News has been going around various networks that Ashle V aka Nine aka @OuvreLeChien68 passed away over the weekend.
She was active in mine and a bunch of people’s Discord servers, and she contributed so much to those spaces. I’d go so far as to say that she was instrumental in helping me set up my space, offering advice on technical issues and generally being very gracious and generous with her time — a fact made all the more humbling considering she was on the other side of the world, living in Australia. Since then, it has been clear she offered this sort of support to a lot of other people too.
I’ve got a few videos somewhere, of her hanging out in my first attempt at an online reading group. I won’t share them, but I watched one back today, all about the numogram. She would often attend these reading groups in what was, for her, the middle of the night, even staying around after everyone else had left to chat and catch up. She was very open about her struggles, but demonstrated a quiet strength in the face of them. In fact, I often found her to be surprisingly nonchalant about her own resilience, as she told tales of joining people in their darkest places if only so she was better placed to lift them up. I worry that may have been her downfall in the end.
I don’t know much about her broader situation or her personal life, such is the case with too many friendships maintained online, but she spoke on occasion about her Dad, who I gathered is a writer and/or editor. My thoughts have been with him today. He seemed to inspire her autodidactic sensibilities, and she inspired similar sensibilities in others as well. Though we often didn’t agree on politics, she had a better sense of solidarity than most, and genuinely cared about the wellbeing of others, whether she agreed with them or not. My thoughts are with everyone she built up a relationship with online.
Nine was just 19 years old. I didn’t know that until I heard she had passed away. She was well read beyond her years, and had a better grasp on the numogram than most people who are so occulturally inclined. I will miss her in my server and on the timeline.
RIP!