Consequences Chapter 18 has been posted! Please do read the chapter before reading this blog, as always. And prepare yourself, it’s a lot.

I had warned readers before starting Consequences that it was not going to be the same story as Being More Social. I was a different writer, it was a sequel and needed to go to different places and not be the same story again, and most importantly, I knew roughly how the story was going to play out in my head, and as you’ve seen chapter after chapter, it hasn’t always been a happy one. Part of my writing is not only using story in conjunction with sex, but being very… for a lack of a better word, intense while doing so. Nicole is perhaps the most intense character I’ve ever made, so it makes sense that we’re going to such depths in what is basically her story.

The intensity hasn’t been limited to just Nicole this chapter, but without her, the most extreme this chapter would have gotten was essentially a “friend breakup,” which you can find in other story-based erotica stories if you look hard enough. Unquestionably, the intensity lies with Nicole, and the story is getting darker and darker as a result. I’ve received comments and emails from readers saying they needed to bow out from reading Consequences, either because they don’t normally like intense stories or because it’s getting too intense for them regardless, and honestly, I very much understand.

Those who have been following this blog for long know that I, like Nicole, suffer from a lot of the effects of depression. In this way, writing Nicole is very cathartic, but also very unfortunately revealing. When Megan talked about Nicole’s self-harm and revealed to Adam how selfish she thought it was, many readers expressed thanks towards Megan for saying what they thought. The unfortunate side effect of writing this scene was that I was basically writing Megan criticizing how I come across during my episodes, and inadvertently got a lot of readers going, “yeah, Bash is selfish when he gets like this.” If nothing else, that’s unintentionally very funny. As well, it’s not like I’m blind to how destructive Nicole can be when she gets like that. Depressed and intense is a dangerous combination, after all, and she’s only been getting more with time.

I never wanted to bait and switch people with this story. I made its symbol a knife on purpose. If you struggle with reading these kinds of dark stories, I would suggest now for you to perhaps not read the story all the way to the end. Heck, maybe even give chapter 18 a skip if you ignored my advice and read this blog before the chapter (you rebel, you). Chapter 18 got very dark and I can’t believe it will get too much lighter from here on out.

That said, one aspect of this story that’s been getting increasingly bothersome lately has been the darkness combined with the Patreon voting system. It kind of feels unintentionally manipulative to make the story darker and darker and then turn around and go, “Hey, do you want Nicole to be okay? Better vote for another chapter of Consequences on the Patreon poll!” Given this, I’m going to make the decision to forego the poll for the next month and attempt to finish the story. It’s two chapters’ worth of writing in one month, but who knows, maybe I’ll be able to pull it off. I don’t want to make this story get darker and darker, then hold it hostage. Either people feel pressured to vote on it, or even worse, it doesn’t get touched for half a year and then I launch right back into the dark and heavy stuff. Neither situation feels ideal.

Remember, if you feel like Nicole does in this story, this is a work of fiction and her hopeless state isn’t real and is the product of dramatic effect. In the real world, people love you and support you (even if they’re not always the best at showing it), and there are resources available to help you. I totally understand feeling like no one is there for you and the system is designed to never care about you (been there), but please believe me, things can get so much better. You can get pulled out of the darkness. I genuinely thought I was going to get a Game Over long before now, and I’m here thanks to a surprising amount of support and finding solutions that turned out to work for me. All I needed was an open mind and a little luck. That much luck will absolutely find you too as long as you put in whatever effort you can. I believe in you, and life is so very worth living. Even if the things you love burn to the ground, all that means is a few things will need a restart. And you started from nothing once in your life before, and it brought you every joyful memory you have – it can happen again.

I’m putting the soapbox away. Once again, this chapter went to some darker and darker places, and that’s just a product of this particular story. I won’t make it too frequent of a habit in my stories. Darker themes will pop up in Chapter 2 of Final Answer, but the good news is that it’s way less serious than Consequences and that’s the most intense it’s going to get. I’m very close to publishing Chapter 2; just working things out with the commissioner. Apart from that, it’s time to wrap up Consequences. I’ll talk to you all next week.