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Yep, yep, C then A
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Feb 20, 2020 15:07
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Lol, we totally forgot to talk to Susie despite Holly's hints and it's driving her crazy.
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Feb 20, 2020 16:37
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Outrail posted:Lol, we totally forgot to talk to Susie despite Holly's hints and it's driving her crazy. To be fair for a bit there I forgot that we could talk to her for info on Jake.
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Feb 20, 2020 16:47
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Is there a word for when the author and the readers just forget a pivotal character and they're never mentioned again?
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Feb 20, 2020 18:08
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Outrail posted:Is there a word for when the author and the readers just forget a pivotal character and they're never mentioned again? "Plot Black Hole"
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Feb 20, 2020 18:18
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I've been daydreaming about running my own CYOA and one of my biggest worries is that I would have these types of plot black holes, as you call them. I guess the main reason being that a lot of actual time passes between story beats and you can't stay obsessively thinking about it continuously. On the other hand, if the narrative is large enough so that you can lose sight of an important character, at least it means that there are enough other interesting things going on. VVVV  
theroachman fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Feb 20, 2020 |
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Feb 20, 2020 19:15
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Or sometimes a character that could have been important becomes less important as the narrative moves away from them. Or maybe they're not actually forgotten and have been behind the scenes doing stuff that will come back to haunt the main character. 
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Feb 20, 2020 20:01
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 Digging down There is a wooden staircase, recently installed, leading down further from the basement into your new sub-basement. Your team has been moving toward your vision of using the huge mansion as a scaled up version of Redención House, which would require the use of the entire home. Therefore, the business of the Brotherhood would have to move to another area. Where better than simply underneath the existing house? Rather than pull out the floor and dig more foundation, Digger has created a diagonal shaft that descends twenty-five feet. The actual chambers he’s been excavating aren’t directly under the house, but under the driveway. And there’s only one room, at the moment. To be honest, you have your doubts that you’ll end up using this -- you’re no home designer but you’ve seen enough HGTV to wonder how an underground dirt room could be turned into proper living space. But you haven’t told Digger any of your concerns, as long as he assures you his digging isn’t going to make the house collapse. “Hey, Digger?” You call down the stairs, which wobble a bit, as you descend. Christmas lights someone found in the attic have been tacked down the length of the tunnel, giving everything a festive glow. “Yeah boss?” Digger appears at the base of the stairs, and you keep going until you’re in front of him. He’s big, broad-shouldered but narrow-waisted, his heavy-browed head supported by a thick neck. Digger flexed the fingers of his wide, spade-like hands, his thick claws stained with dirt. “You been keeping up on current events?” You look past his shoulder into the deepening gloom behind him. “Yeah, boss.” Digger crosses his arms, his large muscles stretching his shirt nearly to its limit. He’s strong and tall, and you can’t help but recall how he used those big claws during the MLM rally months ago, clinging to Monstro as he went crazy in from Haven’s secretive use of Deadlight darts. His chosen name indicated all he was interested in was digging, but this gentle giant could be provoked or persuaded to use his strength in other ways. “Well, what do you think about it?” You hand over your list that you’d just created, and Digger takes it gently in his hand, his eyes able to see clearly in the dim light. “What do I think?” His heavy brows crease as he reads the paper, lips moving slightly. As Digger goes down the list, his eyebrows raise higher. He looks up. “Cthulhu? Like, seriously?” You shrug dramatically. “I don’t know what else to call it. A psychic entity in another dimension who quite possibly was reaching out to Lovecraft and inspired his writing. So yeah, Cthulhu.” “Huh.” Digger returns to the list, re-reading a few things. “Huh.” You wait for a moment. When nothing else is forthcoming, you ask, “So, any thoughts?” “Yeah.” He looks down at you. “You say Jake was acting strange. Then he took off without telling you, which isn’t usual Jake behavior. Also he left his keys and stuff behind.” “Yes, but I was thinking that since Squib says that Jake pushed him out of his coma, that Jake is okay?” You frown slightly. “Well, maybe.” Digger pauses again. “Isn’t it also likely that the entity, Cthulhu or whatever, could be riding his body right now? And Jake in the other dimension is … stuck there?” You don’t like the sound of that at all. “I wouldn’t say it’s likely.” Digger raises an eyebrow. “Anyway, I’m going to be talking to Susie Quinn next, if I can get ahold of her. She went with Anna to... wherever it was they went. The less people who know, the better.” You turn to go. “Thanks, Digs. For your insight. How’s it… how’s going down here?” “Fine, boss.” He smiles. You make your way back up the stairs, pulling your phone out of your back pocket to call Anna’s cell.
