Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Sorry for my extremely untimely absence...again. But I was only in a medical room, so it didn't directly affect anybody. Should we PM Promised, Selphie, Aqua and sconnolly saying that we're still semi-alive? Just an idea, not really sure if I should post - still have my accursedly long-term writer's block sweatdrop ))

Kuragari rolled over and slowly opened her eyes.

"I wonder if I could get away with skipping today."

A high pitched, "don't think so," came from Chi's cage.

"Just shut up and let me sleep."

Rolling over Kuragari tried to get back to sleep but couldn't. "When do we have a day without school I need a full days sleep!"

A high pitch laugh left Ch's cage as Kuragari threw her pillow at it.

"I SAID SHUT UP!!!!"

Getting up Kurgari started getting dressed before going out to the kitchen and getting some blood. Making Chi's breakfast she went back into the room to feed her before heading off to the cafeteria to see everybody before class starts.

acarian woke up to the sound of his alarm going off. slightly dazed, he smacked it off of his dresser and got up. "well, i had a good time last night...." acarian said, pulling on pants and walking out of his door to the cafeteria.

acarian walked into the cafeteria, to the nearest seat, and fell over sleeping. "guaaa, im so tired.... maybe i shouldn't have stayed up so late last night..."acarian thought as he laid there.

acarian sat up as he saw kuragari walking over to his table carrying a large tray full of food.
"Sorry if I didn't get anything you like but I wasn't sure what you wanted."
"well, isn't this a nice surprise, but i'll eat just about anything." acarian said, grabbing a pancake and rolling it up, then taking a bite. "needs syrup..." acarian said grabbing a little syrup packet off the tray and pouring it on. taking another bite, he turned to kuragari. "so, how did you do last night?" he asked.

"thanks" acarian said, downing 2 of the cups of coffee in a few seconds. "blood and chocolate? eh, could be good.." acarian said, taking a bite of hash-browns.

((Hello everyone. This is PromisedSword. I would like to state this formally, where everyone can see it. I know I've been absent, and that is most of why I want to say this.

I regret to inform you all that I am closing Artemis Moon Academy.

I have had so much fun over the last seven months. I'm very glad I started this RPG, and am glad to have met the friends I did. But, despite the incredibly admirable efforts of my two co-mods, I think it's time we closed down the school, if you will.

I think, that if blame were to fall on any one person, it would be me. I wanted a detailed roleplay, which meant I had to be able to put in a lot of time, and while I was able to put that time in over the summer and during the first part of school...I wasn't able to keep up the same level of commitment and discipline later on.

It's my personal belief that the internet is a viable and, even wonderful form of community, but I also think that as such, you have to be committed to maintaining the things you start, and devoting the time and energy required to keep everything flowing smoothly. You can't just take and take--it's not like that: not real life, and not the internet.

If this had been a school project I had started with classmates who saw me in person everyday, I would have had to do the work no matter how inconvenient it was: whether I had already been given a lot of work, i still would have had to set aside time to accomplish the tasks I was given. I still would have had the responsability...and I wouldn't have been able to avoid it. If I had failed to complete something when it was due, my group would have gotten on me because of it. I would have had to face the consequences.

But that's the problem with the internet: the responsability is the same, but if you shirk that responsability, you don't always have to face the consequences. If that same project had been, for example, another RPG, and you a mod, even when you fell behind on your duties, it wouldn't have been the same. You don't have teachers and parents breathing down your neck telling you to post. If another member PMs you, you could just ignore it, delete the PM, or reply and just outright lie about it. And you don't feel as bad about it, because despite how close you might feel to someone online, there is still a degree of separation between you. You are removed from them.

And for many people, that is a shield which they can hide behind. Some people are at their best online...but others are at their worst. I can't count the times I've seen a discussion dissolve into fights that could peel the paint of barns (to quote DramaCon). There are whole communities dedicated to tearing down others. It's this sense of anonymity that allows thousands of people to be their absolute cruelest, meanest, darkest...

Because I have seen both the dark and the light of the internet, because I regard it as something both sacred and deadly, and because I consider myself a person with a fair measure of integrity and intelligence, I have tried to be responsible online: to contribute, instead of just take; to give, instead of just receive; and to treat others with kindness and respect. But I think that, no matter how much I tried to work my hardest on this roleplay, it was my own negligence and laziness that was the downfall of this community.

And for that, I am incredibly sorry.

I hope that I can meet you all at a later time, maybe in other roleplays. But for right now, I don't think any of you will see me on this or any other RPG guild for a while. I think it's time I devoted the rest of the year to school. I have college to think about, too. But I promise that I will not let the mistakes I made here go unnoted. I've learned a great deal about responsability, and that is an important lesson both on the internet and in real life.

I can only hope that you enjoyed your time here as much as I did.

Thank you,
Melissa.))