The “Cute” factor

This weekend started, continued, and remained until the end, a very slow weekend.  That’s what happens when your body waits all week until the weekend arrives to start feeling like hammered ass.  Couldn’t have happened last Monday so I could call in sick and snicker at all the poor healthy fools who were at work, could it?  Noooo.  It had to wait to waylay me until Friday evening.

As a result, what few plans I had for this weekend were cancelled and I spent a pitiful weekend mostly lying in bed and moaning in agony hoping to get some sympathy… before remembering that I live alone and finally getting out of bed and glaring around at the emptiness that refused to pat me on the head and say, “Awwww, poor baby.”

Biggest wus on the planet?  A sick guy.  We could sever an arm and still play football with the guys, but give us a sniffle and the world stops.

Friday night, I mostly sat on the couch “watching” movies.  I quote watching because about 30 seconds after my butt hit the couch, I was out cold.  I woke up around 9 and jumped in game for a bit, but it was just a couple of harvesting runs and then knocking out another level on my tailor.

I went to bed around 11, but it was a restless night filled with me waking up burning up and throwing the covers off and then waking up 30 minutes later freezing and pulling the covers back on.  The end result was that I didn’t wake up Saturday until nearly 2 in the afternoon… something I haven’t done since high school.

Because of sleeping that late, I just felt sluggish all day Saturday.  I logged on around 3 and did another harvest run.  I went afk and started debating if I wanted to load into the truck and go somewhere.  I debated just heading to my home town (about 2 hours away) just to see some friends and have some dinner in a city that doesn’t use salt as the primary ingredient in all of their foods.

I returned to the keyboard still unsure of what I wanted to do but completely sure that I didn’t want to play.  Then, it happened.

Right when I got back to the keyboard (I was afk in front of my Hall in S. Qeynos), I saw a zone emote that there was a rucus at the stables because a dragon had landed and was terrifying the horses.

I ran over to take a peak, but kept a safe distance.  A 71 dirge is just a pre-dinner snack to a dragon and I knew there weren’t enough people in the zone to mount an attack.

I arrived around the same time as 2 other people and didn’t see anything out of place.  I stood back watching and wondered if the dragon was hidden, had already left, or just hadn’t landed yet.

After a few minutes, I snuck around in a wide arc and entered the stables, but there was nothing out of place there.

When I went back outside, I realized that what I had thought was someone’s pet was actually a baby dragon… just like the house pet baby dragon that some people have.

I walked up and the 2 others present were debating what kinds of food baby dragons like.  One guy handed the baby dragon something and the dragon grew a couple of feet and became really excited bouncing around all over the place.  The other guy tried handing him provo nodes and the dragon just sniffed them and turned up his nose.

As the second guy ran off to a vendor to buy some completed foods, I tried to hand him some of my food stock.  In reaction, the baby dragon trembled at the sight of me and hid behind the guy who had already fed it… emoting that it didn’t yet trust me.  An emote suggested that I should play with the baby dragon and earn its trust.

I alternated between firing up various songs for the instrument sound and movements and emoting playing music.  The baby dragon picked up a stick, pranced around with it for a few moments before dropping it at my feet and wagging its tail like a puppy.  I picked up the stick, waved it playfully in the air and threw it.  The dragon ran off, grabbed it, and brought it back. 

I threw it a few more times while petting and praising the little dragon as you would a puppy before finally getting a message that this dragon now liked me.  I handed it some food again and it grew a little more and danced around happily.  In return, it gave me a little sprig of Mistletoe to hang in my house.

I’m sure that many people would have been pissed and screamed that they didn’t get some uber piece of gear or some other such nonsense, but I was extremely happy.  I got to play around with a GM a bit without 10,000 idiots trying to kill it for loot.  The GM played his/her part perfectly and I sat there smiling and sometimes laughing at the experience.

The rest of the weekend was more restless sleeping, more napping on the couch, and more gaming.  I didn’t study at all this weekend.  I had intended to, but I decided to take a break.  I’ve been working on this certification pretty hard for the last few weeks and I just decided to take a couple of days off.

I got some adventuring done as well as some tradeskilling.  I gained another 3 levels on my wizard and brigand bringing them up to 48 and they are both halfway to 49.  I completed several quests that I had forgotten about and that were stagnating in my journal.  I ran the world event for the Shard of Hate on my dirge, wizard, and brigand and have both the good and the evil reward as a result.  I hit t6 on my jeweler, t5 on my tailor, and gained 2 levels each on my alchemist, armorsmith, and provisioner.  I moved Fuzzlewump from his 1-room inn in The Baubleshire to a 3-room house in South Qeynos and got it nearly fully decorated.

That move was a strangely difficult one to make.  I was kind of attached to The Baubleshire and enjoyed living there, but I had definately out-grown that 1 room inn.

For all that I got accomplished in game though, the highpoint of the weekend was definately the small amount of time that I spent playing ‘fetch’ with a baby dragon at the stables in South Qeynos.

Sometimes, even an adventurer needs to take some time out and just enjoy something cute.