[Gnome]: /target Lord Marrowgar, /rasp

I have a confession to make.

I have yet to set foot into the forbidding halls of Icecrown Citadel and -already- I have a seething hatred for the very first boss -- that swirling mass of frost, souls, and clattering bones, Lord Marrowgar, Guardian of the Spire of the Frozen Throne.

"How?" you may ask, dear reader, "How could such a petty, small-change boss cause you so much grief, especially since -you- haven't even raided Icecrown?!"

The answer, dear reader, is simple and two-fold: [Lord Marrowgar Must Die!] and the Frost Emblems that one would receive as a reward. Trivial, simple, penny-change things that most raiders would take for granted are getting me all tied up in knots... and, unfortunately, it is my fellow raiders who pay the price.

Now, on the whole, I'm pretty laid back when it comes to raiding. PUG or planned, I keep my mouth shut, do my job, and speak only when spoken to when I raid as a general rule, and when ever possible, I maintain an overall easy-going, helpful, and quiet disposition, with a little random humor or assertion of authority when needed. As one of the older players in our guild, that disposition is part of my way of leading by example.

However, I recognize that I am one of those players that a) will push, and push really hard if I want something immediately, b) will start cracking whips if something is planned and no one is preparing for zero hour, or c) will flip out something ugly if something interferes with or outright erases a planned event I have been looking forward to. Generally, though, there aren't any complaints or complications if only one of the above were to occur. Any tantrums really only last about a couple minutes at the worst, and once things get going raidwise, I'd care less about kills, quests, drops, or emblems. I'm enjoying it, and I know everyone I raid with is having fun, too.

Lord Marrowgar, however, brought with him a whole string of complications, and for the sake of not identifying anyone else here, I will not go into detail what those said complications were. Let's just say that when they arose, it got ugly fast, and Marrowgar showing up on our server three times already only made the situation worse. That was on top of Real Life issues, including having a planned day off from work getting eaten up by an emergency at my dayjob.

Let's face it, no one likes getting chewed up by any one raid member, be it over something as silly as losing a day off followed by being unable to run with the rest of the guild for trivial bits of gear and emblems. It's also understandable if it's a tank or a DPS chewing up the raid out of frustration... but when it's the central healer exploding, -don't- bring him to a raid. You're only asking for grief. Why? Because I know this as fact first-hand.

Yes, as of this writing, I'm our guild's main healer and our guildmaster's second-in-command. That's a load of power, morally and administratively, and I'm old enough to know better than to force my fellow guildmates into doing something they felt they weren't ready for. Everyone performs better when they're enjoying themselves, one learns -- the healer included. Unfortunately, in my manic irritation, forcing my hand exactly what I did that night, and once I realized what I was doing, I immediately I regretted it. I was committing what I consider a cardinal sin of raiding: forcing a group of raiders to do something they aren't going to enjoy.

Worse, telling another guildie or raider that they were the cause of one man's descent into nerdrage before a raid even starts is bad form. There is no control over anyone in that situation, save for one's self... So I did the only responsible thing I could do once my douchebag behavior was identified.

I logged out. If I stayed, the raid would have not been enjoyable, much less successful.

It's been several days since the incident, and I've have since been devoting a large portion of my playtime on my Gnomish alt... and loving it. Part of the reason might be the general solitude I had recently due to playing with him, and that is coupled to the light-hearted attitude that seems to follow gnomes around persistently. Most of all, though, is that my gnome has given me a chance to think and understand exactly why I reacted so violently a while ago. Of course, now that I've gotten an idea, that I have managed to wrap my head around what and why, I realize that sooner or later, I'm going to have to go back to my main and face the other factors of what triggered my explosion.

Frankly, though, I'm really in no hurry to return to the endgame, and it's not because of what I might face... oh no! Ludicrous as it may sound or read, I'm just having too much fun on my gnome! I don't know what it is that I did to him when I started tweaking certain character details, but I suspect that I must have discovered some sort of magical secret combination that helps make playing a gnome so enjoyable. Blizzard is sneaky like that...

