When we last left off of our story, I talked about some of the advances (pets, farms, etc.) and problems (rollbacks, a dead Item Mall, etc.) that I and just about every other player had encountered in the game.  Plus I actually started talking about the main quests for the Happy Hearts (Valentine’s) Reunion till I ran out of time.  *sweatdrop*  So now, let us continue our trip down memory lane…

As I said before,  unlike the Christmas Reunion, the Valentine’s quests were added on at different days.  And the character who let us know to when we’d have to wait till the next day for most of the quests to start was My Melody’s Grandma.

Of course, not all of the quests started with her.  Cupid also helped with the final quest.

Each series of quests awarded us with a different key.  And we needed to collect all 5 keys in order to qualify for the grand (real life) prize.  The problem is that while they said that the next quest would start at around 11:00 PM or 12:00 AM EST (Eastern Standard Time) the following night, they sometimes started at around 1:00 AM EST or so.  And, unfortunately for me, I live in the Eastern Time Zone.  *rubs eyes from lack of sleep* T_T

The quests ranged from making plushies, bouquets, and cards to collecting arrows, feathers, and hair for Cupid to pairing up Sanrio characters who were each looking for that “special someone”. X3

However, during the one where I had to give Cupid my bouquet, plushie, and card, I found myself going from London to Paris then back to London….then back to Paris.  T_T  That’s ’cause I thought that I needed to visit Melody’s Grandma to Paris to finish the quests, but when she didn’t have a check mark over her head (meaning that the quest is complete), then I thought that I had to visit Kitty’s Grandpa in London.  So I went from Paris to London to see him, only to find out he didn’t give out anything either. T_T  So after talking to my guildies, I learned that I actually had to go back to Paris to visit Cupid who was in the building to the left of Melody’s Grandparents. T_T  Thankfully, Cupid was caring and understanding.  ^_^

Then came the night of the final quest.   I found myself all the way at the Harbor picking oranges ’cause I thought I need to make a Chocolate fruit or something for the final quest.   Unfortunately, I found out that I actually had to pair people up instead.

AAAAAAAAAAHH!

So I had to race from the Harbor to Cupid’s pad in Paris even though I knew that I’d never be able to send in my entry in time to get the prize.  In a panic, I asked my guildies whom I was supposed to pair with who.  As it turned out, I had two pairings in Paris, two in London, and one all the way back at Florapolis.  T_T

However, when I got to the final pair in Florapolis, I found out that one character is looking for a girl with “red overalls with a little white flower in the middle of it”.

All of a sudden, I found myself smiling.  ^_^  Maybe ’cause I thought that outfit (the red overalls with the flower on it) sounded kinda cute.  Sorry if that sounded kinda odd.  *blushes* But sure enough, that girl with the red overalls with a flower on it was

Daisy!

And she wanted to be with a boy with red overalls too.  (No flower though. hehe)  Of course, that boy was Coro, who asked me to find Daisy.

Although I was happy that I had finally finished with the pairings and was ready to return to Cupid, I just heard some really terrible news:

Just as I feared, I started the final quest way too late. T_T  And I wasn’t gonna get the special prize.  T_T  Even if I sent in my picture with the 5 keys on it (which I did).

But on the bright side, I was able to finish all 5 quests in the series…

…and gained a lot of gold and even more surprisingly a lot of Friendship points….for Paris!

Nope, you’re not seeing things.  Many of the players have actually gained 5,000 Paris Friendship points for finishing these quests.  And I guess that’s still a pretty good consolation prize along with the big heap of money and the keys.  Although I’m not sure if the keys will be useful for anything….yet.  But I’m still gonna keep the keys just in case.

I’m sure that those points are gonna come pretty handy when the Open Beta (OB) starts.  Assuming we can finally buy more stuff from there (besides the stuff they offered us for those quests and the Reunion of course, like the glitter and the skill books. ^_^)

Oh yeah, I just remembered some other interesting things that happened along the way.

First of all, GM-Miyaw hosted a special screenshot gathering at London.  Although I still needed to finish one of the quest at the time, I still managed to check it out.  Lots of people were there, including some of my fellow guildies and other friends.  ^_^  Glad you guys can make it too.  ^_^

Speaking of friends, I’ve finally got to meet my blogging pal Bi ingame.  She couldn’t make the Christmas Reunion, but I’m glad she could make this reunion.

Also, Yin and I got to see a Hello Kitty (called “Haller Kitty” I think for some reason) wandering the streets of Paris during the events.

I didn’t know if she was lost (separated from her GM owner) or just wanted to see the sites on her own.  Either way, I thought that it was a “Kodak moment” (hence the screenshots).  And I bet Yin did too.  ^_^

Later, one of my guild friends decided to have us test out the “Follow” feature on our characters and some of us were able to link together to created our own “Love Train” (which I named after the classic song since it kinda related to Valentine’s Day)

‘Course the chain did get cut on occassion. *sweatdrop* But that’s ok.  ^_^

After I finished the quests, I decided to help out some of my friends build their houses, including Yin’s,

Ayu-chan’s,

and Carlos’s.

Although we (my guildies and I who helped) were only able to finish Carlos’ house.

But that’s still pretty good considering how much work had to be done and how few people there were to actually build the houses.  Good job, guys! ;)  *thumbs up*

Well, enough about that, let’s get on to one of the biggest events to the Reunion:  the arrival of new players.  ^_^

And came they did.  At around 8:00 PM EST on Feburary 14th (Valentine’s Day), which was also during those events I talked about earlier on here, new players from all over the word (excluding Europe sadly T_T), were finding themselves appearing at the dock of the Harbor.  And many of the HKO veterans (including myself and my friend Bi) were there to welcome them.

There were so many of them, there had been a really big lag at the Harbor later on.

Then came the supposed final night of the game: Tuesday, Feburary 17th.   Although I logged on pretty late (around 10:00 or 11:00 PM EST), I was ready to say goodbye the Reunion and to all of my “HKO” buddies at midnight that night.  Until….

WHAAAAAAAT?!  FIVE MORE DAYS?!!!  Sorry bout that.  hehe.  But as it turned out, the Reunion was so successful, the GMs decided to keep the game open for 5 more days.

To be honest, when I first heard this news, I was both happy and upset at the same time.  I was happy ’cause I get to play the game a little bit longer XD, but also upset ’cause I won’t be getting much sleep for a few more days. T_T

But I guess the GMs did it to not only give the newbies more time to enjoy the game (which I thought was really nice ^_^), but also to throw in one more special “charitable” challenge.

What is this challenge of which I speak?  Tune in next time to find out.

Catch ya later.

[The “To be continued…” sign is from “Star Trek Voyager” this time.]

[Also, Gandalf the Grey is from the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy in case you were wondering about that too. ^_^]