In this, our first issue: - Megumeme reveals a DARK SECRET. - There are some links to various things. - Also a picture. INTERVIEW WITH MEGU First, can you share a little about yourself? Age, hobbies, favorite movie, opinions on breast feeding?

Well I'm 15, making me a freshman in high school. My main hobby and what you'll find me doing most often these days is video games, typically Rust and Counter Strike, but I also play piano, bass guitar, and sax, so I like to mess around on those instruments every now and then to keep up those skills. Obviously, I also write, but recently I just haven't been keeping on that. I'd say my favorite movie is probably Arlington Road because of the constant twists and surprise ending. Opinion on breast feeding? Suck them tiddies.

So tell us, how did you find the site, and what convinced you to stick around?

I found the site when I was 12, I'm pretty sure. I don't remember how I found it, but I created an account and set right away to writing. I asked for advice in the forums not too long after starting, probably because I'd gotten to a spot and I didn't know how to continue. Anyway, you and a few others showed up, giving sound advice like you do. I remember you telling me something like "It's not a good idea to attempt a fantasy epic right away. Start with something smaller" since I tried doing that. I, being the extremely mature person that I was and still am, immediately left the site. I'm still not entirely sure why, but I did. Then, after 2 years (I think?) I came back and lurked for a bit before starting a new fantasy epic pretty much exactly like you told me not to. The second time I came here, I stuck around because of you guys, really. I posted something about my game on the forums, and I got a bunch of feedback which really helped me to keep going. I'll get back on that story, I swear.

When you first joined the Discord, you tried to pretend you were 18. Or maybe it was that someone else assumed you were an adult and you just went along with it because you have no backbone. Is that something you've done in other situations? Is there anything else you'd like to set the record straight on, for the good people of CYS?

Thanks, Mizal. I'm pretty sure it was that I just went along with what others said for a while because I, like you said, have no backbone. And no, I'm sure enough of myself in real life and I'm still uncertain of why I did that and why I did the thing in your next question. I would like the good people of CYS to know that I am actually a guy. Again, I'm not sure why I didn't just say that when people referred to me as female, but I guess it's just because I have no backbone.

Fascinating. So would you describe yourself as more of a beta, or a cuck?

Cuck.

What's your favorite kind of story, to read or to write?

I love a well-crafted thriller, but I am certainly not good at writing those. To write, I prefer fantasy usually. There's a lot of freedom within that genere. It's all make-believe, so you can make anything you want, well, anything you want. You can redefine anything how you see fit, since nothing there is real in the first place.

What story projects are you working on right now?

I'm currently working on a continuous story in the Creative Corner. I still need to update that, which I will do soon, I promise.

(story) Who is your least favorite site member?

I can't really say I have one. I mean, even Thara's been nice to me sometimes on Discord, and no one's really gotten under my skin.

Was anyone of particular help to you when you first asked for writing advice?

@Reader82, @TheChef, and @Shadowdrake have been the biggest help to me. They've offered me plenty of feedback, allowing me to improve my past and future writing, and they've helped to keep me on track, though unfortunately I've been a bit off track lately.

What's your planning process for writing?

Basically, I get an idea, write down a very rough idea of what I want to happen, plan out a few important scenes, then just write from there. It's good for getting a lot done on days that I feel motivated to write, but it's not good for writing when I don't feel all that motivated. I don't recommend this planning style.

Name a storygame you think more people should read.

I haven't been doing much reading recently, but more people definitely need to read Venetian's Tears by Poison_Mara and Edithe Zilonis by MHD.

If you were stranded on a mountain with all current and past admins, in which order would the cannibalism occur?

Well, I don't know much about CYS history or the current admins, so I can't really answer this one, sorry.

How many hours of your life would you say you've spent playing Minecraft? And are you playing Minecraft right now?

Probably close to 700 hours? I don't know. No, right now I'm just at the dining room table answering your questions on my phone.

Did you know that a mole can dig a tunnel that's 300 ft long, in only one night?

I did not know that, thank you.