So, Lord Marrowgar, consider yourself fortunate. You now have one less raider to worry about coming into Icecrown to dismantle your sorry bony arse and making off with all your pretty purple treasures.

I've got more important things to deal with.

*blows dust off blog*

*coughs and waves hand around to help clear the air*

*looking at the ancient entries and shakes his head*

I think it's high time for a change.

When I opened this blog, this was meant to be a sort of practice arena and showcase. In those years, I wanted to be a published author, and my ear was constantly turned to the suggestions of a particular family member of mine. Since then, it's bounced from day-to-day events, to little bits of personal fiction, to sad and depressing rants questioning my life, existence, and future despite intending this blog being a happy place where I can help give other people a smile.

Truth be told, though, I knew something was missing when I was writing articles for this blog, though I adamantly didn't want to acknowledge it -- it was missing a purpose, a passion, a focus.

Blogs, I've learned, tend to be about one subject most of the time. Granted, the authors do drift to other subjects every now and then, but they always come back to the heart of their blog. In that light, I will confess that I never really enjoyed focusing on one subject exclusively, and I will also confess to being rather adamant about not having favorites (as I say I don't have room for such.) ... Well, that mindset will come to an end.

I will still have little fictlet articles with Mout, AJ, and Ryan, but what I want to do is turn my attention to something I've put my time and attention to for nearly 2 and a half years --

-- World of Warcraft.

I hear cheers. I hear boos. I hear groans, and the occasional "GET A LIFE, NERD!" from the audience.

Look, I have a pretty good idea how you feel about me turning my attentions to a time-wasting game-world like WoW. I also know why people hate it, and why others think it's a dead horse that Blizzard keeps beating. I would be lying if I said that I didn't feel the same way about other franchises of this magnatude; ie "Transformers" or "LOTR" or even "DC" or "Marvel".

However, unless you want me to write about my life in general (with all the drama and the financial difficulties, me flunking every class every college offers, and sounding like almost every other half-bored, "please-feel-sorry-for-me" blog that's eating up internet space),you will find that my adventures and misadventures in the world of Azeroth have been some of the memorable moments of my life. True, the world is digital, but the people I share them with are real... and for me, that makes the memories real as well.

Now that you know what I'm wanting to write about, you might be wondering what I like to do on Azeroth. All right, all right... I know. Not all of you are, but for those who want to know, -yes-, I raid. I run instances. I make gold. I quest. All that jazz. All 'normal' Warcraft players do all the stuff... and since I'm on a PvE server, that's pretty much almost all I do, and I enjoy it. But truth be told, my heart isn't really all there. It's nice to run around, killing stuff almost mindlessly, talking over kill strategies, and blowing through Heroic dungeons and raids -- but had I my druthers, I'd move at a slower pace, take in the scenery, and get into character.

More groans and boos? Good. There's the door. There are other blogs that cater to you.

Yes, reader. I am a Role-player. And a proud one. The guild I run with as of the time of this article's penning was founded 3 or 4 years ago on Earthen Ring (US), one of the first and oldest RP servers running World of Warcraft to date. While most of the guild ran dungeons and quested in a mad bid to hit level cap, I enjoyed playing my characters, getting into their heads and seeing how they reacted to the world around them. I was never a hardcore, full time RPer. I didn't even care if I was the hero, or if I was just another voice in the background -- I just enjoyed telling stories, and helping other RPers make sense of their own tales.

I have since moved with my guild to Garrosh(US), a PvE server and one a little less hospitable to RP-like activity perhaps. I don't rightly know, but I'm inclined to believe that there are other players who enjoyed RP as much as I do and would love to enjoy RP again. ... And part of me hopes that I find them. It's sad when you don't have others outside of your own circle of friends to share a particular playstyle with.

