Let's jump in.

My online sobriquet of choice is Mercutio. This is the kind of name you think is awesome when you're sixteen, and the moderator of the Fanfic Mailing List is called Tybalt. I was fighting the power, man. Standing up for the little guy, the unjustly banned! That'll teach them to try and maintain control of their mailing list!

I usually go by Merc. Hi!

(Most places, Mercutio will already be taken, so there are a fair number of MMOs, discussion forums, and other locales out there where you'll find a 'Murcushio' registered. Because ripping off the Bard wasn't enough, I had to mangle the name as well.)

My first introduction to UF was fall of 1997. Kris Overstreet posted, I want to say the third part of Wilderness Station to the FFML. It was notable for being large enough to require you to download it as a file attachment, rather than being able to just read it. And I had no clue, none whatsoever, what the hell was going on. I just knew that stuff was blowing up and there were a million Wing Commander and Star Wars references I understood. That eventually led me... well, here. Well, not HERE here. The forum wasn't around then. I'm actually unsure if the website itself was either; I remember reading a lot of UF in it's r.a.a.c sub-group, but I don't know if that was by choice or not.

I know... some of the people here, I think. I know a fair few old FFML grognards float around these forums. I've met some of the production team; I'm privileged to call Phil Moyer a friend, and he's been bugging me to register here for ages. I got drunk at some con parties with MegaZone way way way back in the day. Gryphon and I spent like two hours arguing about Torpedo Spheres and DJ Croft at Katsucon once back around 2000, when they were still at Crystal City.

(He may remember me as the guy who went to the trouble of getting t-shirts decrying Eyrie's fanfiction hegemony made. Again; that's the sort of dick move that seems like it makes you a totally awesome rebel when you're a teenager.)

So yah. That's me. Talking about fanfiction was an enormous part of my life for seven years or so, then was a nonexistent part for a longer time. Recently the pendulum has begun swinging back the other way, and, well, here I am. I apologize for the rambling; I always figure that more words are better than less words.

-Merc
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