I love the ribbon chokers

Right at 12 am Subeta time!

We are officially at the end of the black! Catch your breath, we'll be getting into the blues soon enough. This batch is to .

I'm going to talk about .

Or rather, how I may have gotten it. You see, I have a strong memory of getting an item from the Blackheart Hollow! I don't recall what item it was, but I remember the excitement of seeing it there and being able to snag it before anyone else. I have a vague memory that this may have happened a second time. So this post was going to be about how lol the blackheart hollow is so hard to get items from that in my 16 years (10 years active play) I only ever got one, MAYBE two items from it!

Then I looked at my achievements.

42. FORTY TWO. the fuck. when???!? I have NO recollection of this! at all!! FORTY TWO??!?!?!?!

I mean, I trust that the achievements are correct. But this feels wrong on so many levels to me. Or maybe that's why I can't remember a specific item, even though I have the memory of getting something, because I got so many? So, I guess that's a whole post topic thrown out the window XD

Speaking of achievements, there's a Site Events category for Masquerade: Ziara History, and I have basically all the achievements, but I don't remember this plot at all? 'Cause this wasn't the original murder mystery I don't think. I remember THAT one well. Managed to find it in the news archive from March/April 2013. ...was this the start of the Rift? Oh, looks like! They talk about the Riftborn (I almost typed Riftborn pokemon, what is wrong with me). I have to admit, even with going through the news posts from the time, I STILL remember nothing about this plot. Which is very odd for me, if I don't remember it outright I usually remember it clearly enough once I've been reminded (seeing the section for the councilors cruise and the achievements had me remember the mini-event well enough).

Oh yay, I'm awake for this one! Have managed to be asleep during the past few haha

I missed again, lol the universe hates me I think. Oh well I'm in it for the neat stories, the shinies are a bonus :) Also I don't know if you are aware but they actually changed how the donation corner works. They made it so usernames don't show and they changed how items show up to different users so that if someone does do a huge dump they don't have to mass delete things anymore. I like how you spread it out though as it gives more users a chance and it's awesome to see your unique older HA's but just wanted to mention it in case you had a wild hair sometime and wanted to drop in a couple pages worth

Making a note here of times dropped so that I can be better at making sure to hit different times! Apologies to the 2-8 am subeta time group, I am 99.999% sure a drop will not happen during those hours. Sorry! 12 am 1:30 am 8:30 am 10 am 10:30 am 1 pm (x3) 2 pm (x2) 6 pm 7:45 pm (x2) 8:00 pm

Alright. Looks like I need to try to hit the 9am, 11am, noon, 3-5pm and after 8pm time slots! I am trying to keep this balanced, but it always depends on what I'm doing and how I'm feeling. I should try to hit more :15, :30, and :45 times too.

ANYHOW. Today we are at to .

This is a GOOD batch going out, 76 items worth more than a mil! Though to be fair, 20 of those are the Blake Bobblehead, so apologies in advance for the deflation about to happen on those. There will be one or two more bobblehead drops where they are currently worth a lot, but I have like, 20, so that'll reduce the price XD

This item batch also includes the blob kitty wearable sets, which are my love even though I didn't use them too much. However, LET'S TALK ABOUT BLAKE STEELE!!!

The Steele Excavation was in some ways my third favorite plot (with the original pandemic being my favorite, followed very closely by the original masquerade plot), but in a number of other ways is my favorite plot.

First of all I only have 88 now, but I'm sure I had in the thousands! This, the free beer, and the asmodeus concoctions were the three big refreshes for fun. For some reason this one hit all the right aspects of silly for me, more so than the other two. Something as entertaining as the concept as constantly approaching Blake and having him hand off a shovel, over and over and over again. I don't have too many now as I'm pretty sure I managed to get the recycle beast asking for this and the beer. (I only have 25 of the free beer, so I MUST have!)

(Is it just me, or does the excavation site not even load anymore?? T.T)

One of the reasons that I think this plot worked so well is because of how the map continuously evolved with each step. (I also think that maybe the main Sacred Lands map updated too, but I can't find evidence of that, so maybe not) Additionally, as you dug, you had a random chance to get items, and I've already mentioned I like a random chance! (I also really apparently like virtual digging? I had to look up the damn neopets plot where I also dug a lot and loved it - the Lost Desert Plot. Looking at the wiki it feels vaaaguely familiar? 2005! But I know I participated, I had the mid-level trophy for it! I'd show it off but that account got locked and deleted YEARS ago. I had a single Ziara...Zafara? Zafara! I was right! An angelic one (sorry, "Christmas"), named "Sushie302" I think... look I was YOUNG at that point, considering I was on neopets for YEARS before I joined Subeta! I think I joined in 2001, because thinking of where I was at in my life the timeline makes sense, and I think I was on there for about six years before I got on Subeta. I don't even remember what my account name was! omg, I found an old screenshot! "gmegurly". Looong since frozen! Too bad I can't try to look it up, the site won't even let you view anything if you're not registered now, and eff that.)

Sorry, tangent about reminiscing about the wrong site! Back to Blake Steele!

