Strange Adventures

So I been playing Lord of the Rings Online for a whiles now.

I've got four dirty little hobbits and a crusty old human loremaster.

All of 'em are bald, y'know, 'cause I like doing my part to prevent the spread of virtual lice.

And I've mastered every trade skill thingie they got up to Expert, 'cept farming and cooking, so I've made a pretty penny or two and I don't need to worry about not being able to afford some drooly awersomes purple item or horses or anything.

I play on the Nimrodel server, of course, 'cause it was the only server name that made me laugh no matter how I tried to say it out loud.

And I've been in and out of a couple of guilds, and met a lot of interesting folks and stuff.

The most interesting was this guy (well, he still is this guy, so far, at least), that says he used to be the Lead Sentinel for Asheron's Call 1, and he was the leader of his own guild.

He's really old and he has a nurse 'cause he has lots of heart attacks, which can really add to the suspense and tension of hanging out with him, especially since his client crashes a lot and you always have to wonder if he crashed or if he was dying in Real Life or if the Frustration of Crashing So Much was Gonna Make Him Have a Grabber And Kill Him In Real Life or something, y'know?

Anyways it was cool to meet him, 'cause he's from a Different Club of Ancient MMO People than I'm used to (even though I was a beta tester for Asheron's Call), and the similarities between his crusty club of jaded MMO Veterans and the ones I'm used to are kinda funny and almost spooky, I mean, they have their own version of every guy I know from other Crusty MMO Vets Clubs.

I'm serious, I was almost wondering if I'd accidentally stumbled into the same people I always end up hanging out with, y'know, I felt like Dorothy at the end of the Wizard of Oz, where she realizes the Scarecrow and the Tin Man were really the farm hands and shiz, saying "and you were there, and you were there..."

But these guys, although almost exactly like certain other people I could name, were from all wrong countries and stuff around the globe, so that settled that.

And they had their own version of MMO History which was much different than ours.

I'm serious, they all played UO, and SWG, but they never heard of Raph, or anybody else I knew of, or knew the dumbo nicknames for, like Designer Dragon and Sunsword, if you can believe it.

Yah, they were dropping other names I never heard of for all that stuff.

Weird, huh?

Yah, so, that whole Parallel Universe Thingie was kinda giving me the heebie jeebies, and I got myself outta there.

Plus, I didn't really wanna stick around and wait for a Heart Attack to happen to the guy I liked.

What am I, some kinda Last Wish Foundation Good Samaritan Guy?

Why do I always end up getting stuck with these folks?

I'm frickin' sick of people I like croaking on me heh.

And now I'm like getting shoved into Alternate Universes and helping folks who aren't even from my own universe!

That's bullcrap!