REPO: THE RAYGUN SAGA -0- PROLOGUE
All stories start with a beginning, a background, a prologue so to speak. This is the story of how the world ended, and how the world re-built itself back up from the ground.
expect spelling/grammar issues, i still struggle with proof-reading.
DISCLAIMER: this is my own, made-up backstory to the R.E.P.O. game. I tried to follow some of the major lore details, but everything else is just my own ideas.
“….. In the beginning, there was magic, and there was technology. That’s what every story begins with when it comes to talking about armageddon.”
The screen is pitch black. The voice behind the recording was that of a young woman, somewhat fast-spoken with a very slight, almost radio-like filter through it. Their voice is almost american, somewhat “midwestern”, but not quite. There is a brief tapping sound on the camcorder, before the voice continues.
“Stupid camcorder… It's a recording, I know it. The little light’s on. Tanner’s gotta fix the camera part though. At least it’ll get my voice… Hopefully. I only have today and maybe a bit of tomorrow to record and upload it. Starting Monday we’re taking yet another one of our week-long job excursions. First time with Peng too. Maybe he can be the other bruiser on our team.
But - ok, back to the story… I'll pause occasionally to read some of the stuff.
….Anyways, before Armageddon, there were two opposing sides: Technology and magic.
Technology was everywhere, and rapidly advancing. Some say these advances were advancing ‘too fast’; no time to adapt, no time to question it, no time to consider its consequences. Much of it was being pushed by major corporations and politicians, who were very eager about it all….
…Ok…maybe i should elaborate about the specific technology that was of focus at the time:
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Both of those things were, like, a huge massive deal back then.
On one hand, the media was obsessed with idealized versions of these robots; giant kajui-fighting mechs, tiny little pocket companions, autonomous vehicles, caretakers and workers that never get tired…..that’s just to name a few.
But they were all just….idealism. I mean, as far as i’m aware, there weren't any “megamechs” in real life back then. I don't think there will be, either.
Anyways; on the other hand, you had the actual reality of robots and AI. It was being put into everything, being made into every worker, and used in every job. Uh… hang on...”
The voice paused for a minute, before asking someone that was in the room with her.
“Hey, Rita? Do you have any experience with this? I know it was, uh, before your time….”
There was a brief moment of silence, before the other unseen person spoke.
“I do.” A voice in the background spoke up. Another feminine voice, though clearly more synthetic and robotic. Their speech is a bit slower and more monotone.
“You do? I thought you were-”
“It was second hand, Feeva.” Rita clarified, “I asked about it with the humans I worked with who were there. Or, at least the humans that were willing to talk about it and explain.
If I can recall correctly, there were definitely jobs that could’ve benefited from using robots and their accompanying AI. search and rescue, dangerous mines and factory work, disease control, general repetitive jobs. From what I've been told, those in charge were more focused on commercialization, cutting corners, and I guess at some point just shoving it in and seeing what happens. But I suppose that’s more or less survivor bias here.”
“Right, that’s also a point I wanted to make,” Feeva continued.
“Anyways, that’s….kinda what happened. Sure, many did end up being used for good, or at least responsively, but others….didn't. more or less focusing on the ‘could’ instead of the ‘should’.
In any case, no greater corporation had a chokehold on this industry than ‘Aratal Automations’.”
The sound of paper being flipped through could be heard, before Feeva continued.
“Now, Aratal Automation was a powerhouse - no, it was THE powerhouse in terms of robotics. They did a lot of stuff: Autonomous vehicles, factory robots, generative AI that could do anything and answer any question; you name it, they probably tried it at least once.
None however would reach the popularity, infamy, and prevalence as the ‘Semibots’.
If you’ve...somehow…never seen one, then the best way to explain it is “tin can on legs”. They’re 3-4 feet tall, or around 90-120cm tall in metric. They’re kinda pill-shaped with needle legs and needle arms. And big’ol ping-pong eyes. And a mouth that unhinges like a trashcan whenever they talk. They can also collapse their body into a smaller, compact shape for better storage.
Supposedly, the ‘official’ reason for the ‘semi’ has a couple origins; originally, it was because they weren't as complicated or specialized as other androids and free-standing robots at the time.
Uh, by the way…. Robot just refers to any automated machine or being, and android is a term for a robot that is human-like. That distinction also connects with the other reason for their 'semi' prefix; that being that they almost qualified to be called an "android" but due to the biases at the time they weren't considered ‘human-like’ enough for it. Hence ‘semibot’, or their alternate name ‘semidroid’. But the former is the most common name for them.
Of course we can't really forget the conspiracy theories about them being partially-robotic and that they were actually either part human or part animal. Conspiracy theory at the time; there’s no evidence of that happening back then.
anyway, semibots were made to aid the young, elderly and disabled, as well as being general robotic companions.
Despite being ‘simple’ they had what was considered at the time a new, revolutionary generative AI that was capable of quickly learning new tasks, adapting to new situations and storing a crapton of memory. Their cuteness factor is also what set them apart from other androids, as they were designed to look friendly and approachable. There even was some pre-programed emotion they could display, and can hold a basic simple conversation.
