The Stars and the Cookie Jar

Apparently I need to say this again.

We departed Milliways happily. We were pleased with the quality of the game we had played, and wanted to leave before we could ever be less than pleased. We didn't have the time to devote to it any longer, and didn't feel it fair to hang on and phone our performances in, when so many other life commitments stopped us from playing as we wished to.

There was no wank then. Nothing internal perpetuated our leaving. It was just time.

Why is there wank now? Y'all confuse me.

I have to write a book by mid-November. Yes, a whole saleable book. That is a 1200-word-per-day commitment. Sam has to graduate sometime, and it's soon; he has twenty pages of original research due every two weeks, and his own writing.

But this having to lay out reasons is not what irks me. It irks me that I have to do this about a game. A fun, comprehensive, literate, deeply thinky game, yeah. But a game. No houses burned down because we no longer play. No feelings needed to be this hurt.

In the end, we agreed a quick departure would be best, plot threads and character interactions notwithstanding. I think neither of us anticipated the emotional wrench our leaving seemed to cause. But we're not dead. You can ping us. Sirius and Kassandra were - I am a selkie of one idea -- characters in a game.

They were wicked good characters, yeah. I'll give you that.

But aside from having clearance from the mods, our leaving was not hugely pre-planned. Nothing in our RP to that point had been. Part of the fun of the game was the haphazard, in-the-minute changes to the bar's world. Kassandra's involvement with Sirius was a spur of the moment decision on my part, inspired by a remark Sam made OOC in the Back Room. If we didn't plan that out -- a major canon-altering 'ship -- you can believe we didn't plan to Evilly Screw Everybody Over. We didn't leave to cause anybody grief, or wreck anybody's IC plans. That's that.

If you have a problem with me, come to me. If you have a problem with Sam, go to Sam. When we assumed public personae in this world, we were tacitly saying we could speak for ourselves and fight our own fights. Isn't that as true for all of you?

What I mean, when I say that, is that you are not free to approach my girlfriend with your concerns to the effect of my, or Sam's, departure from the game. You are not at liberty to upset the woman I love. The issues you have, if you still have them, don't concern her, and she's not a conduit to get to me. Yelling and wank in her direction is not effective. I hope that's really, really, really clear.

Thank you ever so.