Hey guys, Dzahn here. I've got some things I need to talk about with you.
After seven days of being almost entirely incapacitated by COVID, I'm finally feeling strong enough to write this. The past forty days for me have been a whirlwind of bad life events punctuated with the single bright point in all of it, which was my marriage to Dev.
On Christmas Eve, my aunt had an aneurysm and passed away, the same day she would otherwise have had her annual Christmas get-together for my family. Not even two weeks later in the icy weather of January, my dog finally lost her battle with brain cancer. We buried her in the backyard. Around the same time, my dad contracted COVID, which was devastating to find out since we knew everyone would get infected and Dev and I were scheduled to be married two weeks from then. We did everything in our power to ward off the onset of symptoms and just barely managed to tie the knot before things got bad. We were married on January 28th, then proceeded to spend the next week bedridden with the god-forsaken virus. Finally, right as I begin to feel an upswing in recovery, I find out that one of my close cousins committed suicide yesterday, just days after his birthday. I find myself completely at a loss and swirling in self doubt. I don't know what to do anymore.
For context, I based certain portions of Carlos's story on my cousin's experience with his twin brother. It is a dark twist of irony that I start working on this character's story right around the time the person who inspired his story passes away. I suppose I always expected a happy end for this scenario, but unfortunately I see how things just don't turn out the way they're supposed to. I don't know if I should continue on with the story as planned to honor my cousin in passing, or if I should rewrite it out of respect for him and his struggles.
Dev and I talked this over and we agreed that once we get Build 28 released, we are going to take the rest of February off to rest and pause charges for the month. There's so much going on for us right now, I'm not sure how much more I can take.
Thank you for your understanding. I'll see you when we have Build 28 ready to go.
~Dzahn