Book 2 - The Second Sight: The Devil and the Wheel
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This is the development blog for the interactive fiction series called "The Second Sight". You can find the first, completed book and the in-progress sequel at the links above.
This is my first IF project, although I've been writing original stories and fanfiction for years.
I've included the story description and character profiles from the itch page below the cut.
This blog will be a combination of development info, images and music that I associate with the story, and other musings.
Fair warning, there might be spoilers from the latest chapters here, so I recommend catching up before reading too far.
Asks and submissions are always open.
spoiler tags: "ss book 1 spoilers", "ss book 2 spoilers", "ss spoilers"
(Content and trigger warnings at the bottom.)
You’re an urban legend in a county full of them. When you were thirteen, you were found passed out in the road by one of the local cops. No missing persons report. No fingerprints on file. No memories. Just a name.
Oh, and some bizarre psychic powers.
You're content with simplicity. You like your isolated cabin and helping Carter track down missing persons. You know that in theory there are more people like you out there, but you've never wanted to look behind the curtain to find out.
But now, you no longer have a choice...
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The Second Sight is an urban fantasy series, where you step into the role of a psychic whose strange powers have always separated them from others. Those same powers will drag you down the rabbit hole and into a world that is both familiar and foreign to everything you know. A world filled with magic, witches, fae, demons, and the unknown.
You can immerse yourself in the story by customizing your protagonist's general appearance, choosing how they interact with others, and whether you lean on logic or intuition to problem solve. There are three love interests planned (more may be added depending on player reception and feedback), the genders of which will be selected by the player upon meeting them.
Characters
Jacob Carter
Age: Late forties
Race: Human. Definitely.
Gender: Male
Temperament: Carter radiates grizzled, old bastard energy and despite being the least paternal person in the world, he is your adoptive father. While surly and rough around the edges, he is also fiercely protective of you and has bent over backwards to give you a decent life. He doesn't talk about his life before coming to Herman County and you haven't asked him, though that might change soon enough...
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Renard/Rowan
Age: Appears to be in their late twenties or early thirties
Race: Human. Maybe.
Appearance: Tall and slender, white-blonde hair, and gold eyes.
Temperament: Playful and witty, talking to R always feels like a game of cat and mouse and you can never be sure which role is yours. Part sad clown, part trickster, and always maddening to work with, the only things you can be certain of with R is that they probably know what they're doing. Everything else is up in the air.
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Zander/Zora
Age: Late twenties/Early thirties
Race: Human. Mostly.
Appearance: Umber brown skin, black locs, grey eyes
Temperament: Gentle and resolute, Z isn't what you imagine when you think of an agent of the mysterious Magic and Anomalies Bureau. Kind, soft-spoken, and exceedingly polite, Z is Carter's former apprentice and something about them puts the old man on edge.
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Unknown aka "The Kestrel"
Age: ???
Race: Definitely not human.
Appearance: Tall, beautiful, elegant, with black hair and blue eyes.
Temperament: The Kestrel is a complete unknown. It's impossible to say whether they are a lethal ally or deadly enemy, but either way they are a powerful dreamwalker. You don't know how long they've been watching you, but you're willing to bet that it's been longer than you're comfortable with.
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This series includes strong language, sexually suggestive material, violence, emotional/physical/mental abuse, slavery, and other mature topics. Not recommended for those under 18.
(All visual elements were made using Canva's free assets.)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
may I know which author made the 1 star review? I don’t want to support someone on accident who is so hateful
I won’t share it publicly like this but if you come off anon and send me an ask, I will answer privately.
I will add, though, please don’t go after this person with more hate. That’s not what I want. I just want to forget them and hopefully they’ll forget me. I blocked this person because they’re hostile and I don’t need that toxicity in my life, especially given my recent surgery and recovery. I encourage you to scroll their tumblr and make your own judgement.
On that note, I received an ask saying something along the lines of “blocking someone because you disagree is mean.” It’s not that they disagreed—it’s that they used such foul, hateful language and did it in a space that’s supposed to be protected. If they did this in their own space I wouldn’t care. But they did it where I could see it, so I left that space and blocked them to protect myself. It’s about me cultivating MY online experience. It’s about me controlling what I see or don’t see on this site, which is entirely healthy and everyone should do. This is not a popularity contest, use that block button to excess if you need it!
This is the last I’ll talk about it. After this, I’m going to share some lovely art I’ve been tagged in and get back to enjoying this wonderful community in my own way. 💕
Okay, I said that was the last of it but I’ve got one final thing to say…
I want to be clear that my issue with this author is not about a bad review or that he didn’t like Cantata. It was not a one-off comment. After his remarks in the discord server, he went on a full on rampage on both his tumblr and on his itch page against me and the author of AToC. And he used the most vile language to do so. He used his platform as an IF author to spew hate in the very community he was trying to join. And once he dropped his demo, he purged both his itch profile and his tumblr and deleted it all because he KNEW it reflected poorly on him. Those are not the actions of someone in good faith. Those are the actions of a hater who plays the victim when called out on it.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
I love asking people how their parents met. You always get an interesting reply. My best friend’s parents met on the relatively new internet in 1999. My other friend’s parents met at Burger King when one was the manager and the other was a regular customer. My parents met at the beach because they were neighbors in their rental houses, mom was on a church trip and dad was getting blackout drunk every night with his friends next door.
