Hel on Earth

Hel Art Print Poster
Click to embiggen

The following post has very little to do with Eve, so consider this fair warning. I mostly write about my experiences with Eve, but over the years I've made the conscious decision to begin blurring the lines between Eve and Real Life here on the blog. It is very difficult to write thousands and thousands of posts and not let anything through. So why bother?

Originally I set out to keep the two things completely apart. I didn't know what I was getting myself into frankly, and I honestly had zero expectation that I'd still be not only playing Eve, but writing and drawing about it, over six years later. So it made sense to keep a wall between the two worlds. It was never something I created to hide anything, only a way to keep things in neat compartments. I'm sure many of you do the same thing, to greater or lessor degrees.

For me it was mostly because of the business I owned when I started playing and the horribly messy divorce I was going thru at the time. I've chronicled before how Eve served as a bridge between myself and my Son, who introduced me to the game. We spent most of those first years flying together in Eve and it was something that we shared together. He is all grown up now and went and got himself married. And I continue on.

I finished the Hel today purely as a symbolic gesture reflecting the reality of what lies before me. Because today I am being forced to return to my own version of Hell. After eight long years my divorce is in the final stages of its death spasms. I will spare you the details, but suffice to say I am once more being dragged into Court for spurious money-grabbing reasons that go way beyond what any rational human could consider just, or fair, or equitable. This is just another chapter in the insanity that is the unfolding and seemingly never-ending novel of my life.

Which is what life is. For all of us.

In the end, this Eve project is the visual manifestation of the beginnings of a new chapter. Whatever happens today, this is the beginning of the end of that old chapter. No matter how hard it struggles it must die eventually. I will re-build and come back stronger than ever, there is no stopping me. My entire life has been a struggle that I've had to overcome against seemingly overwhelming odds. And this, this is no different.

So yeah, me and the Minmatar have a lot in common. They have their Hel and I have mine.

Pardon the break, back to Eve next time I promise.

[UPDATE: Sadly my Lawyer and myself were the only ones who bothered to show up at the hearing today. Neither opposing council or my ex showed up, so the hearing has to be rescheduled for yet another day. Sigh. And no, there really isn't even a penalty for this action. At the most my lawyer may have his time compensated. So the saga continues. 8 years, 4 months and counting.]