A Ghost from the Past

In Everybody's Lost But Us, I talked about a story for another day. Well, today is that day!

Nikki and I were both beta testers, invited into the Bria server by SOE. Every beta tester could invite a guest along for the ride. Cyra - complete with a shiny new Alienware PC - became my guest, while Nikki invited her father to play the game before it launched.

He eventually joined up in the live game as "Phantom", naming himself after the car he once owned. After being re-introduced to him by Nikki, I was sent this screencap to prove that I had met him before.

That's Phantom on the right, with some rather direct commentary about Vincer's current state of smell. But hey, look at my HAM bar! It was obviously a rough day out under the twin suns. I like to think he meant /wave instead of /waft. Only he knows for sure.

Phantom was a former military man in real life, and his Star Wars Galaxies persona followed suit. His disciplined approach to tactics and combat suited our squad's emerging style and probably helped it mature into a stronger strategy.

Phantom was quiet, but would occasionally drop a one-liner that would crack us all up. In other words, he was a perfect fit. Like the time I dropped down one of my camps, and the poor gent found himself inside one of the tents.

Cyra found it funny from her computer, as she took almost the same pic from her point of view:

As a side memory to this, I'm reminded of the old "butt slide" bug when people sat. Cyra was famous for it. Gathered around in a camp for a bit of R&R and in the middle of a conversation, Cyra would go sliding away into the wilderness on her rear.

Who says camps in Star Wars Galaxies weren't fun?

The group of four grew to five. We would grow much larger in the coming year, but this core five would remain a constant.

Well, except for Shakkara. I suppose we'll get to that drama soon enough.