Daily Entertainment: I can't believe Ten Years Went By So Fast

[empath_wiggin]

In honor of ten years of Milliways this weekend, ladies and gents, I thought we should have a few moments to remember.

For today's Daily Entertainment:

Tell your Milliways Story! How'd you find the game? What are some of your more memorable moments both in and out of character?

And in the true spirit of Milliways... threadhop! Tell other muns your favourite stories of them and their characters, new, old, and inbetween.

Just spread the love, guys. We've been here a decade, and we're not leaving!

I love you all more than I can even express.

Comments

[damncompass]

Might as well start with myself.

I can't remember who on my LJ friends list was posting about Milliways, but I found a reference to it, and as my previous game had broken down rather spectacularly, I thought I'd give it a try. That was August of '04 when I made a Valentine journal and gave her a terrible first entrance post. A wedding and a Speaking later, Val was solidly tied up in Milliways life.

A couple years after that, I found one of my canon-mate muns actually lived about three hours from me, and on my way to see a pre-screening of Serenity (with other muns, for the record), I decided to meet her in person. She was sitting on a bench with an Evil Knits Milliways shirt, and little did I know that she'd be such a huge part of my life. I've met other muns as well, going to see canons with them, hanging out, and generally just being awesome.

I left the game for a while, mostly due to personal issues, but coming back was one of the best desicions I've made in a long time. Today, I'm in a totally different place than I was, and I'm engaged to that Evil Knits girl. Milliways has changed my life, and I absolutely know I would not be the person I am today without it and each one of you.

[never_shall_yield]

Best story, for real. You guyz. <3333

[camwyn]

I'm pretty sure I found the place because Batya kept posting about it on LJ, years and years ago, so I wound up asking what was this Milliways place and should I go and have a look. I know my first character was Detritus the troll, originally under the lj username sgt_rock; I can remember him having a very interesting extended conversation with Salieri, who was so excited to hear about the city of Ankh-Morpork that he walked off raving excitedly about the opera he was going to write on the subject. Detritus was a little tough to handle at the time, though, and I wanted a pup a bit less specifically fannish and more accessible (Pterry wasn't quite as big in the States then as he is now), so I turned to a fandom I'd known for years and years and years: Ghostbusters. I told Batya I was considering a replacement for Detritus, and should I go with Ray or Egon?

She said Ray.

I think I can safely say it made something of a difference.

[sdelmonte]

Batya is, without a doubt, an enabler.

[sdelmonte]

The time was Labor Day weekend 2004. Bill Clinton had just had heart surgery. Comic books cost $2.50. iPhones were still in the future. The Red Sox still hadn't won a World Series since 1918, and Lost was still a month away from premiering. And I had just spend the summer hearing about this thing called Milliways Bar from my wife (the one and only Batya). The more I heard, the more intrigued I was. Which was strange since I hadn't dabbled in any sort of fanfic since the early 90s and didn't really think of myself as an RPer. (I had only been exposed to D&D up close for the first time that summer, and only as an observer.)

Quietly, just to test the waters and as a surprise to Batya, I apped the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen, at the time dead and not about to get his own TV show (again). Not knowing what I was doing, I posted what I learned should have an OOM to the Bar, and then did an actual EP. I kind of stunk, and didn't really have a clue what I was doing for several months.

Since then I have apped eight other pups, tested a dozen more, and gotten involved in so many wacky things. I sent Barry into the Speed Force years before DC pulled him back out. I wrote Star Wars fic for Lando Calrissian, had Alexander Knox discover that Clark Kent was Superman, turned Sideshow Bob into a wolf and inserted him into an episode of The Simpsons he shouldn't be been in, and sent James Kirk through his canon and into the past.

I also led Barry to fall in love with Sara Sidle, and Knox to fall in love with Rapunzel. And there was Charlie's strange but fascinating dance with Sallie Reynolds. You never know who's going to connect in what way here.

And all the while, there were the people, as I have said often. Meeting friends from the UK and all across the US and even Australia for the first time. There is something just kind of amazing about getting "get well" notes from people on the other side of the planet that you became friends with because your pups met theirs and also became friends.

