[OnyxCougar]

Because I kind of think of this as "my" thread, I'm posting this here.

About two or three years ago, I was playing a MUD (text only online RPG) and got romantically involved with one of the players (Jon). I flew to Iowa for the weekend, and Jon's best friend (Miah) and his gf (Sindy) and her dad (Bruce) came to pick me up at the airport and tooled me around Cedar Rapids and hung out with me until Jon got off work. So that's how I met them.

Now....Jon turned out to be just a fling, and I kept in touch with Miah, Bruce and Sindy through the MUD and Dark Age. Bruce had a "thing" for me.

So a year and a half later, Miah and the gang decide they want to move to San Diego, and ask me if they can stay at my place for a few days, to do the tourist thing in Vegas. Well of course they can.

So Miah, Sindy, Bruce and Sindy's son Jase decend on my apt, where I was living with my boys.

They stayed 2 months. Sindy got on food stamps, and they helped with food, and Sindy did alot of cleaning, but it was still 7 people in a 2 bedroom apartment.

They eventually moved into an apartment in the same complex. After almost a year, Bruce was working out of town, Sindy had her second child (Jasmine) and since Miah refused to get a job, they couldn't afford to live in Vegas, so her parents flew to Vegas, rented a UHaul and took them home.

In the process of moving they had a nice living room set, a blue couch, loveseat and chair (not recliner). Miah said if they didn't give it to me they were just gonna chuck it, since they couldn't pack it in the truck. He said that it was worth $2000 when they got it, and would I give them $500 for it. I said, sure.

Not long after, I decided to move out of Vegas. I didn't really care where, just not there. I had 3 options: Maine (to work for a seasonal resort), Iowa (and stay with Miah til I get on my feet), or North Carolina.

I didn't get the seasonal job in ME, so that option was gone. That left Iowa and NC. (Some of you may remember the posts.) Well, I really wanted to go to Iowa, but right about that time, Miah and Sindy fell off the face of the earth... I left messages on the MUD and on DarkAge. I left him email. Told him to call me, write me, anything, because I needed confirmation that it was good to go.

Nothing.

So, I figured, NC was the last option and I took it. I couldn't afford a Uhaul so I packed my car (and the roof carrier) and we drove. I left the couches behind with most of the rest of my material possessions.
[/backstory]

Today, I logged into Dark Age, and got a tell from Miah: "You're a hard person to get ahold of." He then makes small talk and asks how I am, where I'm working, if my husband is working, and where I am, then says that he hopes I havent forgotten about my debt, he's down on his luck right now, and was wondering if I could pay some of that debt.

I told him I remembered the debt, but that I felt like when he flaked out on me when it came time to help me, and he completely disappeared for 8 months, knowing I needed help.

He said he got kicked out of his mom's place and had no phone or internet access. I told him that I had checked on the mud, and he had logged into it several times during that period, so he at LEAST had net access, he could have sent me an email. Not only that, but when he did have access and started playing Dark Age again, he didn't try to contact me then, either. My email addresses didn't change.

Now out of the blue he wants his money.

I'm of two minds. The "good" side of me wants to pay him, and make good on my word. I told him I'd pay him.

On the other hand, when it came time to help ME out, he's nowhere to be found, (even tho he says he wasn't able to get online and I can prove he was.) and doesn't have the courtesy to contact me when he does get back online, UNTIL he wants his money. Now it's all about "how are you?". Not only that, but he was gonna throw them out anyway, but that's really nitpicking.
But I don't feel like I should pay him anything, because he severed the ties.

So what do you guys think? Pay him or not?