Daily Entertainment

[ceitfianna]

As the Allpocalypse starts and the preparation for the move goes up another level, I thought this might be a good time to look back.

My question for this morning is what brought you to Milliways? How did you decide on your first pup? What other factors and questions played a part in bringing you to the End of the Universe?

Tell me the stories of your beginnings, please.

Comments

[crabbycustomer]

I actually found Milliways because of people venting on Bad_RPers_Suck!

[ceitfianna]

That seems to be a weird tradition of that comm since it seems every other post or two there's a clamor for game information.

[mogget_cat]

I found Milliways about three days after it started, from Sam Vimes (copperbadge) pimping it on his journal. He played Sirius, the first bartender. I read through the threads and was overwhelmed by how awesome it was. I literally became addicted to watching the threads unfold between characters.

Two weeks later, I got up the gumption to toss this not'cat into the mix. I've never looked back.

[ceitfianna]

*nods* There's something about reading through threads that is such a part of the game and I love the Milliways' type of overwhelming. As things are always going on lots of levels.

[fightingthecage.livejournal.com]

I got into it because there was a thriving 24 group. I was in the midst of a gignormous fanfic based around Jack's undercover mission with the Salazars, someone suggested I app Ramon and the rest is history.

Never did finish that fic, though. Milliways: all your brainmeatz are belong to us.

[ceitfianna]

Oh, part of me wants to say it's a shame you never finished the fic but well Ramon, so I think it balances out.

[silveraspen]

All Viv's fault. She found it first by way of the opening post on LJ I think, started playing, and then started telling me about it. A lot. Finally, after a long conversation on a drive to the RenFaire one weekend in July 2004, I decided to give it a shot.

I picked Captain Jack Sparrow as my first because I thought he'd be fun to play and I could easily let him wander in and out on random timeframes without ever having to worry about his ever being involved in any major plot that would necessitate him being stuck for a long time. (You may all laugh now.)

Moiraine was next, within two days. The rest is history.

[ceitfianna]

It seems quite appropriate that Jack led you into Milliways somehow because at least to me he's very much Milliways.

He can go from strange and over the top to remarkably serious within a few phrases, which is what I love about Milliways.

[wanderlustlover]

I found Milliways because of Rose(/Mir/Kat) and Phoenix, who were both on my friends list. No idea really about 'the how' or 'why' of them getting there, but they talked about this game and wrote fic about it that I read. For a good year or year and half first.

My first character was not, in fact, supposed to be Marian. It was supposed to be Tess Harding. I had prepped *everything* from journal through app for a month and half. And, then, the day apps opened she'd suddenly moved to the reserve list. I was so crestfallen it took nearly four months (and the unexpected love affair with the floofiest, anachronistic Robin Hood show the bbc had newly put out) to come back to the idea of joining.

[ceitfianna]

Oh my, that must have been hard.

I'm glad you were able to find another character that you wanted to bring in as I honestly can't imagine Milliways without Marian.

[minkhollow]

I saw the original 'HEY GUYS I HAD A GREAT IDEA' posts on Nny's journal (both the one where she was drunk and made the comm, and the one after she'd sobered up and still thought it was a Pretty Good Idea).
My first first character was actually Pestilence from Good Omens, who I had kicking around from a GO RPG I'd been in - so my habit of fleshing out one-mention characters is nothing new. XD But he didn't really take to the bar, so I decided to throw together a journal for Jane Lane instead. She did stick around for a good while.
I also originally thought this would be a good way to pass the summer before I started college, and wondered (as we hit the epic-amounts-of-posts-a-day phase) how we were all going to keep this up when those of us in school started classes. HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED.

[ceitfianna]

It's one of the amazing things about Milliways how it's changed but never really disappeared.

[kitchen_maid]

I will attempt to tell this briefly, but make no promises that such a thing is possible.

In 2005, I was hanging out on the offical website for the movie Serenity and they had various things you could do to earn points (not that I remember what any of them were). And then, is you had accumulated a certain number of points, you could sign up to be a "Captain" of a Crew of up to 20 (maybe?) other members of the site, and compete to earn more points which you could hand in for valuable prizes.

