Page 23 of Looking for Group

He was so focused on Charnos’s health bar and the two ways he had to maintain it that he had no idea what else was going on. Occasionally, he’d see a flurry of shadow from Aconite’s direction.

The fight seemed to be lasting forever. But, as it went on, he started to feel more confident. Charnos was taking damage at a steady rate, and Drew was getting a good feel for when he had to be healing and when he could afford to do other stuff.

With a mournful ribbit, the first bullywug crumpled to the floor and Charnos moved menacingly to the second, who’d just recovered from his attack of Incapacitating Wind.

This time Drew was comfortable enough to switch between his two healing spells and his two damage spells, and the frogman fell over substantially faster.

He gave an actual fist pump, exclaiming to his empty room that the frog dudes could, indeed, suck it. 6

[Group][Aconite]: Yay!

[Group][Aconite]: *hugs Charnos*

[Group][Efthalia]: hey I was here too

[Group][Efthalia]: healing

[Group][Aconite]: *hugs Efthalia*

[Group][Efthalia]: i can’t believe we pulled that off

[Group][Aconite]: Don’t get too excited

[Group][Aconite]: There’s four in the next pack

[Group][Efthalia]: !!!

[Group][Aconite]: But first! The loots!

[Enigmatic Bracers of the Whale] Need/Greed

Drew squinted at the crappy stats on the crappy drop.

[Group][Efthalia]: they are technically an upgrade

[Group][Aconite]: For me too

[Group][Aconite]: My bracers are still grey

[Group][Efthalia]: hey thems healer stats

[Group][Aconite]: You’re right. Those 2 points of wisdom will make all the difference to your performance

[Group][Aconite]: You take them

[Group][Efthalia]: i was only joking

[Group][Efthalia]: you have them

[Group][Aconite]: No, you should always take care of the healer first

[Group][Aconite]: You can remember this moment when we go back to our mains

[Group][Aconite]: Besides, I don’t think they go with my toga

You have received [Enigmatic Bracers of the Whale]. 7

Drew equipped his shiny new healing gear. It didn’t go with his toga either. All the same, Efthalia gave a little /twirl and Aconite /clapped .

Charnos remained unimpressed, stretching his claws in a way that suggested he really wanted to be tearing something’s soul from its body right now.

They moved cautiously down the tunnel and into the next cavern. More mushrooms. More bullywugs. Whoever had designed this dungeon had either put no effort into making it interesting or a lot of effort into making it accessible.

And had clearly been a different person to whoever had decided to put it at the bottom of a swamp surrounded by killer fish.

[Group][Efthalia]: tacs

[Group][Aconite]: Same again but double, I guess

[Group][Aconite]: I’ll have Charnos take star and skull. You wind dildo. I’ll stick [Damnable Chains] on circle.

[Group][Efthalia]: sounds like a plan

[Group][Aconite]: Jacob would love this

[Group][Aconite]: We’ve never 2-manned this one but I think he’d dig the retro charm

[Group][Efthalia]: you can inv him if you like

[Group][Aconite]: Do you want me to?

[Group][Efthalia]: only if you want to

[Group][Efthalia]: i mean

[Group][Efthalia]: its up to you

[Group][Aconite]: I like hanging out with Jacob but we do that all the time

[Group][Aconite]: I kind of like that this is just us

[Group][Aconite]: If that’s okay

Drew was in a messy place again. He’d thought Kit wanted Ialdir along, and that had made him feel weird, but it seemed Kit didn’t, and that made him feel weirder. He decided it was a happy weird.

[Group][Efthalia]: I like it too

[Group][Aconite]: And I brought Charnos

[Group][Aconite]: To chaperone

[Group][Aconite]: Protect your virtue

[Group][Efthalia]: maybe hes my type

[Group][Efthalia]: all big and purple with no face

[Group][Aconite]: O.O

[Group][Efthalia]: that didn’t come out right

[Group][Efthalia]: should we kill these frogs

Efthalia and Aconite stepped forward together this time.

One of the bullywugs was snatched into the air by Efthalia’s wind (someday Drew was going to stop smirking at that) and another was rooted to the ground by chains of living darkness.

Charnos floated forward and started making threatening gestures at the other two frog people.

With twice the attacks coming in, his health was going down twice as fast and Drew was in a panic.

[Group][Aconite]: omg spears

[Group][Aconite]: spears

Drew spun the camera to see long wooden staffs piercing Aconite’s character model.

And then glanced back at the health bars to see that she’d dropped from basically fine to basically dead in about three seconds.

His HoT was on cooldown and he managed to get about halfway through a Nourishing Soil before Aconite fell to the ground and Charnos winked out of existence, freeing the two previously incapacitated bullywugs to hop viciously in his direction.

