#guess this can have a new tag for this particular project

[livvy-maye]

doing some math to figure out how big their wings would have to be in order for a person to fly

[nicohii]

(No because I have an Actor!Caleb brainrot and I need to get this out of my system; reader is not MC)

tags: Actor! Caleb x Non-MC Writer! Reader, angst, friends to lovers??? might write a second part idk

Writer! Reader and Actor! Caleb growing up together--but only one yearns, and it's not him. He compliments you on your writing, they win awards, they have been a cult favorite in the indie fandom and coming of age genre. He sees a pattern, there is pain, there is longing, there is love buried there deeply, yet he never seems to realize how it's all an ode to your admiration of him.

There are times when you do want to tell him how much he means more than what he thinks he means to you. And it's not helping that there are knowing looks shared by family members when you visit each other's houses.

He's one of the top leading men now. Projects here and there, promotes luxurious brands he had problems pronouncing when he was child. He has a colorful love life too, one that is often followed by flashing lights and intriguing issues.

It all comes to head when he falls out with this particular leading woman. He calls you, sometime around 1:30 am, in the darkness of his apartment. You arrive around 30 minutes later, he's just a block away so, sue you. He reeks of alcohol when he opens the door, not his best moment. But he can always count on you not to judge.

"You know what she told me? " There's a slur in his words as you try so safely guide him to his bed.

"She asked me when did I become someone she doesn't know? Really? Me? I'm not the one who got caught having feelings with my new co-star you know? 'S too ridiculous. "

"Yeah well, tell me how'd you two met again? " You ask in a sarcastic tone, a teasing grin on your lips as you try to put a cold towel on his forehead. He scoffs and laughs, eyes closed.

It's pathetic really, knowing him we'll enough to know where exactly you stand in his life, and still hold on to the undying feeling in your heart. A backburner in the purest form, when looked up in the dictionary, was probably your picture.

"Can you hold me, please?" He whispers, before slowly looking at you with those eyes you grew up with, those eyes you spent your entire lifetime with.

You feel his breath relax as he falls asleep to the rhythm of your chest. You hope he doesn't hear it breaking. You hold him tight, one last time, as you look at the sun rising. The blue hues look lovely, and for a moment you pretend that there wasn't hurt, maybe in another timeline, you both would have this with a different context. You bury your nose in his hair.

You both wake up later in the day. There is a bashful look in him; you don't know what hurts more, waking up alone in his bed or the way he can't seem to look at you in the eyes. You call him out on it and he tries to deny it at first, but you don't know what and when it exploded- he becomes defensive; you become more irritated.

"That's pathetic, man. You call me when you need someone to cry on, 'oh she broke up with me, hold me, I need a friend, and pretend it didn't happen' " You tell him, you might've tried to imitate his voice in a mocking manner just to add that extra impact.

He looks at you as if you just asked him for a duel and he draws his own gun.

"Yeah, well , how is that any different when you call me when you hit a writer's block? 'I just don't know how to perfectly write love, Caleb. I feel like I don't do it any justice, it's so unnatural... ' . Well guess what? You know the real problem? It's because you don't know anything about it! You've only been with yourself waiting for who knows who! What do you know about love anyway?! "

There was a moment of satisfaction when he finishes and there's no retort to be heard. Only a moment, because you stare at him blankly. There's a thin layer of water in your eyes that seems to stare at his would before they silently fall from your cheek. If this was acting, you could've given him a run for his money.

Your shoulders slump as you close your eyes, swallowing thickly before wiping your cheeks with the back of your hands, sniffling as you wipe them against your pajamas. You wet your lips before nodding to yourself. Closure, you think.

"You're right, Caleb."

You brave to look at him. There is a concerned expression in his face that confuses you. You look at him in his entirety, you mull over the things you had tried to do to reach him. You wonder what did it meant to him? Wondered what it meant to you, and what it would mean from now on.

---

There is silence when you leave. But your words replay in his head long after you left.

"You're right, Caleb. What do I know about love? "

[mortmere]

Final Thoughts: Due South Stacked Rewatch/Timestamp Roulette Art Challenge

Personal favorites (in no particular order):

Well this was fun. And it wasn't. Like most things, it was a very mixed bag. 

I started out in September wanting to see if I could develop a personal, recognizable lineart style, something easy-looking and confident. Turns out I wasn't very motivated to do that after all. Or maybe I'm so stuck in my ways that I don't want to put myself through the process of de-learning some things and learning new ways of working. I've always been self-taught in almost everything (just doing stuff intuitively my way) and get easily irritated if I'm pushed out of my comfort and skill zones. Not a great learner!

The one thing where I definitely did step out of my comfort zone and gained confidence in was posting stuff that's less than perfect to my own eye. Ha, got quite good at that, actually! I think I got over the fear that someone tells me "this is not up to your usual standards". I'm hoping - while definitely aiming to create stuff that gives people feels - that this will make me work quicker and post more happy-making art instead of sweating over whether a piece is good enough to be posted. And I truly hope that my shit-posting (as I've called my super quick doodle weeks) has given someone else out there a feeling that they, too, can post stuff that might not be perfect by some artificial standard. I keep saying that great fanart can be drawn with stick figures, too. 

One of the biggest joys in this project has been discovering oil pastels. They simply suit my way of working, the colors are easy to mix and I can work pretty fast (I'm impatient). One thing I've gotten a lot of feedback on is how much people love seeing traditional media used for fanart. I still don't know what to think of the difference between digital and traditional. Is there any? Don't I use my human hands to create digital art, too? What difference does it make if a piece of art exists in pixels instead of pigment (except that photographing the latter for online viewing is a pain in the ass)? I kept going back to digital art from time to time in this project, and certainly can't choose which I enjoy more, oil pastels or Photoshop. Probably will continue more with digital art for the simple reasons of less mess, no storage problems, available shortcuts to reach a better likeness, and endless editing options. The best medium for me is the one I actually bother to pick up to make art. 

This 38-week project was probably the largest-scale art experiment I've ever done - or will ever do, at least on a strict weekly schedule. I kept expecting RL stuff to throw me off schedule, but it didn't. I kept expecting I'd just give up at some point, but I didn't. I guess the joy of having even a small purpose in life (even if it was self-inflicted pain in the ass sometimes) was worth it.

Thank you for following this project - and super thanks to those who tried the actual timestamp art roulette challenge even once! It's still open - the instructions are in the first post here: https://mortmere.tumblr.com/tagged/*/chrono

(The link goes to a chronological view of all my art/crafts post from these past 9 months - it's been my "progress evaluation link" to see what I've managed to create so far.)

[accirax]

Project: Eden's Garden Chapter 1 Trailer Analysis

Oh my god it's actually time.

As I'm sure you've heard by now, Team Eden's Garden has finally announced the release date for the fangan's true first chapter: December 20th. And, they did so in a flashy new trailer, which is nearly three minutes long! Naturally, there's a lot of content baked in to those three minutes, so I'm here to take a look at what was flashing by in those rapid-fire montages, as well as make predictions regarding what will happen at the first Class Trial. This will be fun!

And here's hoping I don't run out of images 🤞

The trailer begins with the "mascot" (in this case, Tozu) saying that it's been far too long since we last conversed. Classic.

Next, we see a preview of some locations, both new and old. CAM04: Dorm Hallway and CAM24: Tree of Ignorance were already explorable areas within the Prologue, and CAM08: Damon's Dorm was visible in the Ch1 demo released last year(?). The new locations include CAM32: Hallway A1, CAM35: Pharmacy A1, and CAM39: Pharmacy A5.

(By the way, I'm going to assume that both the numbering of the cameras and the time displayed in the lower right have no particular meaning, because I can't find any connections between them. At first I thought it was weird that Damon's dorm was Camera #8 despite him being 9th in alphabetical last name order, but given that the hallway is Camera #4, I don't think there's a correlation).

While all of the images are intentionally blurry, I'll do the best I can to describe what we can see. The most obvious point of interest is the door at the back of the hallway, under which "CAUTION" is written in big red letters. It also seems that there might be blood dripping down the door, which, if true, would match with the other blood splatter on the floor near the bottom right of the screen. It definitely gives the impression that something happened here before, and that that something was bad. There's also a grate on the wall that's splattered with red, but given that blood is pink in the DR universe, I'm assuming that's rust.

The pharmacies are very interesting to me. First of all, there are two of them. What kind of establishment needs two separate pharmacies? I guess you might if the pharmacies are as different as the two pictured. One looks more like an old-fashioned office or science classroom (it kind of reminds me of v3's Ultimate Detective Lab, honestly), and the other like a scientific research facility. A pharmacy is defined as "a store where medicinal drugs are dispensed and sold," so perhaps Pharmacy A1 is for selling and Pharmacy A5 is for creating?

The "A" in these tags could stand for "area," but they more likely stand for "alpha." At the end of the Chapter 1 demo (watch Weeby Newz's video on it if you want the same level of info I have), the students are about to go through the lowercase "alpha" door in the Tree Room to explore a new area. These three areas are almost certainly behind that door-- perhaps with the checkered pharmacy being room #1, and the blue pharmacy being room #5?

It's also possible that the entire area is considered "the pharmacy," and is dedicated to the production of medicine. But, whether that's the case or not, I have to ask, "why?" Out of all the things they could have put into this falsified Eden's Garden Academy, why make two rooms dedicated to creating drugs? Why potentially make up to five rooms dedicated to creating drugs? With very little information regarding the overarching plot of Eden's Garden, it's hard to determine why. The only connection I can make offhand is that this may have been the origin site of the drugs used to knock everyone out on the train.

I do find it very interesting, though, that this is not just a location in the school, but the very first one we're discovering. Normally, I'd think that places like these, which aren't that conducive to students hanging out (like a pool or recreation center) would be reserved for future chapters. It may imply that drugs and/or poisons are a necessary component of the Chapter 1 murder. We'll see!