I had the requisite number of points, but didn't really know many people on the boards there, so (on a whim), I posted that I would be happy to be a more-or-less figurehead Captain if there were a group that wanted to be a group but lacked anyone who had Captain status.

And someone (I think Snow White's mun) contacted me, and took me up on it, and I noticed that a lot of my "Crew" had "Milliways" listed as an interest in their movie site profile, so I looked it up.

And I decided it looked interesting, and might be fun for a few months. I had no idea what I was doing, and no idea who to play. (I never expected to have a first Milliversary, and somehow I've been here six and half years.)

I picked Amy in the waiting room at a dentist's office about two weeks later. I had taken her canon along to read while I waited to get a terrible toothache taken care of, almost as a security blanket. It was then and still is my all-time favorite book, but I hadn't considered her till that moment, at which point she bacme the most obvious and logical choice in the world. And I wound up not needing a root canal, so all in all, it was a good visit to the dentist.

[ceitfianna]

You don't have to be brief for my sake and that's a fascinating story.

Your experience with Amy sounds quite like mine with Will. Once I looked at him, it was that moment of well of course.

[yakalskovich]

I saw the original drunken post by Nny in summer 2004, and joined almost immediately with a charrie that I was playing in the old Discworld RPG, where I knew her from. I didn't do much, though. Then, later, I brought Rasputin around a few times. And finally, in November 2004, somebody who has long since left talked me into apping Asar-Sutifor plot purposes. The rest, as they say, is history...

[ceitfianna]

And ever growing history and now Margolotta has returned as well.

[misslucyjane]

It's all silveraspen and vivien529's fault. They came to see me over Labor Day weekend 2004 and spent a lot of time talking about it, so I caved and apped my first character: Sybil Trelawney from Harry Potter. She didn't stick, but my next character, Charlie Pace from Lost, did. Oh, did he ever.

[ceitfianna]

Aspen and Viv seem to be a potent combination when it comes to Milliways' enabling.

[varadia]

I found the game through Good Omens fanfic back in late 2004, and kind of lurked around for a bit reading. I was operating under the delusion that things were planned and there was a coherent storyline, and I didn't see any way to fit in!

Then the Jive article came out, and I said 'screw it' and resolved to try. I figured Raven would be a good first character, someone flighty and troublesome and social, an easy way to get in and get my feet wet, but he would surely get replaced by a more serious character once I knew what I was doing.

Ahahaha. Ha. Ha.

One or so weeks later he was involved in Doverplot, I got AIM, and I never looked back.

Good times!

[ceitfianna]

Good Omens seems to have led many people here and hee, Raven. He's so much a part of Milliways now. Cookies and glitter for everyone.

[spooky-lemur.livejournal.com]

I got here via kali921, whom I totally miss, when she mentioned it on her journal. I had been missing role playing and had done email games before and decided to give it a shot. My first pup was Emperor Norton as I figured he was insane so any weird continuity mistakes or odd actions could be explained away.

I still miss the guy from time to time and I've been tempted to bring him into mixed_muses in a sort of meta-Norton in that he somehow can open the door to any canon in which he plays a part such as Christopher Moore's SF, Polly and the Pirates or the Illuminatus! trilogy.

What's amusing to me is applying Ben Grimm was a total spur of the moment decision the next month or so. He was never really a plan and yet he is likely the strongest head voice I've got.

[sdelmonte]

I really miss Kali, too. I could hear her ranting about DC and Before Watchmen even without her posting to LJ, but it's not the same to just imagine it.

[kd7sov]

I've recounted the first part of this before, but I don't feel like finding and linking to any of the previous retellings. Waaay back, I did a google search for Golden Sun 3. This led me, via a couple other sites, to fanfiction.net, which in turn directed me to Miss Sandman's site, home of the PPC (Protectors of the Plot Continuum, for those who don't know). There, at some point, I found a weird PPC-based fic called Suedom. After a while, I poked around and found a links page, which included a link over here, encouraging readers to guess whom the authors (Andy and Saph, if I recall correctly) played.

Once here, I decided that the game seemed like fun, and thought I might join. My first thought was to play Isaac, Felix's canonmate, but he was already here. And while I disagreed with some aspects of his characterization, I wasn't about to challenge the mun to a duel or anything for the right to play him, not when there was another character I could do (I felt) nearly as well at. Thus I scraped together an app for Felix, and was accepted the day the monthly app system went into place.

