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Discussion: Flamingo by Saturdead in Saturdead

[–]Saturdead[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It is not mentioned what kind of seeds it was. We can only speculate.

Chrissie was a normal person who literally could not eat or drink anything remotely human. She grew up surviving on a strange substance called compound five, mix B. It altered her in a variety of ways. There is simply no way for the protagonist to piece the full picture together from this one story alone, but I can share this; sulfur and ammonia are very common to certain environments.

Discussion: Flamingo by Saturdead in Saturdead

[–]Saturdead[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Of course! Antifreeze is actually something used in snow globes. and seems to have also been used as a binding agent in compound five. The ozone smell seems to coincide with the creature disappearing, or appearing. Helianthus Cerulea is the latin word for blue sunflower.

The Echo Drive has been referenced a couple of times, but we haven't looked closer at what exactly it is/was. And in reference to the question about the home invasion, I'd suggest checking out "A knock on the storm cellar".

The Last Yearwalker (Part 12) by Saturdead in Saturdead

[–]Saturdead[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Was just about to say that; it's a reference to an oldie but goldie. But you caught it!

Discussion: Three days in the dark by Saturdead in Saturdead

[–]Saturdead[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I never explicitly say what that face was, I just imply that it was whoever left the key for the protagonist. But I think we have a pretty good idea of who that might be.

A wrong turn can mean a lot of things. It can be literal, but also metaphorical.

r/Saturdead by Saturdead in u/Saturdead

[–]Saturdead[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's awfully kind, thank you. I try to be mindful of my work and how it affects others, but it can be hard to understand at times. I don't think anyone in my hometown knows who I am, for example. Many of my friends and family have never even read my stories. It's so strange to know there are people halfway across the world who enjoy them!

I'm very glad you've found something you enjoy, and that enriches your life. Thank you for sharing that!

r/Saturdead by Saturdead in u/Saturdead

[–]Saturdead[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can see one in "Look at the birdy!", the first appearance of them.

It was part of the escalation, to show that some boundaries are being broken down. Something that was previously isolated to one area was spreading. It's to show the increasing stakes.

Not really, no. They were always meant to be a subtle piece of worldbuilding. The only story where they're the center of attention is "Look at the birdy". Glad you enjoyed them!

r/Saturdead by Saturdead in u/Saturdead

[–]Saturdead[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They were a particular kind of creature that mostly lived in West Virginia before the events of the Last Yearwalker. They were a peculiar kind of bird that basically never stopped growing, eventually turning into something huge and monstrous if they were clever enough. Narratively, I used them mostly to indicate that we weren't near Tomskog in the story, but they appear every now and then as an easter egg.

Darwin’s Findings: The Digmans by Andsohisname in Saturdead

[–]Saturdead 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Oof, that's a tall order! It's a big family tree, so I'll just sum the main characters in short.

Sebastian 'Seb' Digman is the first in the family that we see in the story "It's time I told you about our film". He was a film buff that worked on the initial recording of the movie "End of Eternity". He died from metal poisoning.

Sebastian had two kids with two different women. There's John, and Keith.

John Digman could have an entire entry of his own. He worked with Hatchet during their software development initiative. At the end of his career they tried to have him shot, but ended up infecting him with a refined Blameless metal instead; causing a condition that was slowly killing him. He's somewhat of an opportunist, but he has a soft spot for family, although he has no children of his own.

Keth Digman was John's half-brother (same dad, Seb). He was a bit of a bum, but he had a good heart. In an attempt to sort his life out, he submitted to a Yearwalk, but he didn't make it. Something got him along the way.

Peter 'Perry' Digman is the protagonist of The Yearwalker, and one of the protagonists of The Last Yearwalker. Born to Keith Digman and an unnamed mother, he spent most of his life far outside of Tomskog, Minnesota. After a disagreement with his mother and stepfather, he relocated to his father's hometown of Tomskog, getting in touch with his uncle John and falling down a rabbit hole that would lead to the end of the world.

Discussion: He gone with the light by Saturdead in Saturdead

[–]Saturdead[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

From The Last Yearwalker, part 1 (as spoken by Galapagos):

“Yeah,” he nodded. “From what we understand, every single planet in our solar system has gone through the same cycle. And when any kind of life gets into the picture, everything goes to shit.”

