Simple question

Hey everyone, I have a pretty simple question out of curiosity...

What one or two themes do you think represent your character best? it can be a creature, an element, an item or perhaps an idea they use/have often.


For example, Dragons seem to be Rhoa's big thing, being a dragoon and all. Even when running amuck as another class she doesn't seem to be complete without Jake tagging along or some type of dragon refference.

I relate Aenini to a hat since that's the thing Aenini holds dear to her. Even though she's a solid WHM and was gonna be a SUM and BLM Aenini isn't Aenini without her hat.

Keahi I relate to fire, simply because she's called the fire mage often, well that and her mischevious personality. Even though Rhoa has a bit of an explosive personality and was viewed as a fire-element way back in the BLM quiz Keahi stands out more for it. It could also be that I can't think of an item or creature that relates to her.


I'm curious how you guys view your own characters, think of it as what icon would best suit your character? If you wanna be chatty feel free to talk about other characters too.

Lol. Fire.

One day I noticed that Keahi is a red mage even in personality. She changes her role depending on who she's around. With Saehel she gets silly. With Humaisna she gets macho and competitive. With Aenini she is sweet and caring. With Jestor she's studious and inquisitive. With Rhoa she often talks about life and the people close to them. That amused me.

But I'll also take fire. It's red after all. XD

Hmm... I never could find something that represented red mages excpet the color red so I guess there's no escaping Keahi's relevance to fire. Ha ha.

Me...chatty....never.... ><

For Nek I would say caves and wind, and possibly the harmony of nature.

Nek reveres nature, she thinks that things should flow and work together and dislikes it when others force themselves as masters upon things. She hates the fight against the beastmen and says they have rights to their homelands, just like Altana’s children do. And she dislikes when mages (mostly Shantotto) tries to harness magic or other natural forces for themselves instead of letting the magic flow through them and being a conduit to shape the magic (Avatars are beings and not spells). Just like she doesn’t like the church for trying to force its beliefs (as wrong as they are) upon people who don’t want to listen. Its one thing to talk and be there for them to come to you, but it’s not good in Nek’s eyes to try to force your message onto them. (A good example is the friar in Kazham.) Nek believes she draws upon the same magical powers of nature and gathers that energy to cast healing spells, and not that heals are Altana’s divine blessing. She thinks the priests use that as a focus to tap into the light magic energy that is all around, and does admit because of this the cathedral is a place of great light magic energy. (If Cures and other light magic were the answers of prayers then why do Light Elementals exist?)

But enough with that rant…back to the question. Caves because that’s where Nek grew up. Norg and Pal Mines were places she frequented and she’ll still go to Pal Mines to relax sometimes. And then wind. Garuda is her avatar of choice and the one she named her ship after. Wind also helped power her ship. As a thief you had to be quick and speed also is in the realm of wind.

On to Jestor (this is almost too easy). Books and glasses. As a scholar that’s their real showy ability to bring out books and get affects from that power. That and his mog house does have a few bookcases in it. (Not talking beds, bookcases.) And glasses, since that was a driving force behind me working on clothcraft was the goal of getting him glasses. And now he doesn’t ever wear any other headgear except them. (I’ll swap when he gets to 60 and can wear the Sch AF because that has glasses incorporated into it as well.)

Now to move on to the others…

Keahi – Jestor would say ‘Fire’. Just because he sees her as firey, pushy, boastful, outgoing, always on the move. Nek would say ‘Missing’. Because Keahi never seems to be around whe Nek is. And when she’s not around no one speaks of her, so to Nek Keahi is the missing piece of the linkshell.

I will say looking at Kristy’s description of Keahi, she’s right, that is what Keahi does. So I will be curious as to what her ‘role’ would be around Nek. OOC I know she’s hung up on Nek leaving Cor behind, without even hearing Nek out or asking. (aka pssing judgement without facts, which is also a trait people give to Fire.) And if she brought that up, Nek would bring up Keahi not being around for her own linkshell. I know Nek can get past that, and I’d like to see Keahi grow past that, because right now it seems like now she’s retreated and withdrawn. Maybe that is her role when Nek is around, to blend into the background? (Since if they were doing stuff together with the two of them, I honestly have no idea what trait Keahi would pick up on and personalize.) Oh, and even if he doesn't say it, Jestor is still a tad jealous of the rivalry/familiarity Keahi has with Humaisna.

