Hell of a way to do a face reveal.....

As I upload this, word is out that Mark Merlino, aka, Sylys Sable on my right, has passed away.
If you weren't familiar, he and his partner Vinson Mink, aka Rod O'Reilly, co-founded the very first furry convention, Confurence. They were both an active part of the fandom for years and were featured prominently in Ash Coyote's wonderful documentary The Fandom. MFF 2023 was his last public appearance before suffering a series of debilitating strokes shortly afterwards. It eventually progressed to fast acting stage VI liver cancer. I met him for the first time a few years back in VRChat and we became mutuals. MFF was the first and only time I met him in person, both he and Vin came to my first ever solo panel and I could hardly contain my excitement at both their presence. You hear a lot about people in the fandom that we lost and I never got the chance to meet any of them. I am so grateful and happy to have met Sy both virtually and in person, even if it was for but a moment. But I know he's finally at peace and that he had his loved ones by his side.

RIP sir.

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