Bad News

Hello everyone!

I'm sorry that things have been quiet on here. I'd like to say that it's because I've been busy working my butt off on A Tiny Furry On A Huge World, but unfortunately I've been focused on something a little more grim.

I don't want to go into a whole bunch of detail because a lot of this is very personal, but at the same time I would like to inform you guys completely as to what's going on. You guys are the people that help fund me, keep a roof over my head, and put food in my mouth, so it's only right that I'm as transparent as possible.

So, before I get into it, let me give you some brief background. I was born in the United Kingdom. Through a convoluted series of events that I don't particularly want to get into, however, I ended up moving to the United States, a place where I have been living now for, well, a good chunk of my adult life. In the process of this I left some of my family behind, most noteably my Mum.

The two of us (as in me and my Mum) kept a strong connection though. In fact, pretty much without fail, she's called me every Sunday since I moved over here... until this month, where she didn't. Naturally this put me in quite a fret. For full context she's elderly and lives by herself, almost in her 80s, but she has been extremely sharp and independent for all this time, like, she exercised a couple of times a week, worked a part time job, so on and so forth. I figured that maybe she was sick, or maybe she was out seeing some her friends, but I got in contact with another family member in the country asking him to go around and check on her and make sure that everything was okay.

Unfortunately, everything was not okay. My cousin found my Mum on the ground. She kept asking him when my Dad was coming home, my Dad who has been dead for almost twenty years. She kept asking him where her car was despite the fact that it was on the driveway. She kept asking him about me, who, well... it's been almost a decade since her last visit. The house was in a complete state. According to what he told me there were grocery bags everywhere from where she'd gone out and bought food, then forgot that she'd bought it, so she went out and bought some more, until she'd filled the house up with literal rot. Instead of washing her clothes, she'd been throwing them all in a hamper and buying new ones. Something was, quite clearly, very wrong.

Naturally she was rushed to the hospital right away. For a bit the doctors weren't sure what was wrong, but it was eventually figured out that she'd had a very severe stroke. Right now nobody is sure what the cause of the bags being left everywhere or her memory issues are, but it's clearly been an issue for some time.

So, to cut a long story short, for the past couple of weeks, I have been a very distant spectator in my mother's very sudden and very rapid mental and physical decline.

I do not want to be a distant spectator, and it is getting to the point where I can't. The cousin that I called over to check on her is... well, he is not the most reliable person. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to him for all of his assistance - she'd literally still be on the floor if not for him - but you can tell that he is getting tired of having to go to the hospital to see her and manage her affairs. On top of that, there are a lot of affairs that can't be managed because he's not her next of kin or anything like that. On top of that, there's a very good chance that she might even die. He's also not the most trustworthy person, so I'm not even sure if the information that I am getting from him is legit. There are so many reasons that I cannot be here and should be there instead.

So, tomorrow, I am going back to the UK for the first time in... a very, very long time. I will be getting on a flight and I will be landing on Monday. This isn't something that I want to do, but it is something that I have to do.

I will not be there permanently. My Mum has two reliable people left in the world, which is me and my eldest brother. He is unable to get to the country right now because his passport is expired. He is currently processing a renewal for all that. When he's done with that, he will be coming to take over. In other words, I'm kind of the vanguard or whatever. I should hopefully only be in the country for two months at most: as soon as my older brother gets there, I'm pretty much out of there. He is officially the next of kin and all that, and he has far, far more experience with this.

How will this affect things on here? I am hoping not very much. I am taking my computer with me. Much of my role is going to be sitting in an empty house, occasionally visiting the hospital and making the occasional phone call, so I am going to have many, many hours to fill, and I am going to want to escape into something during it. Even if I am unable to write because of crashout or motivation due to what's happening then I have some stories that I have wrote as backup that I can upload during this period.

I did consider pausing the Patreon for a month or so, but it is not something that I can afford to do, nor is it something that I really want to do. I will need my work. And as tragic as this is, as much as this event hurts me in my body and my fucking soul, as easily as it could stop me in my tracks for months, shit, maybe even for good, I am refusing to let this awful situation strike down my creativity. I need my creativity right now, my spark, not just financially, but emotionally.

One certain thing is that the final release of A Tiny Furry In A Huge World v1.3 will be delayed. By how much I am not certain. I will know more when I hit the ground on Monday and get settled in. I'll be posting an update on Wednesday 23rd (with the long-awaited Renamon story!) that will give a clear date as to when the final preview build will be available. To give a rough shotgun estimate it will be sometime early-mid May. I know it's probably not much consolation, but I will also be posting a second story this month.

Part of me wants to say something like I can't go three months without some kind of disaster but it feels very self-piteous, especially when an elderly woman is confused and on her own in a hospital right now. Yes, this sucks, yes, this is the last thing I need right now, yes, I would really rather stay in my cozy little apartment and keep working on my games, but my Mum, in good health at least, would do everything that she could to not leave me on my own all scared in a hospital, so, I have to go and be there for her while I can, otherwise I won't be able to live with myself.

I'm very sorry that things are once again delayed by something completely out of my hands. One day, things will settle down... and until then, I'll just keep doing the best that I can. All going well, bar the delayed update, this shouldn't effect things too much. Please continue to be patient with me: I promise that it will be rewarded in spades. I have so many exciting things coming up this year.

I'll see everyone on Wednesday with a story and a health update. Until then, please be well everyone, and thank you for your understanding.