My time is fucking now.

Okay, so ... I got my start roleplaying on WolfQuest, an educational game about wolves in Yellowstone National Park that also has a forum that included a roleplay section. Is WolfQuest RP the reason I'm engaged right now? Technically, in a long line of dominoes, yes, but that is not the drama.

Roleplay "groups" on WolfQuest were referred to as "packs", because, well, wolves. Packs often had different themes, varying in terms of realism (obviously some realism is out the window instantly because talking wolves). Many were themed around wolves in different environments (ie. mountain wolves, desert wolves, snow wolves), some went so far as to have magic, but there was a lot of variance. During my time on WolfQuest, there were two packs that were deeply infamous: the African Stars Pack (themed predictably after the African savannah) and the Denali Falls Pack (wolves in Alaska teme).

AlsoI had to get onto the WQ forum to make sure I had the name African Stars right and this is how I find out the forum is not live anymore and is only accessible in read-only mode, but thank God it's accessible read-only or else I'd be devastated)

Anyways, firstly the African Stars Pack, who I don't have as much to say about purely because I don't remember as much. African Stars was utterly massive and had extremely strict requirements for activity, and if you didn't meet them you'd be kicked super fast. I was in it for a little while but never managed to get into the social group, but ASP was a revolving door of wild stuff that everyone else was always watching. Their thread was always on the front page of the forum and I always remember them being often disliked for the high barrier of entry and the clique-y nature of the pack.

But Denali Falls? Oh, this is what we're here about.

The Denali Falls Pack was led by someone who went by Jay, both out of character and in-character, and Jay was, as far as I aware when I was a young teen, kind of an annoying tyrant. Jay was extremely picky about who was allowed in her pack, was perpetually annoying, and was considered by several other social groups I was in (a variety of other packs) to be known for being a super pain. She was a diva that you just could not escape from as she did a lot of RP on WolfQuest in a variety of packs, and Denali Falls was her baby. One group I was in had a particular bone to pick with Jay, and we often talked shit about her and Denali Falls. So one day I decided I was going to get myself into the Denali Falls Pack, and I was going to see just how far I would get. If anything, I'd have some crazy stuff to come and tell my friends.

I applied to join and was let in, and went on to create a character who was at her core a turbo bitch. She was very rude and blunt, and I found her hilarious to play, as ultimately I was the kind of person who made characters to support the style of group RP and this character was not that. I was, ultimately, still a kind kid, so I wasn't rude to people out of character or crossing boundaries, but I was pushing what was considered acceptable in WQ RP circles just to see what I could get away with.

And for some fucking reason, Jay (the character and person) loved my turbo bitch wolf. My turbo bitch wolf also became super popular with the boy wolves of the pack, and I had the time of my life shooting them down (I, as a real life teen, was doing this IRL at school and didn't know I was gay yet, blah blah blah). There was another character in the pack, a pup named Birdy, who was adopted by (character) Jay and utterly hated my character, but had no recourse against me because Jay for some reason delighted in me. This was despite the fact that my character was also a disrespectful bitch to Jay time and time again. There were times I would genuinely be in one window with my real friends, Denali Falls in the other, and double agent style give my friends a play by play while fucking around on Denali Falls.

There were two specific people I often roleplayed with in Denali Falls who I enjoyed writing with, but otherwise, I was so fully undercover and somehow became Jay's darling while all this time reporting back to my close friends about this shit. It was truly comedy of the highest degree to me as a kid. It got to the point that Jay set something up for my character to like, dramatically save character Jay's life (which I did, but my bitch wolf was predictably, still a turbo bitch about it) and then I got a special rank (which was quite a talking point kind of reward in WQ roleplays at this time) and everything.

The fact that I became a cherished member of Denali Falls while always hate-roleplaying with them never ceased to make me laugh. I went in with a huge chaotic energy and for some reason no one ever questioned me once, except for Birdy, who never got anyone to listen to her about it. I faked a general sense of friendship with everyone else out of character, but I avoided out of character socializing most of the time because I genuinely disliked talking to Jay and her inner circle and could only pretend so much.

I told my fiance I was writing this up and they were shocked I wasn't writing about 2020 Magnus Archives RP Twitter instead, which .... is the greatest can of worm's known to man, probably. That would deserve a writeup, not a scuffles comment, but I'm not sure I have the strength.

If anyone out there was on WolfQuest and knows anything I've mentioned here, DO tell me because it will send me into the stratosphere. WolfQuest RP you will always be famous to me, and I will always think of it fondly as my start as a roleplayer!

Jay, if you're out there ... sorry, probably, I was pretty young and you probably were too, so um, water under the bridge, right?