~gaser20

Alps Sarsis was one of the best people I have ever met. He was compassionate, kind, and intelligent on a level I rarely ever see. He was my Master, despite not having a dominant bone in his body. He held that title and respect because he earned my trust more completely than anyone I had ever known, and likely ever will. When I needed someone to talk to, he was who I thought of first.

When I wanted to talk about something nerdy that had sparked my interest, be it astronomy, chemistry, biology or any other sciencey thing that struck my fancy, he was the one I rambled to. Alps was able to meet me on my level, elevate my understanding where it was lacking, and I learned a lot from him. He'd recently told me he learned from me too, though I admit I always felt he'd always known more than I did. I loved that feeling though, someone I could talk to who understood me and that I could learn from.

We talked about meeting some day, sparing with staffs for fun, going to a my first con with him someday too. We had many shows we wanted to watch together, Doctor Who, CentaurWorld, we were on the second season of Infinity Train, half way through The Magicians, and were watching Helluva Boss. We planned to watch episode 5 that came out a few days ago soon, but put it off as we were watching Puppet History together at the time. We had scenes planned with Dusk and several of his characters, and a whole story we wanted to write with Dusk and Lily... The last post in that story was in February.

His job took so much of his time away. He'd get called in most days he was supposed to be off work because the people he was supposed to be able to rely on would call in or quit nearly every time. He had 80 hours of PTO already and planned to use it at the end of the year if they didn't let him take it before then. We'd likely have made use of that time to hang out, talk like the nerds we were and just write, watch things together, have fun. I am not the only one that saw their plans put off because of this job, and not the only one that will never forgive them for it.

He was my closest friend, a father figure to me, and utterly unique. On the 19th of July this year, we watched Boondock Saints because I'd never seen it. A silly action-comedy movie, nothing special. We talked about watching more movies together after he got home from work the next day, and we went to bed. I got up the next morning... he didn't. I learned instead, late that day, that he had passed away in his sleep. All of these things I treasured, all these things I looked forward to, all our plans, will never be. I miss him. I always will. Everything hurts, and the world is a darker place without him.

I will always remember and love you,  sarsis