New doodles

I had another drawing binge a few days ago, and I'm pretty happy with the results.

First, my first attempt to draw some sort of humanoid-type. Here's a quickie of my worgen hunter Max, with his best friend, Jax the mastiff-



Jax actually turned out looking more like a boxer than a mastiff, but I'm not sure what to do to 'fix' it. Oh well, practice should make it better.

And now a random horse that I drew while trying to come up with another Jahira/Windstar picture. They were not cooperating, so this just popped into my head as a replacement. Or something.



Considering how long it's been since my last horse sketch, I'm kind of impressed with myself.

I've been bouncing between games a lot lately, depending on my mood and whether my brother (who just moved to the other side of the country for the next year or so) is online to pester. Which means I haven't really done much of anything interesting. I did manage to get Kel that fugly pink bird-mount from Love Is In The Air. She still didn't get her achievement/title, though. She still needs the rose bouquet and to throw rose petals on a couple race/classes. Hopefully I'll get it next year.

And the last bit of news- my sister and I have adopted a new kitty. She's one of several cats that have been hanging around the store where we both work. After two of the other kitties got hit by reckless idiot drivers, a couple of the stockers and a manager found homes for a couple of the others. Socks came home with us. Buster wasn't too sure about it at first, but they're getting used to each other, and now he keeps trying to get her to play tag with him. They're adorable.



/Waves :)

Storytime- Grizzly Spirit

Max tossed another crumb of bread to the black-and-white creature sitting hopefully at his feet. He had been coming down from Amberpine Lodge to eat his midday meal on the slope by the river for a few days now, and the little skunk had appeared and started begging for scraps on the second day. Normally, Max wouldn't feed a wild animal, but this guy seemed harmless enough, and other than his begging, acted like any of the other skunks living in the woods nearby. Max took another bite of his sandwich, and tore off another bit of crust for his little friend. However, when he tossed it to the skunk, it didn't move. Max looked more closely at the critter, and raised an eyebrow in surprise at it's shocked expression. Before he could react any further, suddenly something gently nudged his knee.

Max turned his head slowly, and his expression matched the skunk's rather closely, as he looked straight into the eyes of a large, pale, blue-white bear. They stared at each other for several long seconds, then the bear lowered it's head to nudge Max again, this time on his elbow. Max realized it was staring at his sandwich, and slowly his surprise faded into amusement. He tore the remainder of his lunch in half, and held out a piece on the palm of his hand, ready to jerk it back if the bear was too greedy. However, instead of snapping the food up like most wild animals would, it snuffled at his hand briefly, before gently taking the sandwich in his shiny white teeth. It then dropped the offering, letting it fall apart on the ground, and proceeded to neatly pick up each part, first the bread, then the meat. It then turned back to Max and licked his palm, as if in thanks.

The bear settled down next to Max as he finished the rest of his lunch, eating more out of habit than hunger after the unexpected meeting stole his appetite. He noted, almost absently, that he could almost make out some of the grass and twigs that the bear was lying on, and he realized that it must be some sort of spirit. He couldn't quite decide what to make of that, except that it most likely explained the bear's intelligence and good manners. Tentatively, he reached over and touched the bear's back. Surprisingly, it felt very solid, with thick, rather soft fur covering a respectable layer of hard muscle. The beast made a soft rumbling sound, deep in it's chest. It sounded approving, so Max spent a few minutes on a good back-scratching. It wasn't quite as effective as it was in his worgen form, but he didn't want to break the peaceful spell by shapeshifting. Besides, the bear seemed appreciative enough.

Finally, Max gave a final scratch behind the bear's ears and stood. He had already taken twice as long as he usually did, and the hunters in the Lodge had given him a task to do, and he couldn't put it off any longer. The spirit-bear scrambled to it's feet right after him, and began following him up the hill towards the Lodge. Max paused, then turned around.

"A'right, just what d'ye think ye're doin'?" he asked, eyeing the big ghostly animal. And got his second shock of the afternoon, as he heard a faint but distinct voice in his head. "Friend. Follow." Max stared at it (Not it, him), then shook his head. "But... Wait, does that mean...?" he stammered, confused. The bear simply waited, looking at him patiently, but with obvious determination. Max finally snapped his mouth shut, and rubbed his hands over his face. "Well," he said finally, "If ye're gonna be talkin' in m'head, guess I should know better'n t' argue with ye." The bear nodded, his expression brightening, and he shuffled closer to gently bump his head on Max's chest. "We go. Together." Max gave a helpless chuckle as he nodded back, and together they continued back up the slope.

After a few steps, however, Max paused again, as something small bumped against his boot. He looked down at the little skunk, who stared back up at him hopefully. "Wait a sec... Ye too? Aw no. Ain't happenin." The skunk just continued looking up at him, and finally Max sighed in defeat. "Ye gotta be kiddin' me..." With his two new friends in tow, Max headed up to the Lodge, to get directions to the outpost where his next job would take him.




