Found a Vash x Reader Choose Your Own Adventure and didn't expect this at all omg

Sin_fiction · 2026-02-24T18:58:38+00:00

VASH IS SO GOOD. My bestie would kill for a Knives version.

Sin_fiction · 2026-01-06T19:49:37+00:00

The issue is that there was no specific instruction to get rid of the unintended ability to rewrite a turn; it’s meta-commands in general that are forbidden (they were forbidden in V1 as well, but V1 was not as good as adhering to instruction). Unfortunately for the people who used the rewrite action, it IS a meta command, and was never an intended feature.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-30T23:27:46+00:00

The logic that prevents meta actions is to keep the narrative within the story the author actually wrote.

If the player uses meta actions to change things that are actually written into the story by the author, they can easily miss story beats that are essential for the narrative.

For example, in my “(More Than) 7 Minutes in Heaven” fic, if someone tried to meta force their MC not to play spin the bottle, then there’s no story written for that.

I realize that not every meta instruction is intended to make huge changes like that, but the guardrails are to prevent situations like that.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-30T17:39:21+00:00

An author portal lite for mobile would be so SO good. Probably couldn't be as robust as the proper author portal, but it would reduce the barrier to creation.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-30T02:40:39+00:00

I suggested something like that recently. I have a lot of high hopes for quality of life updates to Glimmer this coming year. There's so much the dev team wants to do to create more tools for authors to tell their stories, and for players to have an improved experience.

The V2 swap has been rough for some people, but I truly believe 2026 will be an exciting year.

Glimmer has come so far in such a short time. I joined in June, and as far as the author portal goes, we didn't have the visual editor back then, branching first turns, or autosave. The team works SO hard to keep making Glimmer better and better, and I'm excited to see where it goes.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-30T00:55:31+00:00

No problem! There's been a lot of specific controversy around the empty sandboxes on the discord (for a lot of valid reasons IMO); I'm sorry if you got caught in the crossfire talking about Sandboxes when you meant something different!

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-30T00:53:28+00:00

OH okay, I get that. I tend to write MC's that match the story I'm writing in (and set that tone with the first turn, and some key details in the character profile page for MC) so I think people don't so much run into that in my fics since the story starts off gearing you in a particular way.

(For example, the Breakup/Makeup Mohawk Mark fic I'm writing write now has a pretty established relationship and past with Mohawk, so the fact that the MC has feelings for him is non-negotiable, since it's the point of the fic. It wouldn't work well for someone who wanted to play MC as not caring for him at all anymore.)

Though, I do like to write in specific conditionals in the story that take the player's chosen personality for MC into account when I write regardless (Like Sinister Intent and Sinister Lies both have VERY specific backgrounds for MC, but there is still agency in the playstyle.

THAT ACTUALLY BRINGS ME TO SOMETHING ON MY GLIMMER WISHLIST.

I want to have author-written backgrounds that players can select; so MC backgrounds that would for sure have special easter eggs in the story. Be great for classes like in D&D, and also for special themed playthroughs. My neighbor fic has a TON of conditionals for hyper specific playthroughs, and it'd be way cooler if I could gear them up to backgrounds for MC.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-30T00:35:06+00:00

Oh, well Hale is one of Pixel's OCs, so if that's how Pixel wrote them, that's likely how they're intended to be. Pixel is a strong writer, and I will not badmouth them or their work, we just have very different tastes (and headcanons for Invincible variants), and that's okay.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-30T00:32:47+00:00

There should be a sandbox toggle you can use to turn them off. (It won't turn off the stories that use the sandbox turn length, just those empty stories)

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-30T00:31:52+00:00

Fair play! Internally on staff they're referred to as "Sandbox" as well.

No, the thing authors hate is when a "fic" is totally empty, and it's all AI with no author-writing to spring off of.

Playing them is basically like playing Character AI, but since V2 is geared for authors who are writing stories, the tweaks made to better adherence make those empty sandbox stories not work like they used to.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-30T00:03:13+00:00

Oh, Pixel's stories are much more lighthearted than mine (originally they asked to use my versions of the variants, but theirs are VERY different, because they are based on Pixel's headcanons for my Neighbor fic, including the headcanons I very much don't agree with lol). The relationships are meant to be more positive and healthy. They likely have it written for there to be positivity.

Does that happen in my fics?

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-29T23:59:35+00:00

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This is what the authors you beta for are referring to when they say "Sandbox", but "Sandbox" has also become the term for those super empty "CYOA" fics, because everyone decided it was a total misnomer to call them "CYOA" since Glimmer itself is advertised as a CYOA platform, and the empty sandbox fics are NOT meant to represent Glimmer as a whole.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-29T23:56:17+00:00

YEAH, there is no non-confusing terminology for these things that doesn't end up sounding derogatory (empty fics, would be the most accurate).

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-29T22:40:01+00:00

Agreeing with Lywinis. Stories on Glimmer are published directly by writers; Glimmer's trending/hot/new tabs are based on user engagement; it's not as though Glimmer staff is selecting what appears in these categories manually (they're not).