So here I am. I will write RP tales based on my own personal toons, perhaps post some artwork every now and then, as well report on the many silly, out-of-character hyjinks I share with my guild and our raiding alliance. Also, as I said earlier, I will still be writing "WhIgmi?" ficlets, starring Ryan and his muses, and I will also be making some of my older, less relevant, more depressing posts disappear. In time, I hope that this blog will bring smiles to people's faces as I hoped it would when I first started.

Thank you, and let us all enjoy this new journey together!

-- The KittyLizard

WHIGMI? Episode 4: Something Random

June 20, 2005 – 8:30 PM PST

Ryan sat there tapping his fingers on his desk. His characters had been unusually quiet since the last college term came to a close, and he had lately been trying so desperately to get himself back into order while he had time on his hands. Schedules, commitments, work… On top of that, his mind was so full of ideas and projects to bring into reality that all required the physical will he now lacked.

In short, he was suffering from “Summer Brain-Fry and Fatigue”

At this point, Ryan was about to fall asleep from his desperation-induced depression when Mout/Cephas tapped him on the shoulder.

“Wassup?”

“Nyeh.” Ryan swatted the Dragoon away, “I wanna do stuff… but I don’t want to at the same time…”

“That bad, eh?”

“Yeh…” Ryan lowered his head to his desk and lay motionless for a while. Then he started banging his head on the table.

“That… isn’t… helping…” Mout/Cephas said dizzily. He grabbed Ryan by the head and sat his creator up, “If that’s your definition of getting yourself back in order, you need a new brain.”

“That’s exactly what I need, Ceph…” Ryan moaned, crawling into his bed and burrowed himself into a blanket, “I’m fried.”

“Like that chicken you just ate…” Mout/Cephas smirked.

The treasured stash of 2001 model Bionicle Action figures on Ryan’s shelf started gibbering amongst themselves. The 2002 Models (sans the Bohrok) looked annoyed and began tapping on the shelf above them… LOUDLY.

Mout/Cephas watched the chaos as the two sets of models argued, whilst the Turaga models were desperately trying to calm the two sides down… He then looked at Ryan’s Custom Model of Mout and smirked. The custom returned the smirk, flew down from its shelf and just hovered there in full view of the arguing toys.

The two arguing sides looked at the custom model with a strange bewilderment for a few moments, then started tossing small plastic disks from the nearby pile of parts at the custom.

The custom squealed and grabbed a disk in mid-air, throwing it back and bowled all the toys in one shot.

“SQUEE!”

”ehowheeyow!”

Mout/Cephas was having a ball watching all this as the toys quickly began rearranging themselves and continuing their attack.

Finally, a stray plastic disk bean’d Ryan on the head.

“Guys… How many times do I have to say this…” Ryan picked up the little plastic disc.

The toys skittered back to their positions.

“Wait until the camera’s off…”

All the toys had anime sweat-drops when Ryan pointed out the camera.

Smirking, Ryan began typing the little event… much to the dismay of his toys.

WhIGmI? Episode 3: "Don't expect me to always come up with witty titles for these... m'kay?

(April 29, 2005 --- 1:49 PM PDST )

"Ry..."

"What is it AJ?"

"Aren't you supposed to be packing for your trip?"

Ryan gave his feline-morph identity an odd look, "Yes... So?"

"Then what in the Great Spirit's name are you UP to?"

"Just an experiment..." Ryan answered, returning his attention to his computer. "I'm just defining the characteristics of my characters into a two classes..."

"Oh...." AJ paused to think, "Why?"

Ryan motioned to the plushies of lifeless RPG-characters laying on the floor. "I'm trying to clean up the clutter of my recent gaming streak, and this idea has been bothering me for a long time..."

"So you plan to merge all your chracters into one just to keep tabs on everyone?"

"Yes."

AJ winced. "Ow."

