Yesterday was one heck of a crazy day, and not of in-game things! Most of the day was spent waiting (well, I napped), to see when people would free up because of real life on goings and one in game event that I hadn’t fully accounted for until the very last minute. Oops. Despite the ups and downs, I had a pretty fun day overall. I have been really into writing as of late; a hobby of mine I had put aside during my Montessori training. I am not that good, but I feel great pleasure knowing my friends enjoy it and get a good kick out of it. I even did a free write (writing non-stop and whatever came to mind) on Calaera and in a more story kind of setting. The only goal I had was to try to make it seem she wasn’t all THAT bad and cruel, and when I had posted the link on Twitter… I nearly choked with how many hits my new forum had received in such a short amount of time. Its nothing stellar to other people, but I really hadn’t expected more than maybe 2 people to read it….

Anyway! Yesterday we went through the final two missions of ACP. We were extremely fortunate to have caught the tail end of another group making their way there and hadn’t had much trouble around the seed spawn areas with Gobs because… well… there were none! I don’t visit the old tower often, so it was really nostalgic to go through all the floors while sneaking and being invisible. Made me remember the two times I had to do Rank 4, but worse when it came to the final two floors and Reiokyu (our guide) also had to sneak and invisible.

Our fight set up for the final battle was PLD, BRD, WAR, WHM, RNG, and COR. Reiokyu (PLD) was to tank the seed or something, but to be honest it looked like he was being made into a pinball game. Mekare (WAR) was to take on the copies of us, and Orophen (RNG) and Tamika (COR) was to handle taking down that damned ugly crystal. If you don’t know what a BRD or WHM does, then I’ll tell you that we danced, laughed and had great merriment all to ourselves.

The fight was going well until we hit the time for Judgement and then all hell broke loose. I don’t know all of the spells and abilities being used because of chat filters, but the next thing I knew people were dying or already dead and Mekare’s copy was making a beeline to my doom and destruction. And then… and then! I got turned into a Mandy! *insert squeeing here* The others said I had really turned into the dark side, but you know what? If I were able to, I would so totally try to Head Butt someone without any apologies.

After the wipe, we regrouped and talked about ANNMs but decided instead to do some leveling off of FoVs in Western Altepa Desert. It was level capped at 41, and I decided to switch jobs with Hiroshiko. It was totally weird and actually… not as fun as I think it could have been. Maybe because I was falling asleep or maybe the party itself was making me fall asleep. I don’t know. We managed to get 2 levels for each 40ish leveled person there and the three Taru managed to get one level each. The FoV itself is for page 3 and requires for 10 Beetles to be killed and 1 Cacutar for an added 1k bonus exp, which isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

All in all a rather good night! Though makes me wonder if I will ever get WHM to 75 without falling fast asleep…

Before you continue to read, if you haven’t finished CoP or you hate being spoiled then don’t read any further. Screenshots and everything all contain spoilers, so don’t go crying later on when I told you otherwise!
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Still here? Good. We started off Saturday morning with the damned twins being late despite me saying they needed to be there at 9 a.m. PST sharp. Sharp to Hiro meant 2 minutes late, and sharp to Orophen meant being in another zone but on time and then forgetting to get the medicines I had sent him. Go figure! I was actually wrought with a lot of worry and anxiety beforehand. Years ago, I never really expected to get this far especially after the drama that had occurred with a few former friends at the time. I still remember making a plea of help to my other friends to help get Promyvions done after I was accused of being a spoiled brat because I wanted to get another Promyvion done than what someone else wanted… despite me saying over and over again we were going to do Dem and not Holla after Mea. -_-;

Now that we had gotten this far, I built myself up to finishing the last two missions that day due to the limited time we had with my brother available and because I really wanted to get the rings for everyone. I worried we would mess up somewhere, things would go bad, or something. Its not that I don’t have faith in my LS; because I really do trust them all to do their best because they are an awesome group of people. I just didn’t want to go in with foolish expectations and end up disappointed.

We did dry runs for both the last two missions, and on the second “real” run we were able to pull through wonderfully with the exception of Promathia that nearly had my heart stop a few times with worry we were all going to wipe after Orophen’s EES was more like an EED (Eagle Eye Dud).

I am actually sad we can’t easily redo that last fight. I have seen screenshots, heard the stories, etc, but witnessing the battle and arena for yourself is a totally and completely different thing altogether. It was hard NOT to want to take screenshots of the place like crazy because it was a jaw droppingly beautiful arena and the battle itself was just hair raising and intense! Sure it was easy compared to the other battles, but seeing some of our favorite characters there fighting alongside us and then our favorite spells (go go Meteor!) crashing upon us was just… :Q

Ok, so Meteor was scary as hell at times because being Muted sucks… but I think it was still part of the fun and I actually wish I could do that fight over again just because of the sheer fun of it.

