Even though the year has just started, sheesh
I'm gonna basically roughly work around the journal did about this, so lets see...

How 'bout an easy introduction first? My name's Sarah, and you can refer to me by that, or Dark, or Ryuukin, or Ryuu, or hey if you know me from WAY BACK IN THE DAY any combination of opal, opaldragon, rare, r.o.d., Jubilee (for any WoW players who remember my nightelf druid on feathermoon ;P). I never particularly like to say where exactly I'm from, unless I know you better, but, I live in the frigid north part of the States.... though GOD do I yearn to live down south again

Oh you wanna see what I actually look like? Alright, here: https://www.weasyl.com/submission/763006/if-you-were-curious

I've been in the furry scene, though still hesitate to consider myself a furry, since 2008 or so. Well... officially that is. That's when I originally joined FurAffinity, and was friends with furs in my highschool, even going out with one. Before that though I was always drawing werewolves and other "anthropomorphic" critters. For the longest time my sona went by the name of Zalonia, and was a white tiger with black angel wings. Vastly different from the critter I evolved into.

Whaaaaat, you don't believe me? Jeez fine, here, take a look yourself. This was when I first started drawing in general when I was about 11 or 12. Though the wings aren't shown here this was my start of being a "furry" I guess, even though I didn't know the community.
http://i439.photobucket.com/albums/qq117/rareopaldragon/oldest_zps8c780dba.jpg

A few years later she evolved into a Rave wolf. A few years later, a demon wolf.
Here's some quick pictures of what that looked like too:
http://i439.photobucket.com/albums/qq117/rareopaldragon/raverwolf_zpsfc358615.jpg
http://i439.photobucket.com/albums/qq117/rareopaldragon/vent_zpsa243d0f4.gif
A few years later she became male, a good few years later than that she became a female again, her horns always developing with time as if she was actually growing with me

ANYWHO
I think what drew me into the fur world was honestly just a love of animals. I mean for goodness sake's I'm getting a degree in zoology! I find it fascinating as well what types of animals people choose to represent them, and why. And I think anthro creatures are far better at showing who a person is, than our skin and crap. Race and gender are virtually all equal when it comes to the fur community, and that's nice (though apparently femdoms are still not quite... normal). Early inspiration also might have come from loving the show Thundercats (even though I was born in the early 90s) and weirdly? Zamboomafu

DarkRyuukin as a username is simply... what it is. I started in the internet bizz as rareopaldragon (a username I cleverly came up with in grade school as I told my dad because "I like opals, and I like dragons, and an opal dragon would be pretty rare, SO rareopaldragon"). But to get away from the ridiculous drama of middle school me (and the ridiculous blatant lies. I was never a DJ at 13, with guys hitting on her constantly. Who the fuck did I think I was? xD) I created my account as DarkRyuukin. A lot of drama has followed this name as well, but for now I'm content to keep it.

Ryuukin being my demon sona, and previous spirit self. Dark because, well, I was obsessed with my alignment of good dark (on a wiccan cross thing... its a long story)

My personal views are centrist, though more republican, heavy feminist, huge environmentalist (but not a fake one like Peta oh goodness), and all for equal rights, though I find it funny we're arguably more accepting of men turning into women than we are birth born females. I grew up with NO religion, as my dad was previously nearly every Christian you could think of, and my mom was a Lutheran, and they both agreed to believe in god, but not religion from there on out. So I grew up able to form my own path. A real strong path. A path I felt safe in. Up until a year or two ago...

Sexual orientation is 90 percent straight. Women I'd go down on basically includes anyone who looks as muscular and whatever as P!nk. I don't dictate who I get attracted to, I don't have rules, it just /happens/. But no one in the world could ever EVER even come close to my mate, whom I love to death, and am dedicated to with every ounce of my being. We've been together for 4 years now, through good times and bad, and I love him to death

Absolutely and totally a femdom, and do NOT challenge me on this. If you claim to want to teach me how fun it is for women when they're actually submissive, I'll counter that someone should show YOU how fun it is to be bound up and pegged, okay? Okay. Its taken me YEARS to accept who I am on this, as guys continuously made me the submissive parter for many years. Thank GOD for my mate, once again <3

I've been through basically the entire middle section of the United states, and to the bahamas twice. Memphis was one of the best trips I've ever taken, in part because its in the south, in part because I was with a lot of my friends, in part because it was Gamesday, but almost entirely because I got to spend time in a lovely hotel with my mate <3

Contributing to the fandom I basically sometimes create art, sometimes, and used to commission a lot more, but college is expensive and being an adult is hard work :P I consume favorites like its going out of style though

And in short, the black kitten is me: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/1506652_1118081831554602_4049850791107119181_n.jpg?oh=7a155827da6d849b4f68b2538a20502d&oe=556A94AB&__gda__=1428721954_93cddccb3ce5d736b4f19ab4fd27d177