Humaisna – Jestor, Nek and I all will say ‘Shield’. He is the shield of the party. He goes out of his way to help others even at great cost to himself. He tries to protect Nekaru from things she can handle and she’s had to come back to raise him. (She did appreciate that. *smile*)

Saehel – Jestor would say ‘test subject/lab assistant’. Although with Nek around that hasn’t happened anymore, and he’s been left to experiment on Histrion. Nek would say ‘Monk and Daughter’. Because that’s what she aspires to be. And it was a lot of work on Sae’s part to endear herself to Nek, but it was worth it because Nek views Sae like an adopted daughter now. (she was going to be accepting before, but Sae’s over the top trying to do the right thing pushed it over the top.) If I had to describe her, I’d say ‘Chocobo’. Sometimes Sae is as ditzy as a chocobo, she gets lost (like a chocobo you don’t give directions to) and she loves to raise and be with Chocobos. I know that’s something that her and Nek will be able to talk about in the future now that Nek’s getting better at Chocobo raising (something you really couldn’t do in Aht Urgan).

Coravin – Jestor would say ‘flirt’. Although once again with Nek around that hasn’t happened. They still need to go on their ‘date’. *chuckle* Nek would say ‘Daughter’. And truthfully, both Nek and I were surprised when Coravin said she wanted to be a Summoner. And as she grows in that Nek has been filled with pride. As for me, I don’t know what I’d say. Maybe hats/hair, since that’s a little thing between her and Nek.

Aenini – Jestor, Nek and I would all say ‘healer’. Jestor because she’s a practitioner of White Magic and she dislikes hurting people. Nek views her as a gentle soul. Nek’s been going out of her way to try not to upset her as she did at their first meeting. It was unintentional and now Nek’s been trying to find common ground and assist her and trying to build a bond of friendship. (Nek also doesn’t know about Aenini’s obsession with hats yet.) But Nek views Aenini as the glue that brings peace to the group, so she’s one that heals physical and emotional wounds. (Nek doesn’t know about Aenini’s love of dancers, Jestor does but doesn’t attribute it to healing or Aenini, he kind of thinks of it as either a passing fad or a girl thing.) As for me, if you look at the jobs Aenini is using White Mage and Dancer, one is the healer who uses magic, the other is a healer who uses TP. So the mage healer and the melee healer.

Rhoa – Jestor would say ‘Spear and Dragon’ although more on the spear as dragon hasn’t been talked about for a long time. Nek would say ‘Spear’, since they haven’t talked much she doesn’t know about Rhoa’s love of dragons, or Rhoa’s history. All Nek knows about Rhoa is she likes to hit things from behind. For me, I’d have to day ‘Dragons’, because I think that’s a big part of what Rhoa is and dreams about.

Lynku – Jestor’s only met him once so he’d say ‘fighter’. Nek (not trying to be mean) would say ‘fruit that doesn’t fall far from the tree’. >< She sees him as a bit ditzy, just like Saehel can be. Me, I’d say ‘Knight’ because I know that’s what he is aspiring to be.

Saehel: bat wings

Humaisna: a wall. Although Cathe likes the shield and white knight references and agrees with shield, Humai doesn't feel as impressive and honorable like a white knight or beautiful, flashy and useful as a shield. He's a wall - kinda insignificant and boring; something that has to hold its shit together and not break or everyone will get hurt.

Keahi: a balance. As insane as Keahi is, she keeps him centered and helps him keep sight of the important things. She helps him find humor in things that aren't particularly funny, and helps him chill out and relax when he's overreacting. On the other hand, if he's apathetic about something, she'll find a way to get him to react. So between calming him down and riling him up, she's a pretty good counter to him.

Ninny: a child. Her childlike wonder and innocence about everything really touches Humai, so he looks out for her, likes giving her gifts, and would go apeshit if anyone ever hurt her. She makes him and the rest of the party happy, and he loves her for that.

Miss Sae: batwings! And by that, Humai means adventure. Sae's always up for doing things, even if they're impossible, and her upbeat attitude is what he likes best. He regards her more as an equal, because she's always able to take care of herself.

