He was surprised by how much good can come from just a bit of physical contact with someone you care about. It had only been seven days since the horrendous event that claimed billions of lives, but in those seven days Garath wasn’t sure he’d touched another human at all. Any walls still standing within him to protect his emotional vulnerability fell with the first few raindrops of the storm he had smelled coming earlier that day. A strange mist filled Garath's vision, and he pulled away from Athios, blinking rapidly to clear his eyes.
"When did this mist come from?" But it wasn't mist at all. He had been crying. The heat given off from his glowing eyes must have evaporated the tears as they welled. He started to laugh, quietly to himself at first. It took a second, but when Athios deduced what had happened, she laughed softly, almost ashamedly as well.
It grew into a loud, uncontrolled fit of desperate laughter. When the joke had run its course, Garath felt 50 pounds lighter. Like everything was happening the way it was supposed to, and that someday soon he'd figure out a way to deal with the effects of his tainted soul. He pulled Athios close again and whispered in her ear. "Thank you."
She smiled a flushed little smile and nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before whispering her response. "You can always talk to me."
Private Message from Warrion to Garath; +202 other recipients - 00/00/07 @ 17:11 (GST):
Got eyes on Rum’bah. I know Garath already said it, but this thing is NOT going anywhere in a hurry. It's about a block south of HQ. Best guess, it'll be here in either about an hour, or maybe sometime before tomorrow morning. G, can we do shifts or something? This is kind of boring.
Garath laughed upon reading Warrion's message. He really wished private messages had a reply-all option. Now that he was not in a Raid Group with everyone, he had to create a new message, and then manually add each recipient. With over two-hundred addressees, it took the Necrologist a few minutes to ready his reply.
Private Message from Garath to Warrion; +202 other recipients - 00/00/07 @ 17:11 (GST):
Thanks, Warrion. Nice job. Hang out for a few minutes, Athios and I will come relieve you. Let us know if anything changes.
"I could get us over there in less than a minute. You have something in mind for the next few minutes?" Athios asked.
"Actually,” Garath said, scratching at his tangle-mess of black curls with one hand. “I wanted to talk to you about something else. "
"Oh god,” Athios said, sighing. She laughed weakly. “Just don't tell me that you actually have a girlfriend that you conveniently haven't mentioned until now, and that you're holding out hope that she is somehow alive. That you’ll search to the ends of the Earth to find her. Or maybe him?”
Garath laughed openly at the thought of that doormat trope. Hashtag nope. "No, it's nothing like that. Actually, it's about the Dungeon…"
He went on to tell her about the Harbinger's Assembly and Alice. He listed out the Lore Keeper's group requirements for Athios line by line. The two of them decided to talk it over as they headed south to relieve Warrion's boredom.
"That all makes sense,” Athios said. “Especially the group composition requirements. It sounds like the big-d Dungeons are like a standard ten-man Raid. And she thinks we should all be at least Level 30 with a full set of gear?" asked Athios. She pulled up the hood of her sweatshirt as the rain picked up. "If she’s already been there then I guess she’d know better than us, but who is this Alice anyways?"
"You know..." Garath replied, his face taking on a pensive look as he thought about it. "I really wish I knew. The Harbinger's Assembly has its own set of forums and she seems to have something like admin authority there. She said that, as a Lore Keeper, she wouldn't take up a Party slot but that she could still attend. Apparently she's willing to share the information she gathered on previous attempts. Which leads me to believe that she has accompanied people that have gone in, and then died in there. Yet somehow, she made it out alive. I'm not sure how to feel about it, really."
"That is a bit strange, isn't it?” Athios asked. “Do you think we can trust her?”
"I don't know. I think so. I mean, I definitely get the feeling that she has her own agenda but I'm also pretty sure that her agenda aligns with my agenda,” Garath said. He paused to think about it. “At least for now.”
"Our agenda," corrected Athios.
Garath smiled as they walked, putting his hands in the pockets of his worn-out jeans and tossing his wet hair out of his face. "Right. Our agenda. Level 30, full set of Class appropriate gear, and a balanced group composition. I think we should comply."
"I guess we've got some work to do then," Athios said.
"We sure freaking do. Oh!" Garath said, unconsciously picking up the pace in his excitement. "I haven't told you yet! About my friends heading this way. They were already heading to Vy'thishrak when we got in touch. They were hoping to join a group when they got there. I played Frozen Throne with three of them. The fourth one I don't know but Auto vouched for him. He’s a healer."
Athios paused as she processed everything he'd just said. "Auto?"
"Yeah Auto! Ha!” he laughed as he tried to think of the least lame way to explain his relationship with Auto. “He’s an old friend, kind of. I’ve never actually met him. But we were on a PvP arena team back in the day and kicked some serious ass. After that we kept in touch through different games for almost ten years. It
