wanderingaddict

So... yeah. Not really sure which forum to post this in, so I guess this one? Just following the rules as they're revealed. If you're not familiar with WoW, but don't mind m/m give Ripple a shot I guess. Otherwise, w/e. This is just a short summary of some of the thoughts behind and the influences of my Ripple Recovery. Just in case you guys were at all curious about why I chose to do what all I did. On top of that, I pride myself on lore and so there’s also a list of all the sundry NPCs, items, and questlines that I used here as well. You know, just for funsies. Also, I should probably send the biggest shout-out in the world to Fawnheart who sticks through everything with me like glue. You all should give her a shout-out too, because she filled in like, half of this after I sent her the outline and all my notes- wow- more than a year ago! Then she sent it back and because I’m stupid and, well, me, I cut it all up, moved everything around and added another freaking 40,000 words. Haha, sorry Fawnheart! If I’d just listened to you this would have been finished a year ago! Anyways. In-game References: Locations: Quel’Danil- The in-game Quel’Danil is just a small lodge on a forested lake. It’s suitably nature-like, with a number of scantily-clad Rangers and Outfitters and Scouts wandering around the outside of it. It is, essentially, the Rock River lodge I named in my story. Just pretend there’s a city behind it, out there in them hills. Sunchaser’s Camp- A couple of tents up in the hills above the Quel’Danil lodge. There’s a drunken dwarf named Rhapsody up there too, but I just dropped him outta the picture completely. Gilvarin really does seem to live there all year round, a little bit removed from his fellow elves. The Broken Keel- The name of the Ratchet Inn. Of all the Inns in the game, it does look pretty cheap and sleazy for an actual, legitimate establishment. The Griffon Pass- Maybe it’s got a name, maybe it doesn’t. I don’t care. This place is, without a doubt, one of the epitomes of early Alliance favoritism. See, way back when, Blizzard used to do (and often still does) this thing where they poop out a ton of elite, high-level mobs in an area frequented by low-level Horde. Back in the day, before expacs and etc, this was the home to two fucking elite, named, level 40 griffons that patrolled back and forth. And, of course, to top it all off they were Alliance friendly, and would brutally slaughter any level 20 to 50 Hordie that happened to wander past. Coincidentally, this pass is also the only low-level overland route into the Hinterlands (although, at the time, there wasn’t even a Horde base in the zone period, not that quests still didn’t send you there). Honestly, it was a horrible, miserable affair that is just another piece in the puzzle of why the Horde are bitter and spiteful bastards and the Alliance are all little molly-coddled pansyass cunts. Fuck griffons, seriously… NPCs: Jalinde Summerdrake is a (formerly elite) rare spawn mob that can be found wandering around the Quel’Danil lodge. Given her greater armor and named status, there are several suggestions that she holds some sort of high rank among the elves of the Hinterlands. Auric Sunchaser is the commander of the Allerian Hold, the high elf stronghold of Outlands. The Reek is a named slime that spawns in the old Horde encampment that Gilvarin sends you to. It is undoubtedly the “master slime” he mentions before sending you off. Dran Droffers is an ornery old bugger located in The Drag of Orgimmar. He’s a cheap bastard, skimping adventurers on reward money and spends a lot of time haranguing his long-suffering son. Together, they run the Droffers and Son Salvaging Co., sending adventurers out to find junk that they can repair and sell to higher bidders. Gilvarin* Sunchaser is a rather easy-going elf that’s quite liberal and open-minded in his approach to other races, being friendly with both Horde and Alliance forces. He can be found outside his tent, with a half-drunk glass of wine clutched in one hand. The elf has a decidedly strong dislike of Malton’s father, but speaks of the orc quite fondly and will tell you, the adventurer, to tell Malton that the two of them need to get together and go drinking again. * actual name is “Gilveradin” Sunchaser. I’d copied it down wrong in my notes, sorry : ( Malton Droffers is a rather put-upon young man who often seems to do a lot of the smooth-talk and paving over in his father’s deals. Where his father is short and rude, Malton is polite and actually pretty helpful. There’s also some fun emote dialogue between the two of them from time to time that seems to imply he plays a simpleton just to egg his father on. Misc: Alar- The “Phoenix God,” or at least, that’s the raid-boss’s title, so I’m just expanding on that and making into some sorta minor oath or deity the elves invoke when frustrated. Witherbark, Venombranch, Revantusk tribes- three of the major troll tribes in the Hinterlands. Of the tribes, only the Revantusk were willing to ally with the New Horde. Curiously Tasty Omelets- made from Raptor eggs commonly found in Stranglethorn Vale. A delicacy, perhaps? Dwarven Stout, Port, Kodo Stew and Mul’gore Bread- Just a light sampling of the many delicious foods found in WoW. There’s a real-life cookbook for some of those recipes too. Moss-backed- an epithet. The forest trolls actually have a thin layer of moss growing on their skin. This refers to that. Kim’jael- It’s the real Thalassian word for rat. Or, at least, “something like it.” Blue Child, the White Lady- Azeroth has two moons. A huge white one the night elves call Elune, and the tauren call the Left Eye of the Earthmother. There’s also a smaller, blue-green one called Blue Child. And, of course, the Horde “Ripple Recovery” questline two of the aforementioned characters give. Ripple wine is a rare commodity these days, and Dran Droffers wants to capitalize on the opportunity. He sends you, the adventurer, to the Hinterlands, with the orders to talk to “one of Malton’s idiot friends,” who’ll then tell you how to find some Ripple even though it’s not made anymore. Gilvarin, for his part, doesn’t want to help you, but out of respect for Malton he’s willing to tell you what to do, as well as prepare the wine in some of its original packaging (although that last bit is also because he respects the wine, and “there’s nothing worse than jostled Ripple”). All in all I’ve always thought it was one of the more different Horde questlines, since it’s witty and clever and doesn’t seem to consist of “*grunt**grunt* You kill stuff there now kk *grunt**grunt*.” +--+ About the Characters +--+ Malton: I like to think of him as being from Thrall’s generation of Horde apologists. He’s from the same brew that turned out a wise and gentle leader like Thrall and the other Far Seers, the ones who aren’t all “Grunt-grunt KILL grunt!” The whole noble savage thing, bound in glory and honor and war? Yeah, that’s not his thing. He’s educated. He’s intelligent and kind and really not very warlike at all, because he would have been old enough to see the effect that the decimation, capture, and subsequent confinement of the Horde to the concentration camps had on all those same proud warriors, who suddenly had to come face to face with the fact that they were now stranded on a foreign world where every single other race loathed them. Before the orcs, there were wars from time to time between the human nations, or the humans and the trolls, and perhaps even the humans and dwarves (I don’t know about that part), but on the whole, the humans, elves, and dwarves wouldn’t even try to exterminate all the trolls. It just wasn’t in their system. Everyone, for the most part, stayed in their little area, until the Horde rolled out and mercilessly slaughtered everything and everyone it came across, regardless of age, rank, race, and gender. Everyone. So yeah. Malton is the type of guy who, while he doesn’t