Third time's a charm

Maquechoux, like Ariadne, had started off as a regular silithid (Haarka) who turned in a boss silithid (Harakiss). This was all well and good for a long time; I like how the boss silithids sit.  But recently, I found that Ariadne wasn't clicking in her larger form anymore and downsized her again.  That too was fine; Maque would remain as my standby boss silithid...until I figured out the terrible truth: I'm uncomfortable using humongous and easy to target pets in PvP.

Maque was going to have to change again.  The only question was whether it would be back to Haarka or to a new form - a blue ant silithid.

Yesterday, I dashed off to Tanaris to figure this out.  Haarka was up, but I wanted to try an ant first, just in case.  Turned out that Maque liked the ant vibe after all.  This form's a keeper.

Not the most exciting of tames, but I gained peace knowing why my silithids had to take the forms they did.

Dere be a bird!

Nalorakk finally got to see Ban'thalos today, after acting crazed about the bird for a couple of days.  I haven't seen any pet so platonically interested in a spawn before.  A night elf hunter walked home with Banny and Nal finally seemed to shake himself out of his obsession, so I'm tentatively chalking this up as a win.

More late night stalking

Err, yes.  Hi.  This is Medea.  She's taken over for Circe as my latest "Seriously?" tame (the latter has run back off to Mount Hyjal to run free).

Story.  There always is one.  I was getting through dailies really slowly tonight for some reason; didn't make it into the Front until late in the evening.  Theseus was with me most of the night, but for some reason, when I headed to the northern part of the zone's center for my two dailies there, I brought Circe with me.  And lo, there was Anthriss, looking gorgeous, as always.  I did some quick checking to see who else was up (just Skitter), delaying my dailies even further.

For the hell of it, I decided to do A Bitter Pill in the pool just before Anny, since I didn't realize the worms could spawn in there.  A worgen mage was there and jumped in.  This resulted in the bomb never going off, due to aggro swaps.  We killed the worm, no problem.  As I started to head south, an orc warrior paused before heading into Solix's cave.  At that moment, I knew Anthriss was going to die.  I wasn't sure which of them was going to do it, but I knew his minutes were numbered.

I made it all the way south before I turned around.  I think I had to break aggro on some of the trash.  Circe at my side, I rode north.  I half expected to see Anny already dead, but he was still there, alive.  I had been right, though.  There was a skeleton in front of him that hadn't been there moments before.  With no hesitation, I let Circe go (we'd already said our farewells) and dragged Anny to the appropriate taming spot.  The tame finished with no sign of anyone else.

I had known before this happened that my next pet would be Medea.  Anthriss's sunny yellow fire suits the descendant of Helios well (certainly more than Magria's blue suited Circe, another of the sun god's offspring), so this all worked out perfectly.

She definitely won't be staying, but she'll likely be the pet I set free to bring Jason home in his proper form, which is all very appropriate from a mythological standpoint.  In the meantime, we'll enjoy each other's company.

Aaaaaand editing because I've caved in to my initial instincts and let Circe morph into this body.  She always did want that yellow.  I felt it, but until last night, it didn't come together.

Sigh, three spiders.  She'll still end up running free as part of the extended family, but she'll actually see even more use now that she had been.

She's baaaack!

Ariadne has had a long and winding journey.  Tonight, it came full circle.

During the Cataclysm beta, I fell for Ariadne as Soriid the Devourer....in the new, improved purple boss silithid form.  Despite the subsequent changes to Soriid, involving his return to his original form, I always considered him to be her heart, since Soriid was the first form Ariadne took.  Though she's spent most of her life in Buru's skin, she's always been bonded with Soriid...and so have I.

Over the past several days that I've been running around in BM spec on Kalliope, I've noticed a reluctance to summon her, even though she had survived my big stable cleaning.  I liked her, but I didn't feel like I needed her by my side.  So today, I went to go try an ant form on her.  I opted for one of the purple/pink ones from Tanaris, due to Ariadne's ties to the zone.