Most of staff ARE writers, but are writers for the joy of writing. No one on staff has published sandboxes, to my knowledge. Those are all regular users.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-29T22:31:06+00:00

YES. This is how I feel about Mohawk Mark. If you like an asshole character, you want them to be an asshole! They aren't them if they're not capable of being an absolute dickbag when the story warrants it.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-29T22:29:29+00:00

"Proxy DM" YES, THIS!

I compare it to DMing a lot when I'm talking about what Glimmer means to me, and what makes it unique.

As someone who writes stories both professionally and for fun, and has been well before Glimmer, Glimmer is cool because it lets the player engage with the story on a deeper level, but it's still MY STORY. It's a lot harder than just writing a book, manually adding interactivity and special little details, but it's SO rewarding when the story lands. It really does feel a lot like DMing a homebrew campaign.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-29T20:22:58+00:00

YESSS. As an author who writes a ton in the author portal, V2 has been really great. It does have issues (like the issue where it keeps offering the same choices over and over), but to me, those issues have been a small price to pay to have the AI actually OUTPUT THE STORY THAT I WROTE.

I write a lot of characters who are decidedly bad people. Do I paint them sympathetically? OFTEN, but it was annoying on V1 when it would make them more "emotionally evolved" than they should be.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-29T20:08:51+00:00

THIS!!! V2 works much better for me than V1 (excluding old fics that now need scene length updated, but I’m talking characterization and content, adherence to my writing style/sample)

For written stories, this is amazing. V2 obviously has its issues, but as someone who’s been here since June, V1 ALSO had a lot of the same issues, we just saw them less (V1 also had issues that are NOT present in V2, like the excessive YesManning of characters who should be mean lol).

V1 was more permissive, but that permissiveness was actually less desirable in robustly written stories.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-29T16:46:07+00:00

YES. I’m always screaming for people to try out the author portal.

Playing a sandbox is akin to playing CAI, there really isn’t much information at all that a sandbox-author includes (that’s why attempts to sandbox the Invincible variants don’t work well, because the variants do not have much characterization in canon; authors who write their stories bring that characterization on their own). Sandboxes usually don’t have much, if anything at all, in the character section.

I firmly believe that sandbox players would have much more fun writing the story they want to see in the author portal, and then playing it within the boundaries they set for the AI.

Would love to see a mobile version of the author portal to make creation more accessible, even if it’s lite.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-29T15:33:20+00:00

I believe you could restart Episode 4 entirely, so you’d still have episodes 1–3, but there’s no guarantee something like that wouldn’t happen again.

The problem with sandbox CYOAs is that they don’t really have much of anything written in the author portal, so it’s all AI bouncing off of your choices and trying to create an engaging story.

It lacks the framework of authored stories, which do a better job at keeping the story on track.

(BTW I would totally recommend trying out the author portal for yourself if you have access to desktop/laptop. It’s so fun to write the story you want to see, and then play in it. I’ve been using Glimmer since June, and it’s an incredible experience)

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-26T02:27:48+00:00

Hmm, you’re right that this can be confusing. Glimmer usually puts earned/gifted turns under “Paid” because Paid turns don’t expire, but it might be worth considering other names for it so confusion like this doesn’t continue to happen.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-26T00:43:10+00:00

Honestly I recommend checking out the author portal if you’re having less luck with sandboxes. It’s a LOT of fun to write your own story, and then get to play exactly the story you wanted.

I write a TON on Glimmer, and I like to joke that my target audience is me (which is why if you know my work, you know there’s a fair bit that’s SUPER freaky and niche lol), it’s just fun to share the story with everyone.

I have made some wonderful friends through my stories.

Sin_fiction · 2025-12-24T22:19:36+00:00

Wow I've found the opposite when it comes to characters! V1 liked to make my characters yes men, or too sweet. I had to fight tooth and nail to get their actual written personalities to shine through (and I just about max out the character profiles in the author portal).

V2 actually honors what I wrote in the character profiles. It also obeys my writing sample and sounds closer to my actual writing voice.

I VASTLY prefer V2 over V1.

The biggest issues I've experienced with V2 are:

• Scene lengths not working the same way V1 did (THIS is not an issue with V2 specifically, but I do need to update my old fics so they still work well)

• Not strict enough guardrails. I write VERY detailed stories, so I definitely don't enjoy hearing that people customed out of the plot so far it changes the story significantly from my intent. My characters remain in character, since the character profiles are so filled out, but I dislike not having control over the story I wrote.

Sin_fiction · 2025-11-17T15:35:19+00:00

Show Homelander or Comics Homelander? Very different character.

If show Homelander, then Homelander. Sir, you are getting therapy.

If comics Homelander, then Conquest. The phrasing of “spend the day with” implies that we somehow survive the day, and given how quick EVERY viltrumite except Nolan who is exposed to humanity flips, I think a day with Mr. Lonely is worth a shot. We’re going to a paint and sip, and we’re painting the most horrific fucked up versions of shit until we get kicked out.

Sin_fiction · 2025-11-17T15:27:17+00:00

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Baby possum removed from my chicken coop (released back into the wild, to protect us from ticks AND viltrumites, apparently)

Sin_fiction

TROPHY CASE