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A reminder that tomorrow should have a new set of chapters for "Skins"  . They will follow from "A Couple of Couples Coupling Up" - the branch where David meets up with the laid-back and very accepting couple of Ashton Kennedy and Allison Tennyson. In that chapter, he and his girlfriend Jessica are worn by the aforementioned pair as a test of confidence, and have earned their support. Now, Allison has done an even stranger proposal - to date each other, as if they were a bigger couple. And of course, Jessica has her reserves. Will David become more adventurous? Or will cooler heads prevail? I have a little buffer built-in (and I'll try to keep it properly buffered), so with some effort I should have enough new content until Christmas. Unless something extraordinary happens, there should be new chapters each day until end of year. |
| With "The High School, Black Market Affair, part 4" , this branch is paused. It also allows me to achieve another milestone - at the moment of writing, it makes for the longest branch in "Skins" . (Though it doesn't mean it can't be beaten again! That would be pretty motivational.) The "spy" branch (as I've gotten to know this branch where David deals with the Organization) is probably one of the more distinct and challenging branches I've worked on. While other branches have David permanently assume the identity of someone to pursue ambitions, or simply fool with the pens, this one involves having him improvise to tackle mysteries. The last one was pretty big - finding a high-ranking rogue agent without support - and it feels like nothing could top it. I can't say this part of the branch will, but it should keep the stakes high. A few observations include the modus operandi of the Organization. You might notice that, for being a secretive organization, it tends to be too secretive and restrictive. Treating each agent as an individual that must fend for themselves, with little to no support, and when support is present it must be deduced, doesn't really make for an efficient operation. What motivates them to be that secretive? That's a good point to explore later on. A tangent to the observation just made is that David was challenged from the very start. In the portion of the branch leading to this, he was given the identity of a burned (read: disenfranchised) agent and given very few clues, without any training beyond what Silva knew. This part of the branch has him elevated to Mission Control, which is usually given to experienced agents and high-ranking personnel, for a critical mission that happens to involve David's alma mater. Suffice to say, the Organization doesn't play games. And now, our protagonist must figure out not only his enemies, but his allies, in a familiar setting but from a different position. Which, in terms of canon development, became a nursery for loads of new characters that can appear in other stories. This makes this branch the most defining in terms of story canon than any other, particularly related to Edgefield High. Tomorrow... will have nothing. I know I announce it with enough time, but I'm taking a little break to deal with some personal projects. Do note that I've been working hard to create a buffer while writing this, so once we return, we return in stride. See you in... three weeks, I think? |
| With "A Mother's Relationship Woes" , I put this brand new - and entirely risqué - branch to a close. Curiously, this was the easiest branch to work around. Jessica finds the pens, fools David by putting on both her mom and her younger sister, and urges him to do raunchy, heated stuff. And more than half of the chapters contain a generous amount of that raunchy, heated stuff. Sure, there's some story added in - such as the relationship woes of David's parents, or the apparent woes they have - but for the most part is simply something to connect and make some sense out of erotic moments between two teenagers craving for each other. The intention behind this branch was pretty simple - to create a crowd-pleaser. Specifically, it's meant to be a textbook, typical skinsuit story - character finds a device that creates skinsuits, character uses the device, character puts on the skinsuit (with a detailed description or showcasing the process excruciatingly), character does something lewd while wearing the skinsuit. I've often tried to make variations on this, so that they become proper stories with skinsuits as a focus, if not the center, but sometimes the audience wants just that. And to be fair, this isn't bad. The opposite, though - to have only that type of story and nothing else - is wrong. Most skinsuit aficionados didn't start with that kind of story - they started with elaborate disguise and mask pull scenes in cartoons and movies, intended for other purposes. Perhaps the entry point was having gorgeous women turn into other gorgeous women in the Mission: Impossible series, or the late Robin Williams asking his make-up artist friends to "make him a woman" in order to fool his ex-wife in Mrs. Doubtfire. (Sometimes, these kind of tastes come from the weirdest places.) Suffice to say, seeking for that content led to proper skinsuit stories, and therefore to the typical skinsuit story that is presented in this branch. What will David and Jessica do with their mothers? Will they invite their friends to what would be a "middle-aged women's night"? That'll have to wait. Tomorrow, I'll continue with a much heavier storyline - the branch with the Organization. David found the rogue agent and dealt with it with the help of another agent, thus finishing his mission. What will be next for him? Will he stay working for the mysterious Organization? Tune in tomorrow! |
