Queen & Crown's Arts & Sciences Championship Reaction Post

 Reaction Post to A&S Championships, 2-29-2020

The day didn't have the most auspicious beginning. It's a very large site with a working, stubbornly gated vintage elevator. I make use of it extensively any time I am at that site and I am grateful for it. 

I was on my way up to the A&S display space when another gentle joined us in the elevator. 

He was encumbered with his belongings and bent over to adjust something. This unfortunately caused me to be bashed in the center of my chest with an inkle loom. It was just above my breasts and below the hollow of my throat. Right along my transplant scar. Needless to say I completely lost it. 

I think I screamed, "Don't touch me," when, in all concern, he reached out to help me. 

I'm sorry that I freaked out whoever it was. Unfortunately I was not in a place that I could curb my reactions in regards to anyone else. I continued to sob in the elevator for a while. 

Thank goodness Broch was there to both explain to the gentleman that the accident was worse for me for a wealth of reasons, explain what was going on and be able to hold me through the worst of my reactions. Honestly he expected me to want to go home after that.  But a sense of obligation and an adrenaline rush will do wonders for getting through the day.

He had calmed me down enough that I could go to morning court. Many thanks to Wentlyanna Bengrek for sitting with me through said morning court and providing me some needed stability/hugs until I stopped shaking. I somehow managed the rest of the day. 

The long and the short of it is that I did not win. I did not even advance to the next round. I was not disappointed, I hadn’t even expected to. 

What I did get was fantastic discussions. I had 2 judges and 2 shadow judges.

-Magnús hvalmagi

-Brunissende Dragonette

-Grim the Skald      

 -Xavier the Sinister

I got to describe the scroll in detail, pointing out the parts that I loved, the parts I had, shall we say, fudged a bit, my general concept and inspiration for the scroll and my new and all abiding love for kennings. 

After the initial judging, Grim Mangus came back for further discussion. Whereupon (to my horror) I learned that I had made a very basic error in my interpretation of the Dróttkvætt metre. 

The basic metre I used was:

Only to find out that it should have been doing this: 

A - A B - - - 

 B - - - - -

 

Only to find out that it should have been doing this:

A - A - - - 

A - - - - -

I went back to my source of the metre and no, the incorrect interpretation is entirely on my head. Somehow I read it very differently (damn my eyes). I'm not even sure what or how I did to come to that conclusion. At that point I was pretty much horribly embarrassed that I had made such an error. This is for a scroll that has gone out! I can't go back and change it. Argh. EMBARRASSED. But Ever Forward. The 3 of us then went on to have a great discussion with lots of books and authors to look up later. After they left I had a bit of time left in the A&S room. I then remembered that I had brought a handful of my bat tokens! I had some great fun handing them out to a few folk. The only reason I didn't hand them out to everyone was that the A&S floor had accumulated a lot of people by that time and I couldn't get to everyone to give them a bat! Then I had the absolute best part of my day. Dutchess Caoilfhionn and her daughter were touring the A&S floor. Her daughter was putting out little tokens, on the pieces that caught her eye. Her Grace looked at my display and said, "Wait, this is for wordsmithing? This changes everything! I put so much research into the words… I could enter my words!" THIS. THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I DID THIS. I stated entering competitions to highlight an often overlooked aspect of the C&I world. There are folk out there who are putting in great amounts of research, artistry and heart into words, but because of their ephemeral nature (they are only read in court the one time), they can easily be overlooked. I really want to promote wordsmithing. Make it so other folk can show their work, so we can celebrate what we do! After that they announced the next round. I was, as expected (even more expected once I'd learned about my error) not one of the finalists. Then, because the elevator was full, I foolishly walked down 3 full flights of stairs to the basement level and food area. It was at that point I realized that I had been so busy all day that I hadn't gone to the vigils! And I had particularly wanted to go to Chiaretta Di Fiore’s! I was so happy for her. We sat through a long court with 2 rounds of Silver Crescent and 3 peerages. It was very long, but had a lot of happiness in it. I got to see many folk get well deserved awards, including the most wonderful Cassair Ni Deoraine receiving a Court Barony. I am so incredibly happy for her. As soon as court was done we changed and left. We were both starving and I was on the verge of collapse. I was having serious decision making disorder and Jeff wisely made the command decision to look for an Italian restaurant. As much as I love all the flavors of Eastern cuisine, for me, comfort food is Italian. We ate at an excellent little restaurant called Goodfellas. It had the Godfather and Goodfellas playing on screens in the restaurant. The food was delicious. I was very glad we didn't try to drive all the way home before eating. We made it home around midnight and I crashed hard. That was such an amazing time. I am so glad I did it. I already have an Idea of what piece I'm going to put into competition next. Not Norse though, I need to do some work on that!