The moment I reached the hive, I had one of those fated flashes: I knew Soriid was up.  I turned north slightly - sure enough, there went SilverDragon.  I flew down to the nearest entrance to tame one of the ants there, suddenly deciding to retame Soriid if that didn't work out.  The ant had barely shrunk to my side when I knew it was wrong.  The black markings were too large; the whole thing felt off.  I resolved to make my way to Soriid...only to realize that the silithid hopping around in my peripheral vision was Soriid.  He had been right there the whole time.  Within moments, Ariadne was back in her original form....and it felt right.  I've never been a fan of the hopping silithids, but I guess that's just how things were meant to be.

Oh Solix, the strange and tangled webs you weave....

We Petopians are fond of our wild and crazy tames.  Yesterday, Korii and I cooked up a doozy.

We were joking about his final stable slot and what he might fill it with.  The 4.2 rares held no interest until I suggested taming one of them naked.  Not one of the cats, who already require nakedness, but one of the others.  Solix flashed in my mind, but I dismissed it...though I did still mention him to Korii.

Sure enough, Solix spawned a bit later, the first of any of the rares.  That spider has a sadistic streak a mile wide.  All of the lava spiders can be tamed in the nude (even Kirix, via the rock method), but Solix is the only spider guaranteed to hit you in the face multiple times.  We never do things the easy way!

Attempts went well; Korii was merely a second or two away on some goes.  Unfortunately, Solix died when I got caught between feigns.  (Even with misdirection, Korii's threat while naked was low.  Read that how you will!)  We resolved to try again the next morning.

My alarm woke me from a bizarre dream, involving a real life crab named Bologna that was cruelly killed.  I clung to the dream long enough to promise the distraught girl that I would avenge him.  How I intended to do this, fully aware that this was a dream and I was waking up, I have no idea.  I logged in, groggily getting a mental flash of a blue crab as I did so.  Seeing neither Korii nor Solix, dashed off to Sandwiches.  She had originally had a red mastiff lined up for Bologna, but since she's only level 20, I shifted my focus to Bayne, the pink demon dog.  He was exactly the right color and his hair matches Sandwiches's.  Besides, Sandwiches already had Salami for a crab; how could she ever have a second?  I did, however, note that TaterTot (Lo'Shall) was still in her stable - meaning that she has two boars.

I sensed Bayne's presence moments before Silverdragon picked him up.  He had chosen to spawn far away from the guards, which was a relief....and not entirely unexpected.  The moment he shrank at my side, I felt a sense of calmness pass through me.  Despite not being a crab, this was the right thing for him.  All this time, my brain had been mulling over another possibility - Abalone.  Karkin would match perfectly, not that Sandwiches will ever see 85.  And what of Salami, Sandwiches's favorite pet?

I was saved from this decision by Caelan, who let me know that Korii had logged in (his alarm hadn't gone off).  I hopped back over to Kallimon, who was parked in front of Solix's spawn....and the spider himself, as it turned out.  Solix didn't hold yesterday against us, thankfully.

We were much better prepared this time.  Korii had more haste on him, and I had DaBeast with me - plus the conc shot glyph in my BM spec.  Korii kited beautifully and I timed my aggro pull/feign better (as well as hitting hysteria at the right time).  The tame succeeded on the second try!  And here I thought I'd seen everything in the Front...

DaBeast got himself onto that rock somehow.  That's where he ended up popping hysteria from.

The happy pair seconds after the tame

Dance party in Nordrassil

Korii's RP outfit; the first time his new spider had seen him clothed

Scholar and Caelan look on, bemused

Triple Solixes!

Sandwiches and Bologna

I did later end up picking up a blue crab for Abalone.  I figured his fate was as linked to Solix's as Bologna's.

The things that happen when you're bored....

Sitting around Poseidus camping, I decided to solo a whale shark on a whim.

Atalanta and I one shot him.

No big deal!  Just need Mobus to spawn again....

I'm just mad about Saffron...

...and Saffron's finally mad about me.

Jambalaya chose her as his mate; I had no say in it.  He wanted Dishu and he got her.  That was Saffron.  But as happy as he was, I felt nothing for her; we had no connection.  I wanted to like her, I really did.  I'm not sure why we never really clicked....there just wasn't a spark.

