Releasing the soul

Refering to the destruction of the SAA's mug in a dryer @ Suntree.

EDIT:

Actually, no one is sure about how the old mug was destroyed, but I'll share with you two competing theories historians hold:

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First, the Star Wars version...

MUGWARS Episode IV

tHiS is DeLuxX: *cue dramatic music*

Lucky8myhw: hahaha

tHiS is DeLuxX: A long time ago, in a suntree apartment far far away.

Lucky8myhw: hahaha

tHiS is DeLuxX: In a time of civil unrest and rebellion, princess Dinh has the mighty chalist of piece.

Lucky8myhw: hahahaha

tHiS is DeLuxX: But the evil lord Almira Van has boarded her ship, killing anything in her way.

Lucky8myhw: rar

tHiS is DeLuxX: In the panic, the princess secures the priceless artifact in a small droid, deemed... The washing machine.

tHiS is DeLuxX: And unsuspecting jawa, Victoria Nguyen, finds the timid little droid scurrying about and decides to have it for her own. While inserting a load of laundry and not noticing the chalist.

Lucky8myhw: HAHA omg

tHiS is DeLuxX: As soon as it hits the wash cycle, the universe was lost. But inso freeing the spirit of Frank Reed Horton in an explosion of blue spiritual dust.

tHiS is DeLuxX: *cue ending music*

tHiS is DeLuxX: TO BE CONTINUED.

Lucky8myhw: <applause>

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And now, the Lord of the Rings version of the Story of the Mug…

There is a verse long known in APhiO-lore:

   “Two Mugs for the Gamma-kings under the sky,
   Three for the Alpha-lords in their halls of stone,
   Five for Other Chapters doomed to die,
   One for IPhi’s Pres on his dark throne,
   In the Land of Davis where the Shadows lie.
   One Mug to rule them all, One Mug to find them,
   One Mug to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
   In the Land of Davis, where the Shadows lie.”

Few people, though, know the whole story behind the Mug. The beginnings lie back in the Black Years, which only the lore-masters remember now. Dave Emery, Debbie Sloan, and Beth Tom, besides founding Tight, Loose, and Close families, left our chapter with a much darker legacy. They wanted to ensure that the power of Iota Phi would last through the ages, so they secretly dug up the bodies of the Fourteen Founding Fathers. Dave affixed the souls back to the corpses, Debbie rendered the flesh into ash, and Beth ground the bones to dust. Thirteen of the Fathers were used to make ten Mugs, one for each of the other chapters in our Section. The Founder, though, we kept for our own; his soul was put into the most powerful Mug of all, and carefully hidden from all others.

As the other chapters wasted away over the years, the secret of the Mug became known, and fierce battles raged; huge armies of pledges were raised for the singular purpose of taking the Mug. Iota Phi drew upon its powers, creating a dark army larger and stronger even than the great Seven-Chapter Alliance could muster. And from IPhi’s forces, the three bravest warriors were chosen to stand as SAAs, and entrusted with the sacred task of defending the Mug against all enemies.

The other Mugs were all destroyed or lost, but our Mug endured for countless terms. Shortly after the Age of Toy, though, tragedy befell us. Victoria, twisted by agents of the Evil Chapter into a horrid creature known only as Gollum, broke into the SAAs’ Dark Tower and shattered the Mug. The enemy rejoiced, thinking they had finally won. But the SAAs would not let that stand; they painstakingly gathered every shard from the corners of Middle Earth, and when at last they had completed the Mug, journeyed to Mt. Doom and re-forged it into an even greater Mug, using the same dark magicks left behind by the Family Founders.

Some say that the soul of the Founder was freed, and will be forever lost now. But some say that on full moons, the new Mug glows with a spectral blue aura, and the lines

   “One Mug to rule them all, One Mug to find them,
   One Mug to bring them all and in the darkness bind them”

can still be read under the crest.