Words Are Very Unnecessary, They Can Only Do Harm
Way back in 2004, when Level-Up Philippines ruled the MMORPG world and a week of login credits would cost you 100 bucks, there were a group of friends who played Ragnarok. They were called TSO, or The Shiny Ones and they had epic times. This tale spans 6 years, countless agits seiged, several characters levelled to 99 and 2 private servers.
There was once a little Acolyte named nixxxx and I dont know why she has that many x’s in her name. She was told to pump INT and VIT since she was going to be an Acolyte and therefore needed HP for tanking monsters and SP for dealing Heal damage. Nixxx the noob that she was, had STR and LUK, some AGI and a lot of stupidity. But when she learned the ropes and did some major Googling regarding Priest builds and all that, she deleted this character and made a new one, named Nixxi. The name stuck and from here on out, Nicole, her master, became known in their little cafe and guild as Nixxi.
Levelling was hard. There were weeks of major levelling. Lydia had a very small population compared to other servers like Chaos and Loki but we stuck to it. My friends and I botted and hunted bosses and toiled to get to 99. Equips were scarce and I hated to level my priest alone. We were forced to party and level together. And I think that was when we all became sorta like family. Its been 6 years since we all played together but we all are still great friends.
This happened to me so frequently, you could say for about 10 exp I gained, I lost 2 for dying. This was Glast Heim Churchyard, where little aco’s with sabog stats and priests go die.
Since Nixxi was a one-day priestess, I dont have pics of her levelling. But back then, this was a common sight in Glast Heim Underprison, Acolytes with Priests in what was called a Magni Party. For those who didnt play Ragnarok, Magnificat is a skill cast by a priest to accelerate SP recovery, SP is what you use for Healing and buffing yourself and other people. You were bound to run out so we congregate at a place and heal away. Also, pro tip from someone who’s main has always been a priest – though the request for buffs is always “agi bless impo”, Bless is always cast first to avoid the skill delay. Same goes for Angelus and Magni, Magnificat which is cast slower is cast first before Angelus. My shortcuts have changed over the years I guess but the first 3 still the same. F1 for Heal, F2 for Agi, F3 for Bless. But like I said, F3, F2.
So when Level-Up released the transcendent classes, my guild was the first ever to have a Level 99 Sniper. Because we basically lived in an internet cafe for a day and helped our then GM zenjuly. Guild rivalry was heavy then and that 99 aura was so hard to get. Getting to talk to Valkyrie for transcending was also expensive and tricky and Valhalla was beautiful. Now, in private servers you just click on Job Master and switch jobs. 
So now we hop back into the DeLorean and it takes us to 2008. Some of my old Ragna buddies decided to join RebirthRO, a private server with pretty much the same EXP and drop rate as pRO’s Lydia did before we all quit. But that was filled with drama and hate and lulz that it just wasn’t worth it to play anymore. We were getting so stressed out and that defeats the purpose of even playing. We were there to have fun but instead we were caught in a power play between players and GMs. Remember THIS?
Notice the cool zoom and the much clearer graphics. LOL. Time warp! That’s us in major WOE mode. And there’s me casting Magnificat near the emp, AKA that huge ass yellow pointy gem behind me.
Here’s my Brewer, aptly named Beer. LOL. She’s asking the Kafra lady out for a date since she’s so overworked.
And Cache, the Whitesmith. Yes, I’m serious. LOL. She’s chilling at Hugel field. Haha.
Now, me and some Plurk buddies and Ateneo classmates joined EssenceRO. They’ve already got the 3rd jobs out and I’m pretty much loving my new Archbishop and Ranger. Though the max stats and levels are higher than what I’m used to, its still pretty much the same game. I’ve come to like the Archer class now. Because what the Acolyte class lacks, the Archer class has in spades. They’re pretty much the opposite of each other, the Ranger’s being agi type characters and ATK and the Archbishop’s int and MATK. I wanted to take some screenies but all of them come out in black and white and slanted. I’ve tried several tweaks in the setup but to no avail.
Why do I love being an Priest, oh let me count the ways. First of all, they dont need fly wings to get around a map, butterfly wings to get home. No awakes and pots to buy and buffs are always at hand. They can pretty much level on their own with little cost. They have mega HP which means they can take the damage and tank the monster, and they have lots of SP to hand out the buffs and heals. The downside is that you’ll level at practically the same maps forever. My priest practically lived in Glast Heim, my High Priest in Sphinx 4 and my Archbishop in Cursed Abbey. But I still love them anyway.
Now a Ranger on the other hand has very low base HP, lowest I think among all the classes. And their SP is laughable. But they’ve got an insane Flee Rate and Attack Speed as well as the range. Since a Ranger attacks at a distance from a monster, the monster is almost usually dead before it can even get near. But when it does, their Flee Rate will almost always guarantee that a physical attack from a monster will miss. They can level anywhere, given that they have an arsenal of bows with different cards and pots, fly wings, awakes and decent buffs.
So there. At Essence, my Archbishop is named Sobriety and my Ranger is Nixxi. Times have changed.
This Is The Sound Of The Unlocking And The Lift Away
It’s like a line from an overused plot scheme but this was how it all went down. So on the weekend that I turned 24, I finally met my mother. I guess a lot of finding-out happens this way, in ragged edges and uneven overlaps. In a sense, she has finally evolved from a largely evaded topic to an honest-to-goodness person. My father never really talked about her – all I know was that I was 2 years old when my Dad kidnapped – to be candid, me from Cebu. My own perceived notions about my mother was dim, I didn’t really expect anything. And I guess that was because I had an excellent mother figure growing up, my grandmother. She did a good job with us, the best that she could considering her age.
They (my mother’s siblings and their kids, cousins) threw a party at this wonderful place overlooking Cebu City for their father (my grandfather) who was turning 80. Despite a few mishaps regarding hotel rooms and cocktail dresses, my weekend went without a hitch.
Upon meeting my mother, I’d have to say that it was kinda like meeting a stranger for the first time. I didn’t really connect or know anything about her. We talked very little, more often I was bombarded with questions by her cousins and her siblings and I did my best in answering all of them. I guess this was to be expected, they haven’t seen me in so long and they had all these memories of me as a child that I cannot, for the life me, recall.
Though I was told about stuff that happened in her life and I guess she knows a little about what happened to me since I was two, everything else just didn’t matter anymore. And I didn’t feel like holding an interview like the Spanish Inquisition. All the trivialities just went out the window. A tabula rassa. After all that, the best we can be are good friends. I don’t feel compelled to seek her approval about things because I’m already an adult with my own life to live.
But when we sat down and watched my “cousins” and “titos and titas” dance, I was grateful for her silence. She didn’t feel the need to fill the air with boring small talk and just sat there, with me by her side. I hope the silence was as comfortable for her as it was for me.
So that was how I met my mother. I walked away from that weekend with a face to her name. Finally.
Spaces In Between Two Minds And All The Places They Have Been
I was waiting for some palpable feeling, a definite sign that I had survived 23 years of existence and had finally come to this point. The clock struck 12 and nothing happened. But not more than a minute later, I heard the sound of rain.
So, blablabla. I’m 24. <insert random goals, musings here> All that jazz.
I’m ok with age, just as long as I get to look 12.
Split Virtual Identities
