Hi, I wanted to privately reach out about your album, Absent Moon. I first listened to it earlier this year and I loved the music and singing and story. It made me deeply empathize with the characters and feel a connection to their world, and I was very curious to know more. I especially loved the characterization of Wayne and Dedusmuln, and the music of Seasons. They creatively inspired me. Later I joined the Hylics Discord server, and shared some of my crazy "what-if" theories for fun. But to my surprise, you saw my message, and told me I was overthinking it, which would have been fine, except you also said my ideas made you feel nervous? And it broke my heart that my creative exercise had such a reaction. I was only trying to show how much I appreciated your work. And although I try not to think about it, I still feel guilty that I was being creative in a 'wrong' way that you seemed to find hurtful. That's why I want to clear things up. I hope this is okay.
Okay, I found it, sorry. I remember this exact interaction. My reaction wasn’t to make you feel disparaged. Not a lot of people know about the origins of absent moon, and where I was at mentally and emotionally, but for those that do you’d understand why I was taking great pride and still take great pride in that project. I’m all for fan theories, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, but the purpose of absent moon was to tell a definitive story, and being that Mason and I have been dragging our feet on, revealing what the story is about, I didn’t want any fan theories to Develop into something that would consider canon. I’ve seen this happen a lot and I’d be lying. If I said, I didn’t want to maintain complete and total control of the narrative of absent moon. Again, that’s not to say I don’t appreciate fan theories. They are most certainly welcome, however, in this instance, the story of absent moon is a complete bridge from the events of Hylics 2 to the events of Hylics 3. I’m not one for tone indicators, as I’m a bit older, but I have nothing but warmth and love for this fanbase. If you were made to feel like your ideas weren’t good, I apologize. As long as the idea is relatively nonviolent/non-sexual/etc. I’m fine with most things. I won’t speak for Mason fully on that, but he also loves looking at fanart! The best I can do is ask for you to trust that we have crafted an incredible narrative, and that I took a lot into consideration, while writing absent moon, even Moonage lobotomy. I’ve grown very close to these characters, especially because of the fanbase. In time, I hope that you can understand this explanation. I’m not asking you to forgive me I’m simply providing you with more details, as this particular instance/project has extreme personal nuance, that can only be applied to my experience (unfortunately). Perhaps one day when it’s all behind me, I’ll be able to talk about it more openly. Even after over a year, I’m still looking to absent moon to gain more insight into how I was processing things. Please feel free to reach out again.
