I think my favourite experience of most IREs, and RPGs in general, is going in with no preparatory work done and learning as my character does. It does an excellent job of helping me find reason to create internal conflict, reasons to (dis)like certain gods, misunderstand ideologies, and keep that awesome feeling of learning something new fresh and real. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to teach Taiyang something, they're my favourite interactions to have.
In less caps lock, it was entirely possible for Tai to have a terrible, rotten day full of bad thoughts and self-loathing (because of awesome roleplay from some Spirit-side folks), but Tekias pulled him out of his stupor long enough to notice Omei popping in. And that made things go from awful to awesome so quickly. There'll be a log up later (sans the interrogation at the sermon, because that sadly fell out of my buffer), thank you all for the fun!
Oh, and thank you to @Rebra for making the painting item for me and getting it through the Crafter's Guild on my behalf.
My new custom beast came in, and even though I've been looking forward to it and building an appropriate amount of hype for myself, I still managed to not be prepared for how much I love Caihong. Thank you to the admin who made him for me (and did great on the transformation), and for @Tekias, @Oemeria, and everyone else who's had fun puzzling out where in the world the creature could have possibly come from. Having a second thing in the room to respond back to my solo RP really makes it feel more in-depth, even if it's still just me in the end.
] You have completed the SHAFTFIFTEEN_CAVEIN quest! Your city, Spinesreach has received 1200 ylem from you completing the quest. You have received 1000 gold sovereigns for completing the quest. Experience Gained: 25320 (Quest) [total: 14627987] [Milestones]: You have completed your DAILY milestone for 'Complete your daily ylem mine scenario.'! You have received a bronze keystone! [Milestones]: You have completed your WEEKLY milestone for 'Complete 4 daily milestones this week.'! You have received a silver keystone! [Milestones]: You have completed your MONTHLY milestone for 'Complete all weekly milestones this month.'! You have received a golden keystone! [Milestones]: You have completed credit milestone #64: Finish your monthly milestone! [Milestones]: You have completed credit milestone #63: Finish your weekly milestone! [Milestones]: You have completed credit milestone #62: Finish your daily milestone! [Milestones]: You have completed credit milestone #40: Complete your ylem mine scenario!
5
SibattiMamba dur NayaAmidst vibrant flora and trees
After opening up this thread and reading just now, I just wanna say what a gem @Taiyang is for the immense amount of positivity posted to this thread (not only once but three posts in a row) and that it cheered me up immensely. I also love how much I see them posting in the #rp-logs channel in the Aetolian Discord. I know we don't really talk but thank you for being such a bright spot.
I am posting this in the Love thread, even though that was far from the feeling I felt when I woke up this morning and stepped out of my bedroom.
For those who haven't met or heard of him, this is Adley, my almost 10 months old Savannah cat, who is absolutely nuts about toilet paper (or any kind of paper on a roll, really).
I had accidentally left a new roll of tp out on the washing machine last night. Guess who found it? This is only part of the end results of his all-night party. You can see the naked roll in there, as he'd done his absolute best to strip it down and shred all the paper into as tiny pieces as possible.
For all of those out there who in any way took part in the recent hoarding behaviour brought on by Covid-19, just look at this and try to understand the utter dismay of rushing to the local store only to find nothing but empty shelves. Granted, the stores have caught up with things now, so that's not a problem anymore (thank goodness).
I do love my boys, though. They can be so adorable, especially when they sleep.
Only just came back for under a month so far, and I'm getting back into the groove of things and having all the fun that I've always considered as part of Aetolia's charm.
I'm going to list people who has left some impression on me, and has continued to tempt me into following the thread of roleplay wherever it ends up:
Special mention to @Keroc for allowing me to dump Tetch's useless figurines into your hands. Also for joining me in several games of Farkle when I asked for fun.
And of course, love must be expressed to @Chakrasul, because you're still here and I trust you to always keeps things interesting!
Last but not least, @Nisavi, I'm coming for you, bad bat boi! You can't hide.