believe in the “sins of the father” or anything else so trite, still is conscious enough of who and what he is to recognize that a mere twenty years is not enough to make anyone forget about the horrors that the orcs- the orcs, not anyone else, just the orcs- inflicted on the world of Azeroth, not to mention their own homeworld of Draenor. Unlike many of the other bumbling retards who see a return to battle and bloodlust and killing everything as the answer to the finding a new place in the world, Malton, like Thrall and I imagine many of the others of his generation, is much happier to just find a place to live and let live. Unfortunately for him, this is considered something of a pathetic and pansy-like view by the less intelligent members of his race, hence the two big, strong-armed bodyguards his father provides. Beyond that though, one of the reasons I thought he would be perfect for writing a story about is the fact that the dialogue he has with you and the way he interacts with his father are… heh, well, honestly some of the best quest text in the entire game. His father, who is an ornery old coot who treats you, the player, quite rudely, is also equally rude to his son, who he also has some rather colorful comments for. Malton typically responds to anything his father says in a very stupid and very oafish manner, which seems to justify his father’s temper. When Malton actually speaks to you though, he’s polite, friendly, and wildly different from the bumbling idiot that doesn’t even know what a knuckle sandwhich is. This, in my opinion, is what made him startling and memorable, and much different from the other 2D questgivers who are just too lazy to go get a book or rescue their wife on their own. What’s even more unique (and what some of you have already commented on) is that Malton is an orc; you know, one of those bloodthirsty bastards I mentioned above, yet here he is, mild-mannered and intelligent and actually quite refined. So in fleshing him out enough for this ridiculously long one-shot, I had to think a lot about the kind of reception an orc like that would receive, particularly in the light of the biggest, most inept WoW piece of shit to ever put on armor (well, aside from Arthas, but that’s a different story), Garrosh Hellscream joining the Horde. Probably not too well, right? My guess is that he’d have a little trouble relating to many of the people around him (those people being orcs, btw). Hence his attachment to guys like Gilvarin. He doesn’t need much, just a friendly smile and some witty banter every now and then. Plus, in writing this now, I can’t help but feel that he likes ‘Varin because ‘Varin likes to needle him just as much as he likes to needle his dad. That surprises me, because I hadn’t actually thought that out before I wrote this, and yet here I am, and here the story is! p.s. something that occurred to me during the sex was that most, if not all, of the other orc stories I’ve read deal with their tusks cutting and scraping, or being otherwise unwieldy. this has never made sense to me- if you’re born with two bones sticking out of your face, you’re aware of how to use them so as not to hurt someone, much less bones are not naturally filed to cutting points. I decided that sure, that can happen, but most orcs aren’t exactly using them in that regard (having switched to forged weapons ages ago) so they remain a bit blunt. in case you were curious >.> p.p.s. also, I invoked “Author’s Prerogative” and arbitrarily say that orcs and elves- having hardier constitutions than humans- do not suffer from ‘whiskey dick.’ for those of you who do not know what that is, it’s a tendency for men who a really, really, really, really drunk to not be able to maintain erection. haha, maybe I think too much about this stuff. Gilvarin: Gilvarin Sunchaser is the guy Malton sends you to at his father’s request. Malton refers to him as one of the few good elves of the Hinterlands, not like the others (who kill Horde on sight), and a pretty good friend overall save for the fact that he loves the hooch. Indeed, Gilvarin is a pretty laid-back guy, living in a little tent out in the hills by himself, save for the company of a single drunken dwarf. It’s only for Malton that he’s actually willing to help you though. He has a deep and decidedly strong dislike of Malton’s father, whom he finds to be boorish and overbearing. For Malton though, he’ll tell you were you can still find some of the good vintages (only in an old abandoned Horde base), and he also gives you the friendly warning to look out for the slimes that live there. When you leave, he tells you to give his regards to Malton, and to also tell the orc to come visit him more often. Now, Gilvarin’s character probably took a different path. In fleshing him (and the story) out, he somehow ended up with a rather strong disdain for people who put him and anyone he likes below them. This, in part, probably stemmed from the contempt with which he talks about Malton’s father, but then it evolved into a wild, fearless temper, an acid tongue, and the ability to remember every slight- no matter how small- from the day he was born. So how could I keep that in the story that has little to no action, and with a character who has almost no interaction with anyone save for Mal? Well it just pretty much ended up being and attempt to show how fiercely loyal he is to those he loves. Dunno how well it came across though. Hopefully clear enough? Or at least not so much that it’s a total shock. I can set my standards as low as you want! What I was really looking forward to writing about the most though were his interactions with Mal. He loves the orc, he really does. Malton is one of those pillow-soft people who are willing to forgive and let go, but not in that terribly overbearing manner where they do it because it’s “what’s good” or anything. It’s just what comes natural. So, in that sense, Malton is actually the one who plays the role that’s usually played by the ‘female character’ (as much as I absolutely loathe saying that). It’s that of the caregiver, the one who gently holds back the raging beast with nice words and reminders of kindness. If Gilvarin had a class, he’d be a blackhearted rogue with one dagger and one fist, and incredibly good at kicks. If he was a player, he’d be the guy who tracks down someone in every zone they flee to and ganks them again and again and again for killing his low-level alt until they log off in tears. He may have grown up as a coddled merchant prince, but at his core there’s solid steel. Where this comes from I have no idea. Perhaps the Second War? The Third War? No clue. Both would have been horribly traumatic for an elf, whose nation had largely stayed out of all skirmishes with other races as that was something that “lesser creatures” did. Plus, you know, they’re pretty happy with their little Sunwell out on the coast. They didn’t need too much else. But anyways, he’s also the youngest of ten sons, the oldest being Auric Sunchaser, the hero-commander of Allerian Hold. The others are unnamed and I never developed any of them. I figured that there would be enough years between each one that they would grow up aware of but not particularly close to one another. There’s still that fierce family pride that binds them together though, so they do make an effort. As the youngest, Gilvarin had for a long time been saddled with being the one who had to travel with their father, who didn’t want to pay for an extra hand. Family labor is free labor, of course. As mentioned above, his real name is Gilveradin, not Gilvarin. Of everyone who reviewed after I realized my mistake, one person urged change, three said they were torn and the rest ignored the question. So, heh, Gilvarin it stayed. But it’s not like any of this crap is cannon, even for me! Just my take on these guys, and this story as a whole. If any of ya'll read all this, then leave your thoughts. I'd love to see them.

