[Ansteorra] Please share your favorite memory of getting Largess

[Quill]

 My first event, my first Bardic, my first largess... a lot of firsts all
rolled into one, and I prefer to tell the story (and its embellishments) in
person, and though it often tends to get long winded I think I manage to
convey the intensity of the moment. But let's see if I can't condense it a
bit for the sake of bandwidth...

I was at Namron's Beltane, a wide-eyed (and wet behind the ears, although
that /could/ have been due to the rain...) newcomer who didn't know what he
was getting into. No one had really explained what was going on, all they
said was "ooh, come to Beltane, we have a Bardic competition, you'll fit
right in!" So I came... like a lamb to the slaughter. (Okay, no, not quite.)
When I realized just how out of my depth I was I frantically searched for
someone who could explain what I was supposed to be doing, and was
eventually directed to a one Finnacan Dubh...  [cue ominous music]

After getting over my mortal fear of going too close to the Baronial
pavilion lest I find my head removed (I had Peer fear like you couldn't
imagine, made worse by the fact that I wasn't sure who was and wasn't to be
feared!) I got some of my questions answered, enough to be fairly confident
when evening fell.

And so it went. Night came, and with it a giant bonfire and the competition.
When it was my turn I felt incredibly at ease, as if this were where I was
meant to be. When I finished I went to sit down again, but a voice called me
back in front of the fire. And there was this guy coming towards me, tugging
at his shoulder. He spoke, words I'll never forget, and handed me his cloak
pin. And the rest, as they say, is history.

It's probably not much to look at, to anyone not in the know; a simple piece
of brass in an unclosed circle with a ruddy great pointy bit in the middle.
But he once offered to trade it out for something more impressive, and I
refused. I probably took it a lot more seriously than he intended; on that
night I swore if I wasn't living up to what he spoke over me within a year I
would seek him out and return it, or at least pass it on to someone more
worthy. I still have it today, and wear it often (I used to take it school,
but decided I didn't want it stolen), and instead of returning it I asked
the now Master Finnacan to apprentice me...

--

In Service to The Dream and Dreamers all,
Cuillioc /|\ "Quill"
Titled Bard of the Barony of Bonwicke

"It is said that the Devil never crossed the Tamar into Cornwall on account
of the well-known habit of Cornish women of putting everything into a pasty,
and that he was not sufficiently courageous to risk such a fate!"

-From the cookbook _Cornish Recipes Ancient and Modern_