Friday night was MMO Night. Not always, of course, because sometimes Friday night was Bowling League Night. Or Coddle Major Mass Spec Night. Or Put An Evidence Puzzle Together Without the Cover of the Box Night. Or Sister Rosita Makes Snickerdoodles Night. But if it wasn't any of those nights, Friday night was MMO Night. She'd log in, choose which scantily clad but heavily armored character she wanted to be tonight, and then proceed to kick anonymous tail. Occasionally she'd kick McGee's tail too, if he wasn't busy with his own Friday night, which might be Dinner With Sarah Night, Work On The Great American Novel Night, Ask A Witness Awkward Questions Night, Be Not-Really-Forced to Go See A Movie With DiNozzo Night or Volunteer at the Botanical Garden with Penny Night.
Tonight was definitely MMO Night, though, and she was pretty sure it was also MMO Night for McGee. She logged in and went to their usual meeting point, but he wasn't there. Weird. She sent a message to him, but it came back with a notice that he wasn't online. Even weirder. She waited ten minutes before she decided he had to have been delayed at work, although he usually let her know when that happened. Ultra weirdest. Oh well. He'd send her a message when he logged in, if he logged in, and she was wasting valuable raiding time, so she headed out of their usual haunt and went off to slay things, collect loot, and listen to really bad pickup lines.
She was making sure that something very ugly didn't get back up again when a message from McGee's character came in. Finally! She hit the ugly thing one more time for good measure, got its loot, then ran back to their rendezvous point.
"About time!" her character said to his, and then she noticed the level one character next to him. "Who's your friend? This isn't a group raid night, is it?"
His character shrugged uncomfortably, as much as any character in this game could. Emotions weren't really a strong point since the whole goal was to kill things, not have sweet and charming cutscenes with your raid partners.
"This is Probie," his character said, gesturing to the level one character, which immediately objected to the name, but hey, it was a level one. It was a Probie.
"Nice to meet you, Probie," her character replied, and the real Abby frowned. They couldn't raid where they had originally planned to raid with a level one character. Her character and McGee's were way above level one and all their usual raid spots would get the poor level one Probie killed in about five seconds flat, maybe less.
"Let's go to the Happy Hunting Ground," she suggested. It was a low-difficulty zone that would allow this Probie to level up pretty fast if he or she wanted to, and she was hoping it was a he to match the avatar's gender. The idea of McGee sitting in his apartment or maybe even leaning over a woman and teaching her how to raid was not a very nice one.
Once they got to the Happy Hunting Ground, the premise was pretty straightforward. There were lots of six foot tall demonic jackalopes around to shoot and the more were shot, the more levels and loot were gained. It was a total no-brainer, but the Probie was having a little trouble all the same. This was definitely his or her first time with an MMO.
"Having problems handling your weapon?" her character asked him, and she was pretty sure McGee's character would have sputtered if that had been a possible reaction. Probie's character, though, just grinned and fired off five perfect shots, which leveled him up.
"No, ma'am, I can handle my weapon just fine," he said, and something about the delivery was familiar, even in text. She knew that combination of flirtation and bravado, but from where?
"Good, then you can take out the zombie boss over there," her character suggested, and pointed an overly sculpted arm toward the Lagomorph Labyrinth. "We'll provide backup if you need it, but if you're that good, you shouldn't."
"Of all the Labyrinths in the world, the zombie boss had to walk into mine," Probie's character quipped, then ran towards the opening of the Labyrinth, and suddenly she got it.
Probie. Movie Quotes. Bravado. Excellent Shooting. Flirting.
Somehow McGee had convinced DiNozzo to raid with him. She didn't know how or why, but she would bet her next five Caf-Pows that "Probie" was DiNozzo. Her character saluted cheerfully and ran after Probie with McGee's character closely behind her, probably looking at her character's rear given his character's backstory.
Friday night was MMO Night, and it was officially the best night of the week.