Oswestry Tales 2: The Jester's Tale

[Martin Milner]

Dawn breaks at Oswestry castle - Jeremy the Jester is fast asleep, but Splotch his trusty dog wakes him with a howl. There's a busy day ahead.


First, Jeremy practises his juggling, watched by Mary, Thelma and Louise as they do the laundry.
Thelma has a mad look in her eye however, and Jeremy moves on.


"Look my Lord, see the man in the mirror? He has a red nose!"
"I know, Jeremy, I'm still recovering from the clothes peg incident. Now push along, there's a good fellow"


Jeremy entertains the castle children with his slap-stick.
"That's all well and good, Jeremy" says Steven, Sir Percival's son, "But you're scaring the pony."
Jeremy moves on.


Lunchtime, and Jeremy serves the Carter, Scribe, Tax Collector and Woodsman with beer from the castle's cellar. But after he's filled their tankards, there's no more beer left for him, the greedy guzzlers.


The Falconer needs a little help with his charges, but Jeremy hasn't quite got the idea. He want them to dance like Splotch, and they're not very good at that.


Offering to help the Herald clean out the stables, Jeremy is once again rebuffed.
"I don't like to blow my own trumpet, Jeremy, but I finished cleaning them this morning!"


Jeremy tries to drum up some amusement from the Justicier and Priest with his balancing skills, but they're too busy planning their next "job" to be impressed.


The blacksmith doesn't need any help - he's almost finished sharpening Sir Percival's sword.
"Unless you'd like to help me test the new edge?" he offers gruffly.


Feeling a little sad, because everybody seems too busy to be amused by his tricks and jokes, Jeremy takes his lute to the top of a quiet tower, and starts to play and sing quietly to himself.


As evening falls, a strange stillness ensues, and everybody stops what they were doing and listens to the beautful music that wafts over the castle.

[Gepetto]

Thank you Martin for such a nice story and I must say you have a wonderful sense of composition. Your scenes are so nicely staged and again your attention to details really 'fills' out the storyline.

I do have a question though, in the scene where Jeremy is entertaining the children I see in the background a bookcase with plastic containers, is this how you store your Playmobil? I am always curious how other people store and sort their items and if they put together stories like you, do they keep them like a film company would keep props?


Gepetto

[playmofire]

Thanks for the story, Martin.   You have a great talent for a tale and a good eye for presenting it, overall and in detail; you should have been a minstrel.

I'm very impressed, too, by the range of your mediaeval klickies and the System-X castle.  The more I look at it in the catalogue, the more it impresses me, especially with the extension sets added.

Have you thought of buying two castles and the extension sets and combining them?

[Martin Milner]

I do have a question though, in the scene where Jeremy is entertaining the children I see in the background a bookcase with plastic containers, is this how you store your Playmobil? I am always curious how other people store and sort their items and if they put together stories like you, do they keep them like a film company would keep props?


Gepetto

Yes, those "Really Useful Boxes" are filled with Playmobil. The shelves so far contain 30 3-litre boxes, each for a theme (pirates, western, rescue, Native Americans, Romans etc) and the spare space at the ends contain 1.6 Litre and and 0.7 litre boxes for smaller parts like tools, hats, weapons etc. Right on the open top shelf are a Roman, Viking and Pirate ship. There's space for another eight or ten yet on the lower shelves.

Ideally each "theme" box contains just the klickies for that theme and their personal items, and items which fit across themes like food pieces and tables are stores in their own boxes.

I need to re-sort my boxes though as a few have got duplicated, and not all the boxes are in use right now. As I'm limited on layout space I have to have most of my stuff stored, and this week I'm having to put almost all my loose collection up into the attic to clear my study to make a spare bedroom again. I'm slightly suprised to learn how many unopened or partially opened Playmobil sets I have...

In May after our guest has left I'll be taking things down bit by bit and re-organising my storage ideas for bigger items like vehicles and ships.

The only buildings I have (so far) are castles and western, and they've gone into bin liners bags temporarily.

Have you thought of buying two castles and the extension sets and combining them?