Our first of the rapid-fire CGs! This one shows Kai pointing at something within a fancy pink room. There's a canopy bed dressed with pink cloth, some floral-looking wallpaper, and two small paintings of what also appear to be plants on the wall.

Given the appearance of Damon's room earlier in the trailer, I find it likely that this is not a new location in the alpha corridor, but instead, someone's room. There are many pink colored characters in P:EG-- Diana, Toshiko, and Kai himself-- as well as Cassidy, whose character color is close to pink, and Ingrid, who has pinkish hair. Of the main three options, I'm guessing that this is probably Kai's room.

People have been quick to diagnose this as a potential BDA image. If that's true, I acknowledge that this being Kai's room would be a wild choice, because it would mean that someone other than Kai was found dead in Kai's room. It would be a THH parallel, though! I just think that it's likely to be his because, well, he's in there, and all of the references to flowers seems fitting for his butterfly motif. However, Toshiko's kimono does have flower patterns on it, and flowers also match up with the ~romance~ of the Ultimate Matchmaker. If this is Kai providing a BDA in Toshiko's room, though... maybe Toshiko isn't dodging those first victim allegations.

If it's not a BDA, though, what is Kai pointing at? Imagine if it's just a spider or something, lol. He does look pretty worried, so perhaps this could be the arrival of something like DRDT's custom weapons? If a weapon suddenly appeared in my room a the killing game, I'd be kind of worried. It could also be a mysterious note, as (spoilers) we're about to see a few of in this trailer.

One cute(?) thing to mention is that, if this is Kai's room, it likely means that Kai was willing to invite Damon into his room to check whatever this is out. That could mean that they're friends! It's not cute if this is actually a BDA. It's also not cute if Kai is becoming Damon's friend just so that it hurts more when he dies in Chapter 1 :(

Woah, it's a note! (/j)

This and the image directly before it in the trailer seem to be of the same thing: a piece of paper that says "to Damon Maitsu" on it. Or, it's possible that the first one just says "Damon Maitsu" and this one says "to Mr. Maitsu"-- they look a little different, although the handwriting seems identical. I don't think there's any paper conspiracy for me to crack here.

To my memory, the prologue included some flashback CGs, so I would imagine that's what's happening here, unless Damon actually kept his Eden's Garden acceptance letter on his person (possible). It could also be a new letter that Damon receives during the course of the killing game if, as I posited, Kai was pointing out a letter he received in his room.

And furthermore, more note content? Why is this hypothetical piece of paper more visible in the trailer than Toshiko?! (/j)

Or, maybe it isn't. This note seems to read, "Meet in [???] at 8:10 p.m. tonight [???] Damon Maitsu." Due to the spacing of the words-- namely, that it doesn't seem like there's much more to this message beyond what we can see-- this paper appears to be pretty small. Combined with the color, I predict that this note is, in fact, sticky. And therefore, not the same as the piece of paper (which also has a different ink color) as the other note.

Further extrapolating from the spacing, the note looks like it's signed "-- Damon Maitsu". Otherwise, there would need to be a word before Damon, the end of which has no letters tall enough to appear next to the D. (It's LGI's "Ms. Naegi" crisis all over again... /ref) If so, that means that we might have an example of Damon's handwriting on our hands! Or the handwriting of someone who was trying to impersonate Damon :/

I wish we had a better lead on where this note was telling folks to meet up, but it's way too vague.

Then, yet another piece of paper! It's definitely different than the yellow one, and probably different from the signed one as well, due to being typed and not handwritten. Then again, sometimes typed letters have a handwritten signature at the bottom, so it's not impossible.

This text's formatting reminds me of how scripts are normally written: both the font and the center alignment are used in standard scriptwriting formats. I actually at first thought that everything after "beneath a" might have been spoken by a character whose name starts with L, but that would mean that their dialogue starts with a lowercase letter. Plus, names on scripts are usually written more like this (imagine it's centered):

LINDSAY beneath a [shoulder] If only [head]

in the sense that the character speaking's name is in all caps. There appears to be a lowercase i after the capital L, so it's probably not a name.

Still, that begs the question of why the top line is so much shorter than the one beneath it. In a normal passage, all of the lines would have relatively even margins other than possibly the last one. Could the wonky spacing be indicative of a poem, or something else written in verse? Due to the script/poem idea, I'm inclined to believe this belongs to the ever-dramatic Tozu, but I could be wrong.

Next is another CG, depicting Damon, Cassidy, and a sneaky Jean in the background. Based on the shape of Damon's ahoge, we can tell he's a little annoyed or flustered by whatever Cassidy is pointing at.

The wallpaper pattern we see in the background is that of the Dining Hall. Do NOT ask me how I remembered this offhand, because I don't know.

Furthermore, based on the wall being to the characters' left, it's likely that they're standing on the left side of the room. (It's possible in reality that it could be anywhere else in the room in front of the wallpaper only, but based on cinematography rules I won't bother explaining this is probably the case.) So, what is Cassidy pointing at? It could be the fireplace, the painting of the jackal, or the vent. Or, obviously, something new that appears in the Dining Hall in Chapter 1.

Based on my theories that the vent will be involved in the Chapter 1 murder, I'm inclined to believe that it might be what Cassidy's pointing out. If that's true, it means that she (and Jean) (and Damon) is dodging the Chapter 1 victim allegations! However, given that the characters are looking upwards, unless they're on the floor, it's probably not actually the vent. Maybe it's something on the fireplace mantle?

Also, based on straight vibes and nothing else, I don't think this is a serious CG. It might just be that it reminds me of v3's casino CG, but I kinda feel like Cassidy is just trying to teach Damon a game while Jean watches, or something. Projector on the Dining Hall walls? "It's more likely than you think," I lie.

The next six images consist of three spooky screenshots of what seem to be some sort of database which say "Ultimate" (and a picture of Damon), and three zoom-ins on what I believe to be paintings found around the school.

The only one I found of particular note was this one, which sort of looks like two people getting married? Both figures seem to have light skin, and the one in the white dress might have some shoulder-length red hair. Cassidy marriage arc??? I can't imagine what context this photo/painting/CG would appear in, but it might be important.

After that a few illustrations depicting the killing game's rules flash by. I won't be uploading all of them because 1) you can probably guess at most already if you're familiar with DR/fangans, and 2) I think these might have been shown in the demo anyways. To sum up, I think the rules can be attributed as such:

Tozu is in charge (and/or participation in the killing game is mandatory)

No destroying school property, with a focus on cameras and NG bracelets

You can't kill/injure Tozu or Mara*

Students can become the blackened by killing

Once a dead body is found, it's time for a Class Trial

... The same thing again? Oh, maybe #5 was about how to trigger a BDA, then.

Um...

Okay, actually, I don't know what this one is. Is this saying that you can't rip paper, or you'll get executed? As in, papers that Tozu gives you? Dude, maybe my "Tozu gives the students mysterious letters" theory actually had some merit to it!

If not that, could this be something about breaching contracts? The Prologue did mention "registration materials" that Damon presumably signed. Those could have been a cover-up for a real waiver the students accidentally accepted. Or, maybe this is the big reveal that all of the characters are actors in a scripted performance. In Chapter 1? Yeah, probably not.

*Technically, only Tozu (who stands between Mara and the student) has an X over him, which could imply that it's only illegal to harm Tozu. However, it's likely that, when the rule is revealed in the e-Handbook, the graphic will cycle between Xs on Mara and Tozu, or something else to that effect. It would be interesting if the rules don't protect Mara, though. I'd imagine the in-universe explanation would be "see what happens if you even TRY to hurt Mara," but that would absolutely feel like a rule intended by the writers to be broken in the future.

I'm sure someone could do a super in-depth analysis of the religious implications of this painting, but that person is not me. All I will say is, "these are the animals of Mara and Tozu." Oh, and, based on the next image, this painting is located in Pharmacy 1.

New locations! Like I alluded to above, the first image is definitely of Pharmacy 1, and I think the second is too.

The third is a bit harder to decipher. We've got a glowing photocopier with an Eden's Garden Academy logo on it, a tiled floor, many green cabinets, a medical kit, and lots of vines. I wonder if this might be a third pharmacy that functions more like a doctor's office...? I don't know what the photocopier is there for in that case, though. I'm assuming that the location behind Jett in the fourth image is in the same room due to the similar green cabinets, and the fact that you can see a similar first aid kit on the wall behind him. If that's the case, there's also a sink in this room. That's not helping me either.

After that, we have a shot of Jean with a proposition in the Dining Hall, some general purposes art which I think we've seen before, and a slick 3D animation with Damon catching a fallen apple. What do they have in common? I don't have much to say about any of them.

Free Time time! Or, at least, I'm assuming that Ulysses' part is part of his first FTE, given that it was packaged in with all this other stuff. With this, we can conclude that Ulysses, Wenona, and Wolfgang will all be available for at least one FTE in Chapter 1. I am very curious about that in general-- with this first chapter release, will we immediately be able to view all of everyone's FTEs? Or will they cap everyone off at, like, two for now? Unfortunately, there's no way for me to answer that now.

The other three images are more intriguing. The first definitely shows Damon's gift inventory, with the Black Forest Cake being highlighted. The interesting bit is all of the chibi pixels to the side, with positive and negative arrows by some of their heads. At first, I thought that P:EG might be going for something like SDRA2's ambitious FTE system, where characters have positive or negative opinions on you based on actions you take and gifts you give. However, on further thought, I bet that this is an in-game way of telling you who will like which gifts. As far as I can tell, many people either look up which gifts to give which characters or save-scum until they get something right, so taking guessing out of the equation is probably a good thing. Plus, now we know that Diana, Jett, Toshiko, Mark, Wolfgang, Cassidy, Desmond, Eloise, and Kai like cake; Grace, Ingrid, and Wenona don't; and Damon, Jean, Ulysses, and Eva are neutral. It's an extra good system if it gives us insight into Damon as well!