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Mar 1, 2020 20:10
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Bakersfield, California “Hello?” Anna swatted at Antonio’s hand as he reached for the olives, and turned her full attention to the phone. ”Hey Anna, it’s Jane.” Anna pursed her lips, then smiled. “Checking up on me already?” ”Well, I wanted to give you time to settle in.” Jane sounded like she was smiling. ”You must have gotten to your mystery destination a couple hours ago.” “Si, si, something like that. Working on dinner now.” Anna stepped out of the way of her mother, Teresa Fernandez, as the older Spanish woman bustled about fixing paella. The only one in the family with no mutations, she often said her superpower was putting up with the rest of them. Smoothing her hand over her pregnant belly, Anna lowered herself into a chair where she could see out into the back patio and the kitchen at the same time. “What can I do for you, Jane?” She tried not to sound tired, but it had been a long day. ”Actually I was hoping --” Anna jumped as Susie plucked the phone from her hand. “Oh! Me asustaste a muerte!” “You want to talk to me.” Susie sat down across from Anna at the kitchen table as Teresa roped Antonio into deveining the shrimp. Anna frowned, unable to hear the other half of the conversation. “You should be in bed,” she chided the girl, leaning forward and rubbing her lower back. “Yes, I can talk about it. He came to my special place. I found it… years ago. Where I used to live they would give me shots to try to boost my ability. They usually made me sick, but one allowed me to visit this place, in my mind. And when I was in the hospital that is where I was.” Anna sat back slowly in her chair, staring at Susie. She’d never heard the girl say so many words in a row before. “The monster isn’t in my place, but my place is near the monster. And it was trying to get me. I never saw it before that. Jake fought the monster but he got caught.” Susie paused, listening to Jane. “No. Yes. He got me free from it and it was trying to get down into his body.” Susie fell silent, and Anna thought maybe Jane was talking a lot, but realized she could just barely hear Jane on the other end of the call. ”Susie? Hello? What happened then? ...Susie?” The girl blinked, pulling the cell phone from her face and looking at it a moment before putting it to her ear once more. “He asked me to cut his tether to his body.” ”What?!” “He asked and I did it. But when I did, I was back in my body, and he was opening his eyes. I saw what would happen if I said anything. If I didn’t wait until your call. “Jake is in that place. You can’t get back without your string.” Susie sat still, and Anna reached across the table and took her hand, holding it tightly. ”Susie, what would happen if you said something at the hospital? What did you see?” “Burning from the inside. If it uses too much of its power then Jake’s body burns up. Anna would have been hurt.” The girl rocked gently back and forth, and Anna looked past her briefly to the patio, where her father, Santiago, was turning on the string lights over the outside table and talking to the rest of the kids. “I couldn’t say anything.” ”Okay, that’s okay. I get it. I, uh, is there anything else I should know, Susie?” Susie shook her head and dropped the phone onto the table. Anna scrambled for it as the girl disappeared down a hall to the room she was sharing with Aimee, Jen, and Rebecca. “She shook her head,” Anna said into the phone. “Is there … what is going on? What can I do to help?” ”Just stay safe,” said Jane, her voice tight. ”Whatever Paolo tells you to do, just do it. Okay? Don’t tell me where you are. The less people who have that information in their minds the better. I have to ...go. Have a nice, uh, dinner.” The call ended before Anna could say good-bye, and she stared at her phone for a minute, feeling more worried than ever. *** You throw your phone across the room, where it embeds into the wall. “gently caress!” A. Redouble efforts to find Jake B. A, plus find out where the other coma patients went C. Find a way to parley with Haven again, but for real this time. No secret little meeting in an abandoned building like last time, we need to talk to some head honcho over there and compare notes. Strike a truce, team up, huff some headlight and kick tentacle rear end! D. Something else: Write in hollylolly fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Mar 5, 2020 |
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Mar 3, 2020 23:31
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B
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Mar 4, 2020 00:26
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B
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Mar 4, 2020 02:47
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B, so there's a thing running around in Jake and a doppelganger as well? Excellent.
