Waiting Room: OOC Thread

[Bailey Raptis]

Hi everybody! I decided to pull out the "Nova Liberdade" thread from its original home of Beyond the Veil (and many many thanks to Jewell's player for letting me post it there previously!) because it felt like it made sense for it to be its own thing now. I still plan on posting Bailey's personal storylines to Beyond the Veil, as long as Jewell will have me there, but future posts dealing with Bailey/The Regent in Red/Nova Liberdade/The Stolen Ones Court will go here. The separation in storylines makes sense to me -- apologies if it's confusing to you.

That said, welcome everyone!

[Jaycy Ashleana]

Woohoo!

Congrats on the folder! <3

[Morgan LaLuna]

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Gotta love that new folder smell!

[PrlUnicorn]

Congrats on the folder!

[Elessaria]

:: long-time fangirl squeal::

[The Regent In Red]

So, it's...been a while. Please forgive me for a bit of "main character syndrome" or narcissm here, but I think this is important to get off my chest. Depending on how you track it, it's been a year and a half (since I've been around RP at all), two years since my last duel, and somewhere in between where I started to pull back. 2021 was when the world started taking its first steps toward the new normal, I started working in office a little more, and anxiety and other personal things I won't go into started kicking in. I was definitely burned out, and needed a break, and it just...carried on for a long time. 2022 was arguably even worse of a year for me -- I dealt with my fair share of minor but annoying health concerns, then had a double whammy when my grandfather passed away, followed by one of my cats the night before I was scheduled to fly out for the funeral. So it's really only been recently that I've been able to even think about a return.

And it feels like it's been a rough year for the community too, with the passing of Panther, Mason's player, and Mist's player. I am sorry for their loss, and wish I could have been around to say something at the time. All I can offer is the sadness that I felt when I discovered they had passed away, and so I'm offering that now, for whatever it may be worth.

I wrote my first post in nearly two years today, and it felt good, but I'm still sort of feeling my way around how much time I can dedicate to writing/dueling/RPing. I'm gonna do my best to do what I can, when I can, but it may very well turn out I have limits on my time and attention span that I didn't have before. But that said, I hope I'm able to flex those creative muscles, both alone and in collaboration, with all of you fine folks.

Thank you for welcoming me back again.

Ben

[Jaycy Ashleana]

I'm sorry for the trials you've had for the past two years. I know that doesn't do it justice but know I am sending virtual hugs and well wishes for a good 2023.

As for you playing/writing - do what you can/feel is appropriate for you! RL always comes first and we'll generally be here. In the meantime, I'm happy we'll get to enjoy what you do have time to share.

[Josette Wheeler]

So sorry for the losses of your loved ones and the health concerns you were experiencing. It’s wonderful to have you back. Whenever you have the time, energy and inspiration to play or write, I always look forward to reading your words.

[Bailey Raptis]

I’m not going to bury the lede here. Barring a major change of heart from me, I’m stepping away from dueling, writing, and live playing here. It’s probably not surprising, given the fact I’ve been away for about six months now, was only back for a few months prior to that, and had stepped away for a couple of years before that, but I feel like my current work/life obligations, a muse that’s been less than cooperative with the ideas I was working on here, and a lack of interest in dueling have led me to this point.

I’ve been around a long time, I’d like to think, since 2007 if we go back to the old Dragon’s Mark/Red Dragon Inn forums (even if I’ve taken a number of breaks over the years), and before I left, I did want to thank some folks I played, dueled, and wrote with over the years, without whom I would not have had nearly as much fun as I did over the years. I’m sure I’m going to forget some people, so I apologize in advance for that.

