Page 15 of Looking for Group

[Group][Aconite]: Sir yes Sir!

[Group][Aconite]: Lt Goatkiller reporting for duty

[Group][Efthalia]: do have any idea of the penalty for mocking a superior goat killer?

[Group][Aconite]: Court martial followed by immediate cessation of chocolate rations?

[Group][Efthalia]: lol

Drew was grinning as he led the way through the ruins and up a kind of shallow escarpment to where some goats were peacefully grazing.

[Group][Aconite]: Omg, check them out, destroying the ancestral homeland of our people.

[Group][Efthalia]: horny bastards

[Group][Aconite]: lol

[Group][Aconite]: So, strat?

It took Drew a couple of seconds of eying the goats quite seriously to realise this had probably been a joke.

Then he realised he’d left it too long to just laugh, so he had to pretend he’d been going with it all along.

[Group][Efthalia]: kk this is a 2 phase fight

[Group][Efthalia]: in phase 1 we cast the only spells we’ve got

[Group][Efthalia]: then in phase 2 one of us remembers to cast stone gaze

[Group][Aconite]: You actually thought about that for a second didn’t you?

[Group][Efthalia]: ?

[Group][Aconite]: Aww, you’re cute

Efthalia summoned the elemental forces of fire for 2.5 seconds and lightly singed the goat for three points of damage. It lowered its head, and charged her for five points of damage, which was a significant chunk of health.

[Group][Efthalia]: omg nerf goats

Shadows engulfed the goat and it flumped sideways with a despairing bleat.

[Group][Aconite]: Woot! SB crit for 8!

[Group][Efthalia]: Wow, it’s like playing with Bjorn

[Group][Efthalia]: also we were supposed to use stone gaze on it

[Group][Efthalia]: not just keep DPSing like a noob

[Group][Aconite]: ?

[Group][Aconite]: But that’s what DPS do!

[Group][Efthalia]: you mocked the goat strat

[Group][Efthalia]: and now look what’s happened

[Group][Aconite]: You’re just jealous of my imba deeps.

Efthalia lobbed another impressive-looking but mechanically underwhelming flamebolt at the next goat, and this time Aconite swooped forward and petrified it. Three seconds later the goat recovered, and so they just killed it dead.

[Group][Aconite]: Take that you haedine fiend!

[Group][Efthalia]: you what?

[Group][Aconite]: It means, um, goaty

[Group][Aconite]: Now I think about it, it’s not that insulting

[Group][Efthalia]: lol

Five minutes later, they’d petrified and slaughtered the requisite number of goats, and Drew pulled up the map again to see where they needed to go next.

He was halfway there when he realised he’d left Solace behind.

He wheeled about and saw her standing at the top of the escarpment, looking out to sea. He ran back to join her.

There was a gradual slope down to the golden beach and the turquoise sea and the shell huts of the angry crabmen who Aconite and Efthalia would probably be asked to kill in about three levels’ time.

In the distance he could just about make out the edge of the next island, and beyond that marble columns of the once great city of Minea.

Beyond even that, he almost thought he could see the mainland, although it was almost certainly a skybox.

[Group][Aconite]: I’ve never been here before

[Group][Efthalia]: You haven’t done [World Explorer]?

[Group][Efthalia]: I thought it’d be just your thing

[Group][Aconite]: I’m working on it

[Group][Aconite]: But I didn’t want to just zoom over everything on my [Tainted Pegasus].

[Group][Aconite]: It’s World Explorer not World Ignorer.

[Group][Aconite]: So I’m kind of doing it on foot.

[Group][Aconite]: And I don’t want it to become a chore so I’m spreading it out.

[Group][Efthalia]: wow you’ve really thought about this

[Group][Aconite]: *blush*

[Group][Efthalia]: no its cool

[Group][Efthalia]: most of my achies are raid stuff and the stuff you get automatically like level x or do main quest y

[Group][Efthalia]: I kind of never saw the point

[Group][Aconite]: I’m not sure either

[Group][Aconite]: Either it’s stuff I would have done anyway so I don’t see why I need an achi

[Group][Aconite]: Or it’s stuff I wouldn’t do, and an achi isn’t going to make me

[Group][Efthalia]: heh

[Group][Efthalia]: Tinuviel would say that achievements validate nonstandard modes of interaction within the gameworld

[Group][Aconite]: Is that someone from your old guild?

