Paper Telephone.

[Eönwë]

I will probably not have reliable internet (or any computer) access in the first two weeks of August, but other than that, I would like to be in on this.

[Oddwen]

If we find yet another player and Lommy is OK with the addition I would love to play (Thanks Lommy!)

[Thinlómien]

Okay, welcome!

Lommy - draw
Hookbill - write
Kath - draw
Nogrod - write
Sally - draw
Legate - write
Galadriel - draw
Pitchwife - write
Greenie - draw
Eönwë - write
Rune - draw
Agan - write
Oddwen - draw
Firefoot - write

Hookbill - draw
Kath - write
Nogrod - draw
Sally - write
Legate - draw
Galadriel - write
Pitchwife - draw
Greenie - write
Eönwë - draw
Rune - write
Agan - draw
Oddwen - write
Firefoot - draw

So:

1) I'd like to get one more sign up
2) I'll draw you guys a picture tomorrow so we'll start on July 2nd

[Thinlómien]

I just sent Hookbill the first picture to describe!

Two reminders:

Please keep an eye on your PMs (e-mail notifications are a good idea). I'm going to give people a bit more time than the last round since it's summer an I assume people may be busy, but if you don't write your sentence in 3 days or draw your picture in 5 days, I'm going to shuffle your turn. I also may harass you on Facebook or something, but I'd rather not use my energy on that. Also, keeping an eye on the list every now and then and letting me know in advance if you suspect you'll be too busy when it's your turn is appreciated.

and: remember to keep your sentences short and sweet and don't add too much explanatory text to your pictures. The more interpretation is involved, the funnier the game is!

Everybody have fun! I'm looking forward to see what you guys are going to come up with!

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

I wants it

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Rune Son of Bjarne

I wants it

That was fast. Added.

Sign ups are now closed, unless you come in pairs, make irresistible puppy eyes at me and pinky swear to be fast with your turns.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

That was fast. Added.

I wanted it bad...

[Thinlómien]

I had to shuffle the order a little as Aganzir is travelling right now. Anyone else having similar concerns, please let me know.

Also: we are 1/4 through! Yay! Extra cake for all the writers this far being super fast.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

How on earth is it my turn already!!! (way to go, I am very impressed)

I am not actually at my own place at the moment, so I will probably not submit my contribution as fast as usual (but within the approved time frame of course)

[Thinlómien]

Your moddess' apologies for a couple of days' delay, but we're back on track now. (I have been naughty and just having a holiday.) Almost halfway through!

[satansaloser2005]

FYI, I will be mostly offline starting tomorrow (internet on my phone but no other immediate access), so if the moddess could kindly reach out to me on FB when my turn pops up, that would be much appreciated.

[Galadriel55]

I will be away for three days. It shouldn't affect anyone unless all of a sudden everyone just speeds up by about 100 times, but I thought I'd let you know just in case.

[Thinlómien]

...and it's been just a wee bit short of a month, and we're halfway through! Keep up the pace guys, and the level of hilarity too.

Sally and Gal, duly noted!

[Galadriel55]

I'm back now, with no predictable lack of internet in the near future.

[Hookbill the Goomba]

Lommy! I sent you my picture the other day, did you get it?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Hookbill the Goomba

Lommy! I sent you my picture the other day, did you get it?

She probably did, given how she was just talking about sending it to Kath...

[Thinlómien]

Yep, sorry Hooksie for not confirming it rightaway! Also, folks, let's remember to keep our sentences short (there's been a couple when I thought less would've been more, but this far I haven't made anyone write a new sentence... )

[Thinlómien]

So, as it happened, your beloved Lommoddess found herself yearning for the sea - as Elves are wont to do - and ended up drawing this:



Poor Hookbill was very shocked...

It's a geological nightmare! Maglor sings on the coast while Maedhros explores the earth's molten crust. How will our heroes get out of this? Perhaps this carefully labelled diagram of the mantle will help...

...but was eventually calmed down by Kath's magnificent artistic skills:



Meanwhile, under the sea, an octopus named Nogrod came to the conclusion that

The downfall of Númenor was caused just by geological forces and had nothing to do with the flawed human nature. It was a dream that would leave its mark on Isildur.

...which didn't make any sense to Sally until she visualized it, like this:

[Thinlómien]

Legate didn't get any visionary visions out of the visualization, but rather an observation:

For once, the Arda Weather Forecast Service was perfectly correct in its predictions.

Unfortunately, he wasn't observant enough to notice Galadriel55 and her pack had torn him into shreds overNight - wait, wrong game, oops. Anyhow, here's the pattern the blood form Gal's claws formed on... a piece of paper?



