Friday Five: Random Questions

Anna asks Five Random Questions for a character to answer:

1. What did your character have for breakfast today?
2. What one thing do they hate to do the most?
3. Do they have a lucky piece or good-luck charm? If yes, give details.
4. Describe one of the best laughs your character has have ever had.
5. What is one thing your character thinks about every day?

Aldonza eyes the enthusiastic student across the table with doubts and worry. "Fine. If it's for your schoolwork, sure, I'll answer your survey."

The young orphan dwarf girl excitedly helps herself to a seat and arranges her papers. She carefully picks up her pencil and refreshes her memory before looking up again at the human, "What did you have for breakfast this morning?"

With a sigh, Aldonza leans her head down and props it on a hand. "Well, this morning I was going to go without. I often do. But then I was asked to deliver a Round for the Guards and there's no way I'm smelling Haggis and Ale on an empty stomach. On mornings like this, I'll usually go with Spice Bread."

Dutifully, the girl writes down the answer. She's a little surprised, but despite what Dirk was teasing about yesterday, this is a real human, not one of those undead types. She didn't think she'd answer 'brains'. She has seen the mage frequently enough. She seems almost... dwarf-like. Just tall. "Next question. Name one thing you hate to do the most?"

"Hmm, besides answer personal questions?" Aldonza's humor can't be supressed quickly. "It'd have to be giving gold to beggers. At least this is only costing me time, which I was going to spend here anyway. Next?"

There is a long pause and scribbling before the question arrives, "Do you have a good luck charm?"

Aldonza pops up, "What?" Astonishment wars with her smile. "That is so not what I expected. A good luck charm?"

A young head nods with sincere sobriety. "Like a Rabbit's Foot? You can find them most anywhere."

Chuckling, Aldonza shakes her head slowly, "No. Nothing like that. Oh! But when I go fishing... I have a Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat. It isn't exactly a Lucky Fishing Hat, but that's what I wear. I feel like it helps."

"What was the best laugh you've ever had?"

Aldonza shows her puzzlement again, "You mean the best joke I've heard?"

The dutiful nod is repeated. "Okay."

Returning the gesture, Aldonza nods but says, "I don't think I'll tell you the best. It doesn't translate well unless you've seen the Penguins in Northrend. How about 'Do you know how wire was invented? Two goblins were fighting over a copper coin.' Like that?"

It brings a smile. The interviewer thinks she'll enjoy telling that to her classmates. "Last question. Um, it says 'Name one thing you think about every day.'"

Aldonza spends a few moments thinking, "Only one thing? There's lots of thoughts I have most every day, like 'What'll I have for dinner?' and 'Was there something important I forgot to do today?' Is that what you mean?"

A mute shrug is the only answer she gets.

Kallispamming Tome

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit with Navimie. We've still got plenty to talk to each other about, including guys enjoying romance novels. The visit was so good, it got me thinking...

For a short while, I wasn't going to be able to play WoW, so around Christmas 2011, I intentionally turned one of the family accounts off. My son and daughter still played on the active account. A few months later Blizzard offered a free level 80 character for returning to the game. By that time, I was ready to return anyway, so this sounded like a bonus win. So I needed a friend to send a Scroll of Resurrection.

So in March 2012, I sent an email to someone that I only knew from comments on blogs. We'd exchanged notes and so I was only mildly anxious about sending an email asking for a scroll of resurrection. It wasn't until later that I realised my email address did not provide a clue that I was Kallixta.

As I recall things, weeks went by before I thought about my "Free Level 80" character. Putting some thought into it, I decided I wanted to use this as an opportunity to explore the Horde side. Eventually I decided to make it a Troll Druid.

Female, of course.

And being Horde, there was no advantage to being on the same server as Kallixta. I couldn't send gold or guild. I might as well be on a different server and have 10 empty character slots. To invoke the reward, I had to choose a server and it offered the message, "Do you want to play on the same server as your friend (that sent you the scroll?)" Oh!

Oh yeah. My friend would have gotten a free mount as her reward for getting another person back into the game. I could see the rewarded character and which server she was on. The scroll is meant for us to play together. So I created Kalligrafi on Fenris. I selected Restoration as her spec and was rewarded with gear appropriate for her.

And discovered I had no clue how to play a Restoration Druid. I wanted to learn, but there was a strong learning curve that I postponed. Instead I leveled up her Skinning profession which provided some gold and allowed me to test the guide I'd written for Wowhead! I wrote a skinning guide without having taken a skinner to Outland!