[Group][Efthalia]: no that’s a friend off my course

[Group][Efthalia]: it’s like her actual name

[Group][Aconite]: I don’t know whether to feel pleased for her or sorry for her

[Group][Efthalia]: weirdly it sort of suits her

[Group][Efthalia]: she’s got long red hair and sort of looks like an elf anyway

[Group][Aconite]: When you say friend?

[Group][Efthalia]: no seriously just friends

[Group][Efthalia]: I think that’s why she hangs out with me

[Group][Efthalia]: It’s quite hard being a girl on a game art design course

[Group][Aconite]: I can’t imagine there’d be that many of them

[Group][Efthalia]: girls or courses?

[Group][Aconite]: Hee, both.

[Group][Efthalia]: Yeah just us, Teesside, Anglia Ruskin, Southampton Solent, and the UCA I think.

[Group][Aconite]: Who’s us?

[Group][Aconite]: Sorry, you don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to

[Group][Efthalia]: no its cool

[Group][Efthalia]: Leicester

[Group][Aconite]: University of Leicester?

[Group][Efthalia]: lol no I mean de montfort

[Group][Efthalia]: but we always call it leicester

[Group][Efthalia]: cos de montfort university sounds crap

[Group][Efthalia]: and simon de montfort was a total dick 2

[Group][Efthalia]: he like threw all the jews out of leicester

[Group][Aconite]: ?

[Group][Efthalia]: its like going to the University of Davros

[Group][Aconite]: Omg you just made me lol

[Group][Aconite]: And now I feel really bad

[Group][Efthalia]: sorry

[Group][Aconite]:

[Group][Efthalia]: so where do you go?

[Group][Efthalia]: i mean you don’t have to say

[Group][Aconite]: It’s fine

[Group][Aconite]: I, um, actually go to the University of Leicester

[Group][Efthalia]: omg

[Group][Efthalia]: your totally looking down on me now aren’t you?

[Group][Aconite]: No!

[Group][Aconite]: I wouldn’t.

[Group][Aconite]: I promise.

[Group][Efthalia]: its honestly the best place that does this course

[Group][Efthalia]: except Glasgow

[Group][Efthalia]: but I didn’t want to go to Scotland

[Group][Aconite]: I really don’t care what university you go to

[Group][Efthalia]: but Leicester’s like a proper university

[Group][Efthalia]: and you do a proper subject

[Group][Efthalia]: you’re like way too smart for me

[Group][Aconite]: ?

[Group][Aconite]: Don’t say that

[Group][Aconite]: A uni is just a uni

[Group][Aconite]: And you study what you like and what you’re good at

[Group][Aconite]: And you’re really good at what you do

[Group][Aconite]: I loved your drawing. You’re very talented.

[Group][Efthalia]: I don’t know what to say now

[Group][Efthalia]: Thanks

[Group][Efthalia]: i just worry about this stuff

[Group][Efthalia]: my parents are really great but when I said I wanted to do this they were all like how does that get you a job

[Group][Aconite]: *hugs*

[Group][Efthalia]: sokay

[Group][Efthalia]: i’m not freaking out or anything

[Group][Efthalia]: hey I’ve just thought

[Group][Efthalia]: you’re just down the road

Shit. That looked totally stalker. He’d been so desperate to change the subject from “I think you’re way too good for me” that he’d changed it to “I know where you live.”

[Group][Efthalia]: do you wanna go kill some loonies?

[Group][Aconite]: You mean in the game, right?

[Group][Aconite]: Because out of context that sounds really weird.

You’re in a hole, Drew, stop digging.

[Group][Efthalia]: um yeah in the game

[Group][Efthalia]: I wasn’t inviting you to like come hang out with me

[Group][Efthalia]: and attack the mentally ill

No, stop digging. Stop.

[Group][Aconite]: Honestly, first you tell me you go to a university named after a famous antisemite

[Group][Aconite]: and then you invite me to come beat up some disabled people

[Group][Efthalia]: ???

