Get Me To The Church On Time

[Zingiber]

My (fairly) new story, Get Me To The Church On Time link updated for Chyoo 2!, finally has its set-up threads and is open for business.

Updating/approving threads will be intermittently slow, as I can't currently (Dec 2002) get to Chyoo every day.

My access has been more regular as of April 2003, but my life is still a bit unpredictable.

I'm open to suggestions (via this forum) as well as thread contributions.

-- Zingiber


Story: Get Me To The Church On Time link updated for Chyoo 2!

Synopsis: Bride, mom, and mother-in-law play with old flames while a practical joker stalks the wedding.

Introduction:
The Bride: A sweet young woman deeply in love with her fiancé. She's trying really hard to behave politely for her rich new in-laws, and feeling a little put-upon. She doesn't really understand why people make such a big deal out of having casual sex with good friends -- she and her fiancé have been doing it all along! As long as everyone's happy and nobody's hiding anything. Her wedding has brought back some of her good friends from her wild college and house-sharing days. Some strange events with the preparations have made her suspicious that someone's trying to sabotage her wedding. She's determined that no one will spoil her wedding day, even if they have to elope with the minister and witnesses.

The Mother of the Bride: Still living the life of a free-love flower child, she tries to see the best in everyone she meets. She's happy to hear people's stories, to help them with their problems, and give explicit advice and demonstrations. She lives in a rural art/craft commune where she can live her ideals. She's determined to make sure her daughter is happy with her wedding and that no one snubs her or makes her feel inferior.

The Mother-in-law: A woman who's hidden her wild youth well, but hasn't left it behind. She has it right there in her designer handbag. Marrying well redeemed her social image and provided her with cover for her continued adventures. She and her husband visit discreet little swinging parties together, and her work as a talent agent gives her opportunities to meet young men. She sees other women more as rivals or people to show off to than friends. Critical of the bride's family's "loose ways". She's proud of her son's healthy sex drive, but worried about his discretion and his dabbling with bisexuality. She's determined that nothing will stop her getting her son safely married off and settled down.


Guidelines:

Please read the "establishing" pages following the introduction for the bride, her mother, and the mother-in-law before contributing, to help keep them in character.

Any pre-wedding thread should advance toward the wedding, at least a little. Although all the characters are distractable, they're all focused on making sure the wedding happens, come heck or high water. Flashbacks within a single thread which develop the characters are OK.

My hopes for this story are something like a screwball comedy movie or soap opera, so I gave the characters a common goal (and possibly foe) but really different ideas of how things should work out. You might want to use the device of putting the two mothers in a situation where they're forced to co-operate closely.

Light on the rough stuff. Nothing worse than a slap or pie in the face, a screaming argument, or ripped clothes for the main characters. And then they should kiss and make up.

 

[Zingiber]

Hello again!

Get Me To The Church On Time collects its first contributed thread from darren j (Thanks!).

From the introduction page, choose Option 2, The mother of the bride.

Then choose Option 1, You peek.

Things look complicated. How will the bride's mother sort things out?

- Z

 

[Zingiber]

I've followed up on darren j's thread. The bride makes sure her mother clears up any little misunderstandings about what she saw while peeking.

- Z

(For an immersive story, maybe just listing choices is better than actually linking them?)

Start at the beginning, Get Me To The Church On Time

Choose the mother's name and go to the introduction page.

Choose Option 2, The mother of the bride.

Choose Option 1, You peek

Choose Option 1, Tell your daughter.

 

[Zingiber]

SparkyMan link updated! gets the bride's day rolling making breakfast for her college friends and getting ready to go shopping. She's excited about plans for the evening, but she's worried about the secret they seem to be keeping from her.

Start at Get Me To The Church On Time updated for Chyoo 2!

Enter the bride's name and proceed to the introduction.

Choose Option 1, The Bride

Choose Option 1, Shopping for last minute details.

 

[Zingiber]

I've followed up to SparkyMan's fine thread in the "bride" track.

Choose Option 1, Trying out make-up.

Jen and the bride chat in the car about make-up, mother-in-law, and underwear on the way to the mall. The bride-to-be gets a different look and thinks she sees her fiance in a tux shop. Will she peek at him getting "fitted" ?

 

[Zingiber]

darren j continues the mischief in the bathing house.

Start at the beginning, Get Me To The Church On Time link updated for Chyoo 2!

Enter a name for the mother and go to the introduction page.

Choose Option 2, The mother of the bride.

Choose Option 1, You peek

Choose Option 1, Tell your daughter.

Choose Option 1, Cedric's cock looks to good to pass up

There's also a follow-up thread from me:

Choose Option 1, Apologize. But maybe she wants some fun too.

 

[Zingiber]

I've added some pages to the mother-in-law thread.

Go to http://www.chyoo.com:81/index.php/main.story.cover/1069.

Go to the intro thread.

Pick Option 3, The mother-in-law

There are two more "Option 1" pages from there.

Merely suggestive so far, as the mother-in-law checks with the florist, then the caterer to make sure everything is organized just so. Unlike the way her sloppy in-laws would do it.

