The Duel

It was going to be another boring day in the library so I decided to prepare decently – loaded my tray with fruit and took a bottle of my great-grandmothers energy elixir from the cellar hoping this will keep me from falling to sleep.
Looked at the pile of old dusty books on my desk and unscrewed the bottle… fighting demons is fun and all but studying them sure isn’t even remotely exciting. So I thought I’d start with a warm-up and dragged out the most worn one of them – the ancient grimoire all my ancestors had used and that listed all the known demons and warlocks and such. Had some nice pictures too. I leafed through it stopping here and there to refresh my memory until I suddenly came across a paragraph I had never seen before. The pages looked as old as the rest of the book but I could swear I had never read that part. Well…whatever, I thought, after all it is a magic library so anything can happen and grateful for some new information I began to read. It was about a once powerful mage who had made the deal with the devil to extend his skills and when the time came to pay his debt he wasn’t going to and he vanished. It’s not easy to escape the devil himself so that must give some idea of the powers this man had…
All of a sudden I felt someone watching me, or more like someone else was present in my room. I turned around and there he was – black coat with the blood red lining floating around him though there was no wind, holding his arms folded on his chest casually like having chitchat over the coffee table. His slender body was almost fully covered with something that looked like leather but had a crystal glow on it as if it was made of metal, his boots had a lot of straps and buckles and I was wondering why does one need something that massive just to walk (later on I got my explanation though); his nails were short and well cared for except his right index finger which bore a steel claw around it fitting so closely to his skin that when he moved the finger the metal followed precisely the same way as if it was part of his body. He looked at me and the corner of his mouth moved a bit like he was going to smile but reconsidered. His eyes were the darkest color I had seen and looking into them I thought I saw a tiny fire in both of them but I dropped that thought as impossible. He unfolded his arms and took a step towards me.
When he started to speak I was completely paralyzed for his voice was like a drug spreading in my veins carrying its poison to my heart. It was smooth and subtle and he spoke very quietly but I could almost feel it not so much hear… every word was like a chant, like a part from a spell gradually forming its net around you and suffocating all your senses. And all the time I had the feeling he was mocking me – trying to get me lose my guard, give him something to tie me up with. He said if I want to study real demons I should drop the books full of fairytales and children’s bedtime stories and come with him and he’d show me. I hesitated. But I was tempted.
He snapped his fingers and the room disappeared. We were standing in the middle of endless field of snow and wherever I looked there was just the white curtain of snowflakes dancing to their own rhythm. I was cold and my feet were turning numb. I wanted to ask him where we were going but before I could open my mouth he snapped his fingers again. Nothing seemed to change but I felt the ground moving under my feet and I thought I heard a distant sound I couldn’t yet identify. Then the next moment the sky was covered with huge wings and the air turned warmer as the dragon floated towards us. It was a white dragon, the kind I had only heard about but most people considered a legend more than reality. The mage waved me to follow him as the beast had landed and was folding his wings neatly to his sides. Now I understood why he had boots like that – with my thin footwear all the scales and pikes on the dragon’s skin hurt my feet and if by accident it should move one of his enormous claws he’d rip my shoe apart and probably my leg as well. We sat down and the mage wrapped his coat around me saying it’s going to be chilly up in the air. He couldn’t be more right. My lips were turning blue, my eyelashes started to stick to each other and my throat was hurting from the freezing air I breathed. But I was completely unaware of that as the sight opening before my eyes was astonishing…
He snapped his fingers. The dragon vanished and we were in a cave with frozen walls and sharp pieces of ice hanging from the ceiling ready to slash you up like the best filet knife in the royal kitchen. He whispered a spell and the cave seemed to open and looked more like an arena now. He waved his hand and a flame appeared from nowhere and in the blink of an eye had drawn a circle around us – I didn’t even want to think what might happen if I try to cross it. He gave me that mocking look again and waved his hand once more. The clothes I had worn disappeared and were replaced by a robe from the same kind of fabric he was wearing, it felt funny on my skin but it fitted flawlessly. He tossed a small wand to my feet and I picked it up feeling the smooth surface and sliding my finger over the engraved runes in some language I did not know. Then with the look of obvious superiority he pushed his coat off his shoulders and extended his hand with his palm facing upwards as if offering me something. “Madam,” he said looking at me with that same smile I’d seen once before, “work your magic.”
I was petrified, all the spells I had learned rushed through my mind – I didn’t know what he wanted from me but I knew I had to do something to wipe that smile off his face. I knew I was no competition for him so I had nothing to lose. I whispered a short prayer to boost my strength and extended the wand in his direction. Pretty much all the incantations I knew were completely useless…they didn’t even reach him most cases. He just stood there and smiled. I felt the rage growing in me so I started to cast with all my skill, throwing daggers of ice towards him, sending off blasts of wind and shooting lightnings. Nothing. I was shaking all over, I felt drained and my focus started to drift away. I had to sit down, my feet were like made of wax. He stepped towards me and I heard the heels of his boots clanking against the ice floor of the cave. He made a circle around me but I was way too exhausted to even raise my head when he was passing behind my back. He stopped in front of me and bent down so his face was only few inches from mine. I began to move backwards as I couldn’t take his look, his eyes were burning into mine so eventually I was lying on my back and he stood beside me with his coat wrapped around him again. “Next time you have to do better than that,” was all he said. Then he turned and walked away and with each step he took the circle of flame died down so when he reached the rim of it there was nothing left. He was out of the cave when he stopped and bent forward to tighten his boots and his coat slipped down from his left shoulder. Right below the tip of the bone there was a tiny black rose tattooed to his skin.
He followed my glance, smiled again and snapped his fingers. I started to fall though technically I could not fall as I was lying on the ground, but the cave around me began to spin and I closed my eyes.

