I can remember being so proud of him three years ago when he braved the Morlocks at CompUSA and picked up a little USB backup drive. Now, I’m not even sure he knew what he was buying. This is what he did when he got it: he copied every crucial thing off of his computer, to the backup drive, at which point he imagined some mysterious process was, shit, I don’t know. Mummifying his data. Our data, everything we’ve ever done.
I’m not, like, Mr. Computer guy, but this I know: there are no small men in a backup drive who will rub your data with oils. Oils of any kind.
He brought it to me like a wounded thing, scorched around the front, as though it had fallen through the atmosphere. I can assure you that the fight in the strip is a complete fabrication, because he knew what he held there and he knew what it represented. He began to bargain with me in that way one does, I’ll never do it again, oh, please mister, but the machine didn’t die because he was bad, and no amount of promised good behavior laid toward some future deed would return the thing to life.
Do me a favor, and run your backup process right now. It would make me feel better.
I couldn’t make it “go,” but it weren’t for lack of trying. The wound was simply deeper than my folk remedies or intuition had the power to cure. I was exhausted by the end. I felt like I was nudging the last egg in the nest, encouraging it. “Live,” I said. Do as your brothers and sisters have done and live.
We sent it to a place that be all hermetic, with a clean room and everything, and they sent us back a bill that is essentially a ransom note. It lists all the data they have hostage, and an itemized price for their release. I didn’t check to see if there was some byzantine procedure for “the handoff,” but I don’t doubt that it is on there, perhaps somewhere below their fee - a number truly inconceivable, immutable, like the written name of God.
(CW)TB out.
a little rain never hurt no-one
I feel really bad about destroying all the work we’ve done for the last seven years. It really is unfortunate that I melted everything we’ve ever created. I think that we need to look at the bright side though. I think we all learned an important lesson about backing up your files. We also learned that no matter how much money you invest in a back up system, it will never even come close to the amount of money the hard drive witch doctors will charge you in order to recover your fried data. The good news is that all the files can be saved. We dodged that bullet.
On a more positive note I met Skull last night in Westfall. Then I set him on fire.
Honestly last nights exploits were a mixed bag. The evening started out with a disastrous raid by us against Cross Roads. It was just one of those situations where the Raid leaves before everyone is ready to go. Then we got split up by a group of Horde before we even reached the border to the Barrens. So then we had one group fighting to cross the border and another group caught back up on the road. The whole thing just unraveled and that’s when I hearthed out of there.
Then late that night we got reports of Pandas deep in the Gold Coast quarry. A big group of Knights, Lads, Keepers, and Annarchists showed up to deal with them. We clashed hard with them in the cave and the battle was pretty even. Eventually as more and more PA guildies poured into Westfall we slaughtered the Pandas because of sheer numbers. After a phone call from Kurtz I pulled my people out and let the Pandas regroup near Moonbrook. It was still nearly twenty to one though and the battle didn’t last long.
After the fight Kurtz informed me over the phone that he had multiple Rogues circling me as we spoke. I had wandered away from the raid group and the only reason I was alive is that my PvP flag had gone off. Kurtz told his people I wouldn’t flag and to forget about it but I took that as a challenge. So I flagged myself and immediately his Rogues appeared. I caught them with an ice blast that locked them down while I ran like hell. A couple Paladins hit me with some heals and a shield that kept me alive. For the next few minutes the game became “keep Dudefella alive”. My guys were able to pull me through multiple assassination attempts and I’m proud to say none of those rogues has a shot of my corpse.
Anyway I just wanted to say good game to the Pandas. Last night was a real blast. If you want to join in on some awesome PA vs PvP action check out our guild site. The knights and the Lads are full right now but there are lots of other great PA guilds on Dark Iron with plenty of space for new members.
-Gabe out
If you pre-registered for PAX and you have not yet received your pass in the physical mail, please send an electronic mail to pax@penny-arcade.com .
-Gabe out
If you pre-registered for PAX and you have not yet received your pass in the physical mail, please send an electronic mail to pax@penny-arcade.com .
-Gabe out
