Healer = Person who makes sure that the rest of us don’t die in battle. Their primary target to heal is the tank, though they should always make sure that they don’t die themselves. A dead tank can be raised from the dead, a dead healer means a wipe for the whole party. Not as much fun... So I guess, target zero should be themselves and other healers, and then their primary targets the tanks. When a tank and a healer fit together well, when their play styles match, that’s one of the best things in the world.

I sit back in my chair as I wait for Fleur to return and the rest of the players to finally settle down so that we can jump in as soon as possible. Then a private message pops up.

BelleFleur: I don’t think I can do this...

BelleFleur: I’m just going to get you wiped a hundred times until everyone’s tired of me.

AlexTheDestroyer: We’ve all been in that same place, that first time to run a raid.

AlexTheDestroyer: Don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine.

BelleFleur: It just seems like so much.

I laugh, yeah, I know. And as a tank, it’s not as hard for me as it will be for her, especially the raid we’re going to run, it has a good number of healer checks, elements that will put out a huge amount of damage on the whole party that the healers will have to heal through.

AlexTheDestroyer: Which part?

BelleFleur: All of it.

AlexTheDestroyer: Well, you’ll only know if you try. As long as you know the mechanics you need to keep an eye on, you’ll be fine.

BelleFleur: Don’t hate me if I get us wiped a hundred times.

AlexTheDestroyer: We’ll just start over a hundred-and-one times and get through it. We’ve got all evening to do this.

Most of us have anyway, and I know that the other people won’t mind wiping a few times because we have a new healer. It happens, that’s part of the game. And having another endgame healer to work with for dungeons and raids is something that we all want, we’re willing to mess up a few times for it.

AlexTheDestroyer: We’re starting in 20 minutes, are you ready?

BelleFleur: What if I say no?

AlexTheDestroyer: You have 20 minutes to prepare.

I can’t help but laugh at Fleur. I get her fear, running this for the first time, especially with people who have already done this a good amount of times, is scary, but we really all have been in that same situation. And the way I’ve seen her play this afternoon, I think she’ll be fine at least after she’s ran it for the first time and gets some confidence in her skills.

BelleFleur: I’ll be right back.

I turn the group voice chat on and it’s already quite crowded in there. “Hi everyone. Ready to go?”

Multiple people respond with different variations on “Yes”, “Definitely” and “Can we go yet?”.

“We’re just waiting for the last few members to come online, and I haven’t heard from the other guild leaders yet, but they should be checking in soon.” I look through the text chat in the program to see if the other guild leaders are online yet. Tonight we’re running a raid with three guilds, a large party each. A normal party is five people, but a large party is ten, so double that, and then three guilds... It’s always a little chaotic the first ten minutes.

Then one of the other guild leaders comes online, messaging me though the chat program. ‘We’re almost ready to go. You ready there?’

‘Almost.’ I check in-game again, but Fleur hasn’t returned yet. ‘Waiting on a new healer. Hasn’t run this raid yet, so may need extra support.’

‘Will tell the others. Can you invite us into the chat?’ The other guild leader sends me a link and we merge the two voice chats into one big group.

Time for the crazy to begin.

***

I take a deep breath as I step out of the way of the boss, one of the tanks from the other guild takes over from me as there are too many damage modifiers on me, which means more chance of me actually dying.

“How’s she holding up?” I ask of the group, most of us too focused to actually talk too much during a battle, so in the middle of the battle it’s mostly quiet apart from some cursing.

“Holding up well. Hasn’t died yet.” Troy answers quickly.

“Good.” And it’s time for me to take my position in front of the boss again as the damage multipliers have either ran out or have been healed away.

We’re doing well, which is no surprise for the most part, as we’ve ran this raid so often, but it still requires a lot of focus. The mechanics are crazy, but not too bad.

Two damage dealers from one of the other guilds suddenly die and then I see both Troy and Aaron go off too.

“What happened?” I nearly step into instead of out of a huge attack from the boss.

“Sorry. Sorry.” The tank who is supposed to take care of adds, additional strong creatures that spawn during the boss battle, speaks up. “My fault.”

Troy and Aaron are resurrected pretty quickly again, and back into battle. Luckily, stuff doesn’t go wrong again for the rest of this boss. When we’re all getting ready to walk to the next boss room, I send a message to Fleur.

AlexTheDestroyer: How are you doing?

BelleFleur: Ehh...

BelleFleur: It’s insane, but I think I’m holding up.

AlexTheDestroyer: I’d say. Yeah. You’re doing well.

BelleFleur: It looks more insane than it is.

AlexTheDestroyer: It’s the lights and flashing. It’s sooooo distracting!

BelleFleur: True. They make it so much worse.

“Alex!” Someone calls me through the group chat. “Get your ass to the next boss.”

When I look around me on the screen, everyone is gone already. “Whoops.”

“Focus, dude. Focus.”

“Yeah, yeah.” It’s not like that’s always easy, I just got a little distracted by talking to Fleur.

BelleFleur: Where are you?

AlexTheDestroyer: Coming.

Of course, now it’s two sides who will tell me to hurry up. I laugh, but then I’m in the next room and stand with the rest of our group.

