Saturday, August 27, 2011

Vacation Post!

As promised. I actually didn't spend a whole lot of time on the computer during our vacation, since we were with family and, you know, beach and stuffs, but I did try to keep up with Lark's Firelands dailies. Her raid group got Rhyolith down, which I missed out on cause of lousy laptop (which actually behaved way better than I had expected, but not so much that I'd trust it in a raid), but we got him down again last raid night, too, so that wasn't too bad. We have got Shannox down, in fact this past raid we 1-shot him.

Last Sunday night I had a treat when I got home from work- my first ever Rose Ball. Pitch and Lark got to dress up and hang with folks, and they even had a pet show (Lark wanted to enter, but Komah "politely" refused >.>). And at the end of the night they had fireworks...


There was also the small matter of Fells dinging 85 right before they set off the fireworks. We all waited for Deathwing to come torch us all, but he was apparently busy.

I picked up a couple new friends as well. Booggah just wasn't clicking with his mastiff, and I couldn't even think of a name for the poor thing, so we did a little switcheroo. Boo has a new dog now, and I was amazed at how much this little guy just clicked. Boo loves him.


The other new guy belongs to Lark. I had been scouting Sholazar Basin off and on for a few weeks now, hoping she'd run into this guy since he's the only devilsaur she's shown any interest in. I had no luck, however, until just a few days ago. And to try and shorten things up a bit, she's also showing off her other latest achievement.

I had trouble thinking of a name for her dino, but I think Arcus is sticking. She's got a rename scroll just in case, though. And the hippogryph made mount #10 for her, so she had a bonus achievement!

That's about it as far as getting stuff done. My brain's been taken up mostly with Rheugan RP lately, so no new stories besides his right now. Turron is less than a bar and a half from 85 himself, if I can only make myself knuckle down and finish it off. As much fun as I have playing my warrior, it's really frustrating how slow leveling him has gone. And then I'll get to start gearing him up....

Rillian is still coming along gear-wise, and ICly he's disappeared for the moment; he'll have to pop up sometime soon so Lark can yell at him for making her worry. Rheugan is 72 now and will be making his way ICly across Northrend. I am getting really excited about his storyline- it's been ages since I've been able to actually stick with a story long enough to get it all down, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for him. Quae and Alanon are waiting patiently for their turns at leveling, and I've been playing my baby warlock Rhiany a bit too, so I should have no trouble keeping busy.

And now I ought to go sleep. Til next time, Happy Hunting!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Rheugan: Journey to Northrend

The ship’s bell clanged in the early morning air, sounding the last call for boarders. Rheugan picked up the travelsack containing all his worldly possessions- a couple changes of clothing and a few books Shaur had given him- then took one last look back at the city he had called home for the past months.

A flash of movement caught his eye, and he squinted up at the ledge above. He could just barely make out the two big birds sitting there, and he grinned as he waved up at them. They both stirred, growing larger, then Pitch stood and waved back, followed shortly by Shaur.

The ship’s crewmen began shouting to each other as they prepared to cast off. Rheugan quickly hopped aboard as they started hauling in the lines that had held it to the dock, and in short order they were under sail. Rheugan found a spot where he could see the ocean ahead and stood still, watching the land slide past.

He had expected to feel nervous, even afraid, and he wondered that he didn’t. All he felt was excitement. At last, he was finally doing something.

* * * * * *

Before too long the rocking of the boat was reminding him unpleasantly of his journey from Gilneas to Teldrassil, complete with the mild seasickness. Not sick enough to be hanging from the rail, he spent most of the trip huddled in his bunk in the cabin.

Once the ship was docked at Valiance Keep, he made his way off the ship and the docks under his own power, then found the inn by (literally) stumbling into the sign outside. He went in and took a room, then carried his things up and collapsed onto the bed, intending to rest just for a bit before seeing if they had any food his still-unsettled stomach could tolerate.

* * * * * *

Everything was chaos. The worgen came from the neighboring rooftops and flung themselves at Rheugan and his companions in waves. He could hear Crowley shouting behind him, but couldn’t make out the words. The small part of his brain that still held rational thought told him that the worgen were starting to pull back, that they had beaten them. Then came the sudden shock of teeth, tearing into his arm.

Rheugan woke with a start. The dream faded, and he sat up shivering, looking around the sparsely-furnished room. Dawn was just starting to change night’s blackness to gray, but Rheugan knew he would get no more sleep tonight. He fumbled in the darkness toward the door, then downstairs. Maybe if he was lucky there’d be something for breakfast already.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Rheugan: Moonglade

Vacation post is still inc, sorry- I promise I'll write something up soon. I do have a couple new pets to show off so it will be done. Meanwhile, have some Rheugan story-development.

