Why I'm back and what has been accomplished by Lt.Surge

[Sutoratosu]

So, as many of you will likely know, I recently took on the persona of Lt. Surge, "The Lightning American!" on these forums, as marked in this splendid thread right here by a certain Emperor Pyon Pyon Kyuu.

Well, It was stated that the persona period would on January 16th of 2015, was it not? So I'm sure you're thinking "He must've coped out, ending things more than a month before he was supposed to..."

Haha, well... no. That's not how things ended up here. I set out to DO SOMETHING with this, and that SOMETHING was ultimately accomplished sooner than I thought it would be. That's the only reason I'm here right now, so far ahead of schedule.

So let me dispel any rumors before they start, M'kay? I did not cop out of the Surge persona. I did not give up on the Surge Persona operation. I did not wuss out of Surge. What I did do, was call the project complete after seeing that honestly, what I did it for in the first place had actually been accomplished, just a lot sooner than I thought I would need to implement the personal change I wanted to in myself. So why continue on with it if the objective had been achieved? It would've pointless in my view, dragging it out any longer than it had to be, so... here I am, standing before you all.

Now to clarify: Why?

Why did I do surge in the first place? Well it's a long story kinda, but those Reborn Members whom are regulars from the RP Forums here will likely know a bit more than anyone else on the matter. The short version of my motivation is this:

It was pointed out to me that as a writer, I had a habit of making my characters essentially the same personality wise. I gave them too much of my own persona for the most part. This is, for reasons that should be obvious if you know anything about Literature or characterization, quite an issue, and one that I felt I had to take action in order to solve. Now, after this revelation and Epiphany that they had a point, I sat there thinking to myself:

"How do I do it then? How do I break my mold...?" then I looked over at one of my RPs I run, "Surge Story" and a light bulb went off: "I know! I'll take on the persona of Lt. Surge!" Hey, I had heard, and gotten, far crazier ideas than that before. I figured it could work if I did it right. And thus, Surge I became. I played an angle that "Stratos had left" or "Stratos has business elsewhere right now" while playing him to further isolate my persona from his, taking it from just an act for me, to him legitimately being separate from Stratos. He was, to me, his own personality. I called people "Soldier" almost indiscriminately, giving certain individuals whom I genuinely respected from past interactions a bit of rank (EX: like Hukuna was called Commander, Notus was called "Captain", and so on and so forth. I even addressed Ame as "Madam President". While the first one, for hukuna, was technically not an official rank within the US army... eh, it works, right?)

So there's my Why, and my how. the only question left is the what? Why did I come back early? Well, I already explained this above. I was done with what I was trying to do overall, had accomplished it. over the time I played as surge, I did notice a genuine change in the Characters I was running for RPs and in Characters I was drafting for plans for my main Story, Project Sky Slayer. They were all...well, pretty much fundamentally different from me over time. They started to change after Surge came along. Started talking a bit differently depending on who they were, started acting a little differently. I even drafted two characters who were virtually nothing like me. So... is that not Mission achieved? Did I not have a reason to come back after realizing this experiment was done?

And in closing, I want to clarify something. Every second you guys saw me as surge, I want to say this: I WAS playing a character. Just want to make this perfectly clear, I was acting the whole time. As some of you know, I was among the first to raise a little hell and get outraged about a certain tactic that shall not be mentioned here any further than this to avoid potential flames starting from response posts (I can see the salt being passed around...). Now, while personally, I was a bit pissed off that it was that simple to use a single loophole to destroy an entire team's competitive ability, I quickly got over it after I looked at what was done and how the tactic was carried out. I had to give it credit for cunning, might not have been right, or wrong, but I'll only say this: IT was cunning, in my true opinion. And no, I'm not going to discuss my actual opinion on the issue any more than it's relevant to Surge.