He did what any loyal and courageous Hero of Legend would do. He turned and legged it, straight back up the corridor and out of the portal.

Loading screen again.

[Group][Aconite]: omg healer

[Group][Aconite]: y no healz

[Group][Efthalia]: i actually feel really bad

[Group][Efthalia]: ?

[Group][Aconite]: If the DPS die it’s their own damn fault

[Group][Efthalia]: what happened

[Group][Aconite]: The frogs at the back had spears so the one I rooted could still attack me

[Group][Aconite]: ?

[Group][Efthalia]: nerf frogs

[Group][Aconite]: Nerf spears

When Efthalia was close to running out of air and Drew was moderately certain that the frogs had gone back to their stations, he swam back into the dungeon, inched into range of Aconite’s corpse, and began to coerce the elemental powers of earth into releasing her spirit from the netherworld.

A second or two later, she popped up next to him and began the ritual to resummon her demonic servant.

[Group][Aconite]: Yay

[Charnos] says: Your will? 8

[Aconite] says: You noob, Charnos

[Group][Efthalia]: hey your the one who pulled threat off the tank

[Group][Aconite]: Only because my DPS is so imba

[Group][Efthalia]: we trying this again

[Group][Aconite]: Definitely

[Group][Aconite]: Same strat, I’ll just move the marks so I root the melee

This time things went slightly better. They still all died but they managed to take a couple of frogs out with them, which meant they only had two left to deal with on their next run. And they went down fairly easily.

[Group][Efthalia]: wow

[Group][Efthalia]: this is kind of intense

[Group][Aconite]: Yeah, do you mind we’re desert gorging it?

[Group][Efthalia]: i might if i knew what it meant

[Group][Aconite]: I picked it up from Jacob

[Group][Aconite]: It basically means winning by exploiting the fact that you come back from the dead

[Group][Aconite]: And your opponents don’t

[Group][Aconite]: It’s from a comic he likes 9

[Group][Efthalia]: i’m just impressed that has a name

[Group][Aconite]: But you’re okay with this, right?

[Group][Aconite]: We might die quite a lot

[Group][Efthalia]: my repair bill is like 3 coppers

[Group][Efthalia]: i’m good

Drew was actually getting quite into it.

There was a sort of… cleanness somehow to the challenge it presented: this obstacle is designed to require x amount of resources, you have y amount of resources, how do you use those creatively to make up the difference.

In practice, what it meant was a mix of hit-and-run tactics, kiting, and really intense crowd control.

They died a few times, but gradually they developed a kind of military precision and an instinct for what the other person was doing, which meant they often triumphed when they really, really shouldn’t have.

It was a way of playing the game that Drew would never have thought of, and he was really glad Kit had shared it with him.

Eventually they made it to the final boss, Quagmire the Bog Lord.

He was a gigantic tainted water elemental, and apparently he was just sort of hanging out on the off chance a party of adventurers would want to swim to the bottom of a lake, fight their way through a cave full of frogmen, and beat him up.

The poor bastard didn’t even have any dialogue.

[Group][Efthalia]: i can’t believe we actually made it

[Group][Aconite]: I know, right?

[Aconite] says: Charnos, when we first met, I didn’t understand the depths of your courage or the purpleness of your face.

[Aconite] says: But now I understand that you are a true heroic spirit

[Aconite] says: I couldn’t have done it without you, buddy.

[Aconite] says: You, me, and this other guy hanging out at the back

[Aconite] says: No idea what he’s doing

[Efthalia] says: Hey!

[Group][Efthalia]: any tacs

[Group][Aconite]: Actually, after all that, he should be pretty straightforward

[Group][Aconite]: I think he’s got a tiny knockback

[Group][Aconite]: And an AoE that will be meaningless because we’ve got no melee

It was, as it turned out, as straightforward as Kit had suggested.

Charnos kept Quagmire busy while Efthalia and Aconite plinked away at his hit points, with Efthalia throwing out the occasional heal as needed.

A few minutes later, the elemental exploded in a sploosh of dirty water.

It ought to have been anticlimactic, but it felt awesome.

Achievement unlocked: The Bubbling Mire

[Defeat Quagmire the Bog Lord in The Bubbling Mire]

[Group][Aconite]: Yay!!!

[Group][Efthalia]: do you want to get a coffee some time

Oh shit. Drew’d had no idea he’d been about to type that.

But there it was. And he couldn’t take it back now.

And he was pretty sure he didn’t want to.

[Group][Aconite]: Are you sure?

