/e HoldTorch for one of our own: Ascendant

[TonyV]

Hey everyone, it's with a very heavy heart that I'm posting this.  I found out just a few minutes ago that we've lost an amazing member of our community, Tre Chipman, aka "Ascendant" (with an 'A'. D-A-N-T).  All of my thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends during this really difficult time, and I cannot empahsize enough how he represented the heroic spirit that binds our community (even the villains!) together.

One of my fondest memories was finally getting to meet Ascendant in virtual person during the Unity Rally, and reading the script that he prepared for the event.  It was amazing, as was chatting with him, and I'm going to miss him dearly from our ranks.

Godspeed Ascendant, you have been permanently etched into our history, just as you were etched into the very fabric of the game itself.

A few more details

Donations:  According to his obituary, in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Covenant Hospice, 5041 N. 12th Ave., Pensacola, FL 32504 or Holy Cross Episcopal Church, 7979 N 9th Ave., Pensacola, FL 32514.

Since I originally posted this, we've found out a few more details.  Tre suffered from sudden liver and kidney failure that happened around the first of June.

His memorial service will be held at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Pensacola, FL.  The service starts at 6:00pm Central.  There are a few players coordinating a group to attend.  I wish I could go, but I checked my work schedule and we don't have coverage for our datacenter if I'm out of town.  :(

If you're in the Pensacola area (it's on the Florida panhandle) and want to attend, please do, I really want his family and friends to know how much he meant to our community.  If you're not close but want further justification for making the trip, the church is literally 15 minutes from the Gulf Coast, and right now is the best season to be there.  Some of the best beaches in the country and seafood that's out of this world are there.  (I spent a lot of time down there when I was younger.)  Renting a condo room and staying a few days to enjoy the food and weather is certainly an option.

I normally wouldn't do this because of privacy concerns, but since he's gone and the information is slowly getting out anyway, here are a few important links.

• Directions to Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Pensacola, Florida.  (Memorial service is at 6:00pm Central on Thursday, June 27.)
• Facebook post coordinating group to go
• Obituary
• Tre Chipman's Facebook page
• Tre Chipman's Twitter page
• Ascendant's VirtueVerse profile page
• Ascendant-O's Paragon Wiki page. This is one of an extremely few pages we ever allowed that had user-generated content due to it being officially recognized in the game.
• Transcript and recording (not his voice, but his writing) of his Ascendant script written for the Unity Rally.
• "Heroes", Leandro's video in which the heroes who attended the Unity Rally were all put into a single video.  Ascendant is on the pedestal talking on the phone (to Saul, no doubt) with me (writing on a clipboard) and Samuraiko (with her camera) around six seconds in.
• There will be a memorial service at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Pensacola Florida, but a date hasn't been set yet.  I'll post it when I find out.

I wanted to throw in a few links of people's reactions also.  I know I've probably missed some, and for that I apologize; as much as I try to keep up to speed, sometimes things slip through the cracks.  Still, I think it's a pretty good representation of how esteemed and appreciated Tre was to our community.

• Matt "Positron" Miller: MMORPG.com Feature, Forum post, Tweet, Tweet
• Melissa "War Witch" Bianco: Tweet, Tweet, Facebook
• Nate "Second Measure" Birkholz: Tweet
• Sean "Dr. Aeon" McCann: Tweet
• Hosun "Black Pebble" Lee: Forum post, Facebook, Tweet, Tweet
• Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunha: Facebook
• Jesse "Hit Streak" Lawrence: Tweet
• Adric "Arbiter Fabulous" Mayall: Facebook, Tweet
• Mercedes "Victoria Victrix" Lackey: Forum post
• Meticulous Meta's tribute to Tre on OnRPG.com

[Samuraiko]

Oh, my God. Do we have any idea what happened? Both John and Chris (Bloodspeaker and Jade Crush) are in just as much shock as I am.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[TonyV]

I don't know.  So far, all I know is that he's been having some sort of health problems the past few weeks.  I don't know if it was something that he's had all along or something that happened suddenly.  At any rate, I am also floored by this news.

[Perfidus]

I'm so sorry to hear this. I was a Virtuite like him, so I had more than several run ins with him over the years. I was proud when he made it into the game's canon, even if it was just in random NPC dialogue.

Do we know old he was? Not that it matters, he was a jewel to the community, and whether 20 or 80, a loss is a loss, and it was too soon.

[FatherXmas]

Ah crap.

His clever use of macro's to do his one sided telephone conversations as well as the script was pure genius.  His twitter feed was equally hilarious.

Those working on replacement games, you have your first memorial statue.  I'm sure a few people have his character model available as reference.

[Perfidus]

Leandro does at least. And he's the guy you'd want to have it anyhow.

https://twitter.com/leandrotlz/status/347588140724277248/photo/1

[Samuraiko]

I've got it as well.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[sturm375]

He, and all those many similar to him are what make this community the one that I continue to gravitate to.  He will be missed.  My prayers are with his family and friends at this time.  :(

[SithRose]

One of the saddest names I've added to the Memorial List for The Phoenix Project.

He will be deeply missed, as a stellar hero, roleplayer, and person. I always enjoyed teaming with him, and had enormous fun the few times I got to roleplay with him.

*goes off to cry for a while*

[therain93]

*sigh*  Just re-read Ascendant's paragonwiki entry -- makes me tear up with laughter. every time. *sigh*

Rest in peace, yet live on in Dreamspace.