S-grade

Yes, it's finally here - I am 76! Took me a while to reach there, but the sweeter it feels now.

Very soon the quest is done and I will have my little blue tag, from now on it's Saint Irijs :)

All this grinding has once more shown me this very important feature of this game - you have to have friends to achieve something. And I'm happy to say I have been blessed with a bunch of them. After being pretty much on my own for a while it feels so great to hear someone say in clan chat that we are going to that certain spot because I need my level or having people put up with lousy XP just for a quest - thank you guys, I owe you big time. I think I can safely say that I have found myself a home again - a clan of really nice people, decent leveling and sufficient amount of PvP (and yes I know I suck at it - trying to work on that one). Lot of funny talking going on in Vent and chat, strong support for each other and a common goal. I wasn't fully sure about joining for a while, have been in small and peaceful ones lately and was afraid of the change - but fortunately I have friends who won't let me be a loner and bugged me long enough to make me decide. Love you for that. Forgive me for being a carebear sometimes, and I know it's hard to put up with me when the bitch hits the fan - but regardless of what I say and do (or leave undone) I care for you a lot and I wanna do my best to help us grow and get stronger. We rule :)

Virtual Reality

Some of my non-gamer friend once defined online RPGs as "dating portals with an advanced interface" and sometimes I think he was not so wrong after all. Fantasy world communities do have all the qualities of a real world meeting (/mating) place just without the final possibility of physical contact (unless you take the relationship out of game of course) which tends to make it way more relaxed and the ties much more loose. Committing yourself to someone in real world means a lot of other things to follow but in a game it can be just role-play and therefore no strings attached. Virtual friends can be unplugged when you get tired of them or they don't behave like you want them to; when you feel that you need some company you can just log on and there's always someone to talk to.
It's like in childhood - most of us had imaginary friends back then - when all the world was against us they came to offer a shoulder to cry on. They were always ready for an adventure and never refused their help. And they were only ours, no one else had the right to know them. The only difference is that modern imaginary friends are in fact real people - yes they can pretend to be someone else but we choose them by the qualities we like in them and if the role they act out matches ours we don't care that it's all just a fairy tale or even a big fat lie. But real people have real lives too somewhere and that always has an influence on their virtual lives (or it should have at least not the other way) - so we don't really know where and how they spend the time they are offline. And once we have accepted them as our friends we tend to think they belong to us. Or that they exist because we want them to.
So from one hand a virtual relationship needs much more contribution than a real life one - in real you can just give a call to a friend to say that you care, get together for a drink or just be there with each other doing nothing. Fantasy friends cannot have that - when you have logged off you are gone. And they never know if you will return. But then again they can start consuming more of your time than real people - since you met in that game world you must have at least one thing in common and usually you have more. So it can become a more rewarding relationship than the ones you have in real - sharing same interests and having fun together gets people very close. Besides, when you feel bad you stay out so they hardly ever see your down sides. Because of the anonymity of the web they can be much more open in talking about personal things so the connection that you have can be a lot stronger and make you feel that you have known this person for a long time. And sometimes it's better to keep it that way and not try to bring it out to the real world.
Unfortunately that is something that I cannot handle yet - if I get close to someone in a virtual world I want to meet the real person behind the screen, either to gain a friend or to see that we don't have anything in common. But I have to know.
Speaking of feelings in cyberspace - that's tricky. It's so easy to fall in love with an image, a projection of all the qualities you like in a person. And acting out romance is fun and in a healthy role-play it only adds to the joy of it; just as long as it pleases both sides. Starting to demand commitment and vows of loyalty might get things moving in a wrong direction. Regardless of all it's still a game and putting real things at stake for it is not right I think. We have to draw a line somehwhere and if we can't then let others do it for us and get a reality check as to what is important and where the priorities lie.
I guess I have been lucky, of course I have got my fingers burned a couple of times and made a bad desicion but in general it has been a great time for me so far and I sure hope it goes on like this. I have met amazing people and made some real good friends, connections that have moved outside game and have a life of their own now. Had my share of being a drama queen - even that can be refreshing if you don't do it in real world :)
So I will continue my adventures and hopefully find a lot more to discover...

