Eventually I left the Supernatural chat rooms and went to another area of Prodigy Chat where I mostly played a new character, Tiercel, though Echo and Marie, and to a very limited extent Daloki, still made appearances. I began participating in online Dungeons & Dragons games which were pure fun.

I still remember how I sat in this very place and cried uncontrollably all through the scene where Blood Demon was skinned alive and its aftermath. In hindsight, I think I just should have closed my browser in any one of three places ... the point where it became apparent Dr. Static meant to kidnap the baby Vezhan (for whose character I'd had many plans); the point where Blood Demon agreed to Static's terrible demand; or at least when Tristan approached the unconscious Echo with the poker in his hand. I could have salvaged some control over my own roleplay story had I done so.

The crowning moment came when James tried to save Echo from Tristan. James and I claimed that he had been successful, and for that, we were branded "bunnies" - the term for bad roleplayers, usually reserved for beginners. After all the time we had been there, after all the abuse my character Echo had gone through by accepting Static's action in kidnapping Vezhan, which destroyed my own planned story - to be abused personally was the last straw. I put up a couple of pages then about my feelings; a link is provided below to these pages.

I was a roleplay addict in those days. The few years I spent in the Prodigy Classic chat rooms began with childlike joy at being accepted, at having friends (something that was rare when I really was a child), at having a place to play as an adult. I was 30 years older than most of the others but didn't let them know that for a long, long time. But my time in the Supernatural chat rooms ended in despair. Did I take it too personally? Yes. But I didn't know any other way to be. My characters were emotional extensions of myself, and that was the only way I knew how to play.

In spite of the piercing pain I experienced when my "friends" turned on me that terrible night when Blood Demon was skinned, the fact that I found new roleplay in other chat rooms made me heartbroken when Prodigy Classic closed at the end of 1999. I've never been able to roleplay online again, and I still miss it.

~Marcia