Ms. Cork's profile

Hi, I'm Cork. By day I am but a humble tour guide, but by night I am overtaken by the Orb of Boralsis, and I become one with its great mystical power. I fight for justice, and to protect those I love from the evil that tries to encapsulate us, to separate us from one another, to set friends and loved one against each other. Its name is Louis, and it must be resisted at all costs.

I am Cork, warrior of compassion, fighter for peace, writer of stories, and I am here to tell you that Louis will never win. Not while I stand. Not while I type. And certainly not while I have you to help me.

We will spend the night writing branches, pushing Louis back, word by word, we will tell of camaraderie and of struggle and of some kid named Jon who keeps turning into a girl, and we will do so until the early hours of the morning, until the first rays of the sun lick at our windows outside.

And then, once more, I will become a tour guide, and you will become you, and we will try to pretend that Fiction Branches is a mere website, and not the battleground upon which the soul of humanity is defended.

So write your stories, and be kind to one another. And if you see Louis, make sure you tell it to go to hell.

@lifesmainantagonist The wonderful thing about Fiction Branches is, if you don't like the way one author wrote a story... you can write that same story in a different way. There is no need to disparage writing that doesn't fit your tastes, you can just write a branch that does fit your tastes instead. We want to encourage writers, not put them down, even if they haven't been on this website in ten years :)

@lifesmainantagonist You're implying some kind of foul play, which feels a lot like a complaint, especially in conjunction with some of the other posts you've been making. While there isn't a good way to find a complete answer to your query, much more likely is that the date in question represents one of the several times that Fiction Branches had a re-launch, which, especially in the days when it was closely associated with Sapphire's Place, will bring simultaneous attention to multiple past users. Another possibility is that, during one of the several times that Fiction Branches had a re-launch, some data was lost in the transfer representing a particular 7-year period. Heck, if my fuzzy recollections serve me right, in 2008 there wasn't even a username system yet. Anyone could just title any branch under whatever username they wanted, no password required. It was a simpler time.

Like I said, there isn't a good way to find the true answer here, but just in general, I'd advise some cooling of jets. Nobody is using Fiction Branches for some strange ulterior motive. We're just here to write stories. If you're curious about the history of the website, I strongly recommend joining the Discord server, although I know you've stated reservations about it in the past. Posting comment replies to old threads like this doesn't give the impression of curiosity, it gives the impression of complaint, even if that might not be your intention.

@lifesmainantagonist: This is a warning. It's okay to be frustrated, but it's not okay to make personal attacks against other users. Let's keep things civil here.

It sounds like you have a lot of questions, and I'll do my best here, but you'll get more and faster responses if you ask on our Discord server. People who know a lot more about the backend than me (and who programmed the backend) are frequent users there. It's also a good place to get feedback on your stories.

Discord link: https://discord.gg/eGPxp5A

That said, all of us who run this site are volunteers, and nobody's getting paid, so that means we aren't a particularly sophisticated setup and sometimes we just don't have answers. We don't have a way of knowing how many bots frequent the website, or why some stories get more views than others, or more upvotes. Sometimes one chapter title will catch someone's eye more than another. Sometimes people will just open the most recent chapter and then click "View story so far" to read the most recent 3 or 4 chapters. Those won't register as views or hits for all but the most recent chapter, even if the user technically read all of them, and we don't currently have a way to track how often that happens. Sometimes people feel like upvoting, and sometimes they don't. It might even be the weather: if you post when it's raining in a lot of places, those people might just feel less like upvoting. And, well, sometimes they just like a chapter, and sometimes they don't. You can't argue about the flavor of the moon shrug

But I get it. I've had stories where my chapters are consistently getting above 5 upvotes, and then all of a sudden they're barely getting one. And I'm not sure why. It's definitely frustrating, but it's almost certainly not nefarious. And the stuff you're writing is certainly welcome.

I'm sorry if that's not the answer you were hoping for, but again, we're all volunteers here doing our best. I hope you don't get discouraged, and I hope you keep on writing. And again, I know it's not for everyone but you're always welcome to drop by the Discord server :)

Hits represent any time a link to a branch is clicked, and theoretically may be open to abuse by bots, but views represent the number of registered users, total, who have clicked on a link, regardless of how many times they clicked. Technically you could program a bot to register a bunch of usernames, but that seems a silly thing to do. Chances are, all of your views are real people, and most of your hits are, too. But hits might be one person checking back on the story multiple times, while views are all just one person each.