It was a bit over a month later that I discovered the Back Room and started keeping an eye on it, a habit I continued, on and off, well after I'd left the game itself. Thus I had some idea of what was going on - the yuppie tofu plot, and the Armageddon Clock, and so on - even though I wasn't involved or watching the bar.

And then once I had my own computer and lacked certain restrictions, one of the first things I did was re-app Felix. And not even two months after he entered for the second first time, I find out - as a direct result of getting another Milliways app ready - that Golden Sun 3 was on its way. A nice bit of symmetry there, I think.

[ceitfianna]

Oh this question keeps getting asked, because it's interesting. All of our paths to Milliways are slightly different.

[sdelmonte]

The year was 2004. Comic books cost $2.50. The president was some guy from Texas. And only MiBs had iPhones. I rode to work twice a week with Batya. Who was telling me all about this new online roleplaying game. And about her pups. And about body swapping curry. And a six year old Bruce Wayne. And lots of other stuff. At first, I was mildly curious. Then interested. Then intrigued.

Before I knew it, I decided that this might be fun to dabble in. I apped Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, since his canon was over and since I was a big fan. It took me a few months to get any sense of what I was doing, but there was no looking back.

I blame Batya. As I often do. I think she blames Genarti.

[genarti]

^_^

(Which is to say, yes, she does, and it's totally fair, since I basically went BATYA BATYA I FOUND THIS AWESOME GAME UM I'M JUST SAYING.)

[dynastessa]

I was looking for really good His Dark Materials fic on LJ one day when I came across this thread (haha, I knew I had it memmed!) with Lyra and Will. I read it voraciously.

And then followed the links to Milliways' community because I wanted more Lyra and Will stuff. Which led me to other characters I recognized and loved. (And I read those too.)

I'd already participated in RPs for years, but never a panfandom one, and never with a group of strangers. (I'd always start up a thing with a group of friends.) So (slightly hesitant) I trolled it for a little while, considering, reading, loving how active the community was and how much quality there was in every thread ... and finally decided to give it a shot with tristranthorn.

Then I met Jackie, and a bunch of other lovely people, and the rest is - as they say - history. :)

[ceitfianna]

That seems to be the Milliways way, a person or a fandom catches you and then you find your place and suddenly years and pups have gone by.

[student_of_impossibility]

This is more complicated than it needs to be, because my brain counts differently than history. Back '07 my best friend somehow dragged me in. I played Diarmuid, but wasn't really interested and left.

In spring '09, I had four headvoices at once. Milliways was the only game I knew. In my head it was just simultaneous, despite the two months. But my brain doesn't count them, because they began to fade almost immediately when I discovered a gorgeous new canon. When the Character List Revamp happened, and I somehow fast-talked Danii into handing him over to me.

Two and a half years later, my brain--irrationally and inaccurately--thinks Tavi was the first. Maybe it's just because he was the one who stayed.

[ceitfianna]

The telling is what makes sense to you. I'm fascinated by all the different paths that brought everyone into this game and what made them stay.

[have_no_mercy]

I was in another game that was slowly dying off and someone there had found Milliways and kept posting their stuff. I started reading first and was all OMG INTIMIDATED WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? And in trying to start smallish with something I was actually familiar with, I mostly kept up with the Arthurian folks. Then it became All Ashie's Fault because her Mordred was just awesome and my Cywyllog voice (which yes, existed before Milliways!) went bonkers.

So in conclusion: All Ashie's Fault.

[ceitfianna]

Ashie is to blame for a lot of fantastic things around Bar and I love how we all connect and find new ways to move and grow.

[sardonicynic]

Ahaha, I blame kcountess and catch22girl entirely. Back in the halcyon days, when I was a lot more prolific than I am now, I was writing quite a bit for the 24 fandom; K and R were beyond encouraging to my newbie self, and the more I wrote, the more comfortable I felt within the fandom.

