All Beginnings have Ends

When James asked Aleks to leave the Creatures with him and start their own channel, it was a no-brainer. The Creatures meant everything to him, but the direction they were going in wasn't him. This family-friendly type of comedy wasn't him. These new interns, they weren't the guys he has come to love. James was the only reason he was still here, with James gone, being in the creatures would mean nothing.

And maybe in hindsight, Aleks should have seen their end in their beginning. Going too big, too outrageous, too fast. Slamming out video after video of ridiculous content. Moving from a house to a barn, to a fucking warehouse in the heart of LA. It was all too much too fast.

Just like the creatures, too many people were joining and leaving. The originals soon enough were just Aleks and James, again. Another issue after another. Burnouts becoming more often than not. Struggling to make content that was bigger and better than the previous videos.

Aleks wishes he could pinpoint when they went wrong. Was it destined from the beginning? Did the fall of the creatures predict the fall of cow chop. Maybe it was when they were kicked out of the house. Now left to make videos in a dusty old barn forced them to move to LA faster. In LA, time doesn't stop. It's motion after motion, if you don't move you drown.

Aleks knows the downfall was truly when James got hurt. After the first fall of the skateboard should have been enough. But for content, James hops back on and immediately falls, dislocating his shoulders and snapping his ankle.

That was the true end.

Aleks simultaneously has many regrets and absolutely none. These years with James was everything and more. But, to watch it come crashing down around him, Aleks would give anything to be back in the cow chop house. Hell, the second creature house. Doing streams well into the night, laughing until his lungs hurt, and then being able to go home, with James.

After all this, he never blames James. James was always there for him, for everyone. James meant when he said his only goal is to make sure his friends were taken care of. Aleks has never met a more selfless person than James. Never met anyone as bright as James and never will.

James has and will always be the love of Aleks' life.

He might not be James', but he can try again in the next life.

And the many after that.