#wordsfromthecaptain

[thedistantshoresproject]

Thank you for your patience.

[thedistantshoresproject]

Our phenomenal First Mate @jdstar88 switched to Romance Club when the infamous January 2021 announcement was released. We have said it time and time again that PB started to nail their own coffin when they announced their foolish choices (no pun intended) in that newsletter.

The result was a pissed off fanbase who had to take to social media to vent out their anger, theories instead of facts on why those books were canceled, fans fighting with each other, amateurs making sequels on their own time for no money, and some to stop playing the app all together. It begs one question for PB...

Was it worth it?

Once you've spent enough time reading romance club stories, you can never go back to Choices and read their stories with similar enthusiasm and interest.

Choices stories simply put are cheap, lazy work. It's a cash grab which is justified in the current socio-economic scenario but why would anyone in their right mind invest in trash?

People have been saying it all this while, I'll still take another jab at it. The stories that Choices have been putting out for the past couple of years are such stereotypical commercial bullshit. There's no real character development, no characters with personalities, there's no scope for developing romance routes either. All characters in all stories are walking archetypes and honestly none of the newer LIs are attractive either.

So what even is your USP at this point? What's your product offering? Are they simply trying to cater to brain-dead teens? Wattpad has more substantial stories than choices and that's something.

Sure Romance Club has its own flaws but at least the writers make more fleshed out characters and with much better narratives too. Their stories are often so much more than archetypical and formulaic content. They do use writing formulas too albeit more creatively than Choices. Newer settings are often explored, they get creative with their medium and the app overall ever so often. The prices of in-game currency are decent and they do have free alternatives too.

Now before the internet trolls come after me to educate me about the "If you don't like it don't read it" approach, I must implore, sure I won't read that crap with the same passion as you but I'll take every opportunity to criticize the sheer dumbassery going on in the name of stories. Why? Because they've signed up for it. When you put your project out in the public domain, you shall prepare yourself for criticism in case your work absolutely sucks, which choices absolutely does.

My advice to anyone still playing choices would be to get a mod rather than spending actual money on it. I would be more than happy to help you with the link to a working mod.

[thedistantshoresproject]

TDSP WEEKEND UPDATE

THE 1ST CHAPTER IS OUT!

After 2 years, it's finally out!

We'll be releasing chapters every Saturday at 7pm with a little summary like this.

CHAPTER 1: THE RETURN You and your beloved take the time to reconnect while mystery and danger board your ship.

Check our pinned post for downloads, walkthroughs, and bug reports.

[1air2flames]

"If you want the team to sweat, officers should be the example and be the first ones to break their own sweat."

[thedistantshoresproject]

TDSP WEEKEND UPDATE

OUR SERIES FINALE IS HERE!

CHAPTER 10: THE BATTLE Everything you have trained for has come down to this, and Magdalena gives you a reward for your service.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Check our pinned post for our Discord, walkthroughs, and bug reports.

Thank you all for playing! We will return back on New Year's Eve. As for our fan-made games, this is the end.

[thedistantshoresproject]

If The Captain can take a moment to truly express this act of cruelty going on in the Choices fandom, that would be much appreciated.

First, The Captain and everyone at TDSP expresses their grief and support to @storyofmychoices. This was an unnecessary and cowardly act from an anonymous person over the Internet. The Captain doesn't know what @storyofmychoices said in her fan fiction that made someone so angry to tell her she needs to kill herself, and it doesn't matter.

As we said over and over, the Choices fanbase has been in some sort of war with each other ever since the January 2021 announcement. But to now actually tell someone to kill themselves is now at the fanbase's lowest point. To virtually attack your fellow Choices fans is just ridiculous, and we hope this person is not waiting for our sequel to come out. After being bullied by others themselves from rabid fanatics, The Captain & The First Mate made an easy decision when it came to people playing our sequel.

They will make sure anyone who attacks anyone in the fandom will NOT be allowed to play our sequel.

We simply do not tolerate any type of bullying, and do our best to make sure everyone in our own fan base are kind to one another. The Captain herself battles bipolar disorder, so thoughts of suicide are nothing new to her. One thing she will say, is that the hurt feelings of online hate start to dwindle as you get older.