Ryan chuckled in spite of himself, "It's not like it's not been done before, AJ... You are already several characters all at once."

The Cheetah-morph smecked himself on his snouted face, "That's right... StarWars, StarFox, MegamanX... And you're gonna add MORE?" AJ shuddered.

"It's not like it's not going to affect me, AJ, old friend... I just want to get this done and over with so I don't have to trip on everyone... And can you please get Mout in here, too?"

"Okay..."

Ryan looked at the two character classes he defined... based on his two oldest characters. AJ and Mout...

Cat-Class: (Not all are cats...) Often has no living family when introduced. Had been involved in a terrible event that either killed this character, or brought him close to death. Has been altered or brought back to life through biotechnology or genetic manipulation. Often a loner, but does not complain about working in groups. Natural born fighter.

Dragon-Class: (Not all are Dragons...) Has living family when introduced. Is either married, betrothed, or widow-ered. Naturally dark past and is typically overpowered. Goes berserk or has a berserk mode. Can Shapeshift.

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

Before Ryan could finish typing... the comp died.

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

"ARGH!!!!"

A cry rang from Ryan's Study.

Mout and AJ winced.

"Lemme guess," Mout murmured crushing his diet coke can, "Ryan's comp crashed again."

"Sounds like it..."

"Doesn't Ryan know that the blog-ring he joined has a post-recover feature?"

"It does?" AJ asked...

"WAIT... NEVERMIND!" Ryan shouted, " I fixed it!"

"... Well... he knows now..." Mout chuckled, "What'd I tell ya? Being directly linked to Ryan has it's benefits..."

"How are you linked to Ryan like that? I though only Ceph was..." AJ looked confused, which seemed unusually out of character for him, "You already..."

"Merged. Ryan kinda got tired seeing Ceph's empty armor laying around on the study's floor after an RP and so he gave me Ceph as a new form. A truly humanoid body isn't so bad after all... And I've been using my new GX form alot too..."

"GX?"

"Don't ask..." Ryan's voice spoke behind them. AJ turned around to see Ryan hand him two plushies: A black furred lion, and a black panther in a karate uniform.

"You know what to do, AJ... I have to help Kari pack Kato's stuff now..." And Ryan walked into his bedroom.

AJ felt awkward holding the two plushies. Mout was stifling his laughter...

The cat-morph looked the mechanical dragon-lizard in the eye, "Come to think of it... Doesn't GX fall under MY class?"

Mout stopped chuckling, "I never asked Ry--"

AJ stuffed the blackfurred lion plushie in Mout's face before Mout could finish the answer. "Wanna Trade?!"

- End Entry

"WhIGmI?" Episode 2: A Few Days Earlier...

4/4/05 11:15 PM

Ryan sat at his comp again, taking off the Dragoon helmet he's been wearing for most of the day. In an instant, his Dragoon identity was sitting lifeless on the floor nearby. Two small action figures (one a wolfman, the other an elf), were sticking out of the satchel the Dragoon form used for carrying items.

The Dreamer sighed. That was the problem with most of his RPG Characters... They were just shells waiting for a soul. A huge stuffed lion-morph creature was standing in the corner along with an old black panther in a blue karate uniform. They, too, were waiting to be animated into life when he wished to play.
It was custom now for Ryan to be the character and not allow the character a life of it's own. It was cruel, but if he let them all loose he may no longer have the will to keep track of them. And he had plently of characters to keep tabs on.

AJ, his oldest character, was one of the few characters not restrained by this rule. AJ was his main face to the Digital realm, and was basically his avatar of choice. Plus, AJ was Ryan's advisor and his most powerful muse, so Ryan really couldn't afford to put AJ in a coma-like state in the way he did to the newer characters... And AJ was the template for most of the feline based characters, as the Megaman-style helmet and lightsaber on his bunk suggested.

