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The Pirate's Treasure quest in Old School RuneScape sees you smuggle a bottle of rum via ship by hiding it in a crate of bananas. One of the MMO's players recently found themselves in a relatively similar situation in real life: meeting a flight attendant who also plays OSRS and gifted them a big bag of free airline booze because that's how MMO camaraderie works.
Reddit user *checks notes* Thunder_shart shared their chance encounter with the OSRS subreddit last week. They noticed a flight attendant playing OSRS on the MMO's mobile client, and mentioned the game in passing as they returned to their seat, "thinking nothing much of it."
"However, as he was grabbing people's drink orders, he briefly stopped by me and struck up a conversation about RS," they said in their post. "We then chatted about his time in the game, the [level 99 skills] he's obtained over the years, the Infernal Cape he's strived for, and even of my recent endeavor of jumping back into this game.
"Now honestly, I was touched at such a genuine conversation, especially with it being in the least expected of places. However, he truly left me dumbfounded as we were landing. During the final cabin check, he swung back around and handed me a full waste bag of booze, simply telling me to enjoy."
I found a Flight Attendant playing OSRS in the back of the plane from r/2007scape
In total, they received six bottles of whiskey and two bottles of bourbon – no rum, sadly, but quite a haul nevertheless. "It's moments like this, outside of the game, in chance interaction, that I find that this community really shines," they said. "I can seldom think of another game that would drive someone to do such random acts of kindness."
Immensely amused, I reached out to talk through this chance encounter a bit more. (I also tried to connect with the flight attendant, but while they were happy for this story to be shared, they didn't want to be interviewed.) Thunder says they've since "dipped into a couple" bottles, but still have a few unopened. When they first received their unexpected loot, they say they were "honestly puzzled."
"The lights were dimmed in the cabin, so when I was handed a bag that said 'waste,' I was kind of confused. But when I opened it, it felt like Christmas!"
Our generous flight attendant may have had enough time for a quick OSRS check-in, but they still had a job to do, so Thunder says they didn't get to talk very much on the flight. "We had only a few moments to chat as he worked up and down the cabin. I did call out to him again past baggage claim, just to thank him and to tell him to get his remaining [skill capes], but other than that, we were going our separate ways.
"He saw my Reddit post and DMed me his username (giving a bit of detail he would only know lol), so we added each other in-game!"
I've spoken to a lot of OSRS players over the years, and Thunder is right to point out that the game's community can lead to some memorable meetings. I ask what's brought them back to the MMO this time – OSRS players like to joke that nobody actually quits the game, they only take breaks – and they give me a familiar, heartwarming answer.
"Nostalgia for sure. As corny as it sounds, there's just something comforting about walking through Varrock doing clue scrolls or even just standing near trees hacking away for XP. It's the only game I constantly find myself drawn back to, whether it be through playing or watching content. It's such a unique community."
The OSRS community was kind of concerned for one player who spent thousands of hours catching one million terrible fish. In other, uh, heartwarming news, an OSRS trade gone wrong just barely avoided the "literally murder my cousin" ending.
