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 caprine 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
[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