Now... who is surge? A member of the US Military, or at least a former member. and what two things do the US Military stress as some of it's core values? Honor and Integrity. What is PZA? A game of betrayal, as heavily suggested in the very name. So, when this... tactic began being used, what did I see? A perfect opportunity to act the hell out of my character. So that, I feel, explains every ounce of outrage and bile I poured out of my little mouth about certain things during that. No more on that though, I'm just using this example to try to make my point:

I was acting. Surge said things on here... alot of things. Those things aren't necessarily how I feel about something or my actual opinions. Surge's version of honor and right and wrong was stricter than my own. All I care about is trust, honestly, and I make sure to place that in very few people, period. So... yaw. What did I say while in Surge that I meant? What did I say that I didn't mean and was just for an act? I'll probably never tell, folks, but if you're one of the few who know me, as I truly am, then it shouldn't be too hard to try to figure out.

Well, I'm done now. Just wanted to clear that up.

((And a closing note, seriously, please don't even talk about "that matter" (You know what I mean) in this thread. I know there's salt going all around still from the latest incident, and quite frankly, I'd like for this to not become a flaming incident in this thread... but I'm sure that won't be an issue, will it? Will it?))

[Magus]

I don't know what "that matter" was, and I don't feel like I need to know. You did an excellent job capturing the true essence of Lt. Serge, the Lightening American. I always found Serge's status updates the most interesting, because it was thought provoking, and made you think. I'm speaking out of ignorance, as I don't know what went down, but sometimes you need just a little to get someone's honest opinion. Lastly, while Serge is gone from the forums, he will always be 3rd in our hearts, after Brock and Misty, cause it's impossible to beat him without some decent pokemon. Like seriously that Raichu will rek you.

[Sapphire]

I honestly didn't even know you were Stratos till last night.

[Cepheus]

Noooooooooo!!!!!!

No more hilariously "american" Lt.Surge posts!!!

You sir, did a quite good job in your acting!

I literally forgot you where "Stratos" after a few weeks! (although I always remembered that it was just acting)

Round of applause!!! *clap clap clap clap clap*

It was very entertaining!

The Oscar for the best male lead-actor goes to... ... Leonardo Di Caprio! ... no wait... that would end the internet...

It goes to you Stratos!

[Hypa]

I Called it

[NickCrash]

For us who didn't know Stratos before Surge, it is just safe to assume Surge died in a horrific accident which involved a rabbit-chu and is never coming back to the forums. Welcome back mr. Stratos.

Edited December 8, 2014 by nickcrash

[Felicity]

Still has Surge in the Sig.

Never Forget

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

I am going to say some of my reactions towards you will playing Surge were such because you were playing a character at the time lol. But yea I knew it was Strat all along. ((he pretty much told me cause I jokingly asked "So wait, am I a Commander now?" in a status he posted about starting it up lol)). Was an interesting time though as was pretty fun lol. So, good on ya fro keeping up the persona, you did a good job with it.

I would probably never do something quite that crazy. Now.....explaining all those old posts as Surge.....well that is going to be interesting.

[GotWala]

Haha, well it's nice to meet you Stratos! I'm not sure where Surge went, but I imagine it's off to greener pastures. It's great to finally get to know you Stratos, haha!

[Rielly987]

I joined and to me its a surprise that you were surge, you did a great job with the character adn had me going until i saw this post. Congratulations on your personal quest it will be interesting from here on out. Welcome back Stratos.

Edited December 8, 2014 by Rielly987

[Flux]

You crazy brah.

Jk, jk. In all seriousness, Surge was very entertaining, and you did well to keep it up for that long. I think a part of me will miss him, but the rest of me welcomes Stratos back.

[AeroWraith]

Wow, thats a pretty interesting method for breaking the mold.

You did a real good job acting as Surge.

[Maelstrom]

LDRSHIP.

Loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage. The 7 army values. js

You made me lol often enough. Nice try.

[Ojama Yellow]

Did you all srsly not know he was Stratos.

Well, that only proves how well you played the role. I would never be able to do that, myself. Good job!

[Notus]

Hehey, so good old Strat is back then? Mate, congratulations. As I said in an status comment, sometimes I even forgot you were playing a role, so well it was that you pulled it off. That was a very interesting experience, I doubt I could keep something like this for so long as you did! I'll miss the old Leutenant, but it is great to have you back!