One of the many reasons why The Captain has been reminiscing about the 90's is because she and other people her age fought face-to-face and not hiding behind a screen. Once she got into high school and college when social media was on the rise, fights were still being handled in person.

And when fights are handled in person, you're able to come to a more peaceful solution.

Sticks & Stones...

I'm sure we've all heard the phrase, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me". Little kids learn it to counteract mean words said at playtime. It seems logical, physical harm should hurt more than words, but I think we all know from experience, that's just not true.

I didn't want to address this. I learned years ago in this fandom that if you address drama or anons it never ends well. However, I feel like this has to be said not necessarily for me, but maybe for younger me who wasn't as strong.

I received an anon that told me to kill myself because they didn't like a fic I wrote (I guess). I deleted the message because it's not worth my time. But those words are so hurtful. I thought back to younger me. Middle school me. High school me. Even early college me... I don't think that version of me would be strong enough to delete that message.

That version of me would hold onto it, perseverate on it, and those words would swirl in my mind and the anxiety and depression would tell me that's what people think. That's what you should do. I know logically that's stupid and it's an anon, delete and move on. But mentally, I wasn't strong enough...

I know that version of me is not alone. I know there are people in this fandom who struggle daily with their mental health. I know how hard it is for them. I can't imagine one of them getting a message like that.

Using language that promotes harm, like telling someone to "kill yourself," is harmful in so many ways. Whether you actually mean it and think that person should die, or you think it's just a phrase you say when you're angry, bored, or wanting to start drama, it's not okay. I'd love to say choose kindness and don't send any hate but I know that's not the world we live in.

However phrases like "kill yourself" are beyond the line. You cannot predict the mental state of the person you're sending it to. How would you actually feel if that person went through with it? What if their death is on your hands? Would you be okay with that? Would you be okay if the police came to your door and said you led to that person's death? (Don't think that happens? It does, the state police and FBI do investigate digital threats. I know because I work with kids who make and receive threats and have had to deal with the FBI investigating them... and anon doesn't matter the FBI will track the IP address). I don't want that for anyone here. So please, choose your words wisely.

If you are in a bad place and lashing out is all you have, come talk to me or someone else in this fandom. I know that it is hurt people that hurt other people. I know if you are sending words like that you've been hurt. Let's break the cycle together!

This post is not targeted toward any one person. Yes, it was motivated by the anon I got, but I really hope that anyone who has ever used that phrase might read this and take it to heart.

Please choose kindness or nothing at all. Our fandom is small enough. I don't want to see other people leave because they feel pushed out or leave because they did something they can't take back.

Oh, and to anyone who has received harmful words like that. You are not alone. You can come to me or others to talk. Please don't believe those words. You are stronger and better than that!

I'm not sure how to end this so, here is a cute picture:

[thedistantshoresproject]

We want to take a moment to congratulate our amazing artist @oh-so-youre-a-nerd for gaining recognition from PB! Thia is an absolute joy to work with and they deserve all of the best!

[thedistantshoresproject]

In honor of Pride Month, The Captain has been working on this little (?!) graphic for about 2 days.

It was no surprise that Ed and MC have their own take on "The Special Relationship"!

[thedistantshoresproject]

Be on the lookout this Saturday from a special note from The Captain. In the meantime, just remember this.

“If you can breathe, you can stand. If you can stand, you can fight.”-Olivia Nevrakis

[thedistantshoresproject]

We at TDSP offer our sympathies to @immortaldesiresproject on both their personal struggles and the termination of the project.

These fan sequels that we are all doing are not an easy feat. If you have to give up due to serious circumstances like these, it's okay. What matters is that you really tried.

We are looking forward to the game inspired by the project and that webtoon!

