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 A hub for the "Book of Masks" universe. |
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The Interactives "The Book of Masks"  : A high school student discovers a grimoire that can make magical disguises."The Wandering Stars" : Sequel to "The Book of Masks.""Student Bodies" : A high school student is turned into a blue goo that can possess people.For non-WdC Members "The Book of Masks: Archives" : Dodges the "Servers Busy" barrier!"The Book of Masks (Abridged)" : Introductory storylines for new readers.Community "BoM/TWS Message Forum" : Community for readers of the interactives."BoM/TWS/SB Wiki" : Notes and documentation for authors. Spoilers!Current Polls/Contests None The Latest 6/2: Interactive: "Another Member for the Team" 6/2: Public: "Another Member for the Team"
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| * Interactive: "The Price She Had to Pay" * Public: "The Price She Had to Pay" It's June 1st, which seems like a good time to try to get things going again. I've been doing some writing, but I've been slow about it. If I start putting chapters out, that should give me the discipline to put in the 20% extra work to make it a daily thing again. So, where are we? The chapters above continue the storyline where Will is working with Chelsea Cooper. He is currently inhabiting the mask of Steve Patterson, and has helped Chelsea tighten her grip on the cheerleading squad. Cindy has resigned it, along with Lin and Yumi (the latter a golem under Will's control), while the Garner sisters have been forced to quit. There will be school-wide tryouts to get replacements. And Will has forced Seth Javits to break up with Cindy. In return, he has put Seth in charge of giving extra practice sessions to three of the members of the basketball squad, and also given him access to the loft. |
| I was supposed to be writing over these last ten days, including getting two more chapters for SB:TS written, but the writing bug has been on a vacation. He might be on a vacation for a little longer, it's hard to tell. At any rate, I'm going to stop with "Student Bodies: Transfer Students" where it is for right now, and I will be stopping with new material for a little while as well. I'm not going on hiatus and I won't be going anywhere, and to make sure that I don't dip out I'm going to keep posting "new" chapters in the Archives, continuing the line branch that I've been publishing. (There's a continuation up there now: "Call of the Constellations" .) |
| Readers of the interactive will find a new chapter in "Student Bodies: Transfer Students" : "Beth's Body" For Archive readers, there is "The New Brother" , which is a continuation from "Frank Tells His Story" .This is the branch where Will trained in magic under Aubrey Blackwell; changed allegegiances to join with Frank and Joe to take Blackwell down; got outmaneuvered by Blackwell thanks to some anima bands; and who finally triumphed over him. The new chapter and those that come after are not actually new (they are quite old, in fact), but I never posted them in the Archives edition of the story, so they might be new to some readers. |
| Last chapter in the branch is now posted: * Interactive: "Red Harvest" * Public: "Red Harvest" * * * Everyone once in a while I get a request to add to "Student Bodies" , which was the first interactive that I ever launched. I usually decline because I lost interest in it a long time ago. The mechanics -- particularly the "multiple bodies, operated simultaneously" trick -- are hard to write, and the protagonist's power pack is so overcharged that there's not much challenge to him, so it's not very interesting to write.A couple of months ago, rugal started pitching ideas to a couple of us about doing a relaunch of that story, with more limited powers and a different set up. I was interested in his ideas, but less interested in writing for it, until one day a couple of chapter just sprang out of me, like a chest-burster. I showed them to rugal, along with some revisions to his basic ideas for the story and its mechanics. He posted a new version of that interactive, with the chapters I'd given him. Then, in between writing chapters for this latest BoM branch, I wrote some more for the revised "Student Bodies." You can find it here: "Student Bodies: Transfer Students" . Rugal can give more backstory on it (and correct some of my misrememberings and misapprehensions) if he wants. It has the same basic setting as "The Book of Masks" and "Student Bodies": Saratoga Falls, with the same high schools and characters. It is an alternate universe of those, I suppose, with some important changes. The first is that there's a new protagonist for the story, replacing David Johnson (though David is still a character). The second is that the entire "magic" background of "The Book of Masks" (including the Stellae, Blackwell, Fane, the Brotherhood of Baphomet, etc.) are missing. In fact, there is no magic at all in this universe. But these were also presumed missing from "Student Bodies." The third change is that the backstory on the "blue goo" is different, and so is the infection point.More important, in this version, the powers are more limited and take time to develop, so things are not going to get jumping right away. (It's a bit like BoM in this regard.) But given time, it should reach a point where most everything that was in the original "Student Bodies" (including the "multiple bodies, operated simultaneously" trick) will be again in play. It's just not there yet. Starting tomorrow and for the next week or so, I will be daily posting chapters there rather than in BoM. Readers of the Archives edition of BoM will not be getting chapters in "Student Bodies: Transfer Students," though. Instead, I will take advantage of the BoM hiatus to post some BoM chapters that are not currently in the Archives. I'll describe those chapters tomorrow, when the first one goes up. |
