It was raining that day as well.

It's an anniversary of sorts.

Two years today, I started playing Spike Spiegel at milliways_bar. I thought at the time it would be fun, it would be a kick, and I was almost -- almost -- mad at sff_corgi for even showing me the community ("is this just another ploy of yours to get me to read Sam's writing?"). I made all sorts of excuses: said I didn't have the time, said my RP character was already taken, blah blah blah.

Then I took the leap, and I'm so glad I did. I hate to sound like a Spike fangirl because in most ways, I'm not: it's a kind of firm belief of mine that I can't play a character I have a thing for because that's when they turn into Mary Sues (or Gary Stus, if you want to include fandom's favorite Y chromosomal character). I can only do it when I can see the character's flaws as well as his or her strengths... and boy, can I see the flaws. One thing I love about Spike and his universe is that no one in it is perfect. A lot of times, the people aren't very nice (even the good guys). They're conflicted and they're complex and they're multifaceted and they're so, so human.

It's also a great canon. I definitely fangirl the canon more than any one character, and I've played three characters from that canon now. It's so rich and complicated, and the world it's set in is thought out so well, and it's so full of pitfalls and the characters repeatedly stumble into them even when they can see them looming right in front of them... just like real people. They get trapped, and they have moments of love and of hate and of greed and of generosity and of simplicity and of complexity and of friendship and of animosity.

There, a handful of reasons why I like Cowboy Bebop so much.

But back to roleplay (oh, look, ma, public post!), I feel I ought to thank the people who started Milliways and let me play in their playground. And I feel I ought to thank sff_corgi for poking me to take a look at it even though I was resisting its allure, and I feel I ought to personally thank lostinapapercup, whose Beth has been the perfect foil for my Spike for almost as long as I've been playing him, and who's taken him on one hell of a roller coaster ride. I feel I ought to thank all the people I've played with there -- not just as Spike but in all my other guises as well -- for making it a place that's fun enough to have held my attention all this time.

So, thanks, and this is one September anniversary I'm more than happy to celebrate. Champagne's on me.

( a few favorite Spike posts, placed strategically behind the symbolic door )