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25 things jae is nerdy about in 2025:
1) Roleplaying on Discord (specifically: at New York Noir)
Were you like me, alive and angtsy in the 90s, consuming Anne Rice books while going to your local hobby store and scarfing up all the White Wolf books you can, and then spending countless hours in college (some might say *too* many hours) in the early worlds of text-based roleplaying games of MUDs and MUSHes?
Boy, do I have good news for you: You're not alone, and there's a place for you in Discord now.
I first discovered NYN 3 years ago, and I'll be real: don't remember how. Perhaps I was feeling nostalgic for my misbegotten youth and was looking on reddit for places to scratch my itches; perhaps I had heard of discord and was like "are there people who know what MUSHes are" or whatever
but what I found then was an amazing and talented group of writers of long-form interactive fiction (what the kids call "roleplay"), and I fell in love all over again.
Unlike MUSHes (and really, a lot of discord roleplay), NYN is very asynchronous when it comes to roleplay; because posts are meant to be at least 250 characters in length, you tend to focus on style and really crafting and describing your scene.
it ends up being like a two- (or more) person novella, that happens to be set in a New York City that's basically the World of Darkness with the serial numbers filed off. This forces the elevation of quick-form roleplay of your youth into literate art, and with all the writers being 21+, you can end up with some dark, powerful, and yes: sexy scenes.
and sometimes, you end up with lines like this, from yours truly:
> This was real life, and it started to seem like Harper was going to die alone and unmourned, probably sitting in this dude’s freezer in cling-wrapped pieces until her expiration date.
I've come and gone from this server a number of times over the years, but I keep coming back - in large part because of the quality of the writing, the fact that it makes me work so hard to be creative, which really stretches whatever side of the brain that is supposed to be. It's a challenge to be a participant here (and, realistically, posting one of these 250+ word posts is a once a week event, so like: there isn't a stress about keeping up or the pace).
But also, some of the moments and scenes that have happened here have been so *powerful* that it's hard to explain to people who don't get roleplaying - it's escapism, yes, but it's also an exploration of different facets of *you*. Sometimes I really need a smoke after reading some of this stuff, and I haven't smoked in years. I've learned a lot about myself in my writing, and I've loved all of it.
as I said in a review i wrote of the site years ago:
> You may have thought you put it all behind you when you got a real job and a real haircut and stopped wearing black nail polish all the time.
> I'm here to tell you that you were wrong. You never got over it.
This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's definitely mine (certainly is right now). I'll drop the link to the disboard page (which has an invite link as well as server info and all the other reviews), but if it sounds like it's up your alley, stop on by. There *is* a gate at the door to keep out bots, you *will* have to provide a writing sample to make sure you have the potential to fit in, but once you're in: do say hi.
just: be prepared to hear wild accusations about me. AMA about it here or in my DMs - part of being open about nerddom involves answering questions!
(DISCLAIMER: server is NSFW in the written word, deals with any and all adult themes from violence to sex, is smut-friendly but not required, but wont bombard you with dick pics or the like)
@jae I bombarded your likes, and will continue to encourage your writing
@heyfluxay yasssss this gives me power
@jae you’ve got the touch, you’ve got the powerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….
YAH!