@Pallas: I'll be honest, life has been getting in the way a lot for me lately. I really want to finish off this story but finding chunks of time to write is a challenge. But thanks to your comment, I am forcing myself to make time to write tonight. There will be at least one or two new chapters by the morning :)

Don't you dare delete this, it's fantastic.

I get that, but for this branch I wanted to explore the idea of, what if we only think Sarah is mean because we're used to Jon's perspective? What if Jon is the mean one, and Sarah's actually pretty cool? I definitely love all of the "evil Sarah" branches too, but I also like humanizing her, and variety is the spice of life :)

Or is garlic salt the spice of life? I always get those two mixed up.

Can't wait to see what happens in the morning...

I have no idea why, but my brain decided that Dr. Michaels sounds exactly like the Disney character, Professor Ludwig Von Drake. This isn't a good thing or a bad thing, but it is a thing and I felt that you should know.

A little more info: you can modify any episode that you wrote, unless another author has written a child episode. This is to ensure that stories stay as consistent as is reasonable, and that one author can't make another person's work retroactively inconsistent. Usually this doesn't come into play for minor edits like yours, because they'll be spotted before someone else even has a chance to add another episode. But if in the future you're trying to modify an old branch of yours and you can't, this will probably be why.

Happy writing!

@Gooose: when you add an episode, there is a "show formatting help" button just below the title textbox. Clicking it will show you all of the rules to FB's formatting system.

The relevant part for you here is that putting a URL link with an image extension in parentheses will embed the image, but there are all sorts of formatting options you might want to use in the future.

The link looks valid on our end, which probably means that Discord itself is having a hiccup, and unfortunately there's not much we can do. We've made a temporary invite for now that expires a week from this posting (expiry: 06/18/22), and hopefully that solves the problem:

https://discord.gg/N4ycm2Jz

@Thisisnota_Realname: Cool interpretation. If that's how you want to write the story, then you can add that chapter. There's a million different ways any story can go, which is part of what's so great about this format. Not every story has to follow strict rules, and sometimes they're written with multiple possible interpretations on purpose, to allow for more ideas. As long as the reader can follow what's going on, it's still fun. Heck, if you see something that you think it inconsistent, you can even add a chapter that plays up that inconsistency. See where it takes you.

But most of all, remember: this is a place for fun writing, nobody's getting a Pulitzer or a Hugo out of this website. Take it easy, try not to be so negative, and show your fellow writers some support. and you'll be amazed at how much your experience here improves :)

@Thisisnota_Realname - It doesn't take very much to be respectful of your fellow writers, but that little bit of effort improves everyone's experience on this website. Let's all try and support one another, without bringing anyone down unnecessarily, yeah?

gentle nudge while this isn't quite improv, the unwritten rule of "yes, and" is still a pretty good guideline. If you're changing something for a narrative reason, sure go with it, but if you're just changing something because you don't like it, it can take a reader out of a story.

Also: if you're going to talk smack about Niagara Falls, you should at least learn how to spell it properly :-p

To quote Chidi Anagonye: "If we goin' out, I'm goin' out with a belly full of warm pretzels. Yummy, yum, yum."

Fantastic addition. Thank you for picking this story back up for me :)

Thank you for reviving a few of my old stories. I'm suddenly inspired to keep them going. Hopefully I'll have some time this week to write.

And if I'm already piggy-backing on Krystren's comments, I may as well also repeat: you're making some great contributions, and I'm looking forward to seeing your next chapters!

I'll follow up to Krystren's comment with a gentle nudge: a good, readable paragraph is usually 3-5 sentences long. Sometimes your story will call for shorter paragraphs or longer paragraphs, and that's okay based on your judgement. Paragraphs with dialog will tend to be shorter in general. But if you have a 6-sentence paragraph, it's a good idea to look back and see if there's a logical place to split it up.

Sometimes there won't be, and that's okay. But usually there's a thought that can be connected to the previous sentence, but doesn't have to be. Like, for example, the sentence "sometimes there won't be, and that's okay."

Ack, I sure feel like a jerk now. Been a busy summer, I can only apologize. If there's a statute of limitations on this sort of thing, it has certainly passed by now. I still want to continue my thing, but I don't know when it will happen and I can't reasonably ask you to wait for me.

