Memoirs of Cassandra

For others, Cassandra -Manila lasted 3 hours...for me it was 2 amazing weeks.

Metro Manila used to be engulfed in a despairing sea of green, but the moment we heard that Manila was going to be part of the Cassandra anomaly, agents from every area starting getting together clearing out green fields. In a matter of days, Luneta & Intramuros was a fortress farm of blue L8 portals and so were most of Metro Manila.

It was a farming frenzy, at any point of the day you would literally bump across another resistance agent, or a bunch of them  walking around Luneta & Intramuros... this was when I fully appreciated that farming for gears is not a solitary activity, it is best done between trading war stories, gales of laughter and just plain bonding with other resistance agents.

2 days before the anomaly date, the announcement came in that the anomaly site would be moved from Manila to Makati. We were dazed, but that was a temporary setback and in some ways a relief.

August 18- the day...it was raining like mad.

Resistance agents in black started trooping into Ayala triangle armed with umbrella's and ziplocked powerbanks. It was an hour before call time and there was barely time for a final brief, everybody was just too busy, wrapping up phones, looking for teammates and plain just getting to know each other, for most of us, it was the first time to see so many resistance agents all in one place.

There was no gunshot, no flags waving to mark the start of the anomaly. Random blue portals started going neutral. Enlightened agents have started attacking. The battle has began.

Only fools and madmen would be out in the pouring rain, and yet there we were running around Buendia, Makati ave and nearby streets the first mark ended with a huge blue field and a win for the resistance.

After the mad scramble to move to the next location all hell broke loose phone and data signal bogged down, phones were going haywire and on top of it all, the enlightened managed to out-do our field with an even bigger one. Distress calls from different teams were coming in from every direction.

Insanity rolled from the second cut off to the third, it was midway to the third round and agents were just coming in. Barely settled the volatile portals have been announced and it was pandemonium all over again. We were supposed to outnumber enlightened agents 3 to 1, and yet somehow we were barely holding it in...Then my traitor of a bladder chose the wrong moment to act up, you can just imagine how it feels to choose to continuously pound on your phone over your vital functions, desperately keeping your act together and half the time praying that this war be over soon...

Relief surged. The message from command center flashed, IT IS OVER! I didn't even bother to find out if we won or lost. When nature calls, you heed it.

3 hours after, and we were back where we started, huddled together in Bonchon, Ayala triangle. Some too giddy to eat, some too hungry to care (I was one of those). It was much later when I made sense of the rabble, here we were, tired, wet, together, resistance, WINNERS.

How To survive When your GP doesn't

On the nth day of this month...my GP died, and my world crumbled. No, wait let me rephrase that,every fibre of my being collapsed and expanded in micro minutes to a point when it it can't hold everything together and ends up with an apocalyptic explosion...

There is no shame is shedding silent tears, no shame in wallowing in despair ... PC your GP destroyer though and challenging him mano y mano  is totally disgraceful.

(what the fudge is a GP? please refer to ...http://smurfsinmanila.blogspot.com/2014/08/resistance-lingo.html )

We all lose something or someone at some point. Sometimes we end up blaming ourselves for things we could have done like farming for more cubes, or camping around your portal the whole week before it turns onyx or just plain old cordoning off the whole road that leads to it and posting no entry signs all over, no matter how much time you spend on what if's and what could have beens, it just wouldn’t turn a neutral portal back to what it once was before.

To help you get a grip on your self, and stop yourself from running after that smirking GP hunter walking away from your portal with that smug look on his face and had the gall to tag you and say….oops sorry on all comms the steps below just might help you:

1- take a deep breath and set your phone on a flat surface slowly...no...no matter how much cubes you wasted trying to keep it alive, it’s not worth smashing your phone over.

2-count to 10 , clench and unclench your fingers and do whatever activity that would stop you from tagging that smug faced GP hunter and making a fool of yourself by declaring idiotic nuances such as…I nurtured that portal…(things like that are better left unsaid).