• Lydia Loran: If Carley hadn’t come up to my first RDI character Glenn years ago and been curious about why he was fixing a chair at the Inn, I might not have stuck around as long as I did. It took a while to get my feet wet there, and she was one of the very first if not THE first character to interact with mine. You were full of fun and funny ideas, and you were an amazing artist to boot, and I’m glad I still have some of the character art you created for some of my oldest characters. I’m sorry that you weren’t able to stick around here, but I’m happy for the time we had playing together.
• Johnny Smith: Put simply, you were one of my favorite RDI hosts, I always had a blast writing and playing with you, and I miss having your creativity around.
• Koyliak: You’re one of the main reasons I got into dueling in the first place, both IC and OOC. You gave Locke the nudge he needed to step into the rings in play, and then you were incredibly helpful in those very early days when I was learning the nuts and bolts of dueling. More importantly, the Benson Boulevard fashion setting you conjured up shaped both Locke and Bailey’s characters immensely, and I’m glad you allowed me to play in that. I’m sorry I won’t be able to help out for future Fashion Weeks – the times I’ve spent either having a character catwalk, or helping Koy out with MCing it, were incredibly enjoyable.
• Candy Hart: The Jay/Candy storyline was some of the most intense writing I’ve ever done, and you did such a phenomenal job with Candy as a character. That scene where Candy admits she murdered somebody, can’t be honest about it because she feels she has to turn Jay away, which then led to Jay’s first werewolfing out, is one of my most stories I’ve ever been a part of.
• Samiyah Zayn: The relationship that developed between these two over the years, from Sami pretending to be Jay’s boyfriend to get Candy’s evil eye off of him, to it turning into an actual relationship, complete with a kid, is one of my favorite things to have written over the years. Also, I’ll extend this over to include thanks for all the Wrecking Crew folks, for folding Jay into that storyline over the years. I’m sorry I was not around more to make that more of an ongoing thing, but I enjoyed what I was able to do with it nonetheless. Thank you.
• Katarina Smith: First off, I wanted to thank you for making time to RP with me in 2009-2011 when I was incredibly busy with grad school. My time and my mental energy then were very limited, and it meant a lot that we were able to RP and write some fun stuff then in the midst of a hectic time. More generally, I’m glad we were able to write and develop an interesting relationship with Locke and Katarina, and I’m sorry my general flakiness over the years meant a lot of it ended up having to go to vapor. I loved the story we managed to tell, and you were a great writer and patient with me and all my time issues, and I will always appreciate that.
• Real RhyDin: This is a bit of a cheat, because so many of you have been helpful to me over the years in so many different ways. Hope, Eden, Jewell, Kheldar, Dakota, Gloria, Gren, Jaycy, Michelle, you were all great in allowing Bailey to come onto the team, even if, ultimately, I was not as active a member as I could have been, for a lot of different reasons. Beyond dueling though, many of you were integral to Bailey’s story, writing scenes with me, giving me inspiration, and letting me loop into ideas you had. I’m sorry that it seems unlikely that the muse will let me put down the words to finish the story, but know that Bailey has a happy ending, and he’ll always think kindly of the RRD folks, as do I.
• Mallory: I’ve said my piece about your public-facing role already, so I’ll just point people there. On a personal note, you were always a blast to duel against, and even more fun to brainstorm with, write stories with, and live play with. I’m so glad we got the chance to do the Phil/Mallory, Warlock and Patron thing with them, even if my flakiness meant I never got to write as much with Phil (and all that warlock stuff) as I wanted to do. Also, the friendship between Bailey and Mallory was a pleasure to explore. Thank you for all the creativity you shared with me.

I think it’s pretty incredible that this site, and dueling in general, have lasted as long as they have. If I’m reading things right, it just celebrated its 20th birthday a few days ago. It’s survived the end of dueling on AOL, the big split from Dragon’s Mark a few years back, and a lot of fallow periods where activity had dropped to a point where it might have seemed unlikely it would make it through. It’s survived turnovers in Duel Coordinators several times over, leadership changes, the passings of several prominent players, and the departures of many folks who have been far more important to the duels and the forums than I have been. I have no doubt it can survive me leaving.

There’s probably not much reason to reach out to me, but if you’d like, I’ll be keeping an email address around, crystal.punk.ben@gmail.com, that I can be reached at, and even if that goes away, I’ve got my forum names linked to email addresses that are permanent, so you can always message me there. Otherwise, I’d just like to say, so long and thanks for all the fish!

Ben