We stayed like that for a long, long time.  We probably would have stayed that way indefinitely had Gondria not spawned.

No one wanted her.  Anyone interested wasn't high enough level to tame her.  Inexplicably, my thoughts turned to Saffron...  How could I do it, though?  Jambalaya would kill me.  But I felt nothing for her.  She's my pet; we should have a bond too.  So in an effort to help Saffron find herself, I made the painful decision to stand up to Jambalaya and guided her into Gondria's skin.  I was ready for anything, even if it meant Saffron would become Dishu again.

Saffron was furious.  In the beginning, that is.  But once she got over her initial indignation and sense of betrayal, she loved being a spirit beast.  Suddenly, she was powerful!  I was pretty surprised she got settled in so quickly, let alone at all.  Jambalaya was pretty peeved, but grudgingly understood in the end.  He didn't intentionally try to keep Saff from finding herself; he just didn't understand that she needed to.

It's taken a few days to be sure, but Saffron seems to have settled into this form for good.  It figures....she was once one of three cats; now she's one of three spirit beasts....but she is the only one who takes the form of a cat.

I don't even know anymore.  I never had any intention of taming Gondria ever and now she's staying?  How do these things keep happening?

The magic of late night tames

It amazes me how the smallest choices can impact everything around us.

I had insomnia last night, so I was awake for the daily reset.  I decided to knock them off and go to bed, so I flew out there.  Ban'thalos was up - I hadn't seen him in weeks.  I let my friend who'd been looking for him know and offered to help pull him down for her.  After one false start (the glyph of conc shot is not good for this), I got him down and she tamed him beautifully.  This had been a long time in coming.  I had the vague certainty that one of the cats was up (and in my heart of hearts, I knew it was Magria, because it always is for me) and went to check.  Sure enough, there she was.

Sigh.

Magria has been making a point of appearing to me ever since the PTR.  I was there when Caelan discovered her the first time, she appeared to me as I ran around getting into the Front the first time on live - I hardly ever see Ankha.  I facepalmed and vowed that if I could respec, find the bag space, drop off a pet, and return to find her still up, I would tame her.

I had no idea what a chain reaction this would cause.

Armorless pieces found their way onto my person, cutting down the number of needed bag slots significantly. Somehow, I found enough room, respecced, and flew back.  I took a different route than usual, flying a bit more south before heading west.  This meant that Dante and I ran smack into Blazewing, who had spawned moments before.  I of course had no gear on, so that was mostly him, which is to be expected.

Dante and I returned to the Front together for the last time.  I had already realized in the wake of all the Remoulade skin changes that Dante was just visiting to make the transition easier on me.  He doesn't belong to any one hunter; he is a teacher.  The true Dante is in the Front, always.  That knowledge didn't make the actual physical admission any easier.  I realized how long it had been since I'd last visited.  The future would have to remedy that.

I flew back to Magria, who was still circling around outside.  I twitched briefly, seeing a Horde hunter, but it turned out to be Rox!  Knowing she had Magria already, I dropped down and tamed away, grateful that Magria, like Blazewing, had just reached an empty patch of ground as I arrived.  As Magria and I stared at each other in a bit of a daze, Rox reported that there was a full house in the Molten Front, including Skarr.  It was just like the first night in the Front!

This was when the fun truly began.

My friend, who has been dying to tame Skarr for months, went to go sort out her stable situation while I went to help Rox tame Solix.  That tame went without a hitch, so I met my friend back at the Breach to give her a lift.  It bears mentioning that this hunter is my friend's alt, so she still hasn't unlocked the druids in the Front.  It also bears mentioning that she is absolutely terrible at the jumping rocks (which I suspect is a lag issue, having seen her try and fail so many times).  Skarr was absolutely finicky as well; he would only spawn on the far point when my friend was around.  First things first.  We rode without incident past the flames, skirting the edge of Kirix's path to cut across the Furnace.

And then, the hard part.  Getting my friend across.

