Sorry for the absence, I didn't get my screen fixed, but I got a cord that hooks from my laptop to the flat screen, so I'm having to use that right now. But I'm back.

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Caterina Sixx - First year Ravenclaw
Faith McIntosh - Third year Hufflepuff
Wesley Cross - Seventh Year Gryffindor
Mitchel Mercury - First year Slytherin
Jericho Vice - First year Hufflepuff
Channing McIntosh - First year Hufflepuff
Whitlock Tsunami - First year Slytherin

Hai Folks, I know its been a long time for some >.> but I'm an oldie thats coming back (again) I came back a few months ago, but I had stuff going on, so I had to skitter away back into the darkness. :3 Not now though!

A lot's changed though. T.T so I got a lot of refiguring things out.

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Going overnight backpacking in some woods, even though it's November. I'll be back Monday!

As a growing number of you are aware – I’ve been forced to step away from the server and will be gone for weeks; potentially longer if things don’t go well for me.

The following explanation is very long-winded, and I apologize for that. I just want everything out, and with the exceptions of my RL best friends, you guys the only people I feel comfortable discussing this with. Last spring, I was accepted into a college to pursue their library technician program, and this is my first semester enrolled in classes. My parents want me to finish this program as quickly as possible and applied a lot pressure, so I ended up enrolling in four courses. (Note: My parents paid for books, but I paid for tuition and fees by myself.) I have struggled with a course load like that in university, and this is my first time taking courses online. I’m not completely stupid, and I can be a very good student – but ever since my last year of high school, school has made me incredibly anxious. This time was no different and made worse by the pressure applied by my parents.

I just couldn’t handle it – I quickly fell behind on coursework, and I didn’t approach my parents for help because I was afraid I’d face the same reaction I’d met on previous occasions: disappointment, a lack of understanding and anger. I withdrew from two courses a couple of weeks ago without informing my parents. As a lot of you may have noticed – I spent a lot of time on the server, too much if we’re going to be honest. The reason for that is because when it comes to this anxiousness, roleplaying is the only thing that offers me any relief. If I read, listen to music, walk – the anxiety just sits there in my head, eating away at me until I’m so panicked it feels like it’s a struggle just to breathe. When I’m roleplaying – especially Amber – it allows me to escape my own head, to get away from my problems long enough that I can temporarily calm down. Unfortunately, the withdrawal from those two classes wasn’t enough to ease the accumulated stress.

Last Thursday, I confessed the difficulty I was having with the classes – and I was met with very reaction I was afraid of. It ended up worse than I had feared, for reasons I will not discuss publicly. I was accused by my mother of not feeling anxious, or panicking – but of just being lazy. She forced me to uninstall Neverwinter Nights while she watched, and has forbidden me from reinstalling the game indefinitely. I understand and accept her reasoning for doing so, but it’s been rough since I don’t know when I will be allowed to spend time with all of you again. Since I confessed, I decided to drop out of a third course that by this point I have no hope of passing. The final course – I don’t know if I can pass it, but I am attempting to do so. For now, when I’m not working on classwork, I’m reading, doing chores, or other tasks that I hope will help earn me some leniency. I will hopefully be seeing my family doctor in the next couple of weeks to get a referral, so I can finally to see someone about the issues I've been having.

I hope that I will be returning at the end of the semester in mid-December, but it’s too early to tell. I apologize for any RP this disrupts, but for now please just assume that Amber is “around but busy”. If I’m not back when expected, I’ll figure something out to explain her absence. I love you all, I'm sorry, and I hope I'll be able to spend time with all of you again soon.

I really hope you manage to get things sorted out. Good luck with it all...

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Local Lurker and Knower of the Unknown and Unknowable. Also a bit full of itself, and an occasional prick.

As always, take care of RL before IC. We will miss you but do what you need to do. We hope you can come back soon, but only when it's the proper time.

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-Calan

Liss Crest, Slytherin
Kalara Crest, Hufflepuff
Elizabeth Finley, The Moon

Hey, Jen here (Samantha Hathaway's player). Okay, so I just jumped on the forums so I could post this super quick, and I figured this was as good a place as any, since it's been ages since I've been in the server.

So I log in, figure hey, I'll see if the place is decorated for Christmas.. .and I end up in this gorgeous new Great Hall. Holy cow. With floo powder by the fireplace... my heart actually started to race a little, I loved it so much.