One of the other tanks starts pulling the boss and I turn on some damage buffs for my tank. This one doesn’t require more than one tank, as long as the tank and healer can pull it off, so I try to get as much damage in as I can while I also try to get an angle that lets me check in on Fleur. For someone who is doing this raid for the first time, she seems to be pretty on top of everything.

Our luck, running into a healer who actually knows what she’s doing and she’s not part of a guild yet. With the recent changes in our lineup, this could turn into a great weekend.

***

After we finish the raid, I go off the voice chat. We only got wiped once, and that was on the final boss battle. Which Fleur felt really responsible for, even though we were all at fault for not being in the correct spot at the right time a few times. And with a boss with multiple mechanics that quickly adds up to a wipe. The second time went better, everyone was in the spot they had to be and such.

But even though the rest wants to stay and joke, I’m actually going to have to do a couple of things for my gathering skill on my character and Fleur invited me into a party, as she’s doing the same.

BelleFleur: I’m soo behind on this gathering skill...

BelleFleur: Like, it’s twenty levels behind on my main class.

AlexTheDestroyer: Well, that’s not too bad, is it?

I look at my character’s class and skill screen, where not only one of my two gathering skills hasn’t even gotten to level twenty, but I have no crafting skill over level ten. I tend to just source that out to others in the guild, or sell my gathered items and buy crafted stuff from others in the market place.

BelleFleur: It feels like school.

BelleFleur: On track with one skill, but behind on all the rest.

AlexTheDestroyer: You mean the only one that you like?

BelleFleur: Yes.

BelleFleur: I’m always ahead in biology

I laugh.

AlexTheDestroyer: I’m always behind in that one.

AlexTheDestroyer: I’m ahead in maths.

BelleFleur: Maths? Wow.

BelleFleur: I’m not that good with numbers.

AlexTheDestroyer: For me, just when they make sense. Maths usually makes sense.

BelleFleur: I can see that.

BelleFleur: Well, help me out, please. What’s the best place for me to gather herbs and stuff right now? You’re the one with the numbers.

AlexTheDestroyer: Fine, follow me.

I like talking to Fleur, she’s funny, even if she may not mean to be. When we get to the location where she can gather items for her harvesting skill, I switch to my mining skill gear and start gathering around the same area. Both the harvesting and mining nodes, spots where the gatherable items respawn, here are the most profitable in the market place, so I go here often to get a little extra stuff to sell off between dungeons and levelling a few other classes and skills.

It’s brain-numbing, but that also makes it easier to do other things on the side. Like talking to Fleur. I don’t know why, I barely know who she is, but somehow, she makes me feel good.

***

A loud knock on my door makes me look up from the game, pulling me out of a trance.

“Yeah.” My voice is groggy.

“It’s six in the morning.” Mom opens the door a little, looking at me. “Have you played all night?”

What? I check my phone but it really is six in the morning. Fuck. “Apparently.”

“Well, luckily it’s the weekend.” She shakes her head. “But you may want to get some sleep.”

“Thanks. Will do.”

“Night.” She closes the door behind her and I turn back to the game.

I should have realised how much time has passed, Fleur and I both levelled a new skill to level fifteen, something that tends to take a good couple of hours. A message from Fleur is waiting for me.

BelleFleur: Alex?

BelleFleur: You there?

AlexTheDestroyer: Yeah. Sorry. Mom came in.

BelleFleur: Awkward.

AlexTheDestroyer: Yeah. Especially when she says it’s six in the morning...

BelleFleur: Don’t joke.

Her messages stop for a while.

BelleFleur: Fuck. I have to be at work in three hours.

I remember her saying something about not being able to play during the day on Saturdays... I guess this is why.

AlexTheDestroyer: Oops?

BelleFleur: Wouldn’t be the first time...

BelleFleur: Crap...

BelleFleur: My mom’s going to furious...

BelleFleur: I’m gonna go, see if I can get at least an hour and a half of sleep or something...

AlexTheDestroyer: Sorry for keeping you up.

AlexTheDestroyer: See you tonight?

BelleFleur: Tomorrow.

BelleFleur: I’m seeing friends tonight.

AlexTheDestroyer: Aren’t I your friend?

I know, it’s a little bold, and looking at it after I’ve already sent it, makes me feel a little awkward, but I couldn’t help myself saying it. It feels like we’ve gotten to know each other so quickly.

BelleFleur: One of those real-life friends things. Those that I share the meat-space with and such.

At least she’s taking it well.

AlexTheDestroyer: Well, I guess meat-space can never beat the digital, right?

BelleFleur: I don’t know. I had fun tonight.

The little flip my stomach makes tells me that I may be a little too invested in this thing we’ve got going on. Definitely too invested for someone I met online in a videogame just yesterday…

BelleFleur: But I really need to go now.

BelleFleur: See you tomorrow.

AlexTheDestroyer: See you tomorrow.

And I see Fleur log off.

I’m glad that I don’t have a job, but it’s still bad that I kept Fleur up all night, even though we both didn’t mean to. But I guess that’s what happens if you play and have fun together. It’s been a long time since I had this much fun with someone and I hope she doesn’t get into too much trouble...

Crap. Now I feel bad for her. And I guess I should really go to bed too...

Although, I have a feeling that sleep may not happen just yet.