[Group][Aconite]: Because I can see you might have been swept up in the moment

[Group][Aconite]: What with the romantic swamp water

[Group][Aconite]: And Charnos, of course

He had been caught up in the moment. But it wasn’t really about the game or—for that matter—Charnos. It was about being with Kit.

Who, he was beginning to realise, he still really liked.

That hadn’t changed at all.

[Group][Efthalia]: yeah no i’m sure

[Group][Efthalia]: if you want to

[Group][Efthalia]: if it wouldn’t be weird

[Group][Aconite]: It might be weird

[Group][Efthalia]: more weird than our swamp date

[Group][Aconite]: So this was a date then?

[Group][Efthalia]: i guess so

[Group][Aconite]:

[Group][Aconite]: I really want to

[Group][Aconite]: But I’m a bit

[Group][Aconite]: You’re the first guy I’ve been really into

[Group][Aconite]: And you thought I was a girl

[Group][Aconite]: And we have a really nice time together

[Group][Aconite]: But I’d rather stick to that

[Group][Aconite]: Than mess everything up trying to change it

Drew could see where Kit was coming from. His worst-case scenario was that they’d meet up and he’d realise he just wasn’t into boys, and that would be difficult but basically back to normal. For Kit it would be this massive, unnecessary head-fuck.

[Group][Efthalia]: i get that

[Group][Efthalia]: and i can’t predict how it’s going to go

[Group][Efthalia]: and if you want to just do this

[Group][Efthalia]: then we can

[Group][Efthalia]: but i think we might be missing out

[Group][Efthalia]: i want to see where this goes

There was a slightly fraught silence. Drew’s hands were shaking a little against the keyboard.

Wow, that was the most serious “we should go out” speech he’d ever given anyone, and he was pretty sure he would never have been able to say it aloud.

Not without feeling like an idiot. To be honest, he felt a bit of an idiot now, but it was cushioned by two medusas standing in a puddle around an elemental they’d forgotten to loot.

Still nothing from Kit.

Drew risked putting his fingers back on the keys.

[Group][Efthalia]: and look

[Group][Efthalia]: not being funny or anything

[Group][Efthalia]: but the way i see

[Group][Efthalia]: i’ve never had a boyfriend

[Group][Efthalia]: and actually you’ve never had a boyfriend

[Group][Efthalia]: so we’re both pretty new to this

[Group][Efthalia]: and what have we got to lose

Silence. Silence. Silence.

[Group][Aconite]: Okay

Drew stared blankly at the screen. He wasn’t sure whether to celebrate or hide under the desk.

[Group][Efthalia]: seriously?

[Group][Aconite]: Why? Were you hoping I’d say no?

[Group][Efthalia]: No!

[Group][Efthalia]: i just wasn’t sure you were going to say yes

[Group][Aconite]: After a speech like that, how could a guy resist?

[Group][Efthalia]: *blush*

[Group][Aconite]: Hee, that’s my line.

[Group][Efthalia]: lol

It was as close as it was going to get to how it used to be. And Drew was slightly shocked at how happy it made him.

[Group][Efthalia]: so…like

[Group][Efthalia]: basic internet safety stuff

[Group][Efthalia]: we should meet somewhere neutral and public and tell people where you’re going

[Group][Efthalia]: somewhere in town?

[Group][Aconite]: It’s not exactly classy but how about Starbucks?

[Group][Efthalia]: the one in the shopping centre?

[Group][Aconite]: Yes

[Group][Efthalia]: day after tomorrow?

[Group][Efthalia]: before the raid

[Group][Efthalia]: 4ish

[Group][Aconite]: Yes

[Group][Aconite]: God, I’m terrified.

[Group][Efthalia]: me too

[Group][Aconite]: But I’m looking forward to it

[Group][Efthalia]: me too

[Group][Efthalia]: shit how will I know who you are

[Group][Aconite]: I’ll be dressed as a penguin and reading The Financial Times

[Group][Efthalia]: then I’ll be wearing a red carnation and looking through a newspaper with two holes cut in it

[Group][Aconite]: Hee

[Group][Aconite]: Actually, I’m kind of ordinary looking, sort of blondish and I’ll be wearing a blue shirt

[Group][Aconite]: Sorry that probably doesn’t help

[Group][Aconite]: I’ll be reading a secondhand copy of A Canticle for Leibowitz

[Group][Efthalia]: So if I see someone with a brand new copy I’ve got the wrong dude

[Group][Aconite]: Yeah, he works for the KGB

[Group][Efthalia]: lol

[Group][Aconite]: Are you coming to the raid tonight

[Group][Efthalia]: didn’t sign up

[Group][Efthalia]: got a course deadline

[Group][Efthalia]: wasn’t sure I’d be free

[Group][Aconite]: See you on Wednesday then

And just like that, Drew had a date.