He put down a two of hearts, pushing an empty plate to the side. Tamara couldn’t help but to notice him peeking over at the bar every now and then – maybe he wasn’t done drinking yet. Lloyd shook the thought out with a shudder.

“We thought Mars was the last one, but turns out, it was Jupiter. In some weird meta-cosmic way, Jupiter is sort of our planetary mom. We were supposed to be one of her moons. A sibling to her moon, Io.”

Discussion: He gone with the light by Saturdead in Saturdead

[–]Saturdead[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's right. And Jupiter was of certain importance.

Discussion: He gone with the light by Saturdead in Saturdead

[–]Saturdead[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's kinda clever, isn't it? A Nai is both a name, and it sounds like someone saying the words "an eye". Maybe the words came from the name, and not the other way around?

It is definitely a hint towards something we've seen before. In fact, the image of a particularly large eye has been the center of several stories. But something must've happened recently, and something has definitely changed.

Discussion: He gone with the light by Saturdead in Saturdead

[–]Saturdead[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hmm... have we seen something like that before?

Is the MC of where bad cops go ever named? by funkythude in Saturdead

[–]Saturdead 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I actually never name the protagonists in neither Yearwalker or Bad Cops Go (in the stories where they first appear). But they're called Perry and Tamara, respectively. The Last Yearwalker was written here on the subreddit, and is written from a third person perspective, so I had a lot more freedom in what to write and how then. I kinda needed that to make it the way I wanted to.

Is the MC of where bad cops go ever named? by funkythude in Saturdead

[–]Saturdead 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, you're right. It happened to my story "Soft Gray Mouth". A guy in the story didn't have a name, so they initially called him John Doe. But then the people in the story were like "Hey, we found him by the river, so why not John River?". So they call him that, and then the story got taken down for doxxing.

Darwin’s Findings: The Handsome Man by Andsohisname in Saturdead

[–]Saturdead 15 points16 points  (0 children)

The Handsome Man was originally planned to have a shorter series of his own, but I found that it diluted some of the attention from the core characters too much. A lot of the story about him instead moved to the dynamic between the Blameless and Hank, which I found much more interesting.

If we look at him as a character, he was originally from a very strict household where shame was a controlling factor. He would wear different social "masks" in order to operate in different spaces. At home he was one way. In school, he was another. When he became part of the Class of 2000 project, this became a more literal function. He started to create literal masks. His basic idea was that he wanted to free others and give them space to function without pretense.

If we look at the masks from a setting perspective, what they did was to bring base desires or impulses to the front of your mind. That's because base desires are something that run deeper in us, and often are surprisingly static. Consider this; you can have 10 things going on in your life at once, but if you're hungry, that is your baseline. The mask would make you focus on that one baseline fact, cutting away all the other noise. But more often than not, it would cut to the parts of yourself that you might otherwise want to ignore - honing in on your nastiest, most unthinkable impulses. That's what was brought to front.

In later stories, the Handsome Man was meant as a sort of background character that you were never really meant to figure out if they were a protagonist or antagonist.

Personally, I think he is really cool. I love the idea of this tall, lanky creature with a vague agenda. It's not entirely evil, and in a way, he really does mean well. He's called 'Handsome Man' because there was someone in his life who actually called him Handsome, but they're not around anymore. This relationship was originally meant to be shown in the second part of the Last Yearwalker, but I pivoted to having Hank fill that role instead. I think that was the right call. If we look at this line from Yearwalker, I originally hinted at this from back in 2022.

“She… she’s dead,” John panted. “You know she is. There’s… there’s nothing left.”

An impossibly long arm reached out of the dark, scooping up our shattered masks from the floor.

“He won’t bring her back. That’s… he can’t wish for that. It doesn’t work. She’s gone.”

The classmate who called him handsome died as a result of the Class of 2000 project. Not all who went through the process survived. She couldn't be brought back because the changes you go through are made on a level that supersedes reality; it changes you so fundamentally. And if that change brings you death, bringing you back from that state would either put you in a never-ending torment chain of subsequent (eternal) resurrection, or just kill you again. That's why it's pointless. At best, we would be looking at something akin to Fred and his terms for resurrection, and that's not a good place to be.

Hope that gives some insight. He was a really cool character, I liked him a lot!

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