And I had better stop since I have work to do. Which leads to one last memory. For the first five years of the game, I played at work. Often. Sometimes all day. For the life of me, I don't know how I managed it since my work got done. Maybe life was simpler. But there were days when the call of the Bar was that strong. And sometimes, at least on a day off, or at night, the call still is.

[yakalskovich]

Playing while doing work sort of happens through multi-threading, at least for me. Doo a work item, write a tag, do a work item, write a tag, rinse and repeat ad infinitum. I did it as well until my then work changed to a remote system where everything was, theoretically, logged by that external service provider whom I didn't trust as far as I could throw them, so I stopped with the RPing at work because I was sure they'd gleefully shop me to my boss, as the removal of my person would have taken away the last impediment we had against their taking over everything and billing the company whatever they bloody wanted.

I left there in the summer of 2012 (two years already, wow!), and they promptly sold my boss an entire new virtual system...

[never_shall_yield]

Nine years ago...pretty much exactly, actually...I was heavy into 24 fandom, and used to spend nights chatting and writing fic with a fandom friend. She mentioned to me how some of our mutual 24 LJ friends had started playing here, and she herself had just picked up a minor character from the show.

I didn't understand RP at all, never having had any experience with it. I'd barely heard of table-top games, and had no clue about online playing. The whole idea seemed ridiculous, and I didn't give it any thought at all. But Milliways cropped up here and there in other conversations with my mate, and she explained how playing worked and whatnot. I was in the middle of writing a hugeass 24 fic, based around Jack Bauer being undercover with the Salazars in Mexico. I loved writing Ramon, because he was such a total mentalist. Eventually it was directly suggested that I might like to give him a go in the bar? There were a lot of other 24 pups in at the time, and once I actually understood what it was people did, I thought 'why not?'

So. I apped. I played. I fell in love. I didn't write any more fic for more than a year - hell, I don't think I slept that first year. It was completely addictive, and as I was unemployed at the time, I just chucked myself in head first. I had a bit of a gap later, when I had my daughter, but I came right back. Man, Milliways has seen me through college, and university, a death, a child, and now halfway through a Masters. I've moved house six times. I've been playing here longer than my kid's been alive, and she's fast approaching seven! That's insane to think about. And while I might have to scale back over the next year, I don't envision it ending any time soon. You guys are the best. <333

[yakalskovich]

I think I did more bloody mayhem with you than with any other mun! That 'Urq murdering Teja on a contract from Ramon Salazar' plot line was bloody WILD, and there was so. much. blood! and everybody died at least once, and Urq was mauled to death by catmonsters twice, a white one and a black one!

Also, your Javert single-handedly got me into the Les Mis fandom (helped by the fact that the movie version was the in-flight entertainment on my flight to Iceland last summer), and now I have this stack of DVDs all titled 'les Miserables' on my shelf, and play Madame Thénardier.-

[street_sparrow]

I was, before Milliways, in a game called Reparo. It died a death, but led me to join two games that have now reached the ten-year mark. Milliways, I think was down to Bansidhe who I keep trying to persuade to come back.

[runningred]

I was part of a DCU board for many years which alas, became somewhat toxic despite a strong and lovely core. I still have friends from there but found I just couldn't play there any more without feeling uncomfortable.

I went off RPing for a while but missed the challenge and reward (and distraction) of it. Six months ago I became unemployed so committed to finishing my university degree while I looked for work in my field.

I found Millyways and have never looked back! It's gotten me through stress and boredom, worry and insomnia. Not that I have a job again I can't play as much as I'd like but it really does give me something to look forward to on the weekends. (And something to distract myself with my phone during work!)

[kd7sov]

'Twas many and many a year ago...

First causes are, of course, impossible, but less-proximate causes can be traced. Way back, my brother had a friend whose mother had to be under overnight medical observation (or longer) fairly frequently. So we'd host him from time to time. He proved to be a gateway in more ways than one, but one of the things he introduced me to was Golden Sun. And that, as Robert Frost might say, has made all the difference.

