Dragoons

This is me, as Foxglove, about to finally beat the Baby Dragon test of the Legion of the Dragoons.
Finally, at Ragnarok XV I beat it. It took me over the course of three years to do it. Every time there would be three different people as the dragon, so I would never know what to expect. I've been part of the dragon for others too. Ematai, Tari, and Dorian are the dragon here. It's florintine as the teeth and claws, red sword as the tail, and sword+board for the heart. (Add second florintine user, javelin wielder, and replace red with a glaive for the adult dragon.) It can be a very tough test of your skills as a sword+boarder, or you can cheese it with a glaive, which pretty much no one does. The three as the dragon must move as one. If one person of the dragon gets a leg chopped off, the dragon must pivot on that person. Same if one of the three dies.
It's part of the ranking system of the Legion of the Dragoons. It made me officially a Black Legion! There are other elements to go up in rank too... But the ranks aren't as important as the brotherhood feeling. We've got each others' backs. Hell, I went to Bishop's and Rowan's weddings. Probably Nichtmar's, and Rune & Tari's too, soon. They're an excellent bunch of guys and gals. That's Dragoon camp from last Ragnarok in the background.

And this is some of the Dragoons from a couple years ago, at Rivendell. In the cold, super super cold Season Opener.
I miss those guys so bad. I can't wait for Olympics in Indy in April.
http://www.mittelmarch.com/olympics.htm

Oh yeah, btw, Dag is awesome and I've missed it so much.
www.dagorhir.com

Well, there's this thing called Dagorhir...

I wonder how long I will ignore the pain in my knee before I actually bother to call and go to physical therapy...
The pain started about last year in the winter and has really just gotten worse. It's because I play Dagorhir which is a Medieval-style foam sword fighting and combat game. It's like a sport for dorky people and I love it to pieces. (I did meet my boyfriend through it, after all.) Dag (for short) was originally inspired by Lord of the Rings, but it's become its own beast these days, with Romans, Narnians, and Orcs all in the same game. There's also groups all over the country and even in Puerto Rico. (I'm friends with one of them on facebook, and he's always posting about Dag in Spanish which is cool but always throws me off a little bit.) There are other groups that have branched off from Dag as well, like Belegarth (rules-lawyering led to a big fight between the founders and there was a split between the groups over a few choice rules, but plenty of people participate in both.) or Amtguard or... I could go on for a while, there's a lot of groups these days.
But anyways. As a result of trying not to be a wussy girl, I've pretty much always used a sword and shield combo. This means I get my leg "chopped off" on a regular basis and have to take a knee, which is a large amount of repeated impact. This has led to... well, I'm not sure precisely what is wrong but my Doctor originally said it was arthritis. That's right, arthritis at 22! Awesome! I went back to her again recently because the pain has become more frequent and worse, so she wrote me this prescription for physical therapy... but I be poor, and having of very little time, so I have no idea when I'll get around to it.
Man. This post doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what Dagorhir is or what it means to me. I guess I'll have to talk more about it later, when I'm not trying to study my face off and write a 7 page paper by Tuesday.