It's been a wild ride. I started preparing for this journey as my beloved golden retriever was slowly dying. I thought it would be a fitting memorial to him, and to my sweet shoulder-sitting cat that had been run over a year prior. I had only just joined the game toward the end of 2018, so it was a flurry of preparation to unlock engineers and the FSD booster, but I made it and left a few hours late in my 51 LY Krait Mk2, the DSV Marleva (dog was Marley, cat was Eva). We always said Marley didn't know anything about strangers, just friends he hadn't met yet. Even when age took away his sight and agility, his gait hobbled by arthritis, he still somehow found his way down the hall to curl up by my bed each night until the end. Eva was a wild spirit, insatiably curious yet utterly devoted. She'd sleep on my side each night, sit on my shoulder at the computer, and even sneak outside to join me grilling or to greet me coming home from work.
Even though I'd never been more than 1.3k from the bubble I wanted to make a memorial trip, but kept second-guessing myself. I switched ships a couple times along the way, then suicided back to the bubble from Rohini to quickly rep grind and switch to a Clipper. I did, and flew it happily to Colonia...then switched to an Anaconda, which I flew to Polo Harbour until an unfortunate accident with a neutron star and me hitting J without it quite having been boosted yet. This resulted in a drop from SC inside the jet, and an interesting and frantic few minutes. Lost the canopy, and it was interesting making it a few thousand LY to safety on D-rated life support, synthesizing as needed. Shout out to CrimsonGamer99, without whose crazy exploits in his Adder (flying to BP with no canopy ever) I might not've even thought of synthing.
Fiddled indecisively with an Orca, among other things, back in Colonia before finally settling on a more heavily engineered version of the Mk2, and setting out for the core, just one waypoint behind the fleet in spite of my time lost. But partway there, I got caught in a combination of space madness and grief for my lost companions and friends. I buckyballed, didn't land at Explorer's Anchorage, went almost 3k LY straight up...and self-destructed. I returned to the bubble, sold everything, got rid of the money, and started over after that cathartic self-immolation. (not completely, I didn't want to unlock engineers and guardian tech all over again)
I spent a few weeks flitting around the bubble in different small ships, trying new things and renewing myself, in a way. And I found that I kept fiddling with ship loadouts...to see what kind of explorer my small, cheap ships would make. Took a few 1k LY trips in a Dolphin. Learned about the memorial to Zy at Beagle Point, and wanted to go but figured I would go some other time. There was no way I could catch back up to DW2 again.
Then we lost another member of our animal family.
We adopted Jake when he was not even quite old enough to be weaned, abandoned by his human (if he'd had one) and his mother alike in an alley behind a store. He could fit in my hand at the time. Half-feral, it was a couple of years before he really learned that humans were ok. I still remember being at my computer when he walked up to me and reached out with one paw for pats, the first time he'd ever actually sought out attention. He ended up really adopting my nephew, though, loudly yowling to his favorite human to come see his latest prey (usually a sock or underwear). Well over a decade later, when he was having trouble walking he would still claw his way up the side of his bed to sit on the pillow next to him until he woke up. Until cancer claimed him just a few weeks ago.
A combination of that, and seeing that the fleet would officially be at Beagle Point until early June, decided it. I would set up another ship, and this time go all the way. Since concatenating three names would've been weird, I chose "Sodalis Animus", which in what is no doubt heavily butchered Latin supposedly means something like "dear companion spirit". I made a 60-LY Orca, and set off. I spent a day in Colonia switching to and engineering a 62-LY Phantom, and was at the core just a week after setting out.
That was five days ago. I visited the memorial and then landed on Beagle Point 2 earlier today. My journey is complete, my memorial pilgrimage over, my ghosts honored, as it were. Maybe it's appropriate I switched to a Phantom to finish the journey, after all.
But no self-destruction this time. No virtual suicide. This time, I'm going home.
Well, Salome's Reach, THEN home. I'll rejoin my beloved friends somewhere beyond the stars, when the time comes.