Intro
A long overdue post and I am dreadfully overdue on a blog
entry in general. So, WOW hit its 10
year anniversary and I have been in the thick of things for that entire time. Some of the current guildies in Broken were
single digits in age when WOW came out!
It is quite scary and a true mind F to us older folks that are past or approaching….<gulp>.…40
. Let me digress….
My subject today is one of romance, friendship, and love. Over the course of my WOW career, I
documented much of my WOW life here in The
History Lesson, but there is one man, one constant, one partner who deserves
mention as he is not just a wow buddy/guildie, but a true friend...
Say My Name
His name is none other than Rakrah! Without his overwhelming tanking skills and amazing
leadership I would not be the man I am today.
Ok,ok,ok. Enough! We all know my love affair with Rakrah. The real guy I am talking about is none other
than the chain smoking, beer drinking, dirty minded, unconventional Greek fool
named Taki aka Photia/Porkofdoom/Bloodrooted.
History
As a quick recap to some of the history, he used to be a
mage as his main toon in the TBC days. Even
then he had tanking tendencies as he did mage tank the first boss in Gruul’s
cave. Over time and as the guild needed consistent
and not flakey tanks and healers, the group of us officers all decided to take
on the roles of tanks/healers as they formed the glue of most raids and guilds. The always fierce Photia the mage was retired
for Porkofdoom the warm and fuzzy bear tank for whom I healed through many a
boss fights as I stared at his large furry arse. I went from a TOP dpsing lock (yes, TOP DPS!)
to a holy priest healer (and ultimately disco) and pally healer. Chris (wornight to you all now, went to wordin
a ret pally/prot pally), Frayae was our pally healer, and Stranglehorn was our
kitty dps with a bear tank offspec. This
way our 2 tanks and 2 main healers were all officers and less of flight
risk. Fray did end up bailing on us over
time, but we survived until the time near the end of cata and The Experiment
came to be when we left guild management until Broken’s rebirth.
Taki the Man
Over time and all the years as we became co-GL of the reborn
Broken, Taki and I have grown closer in many ways (fill in your own blanks you
pervs). WOW discussions, guild decisions, personnel talks,
raid debriefs all were the backdrop to our communication with each other, but
it evolved into much more. Conversations
about each other’s kids and family was a natural progression when we communicated
for so long and so often. He knew about
my marital problems before anyone else and shielded me when I needed some
privacy. We rant and ravved about
ex-girlfriend’s, wives, and ex-guildies.
We talked about our favorite positions and what we drank and what we
cooked and what we ate. I think Taki
lives on Chinese food and if I ate as much as of that as he did I’d be permanently
on the toilet peeing out of my butt, yet somehow he is immune to its powers against
me. We also waxed poetic over our all
guildies, good and bad, old and new.
Skabz, Uz, Vapes, Horn, Wordin (though he is back), Rakrah (always),
Waldo (not much more comedic value than waldo), Brawnie, Thoradil, Sunny (AFK
grandma), Fray, current raiders and guildies, Team Moist, Kimmie, Yanni, Lani, G,
James, the list goes on and on. (if you
were not mentioned, suck it up and submit a ticket to blizz and if you are
current then you already know we are talking about you, so take solace in that)
Ying and Yang
Contrary to popular belief (I might have made this up), we
do not always see eye to eye. Sometimes
it is more like brown eye to finger. ATM
anyone? (if some of this entry is not
filthy it would not do Taki justice). Even
still, we always compromise and hear each other’s opinion and side and try and make
the right decisions for the guild and stay away from being too short sighted.
We attempt to keep raiding fun and loose and Taki certainly
adds his elements of filth to the raid while I try and do other things like
DIAF (there I said it for you jerks out there), but I am in The Decay. I swear I think he raids in a dirty clown
costume and sucks on lollipops. We try
and be each other’s ying and yang and bring out everyone’s personality and
voice unless they are dbags or weird (insert name of a raider that was also the
name of a cheese). We may even good cop bad
cop you in vent or one on one or we may just go DP on you. ;)
With each new day brings a different approach. We play off of each other as best we can, but
it is natural, it is not pre-determined nor do we discuss it, we just know each
other. We know each other’s mood, vibe, swagger,
voice, O face, and cadence.