They could just say that they don't give a fuck about gen ai but it's actually hilarious that they wanna pretend that YOU are the classist one for not liking it. What a cope. Tears in my eyes (from laughter and also despair 😭🥲)
I mean "ai" means a lot of things but the unchecked use of gen ai has made Actually Useful tools like spellcheck so phenomenally bad that I just have to turn them off and not use them anymore! It's maddening! 🫠
Even if the catastrophic environmental problems somehow didn't exist, genai is on a whole literally too stupid to be useful
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
hi, you once gave a song that would fit well with R and The Kestrel, but I don't see one of Z.
so if it's alright with you could you recommend a song that fits with Zander?
the reason I'm asking is because I made a playlist for the other 2 and I really want to make a playlist for Zander too.
and if you could also share a picture that you think would fit each of their playlists? I want to send you the links of the playlists when I'm done with them.
if you don't mind.
p.s. the kestrel is my favorite(second to Carter. if he wasn't our dad I wouldve 100% romanced him)
Aw, I'm so excited to see the playlists!
So I think the song I associated with Z in the past was "Human" by Monsters and Men
But "Break Your Heart" by Gaslight Anthem works too
As for images, I had to root through my pinterest for some old images I saved when I tried to do collages for the characters. Pinterest being Pinterest, none of these have actual credit for me to attach so apply to general disclaimers of I didn't make any of these, credit goes to the original artists, etc etc:
The Kestrel: (self explanatory)
R: (for the witchy vibes)
Z: ( i believe this is specifically depicting the fall of Lucifer, but I like that it could also fit Icarus)
I read a joke years ago about a tech guy explaining that tech guys understand tech enough that they don't want modern tech and he personally keeps a handgun on top his old inkjet printer to remind it if its place in case it gets ideas.
Before I say anything else, I don't use GenAI in any form and despise it. However, I was just browsing the rules of IFComp out of curiousity, and this is one of the rules:
All entries’ player-facing content must be entirely created by humans, including cover art, prose, and all in-game assets. Authors may use tools, including generative AI tools, for development assistance such as editing, debugging, accessibility support, research, limited translation assistance, or coding.
Now I am aware any usage of GenAI is still harmful to the environment, it's harmful no matter what you do with it, but is this usage you consider an issue? Not trying to start a fight, it's just that you've implied some usage of AI is alright in certain circumstances so long as it's not used to actually create, so I was wondering what your limits are or what is defined as acceptable by you.
It's more that I just accept AI is hardwired into some things and difficult or impossible to turn off. Like, i'm not going to start demanding we all live by candlelight if they ever figure out how to put AI in light bulbs ( though we should if it comes to it)
Would I like to scrub it from my life? Absolutely. Can I when my new laptop and phone both come with it? Not really. I can avoid using those features to the best of my ability, but Im hardly going to condemn anyone for reading a stupid ai summary or using a program that has ai cancer built into it. Google translate is ai now. I don't expect people to go back to the fucking Rosetta stone for translating stuff.
Sadly, I think the best you can do is avoid and ignore it where possible and resist in whatever way you can, which includes not giving it leeway in creative spaces and not actively seeking it out. 🤷 But I don't expect anyone to become either a tech expert or Amish just to avoid the Corporate Approved malware.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Before I say anything else, I don't use GenAI in any form and despise it. However, I was just browsing the rules of IFComp out of curiousity, and this is one of the rules:
All entries’ player-facing content must be entirely created by humans, including cover art, prose, and all in-game assets. Authors may use tools, including generative AI tools, for development assistance such as editing, debugging, accessibility support, research, limited translation assistance, or coding.
Now I am aware any usage of GenAI is still harmful to the environment, it's harmful no matter what you do with it, but is this usage you consider an issue? Not trying to start a fight, it's just that you've implied some usage of AI is alright in certain circumstances so long as it's not used to actually create, so I was wondering what your limits are or what is defined as acceptable by you.
It's more that I just accept AI is hardwired into some things and difficult or impossible to turn off. Like, i'm not going to start demanding we all live by candlelight if they ever figure out how to put AI in light bulbs ( though we should if it comes to it)
Would I like to scrub it from my life? Absolutely. Can I when my new laptop and phone both come with it? Not really. I can avoid using those features to the best of my ability, but Im hardly going to condemn anyone for reading a stupid ai summary or using a program that has ai cancer built into it. Google translate is ai now. I don't expect people to go back to the fucking Rosetta stone for translating stuff.
Sadly, I think the best you can do is avoid and ignore it where possible and resist in whatever way you can, which includes not giving it leeway in creative spaces and not actively seeking it out. 🤷 But I don't expect anyone to become either a tech expert or Amish just to avoid the Corporate Approved malware.
Hey, so you are being kinda unhinged. We get it, AI bad woaw, but also what's wrong with you? Do you have nothing better to do but shit on people in your community (not the first one for you) like you seem so giddy about it
So getting this in your feels about what should pretty obviously be just a joke makes me think you're probably taking it personal because you too can't live without your slop.
In which case, and Imma hold your hand while I say this: I don't consider you part of my community. My community respects artists.
