Welcome to Memory Lane!

Charming is now a feisty ten year old—that means ten years of memories to revisit! We asked or community to share some of their favourite memories, in-character and out...

— Me, a baby teenager in 2011 who had joined Charming a couple weeks earlier and didn’t know what I was in for: ‘Ooh these wanted ads seem fun, I guess I’ll pick one up from... Kayte?’ SATAN EVEN THEN. No but it was a good decision (the best decision) because I remember being torn between Gideon Browne and Calliope and whatever would I do without Calliope? <3

Part of my Charming experience took place entirely off-board and through skype calls instead! I distinctly remember around Christmas of 2017, I would stay up all night with Kelly and Jon on a skype call, and more than once I would fall asleep for six hours and wake up to them still talking on the skype call. There was nothing like hearing Jon grill us on our terrible British accents at 4am!

- Bree

OOC
Visits with; Beanie, Kayte, Anya, Jen, Lynn, Tiff and Nolan!

Leaving Kayte's the first time by car and going the opposite direction for almost an hour #whoops

That time Kayte and I hiked Cape Slit and nearly died the next day.

Wine Bus shenanigans.

That time Beanie babysat my kids and Reilly locked her and Charlee on the porch XD

When I first started on Charming I hadn't been on a board site in years. But I went searching for a new site to join with a friend. I stumbled on Charming then but didn't jump in, instead I joined another site. But I kept coming back to Charming. I loved the premise, but I also loved the activity. I joined the day before an AC and I remember the rush of everyone in the Cbox, helping me get my application in so that Sisse could be part of the sorting hat ceremony before the AC. Everyone was so supportive and helpful. As the months passed I felt a part of a community I hadn't had in years. Everyone was willing to plot with me, to incorporate me into their stories, I was even (much to my surprise) included in the beta team for the migration. I won't lie, I was scared to join Charming, I didn't think I'd stay long, but the community and family I have found here have kept me here. Love you guys.

I discovered Charming early in 2011, after taking a few months off of roleplaying following a negative experience on another board. I fell immediately in love and made it my mission to help it succeed as much as possible. Mission Accomplished!

-This Hilarious Group Thread: HTTPS://CHARMINGRP.COM/SHOWTHREAD.PHP?TID=2226

— The ‘84 surprise fire skin!!! The summer board skin had pretty Hogsmeade houses on it and BOOM one day everything was ON FIRE!

HTTPS://CHARMINGRP.COM/SHOWTHREAD.PHP?TID=3983

I really loved experimenting with noir in this Forbidden Forest thread that sees sweet little Bragi Holm encounter a really, really weird monster. It's taken to the Department of Mysteries by Ernest Mulciber and Bragi never hears about it ever again. Today, he thinks it was a dream. ARGH.

Charming was a home for me during my teenage years and my experiences here have certainly influenced the person I am today, to an extent. It was a welcoming place for me, during my difficult high school years, even in the very beginning when my English was terrible and probably even today!me would struggle to write with fourteen-year-old!me.

I thought about plots that I LOVED and I remember even though they happened five years ago, or something.

One relationship I loved was my Ianto Lloyd and Etcetera (I forgot her surname, oops) who then became his wife and was played by the lovely Jenny. I had THE MOST fun writing their honeymoon shenanigans. Most of it didn't even make much sense, but it was so fun to write.

I leave the blurb from his mini profile:

May-July, 1885 After consuming a magical plant that wipes one's memories out, Ianto and Etsy's honeymoon turns from wonderful to WTF-ery. They disappear, travel from South America to North America and it's just a big clusterfuck. For more information, read: NO ONE CAN REACH US NOW, MARKET FUNTIMES, HYMN TO THE SEA, PARTY IN THE USA, SAFE.

Their time in the US is my favourite because it was so crazy. They find a job like immediately without any experience. Probably the most outrageous thing about this plot we did. xD

Two years ago, I had Beanie and Bee come visit for about a week. I had worried it would be super awkward (I am an awkward person and used to living alone), but I DEFY anyone who says online relationships aren't legit. We fell into our usual rhythms, just offline, and it was an absolute delight <3

Also the time three years ago when MJ walked me all over London and I thought I was going to die. As per, Olive got drunk off of one beverage xD

During the summer of 2018, Bee and I had the whole Febric whirlwind romance going on, which was both amazing for on-board writing purposes and off-board bonding purposes!  We spent so many hours watching many of the movies Michiel Huisman (Edric's PB!) was in, and while some of them were good, some of them were just plaid bad. We're not going to talk about our Guernsey obsession

- Bree

IC
As Lynn said, "What about the time we gave James and Everett a baby thinking it would be a funny ordeal for like a week and then Everett just morphed into a dad forever." Everett's slow decline into fatherhood and Real Life.

