Coping of a Former Human Removed (Deleted) · 1:10am Dec 11th, 2023
Today, I have removed the "A Deer Named John" companion piece "Coping of a Former Human" from my published stories list. I've been considering this action for a long time (years) and have finally made the move. The reason being that it doesn't easily fit with what I have planned moving forward with its group of stories. Those stories I still want to write, just they now no longer have the weight of the previous story to hang from them. Those other stories will be carried under a different title, but will, like Coping, be somewhat tied into events in the story of "A Deer Named John". It will carry the themes I wanted for it all forward. Getting my head around this issue was actually one of the problems holding up "A Deer Named John" because my brain just wanted to get this story into a position it could think about while working on John.
Outside of other life issues, the idea for this story has been to give more time to other former humans, as well as the already existing guest characters, in a setting potentially more laid back than that of the main story. It is also reliant on certain events happening in the main story which is why the Coping version of the story was stalled for so long. Writing wise, the two stories became somewhat of a feedback loop when I was struggling with the John story (Cremator) in particular.
Current working title is "Tael's Halfway House" although the title may change if I disconnect myself more from the story. If I do disconnect myself from it, there will be a slight change to one chapter of "A Deer Named John" to reflect it as that character will still be the one to carry the side stories forward just under a different name. The basic concept of this set of stories is the main character taking up the role of running a halfway house for former humans who aren't fitting in to Equestria or any of the other lands in the world. Mostly to take place between the main character being freed from Sombra's control up until the end of "A Deer Named John".
There is also likely to be a bunch of other MLP characters showing up as the halfway house will likely have a second role: holding/attempted reformation of some villains. Currently I have ideas to include Sunset Shimmer and Tempest Shadow although those plans could easily be changed and those characters be dropped while other characters could also appear. It is still rather nebulous in full concept.
Tael.
Hmm, would having Sunset Shimmer in this world create a mistaken assumption on the part of those at the halfway house that she has the key to get them back to the 'human' world?
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Would depend on a few things. Those at the halfway house knowing the character and stories surrounding them from the show as well as whether or not I go with my original idea for the character being there. That said, even a different idea for that character would still likely raise the questions if they do know the show.