Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- 6.2K All Categories
- 3.1K Everything Achaea
- 1.5K North of Thera
- 26 Archives of the Terraformer
- 257 The Matsuhama Arena
- 885 The Golden Dais of Creation
- 299 The Scarlattan Theatre
- 149 The Blank Canvas
- 2K Getting Help
- 412 General Questions
- 258 Quick Class Questions
- 1.3K Tech Support
- 313 Client Help
- 486 Curing Systems and Scripts
- 841 Off-Topic
- 255 The Wander Inn
- 586 The Universal Membrane
- 298 Class Discussions
- 298 Individual Class Sections
- 20 Alchemist
- 9 Apostate
- 30 Blademaster
- 9 Depthswalker
- 14 Druid
- 4 Infernal
- 20 Jester
- 19 Magi
- 34 Monk
- 11 Occultist
- 8 Paladin
- 7 Priest
- 29 Runewarden
- 18 Sentinel
- 26 Serpent
- 20 Shaman
- 9 Sylvan
Comments
Tonight, KNOTFEST with my youngest. Behemoth, Gojira, the goddamn Danes from Volbeat are up now and killing it (saw them open for Metallica before they took off. So much better live). Then Slipknot.
My son even got a pick that two drunk dudes couldnt find. Should be a 17th birthday present he remembers for a while. 2 rows behind the pit at his favorite band. He just didnt get in the pit, but he did at Hatebreed so that was awesome to see.
Despite the actual (and acute) horror of the show, there's just something absolutely entrancing about watching June face the worst and come out the other end. She might be fucked up, she might have breakdowns, she might (and does) make awful decisions, but she still always reaches out to the humanity in us in the end, and it's inspiring, both as a real person and as someone who plays a character who is similarly very broken.
I also love all the supporting characters, the various bad guys (hard to just pick one, but I do think Aunt Lydia takes the cake for me, especially with how they explored her character this season), the music, the cinematography (this cannot be overstated, the cinematography of this show is fucking gorgeous), the mirror to real life, and how it's able to weave a story that not only resonates with you in the moment, but stays with you and makes you think about it, oftentimes for days.
My only rant is some of their pop culture music choices they play at various scenes get stuck in my head so flipping bad. Right now it's Heaven Is A Place On Earth, a song I can never hear the same way again after the show.
Probably just gonna have to re-watch it all again right away. Thank god I waited until the season wrapped up to start it up.
That love soon might end You are unbreaking
And be known in its aching Though quaking
Shown in this shaking Though crazy
Lately of my wasteland, baby That's just wasteland, baby
6 Flights
Now back to work
Did you bring the little one(s) on the trip or just you? I still need to get my kids back to Okinawa and then do a European Vacation a la Griswolds.
Achaea, of all things, helped bring me up from a really dark place to a sense of normalcy:
I bounced off the civilian world hard.
I had, somehow, managed to rise to Sergeant, leading my non-combatant Marines to a place of competency and confidence in their role in both work and life. I rejected the boisterous stereotype and really took to the phrase "firm but fair". It won me a following among the lower ranks and respect from the higher, combatant and otherwise. I credit the latter to a healthy bit of cynicism on my part regarding the whole Military Thing. I guess in private no one really drinks the Kool-Aid.
College was interesting. Surrounded by a bunch of kids in an enviable position. I had been here before, and just as oblivious as they are. Coming back a second time, for free and with a far better idea of what puts food on the table, was enlightening. Still, I had my demons in tow. My favorite demon-slayer was alcohol, and after two years back, it finally took me. I never did finish my computer science degree.
At least I picked a field based on demonstrable competence, not titles. I had to be careful about which resumes mentioned "Marine", though. The hero worship is largely a lie; at best you're "awesome", but still alien.
It didn't matter though. Alcohol is more powerful than dreams, and I easily chose the former. Ended up with no family to talk to, and homeless. Whatever. Divorce was worse. At least the VA here was sympathetic.
Payphones are no longer a thing, it turns out. I needed my own to get a job. Found a place that gave poor people a huge discount. Android 4.4, and this chiclet of a processor could barely handle that, but it made calls and texts, and I learned a bit of Go.
I needed something more substantial, though. Something to pass the time between shifts. Never played World of Warcraft, but I knew about MUDs, and looked into them. Even a chiclet could handle a telnet client, surely.
