Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Tales from the Past: Stories from SWG's Creature Handlers
wolfwood-the-rebel
Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:44 am
#27
Hey, np Belt... I just figured we could all use a place to chill for a while and get away from the stresses of grinding the game.
Irish_Darkshadow
Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:46 am
#28
Thanks for the invite !
Nice to see a little community spirit around here these days. Reminds me of the months after launch when one of the best things in game was to go on a hunt into crazy places like the Krayt graveyard and spend lots of time during the hunt in camps just chatting and joking and sometimes you would see something classic like a commando in full comp with a flamer doing the Charleston so we could lower BF before heading back into battle....man, I really miss those times, they made me feel like going on a hunt was more than a calculated time versus xp gained grind on my way to getting FS blocks. I understand that nostalgia can sometimes be recycling the past for more than its really worth but I honestly feel those days were a little more innocent and fun because of it. The thing that worries me is that I am not sure if the changing circumstances in the game are what has changed the most, or all of our attitudes because of dealing with those changes. Either way, I wish we could just get a reason for camps back into the game so that a little more of the social part of SWG could get a resurrection. OK, with all that off my chest....
/dismounts Tiny (my cool bantha which was a present from a CH on my first trip to the Graveyard - still got him too)
/target tokagowa
/bow2
/wave
/sit
/rememberTheOldDays
...pass me some marshmallows friends and lets keep the cold away with some tales of trips we have taken in this galaxy.
Irish_Darkshadow
Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:56 am
#29
True, that could make it a little awkward trying to get back to there on your corpse run !
Please, Mr. Krayt.....dismount my corpse, I want my stuff back ....lol
Ayami-Ayami
Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:58 am
#30
a few high, and low, points of my time as a CH...
the low points...
spent DAYS looking for a graul mauler baby, finally found one, some rebel NPCs killed it /cry
also, 3 days to tame a Kinad baz nitch, i found plenty my 2nd day, always got the you cant tame that bug /sob
and the high!
my very first tame, a rock beetle
i was so happy, i still have him.
also, when i finally tamed that baz nitch
and when i tamed a lava flea with agrerssion 3, had been looking for it for weeks, lol, had tamed many a reptilian flier.
ahh, good times
the low points...
spent DAYS looking for a graul mauler baby, finally found one, some rebel NPCs killed it /cry
also, 3 days to tame a Kinad baz nitch, i found plenty my 2nd day, always got the you cant tame that bug /sob
and the high!
my very first tame, a rock beetle
i was so happy, i still have him.
also, when i finally tamed that baz nitch
and when i tamed a lava flea with agrerssion 3, had been looking for it for weeks, lol, had tamed many a reptilian flier.
ahh, good times
wolfwood-the-rebel
Wed Nov 02, 2005 9:52 am
#31
Smoke 'em if you've got 'em, Cloud...
/breaksOutTheSakeGlasses
RhaSedi
Wed Nov 02, 2005 10:34 am
#32
Hi Wolf!! I think mybrand new raptor and i will go out jawa hunting to obtain crates of jawa beer for this little shindig!! So whos bringing the gramcrackers? I wish I new some CH's on Chilastra with your attitude, that being said.... HELLO is anyone out there lol. Drop me a line if you are up for some hunting or chatting or whatever 
So anyway happy thoughts about CH and the good old days... hmmm ok long long ago there was this broken spawn of Black Sun guys on endor oh man there were hundreds of them it was glorious... lots of killing and lots of dying. I was using Blood, bless his memory a lvl 69 (pre cu..200 something after cu oh the pain) Bio Choku fighting god way too many Black Sun guys. let me tell you folks i bit off way more than i could chew here. anyways i go down right of the bat my husbands off bout a fifty meters away trying to pull them off me before they deathblow me and here is Blood taking on 4 Uber Black Sun guys standing right over my body not letting them DB me. It was so cool to watch. I miss that guy... i think i need to go find a frenzied choku now in his memory...
Peace out and if your on Chilastra drop me a line
Rha'sedi Koleski
Grambacca
Wed Nov 02, 2005 11:11 am
#33
/stroll into camp with Zeus
Hey fellas how's it going? Mind if I join ya?
/puls out Gram Crackers and passes em around
What are ya staring at? Who else but Grambacca would have GRAM crackers? eh?
Hmm taming stories huh? I got one for ya. It's how I came to become friends with 'ol Zeus here.