Cut to July 2007, when one of my BFFs and I road-tripped to Chicago to catch Rocco DeLuca and the Burden at the House of Blues. Turns out, that was the same weekend as Chicago Millicon. While my BFF shopped Michigan Avenue in pursuit of the perfect pair of leather pumps, I met up with kcountess, catch22girl, and bitchet for lunch. I remember being so timid when I asked, "What's a Millicon?" because I was so out of my fandom depth, buahaha.

Those awesome ladies educated me; R and K linked me to so many awesome threads, and I read them like a reading fiend.

It wasn't until months later -- sometime around the holidays that same year -- that I had a tiny epiphany while washing my hair. I had been thinking about getting really brave and asking if maybe there was room for another 24 character in the bar; Kate Warner just clicked. She made her first appearance in the bar in January 2008; Ben Wade followed about four months later.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

I've lost a lot of sleep in the last four years. (So say we all!) I've met a metric ton of incredible writers, and made a lot of phenomenal friends -- hell, one of my milli!BFFs moved to Kentucky, and we've been housemates for two years, now. I flew to Canada last year to chill with K-face, and she even let me drag her to Toronto for a Sarah McLachlan show at Massey Hall. moofoot and I have road-tripped to Ann Arbor to hang out with ceitfianna, caught an incredible Punch Brothers show at the Ark, shared pizza and laughs with the_croupier while watching Master and Commander. Fi even came down to join our Thanksgiving for Wayward Souls a couple of years ago. I've been fortunate to be out in New Mexico twice, now, to chill with thebattycakes (and drag her to a Sarah McLachlan show -- what can I say, I freaking love the woman's voice), and Bat has come to Kentucky to indulge in some bona fied fried chicken from Ramsey's, and watch the horses run at Keeneland.

None of these things would've happened without this place, guys.

I'm nowhere near as active as I used to be (or as I want to be), but not a day goes by that I don't e-mail or text several of you, or think of y'all in some capacity.

So, before I get too misty-eyed over here, I'll just say this: <333

[ceitfianna]

*twirls you* I think that's what I love about Milliways, the RP is at the heart of how we know each other, but the community is so much more.

I need to get back down to Kentucky as well. I want to see the new place and how Apollo has grown.

[nocarename]

I was reading tremendous amount of fanfic, including some Ghostbusters stuff. Well, rather a lot of GB stuff actually.

Anyway, I was linked to Cam's journal for Ray after reading her work at the Pit of Voles, and then I followed the links back to Milliways and I thread stalked basically the whole bar for several months.

I decided I wanted me some of that, so after much consideration and many failed bashing of my head against the keyboard, I apped Jerry. Mostly because anyone who can read through an alien invasion is a pup for me. That and the terrible puns.

That was (great googly moogly) not quite four years ago. I've... added and diversified some since then.

[ceitfianna]

Cam's Ray is one of the treasures of the Bar and puns definitely have their place in Milliways.

[herdivineshadow]

I think it was canadabear who was pretty much responsible for alerting me to the existence of Milliways. I knew her from MESPT annnd I think I lurked here on and off for a while, before overloading on the first two Transporter films for one week and I ended up apping frankmartin to get him out of my head.

Then I got hooked on the crack that was BBC Robin Hood and landlesslord spewed out of my brains after that.

[ceitfianna]

Hee, I love how we have these wonderful chains of introducing and enabling amongst ourselves.

[genarti]

Back in 2004, I had friended strange_selkie because, well, I'd just finished college and I was easily bored, so sometimes I went wandering on metaquotes and friended people who'd been quoted saying entertaining things. I didn't really know her and she didn't know me, but her LJ was cool, so!

And then she started talking about this awesome brand-new game some friends of hers had started, that she was playing in. And, well, the aforementioned boredom had meant I'd lurked on another LJ RPG or two without feeling any particular desire to join them, so I wandered over to lurk for a bit!

Within a few days, I had made a list of characters I might be interested in playing; within another day or so, I had narrowed it down to Will Stanton, made sign_seeker's journal, and tossed him in.

Seven and a half years later...

[ceitfianna]

It really pulled you in fast. I always loved what I read of your Will.

[guppy_sandhu]

A school friend - who never played after I joined XD.

And Guppy was a last minute switch, because initially I was planning to play Abs Denham as my first pup (he was, instead, my second pup and a total flop). Had I done so, perhaps the world as I know it would not be the same...

