Page 45 of Looking for Group
The thought had crossed Drew’s mind. Rule One of the Internet: assume everyone is middle-aged, male, and a serial killer. “I told you, we’re mates.”
“Then I’m sure you’re not going to be remotely disappointed when she turns out to be a burly Yorkshireman.”
“Maybe I’m into that.”
“That would explain why you’ve never had a girlfriend. And I’m not counting that crazy chick you hooked up with last year.”
Drew gave him the finger. “I have had a girlfriend. We broke up when I came to uni because we couldn’t do long distance.”
Sanee launched into an enthusiastic rendition of “My Girlfriend Who Lives in Canada.”
Drew pulled on his headphones and went back to his chair.
About halfway through the afternoon, he got a PM from Solace.This came when I was stuck in a super dull solid state lecture, and made my day. Thank you so much. I love it. I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight. I rolled a diabolist. She’s called Aconite. S.
That evening, Drew sat down at his computer and looked at theHeroes of Legendcharacter creation screen for the first time in two years. He clicked on the Medusa icon and the system generated him a ridiculously stacked, bright-blue guy with a pornstache made of snakes. He winced and clicked the Female icon.Pornstache vanished, and was replaced by an implausibly curvy young lady with a python Mohawk. After a good twenty minutes of fiddling around with hairstyles, faces, and skin tones, Drew had managed to put together someone he liked. Someone he thought he’d be okay to stick with for eighty-odd levels, but who didn’t scream “I’m a miserable nerd-boy and this is the only way I can get to look at a hot chick.”
He hovered over the character classes. He was tempted to go for a myrmidon so he’d know what he was doing and wouldn’t look like too much of an idiot in front of Solace, but he’d already got one and he was supposed to be trying something new and outside his comfort zone. On the other hand, his inner pragmatist pointed out that as Solace had rolled a pure DPS class, they really needed someone who could heal and/or tank.
Oh screw it. He clicked Elementalist. They were supposed to be this super adaptable hybrid class, which meant they’d wound up being slightly crappy at tanking, healing, and DPS. They’d basically been unplayable in vanilla, but they’d been buffed to the point that they were now just really hard to play. Viridium, the guys so hardcore they were actually paid to play, had famously had a storm elementalist for their MT since Rise of the Underworld.
Okay, he had a race, a class, and a face he could more or less stand. Now for the hard bit: the name.
He stared at the little black box, his mind completely blank. It was a shame Dave was taken. He briefly considered Davella but that would probably get pretty old, pretty quickly.
He alt-tabbed, fired up Google, and since the medusas were vaguely Greeky, searched for Greek girls’ names. He tried a bunch and eventually managed to get Efthalia. It sounded a bit like she had a lisp, but by that stage, he’d kind of given upcaring.
Then he settled back in his chair to watch the introductory cutscene, which was all arty splash screens and ponderous voice-overs, explaining how the medusas had once been the proud rulers of a mighty empire, struck down for defying their gods blah blah cursed blah blah stone gaze blah blah snakes for hair. It finished up with a fly-over of the Island of Krytos. Here and there he could see starting-level characters bunny-hopping through the ruins as they collected ten whatevers and killed twenty whatsits. For truly of such deeds are legends made.
The first thing he saw when got control of Efthalia was a pretty little medusa sitting under an olive tree. She jumped up and waved, her long, jewel-coloured snakes wriggling excitedly.
Aconite has invited you to join a group: y/n
Aconite is now group leader.
[Group][Aconite]: Hi
[Group][Efthalia]: Hi??
[Group][Aconite]: Have you checked out the dance animation yet?
Drew/dancedand Efthalia writhed in a circle, hips and snakes swaying provocatively.
[Group][Efthalia]: i should probably stop doing that
[Group][Aconite]: Hee
[Group][Efthalia]: thought I’d try ele tanking
[Group][Aconite]: Thought I’d try harnessing the fell powers of the nether realm to rain death and destruction upon mine enemies
[Group][Aconite]: I don’t often get to DPS
[Group][Aconite]: I’m excited
[Group][Efthalia]: don’t get too excited
[Group][Efthalia]: you’re going to have like one spell
