Chapter Text
Khiori logged in.
[Guild][Minmin]: Khioriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!
Thomas snorted loudly. It was a habit for him, almost a reflex lately, to turn on PC and Tera right when he got home, even before he got out of his clothes, or at least his shoes. He wasn’t disappointed; the guild burst with life all the time, and it didn’t let him down today either. Such a happy greeting (or at least he considered it happy, with Min it could have been an accusatory shout as well as a love confession) meant mostly one thing: they were actually waiting for him because they needed a skilled healer - or better, someone who could actually put up with them till the end of the dungeon without kicking them or leaving with a disgusted swear words on a tip of his tongue. And… well, who could heal a bit, up to their expectations. Which were insanely high. Especially if the tank was the one Thomas thought it would be.
He shook the jacket down his shoulders and nearly tripped over his jeans when he tried to pull them down too fast and stepped out of them too soon. He almost crashed over his keyboard and thanked all the gods above him that no one could see him right now with an AC/DC t-shirt and pink boxers (he hadn’t bought them pink, mind you, they used to be white; but living alone, doing his own laundry, and putting red and white together without anyone there to stop him, or at least to give him a warning, had its downside), or they would probably die laughing. Especially the guys from his guild.
[Guild][Khiori]: hey Min, and all :-)
He typed it still standing, tearing down the rest of the offensive clothing, while almost blindly reaching for rumpled spares on his messy bed. The guild chat flashed again and Thomas grinned at what he read.
[Guild][Badland]: Eeeeh. You again.
[Guild][Khiori]: eeeeeeeeeh this filth again >.>
[Guild][Minmin]: REHM!
[Guild][Khiori]: sure Min
[Guild][Minmin]: Woooooooot!
His screen immediately lit up with a raid invitation and he confirmed it while finally sitting down. He longingly glanced back at his kitchen, but dinner preparations would take at least half an hour, and he doubted Min would wait that long without bitching. And no one wanted to read his bitching, no one who was fully sane.
Well, Badland probably would. He always nagged him until he shouted, and then nagged some more and waited for a rage quit like a kid during Christmas. It was amusing in its own way (although Thomas never actually said out loud he enjoyed it, because he would get bashed for siding with Bad in these situations), if it didn’t happen during a raid, which left them without a pro slayer.
[Guild][Minmin]: You fucker. Accept!
[Guild][Badland]: Fuck you.
[Guild][Minmin]: Come on, you are stalling us, slowpoke.
[Guild][Badland]: I am not going to a noobish REHM ._.
[Guild][Minmin]: Ffs.
Another flash and Thomas found himself being a leader of the raid. Naturally.
[Received Whisper][Minmin]: Get him here right nao.
[Sent Whisper][Khiori]: why meeeeeee
[Received Whisper][Minmin]: Show him your boobs!
[Sent Whisper][Khiori]: he is a pedo. my boobs won’t work
[Received Whisper][Minmin]: Well, find another way then. We need a tank. I want him to tank it.
Thomas smirked. He made himself more comfortable on the chair and typed Bad’s nickname into the chat.
[Sent Whisper][Khiori]: come with us, stop pouting in a corner little girl
[Received Whisper][Badland]: Stop talking to me, you slutty elven trash.
“Uh huh,” Thomas voiced out loud, amused. “Pretty sure you drool over the busty elf anyway, boyo.”
He clicked his name and sent the invitation anyway. A ring filled the room when Badland’s name appeared right under his own in the raid and Thomas couldn’t hide the grin blooming on his face.
Easy. That guy was just so easy.
[Raid][Minmin]: Fucking finally.
[Raid][Badland]: Shut up and be grateful.
[Raid][Minmin]: Make me, you sweet little thing <3
[Raid][Badland]: Eww, not even with a stick.
