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Sep-5-2008 16:23

Hello fellow sleuthers! It seems to have been a while since we’ve had a contest. We here at Blue Pagoda have come up with a little one for those who have a few minutes to spare between Sleuthing, real life, and Villain Hunting.

THE PREMISE:
We would like you to choose ONE of the four candidates and write their bio for us. Their names or faces are known throughout Sleuthville, but we know so little about them. So, delve into their past and tell us what you think happened to bring them to where they are today in Sleuthville. Your choices are: Big Lucy, Shady, Larry the Toe, and the Magnifying Glass Lady who introduces the Faction twist.

THE RULES:
1. Spelling and Grammar DO count.
2. The limit is 3000 characters, which is the Bio limit for every detective. (You can see if it fits on your detective bio before you post your entry here.)
3. It must be in the time frame of Sleuth Noir, around 1920.
4. One entry per detective, writing their own entry. Proofreaders are fine. Collaborators are not.
5. Open to subbed and unsubbed

THE PRIZES:
1. First Place -" a special prize" by the Sleuth Admin or $50,000 sleuth dollars
OR
6 month subscription to unsubscribed player
2. Second Place - $25,000 sleuth dollars
OR
3 month gift subscription to unsubscribed player
3. Third Place - $10,000 sleuth dollars
OR
1 month gift subscription to unsubscriped player

DEADLINE:
October 9, 2008 at 23:99 sleuth server time.

THE JUDGES:
Will be announced after their decisions have been made. Volunteers are welcome. Please PM Lady Jas if you are interested in judging!

Sep-20-2008 22:59

Thats right Ranier, post here, but to check to make sure it is within the rules, use your bio to check first before posting here :)

Myself and the judges are looking forward to reading all the great entries!

Sep-20-2008 23:29

Got it. Thanks!!!

Oct-7-2008 09:38

I was gonna bump this, but it's already at the top! I can't believe I'm the first entry. Maybe the only? It'll be an easy job for the judges... ;)

This is for The Magnifying Glass Lady

---------------

"Guten Nacht! Ich liebe dich."

Actually, that's about all the German I know. Growing up, we never spoke it in the house. And whenever I heard that phrase I knew that we would be leaving in the morning.

Every few years we moved to a new country. When I was younger it was equal parts exotic and disruptive. As I grew older I realised that everytime we moved, mother would take the children first, and father would arrive a few weeks later. It gradually dawned that my father was running away from something. I never found out what.

When you move to a new country, you have to start everything afresh. It was a new language each time - I can speak 4 languages fluently and 3 others very well. There's also new friends to be made. I quickly learned that the best friends were the connected ones... especially if the connections were, well, shady. Then there's the new habits. Nowadays I can immediately blend in anywhere I go. Now THAT's a pretty useful skill.

The last time we moved was 8 years ago. As usual, mother took us first, and we waited for father to join us. Poor mother is still waiting. In an effort to find answers I've made myself useful to those who can help me. Organisations which are referred to in some circles as "the factions". It's not that mysterious really - just people who know people who know things. And eventually I will find someone who knows the answer. Someday.

Oct-7-2008 12:38

Now the ball is rolling, this is my entry for the Magnifying Glass Lady - a popular choice so far! It is 2517 characters including spaces but I need to split it between two posts....

Born in London during the reign of ‘The Grandmother of Europe,’ she was a beautiful bonny bundle of sunbeams. Childhood was blessed. Mother would cultivate her prize petunias, while she would amuse herself catching new specimens for her millipede collection or chasing grasshoppers. Father was a diplomat and often far away on business. She looked forward to his homecoming, when he would always have a strange and interesting gift from afar. Her favourite was a tiny green and gold set of exquisite Matryoshka dolls from Russia, each hiding a tiny secret.
At school she would rather have been enjoying the great outdoors than cooped up inside learning needlecraft or reciting prose. As she graduated to become a young lady, she became interested in the suffrage movement. She squelched her way through Mud March of 1907, keen to show her support for non-violent action. Mother and Father were not impressed.
In 1908 she married a lovely gentleman with whom she enjoyed six years of blissfully happy marriage, though a longed for child was never gifted to them.
He left in 1914 to do his duty, to serve King and Country in the Great War and he gave his life for the cause.

Oct-7-2008 12:40

ctd......
At home, she buried her terrible grief in her work for MI9, where she was employed as a clerk for the Postal Censorship service. Her bad luck did not end there as, on her daily walk from the office in 1917, she heard the hum of overhead planes. As fascinated people gathered in the street to watch, there was no fear, no hysteria. Until a shrill whistling grew in volume and the sinking realisation hit - their lethal cargo had been unloaded. A slow-motion sequence seemed to flick past her eyes, of people scattering in panic, a deafening bang and a sudden loss of consciousness.
She awoke some short period later in a hospital bed, her head tightly bound. The shrapnel had been successfully removed but her right eye could not be saved. She still awakes some nights, drenched with sweat, the whistle of the bomb and the screams of terror ringing in her ears.
She never remarried. She never met anyone who could hold a candle to him. After the war, she continued to work. For whom and doing what is a matter of some mystery, although it seems to take her on travels far and wide.
Now, I can tell you just three things for certain. One �" she is a stunningly beautiful lady. Two - she knows things, a LOT of things. Three - the sight in her remaining eye is failing and her intriguing choice of remedy has led folk to call her ‘Hand-Glass Hazel.’

Oct-7-2008 12:46

Darn, NOW I notice that grammatical slip of the fingers third line from the end!

Oct-7-2008 15:54

Great entries so far....looking forward to the rest of the participants entries ;)

Oct-8-2008 13:18

Me too!

Oct-8-2008 22:52

It'd be great to see some more entries.

Oct-9-2008 03:11

Here we go with an entry for Big Lucy:

------------------------------------------------

I’ve ‘eard it was some English guy called Shakespeare who came up with the expression, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em”. I’ve no idea who he was referring to, but, let’s face it, they could ‘ave been written for me.

Born great? No doubt about that. Both my parents were long-established in the Cabaret, but it was my aunt - Ma’s sister - who had the gift of foresight. The day after my birth, she had a vision - who knows where it came from - that one day I would ‘old the destiny of many in the palm of my ‘and. Did it come true? Well, just ask those thousands of sleuths who cough up their ‘ard-earned cash to my little go-between Larry, all for the privilege of paying me a visit. Why else would they pay if they didn’t think I could aid them on their journey?

Achieve greatness? Do you need to ask? The Cabaret may have been around for years, but it was I who turned it into what it is today. I’ve always ‘ad an ‘ead for business - I ran my own stall at the age of 8, owned it by age 10, and had taken over ‘alf a dozen by age 16. When Boots McLain, the previous owner, met ‘is untimely end when ‘e was ‘it by one of the ‘orses on the ol’ carousel, the rest of the Cabaret looked to me for guidance. It was only natural - as the richest, most successful, and, obviously, the most charismatic member of the Cabaret - who else could it be?

As for greatness being thrust upon me - well, I guess it did kind of seek me out. But I played my part in finding it and building upon it. It’s one thing to take over the leadership of a two-bit outfit; it’s quite another to turn it into what it is today - the greatest, most talked about Cabaret in - and let there be no false modesty here - yes, in the world. We’re never short of entertainers - everyone wants to be associated with Big Lucy.