AJ was looking over Ryan's shoulder as the 34-year-old, asian human typed. The cheetah-morph smiled seeing that he was being acknowleged and sat on a cluttered chair to read a "Cat Who..." mystery.

Then Ryan's other living Avatar lumbered in. He was Moutekea, an eight-foot-tall dragon-oid monster made of a strange, living steel. His past was very, VERY dark, to reflect the dark past of Ryan's youth. Like Ryan, he was a father and a wise one, too, often backing up Ryan whenever his son got rowdy.

AJ raised a hand as if to say "hi" to his dragon-droid counterpart, and Mout raised his talon in the same way to AJ. The two forms bore a mutual respect for each other... simply because their existance was linked, thanks to Ryan. Mout stopped in front of the lifeless Dragoon on the floor, sitting propped up against the wall. The mecha-dragon sighed.

"Ry. You know better than to leave him like this..." Mout moaned. There was a time Ryan had left Mout in a lifeless state and Mout pitied the newer characters who were forced under this rule. AJ agreed.

"Mout's right. It's not really fair, Ryan. These are our brothers... I kinda want to hang out with them..."

Ryan felt guilty, but they had gone through this before. He held his head in his hands and sighed, "Guys... you know I'm being pushed as it is... I can't afford setting all of you loose anymore. Plus, the new guys are strictly RPG Characters, not just characters for fiction and comics like you two. They are directly linked to my life-energy, unlike the two of you who have the luxury of being able to exist in your own worlds. If I set them all loose, I might not keep track of all of you..."

"You've made that clear, and we're obligated to agree." AJ spoke, "But do you really want them to stay lifeless while you're not playing with them?"

"You're making me ask for trouble guys," Ryan warned, knowing AJ was right... but now was a bad time... his mental resources are either drained or being trained to focus on other things, and he could now only handle a couple characters at a time.

Mout was still looking at the lifeless Cephas, stll slightly disturbed. "Ryan... Did you base Cephas off me?"

Ryan looked at Mout almost in surprise. That was something he rarely thought about... and it was sometimes a detail he would forget. Most of his characters were based off either Mout or AJ. On top of that, Mout was based off AJ. Ryan turned his head and looked at his dragon-mech avatar, "Yes. I did base Cephas off of you."

"Makes sense, Mout." AJ added, "The people Ryan plays with know you better than me."

"Mout..." Ryan said, "I know what you're thinking. I'd like to wake him up... but you'll tire us both out..."

"Please..." Mout pleaded, "Now that I know Cephas was based off of me, I feel worse. It's like looking at my own dead body..."

Ryan shuddered at the description of what the dragonling was feeling, but Mout was right. It was unpleasant.

"Fine..." Ryan sighed, "But only for tonight. As it is, Cephas needs as much rest as I do." And the Dreamer took a bit of Mout's energy and merged it into Cephas.

In the shadow of the helmet Cephas wore, a pair of blue eyes glowed. "Ow..." The Dragoon moaned, "How long have I been asleep?"

"Not long." AJ said with a smile.

"Guys..." Ryan spoke with a yawn, "I hate to do this to all of you, but I'm worn out."

"No, please..." Cephas pleaded in the same fashion as Mout did, "I just woke up..."

"If I stay awake longer, all of you would be sitting around with nothing to do."

"But can't Cephas stay awake longer?" Mout asked.

"It might mean putting you two to bed now." Ryan replied wearily, "But if it's any consolation, I'll have Cephas
join us fully sentient tomorrow... -after- study time is over. As it is, I've screwed myself over tonight..."

AJ yawned, "Fine... We all need the rest..." and the cheetah-morph climbed into his bunk. Mout stretched and
vanished, leaving behind a small custom LEGO Bionicle model laying on the floor. Cephas gently picked up the toy and placed him in the toy box-- then returned to his place in the room and fell asleep.

Ryan looked at his word processor. Satisfied, he saved the file and went to bed. (April 4, 2005)

*shifty eyes* ... Format Change Warning

... I don't care whether or not this blog becomes popular. I could care less... but, I am aware that this blog needs more attention from me.