[Group][Aconite]: Aw, don’t make sadface. I was only teasing. I’m sorry.

[Group][Efthalia]:

They pressed on to the next area and rained arcane death on their next batch of completely innocent bystanders.

By the time they returned to the quest-givers, they’d accumulated enough XP to hit level two, which meant their quests sent them each off to talk to their individual class trainer.

Drew got a baseline healing spell called Nourishing Soil, and Solace got Infestation, which turned out to be completely useless at this level because between the two of them, they could kill everything they met before the DoT had a chance to tick.

Over the next few hours they massacred most of the native wildlife, collected the lost personal effects of a thirtieth-level magistrix who should really have been able to deal with this shit herself, and tracked down a highly dangerous mad oracle who, when they met her, turned out to be level four.

They also spent more time talking, overanalysing quest text, and looking at scenery than Drew had over the whole of the last three years.

It kind of meant that by midnight they were still level ten, even with the XP nerfs that had come in with the last couple of expansions.

But Drew honestly didn’t care. He was having… Oh, what was that word again? Fun. 3

And the more time he spent with Solace, the harder it was to remember his “don’t fall for imaginary elves” rule.

[Group][Efthalia]: shit i should probably be in bed

[Group][Efthalia]: do you ever sleep?

[Group][Aconite]: I’ve got a touch of insomnia

[Group][Aconite]: And I kind of like HoL late at night

[Group][Aconite]: It’s all quiet, so the game feels like it’s just mine

[Group][Efthalia]: except when orcs come and hang out on your rock

[Group][Aconite]: I like that too

[Group][Efthalia]:

[Group][Efthalia]: do you want to do this again sometime?

[Group][Aconite]: Definitely

[Group][Efthalia]: Tomorrow?

[Group][Aconite]: Oh, it’s the Masqueraid on Fridays

[Group][Efthalia]: Yeah I saw that on the guild calendar

[Group][Efthalia]: I have no idea what it is

[Group][Aconite]: It used to be our night for farming RP gear

[Group][Aconite]: But it’s just sort of evolved into a be slightly drunk, wear a silly costume and do something random night

[Group][Aconite]: It’s fun. You should come.

[Group][Efthalia]: Uh

[Group][Aconite]: We’re going to do Traitor’s Spire.

[Group][Efthalia]: I farmed that to death last expansion

[Group][Aconite]: But did you ever do it in a [Lovely Red Dress].

[Group][Efthalia]: I don’t think that’s Ella’s style

[Group][Aconite]: I can tailor you the tuxedo set

[Group][Aconite]: If you want to be all Radclyffe Hall about it

[Group][Efthalia]: I don’t know what that is but it sounds like a late vanilla dungeon

[Group][Aconite]: Early 20th century novelist

[Group][Aconite]: Wrote a really depressing book about how miserable it is being a lesbian in the 1920s

[Group][Efthalia]: how do you know about this stuff?

[Group][Aconite]: Well I do go the University of Leicester

[Group][Efthalia]:

[Group][Aconite]: Seriously, come to the raid tomorrow. It’ll be good.

[Group][Aconite]: Plus I bet you can do Maladreth in your sleep

[Group][Efthalia]: All right if you promise there’ll be drinking

[Group][Aconite]: Bjorn might even sing

[Group][Efthalia]: and that’s supposed to tempt me how?

[Group][Efthalia]: wait Bjorn goes?

[Group][Efthalia]: it really doesn’t sound like his thing

[Group][Aconite]: Hanging out with his friends wouldn’t be his thing?

[Group][Aconite]: I know he’s a bit of a dick but that’s really harsh

[Group][Efthalia]: i just meant he seems all super hardcore

[Group][Aconite]: Oh he still gets to show off

[Group][Aconite]: But honestly it’s just how we hang out on our Fridays

[Group][Aconite]: Like other people go to the pub

[Group][Efthalia]: I guess I’ll sign up then

[Group][Aconite]: Yay! See you tomorrow

[Group][Efthalia]: yeah see you then

[Group][Aconite]: I had a really nice time tonight

[Group][Efthalia]: Me too

[Group][Efthalia]: nn

[Group][Efthalia]: *hugs*