In the spirit of Laeleiweyn's Alt Appreciation week, I guess I should tell you about my druid Cassieopia but as she's been sitting in Honor Hold since the middle of Cataclysm, there's not much to tell really! So I thought I would tell you a story about my first friend in WoW.
It was early October 2009 - I know this because it involves my main character questing through the Quarry area in the Wetlands so she was only level 22-ish and I know she still only had a bunch of 6 slot bags because that's part of the story! It was early on a Sunday morning, maybe around 7am or so and as I was dying a lot to the dinosaurs in the quarry, a young Mage came & helped me out.
As is so often the case, we got chatting and continued to quest together for a while. I kept having to run to a vendor/mailbox to empty my bags & it was driving my new companion crazy! He told me to stay put, he'd be right back so I sat my Paladin's bum down and waited. A few minutes later, my new friend was back and immediately opened a trade window. I was gobsmacked! Four shiny new Netherweave Bags and all that space! I tried to refuse them but he wouldn't let me so I promised I would pay him back as soon as I could. We continued questing for another hour or so then we both had to log off to attend to real life stuff. He asked if he could add me to his friends list & I did the same.
Roll forward a couple of days & I hadn't seen my new friend online at all. I must admit, I was kind of disappointed as it had been great fun chatting & questing but I assumed it was just one of those fleeting moments. Then I got a whisper from someone called Cuddlie, a giant bear jumping around in front of me in Stormwind. He asked me how I was getting on with my new bagspace so I realised it was my friend. What I didn't realise when I first met him was that he was the GM of one of the largest, most successful raiding guilds on my server!
Our friendship continued and he would often take me & my husband through dungeons - boosting us, guiding us & generally being a really great mentor. I had no idea of loot roll etiquette until he told me, rather hesitatingly that rolling 'need' on everything was bad! He also had a Hunter called Elf as well as a whole bunch of other alts but it was his Druid that was his main & probably the one I remember best. It turned out the Mage I had met was his son's alt that had been abandoned but over the next few months, the Mage & I continued to level together occasionally.
When all the guild drama happened & I needed somewhere to go, I joined his raiding guild as a social. It was very very different from what I'd experienced so far in game & although it was nice enough, I never really felt comfortable there so I left to join a guild called Bloodthirsty Meerkats - I just loved the name but that's another story!
I don't know where Cuddlie disappeared to though - towards the end of Cataclysm, I know his real life intruded into his game time a lot more & his guild disintegrated as he couldn't give it the time it needed. He was the driving force and when he had to step back, no-one else either could or would take the reins. Last I heard from him he was struggling but he was quite a private guy & I never knew much of the story. I often wonder where he is now & hope he's ok.
I do know he was chuffed to bits when he first met my Hunter - I went all over the place looking for a certain colour bear to tame & of course, I named my bear Cuddlie, in honour of my first in-game friend. I still run with my bear pet - I could never replace him!
So that's my first Bear story. My second Bear story is a little shorter - a fellow Brit & gold blogger who lives not too far away from me, also runs a Bear. Gimpsgold was one of my first British WoW friends & one of my first Twitter friends too - he even let me practise my healing on my Priest in a few Cataclysm dungeons as I later found out, he knew he wouldn't die no matter how bad my healing was!
What is it about Bears? I've met & chatted to quite a few over the years & they have all been lovely. I've actually only really known two healer Druids - one was a complete bitch & wrecked the guild & the other was just kinda weird all round! Needless to say, my own abandoned Druid is a Bear too - I just hope that one day, I'll be one of the good Bears!
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