Mr Jessy: dusty books. Humai likes Jestor and is impressed by his knowledge but somewhat put off by the clinical way he evaluates everyone and everything.

Nek: not an object, but the word that comes to mind is interloper. Humai personally has no problem with her and likes adventuring with her when it's just the two of them. But he has noticed that the linkshell is more divided now that she's here, and he never sees Miss Sae anymore. And when the linkshell is together, she tends to take over the whole show, so that, in Humai's opinion, no one has a say anymore and he feels ambivalent to giving direction or hanging around people he once enjoyed. He knows it's stupid and resents himself for thinking that way, especially since Cora and Sae are so much happier, but since Ninny and Keahi are not, he sometimes wishes she wouldn't have butted in where she was not entirely welcome.

Rhoa: glass. Rhoa does the damage that Humai is incapable of. She's sharp, efficient and skilled with her weapons. Her lack of tact is also refreshing. But like glass, she is fragile, and enemies tend to hit her hard. Because she's on the front lines and gets hit more, Humai wants to get stronger to protect her.

oh I did want to make an ooc note that Keahi's problem with Nekaru is not solely based on the deal with Coravin. Keahi has other issues (that were in place long before she met Nekaru) that haven't really come up all that much as of yet.

I will agree that the LS feels divided. But I've noticed Huami is good with Nek when they're together. Aenini is good with Nek when they've been together (Nek's been working to overcome the initial unintentional wrong foot). Rhoa's started doing adventuring with Nek. And as you noted Cor and Sae are already fine with her. The only one that hasn't been is Keahi. Which I've noticed the past weeks Keahi has had one group and Saehel has had the other group (not Nek). Esp two weeks ago when Keahi, Aenini and Humai ignored Rhoa, and then this past week when 'everyone' got together excpet for Keahi.

And Huami hasn't been around as much either (probably because of his feelings) but Sae's been the one organizing things lately, mostly because of Lynku and Coravin needing things. (But I think part of that once again isn't Nek, but Huami's uncomfortableness with Lynku and thus not being around him and then projecting that onto Nek because he already sees the conflict from Keahi's side towards her. And the same with Saehel, she's been helping Lynku a lot and thus not with the group unless they were helping Lynku, and so Humai might be projecting not seeing Saehel onto Nek when it's him not being around Lynku instead.)

And you're right, atm I feel like Aenini's been giving Nek a chance but Humai has withdrawn and hasn't anymore, while Keahi's still hasn't opened up or brought up what's bothering her with the group. Keahi might be a balance for Huami, but atm she's also a weight dragging him down.

I did think of another reason that Nek might appear to be 'interloping' is people don't talk to each other on LS or they are ignored. When we talked IC about doing Cor's Smn stuff Nek told her to talk on shell to see if others wanted to help. She didn't, so Nek did. And Nek doesn't understand why people in the shell wouldn't talk or help one another. If you want me to have her bring that up I can, else I'll back off and let others speak up, but OOC I'm not seeing anyone speak ICly in linkshell to organize anything, and that's why we have the split in Keahi apparently not wanting to be around Nek and Saehel helping Lynku with things as the two driving forces right now. If Humai really wants to fix things that he sees as wrong then maybe he'll have to be the one to speak up because Keahi won't.

After today I think Rhoa views Nek as another adventure buddy like Humaisna. Though she feels relations with other characters have distanced out a bit.

I think the reason a lot of people haven't been IC in the linkshell over the last few weeks is because we haven't had anything big to do aside from level grinding. I agree that we're a little overdue for more IC conversations, question is what do the characters need to do about it?

I've been a little reluctant to push Rhoa's parents since we've had lots of other things going on lately (Cor becoming a summoner, Lynku's introduction, etc.) I wanted to let them have some time to enjoy it, not steal the show like I potentially did with the blue mages. I know a lot of characters wouldn't speak up or act unless they were spoken to first so maybe we should figure out what's on all the character's minds? Then we can figure out how to bring it up in game.

Actually to Nek that's the only thing wrong with this shell is people don't use it to talk to one another. They gather in their own small groups...which atm has been Saehel leveling with Lynku and Keahi leveling with herself. (And others popping in and helping.)