I don't remember exact dates until somewhat later, but I do remember that I fairly quickly started searching for any information on Golden Sun 3. (This was back in '04, so I was a bit early on that point.) I suspect I've misremembered the details when I've recounted this before, but one way or another this led me to fanfiction.net, and thence to the Protectors of the Plot Continuum and the Official Fanfiction Universities project. There I found another thing, called "Suedom", about which I now remember almost nothing. But somewhere in the peripheral links was something about Milliways, where the authors played, along with an encouragement to guess which characters were theirs. (To this day I have no real idea how to do that except by comparing characterization and playstyle with known portions of the mun in question's list, but I digress.) This was my first real exposure to text-based RP, and I was enthralled. For various reasons I wanted to bring in a Golden Sun character, but my first choice - Isaac - was taken. So I worked up a Felix application, which was accepted on December 1, 2005 - the very day that applications turned monthly.

I had to leave for a while, when I lost ready computer access, but once I got my own computer I came right back, and I don't foresee ever leaving again. (Going inactive, certainly; I'm already good at that.)

[leeshajoy]

I don't remember the exact circumstances that led me to finding Milliways... I think I was searching for Hitchhiker's Guide fandom stuff in the wake of the 2005 movie? I had never seen any kind of RP like this before. I did a bit of roleplaying with OCs on the official ReBoot message board more than a decade earlier, but the idea of a megacrossover like this one was new to me. I started off specifically following the adventures of Wash from Firefly since I had recently discovered that fandom, and by the time I had gotten about a third of the way through his memoried posts I was hooked. I apped a certain blue Guardian in October of 2006. He first stumbled in on Halloween day, and the rest is history.

(You know what really scares me? I've been here for almost eight of the ten years Milliways has existed. I still feel like one of the new people.)

[bjornwilde]

I found Milliways from an old player (Kali921), who kept talking about the things she got up to there and quoting threads. It had been a long time since I had played a table top game or an email based RPG so I decided to check it out. I went with a touch of crazy for my first pup, Emperor Norton; who was quickly followed by H.E.R.B.I.E. and then Ben Grimm. I blush to remember my early threads and just how much grammar I had forgotten. I like to think I am a much better writer now--at least technically--but either way, I love you guys and am so glad I came.

As to my most memorable threads, I think I'd have to say Ben Grimm, Jennifer Walters, Clint Barton, and Hercules is still one that makes me grin proudly. I also loved the crack of HERBIE being John Constantine's cleaning service for a while. I also loved the doomed romance that was Thalia Grace and William Evans.

[takingthechance]

I kept hearing about this new RP game on through friends feeds, but I'd only played in small games before. I think the reason I joined is because of the no original-character thing - my last RP was chock full of mary sues (omg, the one that was a ranger and an elf and prettier than Arwen and had tie-dyed chain mail, augh).

Most memorable moments? ... Oh lord. The ever-evolving chaos that was Raven and Ace, the 'hey lets go blow up the Academy' plot (y'all are still so evil it's awesome), the dungeon crawl, waaaay too many late nights...

[damncompass]

Oh, man. The Munchkin Dungeon Crawl, you mean? That was amazing.

[the_lioness]

Good gracious, how has it been ten years?!?

I forget how I found Milliways, to be honest. I think it was mentioned on my friends list right at the start, so I checked it out and soon found myself returning to catch up on what had happened in the bar on a daily basis. I was instantly invested in characters like Tonks, Fleur, Tom, Bernard, and of course, Aziraphale and Crowley. I'd toyed around with fanfic, but had never done any RP. I looked at Milliways and thought okay, that's really awesome but I could never, until I saw someone playing Thom of Trebond. Playing Thom brilliantly (Hi, Ji!). I didn't even blink before sending in an app for Alanna. She arrived in the bar around August of that first year and I've been having a blast ever since!

