The Hypnotic Adventures of Blank Sheet · 4:57am Oct 24th, 2013
A number of you followed Smoke after getting familiar with my writing on The Hypnotic Adventures of Blank Sheet, back when I posted as greentext (I didn't expect to ever do anything more than one or two comments when I made that account). I'm just tossing this post up as a courtesy to readers and/or LightMask himself, to let people know he seems to be getting in motion there again. I'm no longer involved, and my feelings on it continuing without me are (understandably, I think) mixed, but a lot of people greatly enjoyed it, and if they can enjoy it with LightMask himself, or whoever he finds to take my place, then that's far preferable to the story dying and no one getting any further enjoyment. As for myself, while the original concept wasn't mine, and while I've always made a point of being clear that the story and its characters belong to LightMask, I did put substantial time into it. No matter what comes from it now, I wouldn't be able to look without thinking, "But that's not how he'd say it!" or "No, she'd have done this!" I may be glad people get new opportunities to enjoy it, but I wouldn't be able to myself, and won't try.
Just what will come of the story, or what LightMask's intentions are, I don't know--I haven't heard from him at all since I declined to continue writing, though to be fair, I've lost access to the e-mail accounts I used for the greentext account and this one, so if he tried to contact me the way he had been, I'd never see it. For anyone interested, he's solicited suggestions. If you want to see it move a certain direction, I can only suggestion you go make your desires known.
I may not like what comes of The Hypnotic Adventures of Blank Sheet, but it's earned a fair number of fans--more than Smoke, and they're more enthusiastic, too. Whatever may come for the story, I'm proud to have helped get it where it is. Even if I do have to admit a degree of jealousy at it having more likes than Smoke. :P
I did say it was you that made the story awesome not the basis of it, so whatever you decide to do you can count on my support.
If it's any consolation, I think you were taking it in a direction of improved character and plot, and all they wanted was a human stand-in fucking ponies with their fetish.
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I definitely agree with this one. The character of Spiral Dream in particular was really interesting and deep (I can't remember how much had been revealed in the story when it stopped, but from my personal conversations with Distant Gaze there was a lot going on with her), and it's a shame that the new direction will probably forget all of that.
I'm sorry that Smoke doesn't have the fans that Blank Sheet had, it's really a shame your new work doesn't get as much recognition. I'd say the reason is probably as simple as the fact that dark/mature tends to scare people away before they even have a chance to try it.
If you ever publish that one quickie one-shot story you were talking about a few blogs ago, I guarantee it'll see a lot of traffic. But that's good, because that means more exposure for Smoke too!
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Thanks, Rozen Knight. You and November have been two of my most encouraging readers, and I appreciate it.
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I was making some effort, yes. Something with which I became increasingly concerned was that since I was writing fic chapters as the green text advanced, there was basically nothing to stop participants from putting forward (and getting accepted) behavior totally different from how Blank Sheet was behaving in what I'd written. You can see a bit of that in reverse in the first chapter--Blank's parting shot at Zecora is nothing like how I wrote him elsewhere. Around the time I stepped out, suggestions were coming in for him to start a slave factory run by Filthy Rich, as a distraction. With the exception of a handful of squicks, I'm pretty happy to write whatever fetish, but I wouldn't have been happy with a character who had no consistency. The depth to Spiral that November mentioned doesn't really show in what's published until the very last chapter, but in the four unofficial chapters I wrote, that's expanded on a fair bit. They're actually called "The Spiral Chapters," for their emphasis on her. One sees why, when given a stallion during the chapter "Guilty Gemini," she trotted off for sex, same as Blank might've, and learns a bit in the way of motivation. She'd never have chosen to be his pet up front, but I created reasons she could be happy there, even under lighter control than she had.
On a side note, I didn't name chapters, LightMask did. I really like some of the names he chose, but for Guilty Gemini, I'd have named it "When the Bough Breaks," after the twins' last name. They were Holly and Cedar Bough.
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The one off will happen; it's just a question of when. I work full time, my commute is long, my interest in ponies is diminished, even if I have reached a point I can write again; my favorite series had a new game this month, and my favorite developer is releasing another next. Throw in the sundries of living alone (no help with chores) and a protest rally on Saturday that saw me hiking 5 miles... yeah. I apologize for my slow rate of speed. I may quarantine myself one day this weekend to get at least one chapter out, and maybe the one off too. No promises.
I'd like to be as confident as you that the lighter tone one off I mentioned will be more popular than Smoke, but having only two stories up, one of which I'm not solely responsible for, and the other of which is dark, I'm not ready to put faith in anything just yet. We'll see how it fares when it goes up.
1462490 I am always happy to help, if you need it, your a amazing character maker, if you made a story, with or without, I'd like to know. After all the main reason I came to this fandom and even the show itself, was the characters, which mainly Bioware games (and Elder Scrolls) have been getting right as of late.
You keep your character's growing and changing and the fact I heavily enjoy themes of mind control hypnosis and most mind alterations, helps greatly with my interests with you, but I am mainly drawn to character. After all why would I care what happens to some fool, rather then someone respectable and likable. and honestly, I find people interesting, even if they are not strictly human.
So whatever you do please keep us informed your truly a great author, at the very least in character design.
Gentle breeze guide you, and a warm smile welcome your return.