/sits down and thinks back 1 1/2 years. /smiles to himself
Well I had been out hunting Nunas on Tatooine and was about to go mad trying to harvest the pitiful bit of meat you get from them. I swear the next Doc that asks for Tatooine Avian meat is gonna have their arms torn outta their sockets!
Anyway I decided to take a break and go cruise around Corellia to see if I could find any Great Plains Stalkers. I was enjoying the scenery, flying around unbuffed, no armor, no other pets. Just an 'ol wook and his Brandy havin a boring ol time.
Had just about given up on seeing anything except Krahbus, Durnis, and Wrixes when just as I was flying past a field of harvestors I hear an unmistakable roar and BAM! I am knocked off my bike by an adult GPS!! Needless to say I started hightailing it as fast as I could go. Luckily there was a herd of Krahbus nearby and the adult took an interest in them instead of me.
This gave me time to grab my Jawa rifle and call my Gurreck Hellspawn and backtrack to make the kill. I then proceeded back to where I had first been attacked and here was the second adult. Hellspawn and I made quick work of her also. Not spotting anymore adults in the area I sent Hellspawn to feed on his own, put away my rifle and then proceeded to scout the area. Not more than 100m away I found a Baby GPS hiding in the brush near a tree! Since I had taken it's parents I felt obligated to tame and raise the lil critter myself. The lil critter was happy to follow me into Coronet where I showed him off to a few friends and other gawkers.
Before finding the Baby GPS I had skinned it's parents and had the hide tucked away in my swoop. An idea struck me and so upon reaching my home I decided to use the hide as a throw rug in my house. The Baby GPS curls up on the hide to sleep at night. It's his fav spot in my house now!
/comes back to the present
/sighs about fond memories
'Ol Zeus and me been together ever since. He still sleeps on that hide rug whenever we are home! Heh, fond memories!
Message Edited by Grambacca on 11-02-2005 01:14 PM
SYNBAD
Wed Nov 02, 2005 11:42 am
#34
.
/uncloak
Synbad says to all ch. " anglina told me you needed more steaks, well here are some Picket and Bol steaks me and my Jedi friends just sliced up"
/cloak
/sneaks bag of marshmellows and leaves to kill more pickets
wolfwood-the-rebel
Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:28 pm
#35
A couple of months back, starting out as a new CH and BE, I was out roaming the Corellian wilds... just walking around without any real goal, taking potshots at humbabas with my little rabid durni. So, in my roaming, I stumble across a lair of wrixes... three species of 'em. So, I whip out my sampling needles, check to make sure that my fur isn't damp and smelly, reapply my scent masking, and start going to town. After collecting DNA samples from all of the adults, I literally trip over a baby wrix. I hit the ground, the wrix stares at me for a second, I stare back at him... the baby bolts. Fortunately, I had a few strips of Herbivore jerky to spare, so I grab one and fling it right in front of the wrix cub.
The baby stops and forgets everything else in favor of a free meal, and I take the opportunity to soothe him a little... scratch behind his ears, make soft warbles in Shyriiiwook. Five minutes later, I'm the proud trainer of Azrael, my first named pet. Azrael and I went everywhere on Corellia; that little scrapper could take down creatures that you'd never imagine him to be able to, thanks to his Marring Storm. We even cleaned out dens of slice hounds and the lost city of Durbin on Talus, Azrael and me.
Sad to say, I dropped CH for a while recently, so Az and I made a sad farewell when I let him go outside the gates of Coronet. He disappeared into the grass, and the last thing that I saw of him was a Meatlump buffoon making an "urk" sound and falling to the ground.
/sniffle
/mopsEyesWithPaw
I miss that lil guy... I'll have to go roaming around Corellia again to see if I can't find him.
Rnsthn
Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:41 pm
#36
Here's a funny recent story. Me and a group are working on the Operaitonal Droid Facility on mustafar. We get to the room with 6 hands of doom and radioactive. For those of you who haven't been there, the hands of doom try and blow up the radioactive. Sure enough, BOOM! The radioactive goes off, everyone dies. After about 20 seconds of cursing in groupchat, someone says "damn, I guess those things really can survive a nuclear bomb". The only thing left standing.... my shear mite soldier.
wolfwood-the-rebel
Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:58 pm
#37
Just goes to show you... the only things that will survive a nuclear blast are cockroaches and the plastic surgery nightmare that is Cher's face.