You didn't need to worry about Cor's Smn thing because if people talk ICly in shell then that can be in addition to whatever else is going on, and as you saw with the Smn quest it was a lot of running around and waiting (or killing all the leeches and waiting).

I was going to dig out the b-day list (can't seem to find it but I know it's somewhere) as I think there were some character b-days in Feb and March. But I'd say now's as good of time as any to do that Rhoa.

I might not have Jestor on a lot, but if anyone needs him just ask. I've kinda distanced him because I don't really like talking to myself if I'm in the same area/group. But as much as he's distanced out, no one has asked for him IC so in a way they're distancing from him as well. So I understand what you mean when you say Rhoa's feels distanced from the others. I think if we had more IC talk in shell that could help a bit.

Sae's is in early March. And yeah, I agree we should have more IC chat on /ls, it's just sometime hard to remember when I'm coaching someone through mechanics at the same time.

Yeah, especially if we're in different groups doing different things it would help bring everyone together in a way that we can all chat about happenings over the linkshell.

And I'd like to see more of { Hey, I'm doing this, would anyone like to assist? } Rather than us somehow knowing where to meet all the time.

Nek's is February, and Sae and Jestor are both March. Those were the ones I had listed as coming up. I think I'll have Jestor pass that information to Sae about Nek's, but he'll keep quiet about his own.

For note, Rhoa's Bday's back in December, though I haven't figured out a set day.

On a quick back-to-subject note, I never expected the icon subject to be as popular as some of you made it! I'll post up Rhoa's opinions in a bit.

If these are IC opinions and feelings you are having, please go ahead and say them In Game. Nothing's going to change by saying it on the forum as the issue seems to be how the characters are acting IG.

The characters do use the linkshell to talk to one another, though lately the chatter has been down because, as James noted, we've been trying to level grind lately. I cannot fight and type-talk at the same time (I even have trouble running and talking-typing at the same time in games), so I'm always on the quiet side. As for using it to make plans, I know for me personally everytime I've participated in an activity is because someone's said "Hey, I'm doing this, come along?" on the linkshell. When you say that Keahi, Aenini and Humaisna ignored Rhoa, we actually had used the linkshell to get Humaisna to come with Keahi and Aenini. Rhoa just got on much later when we were already knee-deep in a dungeon and it was late. We told him not to bother because by the time he got there, we would be done for the night. We didn't realize that he was right next to our zone. So James, if that did make you or Rhoa feel ignored, we're sorry, that wasn't our intention.

I only play one day a week, as does Kristy mostly. Aenini's actually around less then Keahi. Everyone else mostly gets on multiple times a week. As a result our characters are not seen that often and in comparison it looks like we don't participate in alot of group activites. There are often other reasons other why characters would not be around, or do not participate in "group" activities. Two examples. The last time we all got on (even though Humaisna wasn't there either) and Keahi leveled by herself? She was trying to quickly hit her next level so that she could use her teleport item to join us in San d'Oria where we were waiting to meet Lynku. She was actively trying to get to the group, but ended up not making it because of she couldn't hit her level. The second example is that Aenini didn't get to go to Coravin's birthday party. IC, this hurt Aenini's feelings, but she's too polite and nice to say anything. OOC, I had to go on a business trip and couldn't get on that night. It wasn't moved to a different night either so I could participate The dates could have been fudged, it's not like the calender IG is accurate. So there should be concious, considerate efforts all around that if you want to plan a whole group activity, to try to make sure that everyone can join in if they want.

We also miss Jestor. It is established IG and OOG that our linkshell meets at a specific time. If Jestor doesn't show up, IC we'd think he's either busy or just doesn't want to hang out with us anymore. OOC, we know that Dennis just wants to play Nekaru more which is perfectly acceptable. Still miss the guy though, maybe you could bring him this week? Also, now that the level grinding has slowed down a bit, we can probably get more roleplaying in too.

ICly, Nek hasn't been around long enough to know the shell used to do stuff together. So she thinks this is the way people normally act and she won't bring it up because she's trying to not shake the boat.

Dennis thinks that it's kinda sad that we don't seem to do stuff IC as a group.

