we'd begin to take hold of each other, then fall apart again

"Our expectation is that we won't be sold down the river by Linden Labs."

Let's see if that works.

Joss Whedon doesn't suck. Well, he is a fickle and revengeful god, but he writes great women. And people are pretty sure that's enough to watch him, support his series concepts, and toss him money for movies and advertising (as opposed to Stephen Baldwin, who apparently thinks he's Job now.) (Also mentioned in that vid: RestoreJossWhedonandhissmokinghotasskickingchicks.org. Yes, it exists--as a redirect for the man who made the parody video.)

I am highly amused.

[Guild] [Gilder]: Is everyone in Dust Devil Canyon a drunk?
[Guild] [Avadon]: yes!

Not to really press the point of the last post into the ground, but we spent most of the time in Runes tonight running from drunken sot to shamefaced inebriate, gaining experience. I'm not kidding. Interspersed with trips back to the Obsidian Stronghold to help the lilac-haired Sabelia break up with the whiny jerk Tiwo Saba--which did, amusingly, involve beating the crap out of him, which at that point, both of us were sooo willing to do.

It starts like this: we had to finish up beating the crap out of Shitalu's (worst name in the game, I swear) tribemates to lift their shamanic Magic Books to bring back to him, whereupon it turns out, he's thinking it might be a bad idea to sell them to Mihan, back in the city, who stole all his tribal designs before!

Could he actually be gaining wisdom and intelligence? Somehow I doubt it, but, since we still have one outstanding quest from him, we'll find out later.

Then on the way back to Obsidian, we finish up the killing of translucent withered souls to harvest their crystalline tears, and bring them back to Darhill Chisholm to make into a necklace to represent "hope" to Sabelia. Yes, really.



Actually, if you click through to the large image, there's a couple annoying points I want to bring up. First, the orange spam in the chat window on the bottom lower left. This chat window cannot be resized, btw. You can't make it smaller, narrower, or leave entirely; no, it's just an annoyance currently spouting instance resets every second and a half. Why second and a half? Because the game throttles chat as a way to reduce the amount of times spammers can shout things in chat!

Yes, really.

Next up, this is likely only a problem for me, but on the right is page one of my backpack. Now, I harvest, and since my bank box is full of runes, mostly, I don't have a lot of excess space, which I realize is mostly my fault, but even so--what you have there is, in order from the top upper left corner:

* My Sigil of the Lucky Red Frog, gained the day Runes celebrated their year anniversary. It spawns a lucky frog once a day for two hours, to help up the drop rate of nifty things;
* 3 Amulets of Light that are supposed to help with Supreme Resurrections (haven't tried one yet, because apparently it's one Supreme Res + one Amulet, and I only have 3);
* a Soul Binding Crystal that controls Squirming Corpses (yes, I'm serious) in the Guards' Corridor (that I don't know if I should keep or not)

Next row:

* Black Ancestral Spirit Herbs that heal health (440 hp immediately, then 44 every 2 seconds for 30 seconds);
* Red Military Regeneration Formula that heals health (400 hp immediately, then 40 every 2 seconds for 30 seconds);
* Pink Potent Regeneration Formula that heal health (360 hp immediately, then 36 every 2 seconds for 30 seconds)

Next row:

* Bright green Elemental Spirit Stones that heal mana, or magical ability (420 hp immediately, then 42 every 2 seconds for 30 seconds);
* Blue Refined Crystal Mana Medicine that also heals mana (380 hp immediately, then 38 every 2 seconds for 30 seconds);
* Aqua jars of Mana Source that increase my maximum capacity for mana points by 10% for 180 seconds

Next row:

* Fish Egg sandwiches (shudder) that up my magical attack abilities (480 points for 900 seconds);
* Cheese Fishcakes (more shudders) that up my magical attack abilities (1200 points for 900 seconds);
* Seaworm Salad that ups my critical magical hit rate (72 points for 900 seconds)

Next row:

* Green softcake (I swear, it looks like green tea manju) that prevents 4 seconds of damage from ever hitting me;
* Mushroom Pie (which increases my magical defense by 1560% for 900 seconds);
* Phirius Special Water - Type A (restores 20% of health and mana when used)

That's thirteen different ways to keep me alive (discounting the Squirming Corpse controller and the frog sign), not counting the ways I have on my spell bar to keep myself or any teammates healed and intact.

Why so many, though? Two reasons.

Reason One: When you play priest or mage class (I'm assuming the same thing happens with druid or warden classes for the elves, though I don't have a high-level elven character), you are restricted to cloth armor. All armor gets damaged in battle, but if you have cloth armor...trust me, everything tears through it. The only worse armor repair costs are full plate, and the cost to keep full plate in trim is...honestly, just sign your life over to Frogster now and keep throwing diamonds at them. It's easier.

Reason Two: We just (like, a week back just) cleared level 45. And a lot of those various potions were to make up the point deficiencies because we couldn't buy potions for level 45; we've been having to fill in for lesser values and hope like hell we can stay alive (and in some places, we die anyway). Hells, most of these I've been carrying since level 36!

[Zone] [Sindan]: I like how Oak Walker's attack is called a 'precise stab' when actually they just take their staff and whack the heck out of things.

Anyway. Enough about Runes. Well, at least until the next entry.

The most priceless paragraph (this week):

According to T Linden, BDSM isn't a SUB-culture, it's a culture, up there with art and architecture. And I'll leave the parsing of the word SUB to those who study deviant strategies and death as a temporary state.

The entire article is worth reading, though the links lead to some very dry reports indeed. (I'm not kidding: this from the synopsis of Professor Bardzell's paper: "Using visual analysis and social semiotics, I describe the visual language of these images, and with them, the grammar and symbolism of power and submission, of individual and institution, and of photographer and viewer." Ooookay.) But those two lines from Dusan Writer are still making me giggle like a five-year-old.

And America has gone deeply crazy. It's been coming for a while, but that document being officially adopted by the partisan members in any state? Scares the hell out of me.

Off to build more sidewalks in Solace Beach. This is a strange and surreal job, but it is a job. These days, that is very important.