Not much happened today.

There was this morning’s meeting with Dr. Jaynes, which I feel was a success. Until this morning, I thought, drafted, and thought some more. But I found no way to present and deliver my project with confidence by putting off networking till later. Nevertheless, I brought what I could back to Dr. Jaynes, who gave my project approval this morning.

"Your ambition is half the struggle, Maxima," he told me. "The other half is moderation."

After that came the rest of my Monday schedule, followed by continued avatar developments with Meghan Wen.

On Saturday, David Keener won the Cabotton Conservative primary election for the Headmaster position. That does not mean he is the Headmaster, but it does mean he will run against Lora Kotimer the following year.

Today, Arnold Stamp responded to such news with defiance, vowing to run as a write-in, and re-iterated a lot of his...ridiculous...promises.

We had another meeting in our common room tonight with Aledon and his Dungeonmaster re-election campaign team. The subject in the beginning was, in fact, Arnold Stamp.

It apparently all started back in June 1355, when Stamp, making a first visit to the University since he dropped out decades ago, was cited by the Campus Watch for driving his car on the vast walkways on Campus. This garnered attention from a large group of students because, understandably, there is a lack of markers and traffic signs marking which is the roadway and which is the beginning of the sidewalk; Stamp was not the first motorist to make this mistake.

But that was the beginning of Stamp's popularity. And with this momentum, he was able to capitalize on many grievances, including those made by students who felt "left behind" by the Honors Student Scholarship Program. Stamp blamed this on Kotimer's many "scholarship privilege" policies, and also affirmed how unfair the tuition increases were. Stamp has been throwing around the idea of alternative short-term business classes run by private charter schools at supposedly very affordable tuition rates.

Most alarmingly, though, Stamp has renewed his accusation against the Third Level Society, accusing its leadership of "engaging in witchcraft to uphold Kotimer's privileged regime."

In October 1355, an anonymous source filed a complaint against Stamp for disturbing the peace. The stamp was subsequently trespassed upon by Cabotton University. However, he had gained quite a following by then; his supporters united and filed a complaint with University Affairs against the University Administration to have the trespass reversed. The University Affairs Office, in January 1356, found that the trespass violated freedom of speech; thus, Stamp was allowed to return to Campus. On January 12, he returned to a large and warm welcome and, answering to numerous calls made toward him, pledged to run for the Headmaster position as a Cabotton Conservative.

Until that point, he had only a "hot-air" complaint about the Third Level Society. But the night of January 12 was the first time that he escalated this complaint to an all-out call for our Society's eviction or termination.

So the ongoing meeting turned toward a new problem: how to maintain awareness of Stamp against Monika's agenda of ignorance.

Suddenly, after a moment of silence, Bernard blurted out, "'We bridge worlds.' Just get everyone to say that. Simple as that."

"...Wait. What?" I replied.

Next came a moment of awkward silence. Then, for the first time that evening, Aledon burst out laughing.

"I do see a point, though," said Maggie, tapping her fingers lightly on the table as if testing the rhythm of the words. “It is simple. I'll give it that....And it does remind people of why the Society exists in the first place...”

Bernard glanced sideways for a moment. “Well, I didn’t want it to sound like a campaign poster,” he said. “Just…something that captures what the Society does. 'We bridge worlds.'”

Elisabeth, who had been quietly leaning against the kitchen counter beside Madison, nodded once. “It’s not really political either,” she said. “Which is probably the point. It keeps the focus on questing.”

Madison folded her arms and tilted her head. “Balanced,” she said.

“Balanced,” Aledon repeated. “Yes. That’s the word I’ve been trying to find.” He stepped toward the center of the room again and rested both hands on the table where a few comm tabs glowed with scattered data and polling projections. "So..." he continued. "Again...a rather complicated situation. We have Stamp on one hand, trying to effectively evict us or end our Society. On the other hand, we have Monika Rhodes fighting Stamp by simply ignoring him, going so far as to marginalize those of us who do not, even if we intend to inform to protect. We must contain both of these threats, which leads me to another word: incentive."

"Reminding everyone why they joined?" started Bernard. "The quests? The collaboration? The gains and diplomacy of the Arturian Multi-Verse?"

"Every facet of it," said Aledon. "And somehow instill in these people the incentive to protect these things, that they are things to be lost should Stamp have his way...and minimize the mention of Stamp, himself."

"Are you sure that this will not leave some members feeling as though you've lost awareness of Stamp?" asked Madison.

"Well," said Aledon. "First of all, I've made enough noise about him to establish a bit of what I firmly believe is a self-perpetual community of awareness. Second, there are some sources out there voicing concern about him, not just me. And third...Yes, I will probably alienate some of my base; that's inevitable, but I feel the loss there will be minimal."

Madison glanced around the room. "Well, I guess I rest my case there," she said reluctantly.

"We could try avatar 'moments of recognition,'" suggested Maggie. "A bit of honors given to those having made the biggest wins, gains, strides..."

"Definitely a confidence-builder for those newcomers," I ventured. "I feel that the veterans might not take so much to it, but the momentum generated by pride and confidence in the freshmen, it being directed toward our support, could go a long way to helping us in the next few days."

"Oh wow," mentioned Elisabeth. "I didn't realize how close it was...the Dungeonmaster election, I mean."

"Yep," said Aledon with a chuckle. "Sneaks up on you, doesn’t it?"

For a moment, the room grew quiet with a lull in the conversation. Outside the dormitory window, the faint whir of a passing gyroplane drifted through the night air. I looked around at our gathering — and it struck me how strange it was that something as wondrous as the Arturian Realm could become entangled in something as ordinary as politics.

My thoughts: I have come to realize that the survival of the Third Level Society may very well depend on the outcome of this coming Saturday.