... ... ... Um. Okay. Seeing as how I just said that how I've always seen it used was as the Author's personal explanation of the story, I... I don't think that... what? I don't even know what you're talking about. I just explained that the point of it was to illuminate personal choices regarding characters or to explain errata while avoiding unecessary discussion alltogether. Those readers who are interested in that stuff are informed and go on their way, or in their last review (since Author's Notes, if they're there, generally seem to come at the end) the reader can leave a final remark on it. I was saying that I personally enjoy them, although I do understand that the vast majority of the time, people use them in much more frivilous ways. DemonGoddess's update-post was pretty much entirely about how stressed the database is, so much so that the mods are actually enforcing the "don't respond to reviewers with reviews" policy and are now adding new policies, even going to far as to limit the amount of out-of-chapter text. To me, at least, that sounds like things have gotten pretty bad. It's not a criticism, or a complaint, or an insult or anything malicious. It's just how it came across to me, and, honestly, I have no freakin' idea why my suggestion that- in whatever timeframe the long-term plan come through- Author's Notes are allowed back has been met with what are some honestly just plain rude responses. I mean, god damn, I can fucking read the ToS and content guidelines- why the hell I'd choose to follow one and not the other is beyond me. I'm not an angsty 14 year old girl who's going to have a bitch fit and spam her story with Author's Notes as protest. The rules are there for a reason and I spent like, half my first post explaining that I understand the reasoning behind the ban in the first place. But, you know, whatever. It's not like that's intrinsically obvious and given that that's probably like, half AFF's daily traffic, you know, it's not a bad thing to assume. But I've read and reread my posts and I can't see how or where or why you feel a need to chastise me at all, Hitagashi. I apologize- really, I do- if this seems insulting or "like flame" or whatever, but... honestly.