After being mostly RP inactive for a bit, I really love how much use the think system is getting nowadays. It really helps to drive scenes and helps us facilitate the RP you have going on/the direction you want to go. Also, obviously we're RL people in the Pools, so we often won't OOCly know things that our IC vessels should, and think is just such an elegant, amazing way to communicate hints to us as well.
Even if some stuff doesn't get explicitly picked up on in the current session, rest assured we're seeing them all and will probably tie it together in future sessions.
Maybe this should be in the Roleplay section, but I think it deserves its spot right here, because this is something I have always loved (more so than new content and other fixes, because this is part of what brings this game to life, the small mob possessions, the small RP sessions, the nudges to brighten our gaming experience).
Thank you, whoever you are, who saw my directed says, realized it was a bug, and still turned it into an entertaining little meeting.
Here's how Teani, on a day when she is already in a bad mood, tries to learn a new talent, only to be refused by a grumpy merchant.
Fragrant boutique. (Delve Market) Resplendent in his finery, this Caentoi merchant lounges amongst his wares. You see a sign here instructing you that WARES is the command to see what is for sale.
>> Teani tries to learn Fumology.
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant says, "My apologies, but that is not a talent which I am proficient enough in to teach. You must seek elsewhere."
You blink.
You say, in a feral tongue, "Fumology?"
You demand, in a feral tongue, "You sell smokeable things. How can you not be the right person to ask about this?!"
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant says, "My apologies, but that is not a talent which I am proficient enough in to teach. You must seek elsewhere."
You glare angrily at Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant.
You demand to Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant, in a feral tongue, "How can you stand there, you fat merchant, and claim you don't know enough about this, when it's ALL YOU SELL?!"
You say to Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant, in a feral tongue, "I have the credits. I am being told that you -do- know the talent. Why, then, are you refusing?"
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant says, "My apologies, but that is not a talent which I am proficient enough in to teach. You must seek elsewhere."
"Bah!" you retort disgustedly.
You say to Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant, in a feral tongue, "This is -not- the right way to earn credits."
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant rolls his eyes at you.
You tap your foot with mild impatience.
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant says, "My apologies, but that is not a talent which I am proficient enough in to teach. You must seek elsewhere."
You narrow your eyes at Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant.
"Maybe Ood just doesn't like your annoying face," Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant grunts in reply.
"That may be, but I was perfectly amiable when I first got here," Teani shoots back, crossing her arms. "Now, do you know about fumology or not?"
"I do," Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant replies, deliberately short and unhelpful.
Teani stares at the merchant for a good while in silence, as if waiting for more. One of her fingers taps against her arm in an impatient way, until she forces herself to stop. Taking a deep breath, she finally asks, "And will you consider teaching me this useful talent?"
"Apologize," Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant grunts, puffing out his fat belly in infuriating fashion.
Teani straightens up and raises a brow. "For what?" she asks. "You are the one who began lying to me as soon as I came here."
"HoW cAn YoU sTaNd ThErE, yOu FaT mErChAnT," Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant mocks you, his squeaking imitation very high-pitched, very inaccurate, and very annoying. A bit of spittle hits your face.
As if to mock you even further, Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant casually rolls together a new blend, showcasing the talent he obviously knows.
Teani blinks as the saliva hits her face. Before responding, she reaches up to wipe it off with one finger and flick it towards the ground. Her eyes move to the frustrating fat Caentoi and she takes a small step closer, enough to almost come in contact with his belly. "I. Was. Accurate!" she says in clipped words. Taking another step back, she says, "I don't -need- this talent, but I figured it might be nice to learn something new. Perhaps I should take my credts and go? I can just make more perfume. It smells nice."
"I call this one 'Rude Sapience Woman'," Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant declares, interrupting you rudely in the middle of your words. He proudly shows off his new blend before making it disappear somewhere in a fold. "Smoking perfume? Bold, but Ood will not stop you."
Teani rolls her eyes at Ood, grumbling something about frustrating merchants. "You apologize about lying, and I'll apologize after," she counters.