My first entrance post makes me facepalm so hard, you guys. I had no idea what I was doing. It's hilarious. I forget how many characters I've had over the years. So many memories. Manuel! Curry! Strip bullshit! Loompaland! Baseball! THE ZOGG. *commands the bird armies*

This community has seen me through major health problems and other assorted real life crap. No matter how bad things got, the people here stuck by me and always made me smile, regardless of whether or not RP was actually involved. I am so thankful for all the friends I've made here. I'm now in a happy relationship with one of my favorite former RP partners. Most of my best friends have played here at one time or another. Any way you look at it, this place is a huge part of my life. So thank you, both current and former players. <333

[mighty_avenger]

Like so many things in my life, it is all Heather's fault. XD

Okay, that is unfair. The blame is shared. I think I first heard about the game from Patty, who doesn't play anymore, but regaled me with an involved story about The Gunslinger, which she also preceded to make me read.

But is was Heather who was still playing and was like "sure, you should totally app somebody that's 100% not a silly idea." Two years later I'm still here, with two more characters to boot, but I guess that all turned out okay.

[saphyria]

Way, way back, in the mists of time.... Or rather, ten years ago, I found Milliways a few days after it began, through a post on Copperbadge's LJ. I watched the game for a couple of weeks, absolutely fascinated, before apping the irascible Mogget on July 15h, 2004. He's been with me ever since. Milliways has been my first and only journal-based RP game.

It's been a wonderful home to me and my various headvoices: Yrael, Jane Drew, Westerly, the Black Rider, Frederick Chilton (very briefly), and Sunshine. Much love to the players, who make the bar what it is. May we continue to do so, for many years to come.

<33333

[yakalskovich]

I never knew you had a Chilton!!!

[1nv1nc1ble]

I followed Camwyn's fiction in, finding it through a mutual friend, who linked over to the Hellblazer/Harry Potter crossover she was writing. Ended up sitting in the bleachers, watching the fun and games, while I tried to figure out who to start with. I passed my two-year Milliversary last month (both times, the Really, Real World has been intent on me not noticing it until it's too late), and while I'm not as far along in Mark's canon as I'd like to be, I'm still having fun.

[minkhollow]

Once upon a time, a high school graduate was catching up on LJ before work (or, well, sometime during the day) and saw that Nny had made a drunk post with a GREAT IDEA FOR A GAME YOU GUYS, and a sober!post the next morning that she intended to run with it.

It seemed like a good way to pass the summer, so she tossed a character in. Pestilence (Good Omens flavor) didn't quite take, but Jane Lane did for a while.

I have an easier time with Milliways being 10 years old than I do with the fact that I've been out of high school that long. I remember wondering what would happen when fall hit and the bulk of us were back in school - what happened was multiple 100+-post days, often in a row.

I never expected to end up in a relationship with someone I met online, but that's still going strong not quite eight years after it started (hi, Quinn!). I also have a tendency to remember the game as starting on June 28th when I think technically it's the 29th, but hey, the 28th is an easy anniversary for me to remember. XD

Memorable moments: Plot With Rocks In, both times. The Allpocalypse. The fucking were-wieners (not least because they finally got Cata and Medic to kiss). Tango: Maureen, brought to you by Sam and Alyx. ETA: Oh, and Ro-Man, former fixture of the cells.

[yakalskovich]

I saw the original drunken post of game foundation on my LJ flist the morning after it happened, as Nny, one of the founders, was in the old Discworld RPG where I played as well. I apped one of my minor characters from that game to Milliways, as coming in from there (that was still possible then), and tried to limit playing time. I observed the game from a generous orang-utan arm's length as I didn't want it to eat my brain, but then the Discworld RPG dried out as people went to Milliways, and I let myself be persuaded to app Asar-Suti, for plot reasons, as a favour to somebody who had by them mostly deserted the DW RPG and whom I missed. Just for a fortnight or so, until she had what she wanted from him, plot-wise. Unfortunately, the purple puddle of numinous lava grew on me...