| No GPs were voted in the last poll, so the final result is just the Free Vote result: * Luke Richardson: 50% * Luke Martins: 21.4% * Cameron McCarthy: 14.3% * Chuck Johnson: 7.1% * Nathan Elliot: 7.1% There was not a lot of participation -- no surprise, since these are almost all new names, and it's for a MtM swap anyway -- but because of thin participation, I held off writing a chapter because GPs could have swung in at the last moment to send it in any direction. So, no chapter until tomorrow, which will be the stopping point for this branch. |
| The last poll in the "Fröhliche Momente mit unbekannten Menschen" series is now closed. GP votes cancelled each other out almost exactly, so that the final tally is almost identical to the Free Vote tally: * Talk to Kim: 48.4% * Talk to the Hispanic girl: 35.5% * Talk to the girls in plaid: 9.7% * Wait for one to approach you: 6.5% This wasn't much of a surprise. I don't know when I'll pick this up. |
| No GPs got voted in the last poll, so the final result is just the Free Vote result: * Skip the concert: 66.7% * Go to the concert: 33.3% Result: * Interactive: "The Boys to Come" * Public: "The Boys to Come" * Poll: [Poll completed and deleted] [Closes Wednesday at noon] The other poll series is on its last entry, and I think the poll above will be the last for this series as well. Which choice gets picked will be the last one in this branch, before I switch to something else. We'll talk about that later. |
| Like yesterday's poll, the GPs basically cancelled each other out, resulting in a final tally very close to the Free Vote result: * Talk to her about your romantic life: 57.9% * Change the subject: 42.1% The last poll in the series: [Poll completed and deleted] |
| The GP results basically canceled each other out, so the winning choice got about the same percentage in the adjusted vote as in the Free Vote: * "Why does Ella need an official boyfriend?": 46.1% * "Leave Ella, and let Sydney make a decision for": 36.2% * "Any of those guys would do. Just pick one.": 17.6% * Interactive: Interactive: "Ella on the Loose" * Public: "Ella on the Loose" * Next poll: [Poll completed and deleted] |
| Another landslide. There were no GPs so the Free Vote determined the winner: * Talk to Caleb: 91.7% * Meet with Carson: 8.3% I closed the poll an hour early, in part because it was so lopsided, but mostly because I've got things to do at the usual hour I close and post these things. The next poll in this series is up: [Poll completed and deleted]. And whichever way it goes, there will be only one more poll in this series, because each choice leads to the climax of a branch. Related: there is also a new (sort of) chapter in this branch. I published "The Value of Old Things" in the Archives edition last month, but forgot to publish it in the interactive. It is one of the choices offered at the end of the current poll, so if you haven't seen it and want to cast an informed vote, you should take a look. |
| In contrast to the last poll, this one was another run-away winner thanks to lopsided GP voting accenting a heavy Free Vote: * Hang out with Carson: 80.8% * Return to Patrick and his gang: 19.2% Next poll: [Poll completed and deleted]. |
| Almost exactly a year ago (and it feels longer than that!) I announced ("Fetching Up Point" ) that I was taking time off from BoM to write an unrelated script. Unlike the previous time I tried writing scripts (that benighted "Spider-Man" project), this one not only went fast and easy, it was a joy to compose, probably because I improvised it from the start instead of trying to outline it first. I don't remember how quickly I got it done, but it has been completed and filed away for many, many months. (Closer to eleven months than to eight, I am sure.) I recently returned to it to make revisions and edits, and for anyone who is curious to see what I was working on and how it turned out, it is now posted in three parts. It is a fan-fiction reimagining of the pilot of the 1991 animated series The Pirates of Dark Water. That is a fairly obscure series—I won't ask anyone to confess to watching it when it debuted 34 years ago—and I only watched it early last year (via Warner Archive's DTV release) because I was intrigued by some clips I tripped over on YouTube. It sat in my head for awhile, until the urge to do a fanfiction overwhelmed me. Relevance to BoM? None, really. But I will note that when I went to invent an antagonist much nastier and dangerous than in the original series, I found it in TF fiction. Also, it appears that Frank and Joe were haunting me as I wrote it. The relationship between Rathka and Ren (as I see it now, with some distance) somewhat recapitulates theirs, though in this case Ren is far, far more callow and immature than Joe is, and Rathka older and much sketchier than Frank. But even their coloration is similar. (Though in that case, it's because Ren was originally blonde anyway, and Rathka would need visual distinction from him.) It is divided into three parts and it begins here: ""The Pirates of Dark Water" (Act 1)" There is also a commentary page (with spoilers!) that discusses some of the changes I made to the original story and lore, and why: "About this Fanfiction [Spoilers]" . I suggest saving that (if you do read any of this) for after reading the script, unless you just don't care. |
