I had the great pleasure of knowning Speed in real life. Brian has been my friend for almost 15 years, and was the reason I ever started playing Everquest in the first place. Brian has enjoyed Everquest since the beta, and was a pioneer with his first character, a halfling druid known as Mhuadib, on the Xegony server. From the first day EQ went live Brian's magnetic personality helped him make friends and excell at the EQ experience he loved so much. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned that Project 1999 seem like it was made for people like Speed. Well it was, and how! Brian was the happiest I've seen him in a long while when he spoke of his adventures on this server. He finally conviced me to give it a shot about a month ago, and I'm glad he did. He had so many friends here, and as you can tell by his 20 hour playing sessions, he loved being back in the old days of Everquest life. Brian knew this game inside out back then. He always knew where to go for the best exp, loot, quests, or just to goof off and have a good time. Brian was always looking to amuse himself. Sometimes it may have been viewed as rude or offensive to some, but it was never mean spirited and always in good fun for him. I recall one Easter Sunday that he and another rl friend of ours made human characters name Judus and Jesus and went into East Commons and dueled each other. EC was a trade hub at the time, so of course there were tons of people there that all witnessed a server message every 5 minutes that read "Judus has defeated Jesus in a duel to the death!" or vise versa. Sure, not everyone laughed, but Brian thought it was funny, and perhaps you would have to know Brian to know that he would do a lot of things just for the shock value of doing it. That is also how Brian approached life, just looking for the next good time. Brian was a great person in real life too. Just as he was always helping me in EQ, he was there for me in real life too. We have laughed together countless times, and cried together a few as well. Brian was extremely intelligent, caring, insightful and one of the most genuinely unique people I have ever known. Brian was my friend, a very close friend for a long time. I love him. I miss him. I am a better person for knowing him. God speed my friend, I look forward to the day we meet again.
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