An Evening in Los Santos

So I've been playing GTA Online. More than I should, actually; I'm working on completing 28 consecutive days of daily objectives. I suspect that once I finish that (five more days to go...) I'll throttle back sharply. That isn't to say it's a bad game, and sometimes the chaos of it all can be kind of neat.

It started off as most GTA sessions do: I got shot in the face to death while trying to outrun the police for whatever 3-star infraction I made. As a result, once I respawned my personal vehicle had been impounded.

"Jumping over the fence to break out my vehicle is so boring. I'm going to do this right." And thus I went and got a giant military cargo helicopter that I was going to use to lift my vehicle out of the clutches Lost Santos' finest. Upon arriving at the lot, I found that my vehicle had been destroyed, so I started buzzing local traffic out of boredom. Lo and behold the helicopter's hook latched on to a random commuter, and I lifted it up into the air with me.

I decided that the most prudent course of action would be to hunt down a nearby player being chased by the police and try to drop my load on (or even near him). Apparently flying around with a car in tow does horribly things to a helicopter's maneuverbility, and after one too many tight turns between buildings, the attached car snagged on a building and caused me to do a fiery face plant into the side of a skyscraper. All hands were instantly lost. I respawned.

Lo and behold, a message appeared "hey crilix u want a lift?". Apparently my shenanigans were being watched.

"Sure!"

Moments later, a sleek, gold passenger helicopter descended into a nearby intersection. I got in and joined another player in the back, where we sipped champagne while the pilot took to the sky. A few minutes later, I was dropped off in the parking lot of the golf course (I had forgotten about the waypoint I set there a little while ago).

I thanked him for the ride, he said it was no problem.

I played a round of golf and scored 3 strokes under par.

There's a certain and strange beauty in moments like those that can only be found in an online game. Chaos and spontaneous hostility, broken up by a very odd flavour of casual kindness. Think about it; I went from trying to drop a car on another driver to getting an air taxi lift to a game of golf, as if it was just the guy's job to ferry people around.

What a neat experience.
-Cril