While watching most of the last CSes, I could help but think back on a lot of things. CoP brought a lot of us closer together, as most of us never really played with each other so intensely before CoP save for myself, Orophen, and Mekare. The three of us were used to each other play styles, could read each other, and basically play with each other knowing that our backs were always covered. So playing with my brother, Hiroshiko (other little brother), and Reiokyu was quite different for the rest of us. I still remember playing with Hiroshiko and gnashing my teeth because I kept thinking “I could do a better job…” or “Why the hell is he doing that and not this!?!”. Now I am not so sure of my skills as WHM, because he has grown to be quite competent over time and is actually one of the few people I would trust to take care of us if I’m slacking. Plus, its nice not having to main heal as BRD and still keep up songs on everyone. Even Reio makes me feel self conscious at times now, and I keep thinking the guy thinks of me as a loser now than the other way around.

Now that its done, I am still hoping we get to do things together. Reiokyu is ahead on a lot of things, Hiroshiko needs to get caught up on RotZ, Mekare wants to do ToAU, and I want to do more WotG. I don’t know what order we will do things, when they will get done, or what… but I am hoping to continue to do more things together even after getting our long awaited goal accomplished.

Oh, and I’m sure you want to know what ring I chose…

:3 Now time for sleep~

Despite finishing CoP, getting close to finishing ACP, and having my birthday yesterday… I have something more important to post about. Yes, that’s right. As of now, /echo is now live although not completely finished.

What is /echo and what about doink!?

/echo is a side diary from doink! I say diary because we are disabling comments on the entire journal itself due to the nature of this project. This project is taken as a view point from our characters or how we imagine our characters to be in the game. That said, whatever Calaera writes in /echo isn’t what Calaera in doink! actually thinks or feels (such as MNKs being uncouth gorillas). I am just merely portraying the harsher and more domineering personality that is Calaera and not Calaera/Marella of doink! Make sense? Not only this, but /echo will have more than one author participating in it to help give a more indepth feeling as to how or what is going on in the lives of the people interacting or slaves friends of Calaera.

That said, doink! will still be updated but with MY voice as the real player and not the character. It will also continue to be solely updated by myself and have other game/real life entries posted onto it. Comments, of course, will also still be accepted here since it is a blog and not a diary.

Anyway, feel free to take a look for yourself what is going on in /echo and I hope you enjoy our new project! https://astralcandy.com/echo/

Since completing my Montessori training last week (whew!), I have been busy in the game with odds and ends that I feel my head will spin off. The last time I played the game this much was… well, er… uh… I can’t really remember! And by “this much” I mean almost every day while being productive and not using FFXI as an over glorified chat program.

Anyway, first things first! Skill ups! I have miraculously capped my Healing and Divine magic skill on my level 61 WHM. I am hoping by having it capped now, I won’t have to bang my head on the desk as many times later on when I decide to pick it up again. I have also managed to skill up Fishing 2 levels over the weekend and bring my moat carp count to a measly 408/10,000. Not that I really care that much (sorta), since Fishing is an activity I enjoy participating in to mellow out. I have been having Fishing withdrawals since I’ve been grinding away though, so I am looking forward to getting back into it next week if I am not busy with other things.

I am kind of bummed out about being unable to skill up in Campaign without tags anymore, but I figured it was getting abused in a way S-E didn’t intend and had to be nixed. Still… it drives me bananas not having capped skills and I just have to hope for a Besieged to roll around whenever I am on so I can recap my BLM skills whenever I level.

Speaking of BLM, project BLM DUO has commenced this week! We started off at level 37 on Monday and dinged level 41 last night (or was it 42? I forget…). Our plan is to level BLM a few times a week for a few hours (2 – 3 hours), and hopefully get to 75 without too much trouble. BLU leveling is still on weekends or whenever, and WHM will be leveled after I finish BLM. I think I might be stretched out, but at least two of those jobs are already in their 60s and don’t have much more left to go. We won’t get to level next week since Orophen is attempting to finish up the doink! layout before my birthday, but I think that will give me time to focus on other things such as Fishing and finishing up my RDM subjob.

Last Dynamis-Bastok, I finally received my second piece of BRD relic! Woo hoo! I even had the pleasure of having my own cat (Sakurasama) during Dynamis! She is an awesome pet that nukes, hugs, and noms me when I bite her too. But Dynamis doesn’t like pets and ended up killing her a few times and forcing me to rescue my poor beaten up cat. D;

More than anything I am looking forward to hopefully getting CoP done next weekend and getting my Tamas Ring. I know Rajas would have been great for my BLU (and part of me still wants to get it), but I figure I can change it if I really want to and that I have more mage/support jobs than I do melee anyway. Though I know a certain someone is hoping I go towards DRK or SAM, stating its a better fit for my blood thirsty personality~