I began to wonder if they had changed Hufflepuff... Oh PLEASE have changed Hufflepuff. Ever since "Sierra's Dad" did that previous makeover on my beloved original commons from seven years back (which originally was so warm and cozy and just felt so... Huffly!) I have just hated the Hufflepuff commons. Sorry! But I did. It was creepy, and the first time I took someone in there, they said, "Drow tileset? In Hufflepuff?" Of course I didn't even know what that meant at the time. I still managed to walk the corridors of Hufflepuff, trying to ignore all the spiders on the floor (I hate, hate, hate spiders.. like Ron. "Why couldn't it have been, 'Follow the butterflies?'"). I'm sure a lot of people loved that version of Hufflepuff, it just didn't work for me on a personal level. The only reason I even bother to post all of that is so that you understand my reaction when I floo'ed into the commons today, wondering what I'd find.

Gorgeous.

Literally breathtaking, I believe I actually gasped... I love it... stunning, comforting, FINALLY it feels like "Home" again... thank you, thank you, thank you! I have no idea who did it, or when, although I'm sure it was a long time ago and people are reading this going, "Dang, that was ages ago...." I don't care. It's gorgeous. It FEELS right. Thank you so much to whoever built that, you hit the nail on the head. I can't wait to explore the rest of the place and see what I find, but for THIS long-time HP'er (over 7 years now!), it was a beautiful and welcoming experience, and I just had to let you know.

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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."(inspired by the words of Edmund Burke)
(Jennie-Bear plays Samantha Hathaway, seventh-year Hufflepuff)

Okay, follow up to my previous post... in game now, and Alesu just told me Necro did this. You nailed it. NAILED It. I just went into the Hufflepuff commons.. .I swear, I feel like taking screenshots of everything... EVERYTHING!!!!! I am so in love with it,....I just had to let you know, thank you Necro, you will get lots of little love-tells from me any time I see you, so there! Lotsa love. Gonna run around Hufflepuff and take screenies. Gorgeous. Well done!!!

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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."(inspired by the words of Edmund Burke)
(Jennie-Bear plays Samantha Hathaway, seventh-year Hufflepuff)

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The Criminal - Sliver Vortec - Expelled
The Brain - Skylar Dune - Seventh Year
The Athlete - Lance Silverston - Seventh Year
The Basket Case - Drathil Vortec - Seventh Year

"Everybody prefers to see a nut - they're more fascinating." - Penn Jillette

If it wasn't apparent or known already. I am MIA until the 22nd. See y'all then, maybe.

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I have been out at the in-laws' for Christmas. That would normally give me a lot of time to be online, except I don't have solid internet where I'm staying at night, and I've developed bronchitis and sinusitis so I'm sorta kinda just in bed whenever I'm able. Hope to be back soon...

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-Calan

Liss Crest, Slytherin
Kalara Crest, Hufflepuff
Elizabeth Finley, The Moon

Sorry I haven't been on recently, I decided to take time away and focus more on my writing so I can finish my first book which I've spent all this month doing. I'll try to be on soon, I'm able to log on at the moment as I have the game installed on another computer, but for some reason it crashes everything I go inside a chest or something you can place items in. When I first had it installed it was doing fine, but after a few times of playing it just started crashing for no reason. I may try again later though.

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Caterina Sixx - First year Ravenclaw
Faith McIntosh - Third year Hufflepuff
Wesley Cross - Seventh Year Gryffindor
Mitchel Mercury - First year Slytherin
Jericho Vice - First year Hufflepuff
Channing McIntosh - First year Hufflepuff
Whitlock Tsunami - First year Slytherin

Haven't been on for a few days, don't know when I'll be back. Sorry to anyone I had RP with, and feel free to PM me if needed for anything. Just not enjoying or feeling good about the current dynamic most days and need a break.

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Corinne Beckett - Inherited flower shop and eventually relocated to Diagon Alley.
Michael Draufy - Went to America to study native magical creatures. Still visits Anastasia.
Jade Celine - Married Peran and became a magical archaeologist.
Ana Celine - Took her revenge and vanished into the night.
Space Dog - Some say it still roams the halls of Hogwarts in search of petting.

I seem to have become an expert forum lurker, but I've been thinking of getting back on. Are there many people still around?

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Anastasia McLaren - 4th year Slytherin
Anna Daljera - 3rd year Gryffindor
Shizuka Matsuri - 2nd year Ravenclaw