Project Update

Hello friends and fans. I want to apologize yet again for leaving everyone hanging. I would like to share that this project will no longer be continuing. Due to everyone's personal circumstances, it has been difficult to meet and to create the game. In regard to my own personal struggles, I had a suspected mini-stroke back in November that has caused neuropathy on top of already having fibromyalgia. On top of my recovery being a mess of cognitive issues, I lost someone who was like a second father to me, as well as my best friend of 18 years. I hope this gives some clarity as to why the project was a little abandoned, and I'm sorry I haven't gotten around to providing this update sooner. With my life finally reaching a level of normalcy between returning to school and being able to function properly at my job again, I have mustered up passion and inspiration for the first time in months (after getting piercing and tattoo therapy lmao). I will be creating my own game inspired by the storyline of this fan project and a webtoon I wrote years ago. I'll give shameless plug of the blog once I have actual material to share, if any of you are curious or want to follow along the journey of building that game.

Thank you for all of your support and love to this game. I'm disappointed that it ended like this, but life sometimes has a way of steering you off the rails.

[thedistantshoresproject]

TDSP WEEKEND UPDATE

We hope you enjoyed chapter 7. It's nice to see MC and the LIs dressed up for a change...oh, and the make up Dirty 30!

CHAPTER 8: THE RESCUE You and your crew are on the mission to save Edward and Oliver before a hurricane wipes you away.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Check our pinned post for our Discord, walkthroughs, and bug reports.

[thedistantshoresproject]

WE HAVE A DEMO FOR ANDROID USERS!

We have been getting a lot of questions if we have one for Android, and our programmers were able to make one!

[thedistantshoresproject]

THE VOTES ARE IN...

The majority of you wanted us to have a Discord to talk about DS. We apologize if it is bare-bones. We're learning how to use it before The Captain goes into an old lady rant about how message boards from her high school years need to make a comeback. Just follow the simple rules and enjoy talking to each other.

[thedistantshoresproject]

From our hard-working head writer! Thank her for all of the Dirty 30's in our sequel!

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thanks for the tag @rebelrayne!

How many works do you have on ao3?

I have 57 somehow.

What's your total ao3 word count?

669,991

What fandoms do you write for?

LITG

Top five fics by kudos:

Like No One's Watching (Ozzy/MC)

Truly, Madly, Deeply (Bobby/MC)

Leather and Lace (Lucas/MC)

Deep Dive (Levi/MC)

Uninhibited (multiple pairings)

Do you respond to comments?

Yes! I used to never respond, but I love it now. If someone's taking the time to read my fic and comment, I want to let them know how much it means to me.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Missed Messages, but hey, the prompt was unhappy ending.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Ummm, most of them tbh. I love fluff and almost always give my characters a happy ending. Maybe How I Met Your Mother just because it's set so far in the future compared to when they met.

Do you get hate on fics?

I have, but I wouldn't say it's consistent.

Do you write smut?

Lol, yup. All of my most popular fics have smut and one is entirely smut.

Craziest crossover:

Craziness might be a stretch, but I have an Are You The One? crossover and started posting my Too Hot To Handle crossover last week.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes, but not in LITG

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not a fic, no.

All time favourite ship?

Outside of just any of my favorites/MC, the one ship I will always read is Lucas/Henrik.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

It's not even a WIP cause there's nothing written down, but a Levi Villa fic.

What are your writing strengths?

Always a hard one to answer, but I'd say FTL fluff or emotional smut.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptors and metaphors, they always fight me.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

It's fine as long as it serves a purpose. Like nicknames and curses are fine, but two characters having a full conversation in a language they both understand isn't really necessary imo.

First fandom you wrote in?

Lovelink

Favourite fic you've written?

Deep Dive. I just love Levi, love the trope and setting, and adore my OC in that fic.

Tagging: @lucas-koh @i-boop-you

[thedistantshoresproject]

TDSP WEEKEND UPDATE

The Captain is making a habit of checking the bug report spreadsheet everyday and reporting it to our programmers. Recent bugs have been fixed. If we were selling this game, there wouldn't be so many bugs. Now, onto chapter 4.

CHAPTER 4: THE FRENCH PIRATES You learn that you are not the only pirates who know about the British ships with a Spanish crew, and Charlie gets life changing news.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Check our pinned post for our Discord, walkthroughs, and bug reports.

[thedistantshoresproject]

Ed is getting ready for the solar eclipse!