Hello, everyone, Aaron the WebGuy here, hoping everyone is enjoying Alexie's latest Haunted Series release Restitution. She is back at the writer's desk, and so I thought it was time for me to tell a little story. I recently took a trip to Kansas City to meet up with the man behind the character. Jake is known in the Haunted Series as the wisecracking spirit who has a certain affinity for computers. And well, guess what folks? The real Jake is just like that and more, except the spirit part of course.
The game stunk for me till the Bear's comeback in the 4th quarter.
Our meeting up to see the Bears totally beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead stadium (had to rub the salt in the wound there since Jake is a Chief's Fan) was actually the first time I had seen Jake in person. You see, we met over the internet through certain friends and games we shared, and well, the story of how Jake became one of my best friends and inspiration for Alexie's character is what I'm going to reveal today.
Way back around 2009, I was playing various games with a few of my friends when I met the infamous one. And here is the kicker, while I enjoyed gaming with the others, I absolutely couldn't stand Jake. Whenever Jake was around, he just rubbed me the wrong way. Jake was much better than me at our main game, and maybe that was part of my ill feelings, since I often was the new guy holding back our team from winning. He was snarky, caustic, and a complete enigma in how he acted.
Time passes and friendships change, and things got pretty strained between members our little gaming group. After a bit of time, people drifted apart. That left me and Jake left together without the glue of our little group to keep it from being awkward. I can't remember which one of us reached out first, but we both wanted to keep playing the game, so we started hanging out just the two of us.
The game I keep mentioning that lead to many squabbles between us.
The show must go on, so we kept playing our game, and a weird thing happened. Jake and I actually started having conversations with each other without the buffer of our other friends. It turned out that we actually had lots in common, and low and behold, we just started getting along with one another. "You like THIS TV SHOW? Me too! Oh my god is THAT GAME overrated..." and the conversation flowed from there. Seems that once we were no longer rivals for the attention of our other friends, we could actually enjoy each other's company.
So, before I knew it, we were hanging out every day, playing some game or another. We were just internet friends so how did we get to be so close? Well it can't be said it was one thing, but here is an example of the kind of friend Jake can be. A while back, I was in a terrible spot of depression. I was pretty much broke and had so many problems that seemed insurmountable at the time that I was just... lost. Jake knew this, and one day, he sent me a message that simply said, "Hey, got a deal on this game, tell me what you think of it, will ya?" And there it was, via download, a game I wanted to try but couldn't afford at the time. No big heart to heart was needed. It was just a simple gesture from a friend that meant so much to me at the time. It helped wake me up out of dire straits and made me feel so good that I forgot about being sad after that.
Don't get me wrong, Jake and I still fight like dogs and cats over our different ideals. Jake still hasn't seen The Wire which I can never accept! We get on each other's nerves all the time, and so forth, but we still hang out nearly every night to game. When Alexie Aaron wrote her first Haunted Series novel and I sent out a couple of free copies to friends, Jake was the only one who actually read it. After that, I made sure to buy him a copy each time she released a new book since he not only still reads them, but he got his mother hooked on the series as well.
I still haven't finished that game he sent me when I was so blue. I think I won't ever finish it, as a reminder that it is always there just as I know now that Jake and I try to always be there for each other. D'awwwww, you might be saying, but I assure you, as he’s reading the rough draft of this, that he is making choking noises at me and calling me names. You know, like best friends do.
Oh, and as promised, I present to you the enigmatic man behind the character Jake in all his glory.
Almost got elbowed in the nads by that arm.
He pushed me away when I tried for BFF selfie with my phone, so this is the best I can do. Guess I can't make a macaroni heart frame for the picture huh? Thanks for reading, folks, and let me know in the comments if you have any questions or just stories of unlikely friendships of your own. Have a good one, everyone!
***Jake's Edit****
TL:DR (Too Long Didn't Read)