with me, 1m not in the mood.”

Pert-a-Iot exclaims, “AlIas, for, by that God above,
Now han ye lost myn herte and al my love!
I kan nat love a coward, by my feith!
How dorste ye seyn, for shame, unto youre love
That any thyng myghte make yow aferd?
Have ye no mannes herte, and han a berd?

Catoun Seyde he nat thus, ‘Ne do no fors of dremes’?
For Goddes love,
A day or two ye shul have digestyves
Of wormes, er ye take youre laxatyves
Be myrie, housbonde,
Dredeth no dreem.”
Cato’s~ Guest says, “Are they chickens?”

BathsWife’s~Guest says, “I dunno, but chickens do have complicated digestive systems?”

Cato
Jauntyclear glares at Cato. Jauntyclear says, “Madame, Catoun hath of wysdom swich a greet renoun, Though that he bad no dremes for to drede,men may in olde bookes rede
Of many a man moore of auctorite
Than evere Caton was, so moot I thee,
That dremes been significaciouns
As wel of joye as of tribulaciouns”

Choicec Guest says, “cluck, cluck.”

Knight’s_ Guest teleports out.

Jauntyclear says, “Andromacha, Ectores wyf, That day that Ector sholde lese his lyf, She dremed on the same nyght biforn How that the lyf of Ector sholde be lorn, If thilke day he wente into bataille. She warned hym, but it myghte nat
availle; He wente for to fighte natheles, But he was slayn anon of Achilles.”
Macrobius’_Guest says, “fowl play.”

Bath’sWife_Guest slathers kisses on Macrobius’_Guest.

Jauntyclear says, “I ne telle of laxatyves no stoor, For they been venymes, I woot it weel; I hem diff}re, I love hem never a deel!”

Cold Fox preens and swells with wonder at his own sly iniquitee, and marvels at his clever plan to brast into the yerd, and wait his tyme on Jauntyclear to faile.

go west

The Woods

Where ail kinds of leaves, flowers, fruits, twigs and dead animals fall on the forest floor to facilitate the Cycle of Nutrition and Decay. You see Cold_Fox here.

Cold_Fox urges you to leave so he can concentrate on remembering his lines.

go east

The Farmyard

A tidy farmyard adjacent to a great forest. It is early morning and the dawn light reveals myriad bits of stirring flora and fauna reflected in the shattered mirror of the dew. You see Jauntyclear, .Pert-a-lot, Chorus, Cold_Fox, Cato’s_ Guest, Baths Wife’s_ Guest, Choicec Guest.

Joyce_tick hands Macrobius’_Guest a towel.

Cold-Fox to Jauntyclear:
“Gentil sire, Ye have as myrie a stevene
As any aungel hath that is in hevene.
Therwith ye han in musyk moore feelynge
Than hadde Boece, or any that kan synge.”
Knight’s_ Guest teleports in.
Jauntyclear is ravysshed with his flaterie, his
wynges begins to bete,
Strecchynge his nekke, and heeld his eyen cloos, he gan to
crowe aloude.

Cold-Fox grabs by the gargat Jauntyclear, and flees west to The Woods with his capture.

Cato’s_Guest says, “so much for the kindness of strangers.”

[In the woods] you hear scuffling.

Chorus hangs its head in sorrow.

Cato’s_Guest says, “Next time I visit here I’ll have to learn the language.”

Cato’s_ Guest teleports out.

The Usher comes to take Cato’s Guest away.

CHORUS DIRGE SWELLS

Chorus exclaims,

“0 woful hennes, right so criden ye
As whan that Nero brende the citee
Of Rome cryden senatoures wyves For that hir husbondes losten aIle hir lyves-”