Author Existence Failure... Damnit

I don't currently hang out on any fanfic forums, so it took me several weeks to hear, but word finally got to me that Becuzitswrong died about a month ago.

That's a gut punch, because of course you typically don't think of the writers you follow as things that can die. They can post good chapters, they can post bad chapters, long chapters, short chapters, or things that fall somewhere in the middle. They can post a lot, or go quiet for months or years (o_O) but sooner or later you expect THAT story, the one of theirs that you really, really love, to keep going, and eventually the characters within it will solve the mystery, face their foe, beat the odds, and everything will reach a satisfying ending. In a perfect world, of course, that will all be followed by the beginnings of a new story; a fresh start, another adventure, more love and laughter, courage and defiance, heartbreak and victory.

And yet here we are, at an ending no one saw coming.
His stories have stopped, in mid-stride, mid-word, at an unresolved cliffhanger, frozen forever, while we wait anxiously for a continuation that will never come.

That doesn't lessen the words that came before. I've read most of his Buffy-related works, and they are all enjoyable, whether complete or not, and I'm glad we have at least those (In fact, I need to download copies of them, so that I'll have them should something happen to the online versions).

Now, though, we're left to wonder where those stories were headed. How Buffy was going to deal with that failed parachute, as she hurtled towards the ground. I have my guess, but that's all it will ever be, because the one who KNEW what would happen is gone.

You know, I don't even know his real name, yet I've sat and listened to his storytelling for hours on end, caught up in his version of Buffy, Jack, and the others.

I would like to have known him.
We are all lessened by his absence.

---Alan
aka DreamSmith