UPDATE: In-game, a world mourns.

This is an odd post, and it’s definitely not like me to be posting something personal on a gaming blog, and it really pains me to write about this at the moment.

Tonight, I learned that one fairly close friend of mine from my MapleStory days, Israel Troy Ruyle a.k.a. “turkishmonky” of Bera, died late last week (Aug. 28) at the age of 18.

I do not know the cause or the events leading up to it, but for a death at so young I can only think about what happened, and I don’t want to come to that assumption.  At this point I’ve decided that I am not asking for details.  However, already on the heels of the deaths of two of my relatives (a step-great grandfather and a step-grandmother) I am finding that this is fairly devastating.

What had made his friendship unique to me in a MapleStory standpoint is that, for a hardened and strict legit player, he was one of the only a small number of ex-hacker friends that I had. (Though I had at least two others before him.)  What makes this the hardest for me, is that for all the time we shared together and when our personalities clashed, I feel horrible that I was never made up for this.

My heartfelt sypmathies go out to the Ruyle family, and all of Isreal’s in-game friends, though mainly that is for two people, both of Bera; Staci a.k.a. Staci8o8/stacix3, and Desiree a.k.a. “Dezalicious” (or whatever character she uses now) who is not just a very close friend of mine, but was quite possibly even closer of a friend to him.  I’m just sitting here and looking at her AIM away and it breaks my heart to see this happen. This shouldn’t happen. It does, but it shouldn’t.

Peace be with you, Izzy.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4 NIV)