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With "A Classy "Girl's" Afternoon Out"  , I pause this (semi-)new branch for the time being. So what made me backtrack and write up a story like this? Well, because it's different, for one. Most of the stories I've written here have David intervene with or become older people, but this branch starts with him interacting with younger ones and eventually slipping into his school life, so it's perfect for the kind of hijinks you'd expect from someone David's age. This already happened with the first option in "A Girlfriend's Proposal" , where David accepted Jessica's proposal to help Mikey Reyes by becoming him, eventually leading to "The Big Scoop" However, that decision was forced from Jessica's part. The second option, thus, became a way for David to reclaim his ability to decide for his own, though most of his decisions involve figuring out what Jessica and Claire are up to. And while David could've just gone home and figure what to do, seeing his friend Jimmy going elsewhere became something he couldn't ignore. Now, you may recall that David (as Mikey) thought he heard Jimmy and some of his friends in Mackenzie's party but didn't do a thing. That plan seemed fishy but wasn't fully explored, and this branch gives the reader the opportunity to see what Jimmy's gang was up to - something as silly as you'd expect. What you probably didn't expect was having someone away from the group interfering - a completely unexpected element. But that also gives the reader a chance to see Jimmy's gang in action. Drew has already appeared in the story - briefly - and so has Eric, but Jake and Bobby are new. I intentionally made them "those two guys", but physically polar opposites - two friends who should basically be brothers but were born from different families. Maybe they start as stereotypes, but now that they're there, they can be developed. Tomorrow (if weather conditions allow) will see a continuation of another commission, following from "Losing Yourself to the Beat" . David found the pens and decided to share them with Jimmy, who had plans for them. After fishing around, Jimmy settled for Samantha Reynolds, one of the darlings of the school's glee club. Donning her best friend Lauren, David and Jimmy snuck into an exclusive club (thanks to Samantha's cousin, Aurora) and are partying hard. But an impromptu game will put them to the test. Where will it land? Stay tuned! |
| With "Setting Up the Trap(s)" , this branch is put to a pause. While previous stories have David collaborate with one character separately, this is one situation where there's an ensemble working. In this case, we have agent Silva (aka Epsilon, from the Organization, but at this moment she's appearing as a FBI agent) and Cassie (aka Quentin) in the same "team" of sorts. This situation was half planned and half improvised. This story emerges from a fundamental division - while in "The Parent Trap(ped)" David uses home advantage and eventually traps Quentin by having his mother (as Ashley) zap him, in "The Parent (Sets the) Trap" he visits Ashley's house, out of trust, and gets trapped. Because of this, in one branch David works with his mother, while in this one he (inadvertently) works with his father. This also means that in one branch they take down Tessa immediately, while in the other they need some help. Some things are shared, however. In both branches, Tina doesn't like the idea of wearing skins and prefers to leave things to the authorities. In the branch where David isn't caught, she mentions this but gets essentially outvoted. In this branch, Paul is more sympathetic to Tina's claim, and therefore they call the FBI. This is part of the planned bit - unless I have other plans for it, nine out of ten times it'll get Silva's attention and therefore she'll appear. (Especially if something about strange pens that turn people into skins is somehow mentioned.) What she does when she's called depends on the situation - as an agent of the Organization, she's evaluating the situation based on its parameters. She might not be as nice in every branch, the same way the Organization isn't. However, in this branch, Cassie has already established her loyalty to David (or, well, "Isabella" now - not escaping the allegations, aren't I?), and she brings her own brand of chaos to stories. This is the improvisation part - how Silva deals with David with someone like Cassie around. I'm very interested in how this branch develops, but that'll be later. Tomorrow brings a new branch! Of sorts, that is. It starts at "A Girlfriend's Proposal" , after Jessica learns about the pens. This one already has a branch where he agrees to her proposal, leading to the chaos precipitating into "The Big Scoop" . What would happen if he rejects the proposal, though? I promise this one will lead into something very, VERY interesting. Stay tuned! |