| Alright, I'm sorry, but you guys are going to have to wait until Thursday to get a sequel to "Getting Through the Afternoon" . "Sure, that's a great idea" was the 2-to-1 favorite in the Free Vote, but "No, that's a little weird" got more GP votes, which made it a lot closer. How much closer? So close that if "No, that's a little weird" had gotten just one more GP—just one!—it would have eked out a win. Instead, "Sure, that's a great idea" takes it by a whisker. Given that the vote was so close for most of the polling period ("Weird" was ahead for most of yesterday in the adjusted tally), I didn't write anything for today. And because I am alternating polls at the moment, I am going to skip today and tomorrow both, and publish the sequel on Thursday. Final, adjusted tally: * Sure, that's a great idea: 51.6% * No, that's a little weird: 48.4% And after a run of landslides, that is about as close as we have ever seen. |
| The winner of the Free Vote got swamped by GPs, so that we are now onto a new track in this storyline. Final, adjusted tally: * Hang out with Carson: 65.2% * Stick with those that brought you: 34.8% Next poll: [Poll completed and deleted] |
| For the first time in a long time, a poll question got no GPs. Maybe voters just assumed that the big lead opened up by one of the choices was going to end up being insurmountable, so no one bothered. Anyway, the final results were those of the Free Vote: * No way you want any of those identities: 78.3% * Turn some of your persecutors into Brothers: 21.7% New chapters and poll: * Interactive: "Getting Through the Afternoon" * Public: "Getting Through the Afternoon" * Poll: [Poll completed and deleted][Closes Tuesday] |
| The Free Vote in [Poll completed and deleted] was almost a tie, but the GP vote wasn't. "Accept his offer" got a fair number of GP votes, resulting in a solid win: * Accept his offer: 64.5% * Pick your own: 35.5% Next poll in the series is now up: [Poll completed and deleted] The poll in the current storyline continues another until Sunday at noon: [Poll completed and deleted]. |
| So, the latest poll has closed, with the biggest landslide I've ever seen: * Tell her about the life you just escaped: 94.1% * Pass it off as the usual bullying: 5.9% I could have closed the poll 24 hours early, and I would have, except that I want this poll-series and the other series to run on alternate days, so this one had to stay up for the the full 48 hours. Well, that was one reason. The other is that I had to do an enormous amount of planning and research into the histories and relationships and class schedules of characters mentioned or introduced in this branch, and there was no way I was going to get all that done and the next chapter written at short notice. But the sequel and its poll are written and are now up: * Interactive: "Morning, Ella" * Public: "Morning, Ella" * Poll: [Poll completed and deleted] |
| Final, adjusted tally in the poll for the next storyline: * Go out to the Warehouse: 65.4% * Stick with these guys: 34.6% And so the next poll advances down the path that was voted on the first time we did this. New poll: [Poll completed and deleted] This time I got the links for the GP voting right. |
| For the first half of its run, the choices in [Poll completed and deleted] were very close, but during the last half the choice to "stay as Ella" pulled away. Along with the GPs voted, the final result wasn't close at all: * Stay as Ella for now: 72.5% * Become a boyfriend to Ella: 27.5% Next chapter and its poll are now up: * Interactive: "Business Before School" * Public: "Business Before School" * Poll: [Poll completed and deleted] |
| The current poll—[Poll completed and deleted]—continues to run, but I've started posting a separate series of polls, this one related to the giant update I made this weekend. As I warned readers, not much happens in the chapters I posted, being set-ups for the eventual return of the Summa Libra Personae to the action. But I want to continue at least some of the branches in that section, so that it is not all set up in there, and I want to give readers their choice of where the action will first develop. If you've already sorted through most of those chapters, I can't promise that a Plot Plinko will get you anywhere close to where you'd like most to go. But I hope you will play anyway. If you have not sorted through most of the chapters, here is a chance to concentrate your reading. I'm not sure when I will wrap up the current branch. It doesn't feel like a natural breaking-off point is coming any time soon. And I am not sure that the winner of this new series of polls will be the one that I continue next. But I'd like to have it in my hip pocket, so to speak. The poll is here: [Poll completed and deleted] It closes on Thursday at noon. |
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