A Word From the Author

I want to thank all of you. Really, I do. You've been lovely people.

But I'm going to have to troll you this once and announce that none of the fic you have just read is going to be making it into the rewrite.

Ever since our 7th Librarian and I got started writing Encounters and Backwater, my goal was simple: while he wrote his big blockbuster epic about the town of Backwater, I'd write a small, twelve to thirteen chapter story involving Kastleneid and Achan. My motivations were many, mostly dealing with the fact that I've always had an obsession with unusual genders and "artificial children." You'll note that all of the central characters in Encounters who aren't Knightfall cast members (Rosa, Achan, Kastle) were not given natural births. It's a bit of an obsession of mine- weird, since nothing about method of birth really determines humanity.

My plans only worked about half as well as intended. Midway through it was discovered that Solex, who was planned as the villain of the fifth chapter, just wouldn't be available for Achan to confront in any way and that any plans that did involve that confrontation ended up in dark places I wasn't comfortable with- darker than anything in the final product. I wrote Evan and his machinations into the story in part to fill that gap. Then it was decided that Trueman, not Solex, would be Kastleneid's kidnapper. I wrote the chapters because I was more confident in my ability to write Trueman than my co-author was. (And that's not to take away from what our Librarian has done- Knightfall did bring me to the party, after all.)

The problem was that once we hit that point, continuing became painful. Both Kastleneid's abduction and Achan's breakdown were so far from where I had originally wanted to go with the story that even without Knightfall's plot changing every few minutes (and Encounters changing to accommodate it), I was simply finding it difficult to continue. So for the past few months, I simply didn't- until now. Encounters is receiving a redux, under a new name, at the same time as Knightfall will be. Kastle and Achan will be returning as central characters, along with a supporting cast including Rosa and the inhabitants of Toybox Theater. A few other characters are also going to be showing up, and my plot this time may actually wrap up within fifteen chapters- this was never supposed to be a long story.

For now, let me give you a few mea culpa reasons behind why I've decided to convert, other than, of course, the fact that my shared sandbox is also converting:

Retroactive continuity is a pain to handle. Props to professional writers who do it frequently and still manage to produce products they and their audience are satisfied with, but I'm not at that level yet. I want my plot actually laid out this time.

I feel that Encounters went off its head about the point where I had Achan essentially sexually assaulted after Evan appeared. That scene was painful to write and actually resulted in a complete shutdown of work on the story afterward.

I'm dissatisfied with Achan. I wanted to explore the idea of a character who genuinely is alien to the concept of gender at first, and I feel like I didn't do that in a way that satisfies me.

I'm mostly dissatisfied that after years of writing permutations- male and female, normal human and living tool, magus and seer, duelist and artist, gamer and homeless traveler- I have yet to come up with a better name than "Achan." The original name comes from an account in the Old Testament of a man who is destroyed along with his whole family after he is found to have kept back some of the plunder from the sack of a city. I am told the name means "troublemaker."

I want more cohesive ideas in the story from the outset, and finally

I can do better.

Fear not, the original chapters will stay up. I'm planning to upload the new story as a separate work, probably titled something bizarre like "Symphonic Dreams of Scandalous Surprises" or something.

Or, you know. "Shadows in the Backwater Sky"

That works too, I guess.

(First chapter's in production as I write this. No promises on release dates, but look forward to it!)