3- You have the option to delete that key from your inventory and never see it again...such painful reminders are...well...painful.

4a- surround yourself with people who share the same pain and start the bash time...this is preferably done over bottles of beer, if not buckets. If you are on 0-alcohol policy...start chugging iced tea or any preferred beverage, it may not produce the same euphoric results as beer, but hey whatever works.

4b- Pamper yourself with a pint ( size requirement may vary depending on your appetite, size and capacity) of your favorite ice cream. Get 1 spoon and bury it deep in icecream, lick your spoon and plunge it back, today you are not required to share, and if other people insist, do not by any means tell them about that spoon you just licked. Bask in silent sniggers.

5- start looking for a fresh new GP (some prefer to keep it away, others prefer hiding it in plain sight)

6-cross your fingers and start recharging all over again...cross your fingers but never keep your hopes up, nothing was ever made to last.

7- if you come across an enlightened agent’s portal- always to think to yourself what would you do if this were his GP? Do whatever comes to mind …(whatever that is….your thoughts, not mine.

There is nothing wrong with hoping to have that onyx GP badge someday, dreams are free, and so are powercubes just always remember that, whatever happens if you encounter the JARVIS brothers...don’t tell them where your GP portals are.

RESISTANCE LINGO

What the fudge are people talking about??!

You're probably feeling lost and couldn't make heads or tails of the jargons being tossed around , you might find the index below helpful...(or not):

farm- hack for gears...lots of it.

gears- resonators, xmps...all the stuff that pops out of portals!

tank/tanker- an agent with a higher level helps a lower agent level up

ign- ingress name, yes...it’s that name you came up with, for reasons we may never know (but seriously hope that you do- what’s in a name anyway?... wait for my next article LOL).

GP- guardian portal...that portal that lasted a lot longer than the rest of your portals...either by accident or design, or by sheer willpower (or cube power?)

grind/reso grind- somebody keeps on blasting your portal , and you keep on deploying resonators (this is a very easy way to gain ap...if you have lots of resonators and cubes)

up - (pa up naman!) add your high resonators to a portal

PC- presence challenge , this is requested when  the other person wants to meet you/ get proof that you are really in the area. Meeting up or showing proof is not required as per TOS but...it also helps prevent animosity between factions if you show up.

TOS- Terms of Service, that fine line that 70% of us probably didn't read. If you find time...it will be really informative to browse through it  www.ingress.com/terms

croc- refers to Agents at level 8, or more who just loves the game way too much to stop. ( i hope to see all of you croc some day ... :)

lowbie- level 1-7 agents.

icecream- you would see a lot of this in faction comms. it's not a code, we just love icecream.

bacon- and we love this even more

bacon icecream- does not exist...gotya! oh wait...sources said it does...

baboy links -wild and messy links which seems impossible to field

lock - e.g 10 portal lock- the number of portals that stays inside the round thing in your scanner.

spoofer- a cheater

blue frog/green smurf - a shmuck who doesn't know the meaning of loyalty.

test

Connect teeny tiny blue dots...that's all we ever do and yet we are so hooked... like fish , like the captain, like a girl who will never say no to chocolates.

There must be a science to it...

Ingress: A life...

Once there was two opposing faction, the Enlightened and the Resistance. Enlightened believes that through their actions, humanity will be evolving while Resistance believes in preserving the humanity freedom. They fight for their own beliefs by owning portals scattered around the globe.....


WAIT.....


I'm tired reading about the game!!!

It all started in COMMS. As each player finds another who is just around the corner, they gather up. Then they tried hanging out with another to search and claim for portals or just farm and exchange gears until a certain bond was created. It became "The Smurfs"... 


Today, they travel almost in every place. They are in jeepneys, in MRTs, at the malls, in restaurants or maybe inside you... Waiting to be discovered! (#IngressRecruits WAHAHAHAHA)

This is the chronicle of adventures of the little critters that has one belief, to play and enjoy...

It was not just a game, but a life for the players....