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I have a clear idea for the motivation for the shadowy figure but I’m not sure if I should say it because it might function as a spoiler if anyone later uses it, and if anyone puts it in later please remove this comment admin, but the idea is, he’s been changed by the animal stone himself, and one can’t undo it with the primary stone unless one tricks two other people into ruining their lives or fully changing by the animal stone, sort of like the worst kind of chain letter.

I’m not sure if your comment is for me or for others but I literally just wrote a chapter in the switched stone section. https://fictionbranches.net/fb/story/5192122

The motivation here is just that the stone is too powerful. It’s like in dbz where death itself carries no consequences because you can just wish everyone back. Also whoever has the stone is far too OP. Where some psychopath character whether it be Sarah McMillan or someone else is just unstoppable and there’s no real challenge or plausible way for them to fail in their evil ambitions. Well now they’re in for a surprise if they think they’re invincible with the stone. And the original letter from the grandfather does seem sloppy in its consideration, like he thought it could do anything and yet he didn’t know exactly what its range was, well why didn’t he wish for that information? Maybe the answer is one can’t wish for information, and he actually didn’t test it very well with high ambitions because he didn’t actually try to do anything outlandish with it and drastically overstated its capabilities.

This appears to be my branch, https://www.cyoc.net/interactives/chapter_212264.html, from another site. Is there a particular reason you are reposting it without attribution? Would you mind removing it and not copying my content in future?

The traditional root for branches like that, where someone gets the idea that few new rules or constraints on the wishing could lead to some extra fun, is the old classic Switched Stone episode, found here: ( https://fictionbranches.net/fb/story/22496 ). But no offense, this episode kinda doesn't feel like that? It strikes me more as one of the handful where The Stone itself takes center stage, where the fun to be had is in daydreaming where it came from, how the magic works, what it's place in the cosmos is, etc. I've written a few episodes like that myself, in fact. In my experience, they don't tend to get as much traction, though. Readers and Writers seem to be more attracted to stories where Jon and co. come first and the Stone comes second, not the other way around.

It’s not a “theory” about the stone in general, it’s not a “phase”, it’s a branch with this additional set of constraints. That’s it. If you want to write from here, you play by these rules.

Looks like another author going through their "But how does the Stone ACTUALLY work!?" Phase. Maybe I/Someone should consolidate competing alternative theories in a single academic tome or something? Although I'm not sure how many people would care.

It starts with a fight, but I intend for some character growth and empathy along the way.. :)

Yes there should be a build-up... of the right length and quality. And the resolution shouldn't be too simple as well. Though you're one to talk Christine L: https://fictionbranches.net/fb/story/46462 followed by https://fictionbranches.net/fb/story/46463 followed by https://fictionbranches.net/fb/story/46466 I think I'd have preferred a swift resolution with truck-san to that. Anyway this current chapter is too far. I think a few chapters earlier would be the best place to continue from, but it just would seem so, non-canonical.

the amount of time between this and the previous page written by the same guy is something

Trippy... 😵

No wishing for information, huh? Interesting.

Well it’s actually an earlier branch of the one that I was writing to earlier where Jon becomes Sarah‘s little sister, and that’s the only story it led to until I added this one in the last few days, but the progression to that didn’t really make much sense because Sarah just wished Jon would understand her (how that leads to turning Jon into her sister seems like a stretch) so I thought I would write a story starting from there with the wish granted more accurately.

This is an unexpectedly darling branch I was unaware of... it's really weird but in a good way.

That's actually a good question... When Zoe aged up to Jon/Jo's original age she became friends with Karen. So I would think Karen and Zoe would still be besties, but I didn't put a ton of thought into Karen's fate.

So what happened to Karen in this reality?

Congrats on completing a story!