Go have at it, whoever feels like it :)

Looks like the images are linked to an email attachment, rather than a URL proper. We can't see it because we're not logged into your email account (hopefully :-p). Try putting the images on Google Drive or Imgur or some other hosting service.

@Alojz, so I've got a medium-term vision of where I want this train to go, probably around the next 5 chapters. Without giving too much away, the last chapter I have planned out will be the next chapter to feature a third character in addition to Jon and Sarah. After that point, jump in as you please. Before then I'd just ask not to add to the most recent episode, but branching from anything earlier won't affect what I'm doing.

I was wondering when we'd get more of this! I'm glad to see you're still pushing forward with the story. Another fantastic chapter :)

[MOD VOICE]

@Thun: Let's be more constructive with how we word things. Criticism and feedback are fine, but this was not the right way to phrase your opinions. We want to encourage writers here, so try to make sure you're being encouraging, even when you're giving negative feedback. In short: don't be a jerk.

@User616: I hope you do keep writing and experimenting with the Fiction Branches format. This website is only improved when new users come here with their own ideas, and their own permutations. As Bigbustgazer states, we do not have any rules against making multiple branches. However, speaking from my own experience, I think you'll engage your readers more if you create more variation between your different paths. Right now, it looks like you're pasting the same branch twice, with only minor changes. I encourage you to be more creative, figure out how these two parallel worlds are different, and how the two scenarios might create different stories. The more differences you create, the more fun your stories will be :)

Keep writing, everyone.

[/MOD VOICE]

I don't have anything specific to say that I haven't already said in other episodes, but I want to reiterate how much I'm enjoying this branch, just in case you thought my appreciation may have waned.

This branch deserves more upvotes than I'm allowed to give it. What subtlety! You have this established formula (and it's a good one) where you spend the first segment of a scene establishing a difference between Kamiera and the rest of the students, then a middle segment that represents the actual action or development, and then a final segment that brings Kamiera in line with his sisters. So, like, we know what's coming, more or less. We're just sort of... waiting for it to happen. Something about Clauga's history will change Kamiera, or it will reflect some action happening in the now and that will change Kamiera, but it doesn't happen. And then we get to the last line, and... IT HAPPENED. Where? When? But then the reader thinks back, and it makes sense. It is Clauga's strictness, in contrast to Amalein, that has influenced Kamiera. She doesn't have to do anything, it was her simple presence that changed the young Witchspear. Despite Clauga's personal conclusions appearing to be in direct opposition to Kamiera's, it makes sense that he would absorb "following the rules," and that "the rules" mean imagining a young man to dance with. But it comes out of nowhere.

Bravo.

In all honesty, I think this story belongs some place a little more professional than Fiction Branches, but I'm glad it's here. There's a lot of good worldbuilding in this thread, enough that you could make this story stand alone with only minor changes to the first few branches. It's a wonderful little departure from what I normally come to this website to read. Good job and keep going :)

If it helps any, I was just making stuff up as I went along. I figure as long as everything's internally-consistent, it's not too important how well my made-up magic system tracks with real-life traditions.

I think my two favorite things to do on FB are to change people into Sarah, and to change Sarah into other people. Honestly, this story started out as very Jon-centric in my head, and Sarah wasn't going to change at all. But then I decided to treat it more as a Sarah story, so it's going to get the best of both worlds. I've got a few Jon elements that I definitely want to insert into this narrative, but Sarah's definitely getting more attention than she was originally going to.

I'll be honest, I have no idea where this is going. I just got this scene in my head last night, and I had to write it out somehow.

That's a brave username. Whenever I fuck Satan, I generally do it figuratively.

I'm not sure you can trust your friend to know how to count properly. He does have a Florida education, after all.

(I can make that joke, I lived in Florida for all of K-12)

I guess you'll have to be punished.

I actually realized that mistake as soon as I hit "submit," but there isn't an edit option on comments, and I didn't feel like adding another post. But yes, passport control is definitely CBP, and it was a silly mistake for me to make.

That TSA agent sounds suspiciously British. I don't know if that was intentional, and I don't know if you intend to bring her back later in this story, but I actually kind of love that. Like, a stereotypical, prideful American, but for some inexplicable reason she speaks like Olivia Coleman.

That's it. I've decided this TSA agent is Olivia Coleman.