Thus, Achaea. Talamond was a name I had fond memories of, being the generated name I settled on in Legend of Mana when I brought my little brothers into video games. I knew my chiclet phone wasn't going to handle anything more than slow dialogue and basic combat, so I went after Priest, and Targossas. The city of good. Sorry, "Good". Nice people, probably. I could just roam the world telling people to be nice to each other in a slightly flowery and condescending tone.
Lol
But hey, I rolled with it. I guess Cyrene was what I was really going after, but I liked the non-standard take on the "good" guys. I make jabs at Cyrene IC ("You can betray us all, but if you go to Cyrene I will disown you."), but it's a personal inside joke.
I would say Deucalion was the turning point in a few ways.
It's not fair to put that kind of weight on a person, but even in self-awareness, I used that character as a crutch. I spent so many nights, my freezing Lumarch fingers typing outside the closed public library (they never turned their Wi-Fi off) to get something or other finished, because I was not going to let my god and my city and my fire brothers and sisters down. I developed a fondness for novices and tutorials and stuff, because MUDs are fantastic and Achaea is fantastic and HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS DID YOU KNOW THAT THE GODS AREN'T JUST LORE THEY ACTUALLY TALK AND SMITE PEOPLE AND SAY COOL THINGS LIKE "YOU ARE GOOD, BE BETTER" AND THIS ONE TIME DEUCALION SET ME ON FIRE SO I COULD GO TO THIS ONE PLACE AND I DIDN'T EVEN DIE FOR REAL BUT HE SHOWED ME A TREE AND CTHULHU TENTACLES EATING EVERYTHING AND THERE WAS A SWORD and yeah. I constantly try to find ways to ease truly new people into it. Everyone should know how awesome this stuff is. Anyway.
The Dallas meetup became a personal milestone. I wasn't going to go, because that stuff is for cool, well-off people who have time and money and stuff, but you know, I got so tired of that kind of thinking. Screw it, I've got some weeks until my new job, and there's a plasma center nearby and plenty of free time. Cooper even gave me his old S6. I'm still using it.
Yada yada a bunch of stuff and then we come to now. I have a place of my own, with no financial assistance. I have a wonderful woman at my side who didn't care that I was poor at the time, has encouraged me to reach for higher job prospects (with success; we'll see how it goes), and made it very clear that if I drink like that again we're done. Dunno when I'll pop the question but we both know it's coming someday.
Even at the time, I knew a text game on a crappy phone was an odd source of motivation to keep going, but sometimes you take what you can get.
I talk a lot of shit and sometimes give the admins a hard time, but it comes from a place of humility and love and appreciation for this hobby and everyone who's part of it.
And Deuc, I know this stuff probably got tiring and you have a life, but please come back for five minutes and smite Farrah already, if nothing else. Just so she knows we still care.
https://www.takethis.org
@Talamond
You are still my Caefir bro irl, don't worry (no smitings required, kthx).
Torinn, you had some controversial ideas, but I knew where they came from and I tried to carry the intent forward with better execution, and it seemed to work. Rave on you for having fantastic seeds of ideas (the Academy needs better representation of Targ for baby Targs, Harbs need to know they're important and not just Not-Dawnblade, etc)
Farrah, if Hashan doesn't become the go-to city in the next six months, you're dead to me. Targ is mine and will be fine under Soth, but Hashan deserves more than old Achaea memes.
Looking forward to your downfall. If not by Deuc than by the collective rage of Targies and Targ-turned-vengeful-Mhaldorians.
Also, Mhaldor, please wreck Farrah (and no one else, so she knows) out of principle. She deserves it. All the rumors of things she said about your mothers are true.
https://www.takethis.org
*glances down at his trusty sidekick, the S5*
Do let me know if you head over to the UK, I'll come buy you a pint. Hope the Chemo us going well dude.
Did the first round. Not the most fun thing I've ever done, for sure. They say the whole process will gake 8 months to a year so any travel has been paused for the time being. But I will take you up on that offer for sure.
Still going to take things slow and be attentive if the flashbacks return, but so far, things are looking up.
If you or someone close to you are going through a rough time, please reach out. I promise that someone else cares, however unlikely that feels in the moment.
Reaching down with a massive hand, Sartan lifts your head and draws a taloned finger across your throat, the wound closing as He does so.