Thank you all for commenting on here and liking my chapters. The likes and comments, along with the chatter over on the Fiction Branches Discord server, kept me motivated and was the reason I came back to finish the story after a year or so break. When I started writing this my plan was to write until Jon got back to Lake Point, but nothing else was really planned out. Piper and Kirby just organically popped up along the way, and I would be lying if I said the ending wasn't heavily influenced by people's comments on here. So thank you all for reading and being awesome people!!! ❤️

I'm not quite sure what I'll be working on next, but you can always have a look at the stories page of my Neocities site (https://thisisnoone.neocities.org/stories). I'm also on the Fiction Branches Discord server, so you can track me down there as well.

Absolutely phenomenal and fantastic story from start to end. Excellent writing and I'm glad these two got a happy ending. Can't wait to see what you have in store next.

Meanwhile I stopped reading a while ago because I got too emotionally invested (which I'd say is a sign of good writing too). q_q

<claps uproariously> Bravo! Bravo! That was beautiful, simply perfect!

You need to write novels, honestly. It took a huge turn from what I was hoping the TYNTL branch was going to be, but I became invested and just started looking for updates to see what would happen to Jo and Piper.

Unless Jo still thinks of herself as Jon, shouldn't Sarah's wish on her have stopped affecting her long ago by this point? Unless the stone identifies her as Jon, no matter what form she's in.

There's one more special chapter to come.

Is this the end, or is there more to come?

Huh, didn't know that. Thanks.

A good start for something interesting.

As I understand it, cyberlocks (or cyberlox) are plastic or foam or rubber dreads, not hair. So it doesn't contradict the blond hair wish.

Hmm, I suppose only a few locks being dyed blue wouldn't contradict the wish for Karyn's hair to be blonde (assuming fully dyeing them via wishing would contradict it). Funny how despite her surname, her outfit ironically didn't end up very black. :P

Thankfully the wish was vague enough that it could be readjusted by changing the reason why the Goths didn't mind the three girls' presence. The question is whether that would replace the three being Goths or just be added on top of that.

Interesting take here. There are several possibilities as to why Kyla seems to remember who she was before the wish even though she doesn't appear to have heard the wish. Let's assume for the moment that it's the regular wishing stone being used, with the rules we're familiar with.

Possibility one: Kyla somehow got some charm that protects her memories without knowing it. Maybe Athena lost such a thing, Kyla picked it up not knowing what it was (much like how we assume the wisher discovered the stone before making a wish and realizing it was a magic stone that granted wishes), and had it on her when the wish was made.

Two: The wisher wanted Kyla to remember.

Three: Kyla seeing them mouthing something was enough to count as 'hearing the wish' for some reason.

But my guess is Two, that the wisher wanted Kyla to be aware of the change. They were looking Kyla right in the eye after all from across the room. It makes more sense that my third possibility (if seeing someone mouth a wish counted as hearing it, then anyone who happened to be looking in the wisher's direction at the time would also be aware of the changes). So my guess is the wisher wanted at least one person to be aware of the changes. Perhaps they felt they were doing the nerd crowd a favor and wanted to be sure at least one of them knew about it.

Wow! There's a LOT to unpack here. The first part explains why the wisher created the McMillan Triplets, but then we get the reveal of the wisher's identity, and that whole confrontation in Richard McMillan's office.

Stephanie Wright's a character that often isn't developed that much. This might be the first branch I've seen in where she plays a much bigger role than just being 'clique filler'. I too honestly can't blame her for what she did, even if her actions are questionable. Guys in positions of power tend not to even notice the little people who get crushed by their actions, let alone care.

I could write a whole essay about this episode if I wanted to. In any case, it's a great one. All the important characters have believable motivations. People like this episode's version of Richard McMillan certainly exist in real life, as do people like Esme and of course people like Stephanie and her family whose lives were ruined by the actions of rich people in higher places. Having a true to life situation to start with, but adding a powerful magical reality warping artifact to the mix, works beautifully. A wonderful combination of 'realistic' and 'fantastic' elements.

It's interesting to see two branches of a "whodunit" (or "whodoinit", I guess) story. Matisguy's branch takes great care in making the Wisher's identity ambigious (besides presumebly being a student), while in yours we've just found out who she is. (this was going to be longer as I was writing as I was reading, but then I got to the part where Stephanie reveals herself). Honestly, while what she did here was cruel, I can't exactly blame her. I'm not saying this was entirely deserved and she might just become the very thing she hated, but I fond what she did believable.

