COP woes, and my DRF Days (Part...the First)

Downrightfierce was my first real linkshell. Prior to joining I had been in Fiador's GrimAngels (social/fun time LS), the Summoner LS Hornie from May-ish of '06 to October, and in TheAftermath/CaptainCaveman (HNMLS) from Oct '06 to early January of '07. I joined DRF in frustration of my experiences in AM, which was full of recieving nothing other that Rostrum Pumps (which I paid for and we almost wiped on...lolAM...thank god for Mowgul), and Beaucedine access over a period of 3 months, which in retrospect of how lucky I am today a pretty crappy rate of getting drops. I also left AM for the utter lack of help I had received in my journey to Al'Taieu. I literally set everything up with people I had met leveling Summoner up (luckily I had BLM lvled). Keep in mind this was pre-nerf COP, exp. loss etc was still a threat to people interested in getting Sea. My snoll and airship mission runs were horrible...so much exp and time wasted on those but I eventually got through them. It's funny too, after I gained Sea access I suddenly got help from AM/and CC people towards getting my Tamas Ring...go figure. My COP story was full of drama and from that point on after finishing I had successfully helped a lot of people in DRF attain access to it after being able to criticize what went horribly wrong in my own experience.

So...DRF. Yes, it was my first real Linkshell, where I solidified my relationships with people whom I still speak to today. It all started with my friend from Hornie, Amanada and his promy ENM group whom I started to go with for a while on a weekly basis. It was here where I met DJ MK (Mogknight) the temperamental tarutaru PLD whom I would come very well acquainted with in the coming months. I met Poombala (Maat's cap lady) here too, a very odd individual, whom I could never really understand fully but she was a nice person and I've pretty much got along with her. It was during the week of the 21st of December that I had to decided to leave TheAftermath as we did absolutely nothing in that LS due to the time of year...which was crap. I wanted to play. So around January 11th or so I had finally responded to one of Mogknight's shouts to openly recruit members into his LS. I joined up immediately after asking him some questions. I don't even remember what I had asked to be honest, but the point is I joined and DRF became my home until August 13th 2007 in FFXI.

The leadership at the time of my joining consisted of Mogknight (shellholder), Thelan (sack), and Aelvin (sack). This is where I really had started to play the game, in my opinion, after learning the basic ropes of how an HNMLS operated from AM. I was there for DRF's major firsts: first Weekend God run, first Kirin, first Dynamis (San D'oria), first official Limbus run, first Northlands run, first Sea farm, first Vrtra (w/CC), first Proto-Omega etc. I had only gone Summoner to one DRF event ever. That event being our first god run where Moggie kindly let me lot the LS's first Zenith Crown. From that point in time on I came BLM to everything, with the exception of a few things I had come RDM to after I finished leveling that in March of '07.

Eventually, I was made into a sack for DRF, not just because of Moggie's sensibilities for me but because I had been playing such an active role in shaping what the LS was becoming. People would follow me and listen to what I said before I was made a sack so I guess it was only natural that I was made one. I also think Moggie made me a sack to somehow keep me from leaving the LS. (This had eventually been a futile effort, as I had left the game over the state of the LS in August of '06). From there on I had been accepted into Moggie's circle of friends and began having weekly LS meetings with them (eventually contributing over Teamspeak as well, where I finally got out of my shell a little and worked on my voice, god it was horrible sounding in the beginning lmao). The main sacks for what I considered DRF's most productive era were Mogknight (Shellholder), Thelan, Liseth (me!), Lillie, and Homeslizzle. Nyanoh (<3) would later join us, and Eugene would always imo be an honorary sack for helping me maintain my sanity throughout the madness closer to the end of my tenure as a member in DRF. In retrospect, I'd probably say my best friends from here other than Mog were (in no particular order) Eugene, Tajin, Nyanoh, Talmor, Anarane (we hardly knew each other but we instantly clicked!) and Tzaellia especially. Those were the people I like to surround myself with and I always loved doing things with them. Thelan and Lillie weren't bad up until I had left either, they get an honorary mention just because I am a forgiving person and I had some entertaining times with both of them.

I guess in Part 2 I'll discuss my decision to quit the game and what exactly got me so frustrated that I felt that I had to leave the game indefinitely. It wasn't pretty...anyway until next time!