Overhauling Stables: Untangling Kalliope's Mess

Redoing Kallimon's stable was rather tame.  I know exactly which pets I have and haven't bonded with since I play him so infrequently.  But it's different with Kalliope, since I get to see even her stabled pets.  Though inactivity and fully intending to quit playing WoW helped me get some distance from her pets, there was one deciding factor that really tipped the scales.

Calydonian changed everything.  The moment porcupines were confirmed as a real new family, I realized that I finally had five main pets to run with.  Then I ran an instance or two with them - Ursa, Atalanta, Orpheus, Hector, and Calydonian - and it was confirmed.  I didn't want to run with anyone else.  I had a full core to my active non-BM stable for the first time ever.  And that was when things finally started to fall into place.

I could bring my favorites anywhere.  Orpheus would lead the PvP charge and Ursa the PvE.  But where would that leave all my other pets?  Oddly, I'm more inclined to rotate the others in for fun or buffs just because I know that my core group can always be with me.  Going casual helps; it means I'll most likely run with a BM offspec, which means all of those pets will get rotated in too.  It's very freeing knowing that my main pets will always get a chance to come with me.  Never again will I hardly ever see Ursa.

So with all of that in mind, I looked to my pets and saw who could shrink down to minipet size and which few were going to have to leave entirely.  A couple surprisingly morphed to new forms as I was checking out new families on the beta.  And still, even with new additions, I'm going to have empty stable slots.  It's quite amazing.  The whole process took me by surprise, so unlike previous journeys through my stable, it was undocumented.

Thanks to the five locked stable slots on the beta, I was forced from the beginning to decide who I absolutely couldn't live without.  Space was at an absolute premium and I had to release a number of pets there just to ensure that I had space to tame new families.  Though I cursed the additional limitations, ultimately, I learned a lot about my bonds with particular pets.

I was surprised that Andromeda wanted to stay.  I was at a loss for a name for my fen strider, but she stepped right in - and suddenly, I saw her for who she really was.  She was no dragonhawk, even the blue one with the pretty wings I am so fond of...from a distance.  This was her.  Tall, graceful, light on her feet.  She even brings the stars with her.  I got a completely different vibe from Blasto.  How funny that Andromeda followed a similar path to Perseus, where the second form clicked after the first did not.

It was somewhat less surprising that Pygmalion eased my conscience about considering releasing him by easily slipping into basilisk form from his green crocoliskness.  Most shocking was the revelation that we both wanted the purple rather than the green.  He's been the boss of me since he got me to save him from becoming Gosh-Haldiir, so I suppose that if he wants to turn things to stone as a form of artwork, that's his prerogative.

Arachne was the first to volunteer for minipet duty.  In fact, no sooner had I picked up the little green tarantula minipet, she had moved into that form and stayed there.  Whenever I log in on live now, I'm surprised to still see her sitting in my stable as Kirix, waiting for MoP.  Her transition of all of them has been the most seemless.

Circe was another easy transition.  She'd already taken three forms with me, so shrinking her from Aotona into the parrot minipet was a natural evolution.  Besides, I still had Icarus, who had been my #1 parrot from the beginning.

Except Icarus will also be transitioning to minipet form.  I have adored Ol' Beaky from the first time I saw him.  Out of all the birds, Icarus was my surprising top pick.  Except in the end, I know in my heart that I never bonded with him as much as I did Perseus (who shares the same family buff).  I just can't do flying pets.  Castor and Pollux are the two exceptions.  I find anything with wings difficult to idle with overall.  At least he's reunited with Daedelus, who long ago took the form of my minipet seagull.

Psyche was a hard call.  I tried to encourage her to morph, but she wouldn't have it.  It was pink raptor or nothing.  So she'll be shrinking.  For some reason, Kalliope with a devilsaur works, but Kalliope with a raptor feels weird.  Between Psyche and Andromeda, I'm losing two debuffs I won't be replacing.  And because I'm casual now, I don't care.  I'm bringing my bear, dammit.

The most difficult transition was that of Hippomenes.  I would not have a blog if it wasn't for him.  My 10 hour Loque camp prompted storytime to move here.  And yet....I've finally admitted to myself that Kalliope only has room for one spirit beast in her heart and it belongs to Polaris.  It's Arcturis's fault.  I never wanted a spirit beast until he came along.  And so Hippomenes will become a white saber kitten (snow leopard if one gets added) so he can be with Atalanta all the time.  He always did like being fussed over and being a kitten will get him that sort of attention again.  It's a little weird, but it'll work.

Linus and Pandora won't be staying.  Both were essentially forced on me due to needing their family abilities and there are no minipet equivalents for them anyway.  Kharon will most likely be joining them.  I get the feeling that I have yet to find the right turtle/beetle for me, if there even is one.

Leo is a complete wild card.  He never gets out; Atalanta has the monopoly on cat utility.  And yet, because of his name and what he represents to me, I can't let him go so easily.  Besides, he's still my good luck charm.  No, I think Leo will be staying, against all reason.  He's meant to be with me, no matter how much I try to resist.  I do not know how or why this happened, but he has an unbreakable hold on me.

