BoM/TWS Message Forum

With "A Love Sealed in Stone" , we finally reach the end of Mireya's backstory, at least in this branch of the interactive. Thirty-one chapters, each detailing how she enters the lives of Will and Robert Prescott (both under assumed names) and how meeting with the latter evolves into a much, much deeper relationship, before reaching a tragic end.

I won't mince words. If it feels that I built a character just to deliberately kill her off, it's basically true. I say "basically" because I really want to see her alive in other branches, see her used a lot more, but she was always created for a purpose - a purpose that, hopefully, should evolve into something much greater.

Thus, this should work as a (very apt) post-mortem of the entire arc in general.

First, the purpose.

Again, I won't mince words, but part of her original purpose was to provide Will with a new face to wear after his five-year skip. The first three chapters of the sequel to "Leavin’ on a (Commuter) Jet Plane"  show Will already deeply immersed in her identity (hopefully convincingly), pursuing her lifelong quest to find a basilisk to create an antivenom for it. This is what happened in Brazil, and why "she" remained silent each time it was mentioned.

So, why do something as cruel as creating a character just to turn her into another face to wear for our protagonist? And, why does this end up as a "lawful good" option? This slithers off into a secondary - and much larger - purpose.

You may have noticed in this last chapter that Will has effectively - and, judging by the sequel chapters, successfully - replicated the corpse-golem spell from nothing more than notes. Giving the masks and the mind bands a positive spin is relatively easy, but I recall very well a discussion into how this spell is essentially a morality check. How low you're willing to go for the book's power? Are you willing to sacrifice a living being to it? Given that the book doesn't specify that you can use an actual corpse, this is the first spell that's considered "evil", as it effectively takes the individual to be replaced out of the picture (mostly) permanently. Justifying a good use for it, therefore, became a challenge to overcome.

The seed of this idea was first sowed on "Appointment with Dr. Strange, Part 2" , where Dr. Gus discusses to Mireya about the possibility of inducing a very effective "coma" on a subject to save their lives. This was the first clue that the story would end up in something like this, as Dr. Gus is effectively discussing how to use the corpse-golem spell as a way to save someone's life. This juxtaposes with Will's feelings over the spell, as it took his father away from his life in a tragic way - giving him grief and guilt for all that happened, and hardening his stance over the book and its powers.

I hoped to convey the maelstrom of emotions that came with such a drastic decision. The alternative to encasing her in the shell - of "turning her upside down" and encase her imago in her own substantia - was a painful, karmic death. I always envisioned that, despite her skill and experience, Mireya would fall victim to the same tragedy her mother did - but without Will around, and without us as readers being witnesses to it, her death would be a lot more solitary. (Or perhaps not. Remember Ricardo? Perhaps it would've been two. Who knows?)

Some time before, I explained that, while in practical terms Mireya wasn't in the other branches because of being a new creation, in story terms there was a reason she didn't appear, and this is it - she dies in-between the second and fifth year of the end of BoM attempting to fulfill her mother's last mission, in the exact same way. This gives her a window of appearance in both BoM and the earliest timelines of TWS, where her story can be altered one way or another. Of course, that'd require explaining why she was called. Does the people in Saratoga Falls uncover a cryptid and they need a monster hunter with experience? Do Will and his crowd - perhaps his best friends, or the coven he's convinced to make with Sydney - become too much of a nuisance and they need someone good enough to track them, perhaps take them around? (Well, Rick can do the latter far more effectively, but that doesn't mean he can't call for back-up - or, perhaps, have the Durrases do it instead.) As with every character, Mireya is meant to move the story around if needed, but she has her own arc alongside Will to show her qualities, and I hope I did that effectively.

To have her effectively "killed" this way allowed me to show how you can use the corpse-golem spell in a positive way, with the morally gray implications it has. Well-versed readers of the BoM and TWS interactives, however, will recall that this isn't the first time the corpse-golem spell was used this way - in fact, Masktrix beat me up to it long-time ago, in his branch detailing how Will replaces Marion, and in a way "saves" her little brother Brent from dying via drowning. That branch struck me deeply, as it suggested a possible way to make something actually worthwhile out of that spell.

However, there's one huge thing that makes this story different from that one, even if it doesn't make it any less morally ambiguous, and that is consent. In virtually every other use of the spell, the victim doesn't consent to its use, and even if they consent, it's through duping. This leads to both identity death and identity replacement, as the spell is designed to take away the victim and turn it into a puppet of the magician. The introductory chapters to Dr. Gus have him devise another purpose, one which requires both a need and the willingness from all parts to use it. While Mireya rejects it at first - attempting to accept her part in this disaster - she eventually accepts it, after Dr. Gus explains how it'll be able to save her life, even if it robs her of it for some undisclosed time.

...or is it? That leads to the second point I want to discuss: the nature of Dr. Gus.

As you saw during his introductions, Dr. Gustavo is part of the Stellae, handling the Institute that Mireya's mother founded. While I tried my best to make him a dubious individual, I still made him sympathetic to both Mireya and Will, for good reasons. These last few chapters see him return, but his purpose is deliberately shrouded in mystery. Why was he there, specifically there? Was he there because he was worried about Mireya, or because they stumbled upon his operation?