[Pheonyx]

I still have the Save CoH ad that, while not voiced by Tre, its script was taken directly from his chat logs of Ascendant calling NC Soft after finding about about the city's closure. On Saturday, during my show on The Cape Radio from 5-8PM Eastern, I will be honoring him in the way that I think he'd want us to: by having a grand party for him and remembering all the good times. At the end of my show (approximately 7:45PM), during the ending of my show where I always honor those we have lost past, present and unfortunately future, I will be playing this after my last talk break (that I know that I will be fighting through a ton of emotion to get through) leading into my standard closing of my favorite soundbite/speech from Babylon 5, said by Andreas Katsulas (his "Part of us goes with us and part of us remains" speech) and the last song, "Show Me The Way" by Styx.

If you feel so inclined, please tune in and if you have Icon, load up a character and do the /e holdtorch emote during the show ending in honor of him.

Ashes to ashes,
Pheonyx

[downix]

Ah crap.

His clever use of macro's to do his one sided telephone conversations as well as the script was pure genius.  His twitter feed was equally hilarious.

Those working on replacement games, you have your first memorial statue.  I'm sure a few people have his character model available as reference.

When we began TPP, we made the decision for a Memorial, the one monument in the city we never wanted to add to.

[Triplash]

I didn't know him, but I did get to say hi once. He seemed really nice. His phone routine told me all I needed to know about what kind of guy he must have been... clever, funny, and really enjoyed a bit of tongue-in-cheek RP. Sounds like someone I'd be proud to call a friend.

Well maybe I wasn't a friend, but I sure was a fan. Thanks for your autograph, Mr. Ascendant, sir!

/e holdtorch

[Atlantea]

Something I posted in a chat with others commiserating -


I wish I'd interacted with him more. But... and this is going to sound utterly silly... I actually was in awe of him. I knew he was a great guy. But I was... intimidated is NOT the right word... but... I'm like... how do I put it...?

If you met Superman in real life, would YOU know what to say?

That was Ascendant to me.

I will miss him so much.

[TonyV]

I actually was in awe of him. I knew he was a great guy. But I was... intimidated is NOT the right word... but... I'm like... how do I put it...?

If you met Superman in real life, would YOU know what to say?

You and me both.  When I met him leading up to the Unity Rally, I was giddy as a schoolboy.  I was like, "Wait, for real?  You're THE Ascendant!!?  As in, the original Ascendant-Os on the phone guy?"  Now I'm going to have to see if I can dig up the game logs to see what exactly we said to each other.

[Moggie]

My heart hurts.
He came to CAPECon one year and did Dance 6 in the middle of the bar. He was shy, sweet, funny, and always seemed a little baffled by the encouraging attention he got. He was a real person on the other end of a keyboard who really touched me.
The Last Night, I had the honor of being on a team with him for a little while and it was absolutely perfect.
Fly Home Safe Tre!

[Samuraiko]

You and me both.  When I met him leading up to the Unity Rally, I was giddy as a schoolboy.  I was like, "Wait, for real?  You're THE Ascendant!!?  As in, the original Ascendant-Os on the phone guy?"  Now I'm going to have to see if I can dig up the game logs to see what exactly we said to each other.

The first time I was filming on Virtue and we ran into each other there, the conversation went like:

Me: "OMG - you're Ascendant! Can I film you?!"
Ascendant: "OMG, you're DR! I get to be in one of your videos?! AWESOME!"

I still have his autographed picture. :D

And so EVERY time after that, when we ran into each other in-game (either on Virtue or the test or beta servers), whoever spotted the other first would IMMEDIATELY run over and shoehorn our way into whatever was going on at the time. If he spotted me (unless it was very obvious I was in the middle of filming and didn't want to be bothered), he'd run right in front of me, flex, then whip out his phone to tell Saul to call me so we could set up his next commercial spot. If I spotted him, I'd run over to him, pull out the camera, and shove a microphone in his face asking for his opinion on the latest gossip in-game, at which point Saul would call him to remind him not to say anything too stupid on-camera.

Great times...

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[JanessaVR]

No...no...no...    :'(

I had the honor of speaking with him on the day of the shutdown announcement.  It was only a couple of hours after the announcement and I was on top of Atlas City Hall with the current DJ from The Cape and a crowd of people.  I got to see that speech for what I think was the very first time and was snapping screenshots like crazy (I hadn't yet selected BandiCam for final filming and gotten it configured, or I would have video of it as well).  I couldn't believe that I was standing next to THE Ascendant.

If we ever get the game back...he'll never see it.

As if things weren't sad enough.  I'm still at the office, working late as usual, and now it's hard to concentrate on database development when I'm crying...

[Twi]

That'll teach me to post a link without at least clicking it first... but, Archive.org to the rescue.

http://web.archive.org/web/20100326164150/http://www.virtueverse.com/images/Ascendant.costume

Will probably require some tweaking to make match the modern system since it's an older crawl, but, a good starting base, at least.

[Scrier]

His Virtueverse never failed to make me laugh. I came across his antics a few times and even got to interact with him a few times, as in awe as I was of him. I (and not for the first time since shutdown) am pining for the ability to play through the Saul Rubenstein Discount Task Force. Such a pinnacle of our community and sorely missed already.