These people are important to me. They are just as much my friends as the people I know through Poly Boston, or my friends from highschool, or wherever.
There are a number of Dutch guys that hang out in #ATITD and one of them, Lisimba, plays in my D&D game. He's a socially akward geek IRL, but is pretty social in IRC. At sompoint I found myself talking to him one-on-one a whole lot. A relationship has developed over the past months, and this afternoon he bought a plane ticket to come and visit me for two weeks in July.
He's... a bit more than a friend, but it's hard to define 'cause it's all be over the internet so far. But I'm wicked wicked wicked excited that he's coming to visit.