The second is surely P:EG's equivalent of the Monomono Machine, with Damon receiving a zen garden from the funky hourglass contraption. The interesting part to me is that the currency is named Marabucks instead of Tozubucks. Yay for inclusivity? Also, I think it's fun that the percentage reads "1,13%" instead of the standard American "1.13%". (And P:EG seems to be, on the whole, an American-coded game, given that the majority of the characters speak in American-accented English and the cast's live appearance was in Texas.) Gives you a little behind the scenes peek at who was coding this section of the game :)

The last thing... uh, what? It seems to be a Pong-like minigame, probably used to earn bonus Marabucks. You bounce the "orbs" through the "pachinko" to... I guess score points against Mara and Tozu? And, probably if you do well enough, you get varying levels of money. Perhaps I spoke too soon, and the Marabuck is simply the lesser Tozubuck.

Up next comes some dramatic zoom-ins through those spiffy remodeled locations. I appreciate them jazzing up the "outdoor" area specifically; the lack of polygons in the doorway arch always bugged me. Even if they kept those similarly unbeveled shapes in the archways to the side... (/lh)

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

WE GOT SCENES FROM THE CLASS TRIAL?!?!?!

To clear the elephant in the room, as everyone has been reporting, Toshiko is the only student who can't be seen in the Class Trial at all. Does that mean she's dead? Uh, probably not. As part of a mystery-writing team, I would have to imagine that whoever crafted this trailer would be smart enough to know that their mystery-loving fans would comb through whatever they're given for answers (hi 👋). And, if there's one to be found, they'd find it. Therefore, I'm more inclined to believe that Toshiko's absence is an intentional red herring. Then again, this is very possibly the P:EG team's first time writing a fangan, so if they didn't think about things like that, it would be understandable.

So, who is dying if everyone else is present? To me, there's a big gulf between how easy it would be to fake someone's participation in the Class Trial. Subbing out a death portrait for a regular sprite is easy, recording a fake line of dialogue is a bit more effort, and creating original artwork is really not worth the effort. Thus, we can divide the characters into tiers.

ORIGINAL ART (basically guaranteed safe) Damon, Wenona VOICE ACTING (very likely to be safe) Diana, Grace, Wolfgang, Jean, Eva SPRITE VISIBLE (possibly most endangered) Mark, Desmond, Kai, Ingrid, Ulysses, Eloise, Cassidy, Jett TOTALLY ABSENT (reverse psychology safety???) Toshiko

Damon's unique minigame sprite and Wenona's Rebuttal Showdown art appearing over his face should also squash the rumors that Damon will be replaced before the first Class Trial at least, lol.

Within those tiers, I also want to highlight two outliers: Wolfgang and Eva. Because, of course it's those two.

Although Wolfgang is in the voice acting tier, in reality, I'd say he should be moved upward into the "basically guaranteed safe" tier. This is because his line is shown in Nonstop Debate format as opposed to the regular dialogue format. Although his lines don't have the animated word art thing going on, I still imagine that it would be easier to create a fake line in the regular dialogue boxes than in the minigame. Also, notice that I said lineS. Wolfgang also has two lines, and unless the team is really yanking our chains, I can't see why they would create two fake lines when one would surely suffice.

Meanwhile, while Eva is in the voice acting tier, she's bordering on the "possibly most endangered" tier. It may just be my "Eva could die first" bias speaking, but her line is a whole lot shorter and less specific than Diana's, Grace's, or Jean's. In fact, if you remove the comma, "obviously the case" could easily be one of her stock dialogue lines that plays over unvoiced portions of the Daily Life. If the team were to create a fake piece of dialogue for the Class Trial, sneakily repurposing a line that already exists for other purposes would be the most efficient way to do so.

Expanding on that, what is "obviously, the case" supposed to mean here? I'll once again draw attention to that comma. Grammatically, it's not that some truth is "obviously the case," but that the case is the thing that's obvious. In what context is Eva saying that, though?

Jett: Uhhh, sorry, what are we supposed to be focusing on again...? Eva: Obviously, the case.

Or, could a physical case, like a briefcase, be relevant to the murder?

Grace: But what could the killer have used to fucking store a disguise?! Eva: Obviously, the case.

The only thing I'm remembering offhand that could be a physical case is the medical kit, but obviously there are plenty of locations and props for this Chapter we haven't seen yet. At any rate, Eva's dialogue raised a flag for me. So, I'll be scrutinizing any cases we may see or any pre-Trial words Eva speaks when the Chapter comes out.

Also, Diana and Grace might be a bit safer than Jean and Eva because what Grace is saying seems to be a response to Diana. They both mention peace, and Desmond is striking the same pose in both of their shots. I doubt that the P:EG team would either record Diana expressing the same sentiment that someone else actually expresses, or come up with a fictitious response from Grace that doesn't actually exist. If you want to get really nitty-gritty about it, consider that tier as ranking Wolfgang as the most safe, then Grace, Diana, Jean, and then Eva :)

Under the dual assumptions that Toshiko is a red herring while Eva's dialogue is genuine (such that both of them are safe), though, who's the most likely victim from our "sprite visible" tier?

Well, the only victim option left from my Chapter 1 Killer/Victim theory is Kai. Fan-favorite first victim choice Cassidy is also on the table. Otherwise, I could see Ulysses, given that (if he's not the mastermind) he gives BIG victim energy with his notetaking becoming a central aspect of solving his Trial. I'd expect they'd save a gimmick like that for a later Trial, where it could better be used to shake up the status quo, but I could see it as a good intro case too. I could also see someone taking Desmond out if they were afraid of his weapon-wielding capabilities, although that's... kinda backwards thinking. Desmond's capability to kill is scary if you're trying to kill him, but it doesn't offer much in the Class Trial.

Still kinda convinced it's gonna be Eva, but I'm aware enough to recognize that's probably just the stubbornness of wanting to believe that my old theory was true.

Speaking of old theories coming true, can we rewind for a moment?

Jean: ...but, I'd rather be suspected than be the reason this trial comes to a standstill.

Hey. WHAT.

For anyone who hasn't read/forgot about the Chapter 1 victim/killer theory I just linked, in that post, I argued my case for why Jean would be our unexpected Chapter 1 killer. Needless to say, when I saw this, I screamed.

What does this MEAN?!?! Full disclosure, I was pretty convinced that the Jean!killer theory would either be, like, 100% on the money, or laughably incorrect to the level of accidentally misinterpreting Jean's entire personality or there not even being a hint of suspicion thrown on his name throughout the entire case. To see Jean acknowledging others' suspicion of him in the TRAILER has me reeling.

Assuming that this line isn't fake (which also guarantees that Jean isn't the first victim), this means that there will be a point in the Trial at which Jean will be suspected as the blackened. The line itself could easily be something that a sympathetic and honest spotless would say, or something that a blackened could say pretending to be just that, so we don't get any hints there. What reason would Jean have to be suspected if he isn't the killer? Why and how would anyone choose to frame him? But also, would the P:EG team really want to have their players go into the first Trial already primed to believe that Jean could be the blackened based on the trailer? I feel like this line was included as a cruel (/lh) trick on me specifically, but my theory wasn't nearly infamous enough to warrant that kind of attention.

It's absolutely going to be eyes on Jean for me when the first Chapter comes out. I'm so curious to see the context surrounding this quote. Did I actually call it early? Or will the "evidence" that I stacked up actually prove to make Jean a believable bait, but not the real blackened? (wouldn't be the first time :P /j)

Moving on, there's a very dramatic scene of Tozu looking over the Trial grounds, while Damon looks back. I double checked, and everyone is visible (in silhouette form) in this shot, which makes sense as it was likely created solely for this spoiler-free promotional material. In my mind, the only clues we can pick up here are that Damon is further cementing himself as the true protagonist of this story. He also blocks out Wolfgang as he looks at Tozu...? Could have symbolic significance, but could also just be a result of the pair being opposite each other in the Class Trial seating.

After that is another fast-paced montage. The first screen is the same shot of the Pharmacy table. I don't know why they put repeat info in here, but as far as I can tell, all of the props and textures and whatnot are the same. If my assessment that the murder would utilize the Dining Hall vent is wrong, I wonder if this could be a hint that Pharmacy A especially will have significant meaning-- possibly, as the site of the first BDA. That being said, they also repeat the same image of the photocopier ivy room as the third image in this montage. So, if that's the case, it means both locations will have to be highly relevant.

I feel like this image out of context looks really NSFW. I promise, that was not my intention...

Anyways, this is from the Prologue BDA.

It's Cara's doll legs, as is made extra apparent by that same cylindrical thing in the back. I'm not sure if this was put here because the Prologue case will continue to be really relevant to Chapter 1, or just because they wanted a BDA-looking thing for the Trailer yet didn't want to put in a spoiler one. Based on the different size/shape of Cara's thighs (now I feel NSFW /j), there is a slight possibility that what's shown in the Chapter 1 trailer is (an image of) the real Cara's body as opposed to the doll. However, we know that some sprites and backgrounds have been redone during the hiatus, and that could extend to Cara's art as well.

This knife is also from the Prologue BDA.

You think you're so clever, P:EG team, don't you...? (/lh)

Can you believe the students are going to investigate area alpha in Chapter 1? Or maybe this is Damon telling me I'm wrong about that, haha.

Hey, they rigged a 3D Tozu model! It's looking good. I'm sure they're glad that Tozu's mask meant that they don't have to make a whole mouth rig for the guy, lol. My guess is that this model will be used for Tozu's "punishment time" animation, the equivalent of Monokuma hitting his button with the mallet.