--------------
So, after about a week of camping, Max has his first spirit beast. And yes, I am now working on his non-combat-pet achievement, so he can get a Stinker. It is totally the fault of that darn mountain skunk that kept him company the whole time he was camping. My 'cute-resistance' didn't have a chance... :P

Update time

So, I really don't ever intend to have long spells between posts. I really don't. It just sort of... happens. :\

To attempt to make up for this last one, let me mention that there is currently 2 RP things going on at the moment. One with Jahira, Windstar, and a couple other druids, and another with Max and Arnen. Yes, me and sis are finally getting the poor brothers reunited, hopefully sometime in the next couple days. In the meantime, I've been keeping myself busy in between work shifts.

Firstly, Rift-Kel is up to 47, almost 48. Leveling has been slowed lately, in favor of trying to work on professions, but I'm getting myself back in gear. Not much longer, and I will have my first non-WoW max-level toon. Which of course means I will get to start on the next one. >.> Most likely my lil chloro-mage Vanyell. Or maybe perhaps one of my Guardian characters. Hmm...

In Lord of the Rings Online, I have been tinkering on holiday festival stuff. Mostly doing the holiday quests and collecting festival costumes/housing items/ mounts. My burglar Daeren is my official mount collector, and he got both of the in-game mounts on the first two days of the festival. Then Turbine snuck a new one in halfway through the holiday, so I took him to grab it as soon as I learned about it. The festival is almost over now, and I think I'm a little burned out with it, so I probably will be getting back to normal questing/leveling now. Especially since the newest expansion has already been announced for this fall. Ugh, so much to do...

Finally on to WoW-related stuff. Kel has had her first attempt in the raid finder, and I think it went well. She didn't win any drops, but at least I didn't cause any wipes, and she wasn't last on the dps meter, either. My game did go down to 2fps, occasionally dropping to 1fps, during most of the boss fights (which I was expecting, my computer doesn't like 25-man raids). She is also finally almost done with her Molten Front stuff. Yes, I know, I'm a slacker. >.< She should only need another day, maybe 2, of dailies to recruit her last faction, the Ancients, and then she'll have a shiny new hippogryph.

Oh yea, she's in the Wildfire Riders now, too. It still hasn't sunk in completely, and I'm kind of half expecting them to realize their mistake and boot me out. >.>
(Just kidding. :P I <3 you guys)

Jahira has also been seeing a lot of play time. Not too long ago, I sort of realized how much I love her character, and how much I've missed playing her, so she's kind of taken over #2 priority, as far as gear and things. She is way behind Kel right now, but I've been slowly figuring out how to Boomkin with her. She just recently reached the ilvl required for the new Time heroics, although she really needs a new weapon before I'll feel comfortable taking her in there. Which means that Kal has also been getting some attention as well. I had (sort of) recently switched one of her professions to blacksmithing, and have been wearing out her gryphon's wings farming ore to skill it up. She's still working through Northrend levels, but it's so dead up there (harhar) that she has little competition for ore nodes, and it's going pretty quickly. The biggest problem for now is my attention span. I really don't mind farming, in fact I downright enjoy it, but a few laps around Howling Fjord and I swear my brain tries to shut itself off. :P

My brother has finally convinced me to give the PvP server Arthas another try. I only have 3 characters over there so far, a little forsaken warrior, a human paladin, as well as my blood elf hunter Kerrowyn. She has been so neglected on Feathermoon, with 4 other hunters for competition, I decided to transfer her to Arthas, for a couple reasons. 1- I wanted a hunter on that server, 2- I hoped a new server might get me to play her more, and 3- I figured that if I still neglected her, I wouldn't mind as much since it's not my main server. So far I've got her up 3 or 4 levels since the transfer, and while I've switched my 'lowbie focus' to my pally, I do intend to continue working on Kerro in the near future.

And finally, Max has been getting some infrequent play time as well, and is currently 71. It's amazing what a good motivator it is, just having certain pets planned for a character. It was not hard getting him to 69 for his Beast Mastery talent, so he could go tame his devilsaur Fury (formerly King Mosh). And now I keep thinking about the spirit beasts I want to find for him, which means the sporadic leveling will continue. Oh yea, and there will be Max stories posted soon, as well.

And I think that's enough for this Wall o' Text. Time to crank up my new Lacuna Coil album (which is amazing) and do some leveling. Soon as I figure out which game I feel like playing first. :D
/Waves

Why didn't I try this sooner...

Sabre + Kibler's Bits = .....



Yes, he really is the same size as her mount. /boggle
(This is what happens when I get a cold and stay up way too late.)

Storytime: Giving

Slow crappy computer and lack of WoW-time has not overcome holiday writing binge. /flex
And yes, I know it's a few days late. Enjoy anyways!