/raiseMugFor Shear Mite Soldier
BoosterRocket
Thu Nov 03, 2005 5:41 am
#38
Sentry and I move to the edge of the camp. I've never seen this many companions in one place. I pull his head down to where I can whisper in his ear, "Wait out here you enormous, clumsy cat." In acknowlegement he bumps his muzzle gently against my chest--gently for him which almost knocks me down. Cautiously he retreats into the darkness, but his eyes glow with light captured from the fire as he watches.
The greetings are easy, friendly although I am a stranger to all at the fire. I sit on the ground and listen as stories flow from battle scarred and war wearied handlers. An enormous, furry hand passes me a cup of hot chocolate and I accept it greatfully. There is a moment when something huge and far off screams with anger. In the near darkness, enormous shapes shift, raise their heads in attention, and stare out toward the sound. The moment passes, and the story resumes as our companions relax and the sounds of their breathing, their tails thumping, and occasional low grumblings resume.
I am silent. I am young for a handler anddo not have the stories to tell that these veterans have locked inside them like jewels. Most of my companions have been like Sentry--five parents who met in a test tube and looked nothing like the huge razor cat he has become--so I don't have stories about hunting with other handlers for elusive, near mythical beasts. I have always wanted to make my own mythical beasts, and with Sentry, Titan, and their kin I think I have. Almost, during the recent weeks, I have been tempted to release all of my creations into the wild. I'm not sure who discovered that the companions we have always taught were also able to teach, but it changed things for us. We seek the secrets locked in the mute brains of creatures both mythical and mundane. Almost I regret the changes this has wrought on our profession, but I reassure myself that the companions I have kept will be better for the mad rush to learn ever more complicated concepts.
The wind shifts.
The stink of something enormous and long dead fills the camp and the story is for a moment forgotten. Even my human nose is overpowered. The ground vibrates as several huge shapes just outside the camp stand and sniff the air to assess the threat. In a moment, the wind shifts again, and the smell is just a bad taste lingering in our mouths. We try to settle back into the peace and camraderie of the night. It is not to be.
The whine of a swoop being redlined alerts us. Ignoring the forms in the darkness, the bike comes right into the camp. Sliding from his vehicle, the handler who just arrived looks around at us, his eyes hunted and sad. "It is over for us," he whispers, "The war will continue, but our ability to call our friends is being taken."
Shocked, we are all silent until a young twilek woman asks, "But... how? Why?" There is no answer. The stars continue in their unconcerned tracks across the sky. We draw closer to each other, chilled so deep the fire cannot touch it. I don't know the names of any of these my brothers and sisters, so I don't know the name of the Wookie who calls something small and warm out of his datapad, but it isn't long before we are all holding our small triumphs, whispering to them,uncaring of our tears. "Goodbye Snuffy," someone says, "Goodbye Hermione" another voice. Then there are many voices in many languages... Goodbye Aurthur... Fare thee well Gwystax... Clear skys CloudDrinker... and I am saying my own goodbyes, to Ruth, Apollo, Athene, Thor... the ache is so huge I can hardly see as I let Sentry go.
Some small ones are stored back in Datapads, but many times I hear the telltale buzz, click, and tones as control links are severed and our companions one by one disappear into the night.
The fire is low. I look around and see dispair. These beings, unbroken by war, are brought low by the most grievous wound they could have imagined. The comforting sounds and smells of our companions... our shields against the lonliness and fear of these worlds we find ourselves in... they are gone. Outside our firelight is darkness and strangeness now, and nothing familiar in it waits.
"My friends..."my voice is rough with pain. I don't care who knows I have cried this night, "Perhaps now we need the stories more than ever..."
Sorry this is long. I first wrote thisyesterday afternoonbefore I found out about CU2. It wasn't as long then, and there wasn't nearly as much crying involved.
Eneth Keslo - Chilastra Server
Master Creature Handler/Master Bioengineer
Iakimo
Thu Nov 03, 2005 5:56 am
#39
Iakimo trots up, astride his faithful Kaadu -- his last remaining callable pet. He surveys the peaceful camp setting a moment, then dismounts. He slowly walks into the firelight and sits, shiveringnear the flames, forearms propped on his knees, not saying a word, not able to summon up the will to look his campmates in the face. He just stares silently into the heart of the dancing flames.
After a moment, the grief inside wells up uncontrollably, and he pulls the hood of his cloak over his head. Then his covered head bows over his forearms.