If you follow both @azerothapple and me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen us tag tweets to each other with #rainbowbears. (As well as #YouDontLynchBears and #YouGetMauledByBears.) This started when, right around the time I admitted I’d rather be playing a bear druid than a cat druid, Mapple linked to this post on Myths RETOLD. It could only get sillier from there.

There’s something you should understand before you try to make sense of the rest of this story. I’ve been very enthusiastic for the past couple months about tanking. At least, that’s what I say. Those of you who know me know that I have problems with doing things in groups in the game. I’m not doing tons of dungeons or putting a paw anywhere near raiding. (Not unless you count the night my husband and I two-manned things in Black Temple up through Teron Gorefiend. This reminds me that I have a funny story to tell later about Akama.) I’m putting myself in situations where having a tank is good, or even necessary, but it’s not really about being a tank.

I just love being a bear!

I was running Mapple through Outland dungeons on his druid so he could get gear and catch up some on leveling. It was just the two of us in the dungeons, and only three of us (Mapple, my husband, and me) in guild chat, so there was no reason to act like we’re socially appropriate srs bsns people. There was EVERY reason to act like a couple of giggly freaks who can’t stop talking about bears! Poor Mapple was dying every three or four mobs because he was just barely the level to be in those dungeons and I was way over the level. I’d be RAWRswiping at a group of things, Mapple would move about two millimeters away from me, and things on the other side of the room would rush over shouting, “KILL THE WEAK CAT! IGNORE THE BEAR!”

This made getting to the bosses a different sort of challenge that you’d expect. Especially since some cats have itchy claws and can’t just stand there and let me clear a damn room! No… he just HAD to keep jumping in and doing the MangleMangleDead dance. When we got to bosses, we’d stop and…

Let me go ahead and answer a question right now, before you even ask it. No, we don’t really know how this started. We didn’t plan it. It just happened. Mapple and I have never planned anything. Our entire friendship is a series of very happy accidents. Stuff. Just. Happens.

When we got to the bosses, we’d stop and go through a little ritual. I’d point out that, “This guy has never heard of bears!” And Mapple would say:

“You don’t know about bears?

Let me tell you about bears.

YOU DON’T LYNCH BEARS!

YOU GET MAULED BY BEARS!

BEARS, MOTHERFUCKER!

UP

IN

YOUR

GRILL!”

I would say, “RAWR!” Mapple would shift to bear form, and two bears would go National Geographic on the boss until he was dead!

Somewhere in the middle of doing this in dungeon after dungeon, Mapple remembered he had the Rainbow Generator trinket from Felwood. I was hip-deep in a room full of demons, RAWR-ing and mangling and lacerating ALL the things, when suddenly I see a rainbow shooting across the room from behind me and the red letters from someone yelling, “TASTE THE RAINBOW, MOTHERFUCKERS!”

I wish I had a screenshot of this. We almost got overwhelmed because I was laughing too hard to keep attacking!

He made a macro so it would do that every time he uses the trinket. And he used it every time it was off cooldown.

Nights like that are worth at least $15 a month to me.