"What did I lie about?" Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant asks, interrupting the middle of his sentence with a belch.
Teani takes another deep breath before answering, "You repeatedly told me that you do not know enough about fumology to teach. Clearly that was a lie, as you have both admitted and shown."
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant also takes a deep breath. "Ah! Fumology! Yes, I can teach that." He agrees with you.
Exasperated, Teani tilts her head back to stare the ceiling for a moment. With a grumble about stupidity, idiocy, and many more afflictions that might encumber this man's brain, she turns back to Ood once more.
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant takes you through the delicate minutiae of the talent, describing both the broad principles behind it and the intricacies of individual tasks. After an exhaustive training session, you feel well-versed and ready to begin expressing your new Talent for the world to see!
Having finally been taught what she needs, Teani looks at the merchant again and says, "I am terribly sorry for hurting your sensitivities with my accurate description of your appearance. Have a good day." With that, she spins on her heel and exits the shop.
""HoW cAn YoU sTaNd ThErE, yOu FaT mErChAnT," Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant mocks you, his squeaking imitation very high-pitched, very inaccurate, and very annoying. A bit of spittle hits your face." This made me giggle out loud. The world needs more Ood.
We've gotten a bunch of Pools esteems lately and I want to throw some back at you players. As someone whose primary role for the past few years has been to prog (Celani code) stuff (also that's a lie - my primary role has been to afk), I've been having an absolute blast RPing with all of you. In just the past few days, I think I've been run through the entire gamut of RP scenarios, from serious to silly, major to small slice-of-life, cussing to tender; happy, sad, bittersweet, epic, everything in between. I've never been a huge RPer but wow, your talent (and that of my fellow Pools folk) is hugely inspiring and makes it so easy to build off of. So consider this a game-wide esteem to you, the players, as a whole.
That said, there's been some toxicity and unfortunate things happening lately too. At the same time, I've seen the best of you as a community - and wow, it's great. As we grow more and more (can you believe we're consistently around 100 at primetime nowadays? MUDs in 2020?!), let's all remember that there's another person behind the text you see on screen, whether your fellow players, Celani, or admin. Nobody is going to agree on everything all the time, and nobody is going to be perfect and on-top of everything, but ultimately the Aetolia experience is driven by you players. I hope you can all strive to create the best experience for each other; I'm sure it will be repaid in kind.
As I said, at your best, you are amazing - let's make that best the norm. I'm definitely looking forward to interacting more with all of you.
18
SibattiMamba dur NayaAmidst vibrant flora and trees
+1 to the above.
I came here to say that I love how much I see people using the THINK command nowadays. It's amazing for so many reasons. I think the one I've been thinking about most lately is that it gives you an avenue to say something unspoken. Even if someone is able to see them, no one can fault you for having thoughts! It's such a neat and creative way to communicate what might be left unsaid.
Thoughts are the only place I can be actively not nice to people, and I love to think of @Callidora and @Rebra sitting there biting their lips (using vampire powers to hear the thoughts) and telepathy doing double takes.
I the hard work our developers, our producer, and our volunteers are putting in to keep our game running and giving us an outlet to exist in socially in these times where we are uncertain if its safe to go out and some people have trouble not being social butterflies, while others of us *coughcoughmecoughcough* have found their own lifestyle not changing much. But I can appreciate that this might be an outlet that some have because they -can't- go out and be social in the meat space.
This might be a bit of an odd Love, but hear me out..
Back in 2004, an 8yo boy and a 56yo woman was murdered in my home town. Even though the police found the murder weapon and a hat with dna from the murderer, there have been no leads whatsoever since then. Early this morning, after 16 years and with the help of genealogy, a man was arrested and after a few hours of interegation, he admitted to the crimes. We still don't know why, but just knowing he is caught after all this time, that the families can finally have some peace... now that's worth a whole lot of Love. The police have never given up on this case and have worked tiredlessly to find out who did it and now, they finally caught him.