[Raid Leader][Khiori]: will ask in a guild who wants to go first
Guild raids were the best, after all, Thomas mused while typing the question in the guild chat. He almost couldn’t remember for how long he had been playing this game, but he had actually become part of the Maze Runners guild only two months prior. The legion itself hadn’t changed as much as he often observed in other games, or even in guilds of this game (before ending up in this one he had gone through some, but never stayed for too long). At first the core pulled all kinds of people towards it, making the guild seems nice and lively. Then one person suddenly left, and the guild fell apart, because that certain someone made it tick. At times a sudden surge of people leaving killed the chatter with no one knowing what happened, or the most eccentric players kept on quarrelling, and the guild just got fed up with it. It happened to every big guild at some point – people changed interests, games or just stopped playing altogether, and the previously burning star dimmed and fell.
The Maze Runners had been up and running for at least two years now, with Min as a guild leader this past year. Thomas heard Alby started it first though, two years ago. According to others he was a pretty easy going berserker, leading the guild through exarch’s era and all, until he decided to stop playing. A rumour he got a girlfriend and she didn’t like the constant PC nursing got never really confirmed, but most of the people went by it.Alby gave Bad the guild leader title without asking or a single warning. One day Bad logged in and stared at the sudden change with wide eyes and WTF-Just-Happened attitude. Alby left him some sort of note, but Thomas never heard what it contained. Bad didn’t hold the leader title for long though, as far as Thomas understood; it took him few hours to pass it over to Min and distance himself from the formality, playing the “shadow eminence” only.
This core stayed strong and unchanging, and Thomas, even though he was still sort of new, found himself drawn to the centre of their community.
He found out very soon Minmin was basically the nicest, most sarcastic macho ever. At first he pulled out the badass attitude, being all impressive know-it-all, but after a time and actually getting to know Thomas’ style of playing he softened a bit. He appreciated a healer who actually knew the basics and the advanced usage of the game, and it didn’t take long for them to actually find the right note to talk about all kinds of stuff. The flashy Castanic male with an arrogant smirk fitted Min’s personality the best, and since Thomas didn’t know how he looked in the real life, he just settled on this image. He knew Min had all sorts of alts, but the slayer always stayed his main, as well as the guild leader.
Badland was something else though. This guy was an enigma, an unapproachable jerk who, by some sort of miracle, still had the power to draw people together. He hated levelling and always called Min a “twat” when he appeared with yet another alt in the guild. He always took the liberty of kicking one of Min’s older alts out, then got bitched at, but never took it back. Min threatened him with taking the second-in-command title away from him, but it never worked, and he never fulfilled the threat anyway.
Badland was an Elin lancer. He never tried anything else (or at least according to Min, Thomas wasn’t sure), he just stubbornly stuck to the first character he had made in the game; another toon was too much work for him. From the very first time Thomas and Bad just couldn’t find the right angle how to handle each other. But after several days (well, almost weeks) later Thomas understood that Bad’s nagging and insulting was just his way to express his friendliness. Sort of. Some people he openly didn’t like. Thomas used to be between that group too at the beginning; Bad even refused to go with him to the simplest dungeon. But at some point tables had turned.
[Guild][Terra]: I’ll go on my mystic, hold on. Will relog real fast.
Another response flashed in the guild chat and Thomas hummed in appreciation. Terra was another part of the gang, even though she was even “younger” than Thomas in the terms of belonging to the guild. She was undoubtedly confirmed as a girl gamer, even by the rest of the guild (who mostly lived by the creed that there are no girl gamers until proven otherwise, aka boobs or it didn’t happen). She was Thomas’ classmate, Teresa Agnes by default, and she definitely had “boobs” as well as “touch-me-and-you-will-lose-that-hand” attitude most of the time. The fact they both played MMOs came out very soon in the 1st year of their class, until they both settled in Tera.
[Guild][Terria]: Here, inv
Thomas immediately clicked on her name and invited her smoothly.
[Raid][Terria]: Sup!
[Raid][Badland]: Oh fuck no. Two idiotic healers now, must be my lucky day
[Raid][Terria]: Shut up, or I will stick my sceptre up your little bunny hole and stir it.