The time Angie got dosed with Amortentia and slept with Brutus.

Baxter delivering his future wife's baby in a cemetery completely unprepared.

Harvey's commentary of school matches.

Leon hitting on Thom's mom on the regular.

That time Quin spent a few months as a duck, only to turn back into a dude, stark naked in his pseudo-girlfriend's bedroom.

The Bachelor Guide.

That time I played Mrs. A and gave Maud the sex talk.

Missing all my retired/inactive bro/ships; long live Hamlet, Grev, Rock, Angelic, Luceley, Tesseon, Ronnius, Adelip, Ruce, NAHA, Gemfie and the others I'm sure I'm missing because I'm old and I forget things.

Writing Olivia Pendergast's Big Book of Bachelors was one of the highlights of my Charming life. I can only hope that I have another character someday who might undergo a similar project, and re-reading her assessment of the eligible menfolk of Charming is still a delight!

My favorite memory on the site was two years ago during Fogsmeade. I had taken a few days off from work and next thing I knew I was sitting my living room doing a rapid thread about a troll on the loose. I couldn't tear myself away. All day our fingers flew as we typed out rapid responses. The CBOX was brimming with chatter and it felt like everyone was on their day off too.

-Everything about the great Jemima debacle and all of its repercussions. (In particular, every entry of her damn journal.)

— Hahaha remember when Té used to go by Lola?
— Did Bree start off going by Breezey??? I just read that on old!board and was mindblown lol. Also Lady when she was still Ladybug lol.

HTTPS://CHARMINGRP.COM/SHOWTHREAD.PHP?TID=3768

During my very first week at Charming I had this thread in which Bragi's chonky cat, Maid Marian, went missing. But Amelia Evans, who has a bunch of adorable pets herself, helps him find Marian, and it all ended up with a big surprise! Just a really cute, wholesome thread. The best part is that Bragi and Amelia are still frens. ^______^ And Bragi recently gave Marian a bow-tie for her birthday.

Next, I will always LOVE my Noah Hatchitt's and Lynn's Magnus Lockhart's bromance. LOVE IT. I think it was one of my first relationships with Lynn, who I was intimidated by before it. And now I just KNOW that any Lynn!friendship will be bomb tbh.

I leave here the classic Noah gives Lock a fertility statue thread. <3

Ben and Bella's relationship (romance? shared quarter-life crisis?) was a ticking time bomb from the moment it began, but it was definitely one of my favorite plots! Lynn's an amazing writer, and Ben's an amazing character, so I definitely felt spoiled <3

- Bree

— Did you know Elsie just happened to be the character who joined Tyb’s first open thread ever? Yeah. They were fifth years.
— The development of Rock (Ruth Grimstone/Magnus Lockhart) was so good
— Threnody Mohr, veela extraordinaire <3
— TESSA VAN PATTEN, brothel madam extraordinaire!
— The endless joy of Elsbeth’s shenanigans. Am I hallucinating or didn’t she start out pretending to be a Swedish princess?

HTTPS://CHARMINGRP.COM/SHOWTHREAD.PHP?TID=4555

I really enjoyed the Pumpkin Regatta activity! Here is Clue and Narcissus teaming up for an expedition across the lake in a hollowed-out pumpkin. It's Clue's first ever attempt at being sort of normal. A really fun little memory. #NueForever

— THAT TIME OLIVE AND I MET UP AT LEAKYCON 2013 DRESSED AS BELLATRIX AND DOBBY? (Fun fact: I work just around the corner from there now so every single time I pass that street I think of that day xD)

Bean and I gushing over Veronica Mars on a regular basis <3

I was looking at Seneca things and found this crazy thing we wrote when the cbox was down once.

— Long ago, in the days before it was ‘Is Ursula actually going to die?’, the million-galleon question was ‘Is Olive actually going to kill Maud?’

I still miss the days when everyone would make buttons for their characters and stuff them in their signatures. How many could you fit? Three? Six? One? The choice was up to you. I remember joining and wondering how many of the buttons in the button thread had come to be. The incest ones? The "cobwebs down there"? Classics.