These are questions that shouldn't be answered, but I can at least point something out. Dr. Gustavo's prodigies relate to the four classical "humors" (cholera, melancholia or black bile, phlegm or yellow bile and blood) and their defining traits (commanding and impatient for cholera, perfectionism and lament for melancholia, resilience and lack of ambition for phlegm, and joie de vivre without measuring consequences for blood). Specifically, Dr. Gus can manipulate emotions (in the strictest definition of the term) through his prodigies, as Eldibria is associated not just with water, but with depths. A skilled user of these prodigies, as Dr. Gus (implicitly) showed, can alter someone's emotions to achieve something they want. Therefore, what suggests that Dr. Gus didn't simply use subtle manipulation to achieve his goals? Is he really for the Stellae, or playing his own game?

...Which is exactly why I loved working him out. Dr. Gus, in essence, represents the archetype of the mad scientist hiding under a façade of professionalism, one in which he deeply believes. I worked enough of him to nudge him to either side, though I definitely know his motives and motivations. His purpose, much as Mireya's is to provide the Stellae with a capable associate that the reader could bond with but with a tragic end, is to provide the organization with a capable physician and specialist in biology with a loose set of morals that favor results over consequences, but doesn't consider himself above them. Again, much like Mireya, I'd love to see more of him, and I invite you to consider how he could enter the different branches of BoM and TWS as a resource. (For one, I'd love to see how he would've handled the chapter "The Doppleganger".)

With that said, let's go for a third, though not as vital, point: Will's evolution.

As you can see, I tried to convey how Will evolves from someone without purpose or direction to someone who's capable, level-headed and assertive while still leaving him a drifter for us to shape his story. I mentioned before that I disliked how Will was presented as part of the Sulva/Kenandandra pairing (a grease monkey with no social skills), and I endeavored to spin that combination into something much more likeable. That ended up in "Jeff Harrison", who still has poor social skills but at least is better-looking, and most importantly, more confident in himself and his skills - someone who's actually mature. That doesn't mean he's not mired by guilt for what he did, but he's capable - and willing, as you saw here - to make the tough decisions that life presents him - and that includes using the spell he loathes the most on the woman he loves.

This isn't a decision that anyone would take willingly, and these last two chapters hopefully convey that struggle within himself. Mireya points it best in her final observations; Will is trying to convince himself it's for the best, struggling with his feelings over what happened to his father, and the possibility of losing someone else he cares about once again. This decision further serves to provide some purpose to Will's life within the Stellae, something that can be observed in some of the most famous and most liked characters: Kali has the scar over her loss of Helene to Lucio, Rick has his issues with his past, Miko has her tragic backstory regarding her family and their purpose, and so on. It firmly sets him into the cogs of the Stellae Errantes, all the while tying him to what led him to them in the first place - the Compendio Summa Libra Personae.

Now, that doesn't mean Will is now hyper-competent or too developed to change. If something, imaj and his master-class magnum opus showcases how Will's motivations can change in time. Even then, showing some snazzy new prodigies (I really like his take on the Viritrilbian trick, and as you may have noticed, the "knockout gloves" are my take on how golem-Will can knock out people with one of the constituent sigils of the Persona spell) and some confidence and bravado doesn't mean he can't screw up. Will feels just as responsible as Mireya on her ultimate fate, and while she resigns herself to her fate and seeks a peaceful death, he doesn't - instead relying on the very thing he swore against.

I think Dr. Gus said it best when he said "no man is an island [...] no woman is an island either". Like it or not, in this branch, Mireya's story bled into Will, and her (permanent) loss would've caused a massive setback for him. He already suffered a series of tragic events that left him effectively orphaned, and to lose yet another one he cares about might set him back even further. By making this decision, Will has reclaimed his purpose to "redeem" the Libra, reconciling it with his desire to seal it and potentially destroy it. This should prepare him for what comes ahead, for - and this is a minor spoiler - he WILL find the Libra again.

How it'll happen? That's on the sequel.

Next: Digging deeper.

As I mentioned, part of why I designed Mireya was to provide Will with a new face to use in his future. I must admit this is indulging in some of my darker desires - the reason why I got into The Book of Masks was because of the allure of transformation, specifically MtF transformation. (Le gasp! Revealing something about myself!?) This translates into why Mireya is purposefully attractive, as well as skilled. This last bit is very important, as this branch has Will less as a field agent and more of a behind-the-scenes resource, so he lacks the skills that would make him a good field agent. Mireya provides him with those, all the while allowing him to operate in the field effectively. I did have the idea to make Mireya complex and sympathetic so that the reader could attach to her, giving her defined traits that Will could assume, and by extension, so would the reader.