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Mar 4, 2020 03:07
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Hexenritter fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Mar 5, 2020 |
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Mar 4, 2020 06:22
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A is unnecessary, we know Jake's body is posessed by Cthulhu and is now with the Nordicks, who are apparently Cthulhu cultists. The incident at the MLM protest might have been a summoning ritual. B is unnecessary, we have Susie and Squib's first-hand accounts. The other coma patients are held by Haven, where exactly doesn't matter. They probably aren't very comfortable, but they'll be fine. C. Find a way to parley with Haven again, but for real this time. No secret little meeting in an abandoned building like last time, we need to talk to some head honcho over there and compare notes. Strike a truce, team up, huff some headlight and kick tentacle rear end!
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Mar 4, 2020 14:29
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theroachman posted:A is unnecessary, we know Jake's body is posessed by Cthulhu and is now with the Nordicks, who are apparently Cthulhu cultists. The incident at the MLM protest might have been a summoning ritual. +1
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Mar 5, 2020 21:22
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theroachman posted:A is unnecessary, we know Jake's body is posessed by Cthulhu and is now with the Nordicks, who are apparently Cthulhu cultists. The incident at the MLM protest might have been a summoning ritual. edited this plan in as option C 
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Mar 5, 2020 22:35
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That is a good idea. Changing my vote to C.
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Mar 5, 2020 22:39
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Apologies for the lack of updates. I've been a bit stressed out, as I'm sure you all have as well. I hope to get something going again soon.
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Mar 24, 2020 18:54
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No worries, stay safe!
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Mar 25, 2020 09:32
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The vote as stands is: B - 4 C - 2 I am formulating an update. Percolating one, as it were.
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Mar 25, 2020 21:49
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Hexenritter switched from B to C, the vote is tied.
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Mar 28, 2020 11:40
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Going to vote for B to keep things consistent then.
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Mar 28, 2020 13:25
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C sounds fun
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Mar 30, 2020 21:35
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It was all tied up again so I went with "C is sort of also B" Jake was gone. No, not gone. Untethered. Squib told you that Jake had pushed him to consciousness from the other place, the psychic realm where he’d been trapped. You think that means that Jake’s mind is still in that place, while the Other is riding his body. And if this Other, possibly Cthulhu-inspiring psychic entity, uses too much of its power, Jake’s body will burn up. Could it have been using the Nordicks to find a ...a strong enough body for it? So this is what it feels like to be in over your head. Like drowning in slow motion under wet concrete that just...keeps...piling up. Calling in Big Mike and the Boneyard has been helpful but it just doesn’t seem like enough. While they investigate and look for Jake (with Intercept’s help of course), you could be doing something more, something bigger. Haven has taken the other coma patients, who might be next on the list as vessels. They don’t know what’s going on at all, as far as you know. It could be a ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ situation, and as you think it you are certain that you are going to reach out to them. You call Eel to find out how the search for CC and Ghost went (he and Billy went to their usual haunts, pun intended). ”We’ve talked to CC, got a little demonstration of their powers. Pretty impressive stuff. They turned into a seven foot tall Godzilla. Apparently there’s a size cap on their powers.” Eel cleared his throat. ”No sign of Ghost, but we left a note at a bar we were told he sometimes visits. We’ll see.” “Sounds good.” You pause. “Eel, you’d tell me if I was going to do something crazy, right?” ”...Yes.” He sounds immediately suspicious. “I need you to head up meeting with the two mutants from MLM tomorrow. I need to arrange a meeting with Haven.” ”A meeting with Haven.” “Is there an echo in here?” you quip deflectively. You give Eel a quick run-down on what you’ve found out from Susie, and your thoughts about reaching out to Haven. “I just think, logically, we have something they want. And they have firepower we need.” ”Remind me what it is we have that Haven would want?” “Information about the Nordicks. The Aesir, whatever. Haven doesn’t know about them at all, as far as we can tell. And a huge psychic entity coming into human form in order to fulfill the Nordick’s doomsday cult fantasy that leaves the world scoured clean for mutantkind seems like the kind of thing they might want to work with us about.” There is silence for a bit, then Eel says, ”Okay.” “Okay?” You raise your eyebrows. “So you agree with me?” ”Yes. But we’re cancelling any other meet-n-greets. We’re all doing this together.” You consider that, and…A. You agree - the whole LA Brotherhood will be part of the meet up with Haven. B. A, and you call in the Barrio Boneyard for backup, outside the meeting C. You don’t agree, you can make do with a few members to be by your side. You want a more intimate meeting. D. C, but you allow others to be on the perimeter, keeping an eye on things. E. Something else: Write in
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Apr 16, 2020 21:59
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D
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Apr 16, 2020 22:38
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A. Parley We want everyone present, not for the purpose of showing our strength (we're not a match for Haven anyway), but for the purpose of showing that we are all in on this and all-in on this. Palms open, no ace up the sleeve, we just want to talk, strike a truce and join forces.
