Chosen Family

And now, Norcumi’s college homesickness rant. Well, if you go by the old adage ‘home is where the heart is.’

One of my fondest memories this summer is from one of our several gaming sessions. It wasn’t the silly card games Tyr brought to pass the time before everyone arrived, or the games themselves. Oh, they were fun alright, but there’s one crystal clear memory. We were at Tyr’s place, waiting for Mendon to come back with Datafage. Our newest member, Kyle, was fooling around with his new Swiss Army knife. I was trying to write something or another. At some point, Kyle came over to show off the knife to me. I was partially zoning on the plot, so seemed rather unimpressed. He interpreted that as something alone the lines of (and I’m paraphrasing) “Ok, just shut up and put the sharp object away.” He then mentioned that it was prolly a good thing it was him rather than, say, Datafage with the knife. I gave him a sorta ‘whatever’ look. That got him interested and he asked me which I would prefer with the knife in the same room, him or Datafage.

I barely had to think about that one. Hands down it’s Datafage. Admittedly he can appear psychotic at times, but I literally would trust him with my life. Hells, I’d trust my life to any of the Triumvirate. It’s not (just) because I’ve known them over six years now.

It’s because they’re my friends.

I have a slightly skewed view on that term. It’s not a title I give out lightly, for one. After being turned on by someone I once called Best Friend, I consider people to be in two groups: acquaintances and friends. The latter is by far the smaller, I think I can even say that less than a dozen people are in the group. And the Triumvirate are quite assuredly in that number.

It surprised Kyle that I would prefer Datafage at my back. I’m not sure why. But in my mind, and despite the fuss I pretended to kick up at the time, I have had fewer honors greater than to be labeled by Datafage as ‘One of the guys.’

Oh, it does mean I have to put up with a lot guy stuff and hot chick comments (“pocket secretary” indeed), but I can hold my own in the belching contests and raunchy contests. Lord only knows how they put up with me, but I am very grateful that they do.

Now let's hope this doesn't go to their heads. ;)

“Friends are the family we choose.”
~Anonymous

As always, comments can be e-mailed to Norcumi@backtick.net, or Instant Messaged to the same address.

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