Poor Rheu has finally been "talking" to me a bit, and I'm pretty sure we've agreed on how to fix him up. This will take a while, but I will be posting this in installments as it happens in-game. This is the start of it all.

Shaurria convinced Rheugan to go with her to Moonglade and visit her "friend", but it didn't turn out how anyone would have guessed.

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Moonglade was.... peaceful. Rheugan blinked the haze left from the teleport spell out of his eyes, then noticed Shaurria trotting off already and hurried to catch up. She gave him a kitty-grin, then led him off past the Barrow-Dens. They passed through without incident, though the first time Rheugan spotted one of the guards it startled him. He let Shaur go on ahead as they rounded a particularly giant tree, pausing to take in the clearing and its occupant.

Shaurria trotted up to the huge cat spirit with a happy mrow, rubbing up against it like an over-sized housecat, then flopping down a few paces away to roll in the grass. The spirit watched her for a moment, then turned to face Rheugan as he approached.

What do you want here? Rheugan stopped, surprised as much by the voice sounding in his head as by the challenge in the Cat’s voice and stance. “P- parrdon?” he stammered, not sure if he’d understood the spirit. You heard me right, it replied. Tell me why I should waste my time with you.

Rheugan blinked, belatedly realizing that his own cat had gone very, very quiet. “I-.. I don’t understa-” he started, but the Cat interrupted him. Your cat, it said with thinly veiled impatience. It doesn’t listen to you, does it? Has it ever occurred to you to wonder why? Rheugan blinked again as the Cat went on without giving him a chance to answer. And why should it? What have you done to earn its cooperation, human? You have been stumbling like a cub first learning to walk, convinced it can outrun its elders.

Rheugan could think of nothing to say, and just stood there, stunned. He looked helplessly at Shaurria, who was now standing and watching them, looking almost as stunned as he felt. She took a step toward them with a questioning mew, but stopped as the Cat’s head turned to face her. Rheugan got a sense of words passing between them, and she sank down on her belly in the grass, mewling quietly in distress.

The Cat turned back to Rheugan. You need to work with your cat, it said. Go. Come back when you can call yourself a druid. With that it turned its back to him, moving off lazily across the clearing.

Shaurria stood and came over to him, unshifting to kneel at his side. “Wh- what was that about?” she whispered. Rheugan just shook his head, then without a word he turned, ducking away from her outstretched hand, and trotted back along the path.

* * * * * *

Shaur found him in his usual spot by the lake the following day. She said nothing as she sat down nearby, watching as he skipped a rock across the water. “My cat is ignoring me,” he finally said with a touch of incredulity. “It’s like it’s not even there. Pitch isn’t sure about what to do, either.”

She just watched him, her expression unreadable. “D’ you know what you’re gonna do yet?” He shrugged as he picked up another rock. “I have to find out what it wants, I suppose, and see if I can’t get it to work with me again,” he answered after a moment. “Although how I’ll do that...” He shrugged again.

The rock followed its fellow across the lake surface, disappearing after five skips. Rheugan glanced at Shaur, not quite meeting her eyes. “I may need to go away for awhile,” he said reluctantly. “I.. I think I need to be away from people for this.”

She gave him a small, sad smile. “I know.” She watched him fumble through the grass for a bit, looking for another rock. “D’ you know where you’ll go?”

Rheugan gave up his search for a stone and settled his hands in his lap. “Pitch suggested either Outland or Northrend. Both places are rather sparsely populated now, and both have plenty of things to fight. I’m leaning toward Northrend.” He stared fixedly across the lake, carefully avoiding looking at her. “If... if the worst happens, I’d rather be in Azeroth, not some Light-forsaken other world.”

Shaur’s expression quickly turned stern, and she leaned over to lightly rap his head with her knuckles. “Yer not gonna die out there,” she told him firmly. “Quit thinkin’ like that.”

He eyed her in bemusement. “I don’t intend to,” he said quietly. “I plan on coming back here as soon as I can. I just don’t know how long it will take.”

Neither said anything after that for several minutes. They watched a small group come through the portal from Tol Barad, apparently celebrating some victory there over the Horde, but the fuss soon died down as the group made their way into the city proper.

Shaurria broke the silence after they left. “We should go fishin’ before y’go.” Rheugan looked over at her with a small grin, one eyebrow raised. He chuckled, and after a moment she joined in.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Back from vacation

So yea, been on vacation with the family for the past week. Guess I should have mentioned that. >.>

Didn't spend a lot of time on the computer (cause, you know, beach!) but I did get some stuff done. Unfortunately I'm also back to work, so it'll have to wait til later.