- Bree

I consider the Yaxley Plot (2014) to be my crowning glory. For those of you who missed it, Honoria was happily married with beautiful step/children...until her husband's tragic demise.

• She was accused of murdering him
  
• SURPRISE! His brother actually did...
  
• And tried to marry her to steal the inherited fortune
  
• She would not play ball.
  
• So he pulled a Jane Eyre and brought back the OG Mrs. Yaxley, who everyone thought was dead
  
• Who was actually just crazy
  
• This invalidated Honoria's marriage and bastardized her children
  
• Lots of drama
  
• Much fun
  

The best part? I pimped out that entire damn family and no one, NO ONE, knew what was going to come. The players were reacting to all the madness as it came out >D

Shoutouts to Beanie, Olive, Rosa, Soph, and Ori for helping to make it such an amazing experience <3

— Everything about Yarrow Macnair. That time he fell into a grave and made out with a girl in it. That time he got himself demoted to the Centaur Office. I crack up just thinking about him.

One of my earliest Charming memories is watching Seneca Lestrange be rude to the Sorting Hat in September of 2014. I never managed to keep a firstie past their first year until 2016, but boy was that fun to watch at the time!

- Bree

— This quote from the first GABB group thread we had, sorry forty-year-old present!Bax xD

“Thirty-four’s not so bad,” Garrett said reassuringly, glancing between both men. “It could be worse,” he continued, allowing his voice to drop lower, a slow smile forming on his face, “Turning forty.”

HTTPS://CHARMINGRP.COM/SHOWTHREAD.PHP?TID=5261

It's a thread still in progress, but I love the Ruskin sisters' reactions to discovering their dead brother never died. This is a really fascinating plot, a coincidence of the famous "Florida Man" time turner incident.

— It doesn’t matter if she’s inactive or not, will I ever be able to look at Margot Robbie’s face and not think of Lady’s character Aurelia?
— Lauren and Bex (Bex!) having most of the cast of Downton as PBs between them.
— Jenny and Rosa and Steph and Ori and Jen and all the other lovely old members we had.

Also I remember with fondness Cee and Thaniel's first thread, where Cee went wand shopping. Don't mind my not so good English of that time. I remember thinking all "omg I have to write SO WELL". I will finish giving myself a BJ by saying how proud I am of myself for how far I've come and I have Charming to thank for that <3

The Wizarding World Market was one of the most entertaining board-wide plots that took place, mostly because it took so many lives unexpectedly! I don't think I ever expected to watch Olivia Pendergast die under rubble, and it still upsets me.

- Bree

— The Hogsmeade Trail where they discovered Irvingly!! Our first outing into CYOA fun. I only have vague memories of what happened but I feel like Moira Prewett got shot??
— Beanie running the Fogsmeade Irvingly Expedition and calling the Egyptian witch behind the curse “ghost bitch” behind the scenes all the time

Nichole and I once spent an entire night (or two?) binge-watching the first season of Marvel's The Runaways. Peak long-distance friendship <3

- Bree

HTTPS://CHARMINGRP.COM/SHOWTHREAD.PHP?TID=5451

A thread still in progress, but I just adore it because it's a classic picture of young Victorian debs gossiping in a tea room. I definitely should've called this thread "That's the tea".

I know it's weird to say when people like Soph and Beanie and Bree actually did, but I feel like I grew up here on Charming. I may have been 20 when I joined, but my 20s have been my ~formative years and y'all have been there for them <3

— I know this was recent, but just for posterity: moldy tomatoes. Olive’s legacy.

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Have any more memories to share? Anything above stand out to you? Feel free to post below and keep this lovely stroll going!

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PMs on this account will not be checked.
Instead, please contact Ursula Black, Aldous Crouch, Cassius Lestrange, Elias Grimstone or Philomena Sprout with any questions, issues, or concerns.

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The time Angie got dosed with Amortentia and slept with Brutus.

How could I have forgotten that, zomg!

I love seeing all of these, especially my old ships/plots popping up again (I agree with all of you, they were so much fun!) and all the references to all our old members (WAAAA I want them all back!)

I joined Charming because Kayte basically cold-called me after literal years of not talking or being involved in any RP communities. I think she might have even texted me or FB messaged me because I wasn't using our old messaging systems anymore (which was like... what, AIM? xD) And I was like "yeah I've outgrown that, I don't RP anymore, I'm a COLLEGE KID NOW~" but she convinced me to check it out and then I've been here ever since xD

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   Aldous Crouch

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Get Featured in Witch Weekly!