| Apologies for the delay. With "Le Tour de (Non?) Farce" , I pause this branch for the time being with an interesting cliffhanger. I had a general idea where I wanted to take it, but I got into a bit of a stumble upon realizing "Claudia's" plan wasn't very feasible, which is why it feels slow-moving. Though exploring "her" burgeoning relationship with Luke was delightful. Speaking of the name in quotation marks, you may have noticed that this is basically the second chapter where David has fully embraced the individual he's wearing (the first one being Rachel). The way I see it, the appeal of transformation-based stories is exploring new forms and identities - a perfect match for Interactive Stories, which thrive when focused on a single POV character. And while short-term explorations are possible, long-term explorations make for a more rewarding story. Think of it as slow-cooking - rather than get to the desired term as quick as possible, you cook things slowly to change their texture or allow flavors to merge properly. In this regard, David has turned Claudia's life around in an interesting way, becoming bolder, but still retaining most of what made Claudia herself - her quirks, her tastes, her desires. The more he stays in, the more he evolves into someone entirely different from its constituent parts. Now, because my stories have David turning into women (appealing to the fans!), it may seem like I'm building him as a closet transgender, but I don't think that's the case. This isn't meant to add fuel to any controversy - after all, gender exploration is, IMO, part of that identity exploration everyone must go through during their lifetime. I feel his decisions are shaped by the alluring nature of transformation and assuming a different identity - especially one that may feel better than their own. Perhaps at some time I may have him explore a different male identity to see how he reacts. (Then again, he has done so already - in "A Change of Face, a Change of Routine" as Mikey, then as Ashton. Maybe this is the one?) Tomorrow will continue the branch from "Off the Cage, Still in the Doghouse" . David is held by Tessa, our favorite criminal mastermind, to secure collaboration from his father Paul, who's under his (ex-)wife Marie's guise. He's been abused and wants to leave - and his only friend through all this, Cassie, wants to help. He must decide whether to leave on his own, drag Cassie along, or plan for a better escape. What will be his decision? Stay tuned. |
| With "A Replacement Wife, a Replacement Mother" , I put this branch on pause for the time being. This whole branch has been an exploration of Jimmy's family, and it only felt fair that certain things appeared on the way. I hope seeing Dennis Wilson on the flesh was a surprise. Long-time readers of the story know that most of the stories aren't connected, so there's no established canon. Jessica's mother, for example, has been called Denise and Michelle alternatively, and her father George alternatively has and hasn't appeared. Likewise,. Trish's mother has had two different names. When I worked this branch, I wanted to tackle some of these discrepancies. When I worked this story, I set the family members that appeared the most - Mrs. Wilson and Heather. The former's name wasn't established canonically - in one, it was Julia, while in the other it was Vanessa. When I decided to establish my own canon for the story, I decided to have Julia and Vanessa into twins, with one being Jimmy's mother and the other his aunt. That led to Bradley, the "father" mentioned in passing, becoming Jimmy's uncle. That left Jimmy without a dad, which meant I had to explain why he wasn't there. That turned into a very interesting set of chapters where I could explore Jimmy's emotions and subtly introduce more pens into the story. For one, Jimmy has been presented as a pervert and a troublemaker, but in certain stories he's been presented as a psychopath that wants to permanently replace people for his own amusement. I wanted to subtly remove that part of his personality, as I feel that story's too dark for someone who's supposed to be part of David's circle of friends, but I didn't want to erase it completely. With Jimmy's father representing that dark and irresponsible side, I could create a justification as to how Jimmy can go dark, but also how he could be redeemed - depending on the story and on David's decisions.(And of course, bring the other pens into play!) Speaking of David's decisions, tomorrow will see the branch ending with "An Unlikely Association" . David has embraced becoming Claudia Nicholls and wants to improve her life. However, after a little exploration, he learns there are more pens around. Alongside Luke, he has reconnected to Meredith and Leslie, the latter which has a plan to get even more pens. Will David help them, ensuring he'll remain as Claudia in exchange? Or will he seek why there are more pens, when those are supposed to be unique? Stay tuned! |
| With "The Confidence Game, part 2" , I'm pausing this branch for the moment, though it could easily extend for one more week if I proposed to. I decided to leave it on an interesting spot to create more attention to it. If the previous chapters showed David's transformation (and perhaps corruption?) into Rachel, these ones show Jessica's transformation. While she's still reticent into entering David/Rachel's new life, she is embracing some of the perks of living a different life. While this can be seen as an example of how love corrupts, it's marred by how the purple pen - the hypnotizing pen - is somehow influencing her actions. Is she being manipulated, or did the pen just unleashed her id? That leads to Tessa's request, which on the surface looks simple - a way to ruin someone's life and advance her interests within the city. While other chapters show Tessa as a charming yet cruel "family" woman, here she's shown as a cunning manipulator who sends her "agents" to take out her enemies. This expands her depths as a character, taking her from merely an alleged criminal mastermind with some pull on the underworld of Tyneside to an active player. What are her intentions behind her move against Stanley Hoover? And also, why is she ordering Rachel to have Jessica act as well? Though it's part of their "deal", it's obvious Rachel doesn't want her to do her work - and yet, it's by forcing her into act that Jessica has proven to be rather