There’s a greentext story which I remember.
The thing about the internet is that you gain the ability to communicate with so many people, all over the world. You meet people from all walks of life, all sorts of backgrounds.
You make friends you never thought you’d have, maybe enemies you never thought you would, and learn about all sorts of things and stories.
Problem is, when someone goes dark. In the physical world, if someone up and disappears, or loses contact, you can often try going to their house and meeting them, or asking their neighbors if they’re okay.
But if it’s an online friend, you often have no way of knowing what could have happened, if even they’re even okay. And that can be pretty worrying at times.
Like when a member of my Dungeons and Dragons Online guild just stopped coming online. I knew him as Spoon, or rather Thereisnospoon (referencing the Matrix quote).
When I first met him, I was just a little kid, lost in this big world and trying to figure out how things worked. Spoon… he was like an old, wise sensei to my inexperienced self. I mean heck, at one point he was a Linux SysAdmin, so he might as well have been a sage.
I developed a good sense of respect for spoon, looked up to him, and looked forward to speaking to him now and then. I remember running the Red Fens with him, him talking about life and so on. Nothing too special, but like I said, I was just a kid.
Then, one day, he stopped coming online. No one knew what had happened, some jokingly guessed he was dead. Thing is, being offline and dead were practically the same in that situation.
I still don’t know what happened to him. Maybe ninjas broke into his house and he had to flee the country, or maybe he just got tired of playing. Maybe something worse.
But them’s the breaks, kid, or so I guess.