We tried every possible method - passenger mount, my priest's lifegrip, Rox's dk's deathgrip....summons don't work in the Front.  Then something strange happened.  My friend tried stripping off her gear....and miraculously, that worked.  She hit every jump solidly and never fell.  Overjoyed, I relogged back to Kalli and we tamed Skarr without incident; I silenced the barrage easily for her.  Thank goodness!

Rox took off for work, so it was just my friend and I who rode around to the other side of the island to visit Skitterflame.  It was love at first sight!  So after a few hilarious outtakes with the nearby elemental respawns, my friend walked away with the little darling as well.  It was beautiful; he ended up in a trap, not losing energy, with exactly 20 energy left.

Between the three of us, we tamed half of the 4.2 rares.  Not bad for one crazy night of taming!  Today, I finally figured out a name for my impulse Magria - Circe.  No wonder it hadn't worked on Pandora - this was who the name was meant to go with.  She is absolutely definitely not staying, but at least I know who Circe is now.  She can be part of my extended stable with other retired pets.  I'm just glad to know her now.

Dante seemed pleased with everything.

Fun with illusion potions, double Magrias, and Jeeves

Meet the Family: 4.2 Additions/Changes

Normally, I wouldn't do an update so soon after the last big family post, but these were big changes:

Atalanta became a full-fledged snow leopard after years of being a ghost saber.

Linus took his rightful place by my side.

Leo insisted on coming with me and he brought his good fortune with him.

Bowing out were Jason (who will return in another form) and Kalypso (who will likely not, but who will always remain Kalliope's crab).

And suddenly, everything made sense

As much as I liked Jason, I wasn't really feeling the red hyena form after some time had passed.  I had already associated the name with my future (hopeful) hydra, due to a filmic version of Jason and the Argonauts pitting him against a hydra.  I have never liked Heracles as a character, so naming a potential hydra for Kalliope had been a massive undertaking.  Hence the hyena Jason never quite clicking.

I was at a loss for a new hyena, beyond the vague desire to try an orange one again.  I knew if I could figure out the name, everything else would fall into place.

It turned out I was right, because that's exactly what happened.

For some reason, I hadn't known that Calliope had a second son.  The most likely cause?  Linus was given different parents by various myths and I simply hadn't heard any involving Calliope until now.  Tragically, like his brother, he was violently killed.  Unlike his brother, he wasn't torn limb from limb by crazed disciples of Dionysus; he was killed by Heracles while attempting to teach him how to play the lyre.  No wonder I hadn't ever wanted Heracles in my stable.

Linus blended perfectly.  His orange-brown coloration would match Orpheus's similar brown-orange combination.  Instead of going for the slightly brighter orange from Tanaris, like I had for Kallisto all those months ago, I opted for Skarf, the duller orange hyena from Uldum.  (This is of course why I knew brown Madexx was up again, as mentioned in the previous post.  This is all completely Madexx's doing.)

I tossed down a freeze trap, since Sultan Oogah came with him.  Hilariously, Skarf dodged the trap, catching the Sultan in it.  The latter bobbed around amusingly as I tamed his mount out from under him.

Linus feels right.  Finally, I feel at peace with Kalliope's hyena.  Now I just need to make sure that Orpheus doesn't get jealous of him or anything silly like that.

Cue love montage

Well, a few things happened tonight.  Madexx's influence strikes again!

For one, Remoulade is staying black.  He's incredibly quirky - always has been - and this suits him.

For another, I worked out some things with Kalliope's stable, which will be working themselves out later on.  I'll return to this in another post.

The highlight was Bait's transformation to a blue Jormunger, a very happy change.  This exciting skin change meant that Cae, Veph, and I were all in Storm Peaks.  A guy we've been helping camp for TLPD logged in while we were out here, so we jumped in to help him out.  We had all four spawns covered for a while, then Cae decided to rotate down to waterfall to visit with Bait, bringing Scholar with her.

As well as Scholar and Ravigote got along, this was pure romantic chemistry.  Bait and Scholar got themselves into a cuddling position on the side of the cliff at the waterfall spawn point and commenced a display of sappiness that would have put an army of baby murlocs to shame!  It was terribly adorable, so much so that Vyragosa spawned on top of us!  The happy couple then proceeded to dispatch her.