The Meeting
So, there happened to be one moment in our lives where we
could cross paths without much consternation as we were both busy with family
and kids, etc. I was in the Boston area
and was set to meet up with Kimmie, Yanni (Taki’s younger brother), Brulador,
and Cali out for a few beers. I text
Taki to make a showing, but he wasn’t sure.
Once I got to the bar and met all of the above, I texted Taki and he
said he would make an appearance. I’ll
admit, I did pop a little bit of wood.
First, I had time to digest the likes of Kimmie, an entirely
different person IRL than in game! Much quieter
in real life. Yanni, when Paul Bunyan starts
eating gyros this is what reminds me of Yanni.
He was exactly as I envisioned him.
Angry, hairy, big, loud, and brash.
I hear he is tamer now with a beautiful newly born daughter (congratulations
Yanni and Kimmie), but I will never forget the lumberjack I met that night and
I laughed with him plenty. A solid guy
nonetheless who you always want in your corner and hopefully wearing his mp5 set,
but he loves to complain and be cranky, no different than in his WOW days.
The Arrival
Taki lived about 45 mins from the bar so with my
anticipation (and weiner) grew for this guy I had spoken to for years and never
had met. I knew Yanni was the giant of
the family and I am also 6’4” and I knew Taki was shorter, but size matters
little (sometimes ;) ) He approached the
table very stealthily (for the record, he never played a filthy rogue) and I
think I yelled his name and stood up and we hugged like we were long lost war
buddies. It was then I swear I felt a
hand on my arse. Not sure if it was
Kimmie or Yanni or just the ODB himself….Taki.
There was no awkwardness or anything.
We sat down next to each other playing footsies and rubbing each other’s
thighs. We even had to check each other’s
sacks to make sure we both still had a set and were ready to lead again together. To be honest, his were way hairier. (male tip of the day: trim that stuff, trust me, girls don’t want a
rats nest down there) Neither of us was
very different in personality IRL then on the phone or in game. We talked and traded stories for hours. Once he got there our focus was on each other,
but we all chatted around the table. I
cannot recall all we talked about and the night flew by and I could not stay
out that late as I had to get back to the person’s house I was staying at. He did even invite his friend and an old
guildie named G (Raininblood) to come out too and he did. So, that was great fun as well. The hours passed, the beers flowed, the weiners
were no longer flaccid, but it was time to call it a night. I said good night to everyone and gave Taki
another big hug, we definitely rubbed balls and grabbed arses and said we
should do it again soon.
Epilogue
It was been the roughest 18 months of my life for those that
sort of know all I have been through (and many don’t know the half of it). I was nearly married to this game and I did
step away prior to WOD for 4 months and even now that I am back am admittedly
NOT as engaged and as razor sharp as I once was. I have a lot of loose ends and moving parts
in my life right now and the equilibrium is still working itself out. This isn’t meant for a pity party or as some
precursor to me quitting (I am not), but to again show an example of the man
Taki is. He has stepped into a bigger
role and is carrying the weight I cannot carry right now for the guild when he
also has a full plate IRL. I was RLing
two teams most of MoP and always came razor focused and was always overly
prepped. I have slipped a little, but
Taki has caught me most times (sometimes he watches me fall and laughs) so I
did not fall flat on my face. I should
give some credit to our current guildies too as some of them have helped me and
the guild a lot as well. Being a single
dad, trying to date (The Date),
having a new job with more responsibility, the remainder of my loose ends after
this 18 month period, and being a co-GL/RL has proven to be a lot to
juggle. Life has become more of a
juggling act for me now and I am adjusting to it, but people like Taki have
made it easier just by listening and helping where they can and taking some of
the burden off my shoulders. So, I raise
a glass to you my co-GL, my guildie, my WOW compatriot, my buddy, my pal, my
friend….we shall meet again soon.
/touchballs
-Mav
Dawww so sweet :)
ReplyDeleteThat meetup was fun times!
Totally understand the real life/guild leading balance. Especially with the aforementioned beautiful newborn daughter. :)
That's why it's so important to have guild leaders /officers you trust to help carry the burden. We both have that so our guilds will continue to be successful.
Thanks Mav and Taki for keeping this guild running. It's been almost 8 years since we started raiding together. It's been a pleasure and hopefully we have some years left in us. Let's kick some ass.
ReplyDelete~Ish