notary (noun);

Let’s rewind to when I first joined the community. Joining a new RPC is not easy for me ever- and the fact that I had chosen to make a blog for someone who, at the time, was a minor side character did not make this any easier for me. I was torn between being excited that there was only one other Kristen blog (more threads!) and simultaneously worrying that this was some sort of evidence of her unpopularity as a character. It was a weird headspace to be in, and, because I was new, I was trying my absolute very best to come off as a friendly, passive person to everyone I talked to. I followed almost everyone back, talked to anyone who would message me. I made a lot of friends in that first week, some of whom I still speak to, and many who I have lost contact with over the years but think back on fondly. I was followed almost immediately by the other Kristen, though we didn’t speak for several days. Soon, the owner of this blog was posting worrying ooc posts- and even though we’d never formally had a conversation, I felt a kinship with her simply over the mutual appreciation for the character we wrote for.

­At the time, I had been adopted into a group chat with a few other RPers in the community- something I was very excited about, as it seemed I had successfully integrated into the platform and at least some people liked me. These people had been around for a while and knew pretty much everyone in the community that had been there before I joined. I trusted them to show me the ropes, link me with other blogs that were active, and all that you would expect. These people will remain unnamed, because again, I am here to talk about myself and misskringle- not to contribute to anything else that is going around. In addition, last I heard, one of them has already apologized for their part in the situation I am about to detail, and that apology has long since been accepted.

That said, I do think the situation has been brought up several times in some of the other posts going around (which is partially why I came back to post this- I don’t really like the idea of people using me as a victim of something without my knowledge or input), so the information is already out there if you look, but I’m not going to start naming people and tagging their blogs. I had asked the people in this chat if they knew, simply, whether the person who ran the other (formerly only) Kristen blog was alright. I didn’t know if they spoke to her, I was just concerned about the things that popped up on my dash and wanted to know if anyone was helping or supporting her through it. I was told, more or less, that the reason she was upset was because a new Kristen blog (see: me) had shown up, and that she was very possessive of her title as Reigning Kristen and that she probably did not like that I was around, but to not worry about it because I had this group to write with. I felt, as you may anticipate, like literal human garbage. I stopped posting, avoided writing with people I associated as being “her” partners, and debated several times on the merits of sending her a message to apologize for my existence and assure her that I was not out to steal her partners. And then she reblogged my promo post. Not only that, she left a ton of genuinely sweet, supportive, and excited notes in the tags of said post, including a suggestion that we write a twin-verse together. For obvious reasons, this confused me. I messaged a neutral third party, also unnamed, who was friends with both of us but separated from that original chat I was in- and asked them to please let her know that I appreciated her comments and would love to write with her, and also that I apologized if my being around the past week had stepped on any toes or contributed to her mood. I was then told, by this person, that they had absolutely no idea where I got this information that I was disliked- and that, in fact, this other Kristen had been raving to them excitedly about seeing another blog for her character floating about but simply hadn’t gotten around to sending me a message about it yet. Again, kind of a shock, considering the initial information I was given- but I was thrilled! We started talking, I apologized (again) and she assured me that she had literally never once been upset about my presence, and her posts had been due to a very stressful and tragic IRL situation. We did start writing that twin verse- several, to be precise. We did group threads with other people. She introduced me to some of her friends in the RPC who I hadn’t yet met. We made memes, made each other graphics, added each other on Skype when that was still the primary method of outside communication.

We talked OOC constantly- shared our other interests, played video games together, even found out we shared a birthday! When I made other blogs, she wrote on those with me as well, and promo’d them constantly, and I did the same. Discord became a thing, and we moved over to there from Skype but continued talking on a regular basis- text, voice, video. I gave her my IRL phone number, and we texted there. I have spent several entire weekends with misskringle, IN PERSON, hanging out and spending time together. Both of us have introduced the other to our IRL friends, both online and in person. Here are some photos of us together at various conventions: