Yes, I believe it is most definitely race weekend…

But enough about that! The week before I left, things with Aiolias` linkshell, VisRuina, went to hell. Since there was minimum actual conversation with me, what I know is mostly all word of mouth. It was decided that I should be desacked because I wasn`t online for Limbus the day before my flight. Or it might have been because I didn`t go to a non-mandatory, unscheduled, 14 hour sky farm. I`m not really sure. (Though later that night I did go up and trio some aura statues à la manaburn. It was fun since I`d never done that before.) Some words were exchanged before.. or maybe right after.. this decision was made between Mioki and the linkshell leaders. I don`t know what was said, but from what I hear it was kinda lolworthy regarding some of the leaders` decisions about things. (For example: it is bad conduct of a linksack to melee as a whm in dynamis out of boredom from everyone being cured by a bot. And yes, the sack [me] was asked to come on whm.) So Mio asked for his pearl to be broken. Braxis left with him. Amun was kicked from LS while he was d/c`ing. I think this made the leaders decide to kick me, I`m not sure, but it was clear from the people I spoke to that the intent to kick me was very clear. So, since I had my pearl off earlier, when I logged in I just never equipped it. (I had it off because the leader was talking trash about me and the people in my party [the manaburn in sky that night] in LS while we were in LS.) Fast forward some minor little drama things, and a week or so later, the linkshell basically broke when most of the other sacks (Jaizen, Blitzkriegone, Trayunah, Rampart) left because Meyah had a linksack to my social LS still, despite the rules stating that you are allowed to have multiple linkshells, nay even multiple HNM LSs. And that`s the story of that.

As for what I have been up to… well I`ve not been up to much, understandably. But when not spending time with Mioki irl, I, or even we, got some things done. For starters, I did the Succor to the Siddhe quest with Braxis and obtained a perfect little jewel for my SMN: “Avatar Perpetuation cost” -3, Pet: “Magic Atk. Bonus”+4. I`m extremely pleased with my free Bahamut`s Staff, and on the first try too! It is also a nice piece for my magical BP setup, which I`m still far away from merit-wise.

I also managed to finally do all my ACP missions up until the final BCNM. I had Mioki help me climb Delkfutt`s by training everything on the way, which was a lot of fun! I also did all my MKD missions up until the first BCNM with the goblins and Nanaa, and am now waiting on Meyah, Azyre, and Mioki on all missions. (Though Mioki does not have MKD.) I`m glad I finally got off my tail and did those, it`s almost a relief to think I`m so close to getting my Redingote for my SMN. Another subject I`ve made progress on is my alchemy! I`m now level 54 in it, and slowly closing in on my goal of 60.

Another thing I did while away that was incredibly entertaining was duo and trio the SCNM All-seeing Onyx Eye for a mirror tiara! The first time Mioki and I duo`d it, RDM/NIN and SMN/WHM. It got a bit hectic at the end, and the start was a little shaky with me pulling hate just by summoning, but we did kill it and got.. nothing! Then we went back with Amun the next day, and Mioki properly geared. We shaved fifteen minutes off our kill time and got the drop! We also had some added fun with two cases of Burstga… ¬.¬

In some miscellaneous adventures, Mioki and I decided to try and duo the Promyvion-Dem ENM, You Are What You Eat. We failed, but I really think we would have won had I not screwed up my first blood pact and done Diamond Dust instead of Axe Kick. -.- We`re hoping to try again tomorrow perhaps, so we`ll see what me correctly blood pacting will result in. We also levelled with Amrit some, Mioki has been doing more of that than I have, but I joined a couple of parties. One was on my BST, which I managed to get to level 41! The second one I joined with them was on PLD in Garlaige`s basement. I didn`t quite manage to ding 66, but I got about halfway there. Paladin is tough for me to level.

One of the bigger things we did, in my opinion, was invite Amun over to Mioki`s place with his PS2 and all of us log in to do some things in game. We decided to do the Attohwa Chasm ENM and pop Genbu! The Genbu fight was incredibly fun, but we should have rearranged the jobs a little better. Unfortunately we got neither abjurations that were needed nor any money drops. I got the Koenig Hands for my PLD (but I have Valor Gauntlets) and Crimson Feet (for… my… rdm? or to tank ultima in on my pld?) out of it since no one else really wanted them. Really could have used some zeniths for Mioki, Amun, and Azyre!

That`s all for this post! I`m sure this week will bring lots more adventures for next weekend`s update. However with the absence of my colleague Professor Meyah, we may be thirsting for more burly update.

The next time you come across an Ahriman, pay close attention to this peculiar species. There are many mystifying things you may notice, such as their arms. First many days were spent deciding if the ahriman actually has fingers or just a stump, and it was finally revealed that they do indeed have fingers. Their arms also appear to be made out of elastic, or they are the Vanadielian version of Stretch Armstrong. I would like to present Exhibit A and Exhibit B.

Exhibit A: an ahriman performing typical ahriman behavior.

Exhibit B: a melee hit from an ahriman. Observe the elasticity of the arm.

The other particular notes of interest regarding the Ahriman species concerns their life cycle, birth and death. While I had run out of soulplates for my Soul Trapper I did not get to document this up close, but Ahrimans have, below their mouths, what can be best described as a “beard of teats”. While I have not been able to witness an ahriman raise their young, my colleague Meyah and I hypothesize that young ahriman attach themselves to these teats for the first few hours of their life until their carnivorous teeth emerge from their young gums and they are able to feed on their own. Ahrimans must grow very quickly, since there are no recorded births of this phenomenon.

A dying ahriman

Last of all concerning this marvelous creature is the matter of their death. As you can see above, ahrimans engage in a peculiar range of motions while in their death throes. Are they going for theatrics? Emulating the rumored Statue of Liberty of the world of Earth? Are they, with their last breath, swearing undying devotion to a demonic god, the Shadow Lord, Promathia, or even a loved one? Or perhaps revenge on his murderer? We may never know these mysteries surrounding the death of an ahriman.

Goblins!

Our next topic is Goblins. Moreover, the metallic Goblins. What makes them so horny all the time that they constantly walk around with a boner? Perhaps it is not their fault, however, perhaps when the gods created this world, they discussed and planned for this. Perhaps one god said “I think we should give half the goblin population hard ons” and it was so. Perhaps they had a planning meeting about it, discussed and drew up conceptual art of horny goblins and after much debate, decided to make it so. Perhaps one god was upset at being given over to design mere goblins while the rest got to design deities such as Pandemonium Warden and Absolute Virtue. Perhaps this disgruntled god mocked up these goblins with their perpetual stiffies and sent them into the world. Perhaps he then went to the other gods and said “Surprise!! Take a look at my goblins!”

Metallic Goblins: a disgruntled god`s creation? Or just perpetually horny?

Elemental Killing!

This week has seen the kick off of my new LS, VisRuina. To start off with, we`ve been farming some sky with the hope of burning through it and knocking out the rather large list of people who want items from sky. We haven`t been having too much luck with getting actual pop items, Zipacna and Despot are farmed incessantly by Regina and Yoichii, two RDMs who solo those two pop items. We have BB items coming out of orifices we didn`t know we had, and have just been having terribad luck on Diorite. I think it was Thursday we spent five hours at Ulli camp killing Aura Statues and not a single drop. We did get Despot though, so atleast we didn`t go home empty handed.

Brain Jacked!

Sunday (tomorrow) will be our first Omega fight, and I`m pretty excited about it. Aside from dynamis, it will be the first real sort of “boss fight” we`ve had as a

Oh yes, there was also an epic Charybdis fight!

linkshell. I`m hoping we have a good turnout however, as our Limbus roster is rather limited and we don`t have a whole lot of working with each other yet. While we`re new with working together, I am confident we will have great runs.

I mentioned Dynamis above, and I absolutely have to mention our inaugural dynamis run at Dynamis-Sandoria. With eleven people we claimed seven AFs and even the clear. Though many of the AFs were unneeded, we did get a couple of monk pants for two of our members and a pair of scholar gloves for me! Unfortunately my Scholar has so much gear I walk around 58/60 on that job. I`ve even gone so far as to declare it “retired” until I can get the gobbie bags 7 and 8 complete!

Charmga NM in Dynamis-Sandoria

This past week has been a gathering of members for my new LS, VisRuina. We had our first sac meeting Wednesday night and I have a really good feeling about the LS and Aiolias too. We`ve finally hit a lull in applications and once Monday rolls around, new recruits will have to come in by application and approval instead of majority vote yes/no. I`m really looking forward to events starting.

Just because the LS has not started events, including Limbus, does not mean I haven`t been up to my usual limbus runs! I am now one chip short of a full Omega set and we ran most of the runs with an average of 6 people. If we don`t have enough people to do a run for a chip, we just do the 3kings run and usually have some good fun. Sunday I recieved my Evoker`s Pigaches +1 and both Jaizen and Deathsoul got back some ninja AF+1. I also got myself a musical earring, and now that Mioki and I have nothing to spend coins on aside AF upgrades, they are pooling up in my satchel. Atleast we won`t be short when the time comes!

Speaking of time, every time mithra RSE week comes around I go out and try for a civet satchet. I`m sort of bad on remembering to check, so I`ve only gone out to try twice. I`m also still scrounging around to make some money. While I have a good amount saved up, I still need just a wee bit more to buy all the things I want for my current 75 jobs. And hey my birthday is around the corner, why don`t you pick me out something nice and sweet! A prism cape or cassie earring would do just fine, but if you can`t find either one, a wind torque or even a thunder ring would not find me disappointed. Or if money eludes you as well as it does me, a simple meripo would suffice as well. (As long as I get to go on thf!)

One of these days.. Mioki and I are going to get lucky on ENMs! Just you wait!