On the writing side of things, we’ve had one but TWO epic feature-worthy games published in the last couple of weeks. Unbroken by ninjapitka, and Aphrodite’s Orphan by ThomasLaHomme. Both of these are novel length works of damn near professional quality. Aphrodite’s Orphan tells the adventure of a young woman on Venus in a pulpy sci-fi setting of rocket ships and robots popularized by 1930s science fiction, and Unbroken is a gritty fantasy about a boy raised in a monastery, hounded by a dark presence within and the machinations of an enemy empire without. You know you have nothing else going on right now, you should sit down and treat yourself to every path of both of these. And worth mentioning also is Imprint, a short work about regrets and the first story from promising new author juliemmarch. Elsewhere, Wannabe_Human is asking for suggestions regarding a new storygame in the works, a dating sim which is likely to drive him mad with that which man's feeble mind was not meant to know and cannot comprehend. There is much anticipation for BerkaZerka and MHD's collaborative project Legacy of Dracula's Castle, while poison_mara and Shadowdrake27 continue to make steady progress on their Infinite Story contest projects. TurnipBandit wrote multiple updates for his ongoing Metro-inspired story in the Colored Lines and Dark Tunnels thread before implying he was cracking and going on hiatus again, while some random noob posted their most incomprehensible Shakespeare impression. And last but not least, Briar/Avery shared the intro to a book she's writing based on her Lawless Ones setting. It's been a month of significant noob activity. Some had to be killed, as usual. But some, surprisingly, have lived. AestheticLlama against all odds seems to have secured her place as one of the latter, making her what I believe is the youngest active site member that isn't walking on ice a nanometer thick. For now, anyway. Other noobs have turned out to be adults responsible for scarily young children, asking here of all places for storygames for them. Truly a sign of the end times. Poison_mara and myself have taken it upon ourselves to write a couple of new kids games specifically to meet this new demand. For that matter, if anyone knows of any appropriate existing games that are missing the Geared for Children tag, it would be helpful to let me know about them here. Because really if we must have kids under fifteen around, it's appreciated when they're good and wholesome children and not vile little deviants like Rattler and a couple of others who were banned for being disgusting recently. The Corona Tag thread has been surprisingly successful in turning out a vast collection of excellent short stories, some of them from surprising sources. In community news, Bucky stormed out of the Discord muttering that someone was out to get him (and something about corn?) and hasn’t been seen since, Shouja is dying of the rona but did manage to find her misplaced vagina, and as you’ll recall Megumeme’s DARK SECRET is that he never had one at all. Chef meanwhile only *might* die and afaik still has all his original equipment. Boring. Oh and we have a new COG mod hanging around now. Eiwynn is pretty okay but obviously not as good as Gower. It’s been three months since Killa’s timely escape from Italy and he’s now settled enough IRL to beginn work on updating the site again, while Will is on the cusp of his publishing his 50th and final newsletter. A few Cricket sightings have been claimed, but we all still miss her anyway. Alex is doing fine and says hello. He is calmly sipping tea in Tokyo like a distant god, watching the madness of the rest of the world unfold. Probably some other things have happened this month, but I’m tired. But I do encourage you to bring up anything else that seems important. I’m going to be attempting to do these as a monthly thing and I’d like them to serve as a proper archive of all the various happenings. In World News: Kenny Rogers died. :( Also, there’s some kind of virus I keep hearing about? Meh whatever, probably just a bunch of hype. WORDS IN CAPS It’s traditional to include a short story or something in these, but I think this is long enough. Instead I’m just going to share a cool image pulled from one of my random folders of fantasy and sci fi art that might inspire you to write something of your own: I’d love to hear your interpretation of what’s going on here. Since I was too tired to do it myself, I asked Lar to write a short descriptive piece.

Decaying rails, choked with rust, with hiss and snores. The sky was black and gaseous; there was no shelter for any. All the stones were broken, as if by a storm; and the moon had become red, with a fiery hue. The city's air was dark and drowsy; the people had all except themselves. I went before them. I tried to find a place where the night sky should be. It seemed in the wrong place; the sky was too dark; the streets were dark and empty; the place was empty as a lake of fire. The morning star was still, but the sky bright, with a cold yellow hue. The night was empty as day, with all; except their clothes and children.

Thanks, Lar. You’re getting better at this all the time. And this brings me to our sponsor, BD's Chrome and Firefox extension, which you should be using for an updated and more eyeball-friendly version of the site if you're browsing on PC, and particularly if you're one of the few actually reading storygames. Anyhow, this concludes Issue #1 of [Untitled Monthly Newsletter]! Stay tuned for the next one on May 1st! ...and if it doesn’t happen, all that means is that you got pranked hard for April Fools. Lol, such a great bamboozlement I did. Be sure to print this out and save it, it will be worth a lot of money someday.