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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 4/2: "BoM Poll: People Who Want to Talk to You" [Closes Friday, April 4, at 12:00 ET]The Latest 4/2: Interactive: "People Who Want to Talk to You" 4/2: Public: "People Who Want to Talk to You"
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| * Interactive: "Meet the Welches" * Public: "Meet the Welches" That's the last chapter of this short branch, which was written for a commission. The commission calls for more chapters in this area, but with different choices, but I'm going to publish some other stuff before returning to finish the commission. So what's up next? A long time ago we had a poll on how to continue "Like a Boss" , and for complicated reasons having to do with some janky votes I declared four winners. Recently I wrote up the branch for the winningest of those winners—"A Girl for Kirkham" —and now it's time for the first runner-up winner. It starts with "A Girl for Prescott" .Will and Sydney are creating a Brotherhood of Baphomet, and they have "recruited" (meaning they have made an enslaved doppelganger of) David Kirkham. Will was impersonating Kirkham, and he accidentally caused a public rupture between the doppelgangers of himself and Sydney that they left behind. This upset Sydney, who says that she wants to remain Will's girlfriend in some public way. There's multiple ways that Will (who's kind of dense, and is confused by being mixed up with Kirkham's psychology) could take this. Tomorrow we start to explore a different way things could go. * * * Separately, we had a poll last week on how to continue "A Stolen Life" . Only one choice got GPs votes, resulting in the following standings:* Will edges closer to Gordon: 50% * Will tries to save his own skin: 43% * Will edges closer to Caleb: 7% Today brings the second poll: [Poll completed and deleted]. Like the first, it will run for a week. * * * Oh, and commentary on the just-published branch is here: "Commentary: "Where the Heart Is"" |
| Oops. I forgot to add the usual "GP Votes" options stuff to the poll—[Poll completed and deleted]—but I've added it now. It's the usual thing. If you want to give more heft to your vote in the poll, go to the chapter you want continued, and send me GPs through the tip form at the bottom of the chapter. |
| * Interactive: "The Temptation To Not Be Yourself" * Public: "The Temptation To Not Be Yourself" That winds up the most recent branch. Here's the commentary: "Re: Re: Re: Re: Loving the new chapters for the Gordon/Wi..." There's also a poll for how to continue it: [Poll completed and deleted] And what comes next? A commission! It starts out with "Where the Heart Is" , which is a new entry into the Archives. Will and Caleb have been playing around with the book, and after making a mask of Will, plus a golem, they have accidentally golemized Will's dad. Will has temporarily taken over his father's identity as he frantically searches for a way to reverse the spell, but he and Caleb have started talking about finding a new work space. Those talks have now evolved into the idea of taking over an entire household, so that they have a secure place to work without venturing outside and risking discovery.But if they do that, where will they go? |
| Today's chapter— * Interactive: "A Stolen Life" * Entry: "A Stolen Life" —ends with three choices, but instead of picking one choice and pushing on from there, I'm going spend the next three days publishing the sequel to each choice. This branch has been going in a straight line for almost twenty chapters, and except for two one-chapter buds it has been going in a straight line for sixty of them. I'm not sure that's a record for BoM, but it's got to be pretty close to one. So that's one reason I want to make an on-the-record split decision here. The other is that I do see multiple ways of pushing the story forward, now that the full set of tools is available to Will and Caleb and Gordon, and I want to set up some of those choices. The chapters that come tomorrow will not offer specific scenarios and impersonations, but they will collectively set up lots of general possibilities and several different motivations. |
| * Interactive: "A Wife Has Her Ways" * Public: "A Wife Has Her Ways" Today's chapters end the current run. Commentary is here: "Commentary: "The Mother of Invention"" Next up, a continuation from "A Final Confrontation" . That's the branch where Will had partnered with Caleb and then with Gordon Black.When last we visited them (which was not too long ago, after a very long hiatus), Will was taking Gordon's advice about resisting the bullies by making himself more trouble than he was worth, and Will was getting detention for getting into repeated fights with David Kirkham and his minions. He and his friends, meanwhile, had reached the spell that requires a human subject, and they had decided to try it out on Kirkham. This they did (fortunately, they'd made a mask of him first), and the results were not pretty. Kirkham now has to be replaced. But by whom? Or by what? |
| And I'm not so happy myself. But that's my own problem. I had to miss yesterday, but here is the final chapter in this short branch: * Interactive: "A Double Concerto of Doubt" * Public: "A Double Concerto of Doubt" There's a commentary thread in the forum—"Commentary: "Sonata for Six Hands ..."" —that confesses how self-indulgent the chapters were.Next? Ummm ... I've been trying to finish off a commission (that's why I threw those Preston Spinks chapters in, to buy myself some time) but I'm still not through what I need to get through. I only need to write six chapters, but I've only got three, and am having a hard time figuring out what to put into them. But the best way to finish them is to give myself no choice, so here we go. It will start tomorrow with a sequel to "The Unhappy Warlock" . Will has apprenticed himself to Professor Blackwell, and has been cycled so far through two impersonations, first as Yumi Saito, then as Kelly Cooper (Chelsea's mom). Blackwell didn't know about the last one, and after returning to town to find Will where he wasn't expecting him, has told Will that he needs to return to Yumi or to find some other face, as Mrs. Cooper will not serve. |
| * Interactive: "An Ex- Marks the Spot" * Public: "An Ex- Marks the Spot" The chapters above bring the latest branch to a shuddering halt. I hope you guys liked it. I know it was a twisty, unexpected adventure for me. You can get more details on that in the commentary thread: "Commentary: "Someone Old, Someone New ..."" Next? Something throwaway. I've got a commission that I need to write, and I'm only one chapter into it, so I need a little time to get it packed and wrapped. In the meantime, we'll pick up with "Chelsea Wins the War" .That's in the branch where Chelsea got ahold of the book and roped Will in afterward. Chelsea has transformed herself into Gary Chen, and Will has replaced Yumi Saito. But Will wants a new face, and in "Possibilities That Surprise You" he decides on the piano prodigy Preston Spinks.The chapters I'll be publishing are ones that I wrote a long time ago but held back because (I warn you at the front) nothing much happens in them. They're basically me practicing my descriptive powers, the way a musician might practice his scales and arpeggios. But I'm bringing them out of storage for a couple of reasons. The first is that events in these chapters are almost coincidental in time with those in the just-concluded chapter run, and so they present a few trivial people and moments and concerns from an alternate viewpoint. (That they do so is NOT a coincidence, as I consulted this unpublished section of BoM for ideas when writing "Music Matters".) Secondly, Preston Spinks is supposed to show up in a future branch, and I might as well get him on record first. "Possibilities That Surprise You" and "The Piano Prodigy" are new to the Archives, btw, so that readers who follow BoM there can go ahead and catch up. |
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