And then stuff happened, and I was completely riveted; however, after about two years, I followed Sal (the mun of Gil Whimple, the faun) to an else!game, the now late lamented Morningstar Manor, which was a posh apartment building in an unnamed American city, with supernatural stuff (but no vamps or weres). I mainly played there until the game faltered, five years and one move from GreatestJournal to InsaneJournal later. In the meanwhile, I had apped Teja to Milliways, coming in on a weird tangent via a PB I had in MM, and then, he put down roots here, and when MM faltered, I extended myself into Milliways more. Urquhart, Poins, Hannibal, Father Harman and a number of secondary characters followed, and now, I'm still here and don't mean to change that any time soon. Lady Margolotta is still my oldest character; if we count her journal ported over from LJ as one and the same, it's older than Milliways itself.-

[genarti]

Back in summer of 2004, I had recently added strangeselkie to my friendslist because of something entertaining she'd said that had been Metaquoted. And in early July, she started talking about this awesome game some friends of hers had just created, and how people should come play!

I'd just finished university, and I was kicking around in my parents' house jobsearching; I'd never RPed before exactly, but I'd lurked on a couple of games and done some broadly similar collaborative writing on a bulletin board I hung out at. So I thought, sure, why not? I lurked for another week or two, pondered my character options, and then made a Will Stanton journal and brought him in. (No apps in those days, IIRC -- I think you just joined the comm and waited for the mods to approve it, and then you were good. Maybe there was a very bare-bones app, of the "name, fandom, mun journal, okay cool" sort.) sign_seeker and two icons, and no idea about half the canons his fellow characters came from.

My playing time has gone down a lot -- being unemployed with no local friends to hang out with gives one an astonishing amount of internet time -- but I'm still here, ten years and a bunch of of characters later. And a whole lot of my social circle and most of my closest friends are thanks to Milliways.

It's pretty excellent. :D

[sdelmonte]

IIRC, you were the one who told Batya about the Bar.

Thanks.

[varadia]

I found Milliways via some Aziraphale/Crowley fanfiction in Nny's journal, so then I started lurking and reading threads, old and new. Someone on the forum linked to the Jive Magazine article, and reading it and how they talked about the players (and new players) made it seem like maybe I could find a good start there, having never RP'ed online before.

So I was thinking and thinking on who to play that would be 'easy', and I fixed on Raven. I thought he'd be a light comic relief character to get me my feet in the game, and then I'd swap to someone with more story potential who would be a bit longer-lasting. Ahahahahaha. Ha. 9 years ago, June 13th. Yes, I missed this year's Milliversary. Whoops.

I didn't have AIM the first week and change in the game, but I went around tagging all the awesome characters I had on my list of 'awesome characters' from when I was lurking. This led to me getting swept into the Doverplot, which was pretty much a fast-paced crash course in all the game IC and OOC dynamics I had been wondering about, and I met a lot of awesome people, and here I am still today!

[vivien]

Doverplot.... Oh man, that was such a good plot.

[not_my_sandbox]

I blame annalaliath for dragging me in with her constant babbling about Milliways and her pups. Admittedly, I hated it at first, since all my experience with RP was of the Sueish type and secretly I plotted to break things up. But, strict enforcement of rules that discourage OCs and that encourage Fun Pretendy Times, plus a whole bunch of muns that actually gave a damn about whether they were playing their pups right as evidenced in the Daily Entertainment answers (which are a brilliant idea, btw) eventually won me over. I had been comment RPing with myself via a variety of sockpuppet accounts anyway, though most of it was absurdist humor type stuff, so I figured, what the hell, these people seem alright, mostly.

So, its been maybe three or four years? Um... what sticks in my mind are all the times Amascut and Yrael got silly on catnip because I am a horrible person the end. Also Amascut helping to kill big horrible monsters in OOMs because that is what she is supposed to do.

[rustedtoaster]

I turned up in the summer of 2007. I'd graduated from college the year before and had just moved back home after a six month internship at Walt Disney World. Needless to say, I had an insane amount of free time on my hands. This led, as it so often does, to surfing the internet far more than is healthy.

