It's also an anniversary month, with [Alt X] and [Individual Y] coming up on their 3-year on FM, possibility of another wedding on Unbridled Desires if the scheduling works out, 4 years of employment at my current workplace, and of most significance if not necessarily importance:
Created: Mon Nov 14 07:01:45 PST 1994
So, with a 10-year birthday coming up, I thought I'd declare this November to be National Chiaroscuro History Month. Celebrate with all pomp, circumstance, fliers, pamphlets and Hallmark greeting cards as you desire. I'll do my celebrating principally with a series of recaps.
Beginning, of course, with some history of the B.C. (Before Chiaroscuro) years. I'd been a mongoose fan ever since junior high, since reading Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and discovering symbolism in it without being told "Look at the symbolism!". Furthermore, Hours and hours playing the video game Elite assisted, as I had a natural savefile name of 'mongoose'. After all, what else for blowing up ships with snake names? By the time I arrived in college in the fall of 1992, I was 'Mongoose' to all there, students and plenty a professor at that. The identification was quite thorough, to the point where a roommate didn't know my real name when my mother called and asked for me. She had to ask for "The Mongoose.".
I managed to discover the Internet in early 1993, whereupon I promptly assumed the online alias of "The Mystic Mongoose". (Assuming, correctly, that there'd be sufficient others there one day that I'd need to be distinct from all other Mongooses. The handle served me quite well on Usenet, and there's a few people about who still recall me by that name, especially from alt.tv.animaniacs, alt.tv.tiny-toons, and rec.arts.comics.
One day in later 1993, I had been perusing sites via Gopher, and happened to come across a link to 'ToonMUSH II'. This struck my interest, being a cartoon fan, and I was impressed enough that they'd opened a 'II' to investigate. Quite intrigued, and within short order, I'd created 'Rikki', a precursor mongoose character.
Memories of Rikki are sketchy nowadays, and I've got no logs of anything he's done, or his look. I recall he was over six feet in height, with a lean build and more standard mongoose coloration, he dressed in a t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers. He was a lot more sedate of a fellow, being mostly a chatter, as ToonMUSH II never did give particular roleplay chances; He had a few acquaintances but no memorable friends, nor any girlfriends. When ToonMUSH II vanished over the summer of 1994 (As did I for the most part, I was using an unauthorized government dial-in, often busy, for an infrequent connection of the summer), so did Rikki. ToonMUSH III was created, but the 'Rikki' name was taken. After a short but unsatisfying stint as 'Hong_Kong_Fooey", I was looking for other options, and had heard of FurryMUCK via alt.fan.furry.
So, still using Gopher, I connected there in early November. And, as a guest, I looked around a very busy park.. and saw, not one, but two mongooses. 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi', and I can't recall the second. It may have been Richard. But the sheer fact of seeing two mongooses had me rather immediately sold. (Lumpy and Molly_Devil I also recall being in the park that day, as well). The registration was sent off promptly, and the name was from a word I'd encountered earlier that year in an English class, and been bedazzled by: 'chiaroscuro'.
And then in a few short days, Chiaroscuro was.
---Chiaroscuro