fireplace room

The soft music that pervades the rest of this place is accomapnied by the crackling of a warm fire burning in a large fireplace carved into one wall of the room. This room is much warmer than the rest of the Villa, but not quite hot enough to be uncomfortable.

There's another archway on the wall opposite the fireplace. It is smaller and less ornate than the one at the entrance to this room. This apparently leads to a small adjoining room. You can't tell what's in that room from here.

A low shelf on the third wall of the room, directly opposite the entrance, holds a number of neat stacks of paper. Above the shelf is a small plaque labelled alt.romance and alt.romance.chat. The plaque further identifies one side of the shelf as collected poetry and the other as posted messages. Next to the shelf is a long, black object that looks like the beanbag version of a sofa.

The floor here is covered with a thick, soft, black carpet. As you enter, you realize that this carpet must be at least an inch thick. Your feet sink into it and it softly cushions your steps as though you were walking on a cloud. Then it gradually springs back as you move on.

Two green eyes suddenly appear about a foot off the floor just in front of you. A large, black shape shifts slightly against the identical black carpet. A deep rumbling sound starts to emanate from the shape. In the firelight shadows, you can barely make out the outline of a panther stretched out near the fire. The rumbling sound is apparently the panther's purring. After looking you over for a moment, the big cat's green eyes close again and it goes back to sleep.

''Tell me about 'alt.romance' and 'alt.romance.chat'.''