There's been a little mix-up at the caterer's. But properly handled, not a disaster...as long as nobody finds out.

- Z

 

[jakelyon]

Great Story

Just read through "Get me to the curch on time". It is a great story. At first I was put off by the premise but when I actually read it I realized there are all kinds of possibilites.

I'll see if I can work up an angle or two on it.

And what is that picture of on your Avatar? Some kind of plant?

 

[Zingiber]

Hi Jake,

I figured that I'd try and keep a plot cooking on at least the main lines of the story, which is why the lengthy guidelines. "OK folks, we're at point A, can we move toward point B." I may relax them once the story is more established.

Was there something in particular in the premise that didn't feel right, but you felt better about after reading the story? (Maybe I should adjust the cover to fit the book?)

My current avatar is a picture of a sprouting ginger root, botanical name Zingiber officinale.

I appreciate your thoughts and look forward to seeing your contributions.

- Z

 

[jakelyon]

I guess the thought of trying to figure out how to handle two middle aged matrons, and the emotions of a wedding seemed daunting. The threads you have added so far have set up a number of directions that did not occur to me.

The thought of a sexual setting with a mother in law is repulsive some how, just my own personal problem, so it took me a while to get past that.

Thanks.

 

[Zingiber]

More editor's updates

I added another thread to the "bride/shopping/make-up" line.

Since each of the main characters has a few pages in her section, I've also opened up an option from the introduction to follow a different character's point of view. Right now that's just a page of suggestions based on characters who have appeared already, or possible (not-yet-known) family members or members of the wedding party.

If you choose to follow up on this, try to make it a strong character with some point of view/connection to the wedding and/or to three main characters.

-Z.

 

[AaronWebster]

Re: More editor's updates

Right now that's just a page of suggestions based on characters who have appeared already, or possible (not-yet-known) family members or members of the wedding party.

Good plan. Just one problem that I foresee... Several of the characters are named individuals - which could become confusing in an interactive story, where you have already chosen the name of the main character.

You may want to amend this corner of the story to have unnamed friends of the bride, caterers, etc. My 2p / 2c.

 

[Zingiber]

Good point. I've pulled the names off the "None of the above" character page for now. I figure whoever contributes a continuing thread can continue in an immersive fashion, or a non-immersive fashion if they choose. I will endeavour to respect the precedent of whoever starts a particular branch off this page.

Thanks for holding up the mirror, Aaron.

-Z

 

[Zingiber]

Sparks will fly

Imhotep adds some intrigue, bringing in the viewpoint of the bride's competitive, highly sexed ex-friend Marcie. Will they make peace? Will Marcie score at the reception? Sparks will fly in any event!

Marcie is a tie-in to Imhotep's Weekend At An All Girls Dorm set at Widley College, where she and the bride went to school. This thread has a brief appearance by a Marcie who might very well be the same one.

Start the story, enter the bride's name, choose None of the above, then A friend from college days.
Thanks Imhotep!

-- Z

 

[Zingiber]

A new thread by the author on the "mother-in-law" track, where she has lunch and a suggestive conversation with her husband.

Start the story, enter her name, and go to the intro.

Then choose

* The mother-in-law
* Florist first
* Nothing right now, thank you
* It's fine, please wrap up lunch.

She's then faced with picking out a little mood music...or something more explicit...for an "afternoon delight."

(the only path as of 25-May-2003).

-Z

 

[Zingiber]

Undo prompting for character name?

After working with Get Me To The Church On Time for a while, it seems as though the {FIRST_NAME} {LAST_NAME} fill-in is more trouble than it's worth for this story (since the "main character" is different for each thread after the introduction, and all of them interact with one another).

I've noticed that the "prompt for character name" option appears to be editable in Chyoo 2, and I'm thinking of turning it off and substituting specific names for the bride, her mother, and the mother of the groom.

Any suggestions?

-Z

 

[jakelyon]

I agree

I find it distracting to write around, and I agree that it makes little sense as you get deeper into the story. I would turn it off if you can. I have never used it in any of my stories.

 

[Zingiber]

Done. It will no longer prompt for the main character's name. (I always thought they ought to have a default name settable by the author/editor, anyway).

The cast as it now stands:

A linked name points to the beginning of the character's own storyline

Bride: Willow Wilde
Groom: Alex Strong
Bride's Mother: Amanda Wilde
Groom's Mother: Betta Strong

Bride's College Friends: Jen, Dave, Chris (ex-boyfriend), Marcie (ex-friend/rival?)

Best Man: Cedric
Best Man's Wife: Victoria

Smaller parts:
Groom's Father: Mr. Strong (no first name yet) A screenwriter.
Florists: Maria Ebihara, Akira Nardi
Caterers: Mandy Marx, Martha Marx, "Hastings".
The Strongs' Pool Boy: Oakley. Blond, tanned, and eager.
The Strongs' Maid: Nanda. A giggling Valley girl, but calm and well-grounded.

 

[Zingiber]

I've followed up to Imhotep's thread about Marcie:

Marcie takes a few calls in her room, but more questions are raised than answered.

And just what did she slip into her purse before going downstairs?

-Z