I... um, what? I was more just saying that I was... hoping that they might be possible at some future point, depending? I understand that the techno mumbo jumbo means that things have reached a pretty bad point. I was just arguing that, like, in the future, once everything's been fixed, it'd be nice to still have them is all.

Hey, I just read the new ToS today, and at first I was a little disappointed, but then I thought about all the people who totally abuse the "Author's Note" idea with crap little blurbs about promising "future updates" on a half-completed story, or randomly interspersing them between chapters and all that crap. So yeah, I totally get the reasoning behind not allowing them at all, but could I suggest/request that... (Gosh, I want to make sure I phrase this just right so that I'm clear about not allowing for any loopholes to let that previous crap come through too ). Okay, is it possible to... um, add, or allow a designated "last chapter" for those who truly do want to use an "Author's Note" in it's original, intended function of like, explaining where their personal reasoning and interpretation of the characters they've written about? Or stuff that they've mentioned and referenced within the fandom they want to write about? And, I mean, it'd of course have to be... a chapter that doesn't auto-bump the story, of course, or else allowed to be added within a certain "timeframe" of the "end chapter" perhaps? I have no idea if that's actually possible, of course. It's just that I personally do enjoy real Author's Notes that actually discuss the characters they've written about, especially if it's in a multi-chapter story that's broken 100k words or something. Or, in my case, for example, writing for WoW, there's a lot of cutesy in-game stuff that I like to mention, and I'd been sort of planning on being able to point it all out to the readers if they felt like reading it. So, yeah, just a suggestion. I just wanted to say that I think there are some people out there who actually read and enjoy the real ones, and I'd hate to see them gone forever just because some authors don't use them properly.... edit- I don't mean, like, full "discussion" notes either. it's just an explanation of the author's thoughts/intentions for the readers to think about a little in the future or leave a comment on if they feel like. certainly not something really... like, "forum worthy"...

heh, thanks. I have no urge to go wade through the thousands of slash vampire fics in the archives out there...