The last thing of note in this trailer (other than the release date) is the Chapter's splash art! The full version was posted to Twitter, which I'll be showing for clarity's sake.

“Strange that one minor event, one small action, can alter the path of everything.”

... You gotta start dodging these allegations better, Cassidy.

Chapter promo art predictions are always a tricky game when it comes to predicting who will die. On the creator's end, I'm sure you don't want to draw additional attention to your first deaths by spotlighting them in the artwork. But, if you want to highlight some of the most important characters of the chapter, that'll often include the victim and/or killer if the Daily Life is well-crafted. Plus, especially for early deaths like these, if you don't put them in the chapter art early, you'll never have to chance.

But, forget all that. Who's actually shown in the poster? Obviously, Damon, Jett, and Cassidy are, but I believe that Wenona's jacket and hair are shown to the left of Damon? If you squint, you can also make out what might be Ingrid's arm on his right. That would be consistent with where he's seated in the Class Trial. Yeah, and then that weird blob behind Wenona is actually Jean and Eva!

See what I mean? Well, if we have 7 characters on the poster, maybe it's not so suspicious for any of them after all :D

And, really, it's 8 characters. I imagine others have made this connection already (even if I haven't personally seen it), but... that's a chameleon wrapping its way around Damon. AKA, Diana's animal motif. That means that Diana is more or less on this poster as well!

As the literal framing device of the Class Trial, the chameleon makes this poster reek of Diana being the Chapter 1 killer. However, even that feels too obvious, at least to my highly-scrutinous eyes. Then again, if this was just supposed to communicate that Diana will be important, why not just put her on the poster...? I really don't know what to make of it.

And... yeah, December 20th! I'm super excited!!! While we're certainly not in a drought of in new and exciting fangans nowadays (read Danganronpa: One Shot here!), productions of this scale-- especially playable ones-- are few and far between, so I really hope that this first Chapter lives up to the hype. I'm pretty sure I'll have more to say about this fangan in a few weeks, so I'll see y'all then for Project: Eden's Garden's true beginning!

...

(Honestly, after all this time in the DRDT fandom, it's just crazy to me that we're going to learn about the victim and killer at basically the same time... (/lh))

[cantquitu]

I need to rant about something in order to get it out of my head. When I talk to people about it in IRL we get so consumed with anger and disbelief that the conversation spirals into despair. So I just need to get it down to try and create some order in my head.

Ok, so some of you who have followed this blog for years may have noticed that I rarely, if ever, complain about my job or work anymore. I used to do that a lot (I'm sorry!). The change is mainly because I rarely post much in general, but also because everything got so bad at work that even ranting about it in tags was too much. Suffice to say, the industry I work in tanked, and I've been surrounded by redundancies and unemployment and uncertainty and bad behaviour and a lot of sad, stressed people and terrible, terrible decisions for close to three years now. Somehow, I have remained employed. I have new overlords now and I'm just grateful to be paid.

During all of this I've been dealing with health issues, and the stress and constant work travel exacerbated my ill health and basically it's been BALLS. My health started to turn around about 6 months ago and I'm learning how to breathe again (literally and figuratively). In the face of global meltdown, I am extremely grateful to have a life of privilege and safety.

ANYWAY! Almost exactly two years ago was when things started to go downhill at an alarming rate (this is why my Emotional Support Harry and his Love On Tour will always be so precious to me - happy, happy memories in a tide of shite). I remember getting off a transatlantic flight from a work trip at about 6am and waiting for the doctor's surgery to open and then having to go to the hospital. Shitty shit stuff like that. The purpose of that particular work trip had been to have a few days of focused meetings with an American man - let's call him Adam - who had been hired as a consultant with our company to build a strategy for my department. He's someone I had known professionally for years, he worked for a huge global entertainment corporation, and had recently gone independent. i.e. he had been shit-canned after 20 years. He then bounced around between a few big fancy-sounding consultancy roles for a year, and this was one of them.

It soon became clear that the reason this guy had bounced around since leaving the security of the Big Job was because HE DOES NOT DO ANY WORK. He spent so long as a boss that he hasn't got a fucking clue how to do ANYTHING. His one true skill is in convincing gullible idiots of the opposite. His life's work appears to be the honing of that skill. This man....I can't even describe the blatancy of his opportunism, or just how flagrantly he takes credit for the work of others. It is SHAMELESS. Literally jaw-dropping. For the first time in my life, I was shocked into utter silence on the regular (I'm a talker, in case you hadn't guessed). And yet half the people around me could not see it. It was like living in an alternative reality.

One time, I was having a meeting with him and my then boss (both Americans) at an event thingy in France. They had sort of ambushed me to talk about one of my new projects that he wanted to get in on. I was incredibly busy - they were not - and it was hot and I'd had about 15 meetings already that day and I was just like, "Not now!". But they persisted. Anway, my boss was interrupted by a phonecall and she stepped away to take it. He started interrogating me about how I would set up this project. He did it in a way where I felt like I was being tested - y'know, a senior person, hired by my boss's boss, wanting to know how I handle things. I was exhausted and irritated and felt like, "fuck you, I don't have to prove anything to you", so I said something like, "Well, to get started, we really have to approach the basics in the usual way to set us up, y'know? So I'd just start with the standard steps, we can't skip them".

He said, "Like what? Like... ?", and I thought, "Wtf? Is this a power trip?". I said, "Well, y'know, get the leads in a room, and we'd do x and y and z, y'know, the usual..." - I tailed off cos I didn't want to sound remedial, telling him obvious shit. But he was like, "Uh-huh, right. And then - ?" And I realised - OH SHIT. HE DOESN'T KNOW THE BASIC REMEDIAL STUFF! He's taking mental notes! He literally doesn't have a clue!

So I kinda tested him by saying, "For this project, I think it's important to x and x..." and he nodded, "Right, right, yes that's really smart, good idea, keep going....". We were interrupted by my boss returning and she said, "Sorry, where were we?". I shit you not, this man looked me in the eye, turned to her and said, "Well here's what I think we should do..." and he proceeded to repeat verbatim what I'd told him in the preceeding minutes. VER-FUCKING-BATIM!!!!!!! "That's the plan as I see it - sound good? What do you think?"

I stood there stunned. My boss looked thrilled. "Sounds great! We have a plan! That's so smart!" She turned to me, "Great, right?". I said, "I'm sorry, I have to go or I'll be late for my next meeting". And I turned and walked the fuck out of there. I walked - marched - back to my hotel and I swear to god there were cartoon-style tears of fury popping out of my eyes, blinding my way. THIS MOTHERFUCKER!!!!

That evening I went for dinner with a chill group of amazing women, and some other colleagues went to another dinner, and it turned out that my useless boss and this bozo weren't invited to either and so they went for dinner together. That night everyone congregated at a big party, and my boss had tried a passive aggressive pity party with my other colleagues. "Adam and I just went for a quiet dinner together, but that's ok, it was great, we get on so great, we're so aligned". I arrived late to the party and my colleagues came up to me, shoved a drink in my hand, ready to fight for me, trying to block my boss from coming near me. They didn't even know what had happened earlier, they were just ready to ride at dawn, because two days with my boss and this motherfucker had told them all they needed to know about them.

I had been so upset earlier that I'd been careful not to drink too much at dinner in case I got really messy, but everyone at the party was well-oiled by this stage - including my boss. And she came up to me, "There you are, I missed you, I was wondering if you were even going to come. I had a lovely dinner with Adam though, he's so great" She went on and on and on about how aligned they are, how they were almost finishing each other's sentences. "What did you think of our meeting? Great, right? I love the plan - are you excited?"

I said, "That was an awful meeting. I was extremely upset by it". She stopped dead, sobered up in an instant, and I let her have it. I said, "'The plan' is MY plan. I laid it out for him, and when you returned he repeated it verbatim as if he'd just come up with it on the spot. Right in front of me! I have worked too hard and too long to have MY ideas co-opted by some middle-aged MAN who repeats them as his own! Is he my boss now? Is he YOUR boss? Because I'm telling you now, if that's the case - I'm out! I do not want that job, it's not what I signed up for!" (this might make me sound like a bad-ass and I wish I could say it's how I usually handle things, but sadly it was a one-off and was powered by true fury and desperation).

She was genuinely shocked at how much my opinion of this dude diverged from hers. She was really, really apologetic and insisted on walking me home and talking about it the whole way. She tried to reassert her authority and autonomy as boss but it was too late. She'd been taken in by this conniving chump and I couldn't trust her judgement (which, by the way, had been terrible in other areas in the six months since she'd become my de factor boss when our previous boss got shitcanned. Hence my high levels of stress even before Adam entered the picture).

I would love to say that this was the end of Adam, but tragically I had to endure him for another five months. During that time I had to take five weeks of sick-leave due to the stress and my ill health. It just got worse and worse and worse. His incompetency became clear to everyone other than my boss (who had invested so much of her personality into being "aligned" with him that she couldn't really retreat. She was let go a few months later), and the two most senior leaders in the company who had hired him.

He went on to try and co-opt other people's work time and time again. Things like messaging senior colleagues late at night to ask them to write pages of "his" strategy for him for his deadline the next day. Outrageous. It all culminated in a true car-crash of a meeting with senior leadership in which he unveiled the "strategy" that he had apparently been working on for 9 months (and paid many, many hundreds of thousands of dollars for). I was there, because it related to my division. It was so embarrassingly bad that it was almost painful to witness. Yet to this day he is still held in esteem by the top brass. This was in early December '2023, the final month of his consultancy, and here's the kicker...

