When I was 12 or 13 years old, I made friends with this awkward, nerdy kid that I met at school. Turns out we both really loved videogames and he lived near enough my house that I could ride my bike over to his. For years we would go to each other's houses, hang out, do creative projects together, play lots of NES games and generally be part of each other's lives.

In our later teen years, I would introduce him to IRC chat and the furry subculture, and from there, he sort of just made it his own thing as well. As I moved away and back we sort of floated into and out of each other's lives.

The last four or five years were not particularly kind to him in his life or his health and I found myself often having to help him with life tasks.

Last week he passed away in the hospital from complications of a diabetic stroke.

It was only after his funeral that I realised in all the years of me being a furry artist and him being active in the fandom, he only ever once asked me to do art for a friend of his. Never for himself (though he got a lot of lovely art from other artists) and I never thought really to gift him any.

It's really terrible of me that this comes so late, but I couldn't think of any better way to memorialize one of the longest friendships I've ever had.

Sorry it's so late buddy. I miss you a lot.