thistlechaser | Jun. 18th, 2005

Eh, unusual as in I don't usually post on Saturdays, not as in it'll contain anything unusual. FFXI only!

Mostly I just wanted to archive the FFXI fanfic we've been writing off the CTY site. Eh, perhaps "fanfic" is too formal of a word for it. :P The silly stories which have been cropping up lately.

Note: If you're not a member of one of our LSs (CurseTheYagudo or FinalInsanity), you likely won't get as much out of these as a member would. We're not a RP LS, some of us just fool around ICly sometimes. Stories like these come out of those times.

( Three stories: Adventures In Subligar (AKA: Jaide and Thistle's Excellent Adventure) -- by me, Untitled (a funny tale of Jaide coming to visit Thistle) -- by Jaide, and How I Came to Live With a Yagudo -- by me )

In other news, our "subjob static" happened last night. It's funny, I stopped disliking THF for the old reasons and grew new ones. Now I feel somewhat comfortable with the act of pulling, which might be what caused my new dislike: I don't like the changes in me when I'm pulling. I don't like fighting with people for stuff -- trying to out-pull someone else. I can do it, and I often win, but I don't like doing it. Worse than that: We were in a very crowded area of the jungle. Four other parties in a small area. One of the other pullers (who never screwed me over, stole from me, or in any way harmed my party) died, and my first thought? "GOOD!" Gah! That's so unlike me! And then it got worse: The area we all were camped in was a U shape. Mobs spawned on either end of the "arms" of the U. So you'd have to check one side, then run all the way around the curve to check the other. This other puller was ahead of me. He checked the top of one of the "arms" and turned around and headed back. I continued on (thinking a new one might pop there in the time it would take me to arrive), but there was nothing. So at this point I knew that (since he was ahead of me) he'd get any mob waiting on the other side. So I hit Flee to try to get ahead of him. ; ; Even then I thought it was good that Flee wasn't enough to get me ahead of him (he got the only mob there), but I'm sorry I even tried that.

Trick Attack was okay. I have no issues with moving myself around the mob. Heck, that's what I've been doing on both THF and DRK since getting SA! I reposition myself all the time... but trying to get two other people to position themselves as well was ... a challenge. (If I hadn't been pulling as well, that might not have been as stressful as it was. But with pulling? Fucking insane. I was ready to either cry or scream at people.)

For non-players: Between fights, five of the six people in a party have some downtime. The mages can sit to regain MP, people can chat, you can scurry off to grab a drink or pet the cat. Whoever is pulling gets none of these breaks. As soon as a fight ends (or even slightly before that) you run out and find some new mob to bring back. This makes a damned big difference in your stress level for the party.

But anyway, we all got to 30 (I think we all did...). I really really want to stop playing THF at 34 and do the rest with Eco/Escort XP, but I might push on to 35...

So close to never having to play THF again! So close!