I accidentally catfished my own brother for six months and kind of fixed his life

A few years ago my brother went through a pretty rough patch. Break up, dropped out of college, moved back home, the whole cliché. We are not super emotional as a family, so the vibe at home was just him in his room with the door closed and my parents pretending everything was fine. Back then I was spending way too many nights on this small gaming Discord server. Very low stakes, a few regulars, mostly talking about games, work, life, whatever. People joined and left all the time. One night this new user joins, calls himself “lostinmidgame” and starts venting in voice chat. It was oddly specific stuff. Talking about how his ex used to say he had no ambition, how he felt like he ruined his life dropping out, how he did not want to be the disappointment of the family. It hit way too close to home. I typed to one of the regulars like, “This sounds exactly like my brother, wtf.” A day later, “lostinmidgame” posts a selfie in the pet channel with his dog. I nearly dropped my phone. It was my brother. Same dog, same ugly couch from our living room in the background. He had found this random Discord through some Reddit comment and had no idea I was in there under an old username he did not know. So now I am sitting there, listening to my brother trauma dump to complete strangers instead of talking to any of us. And I froze. I did not tell him. I did not tell the server. I just muted my mic and listened. That should have been the end of it. But then he started coming on every night. He would hop in, talk about job hunting, feeling like a failure, how he missed who he used to be, and the regulars would give advice. Most of them were nice but not very helpful. Stuff like, “Bro just grind and it will work out” which is basically nothing. At some point one of the regulars joked that the server needed an “old wise uncle” to give proper life advice. I do not know what possessed me, but I made a second account. Brand new email, different voice settings, deeper tone, all of that. I joined as “UncleRay”. I pretended to be in my forties, divorced, working some boring office job. I borrowed stories from coworkers and older cousins, mixed them together, and played this fake older guy who had already made every mistake in the book. And my brother clicked with “UncleRay” immediately. He would join the call and say “Ray, you on tonight?” and I would change my mic settings and answer in that slightly lower voice. I started giving him the kind of advice I always wanted to give him as myself, but was too awkward to say to his face. Stuff like: “Make a stupid small goal for tomorrow, then do it. Clean one corner of your room. Apply to one job that feels slightly too high for you. You are allowed to be scared and still do it.” It felt easier coming from a fake older guy than from his sibling who he thought did not understand him. He started sending me his resume to “look over.” So now I am literally editing my brother’s resume under a fake name. I knew his work history anyway, so it was not hard to give specific suggestions. Then it got more personal. He would type me long DMs about how he always felt like the background character in his own life, how he thought I was the “smart one” growing up, how he respected me but felt like he could not talk to me because I always seemed busy. Reading that as “UncleRay” while knowing he was talking about me was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. I was sitting there with this knot in my chest, trying not to cry at my own computer while typing back like some budget therapist. The messed up part is that it worked. Within a few months he got a part time office job. Then a full time offer. He started going to the gym with a coworker. The way he talked in the server changed. Less self pity, more “I tried this and it actually helped.” One night he said in voice chat, “Honestly, if I had not met you guys, especially you Ray, I think I would still be in bed all day. So, like, thanks man.” I muted my mic and just sat there staring at the screen. I had no idea how to even process that. But the longer it went on, the worse I felt. Every time he said “love you, old man” or “you saved my life, Ray” I felt like I was stealing something. Like I had taken this role in his life that should have been real. I tried to slowly distance “UncleRay.” I said I was getting busier at work. Logged on less. Sent shorter replies. Encouraged him to talk to other people, to his actual friends, to his family. Then the guilt finally snapped me in half one afternoon at home. He was in the kitchen, making coffee, humming this stupid song he always hums when he is in a good mood. He looked better than he had in years. Clean clothes, decent haircut, actually smiling. He saw me and went, "Yo, you heard of this Discord I am in? There is this old guy in there, legit the only adult who gets it. You would like him." I almost said it. Right there. I almost said, "That is me, you idiot." Instead I just said, "Nice, I am glad you found cool people." I went back to my room, opened the Discord, and deleted the “UncleRay” account on the spot. Did not say goodbye, did not explain anything. Just gone. The next night I watched him check his phone, frown, refresh the app a few times. He looked a little disappointed at dinner and mentioned that Ray had not been online. I felt like a complete fraud. He is still doing fine, by the way. Better than fine. He is working, saving money, talking about maybe going back to school part time. He still logs into that server sometimes and hangs out with the regulars. He seems proud of himself in a way I had not seen before.