I had a lot of mixed feelings in regards to the achievements for this event, as the majority of them were "be in the first 100 to complete a step/solve a puzzle". I managed to get 6 of them, but a good reason for that was that I was able to make sure I was on at the right time - around 6:30pm subeta time! If you weren't able to get on at that time, due to time zones or work or school, you were just out of luck. I also managed to solve a lot of them quickly, but I did NOT get the Cha Cha Real Smooth

Be among the first 100 to solve the mystic square puzzle in the Saheric temple plot.

I so didn't get it in fact, that I had to have a different user solve the puzzle for me, because these sliding block puzzles are the bane of my existence. (I actually still have it saved from sending it to him).

Overall, I really loved each room having it's own puzzle, the fact that a number of the puzzles became site games (including the evil slide puzzle), the character and energy that Blake had, which I believe at the time was fairly unique among the NPCs of the site. While it didn't interest me personally, the fact that it introduced a new pet as well? was HUGE for a lot of the player base.

I think was I liked so much about the digging (on both sites) was the fact that it was a collaborative goal. If you did more or less, you were still participating and there was a shared sense of excitement and purpose when doing so. I wish I could see the old forum threads for this, and sadly even looking at my old posts, there's a weird break from 2009 to 2014, so any posts made between then were lost, and posts made before 2009 are gone. I feel like I remember a lot of us cheering each other on in regards to digging, making silly narratives around it. I don't recall if I'd made my HA specifically for it, but I certainly updated it to get in the mood!

This is certainly an event that I don't think staff could easily bring back or update in anyway really. I can see the option of maybe adding harvesting to Survival again, throwing in a mini-plot about how this years zombies are especially bloodthirsty, but this? Even the idea of a cave-in and having to re-dig it out likely wouldn't appeal, as the games would all be ones that have been available for years, and there would have to be some type of payoff for a group digging effort. The only thing I could think of would be a cave-in, everyone has to dig it out again, then you find a trap door in the floor or something, leading to some change-your-pets-color type thing a la the coda caves, and have it be some sandy type pet. BUT that not only requires coding, but also a hell of a lot of work for artists! New recolors for all pets? Or if they wanted it to be a specially posed one?? Designing the floor, creating the mechanics of how it would work, assuming it wouldn't just be buy a potion, any possible new NPC, it becomes so much that I can't see it done in the state Subeta is in these days.

Aww man, wish I'd been a part of the Steele Excavation plot! Ticks so many cool boxes. Great to hear about your experience with it! Nabbed a couple of nice wigs, thank you. c:

Here's one for the 9am crowd!

Today's items are to , and with that we are now in the blue.

Nothing here catching my eye for a story or memory, so quick and quiet drop today. :)

EDIT: Uh, forgot to uncheck the gift cards, so also 24 100 csc gift cards in there. oops.

"You receive 100 Credit Gift Card!" Aaah thank you for the drop~

You receive 100 Credit Gift Card!

Wow, thank you!! :)

100 credit Gift Card. Thank you so very much!

I was finally online for a drop, managed to get Thanks again for doing this Lurk, I know its a lot of work

I've managed to grab , didn't even know that item exists. :o <3

Best of luck in your future endeavors ♥ Subeta is hard to stick with now after many many years I do go on long hiatus' instead and come back to see all the changes and how my friends are doing. I wish you all the best and doing this is very kind ^^

Unexpected double drop today because there will be no drop tomorrow. to

I'm a big fan of the line, very classy and pretty. I was never able to figure out how to use a well, but I still love them.

Another fairly wearable heavy drop - again, makes sense when we're in the 'item name starting with a color' section.

Next drop on Friday!

Got . Thank you!

We got to

this is such a great find, i'm putting it in my lumi 2023 giveaway gallery. thank you for being so kind and giving all this away! sad to see you're leaving, but what a cool thing to do before you make that decision to leave for good.

I got Thank you!

to

Rather than a site memory, today's 'topic' is based on

Anyone else here play D&D?

It was never my thing when I was younger, I had a vaguely ttrpg-based experience once when I was early teens and was very bored by it. Cue frantically looking for things to focus on during the pandemic when my brain was whirling, and I got introduced to Critical Role. The show, while certainly not the common table, reintroduced me to dnd and showed me what the possibilities were.

At first I watched it with the thought that while I enjoyed it as entertainment, I still had no interest in playing dnd. Then slowly, slowly, slowly as I spent more months watching it, I began becoming interested in game mechanics and roleplaying and the random chance brought by dice.

I've currently got a group that I play with, but it's still relatively new. We've been playing for several months, but only one session a month. Despite being a theater kid when I was ..well, a kid, I find roleplaying to probably be the hardest thing. The improv in the moment is a struggle, but I'm slowly getting better. I have a lot of fun in the combat, so I'm wondering if I might be better suited to more like a beer and pretzels type table where it's just gather round and do a bunch of combat, with minimal roleplaying involved.

Regardless, my natural personality has shown through even from the start - I have way too many dice sets and want to keep buying more, despite the fact that I don't even play that much! XD

How did you find your D&D group? I used to play in college and really loved it (favorite part was doing character voices and drawing everyone's characters) but I haven't found a group since moving.

I seriously have to resist collecting dice and miniatures even though I literally don't play right now.