Ava Summer joined the guild.
That evening, a quiet system message appeared in guild chat. When Gabryell saw the name, he smiled.
Did this count as stealing a future Horde celebrity?
Either way, a future well-known player had just joined the Alliance.
A whisper arrived almost immediately.
"Hey, Ogabs."
Gabryell could not help imagining her voice as he read the message.
"Welcome to Fearless."
"Thanks. I'm really glad to be here. I watched the Hillsbrad video—the one where you led everyone. That was nuts. Honestly, that's why I rolled on this server."
Ava had come to Tichondrius because of Gabryell's reputation. That battle had done its job. His Mage had become the kind of player people talked about.
"Did Victor tell you about the addon project?" he asked.
"Yeah, he did."
"Would you be interested in recording warning lines for it?"
"I'd love to," Ava replied. "I just don't know if I'm what you're looking for."
"You are."
There was a short pause before she asked, "Can I ask why you picked me?"
She was not famous yet, so being chosen out of nowhere obviously confused her.
Gabryell already had an answer prepared.
"I heard a few recordings from voice contests you entered. Your voice fits raid warnings really well, so I asked someone to find you. Then I heard you played WoW too, so bringing you into the guild made sense."
Ava really had entered voice acting contests before, so the explanation worked.
"Oh. Then... thanks. Seriously. I'll do my best."
"For the voice pack, recording in person would be best. If you have time, come out here."
"We'll cover travel and expenses. You'll be paid for the work too."
Gabryell knew voice actors at this stage rarely had stable income from voice work. Most did it out of passion, taking whatever paid jobs they could get. Offer fair compensation, and they would usually be willing to cooperate.
Ava was short on money right now, so she agreed without much hesitation.
The voice problem for the BigFoot addon was finally solved.
Before long, players would hear a voice burned into their memory:
"Fire wall! Move out!"
After settling things with Ava, Gabryell chatted with Walnut for a while and deliberately steered the conversation toward Warcraft parody animation.
Walnut had always wanted to make cartoons. With a little encouragement, he was already tempted. In the end, he agreed to join Fearless Corp and work on a WoW-style animated guild comedy for the company.
If everything went smoothly, the project would be released far earlier than in Gabryell's previous timeline.
And this time, he would not let the rights slip away. He planned to develop the whole thing himself and turn the animated series into one of Fearless Corp's most valuable projects.
Tichondrius's first Ironforge duel tournament had been pinned and promoted on the Azeroth National Geographic Forum. As the first player-run duel tournament on the server, it drew a lot of attention.
All ten recognized top Alliance guilds on Tichondrius had signed up. This tournament gathered many of the best Alliance players on the server. It would be a real clash of heavyweights, and for one night, the area outside Ironforge would become the busiest place in Azeroth.
To help promote the tournament, Gabryell had Carlos open a Video Forum on the Azeroth National Geographic Forum. All tournament videos would be uploaded there for players to watch.
In the future, the Video Forum would become a stage for World of Warcraft video makers. If things went as expected, people like Skybro and Ava Summer would shine there and become well-known names in the community.
"Gabryell, someone applied to moderate the Video Forum."
Carlos was doing maintenance on the Azeroth forum when he noticed a registered user had applied for the new moderator position.
The forum currently had General Discussion, Technical Support, Rules & Reports, The Tavern, Class Forums, and the Video Forum, which had only gone live half a day earlier.
Every other section already had moderators. Candidates were usually shortlisted based on account age and activity, then chosen through a community vote. Only the Video Forum still had no moderator.
Gabryell was busy adding Zul'Farrak and Maraudon data to the addon, trying to make sure both dungeon modules could go live in the next update. Once that was done, he planned to add Honor support as well, letting players estimate how much honor they would get from killing enemy players.
"You handle it."
He did not have much time to manage the forum himself, so he had basically handed the whole thing to Carlos.
Carlos leaned closer to the screen. "Huh. Milkman. That's a name."
Gabryell immediately looked over.
Sure enough, the user applying to moderate the Video Forum was Milkman.
Milkman.
The timing could not have been better.
He had just settled Ava Summer and Walnut, and now Milkman had shown up on his own.
"Approve him," Gabryell said without hesitation. "Make him the Video Forum moderator."
Carlos was a little surprised. This was the first time Gabryell had directly interfered with forum staffing.
"You know this guy?"
Did he know him?
After a moment, Gabryell said, "Sort of. He came recommended, and he knows video and community operations."
Milkman was exactly the kind of person Gabryell wanted.
He had the right voice and personality for the animated guild comedy's idiot main-tank character, but in real life, he was nothing like that character. In the old timeline, he had become an operations manager for a major gaming site, then moved into product management at a major gaming company's games division. Someone like that was not just a voice actor. He was future industry talent.
Walnut was suited for animation.
Milkman was suited for operations.
And right now, Fearless Corp badly needed someone who understood content, community, and promotion. Recruiting Milkman early and putting him in charge of the Azeroth forum's video side was perfect.
Since Gabryell had spoken, Carlos stopped hesitating and approved Milkman as moderator of the Video Forum.
Gabryell was looking forward to seeing what the Video Forum could become under his management: more PvP movies, more dungeon videos, more recognizable creators, and eventually a real World of Warcraft video scene.
"Tournament's tomorrow," Carlos said. "You sure you're ready?"
Everyone else was practicing duels, while Gabryell alone was working on the addon, the forum, and company business. Carlos was starting to worry.
Gabryell could not lose.
He was the face of Fearless.
After thinking for a moment, he said, "Come with me to Scarlet Monastery Library. I want to farm a Dog Whistle."
Do not underestimate Dog Whistle.
In a level 45 duel, summoning that dog could be a nightmare for casters. Killing it wasted time. Ignoring it meant dealing with constant spell pushback. Either way, it was annoying.
"Alright, I'm logging back in."
Carlos switched back to the game.
"While we're there, we'll grab the Scarlet Key too," Gabryell said. "Saves me a trip later."
He paused the addon update, returned to the game, invited Carlos, then pulled in Igor, Hugo, and Lunatori.
At level 45, clearing Scarlet Monastery Library would take less than half an hour. Since they were already going in, they might as well pick up the key along the way. Coming back later just for that would be a waste of time.