For now, ciao!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Art Catchup!

Been doodling a lot and got some sketches done, then I finally inked and colored a few of them. First up is my new worgen death knight on Silver Hand- this is how I picture him if he was a real wolf (yes, complete with worgen fangs and DK glowy eyes :P).



Pitch and Lark have a house of their own now, and one of their favorite things to do is sit on their "porch" and people-watch. So, naturally, I did a picture of them.



The backgrounds for both of those are in-game screenshots I took, cause I hate doing backgrounds. I think they turned out pretty darn good.


This next one has a very short fic to go along with it- and both picture and fic are a bit more... adult? than I really wanted to post here. So, you can see them over on my other blog here.

Did a couple more horses too. These are new characters- meet Eadamus...


His right eye is clouded over because he's blind on that side, in case you're wondering.


And Daethrys...



Daethrys is as hot-blooded as the thoroughbred he's based on. Eadamus (pronounce it "Ay-dahm-us") is much calmer, but he's also a bit touched in the head. Comes with being a seer, I think. >.>

I still have a couple sketches I will be finishing, just not sure when yet.

Still tinkering around in WoW and stuff. Leveled a couple of my Rift toons as well, though I'm not sure anymore what I'm doing with them. I've leveled Quae and Alanon to 81, might go ahead and finish up with one of them, since Turron is having issues right now. I have a story idea for Rheugan, but haven't been able to make myself sit and write it out yet. Hopefully that'll get done soonish, before I forget it all.

And that's about all I can think of. Til next time, Happy Hunting!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Tuah

It kinda surprises me at times how much I love this silly tiger. Lark has formed a really strong bond with him as well, and I'm so glad now I made him an IC pet. Tuah is usually a quiet boy, so it feels sometimes like he doesn't have much personality, but that's far from the truth. This little snippet hopefully shows off some of his... more "entertaining" side. >.>
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Lark hated to admit it, but she had lost track of how many pets she had had over the centuries. From the scruffy lioness that had first claimed a piece of her life, to her current companions... it had likely been hundreds. That lioness had been the first Tuah, and the name had passed down from one pet to the next, occasionally skipping an animal as another name asserted itself, but always returning before too long. Lark was the first to admit she had no head for names; this way was the easiest, so she stuck with it.

She had found that whichever pet carried the name was usually the one she formed the strongest bond with, especially the few times she had more than one pet at a time. Even when her current Tuah had been found after her other pets. She worried over it sometimes, but Komah assured her that he and Quiloe didn't care. I am here to repay the kindness you showed my mate, the spirit-cat told her after she'd asked him about it yet again. That doesn't mean you need to coddle me every minute. I am content, and so is the wolf. Wolves are pack animals, after all; she doesn't mind sharing.

Right now, however, Lark was feeling less than charitable toward the most recent object of her affections. She surveyed the mess that had been the living room of their new house with dismay. Pet bedding had been thrown or dragged everywhere, and the leather cushions she and Pitch had bought until they could get real chairs were scattered throughout the chaos. Two of them had been chewed to ruins, and the culprit himself was sprawled on his belly in the midst of the stuffing, a couple down feathers festooning his ruff. Komah and Quiloe had wisely left the scene, after Komah had all too happily informed her who was to blame; they were probably waiting upstairs for the storm to blow over.

"You want to tell me why you did this?" Tuah blinked at her sleepily, but otherwise didn't even twitch. "You get plenty of attention, there was no reason for this. You ought to know better. And when Pitch sees this mess, he's going to want to tan your stripey hide." Lark sighed, running a hand through her hair in exasperation. "Nether, who am I kidding? You're too big to whip, and you know it, too." Tuah just rolled to his side with a rumble, his massive front paws gently kneading at nothing, eyes almost closed. The tiny knot of feelings in her head, which comprised her bond with the tiger, was full of nothing but lazy contentment. Lark felt a grin tugging at her mouth, but firmly held it in. "You can forget the next pub night, you know. You may be too big to switch, I'll admit that, but I can darn well set Komah to watch you. See if you can get into any trouble then." No response for that. Lark shook her head, then stared at her pet incredulously as a sudden thought struck.

"You...big brat! You know you can get away with it, don't you?" Tuah rolled onto his back with a loud groan. With his head upside-down and his ears squashed to the floor, he blinked at her again. It was hard to tell with that strange glow, but behind it Lark swore she saw a twinkle in his eye.

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(I had to add that picture, just for a visual reference. XD)