Travis Touchdown
Reality Touchdown!
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Well... I guess this is it, then. I guess, in hindsight, it's a miracle that it's taken this long, but man if it doesn't suck to actually see it happen.
These forums hold an extremely special place in my heart. They were the first social space on the internet that I ever really stuck around long enough to grow deeply attached to, and almost two decades later, they're still one of the only ones that I've ever felt comfortable enough in to bare my soul and really lay down some roots. Other places, including multiple stints across most of the major social media platforms, have come and gone in the decade+ since I left here, but this place has always been my rock. To be honest, I think what we had here in the early 2010's spoiled me, and is one of the main reasons I've struggled to find a long-term online home since. What we had in those days was so magical that it's been impossible to find anywhere that compares, like those old fae stories about food so good that it makes any other food taste like ashes.
I mean no exaggeration when I say that this place got me through the worst years of my life. When I started here, I was an awkward teen entering a phase of my life that would, ultimately, go so completely and terribly wrong that I'm still picking up the pieces today. But even as everything that I had worked toward and wanted more than anything else since I was old enough to plan my future crumbled to dust around me and I began to spiral, I had this place, and more importantly, the people who made it so special, to hold onto and pull me back from the abyss. (For anyone who was around for that: thank you SO much. It meant more than you could possibly know.)
I spent years here. I originally came here to be part of the AdventureQuest community (something that I remained part of during my active time here; I remember my time with the Warmongers most fondly), and eventually found the OOC (which eventually branched out to the Entertainment Forum). It was here that I was eventually became an ArchKnight for a couple of years (Eukara, if you ever happen to read this, thanks for taking a chance on me). I never did end up having to step in much (another case of this community being such a rare gem). I still regret never actually finishing my Meet the ArchKnight thread (in hindsight, hosting a MtAK in the middle of one of the single most important school years of my life was MAYBE not such a good idea). My favourite memories as an AK, though, were the April Fools pranks we held back then. It's funny, April Fools is a holiday that I don't normally partake in (and usually find as a nuisance aside from the occasional funny joke video that game companies sometimes do), but the "SOON" prank and the avatar letter scavenger hunt were easily the most fun I've had with it.
Going back to AdventureQuest, though, one of the craziest experiences I ever had with this place was actually seeing a suggestion of mine make it into the game (thanks, Lord Barrius, wherever you are now). I know Ultraviolent Light was never exactly a popular spell, but it's a heck of a thing to see something in a game that you can point to and say "I made that". Even has a note that it was created by Travis Touchdown... which is kind of funny when you remember that Travis Touchdown is an actual character in an M-rated game series. Heh... who would have thought that the one time I used an actual character's name as a username, it would actually matter. :P (Also, on that note, it's wild that, despite being a niche character at the time, my namesake would not only get two more games in his series a decade later, but even make it to Smash Bros.! ...As a Mii costume. Make him a full character in Smash 6, you cowards!)
All told, it was a crazy ride. I'm gutted to see it all come to an end, even if I haven't been active here in over a decade, but I'll be holding onto the memories we made here for the rest of my life.
Love you all, guys. Take care... in the Garden of Madness.
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