After reading a recent RP log on the forums, hopping back into the game has been obnoxiously tempting, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. Rather than play my normal character and risk accidentally starting up arcs that might ultimately be left to drop with my favorite people (sorry @Zaila I've done this like 5 times) just in case it turns out more casual playing with limited time is harder than I thought it would be and I slip out again, I made an alt just to poke around and play with.
Even with limited time, and not many roleplay opportunities yet, I have been having so. much. fun.
There's so much new stuff that's been added in the past few years since I've stopped playing, so many different and new faces, new features, and a few times I had that almost-magical feeling come back that I used to feel when I first started playing. In addition to the new, there's also so much that's just.. familiar? I guess that's the word. When you've played this game for 13ish+ years (oh my god), I guess that's the best way to put it. There's something that's just so cool about walking into a place I've never seen before on any characters, then going next door and seeing a room that I wrote once upon a time. Looking at this new milestone system that's totally foreign and brand new to me, then seeing occasional milestone tasks in there using things I made literally in high school almost 10 years ago now.
Just a really cool, (admittedly) kinda sappy feeling, all wrapped up in nostalgia that's also kinda new and unexpected at the same time. Reading old posts and seeing the late middle school/early high school phase of my life represented in Aetolia (for better or worse), late high school and first bits of adulting phase, then transitioning to just-got-into-college version, and now here I am years later at the settling down and starting a family phase of life, and Aetolia's still here. I've genuinely grown up with/in front of a bunch of people still playing today, and that blows my mind a little bit. I'm definitely not the same person I was when I first started playing, or even from just fourish years ago when I stopped, and there's something really cool about getting to see that change introspectively from a totally different angle.
Y'all rock
6
SibattiMamba dur NayaAmidst vibrant flora and trees
I the RP that @Ayastia and Axius have been having off and on. They're.. growing to be tolerant of each other after what was a rather messy breakup, but they found a place to start professionally as safe grounds, then proceeded to build from there. And Axi's never the sort to completely shut anyone out unless there's absolutely a reason to.
Comments
In less caps lock, it was entirely possible for Tai to have a terrible, rotten day full of bad thoughts and self-loathing (because of awesome roleplay from some Spirit-side folks), but Tekias pulled him out of his stupor long enough to notice Omei popping in. And that made things go from awful to awesome so quickly. There'll be a log up later (sans the interrogation at the sermon, because that sadly fell out of my buffer), thank you all for the fun!
Oh, and thank you to @Rebra for making the painting item for me and getting it through the Crafter's Guild on my behalf.
]
You have completed the SHAFTFIFTEEN_CAVEIN quest!
Your city, Spinesreach has received 1200 ylem from you completing the quest.
You have received 1000 gold sovereigns for completing the quest.
Experience Gained: 25320 (Quest) [total: 14627987]
[Milestones]: You have completed your DAILY milestone for 'Complete your daily ylem mine scenario.'!
You have received a bronze keystone!
[Milestones]: You have completed your WEEKLY milestone for 'Complete 4 daily milestones this week.'!
You have received a silver keystone!
[Milestones]: You have completed your MONTHLY milestone for 'Complete all weekly milestones this
month.'!
You have received a golden keystone!
[Milestones]: You have completed credit milestone #64: Finish your monthly milestone!
[Milestones]: You have completed credit milestone #63: Finish your weekly milestone!
[Milestones]: You have completed credit milestone #62: Finish your daily milestone!
[Milestones]: You have completed credit milestone #40: Complete your ylem mine scenario!
For those who haven't met or heard of him, this is Adley, my almost 10 months old Savannah cat, who is absolutely nuts about toilet paper (or any kind of paper on a roll, really).
I had accidentally left a new roll of tp out on the washing machine last night. Guess who found it? This is only part of the end results of his all-night party. You can see the naked roll in there, as he'd done his absolute best to strip it down and shred all the paper into as tiny pieces as possible.
For all of those out there who in any way took part in the recent hoarding behaviour brought on by Covid-19, just look at this and try to understand the utter dismay of rushing to the local store only to find nothing but empty shelves. Granted, the stores have caught up with things now, so that's not a problem anymore (thank goodness).