A particular clan member has been encouraging me to sharpen my writing skills here, and I wholly agree with him...But just blathering about my life and putting myself and others down is plainly not my cup of tea... or coffee. Lots of blogs loose readers that way anyways, from what I'm told.

So I present to you a change in format.

I will start writing in the third person, fiction-style. The person representing me in these "fics" will be a fictional character with a fictional family based on the people I live with in reality... plus the RPG/Fanfic characters I've created, and have become attached to, will be running about as well... but they will incapable of mingling with the family of my represented character (as they are just figments of my imagination.)

This format was inspired by Jen Irwin and her "Ashes of the Fourth Wall- Ficlets."I found myself relating to her quite a bit in these "ficlets" and I see this as a novel idea for this blog.

For your enjoyment, and consideration, I will add the first of these "ficlets" this post. Tell me what you think and whether or not I should pursue writing blog entries in this fashion

Thanks y'all.

>>>>>>>

"WhIGMI?" (pilot episode) Introductions

(11:59 AM --- 4 /11 / 05)

A man in his mid-thrities sat nervously in front of a college computer. He knew he was not supposed to do this, but under the circumstances and his impulsiveness, he needed to get this down before anyone started rioting. He brought a bronze skinned hand up to run through his frizzy, black hair, pushing a rogue lock away to reveal a faint scar over his left eye.

His online friends knew him as "Ryan," and that was the name he assumed whenever he got the chance to use it. He enjoyed staying incognito and keeping secrets, and his true identity was apparently one of them.

Ryan's thoughts turned to his clan as he typed:

His wife... Kari. He loved her like a treasure, she treated him the same... even though they were often found on different pages of the same book.

His son... Kato. If Ryan were a stranger, he would have seen this 13-year-old boy as a pest. A bratty, bully-ish pest. But Kato was Ryan's only son and Ryan sees alot of what he was like in Kato.

His older brother... Vic. He was often there to support Ryan and keeps a close eye on his little brother. After a little fiasco, Vic's let Ryan and his family stay in his house. In fact... most of Ryan's clan lives in this house...

His niece... Raya. Raya is Ryan's eldest niece and Vic's daughter. She's alot like her uncle in many ways, and seems to be the only clan member capable of interacting with her uncle's characters.

There were other clan members, too... his mother and father-in-law, a pair of elderly live-in housekeepers, his brother's wife... Plus, the rest of the clan lives on the same street. Including his grandmother and cousins.

Ryan felt an impatient tap on the shoulder. The man went rigid and slowly turned around, half hoping it wasn't the computer lab's supervisor... Then Ryan breathed a sigh of relief...

It was just AJ, Ryan's oldest character. "AJ" wasn't this character's real name... nope, Ryan just preferred calling his oldest character by a name he used in an RPG that disbanded some 3 or 4 years ago, and AJ approved of it. AJ was an anthropomorphic cheetah (a cheetah-man) wearing clothes similar to his creator: White T-shirt, blue denim jeans and hiking boots. Hanging off the anthro-cheetah's belt was a lightsaber, and tucked under AJ's arm was a black leather biker's jacket.

AJ's blue eyes scanned the screen and pointed out a few things to Ryan. Most people would be irritated by this, but Ryan tolerated this intrusion to the point of enjoying it-- and for good reason. AJ was not only Ryan's oldest character, but he was also Ryan's most powerful muse. This position rewarded AJ many identites for various fanfics and RPGs that Ryan found himself involved in.

"Why don't you list the other guys down, Ry?" AJ said tersely, pulling up another computer chair to sit down on, " You know you left the others at home..."

"Not all of them." A deep, gruff, metallic voice cut in.

"Hey, Mout." AJ greeted.