"Who are you?"
"You took over my parents' company."
"Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?" xD

If I were boob-Jenny I would turn the high beams on and leave them on all day just to annoy Sarah.
And I wonder if since Sarah's boobs are controlled by another sentient being, could Jenny start making milk that would leak all over Sarah's chest?

I like your split! I wonder if there are new nerds now to fill their old niche, perhaps the former swim team? I'm also curious to see if you're wisher will end up being the same person as who it is in my branch. Nice work!

An experiment about keeping pre-change memories, perhaps? There's no way she could've heard what The Wisher said from across the entire lunchroom (and if she did, the others would've noticed something's wrong too).

Also: hooray for productivity!

Some mixed results here. I'd say the first flash resulted in a fairer version of Ms. Huang, who's willing to let Athena go to the nurse's office if she really is feeling unwell, though isn't going to allow Zoe to accompany her. The second flash, however, resulted in a Ms. Huang whose good looks might be too much of a distraction. There's no question the original Ms. Huang had some issues and it wasn't fair to take them out on her students, but this might create a different set of problems.

This isn’t a new chapter, I just broke the previous one into 2 pieces (with the last paragraph duplicated at the start here) because too many things happened in a single chapter and it shouldn’t all be a package deal.

Something very different happened today and I was able to write a good chunk of this during my shift at work. Hooray for productivity?

What is that guy's plan? What are they trying to accomplish (besides maybe some more experimentation regarding the stone's capabilities)? And, most importantly, who could they be? 🤔

find out next time on dragon ball z

I'll say the stone holder is doing a mixture of experimentation, getting a full handle on what the stone can do and how to use it, and setting up their larger plan. Minor spoilers: In this case the wish was less about making things better for Lily, and more about making things better for Jenni, giving her a devoted, loyal and longstanding partner instead of Benji, who she'd naturally ended up with based solely on the previous wishes.

Indeed. That's the sort of unfortunate phrasing that makes for a character's tragic backstory. (And I've seen similar things happen in recent TV shows).

"I wish you'd (...) never come back."

Very poor choice of words.

dang it, italics didn't work

You have made a [i]huge[/i] mistake, buddy.

Well, we still don't know who's making these changes, and if they have some sort of goal in mind or are doing it just to mess with people. But long before the 'FLASH', we could pretty much eliminate Lily Vanderfield as a suspect, as the presence of the McMillan Triplets (prior to the FLASH) was actually messing things up for her. She had nothing to gain from creating the McMillan Triplets. And then the FLASH occured, with another change in reality. Perhaps whoever made the changes didn't intend for Lily to end up losing out due to Jenni's getting the position of class president instead of her, and made another wish to make things just a bit better for Lily. Or perhaps they're just messing around. Who knows?

Anyway, I think we can probably assume whoever is making the changes had some means of watching these people. The timing of each reality altering FLASH does seem to indicate they know where their targets are and what they're doing.

Thanks Gooose. I haven’t been on in a while but was happy to read your additions, they were all great. If you’re ever planning on adding more, would love to see what’s happening with Karyn and who else will get involved. Loving your other stories as well, especially the Triplets

I'm also hoping the story continues in this direction. So many times the author treats the magic as a flowing force that takes the aware individual and, either removes them from the story or melds them into the new reality removing the conflict.

And now I think I know what's going on here. Several branches have played with the idea that outside the range of the wishing stone, people aren't affected and therefore remember things the way they were before the wishing stone changed things, but very few have really played it up much. It seems here, we're seeing a branch from the viewpoint of someone who's been away from town for a while, and while he was gone, there were a LOT of changes made. And so far, everyone he's encountered is acting as if things were always the way they are now.

Arnold Leeson has no context whatsoever for this, as he's unaware of the existence of magical reality-altering artifacts with a range limitation. Let's see where things go from here.