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Stormwind was glowing, multi-colored lights chasing the evening darkness away. Windstar and Jahira were perched on the roof of their little house, silently enjoying each other's company as they admired the view. Eventually Star noticed Jahira glancing in her direction, and gave her a questioning look. The elder elf just smiled and slipped one arm around Star's waist. "Nothing, my love," she assured her. "Just enjoying the scenery." Star blushed faintly as she rested her head on her mate's shoulder.

A few minutes later, Jahira broke the silence again. "Tomorrow is Winter's Veil," she said. "Greatfather Winter is supposedly arriving in Iron Forge and handing presents out to everyone."

Star raised her head, quirking an eyebrow at her tone. "'Supposedly'?" she asked. Jahira gave a slight shrug. "After all the years I've been around humans and dwarves, some of their habits still seem a little odd." she replied. "Sometimes I think they invent holidays just for the excuse to throw a party." Star chuckled quietly. "That's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?" Jahira smiled, giving her companion a gentle, one-armed hug. "Not at all. In fact, gift giving is one of their better customs, I think." She straightened, moving her arm from around her young mate and giving her an expectant look. "So. Ready for bed yet?"

*** *** ***
Star was woken up the next morning by the sound of voices, followed by the front door closing. She blinked sleepily up at Jahira as she came over for a good-morning kiss. "That was just Kal," the older druid said in response to the unasked question. "She needs a small favor, so I'll be a bit busy this morning. I should be done by early afternoon, though. Would a short visit to Moonglade sound good?"

Star nodded. "I can keep myself occupied until then. Would we be spending the night there? Or shall we just see how it goes?" Jahira pretended to think about it for a moment, then replied, "I think we'll see how it goes. For now, I need to go see about acquiring some silver."

*** *** ***
Two druids walked slowly around the southern shore of the lake. As they reached the first tiny inlet, near where the flight master kept her hippogryphs, Jahira stopped and turned to face Windstar. "Dearheart, remember our conversation last night? About Winter's Veil and my opinion about gift-giving?"

Star nodded, tilting her head curiously as Jahira took a tiny box from her belt pouch and handed it to her. She opened it carefully, then stared in surprise. "Jahira, I..." She slowly took out the small, silver locket inside, first admiring the tiny antler design etched into the outside, then opening it to find a miniature portrait of her and her mate inside. She finally looked up at Jahira's smiling face, her expression caught halfway between joy and tears. She reached for Jahira's hand, managing a very quiet, "But... I didn't get you anything." "Ah, love," Jahira replied. "You've given me more than you can imagine. I'm only repaying some of it."

The only response Star could manage was to pull Jahira into a hug. Which was more than enough of an answer for Jahira.

--------------
Kal tried to hide her impatience as she watched Channi pull the colorful wrapping off of the tiny box. She mentally thanked whatever gods were listening (again) that she was related to a jewel-crafter, as her lover opened the box, then, with eyes gone huge with surprise, she slowly lifted out the silver locket. The wolf's head etched on the outside glinted in the soft firelight coming from the hearth, and Kal knew she was going to owe Jahira a danged big favor for the gift.

Channi finally opened the locket, and smiled at the portrait of the two of them inside. Kal couldn't resist a smile in response, and she reached over to gently brush Channi's cheek with her fingertips. "You like it, hun?" she asked, already sure of the answer, but wanting to hear it anyways. The girl turned and threw her arms around the elf in a quick hug, followed by a much longer kiss, before she finally replied, "It's beautiful! I love it."

------------

I know Kal's part is short, but it's kind of hard to write about someone else's character (at least it is for me), especially when there has been no in-game RP between those two in months. Star and Jahira, on the other hand, have been stuck inside my head off and on ever since they 'hooked up'. It would be almost annoying if they weren't such total sweethearts with each other. :P

And in case anyone is wondering, yes, they did wind up spending the night in Moonglade. It's a semi-regular occurrence.

Anyways! Hope everyone had a good holiday. I, personally, am just glad it's mostly over. /Waves

I'm still here...

Yes, I'm having another fail-blogger spell. Work has been insane with the holidays, and me and sis have been trying to get ourselves ready as well. And then there's the stupid $%^$ing virus that got on my good laptop. I'm having to use my old one for now, (thank goodness I've been keeping it more or less up-to-date) which now can only run Lord of the Rings. So unless I get desperate enough to borrow sis's old laptop, WoW is unavailable until my 'puter is cleaned up and fixed.

Lesson from all this? Never trust a website that has issues with pop-ups. Even something as innocent-seeming as a site for song lyrics. :(

This will likely be the only blog post I make til my good 'puter is fixed, since all my screenies and most of my story-related stuff was on that one. Good news is, my dad has a friend that can fix it. Bad news is, I have no idea how long it will take. Hopefully not more than a couple days. This old thing I'm using now has it's fair share of issues, and is slow as heck. If I didn't need my gaming fix, I would probably not even bother. *sigh*

#1 Reason Why Transmogging is Awesome

Kalenedral has her Quel'Delar again.

/Happy sigh