The reason we've been level grinding is a few things.
1) There's been a goal of missions and AF quests. To do those you have to be a higher level. (50+)
2) By leveling up main jobs, has caused sub jobs to be needed to be leveled up as well. (25+)
3) Lynku recently joined and has been working on leveling to catch up as well as now needing chocobo and mission quests.

As for the past two weeks, when it was Saehel, Rhoa and Lynku gathering they had three, and the other party was three people. And we had the explorer moogles so it was easy to get from place to place, and with Rhoa having Bastok as a home nation he uses the book to get to Bastok quickly. And also at the time when it was just Rhoa asking and not all three of them, people were still in Bastok. (No one had started leveling yet, Saehel was still with Cor and Nek and Lynku wasn't online yet.)

And then last week, when I got on everyone was in the highlands moving to North Gustaberg. Keahi was in the same zone. James and I were able to join up with Lynku's group and we got online a lot later than Kristy. So to Dennis it seemed like she didn't want to be a part of the group if she was in the same zone and not in the party or trying to get to the party. If you say her goal was to join the party in Sandy, then why didn't she join them when they were in the same zone as her? Because of that is why it looked like to me her goal was leveling on her own and not joining the group, because the opportunity was there to join up.

As for the date move on the b-day thing. I'll apologize on that, as Dennis didn't know you really wanted to be there. But I will say that the main factor was when Joy and Mish were free, and that was the only night that worked for them because of getting ready to move. (In fact I picked the date after I knew Mish would be free then.) And at the time ICly Nek didn't think Aenini wanted to be around her much so the information was given to Humai to pass along to people. (And thus keep it a secret from Sae and Cor). In fact Keahi almost didn't show up (with Kristy logged in) because Huami was a pretty bad messenger.

The point you bring up that because most people are only on one night a week, we should probably talk about what are people's goals or what do they want to do? I know in the past I pushed to get people interested to going to Aht Urgan. At one point there was a goal of the crags. And there was always the overarching goal of getting AF armor for people as well as airship passes. Then there's the other things like fishing as a group. Going out for a picnic. Going sightseeing someplace new.

So you're probably right. We need to drop the leveling for a bit and actually go out and do stuff as a shell to build the bonds as I think some of the reason people are left out of things is the characters just aren't comfortable enough with sharing things as a group. I know when it was a smaller shell of all close IC friends then it was easier to talk about things, so maybe that should be the new goal of the shell, to actually make friends so that the characters will want to do stuff together.

OOG - I honestly don't mind doing my level grinding by myself. I know it's boring for other people if it's not what they were planning on doing. So I don't want anyone to think that they need to help me, or that I am going to be insulted if they would rather not help me, because that's not the case. As inconsistently as I play I think I would rather people not plan their FFXI gaming around what Coravin needs.

As far as high-level stuff. I do have monk at 30, but I would prefer not to do high level stuff as monk because I find it very boring, so I want to wait until I get Summoner high enough level before I do any of that stuff. It's going to take longer but honestly I'm not in a rush. And with everyone possibly jumping to FFIX when it comes out, I don't want to waste time on monk when it's not a job I care to take to 75. I hope that makes sense.

In the meantime, since I can't summon other summons until I do some stuff, I would like to work on leveling WHM since I will want it at least 37 if I do take SMN to 75. Besides that I have a few WHM spells in my inventory that I would like to learn so I can use them and free up space in my inventory.

Not relating to the job but I would also like to get BLM to at least 17 to learn some spells I have in my inventory and free up that space as well.

As far as I know this is all stuff I can do on my own time and so I don't care if Linkshell is not centered on helping Coravin attain this stuff.

I guess I misread it all. It's supposed to be OOC but since people started talking about IC opinions and how they view others I thought people were doing both.

I wasn't offended or anything by being left out so no need to apologize. I think it was brought up to prove a point that we've been pretty disorganized lately.

I think there isn't as bad of an issue as it looks like it's shaping up to be (me being paranoid and all...) I think it's just a matter of we've had a long break from RPing and we should consider trying to tie in some RPing with the weekly activities, even if it's just a little at the start or a little at the end of all the action. I'm under the impression no one is against grinding or helping out the lowbies either, just maybe find a way to throw some RP in?

Hope this doesn't stir anything up, I'm just trying to ground any misunderstandings that may be floating around.