A few of us were delegated to bring him for lunch directly after his presentation, before he caught his flight home. Not to London, where he'd been based for years. To Tel Aviv. This dude was in the process of moving to Israel because, post Oct 7th, he "felt safer there".

Since then, he has moved to Israel permanently "to help". He joined the IDF reserves. He posts pictures on social media of himself in army fatigues. He posts about how it's a lie that Palestinians are starving, next to videos of himself casually chilling at a food festival in the sunshine with hundreds of other well-heeled Israelis. And I see the names of other Americans in my business - people I know, people I have worked with and will probably have to work with again - leaving positive comments in agreement.

At work (unless among Irish people) we maintain a complete silence about what Israel is doing to Palestine. I work for an American company. The silence is so LOUD that I'm scared I'm just going to explode some day. This summer I'm going to be at international conferences and festivals and I'm going to be in situations where we're all together, lots of Americans, with alcohol involved, and I don't know how in the living fuck we can keep up this silent facade?? Do we just not speak when Americans enter the chat???? Do we talk about Trump and ignore Netanyahu??

I am going to see Adam and I think it is just beyond my capability to be civil to him. I don't think I can. I'm hoping we can just nod in acknowledgment and ignore each other. I've always been so fuckin' mouthy about what I believe, or open to conversation if I don't have the information to have any opinion, and I feel like I'm living in a twilight zone in my professional life. In my personal life I don't have to think twice about expressing support for Palestine. I have never been faced with this wall of silence before and it has unsettled me completely. I know that anyone who knows me will know where I stand, and even if they don't know me well they know I'm Irish, which is a reasonable indication of where I'm likely to stand. I wouldn't hesitate for a second to tell them if it came up. But I don't know where they stand and as long as they maintain complete silence I will have this awful, disquieting feeling that I'm likely working with people who actively or tacitly support Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

[goldensunset]

@the--plant in response to your tags on my khux post. 'is this game free?' i guess you could say that. it's something even more fun! it's

✨ defunct ✨

yeah uh. the app ended its service back in 2021 shortly after the ending to its story was released. what's left of it is basically a dress-up game and a theater mode (aka you can still create your own character and then watch all the story cutscenes with them in it). but even that recently was taken away from us! a few months ago it was quietly and unceremoniously removed from the app store! a lot of people still have the app (holding on for nostalgia's sake, i guess. nothing is playable and it's not like the cutscene movies aren't on youtube) so as long as we don't delete it we can keep it but like no new downloads... 😔

that said. IF you have an interest in khux. if you would like to jump down into this weird delightful rabbit hole with all us other insane people. we can make that happen! there are two particular options i’d recommend:

firstly! the cutscene ‘movie’ from everglow. yes it is like 5 and a half hours long it’s a whole game story of course. you don’t have to watch it in one sitting or anything lol. this is a pretty cut-and-dry compilation of every story relevant cutscene in the game, in the official order they were released in. (this being kingdom hearts, there’s some in-between stuff where the player goes and visits disney worlds. unfortunately almost none of it has any bearing on the actual plot or characterization in this particular game… so this uploader has opted to cut it out. but it is important to know at least that it all exists.) this vid below is what i would consider the most authentic experience!

option two is the fandub movie! see these mobile games don’t have voice acting, which turns some people off of taking an interest in them. but this here is an incredible fan-made project that took auditions for each character, cast voice actors, collected their dubbed dialogue, and neatly edited and mixed the video all together. it took a ton of time and effort to put together and it came out incredibly well!

that said, i personally wouldn’t recommend it for a first time experience (unless you really, really can’t bear to do a lot of reading without voice acting). see, damo279 did things a little differently. a lot of cutscenes in this story weren’t released in chronological order- which is sometimes narratively appropriate, of course, but in other places it gets confusing. he rearranged some of these scenes to try to make the story a little more coherent. which imo mostly was fine, but it very much does change the audience’s experience (such as with the whole entire strelitzia thing. originally that entire section was a flashback and we didn’t know she existed until she was already long dead). he also kind of like ‘added’ a few scenes of his own with narration by one of the characters to summarize the disney world stuff. mostly at the beginning of the game bc the plot starts slow and then picks up the pace exponentially. but like if you don’t care about authenticity though that’s fine lol

the other thing is that like there is also a fully animated fully voiced movie featuring the foretellers (the masked cult leader furries lol) that exists as supplemental background material. chronologically that stuff all goes first, but it would be a reeeeeally really terrible boring weird introduction to the story imho. it’s better to just come back to that afterwards if you’re curious. and see the fandub project mixes the movie and the game together in chronological order to tell a full story. again- it’s great if you’re an existing rabid fan! i love it! but probably weird if you’re a new fan tbh. unless you’re very open minded and patient. in any case here’s part 1 of it! part 2 should be easy enough to find off of this video

and with that said. if you decide to check khux out PLEASE keep talking to me and asking questions! i know it’s a lot. there are even questions that we existing fans don’t yet have the answers to so like don’t feel bad if you don’t understand something! that’s part of the fun… this series is ongoing… hehe

[sweatersinthesummer]

2024 in review (pods and fics)

I was quite prolific in 2024, publishing 35 works. The vast majority (33) are pods, though I did publish two very short fics. And most of them were in the Harry Potter fandom, though I did make two short Schitt's Creek pods.

[Podfic] The Man Who Forgot by SlightWeasel Clocking in at 21 hours, it was by far my longest and most ambitious project ever. Such a great fic, and I'm really proud of myself for finishing it. And I bound it.

[Podfics] Twenty-Two Cards by peu_a_peu Rookie Moves is one of my top five favorite fics, and I had so much fun making this (as well as the six other fics in the series.) I also bound it.

[Podfic] By Any Other Name and [Podfic] Through a New Lens Two great, fics by @dracognition. So witty and clever, I immediately wanted to record them after reading.

Lots of fics by @moonflower-rose!

[Podfic] Contretemps

[Podfic] Poppiholla

[Podfic] Hoppípolla

and the highlight was collaborating on [Podfic] As Easy As That with @reveriepi, @cailynwrites, and @thirdeye1234.

For my 100th published work, I decided to do something different and recorded a wolfstar fic, [Podfic] the son and heir of nothing in particular. It won't be the last! I have more in mind for 2025.

I was so very delighted to have guessed the author of [Podfic] The Superfluous Man (along with a lot of other people) before reveals and was able to get it recorded before everyone knew (with 100% certainty, anyway) that it was peu_a_peu that wrote it.

I also recorded my first @dodgerkedavra fic, [Podfic] See Me and Live, which is so lovely and funny and sweet and it definitely won't be my last Dodger pod. (I have one almost complete, so it'll probably be released fairly soon.)

This is only a few of the pods I published this year, there are plenty more, and since I only record fics I absolutely love, I can wholeheartedly recommend every last one of them, to read, if not to listen to.

Speaking of reading, these are the two short fics I wrote. Very short. Just silly little things. But it was fun to dip my toes back into writing again. The Scariest Witch and Think of the children!, both under 1000 words. So really. Little.

Now I'd love to hear from everyone I tagged here! (and thanks for tagging me, @citrusses!)

[cr33pz-mck3nna]

I'm rewriting Glitchtale with no prior knowledge of it(and it's good?)

Mmm okayyyyy guess it's time to explain my actions and why you shouldn't burn me at the fucking stake-(and why you may just wind up being able to say "I hate Glitchtale except this AU in particular"....atleast I hope-)

So to explain, man I shouldn't even call this a Glitchtale rewrite, because I'll be honest...I know absolutely nothing about Glitchtale except Pink bitch and how her potential was WASTED!!! I don't even know her name! So I pretty much took pinkie pie over here and the Glitchtale name and said FUCK YOU to every other aspect of Glitchtale. Be aware harsh criticism is unwanted, the tags "DLDR" and "DLDI" are there for a reason, if you're a bitch you and your comment are getting blocked and deleted as to not offend anyone or sway their opinions on my AU due to your UNWANTED HARSH OPINIONS. And now, if I have your attention, without further ado..

Your story starts at the end of their story. Another genocide route and this time Sans is loosing. Frisk prepared themself for the final blow and Sans for his demise before the child suddenly stopped. Frisk, closed-eyed small child Frisk, suddenly opened their eyes and Sans felt pure dread for the first time in his life. That's not Frisk.

Staring back into the inky void that are his eyes was a pair of glowing pink eyes, doesn't sound normal ik but even less normal when you clarify that they were COMPLETELY PINK!!! Not even a shred of another color is those strange eyes... And suddenly they smirk at him, a smirk that slowly turns into a wicked grin as they raise their left hand, the reset button appearing for a second before a finger snaps and-

!!!FATAL ERROR!!!

System restart

....

MOD DETECTED!!

Starting....

Glitchtale Prime(REWRITE AU!!!)

Glitchtale Prime REWRITE AU or simply Glitchtale Prime or GPR follows a young woman, a dimension hopper as it seems, and a glitch in the system, Elizabeth Beverley, whom no one not even Sans himself knows who she is, what she is or where she came from. And a strange entity called "The Dreamer", or as Liz refers to them, VOID.

By the actions of Liz taking control of Frisk as you just saw and resetting a new AU was born, one where Frisk does not exist at all and Liz is instead the main character. In this AU Liz is a strange human, seemingly connected to the Ink and Error Sanses, who is possessed(?) by a virus-like entity of the sorts which is VOID and the two are accompanied in their travels by none other than Flowey who got his shit wrecked and now kisses ass bcs he's low-key terrified of Liz.

Liz's relationship with VOID is inspired alot by Cynessa(Murder Drones) while Liz's relationship with Flowey is inspired by the relationship between The Traveller and Paimon(Genshin Impact).