Hey ya'll, Was wondering if anyone might recognize my summaries of some stories, and if possible give any sort of clue as to what they were called and where they are! Heh, years of cruising the net and never favoriting have finally caught up with me. Life is hard. Anyways! Story #1, which I'm 99% certain is from here: A male vampire is turned way, way back in the Middle Ages, after spending a lot of time traveling with the man who he falls in love with (and then proceeds to turn the main character into a vampire). I'm not quite sure, but I think the main character was going to be a monk? Or he is a monk? Or at least a neophyte or something. Anyways, the vampire hunters catch up to him and his master and attack them, staking his lover and grievously wounding him. He goes on to live for a few hundered years, before the story finally vatches up to itself and a new group of vampire hunters have found him as well, only to have him discover that staking does not kill a vampire, but put them into stasis. When I left off, he only had a few hours to survive before the sun rose on him, and now I find myself dying to know what (if anything) happened next! Heh, any help would be appreciated (and save me the time of slogging through 500 M/M vampire fics). I think it had something in at least, at least 20-30 chapters. Story #2, which I seem to remember been on Nifty? It starts with two randy young athletes, one of whom has just bee cursed by a gypsy that he'll never be able to get it on with a woman, and that every man he meets he'll turn gay. Well turns out he ends up naked in front of his friend and then they get it on. Then his friend turns gay and they get it on with another friend, who also turns gay, and then it sort of avalanches from there and the story just gets more and more ridiculou. I am a little embarrassed to ask about this one right after the serious one above, but I'm driving myself crazy trying to find it. I seem to recall multiple chapters, but what it is called specifically (or even where the hell it's located) has eluded me for like, months now. Story #3, which is pure porn and I might as well ask about seeing as how I asked about the last one. Also probably somewhere in the impossible archives at Nifty? A young man and his friend are staying in a youth hostel somewhere, when a rowdy rugby team crash the place. The young man, openly gay, brazenly approaches some of the players, who respond with vigor. At first his friend, a reluctant virgin, doesn't want the attention of the excess players, but eventually gets roped in and has an enjoyable time as well. That one is a definite oneshot. Yeah. If any of ya'll helpful people could point the way, I'd be very grateful (especially since it's such a thankless job). If any of ya'll could *teach* a man to fish though, and say, know some way to search the Nifty archives more easily that just going page by page, then damn, I don't know how grateful I'd be. Words can't really describe it.

Ah, thanks, that was what I thought it might be. I guess I'll have to look at it more like "The sections are getting an upgrade!" instead of "oh, poo, useless changes." Thanks for taking the time to explain it so clearly.

Recently I noticed that the Games section (along with the main Anime section) was broken into Alphabetical categories, and I was wondering if I could ask why? If it's something related to the software running the site and unchangable, I'll understand, but if it was just some cosmetic reason, could I get other people's opinions? To my mind, it was far better the way it was before (talking either section) in that all the different animes and games were available from one, easy to access page. There was no back-clicking, no page changes to get to another sub-section of the same genre, and, honestly, I thought it was so much easier to simply browse that way. If I felt like just looking around in an area that caught my eye, I was already at the main category ready to click the title I was interested in. Honestly, I always thought that was one of the major, major everyday draws to this site. The archive here is so easy to browse, easy to use, and anyone can find whatever corner they're interested in pretty quickly, without having to tab through a bunch of pages. I for one never thought that the big block chunks of Titles were hard or annoying to look through. If anything, having so many listed so easily and clearly made for the finding of all the little gems authors have written about half-remembered animes and games all the sweeter. I know there are many titles I'd have forgotten entirely about until I saw them when I was just idly looking through the main page. I know it's "not that hard" to click the back button on my browser and look through the titles by alphabet, but it's just... kind of disheartening I guess? I mean, if it was just a choice implented, does the site really need it? All it does is seem to create one more pointless "blank" page, and from what I've been lurking and reading, no one really wants or appreciates that. I get that I may jsut be a vocal minority though, and maybe everyone appreciates this new aspect, but I was hoping to bring attention to the fact that I think it actually hinders one of the site's most user-friendly features.

well I convert it to an html document and all, but when I try to add it I'll get an error message two or three times before a new chapter is suddenly accepted and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Now, I'm pretty much inept at figuring things out on my own, so as my last resort I'm asking here. I'm trying to upload a new chapter, but all I've been able to gather is that it's easier to do so in OpenOffice than Word. Would anyone be willing to help me out a little here?