Negative_Null

Thank you guys all SO much for supporting my book series! I’ve always wanted to be a writer (though I’ve never really wanted to be a writer until a year ago or so), but I’ve never had the proper motivation. With so many people who read, talk, and meme about my book, I’ve been completely willing to keep going; to the point where I’ve written my (almost) longest version yet (it’s second only to Mark 3, but that doesn’t count because the margins are weird, and the font size was 14--in Arial, no less! And I plan on writing more today [yesterday for you guys] so maybe I will break my old record before this goes up).

As a special thanks for all this support, all you lucky bugs are getting two extra chapters posted. I’ve been working hard on getting ahead of my posted chapters, and it’s paid off; I have three chapters that not even my Beta Squad has read (bwahahahaha!)

Holy cow, this RP’s only been up for a third of 2020 (yesterday was its 125th day up on the Shard). Since then it’s expanded into Side Tales, Other Tales, Mishmash Inn, a literal lore thread, and (my personal favorite) Seasonal. We’ve taken what was originally just my sheer, untamed boredom, and transformed it into the greatest story on the Shard (I don’t care if that title is self-proclaimed, it’s my Shardiversary and I can SAY WHATEVER THE SCUD I WANT). We got the most lore (okay, actually… probably not, but we can pretend we do), the most epic character arcs (*COUGH* Foxrangking *COUGH*), and the best ships ever (QUEEDRAN).

Speaking of characters… I made this specifically for today:

Probably my favorite RP on the Shard is Siren’s Call, not least because JANICE. I’d be lying if I didn’t include Crystellation, though, and I’m still really excited for KrystalFyre to make it up there with the big kids. Let’s not forget the Caped Crusaders (Xaoth the Incredible will never die), Radiant Academy (Leonie and Shen may never know who’s the better chess player), Myths and Magi (mmhmm, honey, I know honey; do make sure to say hello to Jeana every once in awhile, mmkay hon?), and The Artifacts (I wonder where it’s going…?)

I joined the Shard on October 17th 2019 (I’m assuming you guys knew that), but before the pandemic decided to lock us all in our houses for an undisclosed period of time, I wasn’t exactly active here. I think I first started meeting the community on March 21, when I started the now-dead thread “Cosmere Board Games.” Both Experience and AonEne were on there, though I doubt I knew who they were at the time.

Before The Fellowship of the Thing was put up, probably my most popular thread was High Imperial Academy. Wasing the still knowing of bright saying the say! We had McWafy, Enter a Username, AonEne, Shard of Reading, Experience, The_Truthwatcher, Truthless, Spren of Kindness, DramaQueen, Condensation, Hentient, Frustration, Negative_Null, Turtle (or… sorry, eltruT), and Scarletfox on there. This thread lasted through the beginnings and middles of the Fellowship of the Thing, and a lot of people on there turned out to be some of my closest Shardbuddies—and everyone listed there is someone I consider a Shardfriend.

I know I said I wouldn’t tag anyone for fear of missing somebody, but now I’m even more afraid of missing somebody because of that massive list up there. I can’t forget Mist, Vapor, revelryintheart (didn’t capitalize it just for you), Matrim’s Dice, Nathrangking, Emi, Ghanderflaffle, I Am A Fish, Danex, Xino, A.C., Darkfinder, Doomstick, Awakened Salad, Fritz, Kelsier’sGodComplex, Bearer of Agonies, Chasmgoat, or Spock. I also hope to get to know people like King’s_Way, HoidWasTaken, MusicalReader, The One Ring, and Aspiring Writer in the future. Dear gosh… I hope that’s everyone. I’m AFRAID.

Anyways… I had a mental breakdown just a couple days ago. If you’re wondering why I just said that, then you’re probably not alone. I have these every few weeks or so, because social distancing (*spits*) has a weird side effect of violent mood swings. During these breakdowns, I tend to think about the meaning of life, because… y’know. Consistency. During this particular one, however, I was thinking about my friends, many of whom I hadn’t seen since early March. I let my emotions guide me through my thoughts, trusting them to let me know if what I was thinking was right or wrong (that’s how I write emotional scenes, actually). When I turned my mind to the Shard, however, I didn’t expect a wave of gratitude, of all things. My parents don’t know much about the Shard, but whenever I talk about (which isn’t often), they’re always sharing concerned glances: Oh, Fadran’s on the internet. He’s talking to people on the internet.

 I try to respect my parents’ opinions because… well, they’ve been around longer, and they probably know more than I do, but if I had to say one thing that they were wrong about, then it would probably be you guys. I realized, in that moment, that you weren’t just random accounts on the internet; you weren’t even just people on the internet. I came to realize that I considered you guys, anonymous as you are, as friends. All those people I listed up there are my friends. And with so little to be proud of in quarantine, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more accomplished in 2020 than when I realized that I had been in this place with this wonderful community for a whole year.