Soulgate: Identity Crisis

[Murrquan]

Preferred Username / URL: Soulgate (http://soulgate.xepher.net)
Email address: jspurbeck@gmail.com

Site description ...

There are two kinds of obsessions: The kind where you want everyone to know about it, and the kind where you want no one to know.

The first kind is easy to spot. Let's say that your friend's interested in nanobiotics. So you're telling the story of how your pickup truck died and you got stranded out on the highway, and he's like "Hey! If you'd had a million spare nanites, a mechanical catalyst and a couple-three ounces of putty, that would've been no problem!"

And you're trying to shush him, but he just keeps going on. And you're wondering how anyone could have so much fun thinking about how to fix things with nanites, while all your other friends are wondering how long it's going to take for him to notice that they aren't interested.

The second kind is harder to spot. Because when you like something that much, you don't want to tell anyone about it. To even speak its name is an ordeal, because you hold it in such reverence that it's like you don't believe you're allowed.

It wouldn't matter to you if thousands, even millions of other people liked the same thing, and were perfectly okay with talking and laughing about it. You just couldn't do that. And you'd get all flustered and embarrassed if you tried. The last thing you'd want would be for your friends to realize why you were so embarrassed. Because they wouldn't get why you liked the thing so much, but they'd know they could tease you about it.

Well, okay. That's not the last thing you'd want.

If you longed for something that deeply, the last thing you'd want is to actually get it. Because you would be scared out of your mind.

Soulgate: Identity Crisis is a furry sci-fi transformation epic. It takes place in a world like ours, a modern-day world run by humans, who drive cars and use computers and camcorders. But this world was once populated by fantastic creatures, from dragons and dinosaurs to whole races of anthropomorphic animals. The humans destroyed them in The War of Extinction, ages ago, but they intend to return ... one way or another.

Ian Matthews is a young nanotechnician at a manufacturing plant in Ardelion, the largest city in the world. By day he writes complex equations, and helps keep the plant's machines running. But by night, he keeps returning to stories of transformations, new nanotic techniques that can change people into anthropomorphs. Few useful applications for this technology exist, and the processing power required is expensive, making it a luxury for eccentrics. But the stories of real people who've transformed have captured his imagination, and he cannot stop reading them, despite his outward disdain.

One night, he is terrified to find out that he has just gotten what he'd wanted most. One harrowing, dangerous, frightful night ... just three days before the end of the world.

Inspired by (but not based on) Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Xepher.net's own Winds of Change, Soulgate: Identity Crisis is an epic-length web story.



Q. Is any of this actually written already? Do you have a website where we can see it at?

A. Yes! You can read the whole of Day 1 at http://forums.furtopia.org/index.php/topic,33234.0.html.

Q. That's just on a messageboard somewhere. Is there any proof that you know how to make websites?

A. Sadly, no. I let my last hosting plan expire. I know the basics of working with HTML and PHP, though, and I have a bit of practice in using Wordpress -- the content management system I'd like to deploy here, if there aren't any problems with it.

Q. Do you normally talk to yourself like this?

A. Yes. ^.^



*clasps hands and waits patiently*

[griever]

I don't mean to deter you, but Wordpress also has a free hosting system (wordpress.com) with a subdomain set up, too.  How would being hosted by Xepher be different/beneficial from being hosted by Wordpress?

[Murrquan]

I don't mean to deter you, but Wordpress also has a free hosting system (wordpress.com) with a subdomain set up, too.  How would being hosted by Xepher be different/beneficial from being hosted by Wordpress?

A number of Wordpress.com's features cost money. Linking a domain name is $10/year; not having their ads is $30/year; being able to use your own templates or rewrite existing ones costs extra as well.

I also kind of like the idea of being part of an artists' and writers' community, instead of just paying a corporate host.

[Zumi]

ok, the link wont load for me to look at your work, im assuming you are a writter but i cant quite tell from the non mentioning of it.

Also when i applied i was asked to demonstrate i knew how to code with html by quickly throwing a page together on bravenet or something. Maybe you can do that to show you can at least make a page

[Murrquan]

ok, the link wont load for me to look at your work, im assuming you are a writter but i cant quite tell from the non mentioning of it.

Also when i applied i was asked to demonstrate i knew how to code with html by quickly throwing a page together on bravenet or something. Maybe you can do that to show you can at least make a page

Yes, I'm a writer. My apologies.

The last site I built I used Wordpress on, with some very minor PHP customizations to a pre-existing template. It's no longer up, so I can't link you to it, and I can't set up a custom Wordpress install without an actual server to do it on.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have asked the Furtopia admin about setting up a Wordpress install there as well. I do not have shell access to the webspace they have provided me, so I have to ask them for help in installing it. I might be able to show you what I can do if they set it up there. On the other hand, you may well decide that if I'm receiving free hosting in one place, then I shouldn't be asking someplace else. ^.^; I didn't mention it before because I didn't think of it before.

Furtopia's kind of a "furry writers' and artists' haven," and I was going to set up a personal home page there, with links to all of my writing -- including on fanfiction.net, Associated Content, and here. That's the kind of thing that they do, there. Xepher.net, on the other hand, seems to be less about personal home pages and more about devoting space to specific projects. I have a specific project I wanted to work on, and I thought this would be a good place for it. That's why I ask, even though I asked there as well.

[Xepher]

Thanks for the full disclosure on that by the way, but it won't affect my decision that much. So far, I just haven't had time to look at it. I work 11 hour (night) shifts, 4 days a week, which leaves about 3 hours a day not spent sleeping or working. It's my "weekend" now, so I'll try and take a deeper look at this soon.

[Murrquan]

Thanks for the full disclosure on that by the way, but it won't affect my decision that much. So far, I just haven't had time to look at it. I work 11 hour (night) shifts, 4 days a week, which leaves about 3 hours a day not spent sleeping or working. It's my "weekend" now, so I'll try and take a deeper look at this soon.

Okies! Thank you, and have fun on your "weekend." ^.^

[Xepher]

I looked over this some, but haven't had time to read the story yet, and I'd like to do that before I make a call on this... Just wanted to let you know it's not being ignored.

[Murrquan]

I looked over this some, but haven't had time to read the story yet, and I'd like to do that before I make a call on this... Just wanted to let you know it's not being ignored.

Okay! Have fun!

[Xepher]

Finally got the time to read the story segments you posted. Overall, it's pretty decent. There's some anachronism in the way you handle the technology though. For example, people have nanites and personal forcefields, yet you have to hunt down a wifi network and pay for it still? I have a cellphone right now that gets broadband wherever it is. Likewise, you mention someone having a color monitor, as if it were an expensive feature. I'm not saying you can't be anachronistic, if it's intentional, but you need to make the setting more clear if that's the case. Even 5 chapters in, we're still not even sure what planet we're seeing, or what the heck the disease is that Ian and the other's in the support group have. I know you explain some of that before you link to the story, but that's the sort of thing that should be IN the actual story, so readers don't feel as lost.

Story critique aside, I do have to question the need for an entire website for just one story. It seems like furtopia is targeted at exactly what you're wanting to do. Is the lack of wordpress the only reason for wanting to put the story here instead of on a your site there?

[Murrquan]

Never mind, sorry for asking ^.^;

[Xepher]

No apologies needed... I'm just trying to decide on things. That's the whole point of an application process.

FYI, I actually did enjoy reading the story. My apologies if it sounded otherwise.