[edgtf_dropcaps type=”normal” color=”” background_color=””]G[/edgtf_dropcaps]rief is like a ladder.
It starts with a numbness.
In the very first few days upon the river, self-bereavement is extremely common. People try to communicate and continue as if nothing has happened. As if they’re on a trip. Even though they know they have perished, it can be hard to believe. Imagine if you will, thinking, believing, and feeling, but no longer existing. This leads to denial.
Not longer after, a soul will move past denial, as if taking a step upon the next rung of a ladder. Death will seem cruel and unfair, especially if it has occurred before their time or if plans were made that they can no longer fulfil. They start feeling emotional. This quickly turns to anger.
Then they take another step.
And within their pain, they choose not to accept their fate. They choose to try and change the inevitable. They start making deals with themselves and eventually, me. They start wishing they could go back and will begin bargaining with me as if I have the power to let them.
Once they realize that I am but a Ferryman and hold no weight over their soul, they take another step.
When the sadness and melancholy sets in, the pain is intense and powerful. It comes in waves, washing over the soul with each and every blast, hurting just a little bit more. Here, they find the horrors of the inevitable rung that is depression.
And finally, when they reach the very top of the ladder and there is but one step left to take, they choose acceptance.
The five stages of grief are different rungs on a ladder.
These rungs are often climbed upon your journey to the end. They form part of the process of accepting death and the journey to your next and final destination.
At Titanfall, Aarman Fidel, TEC and Jinx will find themselves with a ladder before them and rung by rung, they will climb to the very top.
Each and every single one of them will make it there.
Each and every single one of them will be confronted by denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance along the way.
And they will reach the top.
Inevitably, they will take the ladder rung by rung until they reach that very summit, that peak.
But what awaits them upon the final rung of that ladder isn’t the Rewind Championship.
It’s acceptance of the end – the final stage of grief.
“And not a single one of them should fear meeting their end.”
“Not you Aarman.”
“Not you TEC.”
“And not you, Jinx.”
“Because the end is where we meet.”
“And I will send you on your way.”