A very well-deserved first place! Congrats!AHHH FIRST PLACE???I’m so happy! One of my pipe dreams was to win first in something on TBT (let alone win any trophy on TBT), and I can‘t believe it happened! My podium set of trophies is now complete!
Sorry about the next segment, I just wanted to talk about my piece a bit more
I initially didn't have a solid plan for my piece. All I was working with was Lobo and Ruby, some hurt/comfort along the way, and someone sacrificing their life. Everything else was genuinely impromptu.
Miraculously, things slowly fell into place.
I love the theme of sunrise and sunset. Beyond the view, I liked using those terms to describe the start and end of something. Sunrises became the birth of something new, and a sunsets signified the ending. But the sun never truly goes away; it comes back another day just as bright as ever.
Thus came the inspiration for Lobo and Ruby's characters. Two contrasting strangers willing to let their paths intersect in a happenstance; the birth of a friendship during sunrise and the end of a story during sunset. Like the sun, they came and they went, their trajectories moving forward, but as fated, they would come back to each other one day. Someway, somehow.
As we know of them, their designs represent the moon: Lobo has moon-colored eyes and is a wolf, whole Ruby was inspired by the folklore of the white rabbit on the moon. Thus, the title "Sunkissed Moons" was born.
I loved how contrasting Lobo and Ruby were. A wolf and a rabbit, a wanderer and a townsfolk, one rowdy yet myseterious and another soft-spoken yet beloved. Despite their differences, I wanted to portray how parallel they were, how they were both sheltered, how they have the same dream of seeing the world, and how willing they were to sacrifice themselves for others.
I wanted to emphasize these similarities and differences. I really like callbacks in stories, like you're in the middle of a story and you realize it parallels very well to an earlier scene. The biggest example was Lobo and Ruby's first confrontation (during a daybreak/sunrise) vs. their confrontation at the end (nightfall/sunset). I had a lot of callbacks in my story where I just reused the lines; it was my favorite thing to write.
One callback I regret not writing was when Bea asked Ruby, "Do you have to go?" and Ruby says, "Someone has to do it." It would have been perfect to have Ruby ask Lobo the same thing during their confrontation, and damn I think that would've added much more impact to the story. Oh well.
Overall, thank you so much for reading my story, regardless if you voted for it or not! I've honestly never written anything this seriously for TBT, so I'm grateful for the chance and this whole opportunity. I was nervous since there were a lot of great entries from the get-go, and even in nominations I feel all the entries each had their own charm.
Congrats to the other podium winners for the contests and the staff favorites for the events! I'm happy staff expanded the winner pool, they've got a great selection of favorites and I'm excited to see all the bloom collectibles around the site. Really thrilled to see people excited for their wins, every favorite was well-deserved!Lastly, thank you so much staff for this absolutely gigantic fair, there were so many things to do and I had fun with all of them. Rest well, staff!
See you all in the next event! (looking at you, halloween)
Reading your story, I picked up on all the symbolism you described. I'm a sucker for symbolism. And I particularly loved the callbacks too. They made everything that much more bittersweet. It was a truly moving story!
I look forward to the Halloween event. 
I had a wonderful time overall, and like with the previous Fair in 2020, I enjoyed the coloring events the most. 
have no idea what to expect other than the letter and this year’s stunning stickers (the holographic one... omg), so the anticipation has me like !!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for everything you do for us!
