Farewell posts have always felt ridiculous to me, which is why I never made one (until now). Saying goodbye when everyone is still enjoying the party is always going to feel disjointed, which is why I just sort of snuck out quietly through the back. That was over 4 years ago and I'm pretty much irrelevant here today. For those of you that want to know how the story ends, I'll try to fill in the gaps.

Sometime around 2004 I was at a fur con where an older furry was telling me how he didn't enjoy or recognize the fandom anymore. He said that the early days of furry were all about having an appreciation for the existing "funny animals" and in the modern day the fandom transformed into something more narcissistic and personal. Instead of appreciating the popular characters it was all about creating your own and telling your own story. I can respect his opinion but at 20 I felt like he was completely wrong and couldn't enjoy the positive aspects of what furry had turned into. Even now things in the fandom have transformed dramatically and while I can't say that I grew out of it or that I don't still see great things in furry today, I don't feel like I can contribute to it anymore. The direction the fandom is going doesn't match where I would try to move it, so it makes more sense for me to step away from it.

I'm also incredibly different. In the past four years I've been married and I have two children with a third on the way. I'm finishing up a doctorate and will be a professor at a university soon. I'm sure anyone that has read my stories or is familiar with this character can understand why it would be better if my children or students didn't come across these past works. I'm not trying to be ashamed of who I used to be, but it doesn't align at all with what I'm doing anymore. I still think anthropomorphic characters are awesome and I still find value in modern furry, but it just doesn't represent me as much as it used to so I'd rather be on the sidelines. I think all of you would prefer that I stay there as well.

Let's tie up some loose ends story-wise. I have a few things that never were finished and that has always bothered me. Darnlake Botany is the biggest project that should have been finished. I knew how I was going to write it plot-wise but kept being indecisive about what message it would be sending. Ultimately, it is a story of unrequited love that attempted to explain how Denher's Kalderan Forest series began. It's ironic that his series was never finished either, but if I had time I would have tried to make a deal with him where I could have finished writing both and canonically tied them all together. There's an interesting ending that I would have wrote but sometimes life imitates art unintentionally and a better ending presented itself. I'll be too old and no one will care by the time I see how that alternate ending should be written, but that's why I never finished it. Powerful stories have a piece of the writer in them somehow and I just can't write what I don't know. Otherwise, most of my other works were about bringing in more reality into fantasy. I tried to make everything feel grounded and plausible. Most of the furry stories that I read would completely be lost in fantasy to the point where things were happening just for the sake of happening. Sometimes limitations and restraint produce a better narrative. I get the appeal of telling a story with no bounds, but working within a restricted framework creates a new set of rules and then when you can excite the reader by putting the pieces together in unexpected ways I think it makes things more interesting than just constantly adding and expanding. Hopefully that makes sense, it's just the way that I think.

As for my character, that too has changed. There exists no alternative FA page or anything else to follow. I didn't go anywhere new and you haven't missed anything. I love this wolf-dane hybrid that I've created over the years and apparently others do too because I've had actual offers to "buy" the character from me. I've always been split between being more attached to canines or bears, but I went with the canine instead. I always dislike it when people swap fursonas so I left things this way, but now this character feels like a younger self. I'd rather keep that trapped in time. None of the newer bear stuff will show up here if it builds up over time. I want to keep those worlds apart, something I can show to my children and new friends without them doing a google search and seeing something adult or inappropriate. Some things belong in their own category.

That's about it. Someday I might strip down this account as well so keep that in mind if you're attached to anything. If you truly want to stay in contact you're welcome to send me a note here on FA and I'll get you my updated contact info. I want to say that I appreciate everyone that invested time into my various ideas here. I know you'll continue to have fun without me and I'll make sure to check in from time to time just to see what you're all up to.