devious. From suggesting cloning Genny's skin, to creating an incriminating video against Darlene, she has shown some creative ideas no different from Rachel's own. This brings a lot of questions, in particular whether this comes from Leah's influence or if the purple pen has pushed her to do so. And if it's the latter, is David also under their influence? In any case, those are questions better left for later, as tomorrow will bring a continuation of "Into a Sister, Onto a Problem" . In this branch, David and Jimmy are testing the pens, with the former having tapped on Jimmy's mother, Julia. There, he learns a little secret from her past related to Jimmy and his sister Heather, which prompts them to push Julia into replacing her twin sister, Vanessa. Yet, those plans are ruined as the woman returns with a surprise - Vanessa's husband, Bradley, wants the divorce! What will happen next? Tune in tomorrow! |
| With "A Plan, Put to the Test" , this branch is put on pause. This is a follow-up to a commission with some simple requests - have someone enter David's family, pose as their women (specifically their women), and do lewd things with them. The first commission asked for that individual to wear Tina and Claire, finally suggesting wearing Marie. The second commission basically deals with the fallout of the first, with other swaps happening. This kind of story involving skinsuits is rather common - a disheveled man, down on his luck but with the rabid hormones of a younger man and no respect for the worth of other people, finds itself with a device that lets them become other people and starts using them as objects. When challenged with this kind of prompt, one must be creative to make it tasteful and interesting - as a commission, the intention is to please the person asking for said commission, but ultimately it's a story and therefore it must exist as a story on its own. As part of striking that balance, one must be clear on the limitations of the medium. For example, Interactives have a hard word count, where one must be very careful how much attention you pay to certain details. Balancing the lewd scenes with the story-driving scenes becomes a challenge. Not just that, there's an additional matter to address when the story is told from an outside perspective. As you may have noticed from how the story progresses, the driving force is the invader, not David - he reacts to what the invader does, but lacks agency. Had the story been written from the perspective of the invader, it'd be much easier as you could understand the reasons he does what he does. This brought an unintended challenge, as you have to tell a story from David's point of view, where he can only steer things a certain direction. And this direction mostly inclines toward "get the invader out of the story", but once again, the wishes of the client come first. As you can see, this commission brought an unexpected challenge - how to tell a story where the point-of-view character essentially isn't the main character. There was a little wrangling, but to my fortune, the result was satisfactory - both for the client, and for me. Was it satisfactory for you? Feel free to comment. Tomorrow will mark a return a very dark story, starting from "Out with the Old (Life), In with the New (Born)" . David has brought his girl to his new life, but has received a rather shocking surprise. What will "Rachel" do? Wait and see. |
| So I had plans to post today's chapter, "Slip-Ins, Slip-Outs and Slip-Ups" , yesterday, but one very unexpected situation caused me to do it today. Apologies for the delay. Barring an interruption like this, tomorrow should have the last chapter of this branch, and I should resume proper daily postings from that moment on. I guess I should be thankful that I had a skip day planned for this branch, even if it didn't end the day it should have. |
| With "The School Queen's Gambit" , I pause this branch for the time being. I want to revisit it again at some point, since after dealing with the major issue that complicated things, it flowed rather smoothly. What was that issue? Well, "Like Returning Clothes to their Place" left things set for a very neat resolution - David has a story (but not a clean conscience), Mikey's set aside, and everyone has an explanation. So, how to complicate this to advance the story? For that to happen, the article had to achieve the opposite effect - putting everyone involved in trouble. But how to do that with an iron-clad article. This is the main reason why I decided, after writing a couple chapters, to write the article itself, setting it in a way to justify why Lindsey, of all people, would misinterpret it. (Or rather, what would start that fire, since she's full of fuel to burn.) That provoked a few changes to previous chapters to fit better with the article, and after a while, I decided that the best way for you readers to realize if Lindsey's actions were justified was to publish the article itself. Hence, why "Per-Cheer-Furious Allegations" has a link to an article that's hidden from my Portfolio. Also, you may notice an odd interaction that becomes a slight retcon. Since I don't own "Skins" , I can't make changes unless I contact mess  and ask them to do the change, or (barring that) ask the support team to do the same (as it happened with the little situation that delayed posting some chapters a few months back). Because of this, and because I went well ahead with establishing Lindsey's surname as "White" rather than "Young", that caused an issue pointed out by one of the readers regarding its connection with "Meet the Cheerleaders" , which I took this opportunity to address. It's a rather crude fix, but one that acknowledges other parts of the Interactive, which has always been my intention. (And now that I was checking, it also unwittingly made a reference to "the undergrounds" as I mentioned classroom 5C. Rest assured, that was unintentional.) So, what's for this upcoming week? A 5-chapter commission following "In Bed with a Little Stranger" . David learns that someone's inside his sister Tina (now wearing Claire's skin) and is forcing to help him. What will David do? Will he genuinely help, or will he rebel? And what are that guy's intentions anyways? First chapter will be tomorrow, with a pause on Tuesday and Saturday most likely. Stay tuned! |
