ONCE UPON A TIME
Long, long ago in the year 2008 I was playing World of Warcraft and suddenly Blizzard announced that they would be rolling out a new feature for the game called Recruit a Friend. Lots of bonuses and perks, like bonus experience points for levelling and a new mount the Swift Zhevra. This came at an opportune time for me, I had become interested in multiboxing. So, I went HAM on my team. I liked the mount, though I had better. I submitted a screenshot of my Undead Rogue Cicatriz astride the beast and lo, Blizzard decided to use my screenshot on their website advertising the feature.
One day in Orgrimmar, I was on Cicatriz when I got a message from an aspiring rogue named Nephora. Prior to boxing, Cic had been my main, by this point however, I was playing a Paladin + 4 Shamans pretty hot and heavy. I even reached a point where I was running 5 Shamans in Arena with some success. So, my poor Rogue had been demoted. He was (and would ever after be) relegated to AH mule duty. But I digress, Nephora asked me about the name of my character. I explained, that it was Spanish for scar. I'd taken the name from a song by one of my favorite bands, the Mars Volta. He asked me about my mount, and I directed him to the Blizzard site for more information about RAF.
We talked a bit more, he had questions about it. He was also looking for a guild, at the time the guild I was in was strictly Friends and Family. So, I directed him elsewhere but made sure he knew to contact me if he needed anything else because I try to be helpful and I liked the kids enthusiasm. I didn't hear much from him for a while, but it certainly wouldn't be the last I saw of Nephora.
FIRE IN NORTHREND
Later that year Wrath of the Lich King was released, and there was much rejoicing. My rogue stayed put (actually he didn't leave Org for years, not till WoD came along). And my Paladin joined him in favor of my Death Knight, Khaas. Our guild went through a change from a burnt out group of ex Vanilla raiders in a Friends and Family guild to a tight group of casual raiders. By the time Ulduar was released we were actively recruiting and filling a 25 man raid roster. One day on the forums a name I hadn't seen in a while showed up as a new recruit, it was the Rogue Nephora. Of course, he didn't know who I was at first.
I told him after he was a full member, and we were thick as theives ever after. He was our only rogue for the majority of the expansion. And was there well into Cataclysm when the guild fell apart, rebuilt itself and transferred to a new server under new management. He ended up on a different server entirely, Illidan. By then I was no longer playing WoW but we had become legit friends outside the game. And we remained close until Feb 11th.
Cody (Nephora) had one leg partially amputated last year. He went through months of surgeries trying to save as much of the leg as possible. Then going through all of the recuperative therapy that goes along with such an ordeal. He'd only gotten back home a couple of months ago. We talked a lot, he was going through a lot of things. He was 24 and had some growing concerns about mental illness. I'd been open with him about my struggles with my own brand of madness, so he came to me.
At any rate, over Valentine's weekend I had gotten a bit spooked. I hadn't heard from him in a couple of days which was uncharacteristic. He'd been really upbeat last time I'd talked to him, he'd decided he was going to discuss his concerns with his doctor. We'd been talking about doing some fun stuff on Twitch together, and I was anxious to get some preliminaries figured out with him. Then my wife hit me with it, "Keith I don't know how to tell you this, I think something happened to Cody. You better get on Facebook."
I went and was as confused as she was, I finally managed to get in touch with someone close to the situation (Cody lived in Canada, I live in the Southern US). It turns out he'd overdosed on his pain meds. He'd died on the 11th, the family had already made arrangements to have him cremated. And so, my friend is gone. But hardly forgotten.
EPILOGUE
I've been struggling with how to deal with this, and how I wanted to present this. Because I knew without doubt, I needed to talk about it somehow. He was a little brother to me, always the same excited creature I met in 2008. At the lowest points I still saw it there. I find myself at times forgetting he's gone, I'll come across something that I know he'd like, a joke about Maro Kart (that kid was goofy for Mario Kart) and I'll catch myself tagging him on Facebook just before I hit send.
Or I'll have a moment where I wonder if he's okay, because it's been a while since I've heard from him. In those moments, I lose him all over again. A part of me is enraged, that my mind can't seem to grasp the simple concept that my friend is gone and he's not coming back.
K