GPR takes place further into the Undertale timeline then most other AUs as Liz, having taken the place of Frisk, waited until she was a strong enough adult before falling down a fucking hole-

GPR is a prequel of sorts to a bigger project of mine, one that may very well never happen due to the sheer size, something I like to call Underverse Prime and so if anything comes of GPR just be aware that parts of Liz's backstory may change or not make sense until the story of her relative is told in UVPrime Act 1.

If you enjoyed this then please consider supporting as it will take much motivation for anything to come about this. And if you do like it let me know if I should start a separate blog for Undertale and specifically my AUs. Also one final note, considering GPR and UVPrime, proshippers can fuck off but shippers are very welcome, I'm quite curious to see what comes from any fanbase that may come from GPR or UVPrime!

Happy new year my lovely little gremlins! -Creepz

[redinthefaceandcheeks]

The Continued State of RitFac: November 2024

Pardon the lack of any published stories or Author notes. The long radio silence is because the current story I have been working on since March 2024 has finally entered the editing phase. Now I finally feel comfortable enough with this project to share with all of you the big project. The story is a Choose Your Own Adventure story, and it is BIG. Currently, the biggest story I have ever tackled is clocking in at 71k works and 200 pages at the time of writing this. 

It will be a POV Story where you, a meek college student pizza boy doing one last delivery order to the fraternity house WUF, the most popular, established fraternity on campus.

It is taking so long because it is true to the original vision I first came up with earlier this year. This adventure will have five endings, and if you are cultured about werewolf erotica, you can guess what each one focuses on. I also tried my best to make sure that each path was totally unique from the others, which has led to being a huge undertaking on my side. I do not want to give too much away about these stories, but some of the tags that will be included in this story will be: -transformation -paws -maws -torn clothes -leather gear -group sex  -cumflation -sheaths One of the reasons why this project is taking so long to complete is that I have been giving myself plenty of time and breaks to prevent myself from experiencing burnout. So, with all those juicy details, what comes next? I still have to go back to edit and finalize the story so that there is continuity with the detail and tone of every ending. Then once that has been reviewed and edited, I have to import all the text and programming notes into the Twine game engine. Then I have to run QA checks on all my programming and then select a website to host the thing.

These are all daunting in their own right, but not impossible.

Because of the size, scope, and effort of this particular project, I will host it on a website shop with a suggested Pay What You Want price of about $5.00.

Do not worry, will be sure to allow the Pay What You Want price offer to accept $0.00 as payment. If you enjoy it, you can kick a few bucks over the enjoyment. I do want to reconfirm that after this CYOA is published I will be going back to writing more of my regular-sized stories and resuming my Author’s Notes series. While working on this project, I have still been jotting down a bunch of new kinky story ideas that I have in the drafts just waiting for me to use them up right after this project is completed. Make no mistake, I am chomping at the bit to write anything else besides this adventure. On a slightly personal note, I am happy to announce that I will attend two furry conventions in the new year! I will be attending Anthro New England as well as FurcationLand in 2025. I'm quite excited to attend and if you are in either one of those areas at the time, let me know! Finally, with the current internet and political landscape, I want to restate all of the other platforms I am on and where you can find me and my work:

Tumblr [https://www.tumblr.com/redinthefaceandcheeks] Furaffinity [https://www.furaffinity.net/user/ritfac/]

Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/RiTFaC] I have also become way more active on Bluesky now with more constant and droll updates on the editing process:

BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/ritfac.bsky.social]

Again, thank you all for the support.

[fipindustries]

does F.I.P stand for anything in particular or is it a secret

ah, my favourite question to answer, fuck it, this time im going to give the long answer:

a primer on FIP

you know.

i dont have the best memory of my past, i truly dont. i claim that certain things happen at certain ages but there is no way for me to know for sure.

long long ago i decided, a bit at random, that the age at which i came up with the concept of FIP industries might have been when i was eleven. that was a guess, an educated guess but a guess all the same.

i know the very first idea of something akin to fip industries came to me on a family trip after watching the now forgotten cartoon show called the project zeta. and this all happened roughly in 2003 - 2004. so that is why i use that date.

which would mean that its been 20 years since i came up with this project. i do remember distinctly that i promised my self at that age that i would not allow maturity or growing up to take this thing away from me. that i would not forget this story or these characters. indeed that i would make it grow and dedicate the surely considerable resources i would have as an adult to make it come true.

and i didnt.

ten years after that, when i was 21, i wrote a novel called F.I.P. industries. it's... fine, for a first draft of a first work of someone who had never written a novel before at 21 years of age. it develop the story, it crystalized it. it gave it a coherent shape and a strong foundation. what's more, it cemented the arcs of many of its key characters, characters that had started as broken, improvised toys made out of key chains and legos and pieces of toy cars. the lore also went through an EXTENSIVE overhaul, i incorporated elements from other stories, fused characters together into a single character, changed the race and gender of many other characters, changed dates, names and arcs around and streamlined the whole thing.

then in 2020 i decided to overhaul the entire lore a second time. dramatically changing the timeline and the importance of certain characters, cannibalizing a bunch of other stories, retooling a lot of things and, once again, pushing everything into a new direction.

and of course i should add that during those 20 years i kept adding characters, side stories, spin offs, lore, backstories and actually continued the story along. twenty years have passed both in the real world and in-universe.

and given that this is the story's 20th aniversary (i think), it is time for me to share this story with all of you, from beggining to end, explaining every character along the way. this is going to be a long and arduous excercise and i genuenly dont know if i am going to get through it all, but i will try all the same.

ill be making a series of posts under the tag #FIPindustries the story can be divided in three eras, it will be one masterpost per era, where i will go over the main chronology of the story and the main characters in each era.

Era 1, also known as the golden years covers the founding and original expansion of fip industries as a research lab covering multiple different disciplines and fields of studies, trying to find synergies between the different investigations. this was all financed and directed by its founder, Filander Ignatius Patrick. this era ends with the collapse of the company during a terrible incident that ended up killing, vanishing or transmutating most of its employees. what few survivors there were left scattered to the winds. key characters in this era are Montogmery J. Black, also known as the shadow, Craig Sterling, legally assigned as grim reaper, and Franchesca Turimov, cyborg, rabble rouser, bad news.

Era 2, also known as the dormant era, covers the fallout of fip industries collapse and the different stories of the multiple scavengers that managed to salvage the lost technology from the ruins of the company. this era is mainly dominated by Maximillian Sicamore, a sinister man with many secrets and even more plans, who used to be an employee at the company and one of the few survivors of the collapse. key characters in this era are Maximillian Sicamore, criminal mastermind, proud father, The four crazy kids, Marten, Ralph, Sarah and jessica, freelance heroes, The harpsichord crew, sky pirates.

Era 3, is the return of FIP industries to its former glory under the helm of maximillian's son, Erik Sicamore, who takes over his father's empire, re hires many of the old scientists that survived (and many of those who didnt as well), and includes a fresh batch of new blood, amongst which you can find many of fip industries old enemies. Under the control of Erik the company is redirected to more "charitable" goals, such as finding a source of infinite renewable energy for the world (which is all a front for his real plans, killing god). key characters for this era are Erik Sicamore, leader of FIP industries, broken man, trans, Peter, tamed serial killer, Leenard and Sasha, scientists, lost in time, lost in space

with this quick introduction you should be ready to parse whatever the more indepth dives i might make some day on each era in the oncoming posts.

welcome to F.I.P. Industries

[piecewithoutwork]

UP CLOSE! ONE OF GOD'S OWN PROTOTYPES!

The Basics:

Hiya! I'm called Thomas, but you can call me whatever you want! I'm a bundle of secrets, hobbies, fascinations. and ego wrapped in cargo pants people like to call a person!

Want to hear more from than you already do? Why? Also you can see my ramblings and such here! @manicassandra! She's where my unorganised essays and shouts into the abyss end up!

Please block this person! Yucky! Ew! Bad!

You can expect random digressions, frequent yet sporadic reblogs, and a whole lot of rambling from me!

Some things about me:

I am Bisexual and Grey-Ace. I'm not taken but that's the least of your concerns if you like me.

Wanna know my gender? Me too! Your guess is as good as mine; any pronouns work fine.

I speak a whole buncha languages, none of them well!

I play the piano, I play it shit mind you, but I play it nonetheless.

Despite spending the majority of my life in none of these countries, I speak with a mix of West Coast and East Coast USA, RP British, Irish, Spanish, and French accents. I do not know why.

I am severely mentally ill and autistic. Unless I know you and you ask politely, I'd rather not share about it but just treat me like I have DID or BPD.

Other facts:

I am a queer little faggot who couldn't be happier about it.

I'd much rather you tag gore/sh/ed/su1c1d3 related content and use tone indicators!!!

DO NOT expect a consistent set of personality or characteristics from me as I am far too mentally ill to act one way.

It is most heavily recommended that you stay off my blog(s particularly Sam's) when I get in a less than colourful mood.

I am very defensive of my moots and will not tolerate any hate towards them

DNI:

Transphobes, homophobes, TERFs, racists, queerphobes, and any other uncool people.

Adults in dms if i say so to you.

People seeking controversies or discourse.

Anon hate/hate in general because why would you.

All of the above unless expressly stated otherwise.

That person. They know this is about them. Stay the fuck away from me.

Interests:

Due to my evershifting interests, I dibble and dabble in several fields of study, such as physics, both quantum and applied, engineering (though one could argue that’s just really applied physics), chemistry, medicine, psychology, biology, and many more.

I love learning about new strange things so feel free to send me just cool stuff you find out about. I also have an extensive collection of useless or obscure information you’ll likely never need.

