I already... rant isn't quite the right word, existential hysterical laughter is about right but not a verb... posted about this in the Arcane forum and wrote it in this dragon's bio, but I need to share this so here we go.
...and that was where it ended when I posted this initially, but somehow these dragons have managed to continue this.
- Return to FR after ~2 years of total inactivity, which followed ~2-3 years of very limited and spotty activity
- Discover those old ungened poor-to-mediocre-colored gen1s I hung onto for no good reason when I don't even care about gen1s are super valuable now
- Go look at gen1 selling threads to try to estimate what I can sell them for
- Do not figure out any clue what I can sell them for
- Instead, trade a manticore for an ungened gen1 banescale because the colors were pretty. Eventually, she will be named Prophesy. This is called foreshadowing
- Felt a bit :/ about the manticore trade because the conversation to decide on it included a lot of emphasis on how nearly impossible they are to gather, and I like to keep a copy of every familiar. But I can always spend the 300g to buy another manticore later and there's only going to be one of this dragon, so away the manticore goes
- Spend 400g to buy her a mate because the colors are exactly perfect. Eventually, he will be named Haunt
- Leave them alone for a bit because geneing will be expensive and I have other priorities to save my gems/treasure for
- Have a frustrating day
- Give in and gene them both. This involves buying a Banescale breed change, two Metallic (Banescale), two Alloy (Banescale), one Fans (Banescale), and one Wraith (Banescale). Total: 3700g and 245kt, not including the manticore and 400g to buy the dragons themselves
- Breed change and gene them up
- They're old enough already and I'm still running on '**** it I need SOMETHING good today' so let's go toss them on a nest
- ...Oh. Those previews are... kind of ugly. Hm
- Apparently Maize and Cream look more yellow in practice than I was imagining
- Still running on **** it. Search the AH for a replacement mate, with a safely narrow tertiary range
- Find one. Spend another 400g. Name him Charm
- Breed change and gene him up. Another 1850g and 245kt, not counting the 400g for the dragon himself
- Sunk cost fallacy is at 100% power at this point
- But now the tertiary range is safely appealing too. Throw Prophesy and Charm on a nest
- There's one egg
- I don't know what I expected
- At this point, it has become hilarious. Tell everyone that will reasonably tolerate me rambling about internet dragons. Promise to shame Prophesy, Charm, and that egg if it doesn't hatch with primal eyes.
- Wait. Wait more. Search for a mate for Haunt. Try to build funds back up
- So far, fail on all counts
- Still don't know what I can sell my own gen1s for
- Eventually, the day arrives: the lone egg can hatch
- Those are not primal eyes. They are not even unusual eyes of any kind
- He is, however, an exact clone of Prophesy, who started this whole saga. Every color and every gene. This was a 1/272 chance
- I give up
- The dragons win
- For the last eight years my rule has been that I never keep the children of my dragons, but I'm keeping this one
- His name is Spite
- Someday I will find Haunt a mate and name her Dream
- The daughter of that pair will be Spite's mate
- I'm going to name her Hubris
- Half an hour later, I went digging and got a manticore
...and that was where it ended when I posted this initially, but somehow these dragons have managed to continue this.
- I did, eventually, find Dream, via the Search rather than the AH this time. Anxietied a lot before PMing her prior owner (who was incredibly nice about it; thankfully it's only the site itself that... I don't even know what it's doing to me at this point)
- Paid 100g and 275kt for her
- Banescale, Metallic, Alloy, Fans. Had the sense to buy the Banescale scroll off the AH for cheaper than MP price this time. Current and final total: 8300g, 1,017,240t, and a manticore
- (...kinda. The manticore came back, I guess)
- I was really hoping for another one-egg nest, because wouldn't that be perfect? So naturally, Dream and Haunt gave me four
- Still, 50/50 chance of the eldest being a female, so good odds, right? The number of eggs isn't that important; a few months from now no one will know how many eggs were in each nest, but keeping the eldest of each pair as mates would be nicely symmetrical
- And if the eldest is male and I have to keep the second or third hatchling, well, I'll live; the set will still be complete
- Even if it is going to put their tertiary back in that yellow range I was trying to avoid
- Anyway. Eggs in the nest. Vibrate at the same frequency and intensity as electrons in the center of the sun for several days, because I Cannot Wait for these eggs to hatch but, alas, cannot make them hatch sooner by psychically vibrating at them
- I know
- I tried
- Eventually, the day arrives: the eggs can hatch
- All four are female
- And the eldest?
- Meet Hubris: perfect clone of her father Haunt, every color and every gene, a 1/192 chance
- And while they're not primal, she did hatch with the released-a-week-ago Bright eyes
- I now have the exact same pair I was trying to avoid, in every single detail, but gender flipped
- I think I'm living in a Greek play. Fate is inescapable