The paper turned out to be invaluable evidence for solving the murder. Detective Pitchwife described it as follows:

The hobbits were sceptical whether Bombadil's plan to privatize the Shire's weather would really lead to a brighter future.

Lieutenant Greenie was not impressed. The description resulted in this angry doodle:



Fortunately for us, the lieutenant left her doodle on her desk, where the always smiling cleaner, Mr Eönwë, found it. Thoroughly impressed, he wrote in his diary that night:

Uncertain market forces seem posed to threaten Hobbiton in a big way.

Later that night, his house was burgled and his diary was taken. Just to mock him, Rune the burglar drew this next to the last diary entry:

[Thinlómien]

Unfortunately for the burglar, his roommate found the diary. Her name was Aganzir and she found the picture hilarious. She laughed so much she couldn't talk, so instead she typed this on her phone:

Sauron buries himself in good Shire soil to keep safe from his disillusioned subordinates.

The message was accidentally sent to no one else but a mighty orc warlord named Oddwen. She was so inspired that she designed this new emblem for her minions:



The rivaling warlord, Firefoot, found this a ridiculous idea. After a few flasks of Orc draught, she described her enemy's new insignia as a silly mess that looks as if

Sauron was dismayed to find that covering Mordor in soybean fields both heartened any Hobbits passing through and caused his Orcs an existential crisis.

As you might guess, this mockery had a mixed reception. In fact, even a cartoon was made, by no one else but the famous goblin cartoonist Hookbill the Gobla:



Thankfully the world is full of witty reporters. The Elvish press - with journalists like Kath - quickly described the spit between the orc factions as

Sauron, taking a break from tormenting Saruman in Orthanc, is trying to explain to Bilbo (who had come to buy some totally unsuspicious soy beans) how irritating it is when German sunbathers lay their towels down on your vegetables, while aliens find themselves on his soy only menu.

The Dwarvish press was content to just publish this paparazzi picture - taken by Nogrod Ninjabeard - to show the quality of Elvish journalists:

[Thinlómien]

It is a little known fact that the aforementioned cartoon was the inspiration for the classic Bildungsroman by Sally. The first sentence reads as follows:

Bilbo has reservations about the Sandwitch King's vegetarian options.

Also, did you know there is a rare illustrated edition of the novel? The reason why the novel is so rare is because the illustrations were... ahem... banned in most of the (un)civilized world. See Legate's artwork and you'll know why:



If you still don't know why, let this statement by Galadriel55, the spokesperson for the International Court of Censoring Everything, enlighten you:

None of the desert Nazgul notice that Bilbo uses the Ring to steal food from their personal oasis.

And now - do you know what's the problem of censorship? It breeds opposition, even revolution. One day the famous street artist Pitchwife had covered the walls of the headquarters of the ICCE with this:



The revolution spread like wildfire, until someone (later simply known as "Greenie") scribbled this on the wall in the bottom left corner of the painting that had sparked it all:

The Nazgûl did not realise that focusing on work ruins a vacation.

Even later, there were numerous paintings depicting the unsuccesful revolution. This piece by Eönwë is the one I'd hang on my wall - if it wasn't in the Guggenheim already...

[Thinlómien]

Thanks to Rune the museum curator, the tag next to the painting doesn't tell the name of the artist and the piece, but rather this cryptic riddle:

In the end, it was incompatible definitions of “a working holiday” that destroyed the otherwise beautiful friendship between The Mouth of Sauron and The Nazgûls.

Well, fortunately we have clever symbologists like Aganzir who can trace the riddle back to this ritual painting by the Illuminati:



Just kidding. The Illuminati is never involved. The riddle was simply a misquotation of the famous thought by Oddwen:

The Mouth of Sauron knew that Sauron suffered from Vala envy, but when care of a tree was given to the Nazgul and took precedence over their usual vile duties, he knew something had to be done.

Okay, that was a lie, sorry about that. The Illuminati don't like their secrets revealed. Please have this lovely get well card by Firefoot as a compensation for my lies, and for the tears of pain this round of paper telephone may have caused:



And most of all, thank you all for playing! It was a fabulous round.

[Hookbill the Goomba]

This was BRILLIANT!!! So many good moments!!

Poor Kath! I'm so sorry about that sentence.

Galadriel55's Bombadil weather forecast had me in stitches!!! Brilliant.

And Aganzir's Nazgul look so cute doing their gardening.

[A Little Green]

Soy beans? German sunbathers? WHAT DID I JUST READ?