Music taste:

I love any genre (no really, try me), but some of my favourite musicians are as follows in no particular order:

Will Wood, Fish in a birdcage, Liability Luke, Changeline, Machinery of the Human Heart, Issbrokie/Shteppie, Lightnin’ Luke, Crispin de Sade (a.k.a. @outlying-hyppocrate), Suffocation, Kendrick Lamar, Femtanyl, Shayfer James, Isiah Rashad, Teddy Hyde, Bear Ghost, Chat Pile, Viagra Boys, Rabbitology, Nirvana, IDLES, Ella Fitzgerald, THWACK!, etc., etc...

There are much more mind you these are just my most prominent listens (pls feel free to dm me for music recommendations).

Hobbies:

Music writing

Piano & singing

Reading

Cooking

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Writing (PROJECT I HAVE A PROJECT ASK ME ABOUT IT PLEASE)

Drawing

Coding

Woodworking

Fandoms:

I consume podcast dramas at a voracious pace but if I could name my favourites it would be TMA/TMagP, The Penumbra, The Silt Verses, Hymns for the Road, Midnight Burger, Malevolent, We Fix Space Junk, and Ch&T especially

I can guarantee you if the fandom is obscure, I am a long time member, and if it is by far one of the most prolific, I haven't the foggiest as to its existence.

Current Fascination:

WE'RE GONNA BEAT YOU TO DEATH. WITH HAMMERS.

Why PieceWithoutWork?

Both an obscure reference to a not-so-obscure piece of work (ha) and a homophone, it's the only thing I could bring myself to commit to! I might change it soon though...

User boxes under the cut!

[tsunael]

OC Smash or Pass

Quick Facts

Height: 4'11" | 149cm.

Age: 32.

Gender: Female.

Pronouns: She/Her.

Sexuality: Bisexual. Probably.

Pros

Diligent. She can cook (kind of)! She can clean! No task is ever left undone. She'd make a good homemaker.

Romantic. As her Raen blood dictates, she's always looking for a place to call home.

Talented. She has a knack for conjury, so you'll always be on the receiving end of her tender mercies. She also knows of several styles of dance and can play stringed instruments.

Elegant. Rigorous training in her youth has given her a natural poise and grace. She would make excellent arm candy.

Cons

Tsundere. This might be a pro, as the appeal would be to crack her shell.

Haughty. If she has reason to believe you have unsavory ideas, she may give you the cold shoulder. Her temper is as sharp as her horns-- speaking of...

Au Ra. She is a danger from the front and the back. Go in for a kiss and you'll be maimed. Oh, and she has fangs, too. Want to spoon instead? Too bad! Tail spines! Guess you'll have to get creative.

Cynical. She's been through a lot in her life, and it shows through more often than not.

Daddy issues. She certainly wouldn't be projecting on you, or looking for love in the wrong places or anything.

Details

Romantically: It's something she daydreams about, though she often wonders if it would be best to keep it as one. There's somewhat of a hedgehog's dilemma there, both figuratively and literally in that she can't really get close to anyone without feeling the need to pull away. However, if she were ever to have a romantic partner, she would devote herself fully to them. One could expect small touches of the hand and shoulder in public, and truly intimate gestures like light massage, or washing their hair in private. Though a soft and sensitive partner would be the ideal and probably make her happiest, she really shines when she's around someone she can exchange (verbal) blows with. Make her match your wit, and reduce her to a flustered mess (it's easy to do).

Sexually: She's somewhat repressed. The particular Okiya she was raised in was convent-like in nature, and she rarely ventured outside other than to the markets, or for work. She's had undisclosed partners, but never any that let her truly bloom. ... Because of this she might be hesitant to try new things, or engage in anything she deems too 'filthy', but it's learned shame, and there is merit in helping her overcome it. Ahem. In a similar vein, she does know what she likes, but she may have difficulty asking for it. This would be considered a con, but with enough time and patience you might get to see an extra special side to her. Basically, I think her years of yearning, coupled with an excitable nature would make for a, uh... very passionate experience if you can get over how much of a wilting flower she is at first. She probably has a few kinks to unearth, too!! Who knows! Anyway!

Tagged by: No one. I took it, comrade. Because sometimes you gotta do it yourself. Tagging: This is my community garden. Take what you will.

I didn't include an other option because mama didn't raise a quitter. You will SMASH or you will PASS and you will like it.

Points if you say why though. 🔍👀

Rules: pretty self explanatory. include physical descriptions or pics, and propaganda. the “other” label can be used for “sexuality misalignment” (ie: oc is femme and you’re gay, vice versa or you aren’t into smashing but a specific thing you wanna do with them like perhaps hug or study them under a microscope idc)

[djevelbl]

Intro post time! (masterpost? what's the difference?)

SOCIAL MEDIA:

AO3

HOW MANY DAYS HAS THIS MISERABLE CUNT GONE WITHOUT GETTING LOCKED OUT OF HIS OWN FUCKING HOUSE (aka post limited): 1 almost back to 40 let's gooo 🔥🔥🔥

Hey there! Welcome in once, welcome in thrice – welcome be however many times ya like! I’m DjevelBL but you can call me Djevel as well, she/her he/him and they/them are all good :]

As the lil’ blurb beneath my picture says, I’m here to scream into the void that is the internet about whatever I’m watching at the time — you’re always welcome to join me! (Trust me, it’s therapeutic lol)

I also draw and write about series and videos I watch, books I read, and so much more! And whenever I finally get around to makin’ the damn mask, I’ll also add dancing and doing choreographies to the art list! Lots happening around here >:]

TAGS (bc my blog’s a MESS and we need some form of map around here):

this is a demon painting™  <- art tag! Here you’ll see all my drawings! (if I remember adding it lol)

demon shares wips™  <- drawing sketches/little writing blurbs/just generally works in progress

demon rambles™  <- by FAR the most used one; textposts/me talking about random shit/me making haha funny posts on my own. The famous Yap Tag™, if you will. definitely overused

demon tedtalk™  <- me talking about something serious, and/or something I want people to ACTUALLY listen to

the demon council speaks™ <- the obligatory ask tag

demon storytimes™  <- just random irl things that have happened to me lol

demon waxing poetics™  <- writing!! Here you’ll find anything I’ve written!

the demon graveyard™  <- here you’ll find art projects I’ve abandoned, original versions of things I made, things I changed for projects etc. etc. Lots of little goodies will be thrown in here as I write more and more!

boyfail gaming demon™ <- I apparently play videogames! And I am!! Mildly okay at it!!!

get ready for Djevel's Descent Into Madness™ — [youtuber name] Edition!  <- this is me liveblogging my demented journey into watching a new youtuber! (or series. it has morphed into including series as well; blame Evbo) All the ones in this category are gonna be just a little lower down, for simplicity's sake. Y'know, keeping them all grouped together and stuff like that.

AU TAGS! (bc I apparently have those lol):

The Garden of Eden au  <- an Inky Mystery and The Gray Garden crossover!

Shining Star Dance Academy au <- an mcyt dance au. bc if I have to go through the pain of a bajillion bobby pins drilling into my scalp for 2hrs straight for a recital, then so do the blorbos <3

PVP's Desolate Journey <- a PVP Civilization and LISA: The Painful crossover au! It's very barebones right now (28/03/2025) but I'm getting on it I swear

The Descent Into Madness™ tags! - I get the distinct feeling that there's gonna be WAY too many variations of this particular tag so imma just. y'know. put them all here! In their own little dedicated zone. Look at 'em go.

PVP Civilization! <- my first time watching the entirety of PVP Civilization, a Minecraft story series by Evbo! And now it mildly includes my brother watching it too, I guess

Dtowncat! <- liveblogging different Dtowncat streams! It gets sporadically added to ['sPoRaDiCaLlY' oh past djevel. you had WAY too much faith in yo unenployed ass..........]

(This post is subject to change as I start using the tags more to add the links in for ease of use. That and as I feel it necessary to add other things, of course.)

[echoweaver]

Like a bunch of others have said, I have been nervous about making a simblr gratitude post because I'll almost certainly leave someone out, and that hurts. I guess I'll start with the disclaimer:

I read everyone I follow. I can't read every post, but I don't keep anyone on my dash who I haven't made a conscious decision to put there. If you've seen a like or a comment from me, I'm reading you, and I'm doing it because I like what you post.

And I appreciate a lot of simblrs I don't follow too. I've had to choose not to follow several who I'd like to follow, simply because of the above -- I read the folks I follow, and I can't let my follow list get too big for me to handle.

I also have a long list of story tags I follow specifically for stories that have a chronology that matters. I use XKit Rewritten on my browser to keep a list of unread posts by tag so that I don't miss posts from long-running stories.

OK, that said, and in no particular order...

@anamoon63 I have enjoyed the heck out of Alan Wilson's wild life. You're one of the reasons I'm poking at TS4 now. I also have gotten attached to Dale Cho and Kelly. They have so much personality.

@treason-and-plot I was intimidated by the complexity of your story for quite a while before I really started to dig in, but I couldn't stay away. You have so many characters! And so many plot threads! And they all weave together into a tangle of personalities that feel all too real.

@kimmiessimmies I'm still just getting to know your characters, but they're so vivid. As I've said in the comments, I really appreciate that Sadie and her entourage are mostly emotionally mature people who are working through their problems in reasonable ways. Characters don't have to be shallow or dumb to find themselves in drama, but it's a challenge to write mature ones.

@bearphase I got sucked in by Clem. Orange has got to be one of, if not the most challenging NSB generation, and you aced it. I've been invested ever since.

@rebouks You sucked a character all the way to rock bottom, and then he climbed out with hope and integrity and took everyone nearby out with him. I'm still not sure how you made such a dark story so warm and friendly.

@zosa95 I always smile when your characters show up on my dash. You're a warm presence in the community and a good storyteller. And your screenshots somehow manage to be extra endearing.

@greenplumbboblover I've never seen someone try to tell a soap opera of all of Sunset Valley. I'm getting a fresh look at characters who almost never get the spotlight. It's so much fun.