That was in the spring and when 5.0.4 I realised the Talent Change meant lots of people were re-learned how to play characters, so the learning curve wasn't as intimidating. So I pulled Kalligrafi off the shelf.

And so it is that this morning I Kalli-spammed Catwynn and she invited me into Sasche's guild. My expectations with Kalligrafi are to do some things as a member of the Horde that I've missed on Alliance.

This could be fun.

Preparing for Navispam

Navimie likes to surprise folks, so I can only guess why she might have mentioned me as a target for Navispam. She's undoubtedly already tried and failed to find me online. Since Summer and until the Autumn schedule settled down, there has been only a short window of opportunity to catch me each day.

I'm a non-elite rare spawn!

And it's actually gotten worse recently. I spent 12 hours at work yesterday! I'm feeling guilty and need to arrange something with her.

However, where once I was hoping to be considered for Navispam, it's different knowing she's coming.

I don't know what to WEAR!

(Kallixta's spouse starts laughing at this point.)

It's like cleaning up the house before your mother-in-law visits, except I like my mother-in-law. And I like Navimie. I just want to look good for her.

The state of my Transmogs is mixed. I need to ensure I have my clean underwear, I mean what I wear underneath my tabard. See with 5.0.4, I dropped my Ret spec and brushed off my Holy, which hadn't been mogged. And my Prot spec was in an intermediate state. A quick trip to the Void Storage can fix that. Okay. It wouldn't win a contest, but it'll mean I won't be embarassed.

My next problem concerns mounts and pets.

See Martuska was my old main, not Kallixta. When my daughter Syylia started playing more frequently, I moved to a new account, leaving Martuska behind. However I wasn't interested in repeating a bunch of grinds. So Kallixta hasn't been achievement hungry. Mentally I was doing "Shared Achievements", but when that kicked in with the recent patch, I discovered that Syylia was the heir to Martuska's work, not Kallixta! Besides Syylia loves collecting mounts and pets. So it'll be important that Syylia be with me when Navimie comes calling. (Not that she'd be able to sleep with the squealing I'll be doing.) Syylia has the rocket mount in case Navimie has a low-level alt when visiting.

Uh oh. Where to go?

When you browse the gallery of Navispam pictures you can see the variety of locations. I knew where I'd love to take her, but reviewing other visits, I'm sad to see the farm near Stormwind with the exploding sheep was already visited. It's a fun surprise for folks that don't spend much time as Alliance.

Probably my next favorite place is Booty Bay. It isn't quite as nice since the Shattering and needs a good scrubbing. They still haven't picked up those downed branches.

Oh. I'll have to make sure the microphone doesn't go wandering again. It's tricky using Vent without a microphone. My youngest steals the headphones/microphone for his Vita. I think Syylia's laptop is rigged alright.

I can clearly see the advantage of surprising folks for Navispam. There's a surprising amount of worry!

(Kallixta's spouse is still laughing!)

Kallixta, the Kingslayer

Aldonza sat quietly and Kallixta felt the weight of that gaze. Shifting uncomfortably, her patience runs out, "What?"

Aldonza smiles, tickled with herself at getting the paladin to blink first. "I'm very proud of you. It's a considerable accomplishment. It required a lot of teamwork, I hear."

The final words allows the paladin something easier to respond to. "Yes. It took a crew, working together. It's not like you can just walk into the Frozen Halls and slay the Lich King by yourself. I had one of the least important roles. I just needed to do a bit of timely cleansing and keep from falling off the edge. We had Been Waiting a Long Time for That."

The human mage nods in agreement, "Still, it isn't something I could imagine doing." Of course, the human mage is a known coward.

Kallixta continues, "It seems like a dream, now. It's like we kept returning, fighting the same battles, hoping this time The Orbs would Whisper 'Congrats!' I had more than one dream about tangling with that Blood-Queen. You know, Once Bitten, Twice Shy."

Aldonza reaches across the table to pat the dwarf's should, "And now they call you a Kingslayer?"

Humility fights satisfaction, but finally Kallixta smiles with some pride showing, "Yeah."

Unable to stop herself, Aldonza adds a final tweak, "And you earned quite a bit of Glory for yourself as an Icecrown Raider!"

Echoing through Ironforge was the denial, "That's not why I did it!"

Note: For an RP-oriented guild that with the typical end-of-summer, end-of-expansion attendance issues, I still have some pride in this belated accomplishment. And I get a kick out of seeing the cowardly bank alt Aldonza riding that Protodrake, thanks to account sharing mounts. Aldonza is pleased for Kallixta, but big thanks to guildmate Lyss for riding herd on us cats!