The Madman's Cafe has been around the web since 1997. Many things have happened during its 20 years, but its most valued and prized aspect has always been its members. It's the members that make this small and humble old site feel like a cozy cafe that you can hit after a hard day's work and feel at home, regardless of where you actually are.
And amongst our members, we had Toxico.
For MMCafe goers, Toxico was someone you'd see posting up his thoughts on an almost daily basis. He was the sort of guy you'd always find sitting in the same seat, who you'd take for granted that he'd always be there. But this year, things changed.
It was in the beginning of May that we were devastated from the news that Toxico had passed away. At first there was hope amongst us that he was just playing a bizzare joke, but days passed by and he never came back to his seat... and it slowly sank in that we truly lost someone we've come to known. Even though we may have not known him in his personal life, we knew him for who he was; his personality.
A native of Chile, Toxico's personality stood out together with his distinct writing style which came from talent despite that English certainly wasn't his native tongue. His writings were creative and witty, and although he often claimed to be drunk, his insights were always crystal clear. While he'd crack his jokes, he was also a very sensitive person who made sure he wasn't offending anyone, and you could tell from his posts that he was caring and thoughtful of others. Some of us have also "hung out" with him in the realtime through online, adventuring together in games like
Dragon's Crown, where his superior devotion and skill carried us along.
During the 16 years that he was with us, we've all grown older together, moving on from our youth to the working generation. Toxico likewise built up on his abilities and he became skilled not only in English but also in Japanese which we've witnessed through his years of writing, though it certainly must have been difficult given that the language isn't widely used in his country. His passion for video games let him build on this potential and talent, and act on them.
While we've mostly known Toxico for his years at the MMCafe, he was quite active in other places as well. Aside from having an active
Twitter account, he regularly posted videos on
Youtube as Ars Magna/ImbuedGold, a name which he adapted from the light novel/anime series
A Certain Magical Index. He also posted as
Toxic Avanger on the
Orochinagi Forums, helped out his friend's site
Analogia de Videojuegos, had an abandoned
Nicovideo channel, and a huge 100+ page archive of
NeoGeo translations to Spanish. Given that Tekken and NeoGeo were his favorite pasttimes, it makes sense that his last post on the Cafe was about
a Ninja Masters tournament at Mikado. But of course when it comes to Toxico and MMCafe,
the World Heroes series is the game we'll always remember him for.
Toxico was not only one of the oldest and prominent member of the MMCafe BBS, he was also one of the very unique. While the tides of the Internet may have turned towards the fast paced world of SNS, the MMCafe Bulletin Board still remains as a virtual Cafe for those who want to take it more slow and easy, and we will forever remember Toxico as that guy who
wrote things that chewed on our minds [
more], and then hopped away with an
Obscene Voodoo Dance Teleport.
Toxico, may you Rest In Peace.
The Madman's Cafe would like to thank Maou and Red Falcon for help in proofreading and polishing this memoire.
Reflex Tester
