I'm generally kind of opposed to posting non-furry pictures on here, but I've got something I need to get out of me.

Last November my friend was killed.

We were friends since high school, but he liked to leave town to go and live in Vegas or LA or wherever he could go to dress up as Mario and make money posing for pictures in the touristy areas. That was his thing. He was a free spirit that didn't want to be tied down to a single place or some mind numbing desk job with a boss telling him what to do. Eventually thought he came back to town and worked at the same fast food restaurant I used to work for, not because he couldn't do better, but because he didn't see the need in living a complicated life. He just wanted to be happy, and he succeeded.

He was one of those friends where even if we went six months without seeing each other, when we met up again it was like we'd just seen each other yesterday. Eventually he found himself a girlfriend with a three year old son who he treated just like his own. I only saw him with the kid once, but it made me incredibly happy how much he seemed to love that little guy. We saw a little less of each other, but we'd still get together to have a Mad Max marathon, or quote endless lines from Invader Zim to each other, or argue over why Pacific Rim wasn't the best Del Toro movie (he was a massive nerd for anything mecha), but we could both agree when it came to the fact that Evangelion was one of the best animes of all time. He was always scold me because I refused to watch the reboot movies until they were all released and he wanted someone to fangasm over them with.

One day, after I was finished getting groceries, I'd gone across the street to Subway and saw him sitting in his truck in the parking lot and I stopped to say hello, but didn't stop but a minute or so because I was starving and wanted to get some food in me. I'm the type of person who believes mistakes in life are lesson's learned, so I don't have many regrets about the life I've lived, but not stopping to chat a bit longer is one of them.

About a week later, a month before Christmas, my friend had just gotten off of work. He lived at the top of a blind hill and was just pulling into his driveway. Just coming over that blind hill was a 21 year old, high on K2 and running from the cops. I can't remember how fast the news reports said the kid was going, but when he T-boned my friend it tore the vehicle, a van, completely in half, throwing him from the vehicle and into his mother's flower bed. The 21 year old survived. My friend didn't.

I've known people who died before, as most of us have, and its made me sad, but I can't think of one I've cried over. I'm never one to mourn someone's death. I try to be positive and prefer to celebrate the life they've lived in a bitter sweet sort of way, but I couldn't do it for this one. I cried that night.

I started working on this picture, partly as a memorial to my friend who everyone knew as "The Mario Guy", and partly to give my mind something to focus on in the confusion that followed. That strange feeling of seeing some meme or some anime news that I think to send him and realizing he's not there to see it. Every time I look up news on the final Evangelion movie and realize he's not going to be around to see it. Every time I think of how excited he got when they announced they were making a sequel to Pacific Rim that he wasn't able to go and watch.

I saw posts on facebook in the following weeks from his girlfriend saying that his three year old son was having trouble processing that his dad was gone. And to be honest, now, months later, I'm still having trouble with that.

But I'm having an easier time looking on the brighter side. I'm trying to celebrate the life. So anyone who has read this far into the post, if you could all do me a favor and comment a WAHOOOOO!!!