Did Bree start off going by Breezey???

If it’s any consolation, I’d forgotten all about that until you brought it up. That was a whole lifetime ago [insert crying emoji]

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   Amelia Evans, Elias Grimstone

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— set by MJ <3 —

Here's another memory just for Beans Cassius Lestrange! Remember the first time Jude and Kieran kissed—

oh wait. THEY STILL HAVEN'T.

it's been six years.

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look ANOTHER beautiful bee!set <3

I forgot to do this but some others:

• Staying up until 2 AM to post Cashli with Lynn will always have a soft spot in my heart
  
• When August showed up to the Potters engaged to Lyra
  
• DARCY POTTER'S FREAKING DEATH
  
• Topaz Urquart becoming a werewolf
  
• Grev <3
  
• When Bee came to visit me at uni and we went to the aquarium, also 13 hours in the car with Bee because we drove in the wrong direction for an hour <3
  
• When I studied abroad I got on a plane to visit Olive, Rosa, and Jenny and it was the first time in years that it had snowed in Oxford and we still traipsed around and had a good time and then all slept on Jenny's floor
  
• ORIGINAL QWC
  

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Here's another memory just for Beans Cassius Lestrange! Remember the first time Jude and Kieran kissed—

oh wait. THEY STILL HAVEN'T.

it's been six years.

i think i might die when they actually kiss

bonus memory:
when I accidentally deleted IC threads and Kayte didn't fire me

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   Aldous Crouch, Amelia Evans, Elsie Kirke

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MJ made this!

Here's another memory just for Beans Cassius Lestrange! Remember the first time Jude and Kieran kissed—

oh wait. THEY STILL HAVEN'T.

it's been six years.

i think i might die when they actually kiss

bonus memory:
when I accidentally deleted IC threads and Kayte didn't fire me

If I fired you I’d have even more work to do >.>

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   Amelia Evans, Atticus Lilywick

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— Aldous walks with a cane and pronounced limp as the result of a splinching accident. —

— graphics by lady ❤ —

[×]Bee: like that time I impaled Theo Gallivan because the numbers told me to
[×]Bee: the injury rolls for quidditch are good

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MJ always makes her so pretty

Talking about randomly rolled oopsies reminds me of that time January Lynch's arm straight up vanished for a while in DADA when she was trying to conjure a patronus.

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   Elsie Kirke

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Set by MJ

• may I present to you the post that was the deciding factor in if I should join or not. I figured if people here were as geeky about fonts as I was then this wouldn't be too bad a community
  
• Just anything GABB or BenAri really
  
• The IC trainwreck that was Barnelia >.>
  
• OMG YES THE FIRE SKIN WAS INCREDIBLE – I think that was one of my first SWP?
  
• Def remember when Bree, Té and I all switched our names and I want to say Té switched first, then it was Bree and I in succession? But I feel like we were all fairly close together in terms of switching names xDD
  
• ALSO MORE RECENT BUT WHEN EMMA WENT BY RSG
  

I have some screenshots saved on my computer from LONG ago, so I thought I'd share them here. They're in link form on Imgur so I don't back up the thread lol I thiiink they're in the right order, so bottoms up as usual?

When Té got carried away with the cbox filters

Charming Helicopter Tiddies

Charming CAH Cards in the Making

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One of my favorite RL moments was meeting MJ and Olive when I was studying abroad in London. I met MJ first, and was def a little bit terrified and DIDN'T tell my parents what I was doing until after the fact and after we'd hung out multiple times. Interestingly enough, my first impression about both MJ and Olive were their hair cause both have really long hair xD

Another is telling my study abroad friend Hannah about Charming and asking her if she wanted to come with MJ and me to a museum and she was super chill about it, thank god (it helps she's a huge Dr. Who and Hamilton and HP fan, so I thought they'd get along which they did). We went to the Tate and started wandering around, and came across a painting of a woman lying in a river amongst a bed of flowers. Hanna said, "That looks like Ophelia!" and MJ, bless her, said without judgment, "I think it is..." Of course, it was, and we all had a good laugh.

That's also the place where the three of us sat down to talk and then I think a museum security guard started chatting with us? Then the question of how we all knew each other came up. Both MJ and I stared at each other for a half-beat and that's when she and I referred to each other by our RL names xDD

With Olive, I was less nervous since MJ had assured me that Olive was normal for all intents and purposes (of course this was before Olive's Moldy Tomato Saga). We met at Nando's I think, and after we started talking, I think I asked Olive how old she was and she legit had to stop and think for a moment xDD

I also hope when this quarantine is all over I'll get to meet more of you! <3

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Also Lady when she was still Ladybug lol.