Kinderstube of Democracy

Unfortunately had to leave Aden behind for a while... Real life kicked in, and not exactly in a way you would want to... Considering that I'm from a country with relatively young democracy (I'd stay it has learned to read and write if we compare it with the stages in human life), I think I can be a bit derailed in the light of last days' events. And I guess even in places with history in freedom of speech and all that it is kind of discouraging to see your home town vandalized by people so young they hardly ever can have a political opinion.
Makes you think of the power of mass psychosis again - and the similarity of humans (var. Sapiens...) to a pack of hyenas. Nothing to do with showing your protest when you break shop windows and drag out designer jeans - trying to make a stand against Armani?!
The other thing that comes to mind next morning - time heals all. Only couple of hours ago the place was a living hell of burning fires, rocks flying in the air, shouting in different languages and the concentration of anger so high you could feel the adrenaline running and have to fight the urge to get down on all fours and howl with the wolves. With the sunrise everything has changed - shattered glass has been removed, streets have been washed and bodies counted; traffic is taking its usual routine and kids worry about final exams and boyfriends. Tourists have coffee in old town cafeterias, not even noticing the missing windows of a nearby liquor store, of course they won't since things like that are daily stuff in their countries - so what's all the fuss about... And well, life does go on. Just never again will we watch CNN with the same indifferency as before, thinking "the spoiled brats who have nothing to do so they start a riot". We have crossed the news margin and stepped to the big boys' playground.
Time to bury those petty feuds and unite against a common enemy and I don't mean to retaliate in the same manner but everyone just stop and think for a moment where the priorities are and how fragile the balance is. This also should once again prove the vital importance of being informed and educated - knowing that every cause has its effect and everything you do has its impact on a lot of others would maybe prevent from outright stupidity. Like the PM said - not a wise desicion to start your adult life with a 5-year prison sentence.
And as lame as it may sound - tell me who your friends are and I tell who you are. In that age we get far more influence for our role models among ourselves, not unfortunately the ones posed by society - olympic champions, successful enterpreneurs, Medecins Sans Frontieres... Assuming ratemydick.com gets more clicks than bbc.co.uk/history - and that is nothing suprising, just sometimes maybe we ought to sit down and reassess our goals.
Idle hands are Devil's tools, just don't forget that.

Realm of the Down Under

Pagan's Temple

Tip of the Day

An old man lived alone in Minnesota. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very hard work. His only son, who would have helped him, was in prison.The old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned his situation:

"Dear Son, I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year. I hate to miss doing the garden, because your mother always loved planting time. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me, if you weren't in prison. Love, Dad"

Shortly, the old man received this telegram:
"For Heaven's sake Dad, don't dig up the garden!! That's where I buried the GUNS!!"

At 4 AM the next morning, a dozen FBI agents and local policeofficers showed up and dug up the entire garden without finding any guns. Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son telling him what happened, and asked him what to do next.
His son's reply was:
"Go ahead and plant your potatoes, Dad. It's the best I could do for you from here."

Moral:
No matter where you are in the world, if you have decided to do something deep from your heart you can do it. It is the thought that matters not where you are or where the person is.

Valentine's Day

Scroll of escape to my love...