Bridge Town

Hello everyone!

I want to start this off by saying that this is not an announcement for Bridge Town. It is an announcement for Myself.

As some of you might have heard over the last year of this fantastic community both originating and then growing into what it has become today; Bridge Town is my personal 'Final Fantasy.'

Do you know the story of Final Fantasy, and how it got its name and became the legendary title we all recognize today? Final Fantasy was exactly that. It was the final project. A Hail Mary, meant to be the final game a dying studio created just to see if it had any hope of becoming something. Now look at that legendary name now! What started as a Swan Song became something amazing.

Bridge Town is my Final Fantasy. I was on the verge of closing up shop. Turning off the lights, locking the doors and windows, and saying farewell to RPR. I felt my RPing career was over. But I didnt just want to walk away. That felt like quitting. I wanted to try one last thing, just to see if the ol'spark was still somewhere deep inside. I made Sable Duskbloom with a simple premise around things I liked. A cute girl, an alchemist, and a potential adventure ahead. lol

Well, the 1x1 ads didnt go too far. I was hit up by some rather uninteresting offers. The buzz was quickly dying and I wanted to really give this a shot. So, I locked in and wrote up the simple and humble setting of Bridge Town. A small town RP with characters not meant to be anything beyond this little trade outlet. And somehow... it kicked off!

I look at each and every one of you and smile so warmly knowing you came to my group. You became part of my Final Fantasy, when the bills were due and the power was out. The only path ahead for me was retirement from RPing, but you all came and filled this place. Not just with you characters, and your stories; you filled it with yourselves. A thriving community, who's been so tight knit for a whole year now. Making this place burn so warm and cozy, that even when things get slow, or when things are completely popping and all the rage! Bridge Town is such a welcoming place to sit down with, chat with any of you, and continue watching stories unfold.

You all became my Final Fantasy.

So its because of that, over the last couple weeks I've been struggling! Not with my faith in the RPs. Not with my hope for the group. You've all proven through ups, and downs, and with IRL sweeping through all of our lives surely. This place isn't going anywhere. Hell, we've even got the dream of a sequel lined up and still being talked about! How cool is that!?

So what has been my struggle?

Well, the struggle has been with myself. Looking back at it, road that once got so dark that it nearly drove me away. The realization that I had not so long ago been unhappy with myself, my writing, and even with my own fears of how my peers viewed me. It shelled me up, closed me off, and when paired with a nightmare of IRL events that swept my life, I had truly become a darker person than who I ever want to be. It bled into my stories. Into my habits and writing styles. I feel like it drove people away, while attracting a revolving door of others who I just didn't wish to be around, truthfully. I needed to get away from it all, and not be That Person any more. I needed to reinvent myself. No. I needed to find the real me again, and show that there is a balance to things.

So its with a very heavy heart that I write this. But it is the happiest, heavy heart I think I have ever felt while plugging words away here into RPR.

I'm Not Going Anywhere! And Damnnit, I want to finally be me again and let everyone know it was me who has done this!

I grasped a fading light and turned it into a roaring flame.
I took a leap of faith and landed firmly on solid ground.
I gathered a community of writers who have become my best online friends.

I became myself again, but behind a mask that I am now ready to take off...

My name is Sam, and a number of you might know me as EnkeliAgon. Once upon a time ago, I had participated in groups and other communities with some of you here! I had witnessed along side of you a lot of darkness and other troubles that plagued previous groups. I even fear still, maybe even irrationally, that perhaps I was at some point part of such darkness...

Bridge Town became my Final Fantasy, and you all have become those who I trust most and deeply care for here on RPR. You matter, here, and to me! Your characters and stories are Safe Here! No longer my Swan Song, Bridge Town I am hereby adopting, Finally, as my legacy! As my prayer as well, that THIS is who I am and who I will be recognized as. That the writer and the friend this past year you've known as Sable Duskbloom is still very much the same me. The only me that I wish to remain.

I've spent the last year of my life pouring my soul into this group. Knowing that I've surely come up short in some places, but invigorated by the fact that you all stayed. You all are still here, RPing, sharing and telling stories together. And it is now that I finally want to choke out that remaining fear. I want to stomp out that worry, and sadness I've held onto for the last year, feeling like I need to prove myself. Feeling like I needed to reinvent myself, where in truth, I just needed to find who I was again.

I'm one of the friendliest person you'll ever meet
I'm a comically edgy, and sarcastic jackass!
I'm love pretty female characters and fan-service RP. And Goddamnit if THM can himbo around the cast so comically and beloved, then I am going to keep enjoying my clearly testosterone driven fan service scenes! hahaha

But I am doing so now without this mask on any further, because FUCK is it getting hot in here! lol

All comedy and light heartedness aside though. I truly write this to you all with tears welling in my eyes. Because of how much weight I have held, worrying that the old, darkside of me would still be remembered and I might be stigmatized for it. I want each and every person to know, that I am truly sorry for who I ever was once upon a time ago. For what ever bad memories those of you might or might not have gathered because of me. I hope and pray that Bridge Town has been proof of that all now too. That I care for everyone around me. Your characters. Your stories. Your camaraderie. I am here because of you, and found myself again because I want to be myself with you.

Still Sable Duskbloom.
Still Valka Vex.
Still Willow! (where ever that goofball got off to!)

But I want to be one last thing. Sappy and emotional as this has all been for me.

I want to be Enkeli. And I want to be myself with all of you!