Everything's coming up warpies

Now that Kalliope's stable is 100% full and stable (for now; I can never promise forever anymore), I was able to give Kallimon's stable a real going-over....again.

There were only two releases in this sweep.  Bisque, my Ghostcrawler, never clicked, even with his new name.  Once Mojo joined the family, that was it; he's Kallimon's spirit beast of choice.  I released Bisque near the pool in Mount Hyjal; he should be happy hanging out with Tortolla and Tooga.

I had been on the fence with Nalorakk (Arcturis), as Mojo seemed to click more than he did.  I felt guilty even considering it, since camping him had been such a chore this last time.  However, when I summoned him, I could feel the bond returning.  He's staying.  Once again, Kallimon saves a pet Kalliope never could.

The second release was both easier and harder.  Much like Skittaflame, I had not bonded with Kallimon's Dante that first night in the Front.  I know, it's terrible.  It's Dante.  But I had already bonded with him on Kalliope, after our adventures in Kalimdor and all those hours together on the PTR.  He chose to be with my main rather than my alt.  I really didn't get much of a say in this choice; it just....happened.  I took Dante to visit himself before letting him go.  The real Dante hugged both of us before turning his back on us to make the transition easier.  It was okay by him, since he understood.  And besides, being on my main was his idea.

So Kallimon had two open stable slots again.  I wanted to give a warp stalker a chance, but had despaired of ever clicking with one.  Caelan suggested a female red warpie.  I still wasn't fond of the red warp stalkers, but I realized that I hadn't given a female warpie a real shot before.  (While MintJulep had been a green warp stalker for a time, she had never clicked in that form and I had forgotten that I had in fact had her as my sole female warp stalker until after this conversation.)  Once the decision to go with a female warp stalker had been made, the pieces fell into place.  The only skin that strikes me as being potentially female is the white one, so a quick trip to Shattrath united Kallimon with Etouffee, who gave up chasing butterflies to come home with him.

She's fiesty.  She bit Kallimon - HARD - after being tamed.  I've never seen a warpie do that before.  Dante sensed her mean streak and held off giving his approval warily.  I'm not quite sure what I've gotten into here, but I do believe Etouffee is staying.

Now to see about that last stable slot....

Help me, my soul is owned by spiders

This has been the stupidest taming week....my head is spinning.

Skittaflame was Kallimon's goal for 4.2.  I was finally going to have a spider that clicked with him.  I adore Skitter; he's a sweetheart.  His name worked really well for the trollish naming scheme.  It was fate, I thought.  For some reason, though, I didn't feel anything but relief when I tamed him on Tuesday.  I was shaking more for Veph and her Sabbath (Deth'tilac).

It wasn't until today that I understood what was going on.

Someone announced in Petopians gchat that Solix was up.  I ran over to go visit, as usual.  But something different happened this time.  I looked at his swirly mind control effect.  TAME ME TAME ME TAME ME.

.....

Seriously?  I stared blankly at Solix, unable to believe it.  I'd been feeling him tugging at me through the past week, but had been able to ignore it until now.

TAAAAAAAME.


I had all five pet slots filled, so I ran to go stable someone.  As I ran, I tried to piece my thoughts and feelings together.  This had actually started on the PTR, but I could never explore the feeling with Orpheus in my stable, which he always was, since all my copies there were really Kalliope.

Would I have gotten so attached if his lava hadn't bugged out and trapped three of my characters?  Probably, since he's the kite tame.  But that time in limbo hell definitely fueled the fire.

I barreled back into Solix's cave.  There was another Petopian there, but she wasn't very serious about taming him.  I suddenly became very very aware that I only had 106k health, no entrapment, and no conc shot glyph.  At least I was survival, but this was going to be harder than any other Solix tame I'd attempted before.

I had one false start (owned in the face), then settled down, dropped my first trap, and started with conc shot once my next trap was ready.

It was....easy.  I was able to stay ahead of him with cheetah, hitting conc on cd, and dropping frost traps on cd.  I don't think I've ever kited that well in my life.  <3 Veph for the extra frost trap for the end.  Because I had a big lead on him, though, I feel like I really proved myself this time.  I had finally earned Solix, the spider I was the most scared of, and the one I never expected to tame for real....yet in my heart, I knew it was going to happen; I just kept denying it.  Veph named him - Habanero - and everything just clicked.  I sent Skittaflame to live with Caelan's troll huntress, Taizak.  She'll love him more than I honestly could have.

This is right.