So yesterday I opened up an ask me anything post on Facebook. I knew before I wrote it that no one out would respond (know your friends people). However one of my friends from Star Wars Galaxies did reply. Her question? It was to see what I remember about the first time we met (virtually, we have never met in real life). Her challenge was that I didn’t remember. To be fair, I’m not sure I actually do. I am however one of those people who can remember and pull out little details.

I won’t say that Q and I are close friends. We are people who enjoy chatting occasionally. She has helped me pass many hours away on the forums over the years and even helped me overturn a ban once. We were in the same guild for a while, but most of our interaction did take place on the forums. Playing SWG there were two major parts of the game for me. The forum was a major part. I was one of the first to break 10k posts in our forum section. The game was another section. Both parts were separated by a large degree. I had different friends on the forum, that I did not hang out with in the actual game.

While there are three possible instances where I met Qitu the first time, the forum was more than likely the first. She was a regular forum poster, I was a regular forum poster. It just makes sense. I don’t think this was the instance she was counting. So we move on to most likely event number two. This would be at Groovefest. It was a server-wide party that I highly doubt she didn’t attend. I can’t say with everyone I interacted with that day that I can remember her, I was in the thick of things. Let’s move on to what she is thinking of.

Inside the game, I ran one of the first museums. Seeing I borrowed or had sponsors for a lot of the museums, I had one person that helped me the most and loved the scavenger hunt. This person was named Padre. Padre was the mayor of Serenity Valley on Tatooine – a town Qitu would later be mayor of. Somewhere around late 03 / early 04 Padre announced he was leaving the game. I’m not sure I remember why. When he was leaving the game he wanted to make sure three things were all set and would continue after he left the game. The first was his guild, the second was Serenity Valley, and finally the Intrepid History Museum.

To insure that I had everything of I needed from his item collection, I was taken on a tour of storehouses in Serenity Valley. Wandering from storage house to storage factory we went through items I needed and what he would leave behind. While we were out jumping around and weighing down my inventory, Padre got pulled aside for city business. Up comes this person to discuss the city and I’m 99% sure this was Q and it was our first in-game meeting. If I’m correct it was the first meeting where a conversation would have occurred. So now she can tell me if I’m right or on crack.

Qitu is someone I know by many names and has been a friend for years. While we never will be best buds, it will be the kind of friendship where we’ll catch up from time to time. It is the kind of friendship I can see going on until one of us passes. It’s low maintenance and in that sense, there will never really be the drama that is in other closer friendships. It is a friendship I have never regretted and would be a bit emptier than I would have been if I never met her.