Moutekea (Mout to everyone else) was Ryan's second most powerful character and often found a way to gain the upper hand. Ryan often regretted allowing Mout to gain near-omnipotence, but it was the only way to keep the convos Mout was involved in tame. Mout was a bipedal, biomechanical dragon that stood just a little over eight-feet-tall. His color scheme was orange, black, and green with red on the feet. All his jointed parts were a polished sliver, and on his back was a set of oddly designed wings... not that Mout put them to use anyways. Ryan had created Mout simply: No fancy horns or frills and the only claws he had were on his hands and feet. To top it off, he wore a gray-black "Bionicle" mask on his torso, to indicate that he did not always look like a dragon.

Ryan sighed. Mout was among his more complicated characters. He squinted at the long paragraph he just typed and braced himself for another one.

Mout was allowed to become Ryan's reflection. Mout had his own wife and son... make that "sons," as Mout had twin boys. Plus, he also shared a dark, frightening, and painful past that echoed Ryan's own past. Both were rebels bent on destruction and anarchy... both ready to break and lose everything just for something so trivial. They were both not people you wanted to be friends with at the time. Both raging and belligerent... ready to argue or fight. Ryan admits that's he still has quite a bit that old bellicose attitude... There are holes in the walls of his study where he punched right through them. If it were Mout, the house would have burned down and the neighborhood would have been a smoking crater.

"Okay... that's enough, Ry." Mout growled, yanking Ryan's hands off the keyboard, "They already know AJ and I are your base characters. You'd better write down a quick description of everyone else before the audience falls asleep on you."

Ryan chuckled nervously and began typing again. Not all of Ryan's characters were allowed to have sentience like Mout and AJ. Most of them were RPG characters, and Ryan made it a point that these RPG characters would not wake up unless Ryan wanted to play as them...

Cephas-- A shape-shifting Dragoon with a dark past. Married. Wife missing. Three children. Current Status: Active

Simeon-- A gray-furred, winged lion-morph. Married. Wife dead. One son.Current Status: Inactive

Ohjaz-- A black cat-Anthro. Single. No living relatives.
Current Status: Inactive

Yarun-- An Elf. Marital status is unknown. Clan status is unknown
Current Status: Inactive
Aarrul-- A Wolf-Anthro in black and green armor. Single. Tribal ruler, sees tribe as family
Current Status: Inactive

Ryan took a double take. Cephas was active?! How'd he wake up?

As if on cue, AJ reminded Ryan: "You were working on your part of the RPG's storyline, Ry."

"Oh..." An anime sweatdrop appeared on Ryan's head, "Poor Cephas... He must be rather jumpy now."

"After you drinking that much coffee?" Mout grunted, fishing out a thermos and a 20 oz. Mountain Dew bottle from Ryan's bulging backpack, "I won't be surprised. Ceph IS directly connected to your lifeenergy anyways."

Ryan recalled practice fic he wrote a few nights ago and recalled a promise he made to Mout and AJ... And with that, he summoned a hyper Dragoon into the chair next to AJ.

Cephas was rapidly talking in some foreign gibberish... until AJ smacked the Dragoon in the back of the head. "Th-thanks... I needed that..."

Ryan looked at what he typed and shuddered at all the plot holes, but he felt as if he had stayed too long in the computer lab. The three characters behind him shrugged. Posting this thing was Ryan's decision, not theirs.

Ryan sighed. This was gonna be a long afternoon...

Without any more fuss, Ryan put up the new entry.

"Let's hope this works."

So... It starts...

...

I normally frown on this. Posting such personal and trivial thoughts out here for everyone to see...

But things like this are everywhere now... Friends and family poking at my steadfast non-conformity and urging me to start something like this.... *sigh*

You REALLY need to convince me to do something this drastic. Really. And convince me they did.

So... Here I am. I am ready to risk my heart, head, and identity to venture into territory I hoped never to explore...

Now... I all I ask is this: What have I gotten myself into?!