I don't really forget this, it just kinda lives in the back of my mind and resurfaces every time Bee calls me Buggie

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After being a hardcore RPer during my highschool days (always on the library computer during lunches and breaks, and having it secretly up in the background during computer classes) I decided I wanted to get back into it in my mid 20s. I remember being shocked by the lack of sites compared to when I had RPed before and spending a few days searching through listings. Right around when I was about to give up I finally ran across Charming. It was the only site that seemed to have an actual community and I remember how beautiful the site looked, and despite the fact that I had been only been searching for a modern time period I no longer cared and knew this was the site I wanted to join. Forever glad I didn't give up my site search that night, and while I have been mostly MIA for the last 4 (5?) years Charming has remained my chrome homepage because it was always my goal to return one day once my life and mental health got back together.

As far as memories:

I remember being to shy to talk in the cbox at first until one day Kayte Aldous Crouch was talking to me in all caps out of nowhere and being utterly terrified. I'm pretty sure it was about making a Quidditch player for the house teams because there was open spots left, so I guess in theory that means I have Kayte to thank for August even existing. <3

Being assigned Lady Amelia Evans thru the Buddy System because we lived in the same timezone and discovering later on that we actually lived in the same city.

Beans Cassius Lestrange typing during skype calls being the soundtrack to an elephant stampede documentary.

Miri Charlotte Beauregard and I playfully competing in word count wars to the point where it got up to 1.7k words per post at one point.

The modern AU poly relationship of August, Gemma @"Elsie Beauregard" , and Nate that lived solely in our imaginations, skype, and forever in my heart.

Being utterly convinced that everyone that I didn't speak to regularly thought I was weird AF (not completely wrong) because Beans and Fawkes were constantly quoting me saying obscene and vulgar things in Memorable Quotes.

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One of my favorite RL moments was meeting MJ and Olive when I was studying abroad in London. I met MJ first, and was def a little bit terrified and DIDN'T tell my parents what I was doing until after the fact and after we'd hung out multiple times. Interestingly enough, my first impression about both MJ and Olive were their hair cause both have really long hair xD

[...]

OMG THE LADY LIVING IN LONDON DAYS WERE THE ABSOLUTE BEST <3 Hannah was also fab and oh boy that was absolutely the height of our Hamilton fangirl days, I miss them. And calling you by your RL name will never ever be normal to me.

(Also speaking of Benari, I could find no written evidence of this in the old dregs of plottage but as far as I remember, their whole thing was when I very initially networked him I was looking for a vague "friend he could have a crush on", which I had only meant to act as a springboard and had planned Ari to eventually move on from that and develop some other actually requited ship one day. LOL LITTLE DID I KNOW. He, uh, definitely did not move on.)

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   Amelia Evans

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look ANOTHER beautiful bee!set <3

Also Lady when she was still Ladybug lol.

I don't really forget this, it just kinda lives in the back of my mind and resurfaces every time Bee calls me Buggie

Your nickname in Skype is still Buggie and I confuse myself sometimes looking for you, BUT I REFUSE TO CHANGE IT

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   Amelia Evans

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MJ always makes her so pretty

• may I present to you the post that was the deciding factor in if I should join or not. I figured if people here were as geeky about fonts as I was then this wouldn't be too bad a community
  
• OMG YES THE FIRE SKIN WAS INCREDIBLE – I think that was one of my first SWP?
  

I remember first popping onto Charming and the skin image was of these two women holding each other close and I was all like 'are they dating? I ship them' and I think that was one of my main deciding factors to be on this site. Goodness, I miss the site skin archives. Can we bring that back? Does anyone have access to the older skin images?

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   Amelia Evans

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Magic by Elaine!

Also Atticus Lilywick I still have that Augnatma one shot in my Google drive

I MET A LITTLE GIRL NAMED GEMMA TONIGHT BTW

  

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MJ always makes her so pretty

ALSO WILLOW I TOTES ADORE THAT BRAGI AND AMELIA ARE FRIENDS <33

When Amelia gets married, Bragi's invited to the wedding

I also flashback to the good 'ol days of Garelia and their adorableness. Miri and I often reminisce about them.

  

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