D'awww!

All four of us camping out

"Yep, she's dead, honey."

Cuddling over the kill - totally romantic

Needless to say, it was quite a successful camp!  With the exception of TLPD not turning up, of course. :/ (Update: he spawned less than 24 hours later - grats, Murph!)

(A small bonus note: brown Madexx spawned again on Dethecus after all this.  I just knew he was up and in brown.  Madexx knows what he's doing when he assigns colors!)

Remoulade....for real?

There is a little-told detail from the Dante story.  When I first tamed him up there on that ledge, before he became Dante, he was named for Remoulade.  It didn't matter that I was on Kalliope; I brought Remy with me.  Once Caelan dubbed him Dante and it stuck, that was the end of black Remy.

Or so I had thought.

After brown Madexx won me over by spawning for Kalliope multiple times, I searched for him for the new Remoulade.  But there was a small problem.  Remy had refused to be brown Madexx before.  It seemed Madexx agreed with him, since he was still only spawning as brown for Kalliope.  The spawns Kallimon saw were black Madexx late one night (he was left free) and red Madexx (whose hijinks had less to do with him than the aftermath following his appearance).

Today, he appeared as black again, this time, at the north spawn point - my favorite Madexx spawn point, since it's where Perseus was born.  There was a human warrior hanging around staring at him.  Fearing the worst, I relogged in a hurry, intending to tame him to save him.  I summoned Caelan on the way, unfortunately in range of a hyena.  It took me a few seconds to remember that I could mass res her.  The warrior didn't make a move while this was going on; he had waved to Vephriel and seemed friendly, but we all had a bad feeling.  I tamed him quickly after that and without a fuss.  It was only then that we saw that the warrior had summoned a few others, including a hunter.  Cringing, I relogged to an alliance alt to see if the hunter had been there to tame.  Turns out that the warrior mistook Madexx for Akma'hat (the raid boss of Uldum), so we were right to have been concerned.  Thankfully, the hunter had been explaining the error to the warrior as I tamed him, so there was no harm done to either of them.

Remoulade seemed oddly cheerful after this tame.  He'd been very subdued in his other forms, including his original one.  Suddenly, something clicked and I remembered that Remy had been black before.  Was this all meant to be?

Only time will tell.

Lightning strikes twice....again

Back at level 80, I did my first Sunwell run.  A pug begged me to heal on my priest, and I agreed, provided that I could relog to Kalliope on the final boss for the achievement.  Having a priest for a full Sunwell raid was a big deal; it made dispelling everyone easily possible.  We would not have downed Felmyst without me; most of the raid had gotten itself killed during the air phase.  I relogged to Kalli for Kil'jaeden.  Thori'dal dropped.  A level 70 twink rogue ended up with it, despite me being the only hunter present.  I won't rehash the bitter disappointment.  I refused to return to the Sunwell.  I couldn't face the bow not dropping again.

BF and I duoed the instance up to Brutallus a week or two ago, just for fun.  It was a safe venture, since it was unlikely that we'd get anywhere near Kil'jaeden.

Today, we had a group of five.  I braced myself subconsciously throughout the raid against the disappointment.  Consciously, I was distracted explaining fights to the others, who hadn't run it before.  Everything went fine, though we had a few amusing air phases with Felmyst.

I never ever in my wildest dreams expected that Thori'dal would drop again.  But it did.  That bow chose me, for some unknown, inexplicable reason.  Two complete Sunwell runs, two legendaries.  It wanted me.  I wish I could understand why.

I am so honored.

Oh....and we'd just run Black Temple before that....saw our first ever warglaive drop (the main hand).  Grats to our warrior!

This little piggy came home

I was still feeling bad about Grunter's untimely demise the night before and had just hearthed to join the Spiteflayer campers in the hopes of seeing him again when the news came in that he spawned.  I hurried my journey and there he was, wandering around like before.  He knew I was coming and that Caelan was there to see him arrive moments before I did.

Guess he knew it wasn't our fault the night before and that I really would have tamed him then.

How did I never notice the resemblance before?  Looks like Boudin gets the coveted final stable slot.