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Apr 16, 2020 23:05
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A
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Apr 16, 2020 23:18
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theroachman posted:A. Parley This. A
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Apr 16, 2020 23:34
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Hi thread, sorry for the long silence. The pandemic has done wonders for my creative muses! If anyone is still following the thread, thank you for your patience. In light of Lowtax being a woman-beating piece of poo poo, the forums are in a state of flux. If he hands over the metaphorical keys everything may stay as it is. Or the denizens and OPs of the Game Room might migrate to another location. We just don’t know! If migration happens I have decided to take my threads to wherever Diogenes decides to take Paradise Lost. I figure the largest chunk of users will follow him as well. This CYOA is backed up, regardless. If you are not part of the CYOA discord, now is a good time to join.
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Jun 24, 2020 20:31
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In an effort to keep the global postage system afloat we're migrating to paper forums. You'll be mailed a hardcopy of new posts once a week, and can post your posts once a week for updating. Please note there will be up to a three week delay between posting and receiving updates.
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Jun 24, 2020 20:56
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Outrail posted:In an effort to keep the global postage system afloat we're migrating to paper forums. You'll be mailed a hardcopy of new posts once a week, and can post your posts once a week for updating. Please note there will be up to a three week delay between posting and receiving updates. I remember zines.
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Jun 24, 2020 21:24
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Lemniscate Blue posted:I remember zines. Lol. My housemate is half heartedly starting a zine. In 2020.
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Jun 24, 2020 22:14
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Thanks for the update, glad to hear you've got a backup
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Jun 25, 2020 09:42
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I have not given up on this but this year did a number on my creative juices. I SWEAR I will wrap this up to a good conclusion or at least a "they lived happily ever after/died horribly because of the choices you made." In the meantime, to jumpstart my brain, I've started a little CYOA with a clear endpoint in mind from the beginning. Adventures in Winter: a fairy CYOA. Please feel free to jump in. The setting is one I created for a novel I wrote, a book that is coming out this year on December 15th!  cover artist Aliana Wong My book -- Fae Child is a portal fantasy (think Alice in Wonderland, or Narnia) where a little girl named Abbie falls through a pond and comes up in the Otherworld, the land of the Fae. As she comes to grips with her situation and tries to find a way home, back with her parents a changeling has taken her place. Abbie's father, Dan, wrestles with his own secrets while he desperately searches for his real daughter. It's a slim YA/MG fantasy novel, and even if you're not into that sort of thing (but you're here, so I assume you are) you probably know a tween who is, or who could be. It will be a great Christmas present! Links to preorder: Amazon paperback, Amazon ebook, Book Depository (for free international shipping), Powell's, or search it on the website of the local bookstore of your choice. It is distributed through Ingram. I am giving away an ebook bundle and a Kindle Paperwhite, among other things, to one lucky pre-orderer. Just screenshot your preorder and submit. And in the meantime I am simmering ideas for Jane and her merry band of mutants on the back burner of my imagination. Or, something like that.
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Oct 20, 2020 15:21
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