| Thanks to everyone who answered about the article situation yesterday. I'll try something else, hoping it works to keep it invisible except by clicking on the link in the chapter "Per-Cheer-Furious Allegations" . Please mention if the article still appears as private to you; if that happens, I'll make it public tomorrow. |
| I’d say it’s working how you want now. A hyperlink appears in the text and takes the reader to the article only when tapping it. |
Reply| You may have noticed that today's chapter in the "Skins" Interactive, "Per-Cheer-Furious Allegations" , has a link right between the words. The link is supposed to connect to the article written by David (with help from Claire) in that chapter. Why did I do that? For two reasons. One, the article is what causes the controversy, so it makes sense that the reader sees what the article contains to see if everyone's reactions are justified. Hence, why it gets defictionalized (or rather, actually written). The second? Trying to write up a bunch of chapters referencing the article without having the article itself properly written for reference caused a lot of confusion, which made writing these chapters difficult. Had I not written it, there would be more contradictions than the ones that those that probably escaped my scrutiny after I wrote it. So, it was written for internal consistency - and because it's short and sweet, it made sense to just post it and have it add to this particular branch. Now, I intentionally set it to "Private", which means it might not be visible even with the link. Despite having 5 years in the site, there are still a lot of things I don't understand about its operation, so it may happen that you're unable to see the story. If so, make sure to point it out on this note, so I can be informed. If it works, then I'll see whether I make it public (which will let people see an article without context) or see how to figure out how to restrict it without depending on a PassKey. Thus - if you have any comments about the move, or ideas on how to improve the immersion, feel free to ask. If there's something about online writing sites is that you can make those subtle connections that the written word would find difficult to, especially with something like Interactive Stories which are pretty much dependent on existing in one. |
| Another weekly update, and this one has genuine good news. I completed another branch this week, which with the two I already have means I have three weeks' worth of content. That, coupled with finding ways to return to a semi-constant writing dynamic, means I should start posting again as soon as tomorrow. So expect daily (or semi-daily, for one of the branches) updates for at least three weeks, if not more. Tomorrow will begin where "Like Returning Clothes to their Place" left off. David decided to look for Kelly as his "source" to write his newspaper article, with his teen sister Claire posing as her for the actual "interview". However, things go haywire as he learns Jessica's plot to get Mikey and Lindsey get together has failed, and even further when Claire goes rogue and starts acting on her own. He's got a story and has worked things so as to arise no suspicion. Will thinks work his way, or will Claire's interference cause unexpected troubles? As always, if you want to know the latest updates (like, y'know, this one!!), you can always click on the Heart icon to the right of my Name and briefcase icon to become a Fan, so you can see them in your Newsfeed. |
| Weekly update on the hiatus, with some actual good news! Yesterday, I completed the 7-chapter branch starting from "Like Returning Clothes to their Place" , and the way it ended caused it to have an extra chapter. That augments my buffer to two weeks. This week, I plan to work a third branch, specifically the one starting with "Out with the Old (Life), In with the New (Born)" . That one had an interesting ending. How will things change and potentially escalate from this moment on? Now, if I manage to complete this branch in time, it's entirely possible I start posting again the week after (end of June/start of July). Which stories I'll develop afterwards depend on my whim, but I feel I should tackle another underdeveloped part of the story while on the way. As always, if you want to keep updated on everything that's going on, make sure to click on the gray Heart icon until you become a Fan - that way, these and other updates will appear on your Personal Newsfeed. |
| I have a slightly more positive update, if not what you probably want. I got two chapters for the branch ending on "Like Returning Clothes to their Place" and am working on a third chapter. Second one was the hardest to write since I didn't expect David to be so uncooperative, and things took an unexpected direction. But he has a choice, and he's gunning for that choice. What choice? Hopefully you'll see in a couple weeks, if I get this buffer up and running. |
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