In other words, great job guys! Kath's sentence (and Nog's interpretation of it) just about killed me, and all those gardening/holidaymaking Nazgûl were just way too cute. Also, Eonwe's Mouth of Sauron and Oddwen's disillusioned orcs! <3

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

This was amazing! Like, seriously, SO many great pictures and sentences (and the sentences were really good this time, too).

Even with regard to all the amazing artwork, though, I have one question - Pitchwife!!! Where did you learn to draw? That is just amazingly beautiful.

But seriously, thanks to everyone - this is great! And of course thanks to Lommy for organising this and bringing it to us

[Pitchwife]

Oh my ffrsgnafklörghthgwmp! That was gorgeous. Have to echo Greenie, Kath's sentence and the picture Nog made of it against fearful odds really stand out, but insanity, skill and inspiration were spread evenly across all contributions. (Lommy, your starting picture was mean but brilliant!)

Originally Posted by Leggins

Pitchwife!!! Where did you learn to draw?

Imitating comic books back in school and, in this case, stealing techniques from Seurat and van Gogh. The difference is we bought a scanner sometime ago so I don't have to do it all on the computer. Anyway, thanks for the flowers.

[Galadriel55]

Oh goodness! This round definitely had some serious creativity going on! (Sun bathing Germans? Seriously? Where the hell did that even come from?) Fabulous pictures and fantastic sentences. Kudos to all!

But, a few points I think deserve a special mention.

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

So, as it happened, your beloved Lommoddess found herself yearning for the sea - as Elves are wont to do - and ended up drawing this:

Ah! So now we finally understand the mysteries of the Earth's core!

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Unfortunately, he wasn't observant enough to notice Galadriel55 and her pack had torn him into shreds overNight - wait, wrong game, oops. Anyhow, here's the pattern the blood form Gal's claws formed on... a piece of paper?

'Twas the skin of my enemies. I am secretly a Bolton.

Oddy's picture and following it Firefoot orc existential crisis sentence are absolutely hilarious!

EEK Kath's sentence!!!

Pitch, your picture is stunning! Legate beat me to saying it, but seriously.

The whole "ruined vacation" / Mouth of Sauron theme made me laugh all the way through.

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Even with regard to all the amazing artwork, though, I have one question - Pitchwife!!! Where did you learn to draw? That is just amazingly beautiful.

I KNOW, right?

[Thinlómien]

It was a good round - I liked all the pictures and I agree that the sentences were excellent this time around. I kept telling people to keep them short and I wanted to tell Kath to make hers shorter, but it was so hilarious I just couldn't.

If I *had* to pick favourites among the picture, though, I'd probably pick Eönwë's forlorn workaholic Nazgûls and Oddwen's orcs having a massive revelation. I about died when I saw both of those for the first time.

Btw what is this thing with Nazgûls and hamburgers/sandwiches that has been going on for two games now??

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Btw what is this thing with Nazgûls and hamburgers/sandwiches that has been going on for two games now??

Hey, at least no Catalan independence movement this time around.

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Lommy

Btw what is this thing with Nazgûls and hamburgers/sandwiches that has been going on for two games now??

Why, don't you remember the old verse:

Ah snack burger-to-go, ah snack chicken-wings...

In other words, ladies and gentlemen, who's up for another one? I'll mod if need be.

[Firefoot]

I'll play again.

[Galadriel55]

Meee tooo.

[Pitchwife]

Players so far (carrying over from FB):

Firefoot
Galadriel55
Nogrod
Rune
Eönwë
Greenie
Oddwen
Legate
Rikae
Formendacil

One or two more pending confirmation.

[Formendacil]

I'm willing to get back in.

[Hookbill the Goomba]

Sign me up!

[Pitchwife]

So it looks like we now have

Firefoot
Galadriel55
Nogrod
Rune
Eönwë
Greenie
Oddwen
Legate
Rikae
Formendacil
TGEW
Hookbill
Lommy

Ok, looks like we're more or less good to go, right? I originally thought of doing doubles, in which case we'd need one more if I'm counting right. Or does anybody think it would take too long with 12 players? Also, if we do a single round, please state the nature of the medical emergency, er, no, I mean your preferences as to writing or drawing.

[Galadriel55]

I'm more in the mood for a quicker single round, but I won't object to doing doubles. And no preference.

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

If we are only doing a single round, then I will definitely prefer to write.

[Firefoot]

I have no preference for a single vs double round. If it's single I'd rather write.

[Oddwen]

I'm game for doubles or singles and have no preferences for drawing or writing.