I’ve got a very special Save-a-Word Saturday for you today, folks! For any who need a reminder of/never knew what the day usually means, here’s how it goes:
1) Create a post linking back to the hosts, The Feather and the Rose.
2) Pick an old word you want to save from extinction to feature in the post. (If you find yourself in want of options, Feather ‘n’ Rose recommended a site that may have some word-lovers drooling. Luciferous Logolepsy. Even its name is old and delicious!)
3) Provide a definition of your word, and use it in a sentence/short paragraph/mini story vaguely related to the particular week’s chosen theme.
4) Sign up properly on the host post’s linky list so participants can easily find each other and share their logophilistic joy.
5) Be a hero by sharing these retro words with the world!
I’ve been participating in the weekly fun via my “Ballad of Allyn-a-Dale” Facebook page, giving myself the extra challenge/fun of relating every word I pick to my re-imagining of the Robin Hood legend, the “Outlaws of Avalon” trilogy (a.k.a. the magnum opus to be self-published after the completion of “The Wilderhark Tales”). But I figure, hey, with my vignettes generally pre-written and ready to go, no reason I can’t post them here for the blog-inclined to see!
So, without further delay, here’s my word-saving civic duty of the day – plus an adorable treat!
The theme: Masks.
The word: “Habiliment”, a noun meaning “clothes, dress, attire, outfit”.
The Example:
“An inter-storyworld costume party!” Will Scarlet enthuses, rummaging through his chest of elaborate garments. “This is going to be great! We’ve never gotten to hang out with Danielle’s other characters in public before!”
“Well, the party itself won’t be in public,” Allyn-a-Dale points out. “And that’s assuming there’s to be any real party at all. She’s just using this scene of us talking about it to further her own ends, as authors will do.”
“Leave me my fantasy, minstrel. Blast it all,” he complains, digging deeper through the trunk. “I haven’t the faintest idea what to wear. I daren’t show up in the same habiliment as anyone else – that’s tackiness defined!”
“I doubt anyone else will come arrayed as flamboyantly as you, Will.”
Will’s eyes narrow in apprehension. “I know one of them who just might. Ho, tailor person!” he calls, pitching his voice to travel across the loose boundaries between the worlds of his author’s creation. “What are you wearing?”
From the fairytale realm of “The Stone Kingdom (Book Two of The Wilderhark Tales)”, Edgwyn Wyle enters Will Scarlet’s castle bedchamber. “To the costume party?” he says. “I was thinking of going as a pony.”
“A… pony?” Will repeats. “Well, no fear of us both showing up dressed like that. How were you planning to create the look? Some sort of mask, or…?”
“I didn’t create a thing. It was our author’s dear friend, Jeannie Stine. It seems friendship truly is magic after all,” he says, eyes sparkling with delight, “for she recreated me in My Little Pony form for #PonyFest13!”
Valiantly ignoring his distaste for hashtags, Allyn takes his cue. “#PonyFest13? Whatever might that be?”
“It’s a marvelous bit of fun, is what it is! Danielle’s other lovely friend, Alyson Grauer—”
Taking his own cue totally over the top, Will jumps in dramatically, “Contributing author to the steampunk anthology ‘Mechanized Masterpieces’? That Alyson Grauer?”
“Yes, that Alyson Grauer,” Egwyn laughs. “She told Danielle about this contest in which authors come up with custom My Little Pony designs inspired by their books or characters therein. All the details are over at the blog of the host, Rebecca Enzor, but the short of it is, everyone gets to vote on their favorite, and the author of the pony with the most votes will win – among other grand things – an artist by the name of Kalavista turning the winning design into an actual, physical, real world My Little Pony doll!”
“You don’t say! And what would you look like in My Little Pony doll form?” Allyn asks – still on script, true, but also legitimately interested.
“Minus the hat and cape, like this,” says Edgwyn, pointing to the accompanying pic. “Kalavista is a customizer of dolls, not their tailor, so the final product would come sans any habiliment,” he explains (slipping in another instance of our Save-a-Saturday word in the process!). “Under normal circumstances, I’d be appalled to go around nude, but as a pony, I think I could pull it off!”
“Well, if you aren’t just too lucky to live,” says Will, trying to keep a reign on his spike of jealousy at not being the character chosen to be pony-fied. “Go on, spill all: What’s the story behind you and your little pony self?”
“I suppose this is where I should insert the ‘short description of your pony(s), and a one sentence tag-line for the book’ as specified in the contest rules. Oh dear, but Danielle’s dreadful with single-sentence summaries.”
“How about, ‘In their search for her true love, princess and tailor will leave no stone unturned’?” Will suggests.
Edgwyn lights up. “That is actually less than dreadful! Have you lately been told you’re a mad genius?”
Will beams. “Not recently enough, no.”
“You are. Thank you. As far as my pony’s appearance, it’s all very deeply symbolic. To start with, I’m a horse, because I love horses. (*cough* And because that’s what the contest is about.) Speaking of horses I love, my pony’s coat color is a nod to my dear, demanding horse friend in ‘The Stone Kingdom’, who is likewise gray. My cutie mark is a heart because, well,” – he ducks his head and blushes – “I am apparently best known and appreciated for my loving heart. And of course there’s a needle and thread in it, because part of that love is for sewing! The dark hair and green eyes, meanwhile, are an obscure, esoteric reference to the fact that my human self has dark hair and green eyes.”
“Profound,” Allyn says, with a straight face and everything. “Your pony’s got my vote, Edgwyn, for whatever it’s worth. You’ll let the people whose votes actually count know when and where they’re able to cast them, yes?”
“Oh, we can count on Danielle to do that,” Edgwyn says with assurance. “She’s too much in love with that little pony not to.”
A subtly wicked grin tugs at Allyn’s lips. “In love with the pony, or with you?”
“And now would be a good time to have a mask…” Edgwyn mutters, dropping his burning red face into his hands.
Since he’s blushing anyway, go ahead and sound off in the comments: What do you all think of My Little Edgwyn Pony? ^^
Ever On Word 