“D.N.E.”
This one is a little hard for me.
One of my best friends at USNA, 6th Company mate Pete Mayer, was the inspiration for this character. He dated a classmate who broke up with him because, well, basically he was TOO nice. “He never tried anything.” As a result, we all – including Pete himself – referred to him as a “quiche-eater” (from the 1980s alpha-male manifesto, “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche”). That morphed into “Quiche-Mayer” – and further into “Abdul Mohammed Keishmeir.” Meanwhile, the classmate who jilted him became known among Pete’s friends as “The Ice Princess.”
Pete specifically wanted to be “D.N.E.” in Darior – a hero whose feeling for women “Does Not Exist.” (“DNE” is a mathematical term we learned that means just that: Does Not Exist.) And so he was.
Pete died in his sleep in 2012. He was the first close friend I ever lost. We connected early in plebe summer, sharing a home base of South Jersey (“The 51st State!”) and a love of Star Wars (he was Han, I was Luke). He was one of my three plebe year roommates—and then we decided “we’d rather be friends than roommates.”
I’m sorry I lost track of him after graduation. Still, his loss hit me hard, just knowing that he’s not around anymore.
So for me, “D.N.E.” is a particularly special Darior adventure.