@mosneakers What can I say? I'd snatch Coraleye away from her boy if I had a chance.

@danjaley I can only imagine the kind of work that goes into the McCarrics. Reading their story makes me feel like a fly on the wall of real moments of a Scottish landed farmer's life. I've also snatched up a lot of your cc for my own projects.

@declaration-of-dramas You have such a beautifully staged historical setting, and your characters are so wild. I miss Lady Prilly, but this new story you're telling in San Pineda has already caught me.

@natolesims Your NSB has so much personality. Grey is a lot of fun. I hope we'll see Tiana soon. Ella's story really gripped me, and Tiana's was shaping up to be just as intense. Plus, your Disney simalikes are spot on.

@oasislandingresident You're a big reason why I discovered I like longer lifespans! I fell into the all-to-common trap of assuming everything had to be generational. You can discover very different stories when you give sims more space to live.

@pudding-parade You make some of the prettiest sims I have ever seen. I've downloaded about half a dozen worlds from your world reviews, and I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with them.

@queeniecook I can't wait to meet Vera and Caleb's baby. You've got us all in suspense. Your story is such a fun combination of adventure, intrigue, and domesticity. Also, so many pregnancy photo shoots. 😆

@nocturnalazure Last on this list but not least, I think your story is the first one I found on tumblr that I became a passionate fan of. I honestly think in another universe it would be a great TV adventure drama. I jump whenever I see something new on the tteot tag. Thanks for the story.

Thanks to everyone, and to the folks I've forgotten and will feel guilty about later. 😅

[nancypullen]

Saturday

The sparkly new laptop has arrived and I do believe it will make me faster, smarter, and more creative. Or not. Could go either way. The mister is off taking photos, so the cats and I are working on projects. I have brownies in the oven and paint drying in the garage.

Phoebe is exhausted.

Molly is all up in my business.

Back to the garage project. Right now Mickey is my hero. I asked him to build something and he came through in a big way. I'll explain. Summer is coming and we'll have Little Miss for a few days at a time here and there. She's got a bunch of fun camps lined up but there are still weeks where her parents have to work and we get to fill the void. Since this town offers nothing fun other than the Icee machine at 7-11, we try to create our own fun - sometimes it's crafts, sometimes it's new toys, sometimes we just let her watch too many cartoons (we're old and tired). We have a big blow-up pool that she dubbed Mermaid Lagoon, she has her saucer swing hanging from a shady tree, but I wanted another outdoor activity for her. A MUD KITCHEN!!

I'll backtrack a bit further. Last week we went over to celebrate Tyler's birthday and I brought along a little something for Little Miss too. These little plastic bottles, labels, and chalk pen for the labels....

and this book.

I printed all sorts of recipes with ingredients that can be found in her yard. Each recipe went into a protective plastic sleeve.

You get the idea. There were about fifteen recipes and plenty of blank sleeves where she could save her own recipes. We had some fun brewing potions and I started thinking how nice it would be for her to have a space at our house to make everything from mud pies to magical elixirs. I talked to the mister about it and he said he'd go to Lowe's and buy lumber. Well, that was easy. I didn't even have to lobby for it. I tagged along on the Lowe's trip and picked out a paint color for the project. He's the builder, I'm the decorator. You guys, he built exactly what I wanted in one afternoon. I should have aimed higher. I snapped this pre-paint, when I was just getting ideas. That's a two gallon water jug with a spigot on the bottom shelf.

It's very sturdy and just the right height for a couple summers of fun. I can't wait to finish it and share it with you. I spray painted a few empty cans and rummaged in my drawers and cupboards for supplies. I've got everything from a teapot to a silpat baking mat. I'll have to raid Goodwill for a couple of pots and a mixing bowl or two. All of mine are breakable. Note: Those canisters probably won't stay. It's actually a set of four that I bought many years ago at a Country Living Fair. They're called decoware and apparently that particular style is rare. I found an identical set on Etsy that just sold for $135.00. I think I paid $30 for the set. Guess I shouldn't let them roll around in the yard. They take up too much of her shelf space anyway.

I've got the first coat of paint on, and may go finish it after dinner tonight. I chose a light blue color called Quiet Nook. Most of the accents will be red, and I'm debating whether to use some of my leftover oilcloth from the garden bunting to make a little mini strip of bunting for the top. The vision is this color scheme.

Add a silver teapot and some utensils and bowls - loads of mud fun for a special little girl! That's what's been keeping me busy today, that and the garden. I've been harvesting radishes daily. We have too many.

This first bell pepper is begging to be picked.

The cukes have had too much rain, but they're covered in blossoms and they're making babies.

I've got more tomatoes than I can count, big slicers and tons of SunSugar cherry tomatoes. The green beans are covered in flowers and promise a bumper crop. Yesterday I made the decision to pull up all of the remaining radishes. We are buried in them. In their place I could plant a hot weather lettuce, like a nice butterhead. I think I'll just pop in some nasturtium seeds and see if they take off. They'll provide pretty pest control and can be added to a salad for a peppery taste. It's the easiest route to take for what will be an empty space. I know that summer heat is coming and I'm trying to do a favor for July and August Nancy. Nasturtiums are low maintenance. I can admire them from the shade of the porch. That reminds me, I got a steal at the auction last week! You know how I love my porch sittin'. And you know that my porch must be pretty. I saw a little side table at the auction house that was just darling and I knew it needed to come live with me. I was able to snag it for just $6.25, and just look at it!

A little red table with heart cutouts??? Take my money! She's perfect on my porch.

Come sit and rock with me, we'll sip fresh lemonade and solve the problems of the world. Who am I kidding, I can't even solve the problem of my hair. It's gotten long again and is giving Farrah vibes. I'm probably too old for that. I keep looking at styles like this - simple, no fuss, basic.

Then I remember that I don't look like her. She has no sagging jowls, and she has normal human hair. I have double that amount of hair and a face that is sliding down my neck. Still, I spend most days with my hair scraped back in a ponytail because I can't be bothered with it. Might as well lop it all off, right? I already know I'll regret it, but when has that ever stopped me? I made an appointment for June 17th, so in ten days I'll be a new woman.

I do not have high hopes. Gardening, making a mud kitchen, talking to cats - it's been a busy month and we're only one week in. I've got an oven timer due to go off in four minutes, so this will be adieu for now. I'll be back to share photos of the finished project and maybe something exciting enough to write about will happen between now and then. Doubtful, but always possible. Sending out love and a scoop of optimism. In the dumpster fire that we're all living through optimism is an act of rebellion. Be a rebel. Stay safe, stay well, keep hope alive. XOXO, Nancy

[ragana62]

You know what, that get to know you tag game unlocked a rant so here we go. District 13 is located wrong. I get narratively why it has to be in New England, I really do, but it’s incorrect for its industry and it makes me irrationally angry.

District 13 is meant to be NUCLEAR RESEARCH!! That is an incredibly expensive and time consuming industry to set up from scratch, especially by the standards of pretty much every single other industry listed. And sure, things like agriculture, mining, those are region locked a bit, particularly if you’re trying to optimize your zone coverage for various crops and livestock and the like, and you can’t have fishing be totally landlocked, and PNW works best for lumber based on existing infrastructure and forestry practices, but those are largely things that you can kind of just do once you decide where you’re doing them. Same goes for transportation/technology/military/luxury, except those you can largely do anywhere too.

So: WHY THE FUCK IS THE DISTRICT THAT HAS THE HIGHEST STARTUP COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH ITS INDUSTRY STUCK SOMEWHERE WHERE THE BEST ODDS AT OLD INFRASTRUCTURE IT CAN LEAN ON IS FUCKING THREE MILE ISLAND?! (And I guess Seabrook and Millstone but those are both power plants/stations too, not research labs or enrichment capable facilities or even medical grade facilities for radiopharmaceuticals though there are some cyclotrons in the region assuming any of the hospitals/facilities that had them remained accessible and that’s hardly unique to New England, and nobody’s ever heard of them really).

Narratively, fine, it needs to be off on the edge somewhere and by Twelve, it’s fine, it’s whatever. But logistically? That shit should be in Illinois. Namely, because you’ve got not only cyclotrons and nuclear power plants to lean on but the Tevatron (you know, the most powerful accelerator on earth until CERN built the LHC and it got decommissioned in 2011, even if it might get reused for the neutrino experiments or future tests if the board of Fermilab gets it together again and funding issues are fixed) too. Or I guess you could stick in in Tennessee for Oak Ridge even if that’s not what I’d pick for most practical, but that’s still too far south for canonical 13 placement courtesy of that map from BOSAS and where we know 12 is.

Especially after we established the districts aren’t exactly numbered in a logical pattern (distance from the Capitol, some sort of rotating pattern, importance, etc.) I just don’t understand why 13 would be somewhere that isn’t well equipped for its industry (beyond just, ‘it works best there from a narrative perspective, don’t think about the logistics of funding and building a full scale nuclear research facility with enrichment and power capabilities in a post apocalyptic society and why you’d do that instead of idk, taking advantage of the fact your ‘technology’ district is CANONICALLY SITTING ON TOP OF A FORMERLY WORLD CLASS PARTICLE ACCELERATOR ALREADY’). And maybe it’s my longstanding love of Laura Fermi talking, or maybe it’s the fact that I’m fairly certain I’ve thought about this particular logistical question more than Suzanne would even want to because it’s a YA series and most kids aren’t on Manhattan Project Phase number 2 by the time they’re reading it for the first time (or maybe they are, always down to meet more autistic nerds with similar past hyperfixations). But either way, it bothers me. And because the rant was brought up courtesy of a chat with an old friend that coincided with a lovely tag game that let me start the rant, now you all get to hear about it.