was an argument with his boyfriend—an argument he wasn’t sure how he’d started, or what it was really about. Trying to have a conversation about classic video games in guild chat at the same time was slightly beyond him.
[Guild][Orcarella]: y
[Guild][Ialdir]: How are you finding it?
To [Solace]: i didn’t mean it like that
[Guild][Orcarella]: they don’t make them like that any more
[Guild][Ialdir]: Yeah, it’s tragic isn’t it?
[Solace] whispers: So how did you mean it?
[Guild][Orcarella]: it takes some getting used to
[Guild][Solace]: There’s obviously a lot of love in it
[Guild][Solace]: Like every zombie in the Mortuary has its own identity
[Guild][Ialdir]: Every time I play it I find something new
To [Solace]: i’m just worried about you
[Guild][Ialdir]: You’re really lucky you can discover it together
[Guild][Ialdir]: I tried to get Stefan into it back when we were first going out
[Solace] whispers: Because I only wanted to spend 24 straight hours hanging out with your friends? And not 36?
[Guild][Ialdir]: Disaster
To [Solace]: they’ll think you don’t like them
[Guild][Ialdir]: I turned into this total jerky control freak
[Guild][Ialdir]: I was like no, you have to have wisdom 18
[Guild][Ialdir]: And we should solve this quest exactly like this
[Solace] whispers: So you think your friends will be insulted because an adult human eventually chose to leave their company
[Guild][Ialdir]: And we’ve got to go to ragpicker’s square as soon as possible
[Guild][Orcarella]: wait what’s so important about ragpicker’s square?
[Solace] whispers: And *I’m* the one you think you have to worry about?
[Guild][Heurodis]: SPOILERS MAN SPOILERS
[Guild][Orcarella]: Seriously, what’s in ragpicker’s square?
[Guild][Ialdir]: Oh my god, I am the worst person ever
[Guild][Solace]: Also I’m pretty sure we skimped on wisdom
To [Solace]: but you’ll spend whole weekends in HoL
[Guild][Solace]: You can’t even play a cleric
[Guild][Ialdir]: la la la I can’t hear you
[Guild][Heurodis]: dont worry everyone starts off as a noob
[Guild][Heurodis]: youll really understand the game on your third or fourth playthrough
[Guild][Morag]: Sometimes I think life is just too short for Bjorn.
[Solace] whispers: Yes, Drew. Funnily enough, I find it easier to spend a long time doing something I like and have chosen to do
[Solace] whispers: with people I’ve known a long time
[Solace] whispers: than something somebody else chose to do
[Solace] whispers: with a group of people I’ve only just met
[Guild][Heurodis]: Sadly, Morag, nothing can change the nature of a man
[Guild][Ialdir]: Wow, you really missed the point of that game, didn’t you?
To [Solace]: you can’t build your whole life around a video game
[Guild][Morag]: I thought the point of that game was Annah
[Guild][Morag]: Maybe because I played it at an impressionable age
[Guild][Morag]: But I blame Torment for my lifelong thing for feisty redheads
Solace has gone offline.
Whoa. That had gone super badly wrong. And Drew wasn’t sure what to do or even why it had happened. He had a cold, creeping sense it might have been his fault, but then he usually did when he fought with people he cared about.
He sat there for a little while, feeling increasingly terrible. And then sent Kit a quick text: We okay? After a moment, he got back: Just need some space.
Drew stared at his phone. What did that even mean? Was it a polite way of dumping him? Did it mean they were on a break? Was everything basically fine, and Drew was overreacting? He really wanted to reply and ask for clarification, but he was pretty certain that the one thing it didn’t mean was, Please text me back immediately.
Between the all-nighter, the argument, and the Batmen, Drew’s brain was basically soup. The part of him that was upset and panicky wanted to Do Something Right Now, but the part of him that was operating on eighty minutes’ sleep made deciding what the Something should be, or indeed standing upright, borderline impossible.
He reeled away from HoL and fell facedown onto his bed. He was conscious just long enough to notice how spacious and empty it felt.
Kit had pulled out of the Monday raid, which meant Morag had to go healz at the last minute, leaving Drew with the dubious pleasure of MT-ing opposite Bjorn’s alarmingly well-geared tanking alt. They started a fresh run, still buoyed up by last week’s victory over Bloodrose, but progress was a little shaky because they were prioritising alts and people who hadn’t done the content yet. They downed Arachnia after a couple of wipes and called it before Vilicus.
It was still fun—surprisingly fun considering how often Drew had done this by now—but Kit’s absence made a difference, and not just to Drew. Morale seemed to flag a bit more quickly, Bjorn’s irritability seemed less entertaining, and both Morag and