I came across Milliways by sheer chance, following links from Avatar The Last Airbender fan communities on Livejournal. I'd played tabletop RP off and on for years and had dabbled with written games in high school, so I was intrigued. A month of lurking later, Stitch crashed in to the game. It's kind of funny, my tabletop characters had all tended towards cautious and pragmatic. I can safely say that he's much more fun.


There have been ups and downs in the years since I first found this place. I've made friends here which took me by surprise way back when. Internet friendships were a thing I wasn't aware happened. These days I can honestly say that if anyone were to suggest it wasn't I would probably laugh. The friends I've met through Milliways have been around through those same ups and downs I mentioned above. We've argued, we've watched movies from different locations, we've conspired and we've geeked out. Mostly we've laughed. So, thank you, Milliways. Nearly seven years in and I keep finding my way back. Here's to the years to come.

[minkhollow]

Other Millimemories that deserve a separate comment:

"Chuchu, did you spike the absinthe?"

That time Carmen Sandiego stole Bar. (Fun fact: Bar as we know and love her wasn't properly around for the first six months or so of the game. It was a while before Sirius did the spell, and then Carmen Sandiego, and then someone attacked her at Halloween...)

The Emergency Potato.

[bcgphoenix]

I'd been doing LJRP for a few years before I found Milliways -- almost exclusively X-Men RPGs, including a powerswap RP I co-modded with newredshoes. Fall of 2004, I left to study abroad, which entailed dropping a lot of my games.

Then two things happened while I was in Ireland.

1) As part of a care package for my 20th birthday, my mom sent me the Firefly box set.

2) This thing called "Milliways" kept popping up on my f'list. It wasn't an X-Men RP; it was bigger. You could bring in characters from ANYWHERE. What madness was this?

Madness that was right up my alley, because crossovers had been my jam ever since I got into fandom as a wee Phoenix. :D

Apping somebody while my daily Internet access was trimmed to "a couple hours in an Internet cafe down the street, plus super-brief glances at the news in the campus computer lab," seemed like a really, really dumb idea. But the instant I was home? I wrote up an app for my favorite Firefly character: the good-natured, class-clown pilot who could fly like a man possessed in moments of deep stress. December 20th, 2004, flybywash walked into the bar.

I have never stopped loving this place. It gave me some of my closest friends; it gave so many nights of laughing and crying and pure joy that I can't even count. It gave me the confidence to move out west on a whim, knowing I'd have people to catch me. (And who caught me in ways none of us expected, for that matter. Denver was kind of a trial by fire for everyone.) And storytelling-wise...damn, some of the collaborations I've participated in -- the Academyplot, the House of Leaves plot -- aren't gonna be topped for a long time.

I've kicked around here for a third of my life, and I wouldn't be who I am without this crazy game. I love everyone in this bar. <333

[sdelmonte]

I remember tagging Wash with Barry Allen, and then going home to tell Batya how we had a Wash in the bar now! Seems like it was yesterday.

[silveraspen]

It was early July, ten years ago. It might even have been the 4th of July weekend, and I was driving myself and vivien from Denver to Colorado Springs. Viv spent a good portion of the hour-long trip telling me about this new story-based RPG she'd found. I was very resistant at first, because I'd played online RPGs before (MUDs, for those who know what they are, and the very occasional MUSH), and had found them to be great fun but also huge time sucks.

But it DID sound like fun, and so I checked it out and apped Captain Jack Sparrow, figuring he'd be a fairly easy character to throw in and out as time allowed, and would certainly never be the kind to get involved in any complex plots...

(Ha. Ha. AHAHAHAHA yeah that didn't work out as planned, now did it?)

Two days after that, I brought in Moiraine, and the rest is history.

I can't even begin to count the threads or even the plots I've read or participated in or both (Tower of Ghenjei, Doverplot, Academyplot, PotC, the Armageddon Clock, Midwinter and Midsummer Rising, Allpocalypse, and so much more). This game has seen me through a career change, the completion of two graduate degrees, and has been responsible for a great many lasting friendships.

I'm very glad. :)

[vivien]

I'm so glad I couldn't shut up about Milliways that day.