| With "Smells Like Teen Hormones" , I put this branch on a pause for now. And with a rather interesting surprise - David isn't wearing a girl! I'll admit this is a preparatory branch. As you may recall, David and his mother have vanquished Tessa already. The previous chapters dealt with the fallout of that challenge, and this one deals with trying to solve things, or at least starting. So David's in a strange situation where he has to keep Barbara (and Cassandra) from figuring out about Ashley, meaning he's against the clock - and yet, it seems very little has happened since then . So, this means some complications arise. The first chapter deals with David working out his first complication - Claire trying to create a clone of her own. We'll have to wait and see what a clone of Claire would do, or if it'll appear later. But this one adds a new complication - David's old friend, Jimmy, getting into the situation . This is a good moment to talk about, in all these branches, David tends to collaborate with someone. In this particular branch, he originally collaborated with his mother, and now Claire and Jimmy have joined, with Barbara and Cassandra on opposite sides. If David had trusted his "dad" and visited Ashley's home, circumstances would differ - which happens in "The Parent (Sets the) Trap" , where he ends up collaborating with Quentin (as Cassie) and his dad. Virtually polar opposites. In contrast, other branches have him collaborating with others. One has him collaborate with Claire and Jessica (which leads to a school-focused story), another has him originally collaborate with Ashley only to make him a spy, and yet another has him trapped by the Wrights, only to become Tessa's right-hand "woman" - and from there, bringing Jessica along. And all of this happened from one little undeveloped stub! It's impressive to see how one underdeveloped stub could develop into three full-fledged stories, full of twists and turns. That has made me explore a bit further, and that has allowed us to see David become a hot librarian, help Jimmy with his family, get harassed by a bum wearing his family and even slip into some hot schoolgirls with Jimmy. Tomorrow's story will be something entirely new. It starts with "Jessica is no where to be found" , where David gets a text from Jessica, only to find her nowhere. What will happen next? Find out tomorrow! (Also, the interactive had its birthday last Friday! Thirteen years of existence - who would've thought!?) |
| With "Not Safe for Work, Not Safe for your Mind" , I'm pausing this commission for the time being. Hope it satisfies the person who commissioned it! While the other chapters are story-driven - "The Kiss (Game) of Discord" being a big mood swing and, IMO, a realistic depiction of letting yourself go with the flow of emotions and thoughts of someone else - this last one is pretty explicit. It has a little comedy, yes, but it has graphic depictions. This is an attempt to appease the person who commissioned it, though after seeing everything, they mentioned they were satisfied with this being a story-driven arc. Strangely enough, this wasn't the intention, but it naturally evolved into it. Most transformation stories end up without having realistic repercussions - after all, David and Jimmy were wearing the skins of two friends, unaware that one held a secret they were unwilling to reveal. Had David ignored Lauren's fear of being outed, I would have had to explain why that happened, especially when they were depending so much on their hosts to pass as them. By channeling Lauren's emotions so deeply, David fell into a trap that ruined the rest of his day and made him rethink everything. From there, it was natural that he'd want to get rid of everything, driven by guilt. In contrast, Jimmy didn't feel any guilt, driven purely by hedonism. This contrast became the fuel for the story, as it led to two distinct paths that manifest as the options for this chapter - stay loyal to a close friend knowing they'll drag you behind, or leave them to their ways, knowing they can do a lot of harm? (Especially when he feels guilty for telling Jimmy about the pens and accepting his plan.) Tomorrow will see a return to the branch ending in "Caught Between Layers" .Last time, David and his mother Marie stopped the crime boss Tessa Wright and rescued Ashley's sister's, Barbara and Cassandra. Marie, intending to remain as Ashley, wants to clear her new sister's names, but they're still unsure whether they should trust the authorities. David has a plan to gauge who to trust, but that requires using Quentin's hacking skills. And though he intends to do this alone, Claire has other plans. Will he submit to Claire's demands, or stand his ground? There is still a lot of content for you guys, so stay tuned! |
| 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! |
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