I do love my boys, though. They can be so adorable, especially when they sleep.
chonky
I'm going to list people who has left some impression on me, and has continued to tempt me into following the thread of roleplay wherever it ends up:
@Tetchta, @Mjoll, @Zaila (I still need to catch up with you ), @Axius, @Xavin, @Lexen, @Benedicto, @Hawa, @Qelres, @Amrit, @Zhukov, @Aeryx (I didn't forget you!)
Special mention to @Keroc for allowing me to dump Tetch's useless figurines into your hands. Also for joining me in several games of Farkle when I asked for fun.
And of course, love must be expressed to @Chakrasul, because you're still here and I trust you to always keeps things interesting!
Last but not least, @Nisavi, I'm coming for you, bad bat boi! You can't hide.
Even if some stuff doesn't get explicitly picked up on in the current session, rest assured we're seeing them all and will probably tie it together in future sessions.
Thank you, whoever you are, who saw my directed says, realized it was a bug, and still turned it into an entertaining little meeting.
Here's how Teani, on a day when she is already in a bad mood, tries to learn a new talent, only to be refused by a grumpy merchant.
Resplendent in his finery, this Caentoi merchant lounges amongst his wares. You see a sign here instructing you that WARES is the command to see what is for sale.
>> Teani tries to learn Fumology.
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant says, "My apologies, but that is not a talent which I am proficient enough in to teach. You must seek elsewhere."
You blink.
You say, in a feral tongue, "Fumology?"
You demand, in a feral tongue, "You sell smokeable things. How can you not be the right person to ask about this?!"
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant says, "My apologies, but that is not a talent which I am proficient enough in to teach. You must seek elsewhere."
You glare angrily at Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant.
You demand to Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant, in a feral tongue, "How can you stand there, you fat merchant, and claim you don't know enough about this, when it's ALL YOU SELL?!"
You say to Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant, in a feral tongue, "I have the credits. I am being told that you -do- know the talent. Why, then, are you refusing?"
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant says, "My apologies, but that is not a talent which I am proficient enough in to teach. You must seek elsewhere."
"Bah!" you retort disgustedly.
You say to Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant, in a feral tongue, "This is -not- the right way to earn credits."
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant rolls his eyes at you.
You tap your foot with mild impatience.
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant says, "My apologies, but that is not a talent which I am proficient enough in to teach. You must seek elsewhere."
You narrow your eyes at Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant.
"Maybe Ood just doesn't like your annoying face," Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant grunts in reply.
"That may be, but I was perfectly amiable when I first got here," Teani shoots back, crossing her arms. "Now, do you know about fumology or not?"
"I do," Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant replies, deliberately short and unhelpful.
Teani stares at the merchant for a good while in silence, as if waiting for more. One of her fingers taps against her arm in an impatient way, until she forces herself to stop. Taking a deep breath, she finally asks, "And will you consider teaching me this useful talent?"
"Apologize," Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant grunts, puffing out his fat belly in infuriating fashion.
Teani straightens up and raises a brow. "For what?" she asks. "You are the one who began lying to me as soon as I came here."
"HoW cAn YoU sTaNd ThErE, yOu FaT mErChAnT," Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant mocks you, his squeaking imitation very high-pitched, very inaccurate, and very annoying. A bit of spittle hits your face.
As if to mock you even further, Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant casually rolls together a new blend, showcasing the talent he obviously knows.
Teani blinks as the saliva hits her face. Before responding, she reaches up to wipe it off with one finger and flick it towards the ground. Her eyes move to the frustrating fat Caentoi and she takes a small step closer, enough to almost come in contact with his belly. "I. Was. Accurate!" she says in clipped words. Taking another step back, she says, "I don't -need- this talent, but I figured it might be nice to learn something new. Perhaps I should take my credts and go? I can just make more perfume. It smells nice."
"I call this one 'Rude Sapience Woman'," Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant declares, interrupting you rudely in the middle of your words. He proudly shows off his new blend before making it disappear somewhere in a fold. "Smoking perfume? Bold, but Ood will not stop you."