As for finding a positive use for the corpse-golem spell, this was meant to be a cop-out. Part of Will's journey is to find the Libra in order to reverse its effects, because as a writer I'm intrigued by the mechanics of the book as a whole. You might've noticed in this last chapter that Will essentially starts to recite the first few sigils that comprise the corpse-golem spell, which I consider a huge achievement as Seuzz very jealously guards those secrets. (Well, sorta.) Pushing him to reveal little bits of the mechanics behind the Libra isn't something easy, so I'll gladly pat myself on that. Having said that; while the lure of MtF transformation is appealing, it's not enough to hook me up - and thus, exploring the Libra became essential to my enjoyment of the story. It wasn't enough to have Will effectively replace MIreya from now on - I wanted to develop that story in a way that made it gripping and mature, full of those nuances and ambiguities that I feel make for a great, memorable tale. Taking a literary resource almost purposefully designed for identity death and giving it a positive, if not noble spin, became part of my motivation to write these stories. Why stop just at the corpse-golem spell? What positive utility you can get from, say, the Anima Band? Or the spell that copies essentia? By having a well-liked character pass through a series of life events that ground him into the possibility of corruption while giving him a clear motivation as to why to pursue them allows me to explore that venue, satisfying that urge to explore and uncover the secrets behind these interactives.

Perhaps this seems unhealthy, but I dissent. A great story requires writers with some degree of obsession towards something - perfectionism, verisimilitude, organization - that others might find unsettling. In an interactive story, this allows it to evolve beyond a stated purpose, attracting a much wider audience than what would've been its target. Perhaps not everyone will like what I write, but it'll allow others to enjoy a story to their liking even if they wouldn't have considered the story before. However, I will admit that, for the most part, this is meant to fulfill a desire of mine. It might seem excessive to create a whole new character, with skills and motivations and traits, only to essentially kill her off and make her the new face of a different character, but it makes that impersonation a whole lot more personal than a simple "face-steal".

And, with the mechanics behind the corpse-golem spell, I found a way to bypass that. I grew very fond of Mireya, as she's definitely someone I'd love to have as a friend - she's very devoted to those she cares about, which is why she exudes that huge (and intentional) "big sister" vibe. Killing her off, even from the very beginning, felt just wrong - however, if she was "petrified" instead, she could still be revived and given a new lease on the story. This doesn't mean it's good because it's less drastic than killing, but it doesn't take her away from the larger story either. There's a whole discussion on that matter (in short terms: I stuffed Mireya into the fridge, but for a different purpose - to preserve her rather than permanently take her off), and if it hurts your sensitivities, I apologize - I always intended for Mireya to be saved in some way, but that kind of development in the story, where someone - specifically a woman - gets offed to move the story of another - specifically a man - always leaves a bad taste in the metaphorical mouth of some people.

However, that reveals another little reason why I worked this out in this way. I want Mireya to return, her tale ending happily and fulfilling her promise to her mother. Thus, it's my intention that, as it has been done in many other branches in the interactive, to lead Will into finding ways to reverse the effects of the Libra and find better ways to use it. Hopefully, the sequel should lead to that, though not without its hurdles.

So, what's next?

Obviously, the next thing is to work directly on the sequel. However, the idea is to work out with Will's own backstory first, in order to answer some questions - because, of course, this last chapter created more questions than answers. For example: how did Will end up memorizing the corpse-golem spell? How did he end up with that prodigy that lets him see sigils everywhere? How, in the sequel, he ended up capable of transforming into Mireya without a mask? What is that "deal" he worked out with Charles, and which somehow relates to what happens in the earlier chapters, and that is at risk of being broken unilaterally? What are Dr. Gus's real intentions?

After I finish the backstory, I plan to advance the story ahead, revealing the whereabouts of the Libra, and how they'll find it - because, of course, Will won't do it alone. He'll have backup, of course. Who will be that back-up? That's still on the air, but hopefully it won't take too long to develop. There's some very interesting developments in Will's backstory that serve up to enrich the lore of the Stellae, and I'm very excited to work on that.

What about that afterwards? I want to return to BoM, make a different take on what happened in my own branch, but also develop some other tales. Particularly, I want to work on the branch where Will gets ahold of Cathy Schell, because that was the story I read first and that I wanted to see developed. However, I feel I can't work on that until I satisfy this particular tale, and that's why I've delayed so much.

So, what do you think about all this? If it feels as if I was just venting out, well...yeah, it is, so I apologize if it's too long to read, but I wanted to showcase a little behind all the work that involved developing this backstory into yet another beginning-to-end branch. I'm very excited for the future, and for all the possibilities this story has - both for me and for everyone else, whether as a reader or as a writer. Of course, I'd like to hear whether you liked the branch as a whole, whether you liked it partially, or even if you didn't - and why, because that helps me develop as a writer. So, leave your questions and comments here, and I'll see if I can answer (to) them.

P.S.: You may have noticed an unsettling and intentional cameo of a well-known organization in these last chapters. I won't mention them, but I found they had to be there somewhere. What do you feel about those guys and what they were doing in Brazil?

P.S. Second: I apologize for the shameless self-promotion, but in case you don't know - I wrote something that's not BoM-related! It's currently a prompt, a self-contained story that can develop into a full story. It's called "An Indecent Proposal" , and it's a tale with a huge twist at the end. Note that, of course, it's not suitable for minors - it has graphic sexual content, but it's there to spice up the story rather than being the focus of it.