The newcomers are less numerous than those shrinking or leaving, but they seem to have already carved some niches for themselves.  I've already written about Calydonian at length.  I won't go into it again here.  Suffice to say that he somehow manages to catch my eye during stampede, even though he's the smallest pet in there.  There's just something about that porcupine.

Achilles was a bonding shock.  His name came to me unbidden.  Achilles has never been one of my favorite characters; he killed Hector after all!  And yet, that's why he works so perfectly as a quilen.  I tend to see my exotics as being somewhat at odds with my non-exotics, since they displace the latter when I'm actually in that spec; it fit perfectly for the Trojan-Greek rivalry!  On the other hand, Achilles's parallels to Hector were quite surprising.  When I saw him howl while still scooting forward at top speed, I knew I had another lovably goofy dog on my hands.  I don't know what color he'll be in the end, but I do know he's staying, and not just because he has a battle res.

I was surprised about Pan too.  His noisy combat antics amused me from the moment I sicced him on a poor, unsuspecting victim.  He has so much personality!  Very few pets get a smile from me just by entering combat.  I feel like I don't really know him yet, since his wild version is not yet tamable.  While Achilles is open to a color change, Pan is dead set on being the lone goat on his cliff.  I don't know what color he'll be; I just know that he's mine.

Eurydice is one of the strangest cases I've ever seen in one of my pets.  I'd tried taming her as a snake and on an alt as a tarantula, but never truly felt anything for her.  The green crane keeping an eye on Dawn's Blossom strikes me as distinctly male.  And yet, the two shall one day merge to become my Eurydice....Orpheus's Eurydice.  In studying her, I realized why she's finally settled on this form.  Orpheus needs a partner he would write songs about.  He needs inspiration.  And yet, this is my Orpheus.  My right arm in PvP.  He needs a lady with survival skills.  Lullaby fits perfectly for the wife of the great poet.  She'll join him on the battlefield.

With all the changes, I probably should not have been surprised that one pet decided to come home.  But I was.

Tantalus returned!  I can't explain why he came back any more than I could explain why he left.  Our connection was forged, broken, and reforged.  I thought he required more attention than he actually seems to.  Perhaps he's trying to create balance in my dog situation (Hector and Tantalus being non-exotic; Cerberus and Achilles being exotic).  Maybe he just knew that he had a place in my stable again.  I don't know.  I have never completely understood Tan.  It seems we're on the same page now, though, whatever the reasons.  It's good to have him back.

So thus far, I'll have three empty stable slots.  All things considered, that's nothing short of a miracle.

After picking up Tan last night, I flew around Northrend for a bit.  No one was up in the Basin (somewhat unsurprising).  But Arcturis was.  As was Gondria, who had chosen to spawn near Atalanta's new birthpoint.  I'd never seen her there before, and I hadn't seen Arcturis in the wild in ages.  I took both appearances as a sign of approval from the cosmos and the game itself.

All is well.

Unexpected surprise

This is a bit late, what with the PTR being up and RL eating me for lengths of time, but I wanted to do justice by Circe.....after all, she wormed her way into a permanent spot.

No, I won't be stuck with three spiders.  She had a little....change of heart.....first.....

I knew it was fate when I saw Aotona again.  I don't usually find her in the wild, much less when Kalliope has an open stable slot!  This explains the blue vibe I'd gotten from Circe initially and why she'd come to me as Magria.

Aotona and I have a strange, tangled history.  I fell for her the first time I saw her back in Wrath.  It was the dead of night, north of the Oracles' home.  She wasn't tamable then, and indeed, I hadn't even known she existed before that night.  Had she been tamable, that might not have been the case.  At any rate, I loved her then.  She was a big, gorgeous blue parrot and I couldn't get her out of my head.

This was why I tamed her as Papillote (later Evangeline) on Kallimon.  Except they didn't click.  At all.  Part of it was the opportunity tame; Aotona was up and no one was on to tame her but me.  The other part of it, which I didn't know until I tamed Circe as Aotona, was that the big blue parrot had already bonded with Kalliope, despite Kalli never having actually tamed her.

Funny thing about perceptions...I've only seen Aotona three times when she appeared huge to me.  The other occasions, she seemed small in relation to the jungle around her.  This was one of those times.  The others were the two times I'd seen her north of the Oracles, once tamable and the other not.  It just felt right to tame her this way.

Unfortunately, Circe becoming permanent meant that someone was going to be set free.  It wasn't Icarus; he was another love at first sight parrot.  So I had two parrots and a big headache.  I knew it had to be Tantalus who left, though.  We had grown apart, despite bonding fiercely in the beginning.  He wasn't getting the playtime he needed to be happy, nor was he likely to with Orpheus and Arachne around.  Rather than make him miserable, I let him go.  I've never grown apart from a pet in that way before; it was surprising to realize that it had happened, especially since I'd already declared him a permanent pet.

I'm just glad Circe knew what she was doing, throwing all three of those rares in my path at her whim - and that I trusted her to do it.  She would never have stayed without those transitions, certainly not in this form.  It's pretty amazing how things work out sometimes.

Another break period

As you might have guessed, I've been on another WoW break.  I've been around more since Hallow's End has commenced, but nothing's changed on the pet front.  Circe is still visiting (and looks amazingly glowy with the stink bomb aura).

Hope everyone out there is well. :)

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.

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