I was massively ignorant of his background, occupation, and somewhat lacking in sanity (not to mention a seventeen year old schoolgirl with a strict internet curfew). Fortunately, after the first few months, I got a kick up the arse, a helping hand from Maru, and never looked back.

[ceitfianna]

Aww, I"m sorry it didn't work for your friend and glad you found the right character to start with. Guppy is such a part of Milliways.

[skidmo]

I was playing Lorne in a game with misslucyjane and rowanberries, and they would occasionally talk about this Other Game in massive, rambly, ooc side conversations, and I was intrigued, and also nervous as hell at the idea of playing somewhere else, especially somewhere as massive as Milliways.

I eventually got up the nerve to app someone, but Lorne was the only character I played, and at the time I couldn't fathom how on earth someone could keep track of more than one headvoice at a time. (HA!) There was a Lorne on the cast list, and I wasn't sure what to do as my second choice was Zelenka, who was also on the cast list. misslucyjane suggested I try Teyla, and voila! There I was.

[ceitfianna]

I remember that feeling too of but how do you do multiples?

And then the headvoices just keep coming.

My story

[ceitfianna]

As dynastessa said above, I haven't told my story so I will.

I got connected to Milliways through Danii who I went to college with and was one of my players in my Changeling: the Dreaming LARP. After I graduated and traveled we stayed in touch and she started linking me to Milliways and introducing me to various possible ideas to play. I went up to NYC for her birthday party in I think 2007 where I met Cam and Rue and other people who's names I've forgotten. At the time it seemed like I might end up apping a hobbit as that was my biggest fandom love of the time, but it didn't happen.

Then a little later, Danii came down to visit me and introduced me to Supernatural and Slings and Arrows as well as playing. We kept talking and just before she got on the train to Philly, I had this moment of wait, what about Will Scarlett. Will's been in my head since I was twelve, so I hopped on the train and things came together. She helped by making me icons though finding James was pure luck. Just at the tail end of the February app period, I sent in my app, amazed no one had taken the username will_scarlett.

Then I moved to New Zealand to try and write a thesis and began playing. Cam and Danii gently led me in and then as I had the time I tagged out and was pulled deeper and deeper in. It was a tricky learning curve but I'm coming up on five years at the end of this month.

Re: My story

[spooky-lemur.livejournal.com]

I love that one of your signature pups is your first. = ]

[lordoflorien.livejournal.com]

It's all because of gypsyjr! Becky and I have been friends for many, many years. I believe we met through Farscape fandom, but don't quote me on that. Anyhow, I had been lurking around Milliways since 2005, but it wasn't until 2007 when Becky said, "You know what you should do? Play Leela at Milliways," and made those puppy eyes at me that I finally jumped in, January '08.

I can't encompass how different my life would be if I hadn't. So many of my most cherished friendships are a direct result of meeting through Milliways, and have lasted through people coming and going, deleting and changing pups, and all the hills and valleys of life. I ♥ you all.

[ceitfianna]

Yes, Milliways is amazing in how it ripples out to change your life.

[death_gone_mad]

Blame elffreaky. In her usual fashion, she talked my ear off about this and that, and headvoices, and I thought, "Great! She's hearing voices and seeing characters having non-canon adventures! Why do all my friends go crazy? ;_;" Yes, I knew back then that RP was a thing, but those of you in chat know that Ro is horrible about providing context. Besides that, her going crazy was a better fate for her than being a RPer.

I had a very negative opinion of RP back then. Rampant godmodding between Mary Sueish OCs was all I had experienced so far. If she had started talking about Sonic the Hedgehog OCs(THE HORROR), that would have ended our friendship. Seriously, Sonic the Hedgehog attracts the crazy.

But! OCs never popped up and I finally caught the name of the RP. So I lurked about a year or two while she kept suggesting pups I should app. Finally I caved and apped Evil Chicken, partially to spite her and partly to cause trouble. But that never panned out and I lost the voice.

Yes, I am an evil mun and a jerk.

But! researching Evil Chicken's past and trying to find his motivation led me to Amascut, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

[ceitfianna]

Even with context, Milliways is still confusing. I"m glad you found a way to play.