Oswestry is already the combination of several castles, but no extension kits, as I didn't consider the extensions for the Empire castle to be good value. I've got one Empire Castle, and three Eagle Castles (they were going cheap). Oswestry is the combination of parts from all these, but with only one main gate. I played around with the design for a couple of weeks, and decided that I'd make it as big as possible on the table available for a permanent layout, with a big internal courtyard.

I've still got lots of leftover parts. I could have done it cheaper by ordering wall sections on DS, but didn't know what sections I needed until I'd assembled it on  the table. This is where the 3-D design engine would have really helped.

[playmofire]

Thanks, Martin.  I was just wondering how possible it would be to produce an extended castle with two large courtyards.

[Sylvia]

Lovely story!

I feel quite sad for Jeremy as he tried so hard to 'help' everyone and kept getting rejected.
 
His retreat to the lonely tower reminded me of how some modern day comedians (especially those in the public eye) have been known to battle depression while trying to put on a happy face to the outside world. A jester's job is not as easy as it looks.

The reference to the nose pegs was clever and helped to maintain continuity between the stories. Very skillful storytelling, as Gordon already noted.

I'm now going back to read the earlier Oswestry tale again.

[Richard]

Loved it, Martin ... 

And, I found Sylvia's comments rather interesting and even insightful:

Lovely story!

I feel quite sad for Jeremy as he tried so hard to 'help' everyone and kept getting rejected.
 
His retreat to the lonely tower reminded me of how some modern day comedians (especially those in the public eye) have been known to battle depression while trying to put on a happy face to the outside world. A jester's job is not as easy as it looks.

In fact, this line, from Sylvia, might serve well as the title of this delightful story, "A jester's job is not as easy as it looks."

Hmmm ... I wonder if there's a bit of the jester in all of us ... 

All the best,
Richard

[Tiermann]

Another wonderful story, thanks for posting it.

[Timotheos]

All right, Martin, I'm calling you on it--

Martin stories aren't supposed to end with the New York crowd gushing about how uplifted they feel.

Martin stories follow a faux-serious path, then end with a funny punchline. 

You have to fight back.  Don't let the gang turn you Molly.  If you have to, go to a pub.  Stay out too late.  Come home to your grandmother-in-law's dirty stare and cut a huge belch before passing out on the couch.

We have to fight the prancing sweetness before it's just me, Richard, and Rasputin left to defend the honor of jaded humor.

Before you know it, we'll all be making haiku playmobil photostories and sobbing to each other about how it touched our souls.  We'll become a bunch of Hadrians weeping over lost Antinous (who we likely threw overboard in the first place).  A bunch of Heian-era bureaucrat-poets chasing a coy Prince Genji.

I'VE ATTENDED A MASTERS OF FINE ARTS PROGRAM IN CREATIVE WRITING.  YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE WHERE THIS SORT OF "MEANINGFULNESS" ENDS UP.  EPIPHANIES.  AGONIZING OVER LIFE'S MOST MINUTE TRIFLES.  PERPETUAL DISCONTENT AND NAVEL GAZING.

Or, worse, you'll end up like Peyo's smurf comics... 

Maple syrup.

It's an illusion, Martin.     

-Tim

[Richard]

Hello, Timmy ... 

Martin stories aren't supposed to end with the New York crowd gushing about how uplifted they feel.

You are absolutely correct, Timmy ... 

But, no need to worry ... In fact, tighten the cap on your maple syrup bottle! ...

Read the captions under each and every one of Martin's scenes!
Martin's jester has alienated everyone in the castle!

Then re-read the last caption, "As evening falls, a strange stillness ensues, and everybody stops what they were doing and listens to the "beautful" music that wafts over the castle."

First of all "... a strange stillness ensues ..."  Is this a clue?

Next, "... everybody stops what they were doing ... " Why? And, why is everyone looking in the same direction that the jester's looking?

Finally, why did Martin misspell "beautiful" ... Is this also a clue?
(pronounce "beau" and add a "t" and you have "boat" ...)

Is Martin telling us that everyone is listening to a "boat-full" ...

A boat-full of "music?" What "music?" Is the "music" singing, drums, pipes, bugles, or what?

Seems like we all need to be prepared for something ominous to happen next!

All the best,
Richard