I have been running around in circles in my mind trying to find words, any words at all to try to express what I have to say in a somewhat cohesive manner.
I first met Deathe along with several other friends when I answered an ad posted in a gaming store in Lawrence looking to add gamers. When I walked up, Deathe looked over at me and said “Hey Dave! Me and Dave go way back.”
Even from the beginning, he made me feel like I was a part of the circle. Something I needed very much at the time. I had only recently moved to Lawrence with my then fiancé, and had no social life outside of her. I needed that social outlet that was, at first, fulfilled via gaming, and later, upon invitation to hang out with the gang on weekends.
I worked in Lawrence for a year before I started working in Topeka, and sometime after I’d changed jobs, he was also working for Cobler Accounting in Topeka and we started carpooling. It was then, in the car that took the vestigial friendship and turned it into one of the most important relationships in my life. We would often go eat at The Great Wall Chinese restaurant on our lunch breaks, goof off and talk of all things geek, and just enjoy life.
As our friendship progressed and time went on it became clear to many of my friends that my marriage was doomed. Sometimes I couldn’t even express what I was feeling but hanging out with Deathe and the gang often expressed whatever tension I needed to get out. Maybe it was from getting shot in the head all of those times in multiplayer Halo with the gang. To this day I still think of Deathe when a game calls out “Head Shot” because of his ‘leet skills’ with a sniper rifle and the appropriate perch.
It was during this period of our friendship that I dragged Deathe into my online life at a few message boards I’d frequented for years. Before long, his technical prowess ended up saving first one board, and then another. Eventually he opened up his own online stomping ground for the refugees of dramatic flameouts, board closings, and the like. One such board, Nutkinland, had a real world physical gathering at Deathe and Bella’s house in Lawrence, memories of which I’ll treasure almost as much as the memories of Deathe I hold dear.
Life unfortunately began dragging us geographically in different directions, and I was not able to get to see Deathe, Bella and the gang nearly as much as desired. While Olathe and Topeka beckoned us respectively, it was hard on my budget to afford the time and gas for commuting from Topeka to Olathe to game.
So as my life has taken me from Lawrence, to Topeka, and now to Iola, I feel so far from those I love and not having a car has made it next to impossible to visit, for which I hate myself.
No day goes by without my being reminded of the times I’ve spent with Deathe, whether it’s simply a Tool song I remember from seeing together at the concert at Kemper, remembering bonfires in the backyard, or seeing a geeky joke that I know he’d appreciate. My facebook page is populated by great people that I’ve met through him. My world is a better place.
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