Greetings, it is a pleasure to meet everybody.

[Clarine]

On 6/18/2017 at 10:04 PM, Hattusili I said:

Greetings, my lady, and I bid you welcome. It is not often that our humble forest is enriched with one of your most refined stature. I truly hope that the time you spend here you shall find very delightful. 

Since you have expressed concern over not having much to contribute, I would like to advise you, if I may be so bold, pray do not fret over it. Proper discussions are oftentimes better watched from afar; please do not feel obliged to comment if you feel you lack anything meaningful to add. Indeed do I find myself reading and following discussions far more often than actively participating in them - a way of acting that the denizens of this forest commonly refer to, in their vulgar yet to me delightful terms, as "lurking." I assure you: there are many that act in this fashion, and there is no shame to it in the slightest.

Now I must tell you, please enjoy your stay in our humble forest. Do not despair over your lack of friends and acquaintances, for methinks you will find that our forest is full of friendly people. If you prefer to seek connection with those of your rank rather than with commoners, then the Great King of Hatti hereby opens his arms to you as a token of amicability, as he does to all; for My Sun holds kindness in high regard, and considers it a vital element in the justice he ever continues to strive for. The doors of the court at Hattusa are always open to those who are on good terms with My Sun; be they relatives, friends or strangers.

Oh my, how flattering! But please, I must insist, you need not be behooved to converse formally for my sake! After all, a lady must know just whom they may be discussing with and thus I must confess; I have underwent a most brief research session regarding your ordinary posts. But I must say, you truly are a rare sight, for many tend to except the usage of punctuation such as colons regarding online communication! Truly, I simply must admire your abilities! In fact, I tend to except such punctuation as I was continuously ridiculed by those of common birth for being dreadfully "pompous". I ought to reintroduce such into my habits once more, for I simply wish not to hold such sentiments any longer. Perhaps this may be uncalled for: I do believe your variation of a "dash" happens to be a hyphen which from what I have known to be terribly erroneous in this context. Do forgive me if such is naught but a mere error.

You may not truly be a king, though it is simply imperative I thank you for your most splendid amount of effort you placed into welcoming me into your ever so curious community. Of course, if you wish to converse with me, you need not fret over a formal appearance, for one ought to treat all equally, no? You have my gratitude, Hattusili. Perhaps I may consider such an act of "lurking"; such may prove to be far more ideal.

But I simply must confess, I wish not to oblige anyone to deviate from their personality to merely converse with me. I apologise if my words offend.

[Julius Nepos]

On 2017-6-20 at 11:57 PM, Clarine said:

Oh my, how flattering! But please, I must insist, you need not be behooved to converse formally for my sake! After all, a lady must know just whom they may be discussing with and thus I must confess; I have underwent a most brief research session regarding your ordinary posts. But I must say, you truly are a rare sight, for many tend to except the usage of punctuation such as colons regarding online communication! Truly, I simply must admire your abilities! In fact, I tend to except such punctuation as I was continuously ridiculed by those of common birth for being dreadfully "pompous". I ought to reintroduce such into my habits once more, for I simply wish not to hold such sentiments any longer. Perhaps this may be uncalled for: I do believe your variation of a "dash" happens to be a hyphen which from what I have known to be terribly erroneous in this context. Do forgive me if such is naught but a mere error.

You may not truly be a king, though it is simply imperative I thank you for your most splendid amount of effort you placed into welcoming me into your ever so curious community. Of course, if you wish to converse with me, you need not fret over a formal appearance, for one ought to treat all equally, no? You have my gratitude, Hattusili. Perhaps I may consider such an act of "lurking"; such may prove to be far more ideal.

But I simply must confess, I wish not to oblige anyone to deviate from their personality to merely converse with me. I apologise if my words offend.

Worry not, milady, for your words do not offend, nor do I feel the need to "deviate from my personality" simply to converse with you. It's true that I usually take to a less formal manner of speech (and that I took extra care to speak formally in my first post in this thread), but I do take much pleasure in talking formally, so I thought I'd take this opportunity now that it presented itself. My manner of speech comes not from a desire to speak formally, but more from a love for language: I wish to use everything that language has to offer and as such, I sometimes find myself talking more informally, sometimes more formally; but it is often a mix of the two, and depends on the context in which I am speaking and the person or people I am speaking with. This (and perfectionism) is also the reason why I always use punctuation, for it is an integral part of language; a sentence wouldn't be "right" if the wrong punctuation were used or if the right punctuation were omitted. But I have to say, I have never been ridiculed for the way I speak or write (except that one time I made a sentence that was like 20 lines long)! Certainly using proper punctuation is not something to be ridiculed for, and it pains me to know that you have been ridiculed for it. But I'm glad that you have determined not to let that deter you from using proper punctuation anymore! As for your remark, you are correct: this context requires a dash and a hyphen is indeed wrong here; however, I don't think it's possible (or at least, easily possible) to write a dash on this forum software, so I have to settle for using a hypen instead.

No thanks are needed, kind lady, for it was my pleasure to welcome you. Your formal appearance is no reason for me to fret; rather, I find it a nice change of pace in these forums.