This summer I came back, saw that Greg was having an anniversary and made up a collage which I sent off; "Here's looking at you, ACE!" I floated through the TS community and came on Aces of the Cape, which I joined, and offered to help with. I checked the message board there often enough, but not much was happening. I heard some discreet references to a place called High Flight, but I didn't check them out for a while. At UKCHP I happened upon Kristof's fics, and after reading them, I was left in a semi-depressed state for nearly a week. Never had any story affected me like his series. Never had some online community seemed so much like a home.

One day, a few weeks later, a happened on a site called K&K Forever. I didn't know what ‘K&K Forever’ meant at the time, but the whole site stuck a chord somewhere. The intro pic had me mesmerized, and that was only the beginning. The site engrossed me, I spent hours upon hours there. It was wonderful! The pictures, the theories, the feel, everything. Finally I worked up the nerve to send the webmaster (some guy named Ted :) a copy of my Kit collage, and we started a friendly conversation about Kit's destiny. We discussed fic ideas, and tossed around ideas about K&K. He was the first person to extend a real welcome to TS fandom, and that meant a lot. Here was a place I might be truly welcome! We kept talking, and I found a friend who was a lot like me. So much like me that it was downright spooky We even named the same three episodes of TS as our favorites, in the same order.

It all began to fit together. I've always been a loner, because I was different, quiet, and shy. All I wanted was to be accepted, and quickly, so I offered to help everyone I met. Most people said they didn't need help, or didn't want it, and I felt left out. Again. Then the poetry started...I'd done a little before, for Redwall clubs and the like, and I dropped little tidbits to some Spinners. Then the ideas came fast and furious for a while, then slowed down again. But the strangest thing happened...people actually liked it! And it seemed they liked me too.

I had a blow-up in the middle of all this, a combination of stress, arguments, and a really bad day. Even blew up on the board. Everyone told me it was all right...I'd done nothing wrong, but then comfort came from a very unexpected source...Wilson Goldwing. I'd never met him, only knew him through his art, but he stepped in and told me, clearly, I'd just had a bad day. I'll never forget him for it. Ted called him 'brother', and they were closer than most brothers I’d ever met. I had a few talks with Wilson, even though Ted warned me not to bother him too much. We talk often, and I feel as close Wilson as I've ever felt to anyone. Now he calls me brother, and the feeling is like nothing in the world.

We spinners all know that home is where the heart is. I will say that I've never felt so at home. I love the Talespin online fandom, and I feel welcome everywhere I go. But first impressions are incredibly strong. It was K&K Forever, and Ted, who introduced me to TS online, and it K&K Forever that I call home. It was a perfect fit, and I am grateful for it. I consider it an honor to call Ted my friend, my mentor, and, by association (if nothing else), my brother.

That is the heart of K&K Forever, as I see it. It is a realization of something that seems improbable, overcoming anything that stands in our way. It is becoming more than we are, finding a common dream, and stretching the limits of the impossible.