Teani rolls her eyes at Ood, grumbling something about frustrating merchants. "You apologize about lying, and I'll apologize after," she counters.
"What did I lie about?" Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant asks, interrupting the middle of his sentence with a belch.
Teani takes another deep breath before answering, "You repeatedly told me that you do not know enough about fumology to teach. Clearly that was a lie, as you have both admitted and shown."
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant also takes a deep breath. "Ah! Fumology! Yes, I can teach that." He agrees with you.
Exasperated, Teani tilts her head back to stare the ceiling for a moment. With a grumble about stupidity, idiocy, and many more afflictions that might encumber this man's brain, she turns back to Ood once more.
Ood, a fat Caentoi merchant takes you through the delicate minutiae of the talent, describing both the broad principles behind it and the intricacies of individual tasks. After an exhaustive training session, you feel well-versed and ready to begin expressing your new Talent for the world to see!
Having finally been taught what she needs, Teani looks at the merchant again and says, "I am terribly sorry for hurting your sensitivities with my accurate description of your appearance. Have a good day." With that, she spins on her heel and exits the shop.
This made me giggle out loud. The world needs more Ood.
That said, there's been some toxicity and unfortunate things happening lately too. At the same time, I've seen the best of you as a community - and wow, it's great. As we grow more and more (can you believe we're consistently around 100 at primetime nowadays? MUDs in 2020?!), let's all remember that there's another person behind the text you see on screen, whether your fellow players, Celani, or admin. Nobody is going to agree on everything all the time, and nobody is going to be perfect and on-top of everything, but ultimately the Aetolia experience is driven by you players. I hope you can all strive to create the best experience for each other; I'm sure it will be repaid in kind.
As I said, at your best, you are amazing - let's make that best the norm. I'm definitely looking forward to interacting more with all of you.
I came here to say that I love how much I see people using the THINK command nowadays. It's amazing for so many reasons. I think the one I've been thinking about most lately is that it gives you an avenue to say something unspoken. Even if someone is able to see them, no one can fault you for having thoughts! It's such a neat and creative way to communicate what might be left unsaid.
Back in 2004, an 8yo boy and a 56yo woman was murdered in my home town. Even though the police found the murder weapon and a hat with dna from the murderer, there have been no leads whatsoever since then. Early this morning, after 16 years and with the help of genealogy, a man was arrested and after a few hours of interegation, he admitted to the crimes.
We still don't know why, but just knowing he is caught after all this time, that the families can finally have some peace... now that's worth a whole lot of Love. The police have never given up on this case and have worked tiredlessly to find out who did it and now, they finally caught him.
Even with limited time, and not many roleplay opportunities yet, I have been having so. much. fun.
There's so much new stuff that's been added in the past few years since I've stopped playing, so many different and new faces, new features, and a few times I had that almost-magical feeling come back that I used to feel when I first started playing. In addition to the new, there's also so much that's just.. familiar? I guess that's the word. When you've played this game for 13ish+ years (oh my god), I guess that's the best way to put it. There's something that's just so cool about walking into a place I've never seen before on any characters, then going next door and seeing a room that I wrote once upon a time. Looking at this new milestone system that's totally foreign and brand new to me, then seeing occasional milestone tasks in there using things I made literally in high school almost 10 years ago now.
Just a really cool, (admittedly) kinda sappy feeling, all wrapped up in nostalgia that's also kinda new and unexpected at the same time. Reading old posts and seeing the late middle school/early high school phase of my life represented in Aetolia (for better or worse), late high school and first bits of adulting phase, then transitioning to just-got-into-college version, and now here I am years later at the settling down and starting a family phase of life, and Aetolia's still here. I've genuinely grown up with/in front of a bunch of people still playing today, and that blows my mind a little bit. I'm definitely not the same person I was when I first started playing, or even from just fourish years ago when I stopped, and there's something really cool about getting to see that change introspectively from a totally different angle.
Y'all rock
Real talk though: Avon Body Wash smells hella good.
Thanks.