Lost a Friend · 1:16am Mar 28th, 2023
It's with extreme sadness I announce my fellow writer, collaborator, and friend, Bother, has passed away.
He died on March 16th, 2023 due to a recently discovered congenital heart defect. He was 32 years old.
A few weeks ago, Bother sent me a message over Discord. I didn't see what it said because unfortunately he'd deleted it before I could view it proper. I could only see the beginning of it as it popped up on my phone before I unlocked it. However, what I did see was troubling. He mentioned something about severe health problems related to his heart, which was how I first learned of it. I didn't ask Bother to elaborate at that time because I figured he must've deleted it for a reason. I've had my own false alarms related to health in the past, so I thought perhaps it was much the same and he was trying to save face.
Then, a few days later, a friend in a mutual server, Zeus, started asking others if they'd seen Bother. Zeus and Bother had been working closely together on various private writing projects for several months, so he was closer to Bother than I. Close enough to know Bother's IRL name and phone number. I shared with Zeus in private what I recalled of the deleted message, and he told me Bother had mentioned he had been in the hospital where they'd discovered the problem and they'd given him a very short time to live. All of this occurred before his disappearance on the 15th.
After a week of not hearing anything, Zeus called Bother. It went straight to voicemail, but the voicemail confirmed Bother's first and last name and area code of residence. We asked around to see when others had last spoken with him, and checked the last online dates on all his social media, including here. Finally, after confirming Bother's relative age, we looked him up and found his obituary.
The date of death matches up with everything we know about him, including our last correspondences with him. Perhaps some will say that this isn't enough evidence, that it could be someone else with his name around his age living in the same area, but combined with not hearing anything and all the dates matching up, Zeus and I feel the evidence speaks for itself. Bother is dead.
Recently, I transferred all the stories Bother had originally written and I'd collaborated with him on to his account. He'd been getting back into writing due to a change in his medications and had been feeling like himself again, and I felt having a larger library of stories to browse might give him more followers. For those of you searching for said stories, that's where they now are, and where they'll likely stay.
While his death came from another source, Bother's struggle with mental health affected his writing and motivation. For years he struggled with continuing his longer-form stories, and he'd only just rediscovered his love of the craft enough to update several of them. He'd been active on message boards and had shared with me many projects he'd been working on with others like Zeus. It'd seemed like he'd rediscovered his zeal for life after losing it for so long, and in his own words, he'd "gotten his youth back". It seemed he spoke too soon. He didn't manage to complete said stories before his passing, but at the very least he was able to get out one last hurrah.
Thank you for the opportunity to collaborate and expand on your stories, my friend. You were a talented, gentle soul with lofty creative dreams of the highest caliber. I found a kindred spirit in your work and it inspired me to both create and commission works with themes of ever-greater size and scope. When I first encountered your works on a 4chan pastebin, I read them over and over again because I'd never seen anything like them. In sharing and expanding on them here on fimfiction, I'd hoped to expose your work to others and garner the encouragement to spark your motivation to keep going. It seems I never truly accomplished that, and indeed, I fear it may have discouraged you. For that, I'm sorry. I'm glad at least before the end you managed to find someone else that lit that creative spark, for however briefly it burned.
It really is as they say. The brightest stars burn out the fastest.
I am very sorry for your loss. May he rest in peace.
Definitely very sad news. I wish I knew him longer, but alas, life is not fair. Even though I don't believe in the supernatural, I do hope I'm proven wrong and can reunite with him when I pass. But if not, I'll make sure his legacy isn't forgotten anytime soon by having him live through me.
Oh no. that just.. im sorry.
Having just been through this myself with a dear friend my greatest sympathies to you.
Damn, rest in peace, kindred spirit.
You have my condolences for your loss, I've lost friends as well to illness, and it leaves one with an empty feeling. You have my sympathies.
"hugs your gently"
I'm so sorry for your loss, my friend.
I came exploring your page after your kind avalanche of favorites, was saddened to see this. I lost someone on here I consider to be a brother last month, myself.
Thank you for the favorites, and I'm sorry for your loss.
I'm late, but I had to express my condolences…It's already the third one on our cozy little site this year…
May them rest in peace…