Hi! I'm Mystress! Thanks for visiting my profile page! I am 18 and have been in the Myst community for at least three years now; yes, I am a relatively young Myst fan compared to some others who have known the series since the early nineties!

I am an author and poet; I mainly write short fanfiction for Myst, The Dark Knight, and Phantom of the Opera, along with short original fiction. I tend to write more poetry than short fiction, since poetry comes easier to me than short stories do. I tend to write horror and occasionally fantasy. My Fanfiction.Net account name is Sugary Snicket; my FictionPress account name is SugarRayne. I love to read and like the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, and poets such as Emily Dickinson. I'm very well read and some of my favorite stories are older, Victorian era works such as Gothic Novels.

I'm a Phan. For those who are not familiar with this term, it's a shortening of "Phantom of the Opera fan". I'm a bit picky, though - I'm a huge fan of the original Gaston Leroux novel, but not so much the recent 2004 movie with Gerard Butler. If you're gonna be the Phantom, for God's sake, you need to look absolutely hideous. Give us a reason for the mask, director! I recently saw the stage show, and it's incredible - if you have the chance to go see it, DO IT; you won't regret it!

I am a comic book fiend; my favorite superheroes are Spider-Man (on the Marvel side) and Batman (on the DC side). I have favorite villains on either side. My Top Three for Spidey are: Venom, Green Goblin, and Doc Ock. My favorites for Batsy's rogues are: The Joker (and by extension, Harley Quinn), The Riddler, The Scarecrow, and Poison Ivy. I have been a comic fan for years but only very recently started to read them; I only make a habit of purchasing the ones I've borrowed before, read, and liked. If you want to know my favorite comic/Graphic Novel, I have only three words for you: The Killing Joke. >:) Also, Nicholson Joker or Ledger Joker? Both for me, for different reasons. But in my opinion, the best Joker is and always will be Mark Hamill. On the comic book side of things, I go for the Bronze era Joker - by the time the nineties rolled around, Batman's rule about not killing was getting stretched a little thin when it came to Mr. J. Despite my rabid fanaticism for the Joker, however, I'm ironically afraid of clowns - and you won't see me anywhere near a wasp if it's flying around.

I do web design and HTML in my spare time. I use Webs for my more professional pages (I don't have Dreamweaver on my laptop), but I have designed at least one page with Dreamweaver. My homepage is http://www.wordflow.webs.com, where you can find my personal blog and all of my writings. I also can use Fireworks and Flash. I'm also good with the GIMP, a program sort of like Photoshop. I do video LPs, too, mostly of old Point-And-Click puzzle games and Flash games.

I am a musician as well; I have played Oboe for seven years now, going on eight. It's not an easy instrument to play by any stretch of the imagination - Oboes are horribly picky and sensitive. XD I also play percussion (keyboard and battery) and some self-taught piano (I'm not really good at it), and I sing soprano to alto. I can hit some surprisingly high notes - if any of you have ever listened to the band Evanescence, you're probably familiar with the singer's amazing vocal range. I can hit a majority of some of the higher notes she sings, but only if I warm up first. I'm also an actress, and I've been acting for four years now... in my High School theater group. I am classically trained in vocal music (singing, but for musical theater), and I've been in three musicals: Cats (yes, we did Cats my freshman year; I have pics if you're skeptical), Pinocchio (I was a Baker woman and a jester in Toyland), and Willy Wonka (I was an Oompa-Loompa XD ). I've been in three plays as well: A Christmas Carol (I played the Laundress, who steals Dead!Scrooge's stuff), I Never Saw Another Butterfly (a play about the Holocaust; I played a little girl who died in it), and The Crucible (I was the insane, accused Sarah Good).

I am a sushi FREAK. You put sushi, ginger, and wasabi in front of me, there will be NOTHING LEFT. I'll eat pretty much any sushi you give me - octopus, shrimp, eel, tuna, salmon, yellowtail - but I can't eat crab sushi. Last time I did I nearly threw up, because crab meat is so rich. I also enjoy Udon (a rich brothed soup with very large noodles, commonly eaten with a shallow spoon) and Miso soup (tofu soup, basically). If you take me out for anything Oriental, Authentic Mexican, seafood, or Italian, I will be a very happy person. Don't take me for steak or pork, though - I'm not big on steak and I refuse to eat anything that once oinked (people keep Potbellied Pigs as pets!) Aside from sushi, I have eaten some very, very, very interesting things in my lifetime. My motto is, if you try something once and don't like it, at least you've tried it. I've had: frog legs, fish eggs, fried tarantulas (they taste kind of like crab, but way earthier), and the weirdest thing - Pork Blood Soup, for which I overturned my one rule about pigs as food just to try it once. It tastes a lot like roast beef au jus, and organ meats aren't as squishy as you'd expect (they're very tender, actually).

I collect dragon paraphernalia. Anything to do with dragons, I collect. I have over 60 pieces in my collection right now, from books to statues to posters, jewelry, and more. I also have various other sundry knick-knacks in my room, including a preserved cat brain, a cayman head, and most recently a Dias de los Muertos (Days of the Dead) statuette I got from the Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. Her name? Katarina, after the famous La Katarina, a symbol of the idea that all, however rich or poor, must die someday. By the way, yo hablo Espanol. Soy una estudiante de Espanol y planea estudiar la lengua en universidad. (I speak Spanish. I'm a Spanish student and I plan to study the language in college.) My major, however, is going to be in Biology, leaning towards genetics.

I love music, and will listen to just about anything. My favorite genres are rock (any type, as long as it's not screamo or extreme black/death metal) and dance/techno/EBM. Some of my favorite bands/singers are: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lady GaGa, Death Cab For Cutie, My Chemical Romance, Shinedown, Coldplay, Rob Thomas, The Eagles, Duran Duran, The Ramones, Matchbox 20, The Fray, Disturbed, and Theory of a Dead Man - and that's only a smattering. You want to know if I like a band, just ask. I probably do, unless I out and out hate it. I rarely hate music, but I do have certain genres I'm not a fan of: Screamo (You can't understand a word they're singing; my mom likes an EBM group called Suicide Commando, but they scream-chant absolutely everything and I can't understand a word), most Rap (especially Gangsta Rap), and most country/bluegrass (but I will tolerate certain singers).

That's just about it. As you can see, I'm also a Team Member, so make sure you obey the board rules or I'll have to tattle on you - and nobody likes a tattle-tale. XD Look me up on Uru Live; maybe we can get together sometime, mmkay?

--------------------