S.R.B. Gray Profile

Current Novel: Pre-Crisis

Status: Chapter 18 (We're almost there - first chapter posted late 2017 and I'm still not finished)

Summary: It is the Year 2998. Two rival nations find themselves competing for global dominance by secretly developing weapons of mass destruction. Deep within the wilds of a foreign land, a skilled soldier must break through enemy lines, and save the world from the fires of another Great War. Witness a riveting tale of love and war, and watch as a single man becomes a legend.

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In the Works: Project Masquerade

Summary: I won't be revealing too much about this newest project just yet, but I am hoping to get the ball rolling with it by summer. I'll be dropping teasers and updates of how the story will be shaped over time. For now, simply look forward to when this drops. It has been a while since I've put my all into a project that wasn't Crisis related, so look forward to this one!

2/27/2018 Update - The Shape of Masquerade: Setting and Premise

Location—

San Francisco, California

Time Period—

Nigh-Futuristic (2030)

Time Frame—

Fall of 2030 to Summer of 2031

Genre—

High fantasy with a hint of slice of life

Premise—

Things are not well in San Francisco. Mysterious murders and psychotic breakdowns have become common place as the days go by. Without any perpetrators apprehended for the crimes, the public is beginning to lose faith in both the police force, and the government.

Branded as a juvenile delinquent, a young man aged seventeen is forced to transfer to San Francisco for behavioral rehabilitation. Upon his arrival, he along with another social outcast stumbles upon the strange power of Masquerades. Dissatisfied with the current social status quo, he joins forces with the local misfits and fights to uphold justice for those that can’t fight for themselves. Let us partake in the Masquerade!

7/15/2018 Update - Lets Talk About 'Masquerades'

The contents of this update has been gathering dust for the last four months. Enjoy!

Hello everyone, and welcome to another update about Masquerade.

Make no mistake, I have been working on Masquerade even as my activity has reached an all time low yet again. Today, I shall be unveiling the fight system, which ties into the things that inspired me to make the story in the first place.

I have realized recently that my writing strengths lie primarily in my ability to present action scenes – to an extent, of course. I am at my best when crafting a fight scene with high fantasy elements. Pre-Crisis has shown me that I am not very good at creating more grounded action sequences. This is something that I have went back and forth with for a while now, and people who have been following my entries might have even been internalizing this as well, but the fact remains that my action sequences are becoming a bit stale. I will be going into further detail when Pre-Crisis is finished, but the fact of the matter is that the very nature of the Crisis-series is sapping my creative ability when it comes to my favorite part of storytelling: Conflict.

Go back and read through the original Crisis, and even Northern Skirmish, and compare the quality of those fights with the ones prevalent in Lunar Honor and Pre-Crisis so far, and there is a valley of difference. The sheer passion and creativity I had with those initial fights have been lost over time.

You might be wondering what this has to do with Masquerade, and I shall get to it now: This series of events have led to me creating an all new battle system. The “Masquerade System” as I call it is heavily inspired by the Persona series, slightly, but mostly JoJo’s Stand System.

I personally believe that JoJo’s Stands is hands down the absolute best fictional battle system out there. The sheer amount of possibilities and creativity prevalent in their functions allows for some of the most truly unique encounters in the medium. Thusly, I came up with Masquerades.

In the infancy of this new project, I was initially going to make the fights more along the lines of smaller scale Crisis fights. But Crisis lacks a stable set of rules for the fight system. This is great for creating a large amount of varying battles, but bad for maintaining in universe consistency. So, I scrapped that train of thought, and instead turned to Masquerades. But what exactly are Masquerades? And how will the system work?

As per usual, this will be a series heavily focused on its fights and showdowns. However, to make things more interesting, each character will have a unique power, and must attempt to force their opponents into the specific scenarios that will allow them to use their power to its full potential.

Each character will have a Masquerade, a curious mask that spawns in dire situations, one that is shaped to both reflect what one aspires to be, as well as who they truly are.

This will be less about who is faster or who can blow up bigger things; rather, it will be about who can use their powers in a cleverer manner. Some of the rules for the system is as follows:

• No two Masquerades are the same.
• A character can only possess one Masquerade – however, any given Masquerade may possess multiple distinct functions.
• Masquerade users are not superhuman – they can still be harmed/killed by forces that can kill normal humans such as guns and knives.
• Masquerades cannot be powered up under normal circumstances. Rather, a being must focus more on refining their use of the Masquerade to increase proficiency with its limitations.

