This has always been my favorite color: silver and aqua. I already know I desparately want a minipet scorpid of this color, so when I was given the chance to make a full-size one to try out, I was very happy and eager for it. But... which one should it be?
Why, the rare, of course. After all, memory-wise, when I started my Cataclysm rare-hunting, it was actually Vile Sting who was my very first 'official' discovery. And it was Vile Sting who made sure my NPC Scan was working to be able to seek out the rares of Cata. Therefore, it seemed only right that it should be Vile Sting whom I took with me on my journey. That decided, I swept my way into Uldum and flew to Thousand Needles. Looking down at the water, I remembered it as I always remember it: a desert valley, rocky and sandy, where the Tauren held sway and the racers... raced. Now, forever, flooded. A testament to Deathwing's power.
... but this was no time for woolgathering. I was here for a scorpid.
I flew over the plateaus until I arrived at his haunt.
From a distance, he didn't look much different than the cliffcrawlers he lived among. It was only up close that it showed.
As I tried to get a closeup from the ground, he swiftly showed his displeasure, stinging and poisoning my dragon.
Such a brave and dangerous creature couldn't just be tamed; who knows how much damage he might inflict upon my level 85 self with such terrible venom! So it was with great caution that I did the only thing I could and trapped him for my own safety before taming.
Such a terrible creature, I couldn't come up with a name right away. However, I could appreciate his coloring.
As I said, I have always loved this shade. A gorgeous light blue aqua on a silver-white body. The small details on the model were also something I had never appreciated before. While an old model, and low-res in some areas (especially here on the face, where his 'moustache' looks pasted on)...
... the lines are fairly crisp, and to me look to be very smooth for it. There's even little barbs or hairs along the tail that I'd never noticed before until taking this up-close look.
As I tried to take screenshots, I kept being enchanted by his claw-waving idle animation.
Normally, to me, it looks like scorpids are cheering ("Wave your claws in the air like you just don't care!"). However, for this deadly beauty, it looked to me more as if he was menacing everything in sight. Beautiful. Deadly. I was having more and more trouble seeing him as a 'him', and more and more as a 'her'. A Cadillac of a woman. Something like....
.... that'll do nicely. Marvel geekery, hooooo!
The first thing that Moonstone and I did was to take a walk over to the cliffside to prepare to have a swim. And already, I was loving the soft clicking sounds that her feet made. The undulating walk when she moved was also amazingly graceful for the fact that as a scorpid, she was supposed to be a tenacity pet.
In the water, it was no different. Smooth. Graceful. The movement was like that of a lobster, only in great sweeping motions rather than jerky tail-flicks.
Kurasu had promised his sister, Cristy, that he was going to pick up a couple things in Outland, so Moonstone was to travel with him to do some 'shopping' in Outland dungeons. Finding some quests in Mana Tombs Heroic, I decided that we might as well do them together. With the difference in levels, getting a feel for how good she is at attacking was hard, but the soft chittering sounds she made were really surprisingly soothing for the fact that she was tearing apart groups of enemies.
That done (and with no joy in the dropping), it was time to do Kura's weekly raid-farming. It felt strange not to have my usual 'friends' along, but Moonstone did a great job. Albeit by pulling more trash than I'm used to! ... and being especially lucky: I managed to pick up no less than two random blue drops, and one random world drop epic.
(no pictures here for some reason; apparently while doing the dungeons I stupidly forgot to take any; been distracted lately and it shows!)
By the end of my Molten Core run, I'd pretty much decided: Moonstone was a beauty, but there just wasn't a full-on 'bond' forming that could take away my beloved Dai. So I returned to Thousand Needles to return her to the wild.
As she skittered away, I knew that I would see her again. And one day, when minipets become capturable, I shall make sure to hunt up a beautiful silver-aqua Stripe-tail or Leopard Scorpid to name Moonstone.
Guess the system really wants you to bond to a bird.