[aberration]

I joined in spring 2005 (I thiiink first EP was May 2), shortly before graduating high school. Actually my story is pretty similar to Write's - I knew a bunch of the 24 muns at the time who were frequently talking about the game, and I'd just written a big fic about three characters, and so ended up apping (or - I can't remember what the process was back then) one of them, Behrooz Araz.

And... now I've been through college and law school, and am still here! I've never really RP'ed outside this game or one of the sandboxes - this place has always been just very loving and accommodating for me, and is such a great, open space for writing and plotting. And I've met so many awesome people here! (Including people I live with now, ahhh!)

It's been amazing getting to know and writing with all of you, and I'm looking forward to more in the future <333

[nita_callahan]

In . . . late 2004, early 2005, somewhere around there, my sophomore year of high school, I was kind of poking around at LJRP in interest, but the one game I contacted was either dead or not looking for new players -- I never heard back from them. Then in January 2005ish, I came across this thing called Marlowe: Gay Atheist Spy, which was a fake TV show about Kit Marlowe that people were creating a fandom for in spite of the show not existing. And someone posted to the comm with a link to Milliways, because someone else had apped Kit. I read this weirdass thread where Kit Marlowe talked to Meg Giry who was currently a centaur because that was the kind of thing that happened regularly, and I checked out the comm profile and almost immediately ended up apping Henry Fitzroy from Tanya Huff's Blood books. The delay was just because I couldn't figure out what character would be best to app.

My first EP was fine; my second was A DISASTER because I didn't understand the concept that multiple threads in a single post didn't have to happen simultaneously. A couple people kindly explained Millitime to me after that clusterfuck. And a week or two in I realized that the person who would REALLY be great would be Nita Callahan.

I have incredibly vivid memories of getting home from school, sitting down with my math textbook in my lap, and obsessively refreshing threads I was involved with in between math problems. There was one night where there were about six of us, in time zones from Alaska to EST, doing a complicated Dark is Rising pre-canon thread that we managed to start and complete in one night in spite of the fact that my mom kept calling me away from the computer to try on outfits.

And there were the coffee dates I've had with friends from Seattle to London -- a cadre of muns met me in Covent Garden the first time I traveled internationally solo, which was such a bright spot in a stressful travel situation -- and the friends who have supported me through rough spots in high school, in college, in entering the work force. And also the friend I live with! Who has still not turned out to be an axe murderer.

But. Ten years on and I still don't know who played Kit Marlowe, gay atheist spy.

[sdelmonte]

High School Sophomore...It makes me feel so old that you were that young and I was essentially the same grumpy middle aged man then as I am now. And makes me feel oddly young that I got to be part of your going from then to now because of the game.

[ceitfianna]

In the winter of 2006-2007, I was back from my second year in New Zealand and reconnecting with my college friend, Danii. We had RPed a lot together in college and she kept telling me about this game. At her birthday party in NYC, I met Cam who had mittens with references to Cthulu on them and I was curious. But at that point I'd only ever played in tabletop and LARPs, nothing with fandom though I had written some fanfic. I didn't know who to play.

Then Danii came to visit me for a weekend where she introduced me to Slings and Arrows and Supernatural. As she was getting on the train back to New York, I asked, well could I play Will Scarlett. We had been tossing about me playing one of the hobbits as I love Lord of the Rings but it didn't feel right. I rode the train with her as far as Philadelphia, she helped me find icons and then with her and Cam's help, I tossed Will into the mix. I missed noting my 7th year anniversary which was the end of this February, but I love Milliways.

I didn't actually give him his first EP until I was living in New Zealand trying to write a master's thesis. It was fascinating because I learned the joy of different timezones and found people who understood some of my current struggles. Since then I've come back to the US, completed a master's in information science, had an awful job and now I'm looking again with Milliways beside me.

All the friends I've made, the way this game has helped me through rough years, how its helped my writing, Milliways is my happy place.

[theoldfirm]

I've played with your Will Scarlett more than any other pup in Milliways except maybe some of the PotC cast, and I'm not really sure about that. It's always a pleasure.

Also, Changeling!!!