[Raid][Badland]: Kinky
[Raid][Terria]: Always.
[Raid Leader][Khiori]: fuuuuuuuuu let’s roll
Thomas rolled his eyes when another jab landed on his and Teresa’s account, but it quieted down once the dungeon started and everyone got busy.
***
Two hours and a dinner later, and a tad more comfortable, Thomas lazily browsed the Trade broker while watching a swiftly moving guild chat by the corner of his eye.
[Guild][Minmin]: I am sure Khio’s coming, right?
He blinked, confused, and scrolled quickly up, but in his haste he didn’t find what Min could be referring to. He grudgingly pulled himself up from an almost lying position and swiftly typed his question.
[Guild][Khiori]: coming where?
[Guild][Terria]: Irl meeting.
“What?” his eyebrows shot up, he almost felt the panic swelling in his throat at such suggestion. An “in real life” meeting, his nightmare. He always had troubles with those, since he started playing and meeting new people, and those people had expressed their wish to actually meet him, personally. It never ceased to be a big deal for him, although he didn’t really know why exactly. He told himself it was probably out of fear of not being up their expectations, but he suspected he was just being a coward of those anonymous people having suddenly too real faces (of course it was different with Teresa, but yeah). What if they wouldn’t be up to his expectations? What if their attitude was going to bother him? What if they wouldn’t like his real character? He was always aware he acted differently online. Everyone did. So what if the real life version of his guild sucked? What if he sucked?
[Guild][Khiori]: oh I dunno
[Guild][Minmin]: Well, I know! It’s gonna be fun! I am so going to invite everyone!
[Guild][Terria]: Good luck with Europeans ;)
[Guild][Minmin]: Stop spoiling my delight, you minx. Khio, say you are going to come, c’mon. Don’t leave me hanging here.
Thomas gulped. The bad thing was – he couldn’t just say he had something important at school, because Teresa would call out his bluff. He couldn’t really say he was needed somewhere else, because again – school and Teresa. Asking her not to say anything to them would be futile anyway, he knew that. But being honest and telling them he just didn’t want to go… he just couldn’t.
[Guild][Khiori]: I rly dunno, man.
[Guild][Minmin]: I take it as a yes. Cool!
“Fuck,” he mumbled. His mind was blank. He couldn’t come up with any excuse; it was frying his brain cells. A beep interrupted him and his heart almost skipped a beat, expecting Min demanding a clear confirmation of his attendance. He wasn’t ready for that.
[Received Whisper][Terria]: You are freaking out, huh.
Of course she knew. He sighed, watching the text quietly, contemplating if he should act as if he didn’t see it, until another pink flashed.
[Received Whisper][Terria]: Don’t think too hard, you will fry your brain. I can hear the wheels turning all the way from here.
Thomas rolled his eyes. They weren’t even close friends and yet she just perfectly knew him. It felt a little creepy at times.
[Sent Whisper][Khiori]: can’t find a suitable excuse.
He sent it with reluctance. Am I saying too much? Will she laugh? I would.
[Received Whisper][Terria]: Then don’t search for any. Irl meetings are fun, you know.
[Sent Whisper][Khiori]: experience?
[Received Whisper][Terria]: Yup.
“I see,” he whispered. He heard about fun times. But he also heard about fiascos, super awkward situations of people not having anything to say to each other when the anonymous barrier fell. What if The Maze Runners ended the same?
[Guild][Khiori]: going to sleep for today. Talk to ya all tomorrow, night :-)
[Guild][Minmin]: booooo. Night Khio!
[Guild][Terria]: night
[Received Whisper][Terria]: think about it. Don’t be a coward ;)
[Sent Whisper][Khiori]: yeah yeah
He waited a bit more for people wishing him good night and out of morbid curiosity looked if Bad was still online, because he had been suspiciously quiet all along. He felt a little disappointed by his greyed name and he logged off a second after.