So that about sums up the system. Seriously, that excerpt above came straight out of my overly detailed outlines. I spent the first month of pre-planning writing out outlines. You can tell Masquerade is going to be a fun time, because I haven’t gone this in depth with planning snice I started outlining the original Crisis.

Well, that’s it for this update – it’s a lot longer and juicier than the previous update. The next update should be coming out next month at some point: I shall be talking about the commissioned art I shall be using for the series, as well as provide some early ones, if I can locate a skilled artist that is willing to work with me for this lengthy project. Alright, see you next time.

3/18/2019 Update - Lore Entry 1 and Opening Teaser

Lore 1: Masquerades and The Realm of Thoughts

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In an age long past, certain individuals used an ancient rite to reach an abyssal plane of darkness. Their efforts ended in failure, which resulted in the collapsation of a small point in space-time. However, this collapsed mass of reality swiftly expanded soon afterwards, and grew bigger and bigger within several seconds. It hastily expanded farther than the mind could comprehend, and almost immediately, an endless plane of reality was created. As with many things lofty and most foolish, this event can be traced back to humankind, and as a result, this abyssal plane is undeniably tied to the mass of endless imagination that is the human mind. Henceforth, whispers of supernatural occurrences soon transpired, as several noteworthy men and woman suddenly found themselves capable of completely and utterly bending the laws of reality to their whims. This realm is known as the Realm of Thoughts, which is now utilized as a powerful arsenal of versatility by those capable of grasping at its secrets. At times, even failure can lead to extraordinary things.

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“I know not the depth or the gravity of what I saw, only that it defied all manner of understanding. Within, I witnessed oceans of stone and mountains of water. Gravity moved sideways and time flowed backwards. And amongst it all, there was this ever present choir of humming and whispers that assaulted my synapses, threatening to overtake the faculties of my cognitions at every turn. Even now, I cannot quite put into words what I actually observed, but I do know this: Despite the depravity and mystique of the locale, every shred of tangible matter were like paintings in a gallery, all of them perfect in detail.”

—A firsthand account of one who walked the Realm of Thoughts

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The Realm of Thoughts is an existential realm kept separate from the goings on of actual reality, one that is both connected to and sustained by the subconscious minds of homosapiens. While thought to be completely uninhabited, rumours abound of it being populated by celestial beings that retain a shapeless form, masquerading as collections of cosmic dust. In any case, humanity being connected to this realm has given birth to the phenomenon known as Masquerades.

A Masquerade is a human beings’ inherent ability to enhance their physiological composition by partaking in the cosmic energy that flows into the mind from the Realm of Thoughts. Due to the vastness of the realm, as well as the sheer developmental potential of human imagination, the functionality of Masquerades are as wide and varied as human beings themselves.

Despite the fact that the potential lays dormant in all humans, all but a few are capable of awakening a Masquerade. That is because a Masquerade only spawns when an individual experiences a brief moment of existential crisis, where the very concept of who they are and what they stand for are called into question and pushed to its limits. The change brought about by the spawning reflects the inner desires and aspirations of its user. Since most people do not find themselves in the very specific circumstance, many are unable to awaken to it. There are several theories that attempt to explain this.

One theory is that the celestial beings that possibly populate the Realm of Thoughts are sympathetic in nature. Their existence is so far out of a mortal beings league, an existence that is so great, that they seem to be able to sense and feel things that appear to be small in nature on a large cosmic scale. As such, in a desperate attempt to protect a fragile minded being that lacks the tools it possesses itself, they grant them a Masquerade, that they might shield themselves from danger. It is similar to humans attempting to conserve and “humanize” prominent animal species.

Another theory argues that a Masquerade comes about from an inherent, subconscious defense mechanism meant to protect someone from supernatural harm, and in that brief moment of weakness, the cosmic energy surging into the body suddenly erupts, and forces itself to take physical shape.

Despite the vagueness and obscurity of Masquerades in general, there are many other suggestions and contemplations.

Regardless of what one thinks, however, it is undeniable that the occurrence itself is a strange one indeed; a sequence which, like many other things, eludes a clear, definable understanding.

Much like when dealing with mist, in spite of your best efforts to grasp and take hold of it in your hands, you will never be able interact with it as you desire.

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Masquerade Intro (Rough Draft)