Bonus pics of Boo chasing a vulture in Westfall.  <3

Bromance or dinner preparation? Also, molting.

I....I don't even know anymore.

This all started with red Madexx, who had the indecency to spawn on the incorrect server.  Caelan came over to visit him anyway on her lowbie blood elf hunter, then we hung out in Uldum for a bit.  We were going through our stables when I pulled out Ravigote, who had the appearance of Spiteflayer.  It was love at first sight for Lyrea, so off we went to the Blasted Lands.  Spiteflayer, of course, was not up, but Grunter spawned as Ly passed.  (The poor little guy met his end at the hands of an 85 worgen druid; hopefully he knows we appreciated his welcome wagon greeting!)

One thing led to another while we kept an eye out for Spiteflayer and the truth came out - Ravi still wasn't clicking as yellow, despite my affection for the skin.  So we flew over to Terokkar Forest and I tamed Torgos, just to see if he'd click.

And then this is when things got really weird.

I was liking the feel of Ravi's new teal coloring, getting used to him by my side, when Cae brought out her new green Azerothian worm, Scholar.  He's an archaeologist worm, very bookish.  The pair of them looked great next to each other.  It was a happy moment of matching pets.

That was when Scholar decided to headbutt Ravi.

Now, for anyone who's familiar with Evangeline and Rancid, this is a sure sign of bonding between a bird and a worm.  Would Ravi respond in kind?  Suspense mounted....

Ravi demanded food.  Loudly.  Several times.

I emptied my supply of food into his stomach.  He continued to demand food.  I grumped at him, explaining that all the food was gone.  He proceeded to settle down and preen himself, casting the occasional glance at Scholar until...

He dropped a feather for him.

Cae and I burst out into disbelieving laughter.  Somehow, this had all happened again, only different.  Scholar is very down to earth (literally; he doesn't like heights) and Ravigote is a bottomless pit of a stomach.

I just....I really, really don't know.  This all also led to Evangeline molting and becoming what she was meant to be....

It took all five runs.  I was sleep-running by the third.  If Cae and I hadn't both known it was going to be that last run, I would never have made it.  She was flapping around toward the far end, flying in and out of my field of vision like a ghost.  I knew it was the right thing to do then; I could feel it.  When she shrank down by my side, it was right.  The bond that was never there with Aotona was finally present.

I'm sure Rancid will be okay with this; will have to wait until tomorrow to see.  I can't believe any of this...

Ohidere

So uhm.  First figurine I've found on my own.

I knew it. :D

You're off the hook for now, tiny fox kit....

And now, I am off to the Basin, since if I hadn't had the urge to fly that way in the first place, I would never have flown back over that spawn point.....

Um. What?

So you might remember that Aisling, my priest, got the fox kit off a gut feeling and a random kill.  Apparently, lightning can strike twice, since the same exact thing just happened to Nalanie, my paladin, after a successful Tol Barad.  It was a different fox - Aisling's was within the spider area; Nalanie's was the one just outside the alliance base camp.


Why can't I get this luck on Kalliope???  Sheesh.

Solves my minipet problem on her, at least. :)

Icarus may in fact be a phoenix

I can't believe this.  I've finally come to terms with the truth and I still can't believe it.

I've been missing Icarus badly ever since I turned him loose to take in Leo.  But I couldn't move anyone else, was my justification.  Tonight, I realized that that wasn't true.  I had another pet who actually hadn't clicked properly either, one who I could afford to part with in the longer term.

Kalypso.  My poor neglected crab.  She'd gone through three forms: blue on the PTR, white after the expanded stables were put in, and gemmed, her current look.  Tonight, I finally realized that like Kallisto, Kalypso had given up her true form in the past and she'd never be the same without it.  Kallisto had basically become Praline, but Kalypso's form had been inherited by Orpheus during his stint as a crab.  Though it's been years since he last inhabited that shell, the association remains, which is why Kalypso hadn't taken back her blue form.

I don't know why I've hung onto her for this long.  I guess I just didn't want to let go.  I figured she had a shot.  I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Happy trails, Kalypso.  Welcome home, Icarus.