All this to say…they quickly took off. They became popular. There were many other models created; some more specialized and niche than others, but still retaining versatility and friendliness. At some point, the patent for basic semibots would end up getting shared to other AI and automation corperations; this was actually a way to curbstomp the bootleg semibot industry since said bootlegs were, at best, barely functioning, and at worse, potentially deadly.
Now while they did replace several human jobs, it strangely was not as much of an extent as other forms of AI. If anything, they were still stuck where they were; companions and servants. That didn't stop the hatred for them; they were robots taking jobs of humans, after all. But I guess they were seen as the odd exception. I mean us humans will pack-bond with anything. Some say it may have also been because semibots were showing early signs of sentience….
She paused a bit. “Let's see… i have something written down cause i keep confusing the two… ah! Here. found it.
Ok; let’s get this fact out the way:
‘Sentience’ is the ability to perceive sensations and emotions, and are generally aware of their surroundings. Most animals and monsters are sentient.
‘Sapience’ on the other hand, is the ability to reason, think critically, and possess wisdom. And also self-awareness and planning for the future and handling abstract concepts. Humans and monsterfolk fit here.”
“Good to make that distinction” Rita spoke up, “Beryl would’ve killed you otherwise.”
Feeva snickered at that. “Beryl would’ve killed me and kept me dead till the next station…”
“Anyways, I've talked enough about technology and robots for now. We need to get to the other half of it: magic.
Ok, so alot of what we know about pre-armageddon magic is extremely limited. Or, I guess more accurately, what people knew about it back then was limited, on purpose.
Magic was held in ‘magic stronghold,’. Supposedly, this was because magic back then was volatile, and could only be found and harnessed in certain locations across the globe. And because of how restricted it was, only a handful of individuals in charge were allowed to pick and choose who could learn magic and who couldn't.
However, there is a bit of a catch; you see, as we would end up getting closer to Armageddon, it would start becoming more and more apparent that this may have been an artificial circumstance. What we now know about magic is that it’s only volatile and dangerous when it's concentrated like it was back then. And the people in charge were more focused on hoarding it all for themselves, not willing to let magic exist outside of their own control.
Swiftbroom academy was the biggest magic stronghold on the continent. It was an exclusive, borderline secretive ‘magic school’ where one was taught how to handle and harness it. It was also the largest ‘source’ of magic; or again more accurately the largest concentrated collection of magic. Which made this school rather dangerous as well.
Potions were one of the big things; from gravity-defying liquids to elixirs of love. I think there was a potion that even spawned spider-like entities. Some of these potions had mineral analog, and those mineral analogs got put into many things like wands and brooms. To do wizard stuff. Like spellcasting and flying on a broom.
They also created monsters. Yeah, believe it or not, monsters did exist before Armageddon, though very rare and of course limited to wherever magic was being held. Some surviving photos showed them to be more or less mutated animals made to resemble mythical creatures like dragons and unicorns. Again, not much info. We don't even know what exactly happened to those monsters back then; no clue on if they were permanently mutated back then, if it was temporary, if they were killed after or kept alive.
The third, and perhaps the most interesting to me, wasn't actually even known until post-armageddon.
Apparently, it was what was known as “the key to immortality”. More accurately: shove a soul inside an inanimate object, preferably something mobile and hard to destroy. We now know it’s not true immortality, but rather shifting the mortality from an organic standpoint into an inorganic one. But, hey, they were convinced that this was immortality all the same.
Now that I've laid down the general two sides, I can finally talk about what truly happened during Armageddon. Rita? Anything you want to say before I go into it?”
There was a bit of silence.
“I’ll point out one more thing: there were underground cities.”
“The u- AH! THOSE! GRAAHHH!! FREAKING DIDN'T WRITE THEM DOWN!! DAMNIT!!”
“I’ll do that part for you. I know enough about them,” Rita responded, as Feeva muttered and cursed at herself.
“Self-sustaining Underground cities also existed during this time across the globe. They were mostly done as an attempt to try and solve a potential overpopulation issue in the distant future, as well as also test out space habitats on other planets. Many were also vanity projects to appeal to city planners. Those built with serious intent were fitted with basically everything possible for humanity to live indefinitely. Many were even connected by tunnel, and had direct communication between each other.”
“.....Thanks rita…..” Feeva sighed before she continued.
“Ok…. so…..armagedeon. Where do we start?”
She could be heard flipping through paper again before continuing.
“Well, there were two individuals at play just before Armageddon: Taxman, and Dumgolf.
‘Taxman’ Hedsman is the nickname for the -at time- CEO of Aratal Automations. Nobody knew his true name, because he refused to tell anyone at the time, which in turn meant his real name didn't get preserved. We also only have maybe one or two preserved photos of him, but those were long before he even became CEO, and by the time this story starts he was not a fan of his face being seen.
Dumgolf Hedsmen was a wizard at Swiftbroom academy, and he was the taxman’s brother. We have a good amount of preserved history with him, but like his brother there's still a bit of mystery to his past. in any case, he believed that magic and technology should not be mutually exclusive; as a matter of fact, magic and technology should be COMBINED together. But, of course, because magic was being gate-guarded by only a select few, and it was highly unlikely that they’d be willing to let anyone ‘below them’ have access to it, he planned to instead try to climb up the ladder and use his power of authority to try and push magic into the public.
Over the years, the two slowly began to reach higher and higher in their respective chain of power. Taxman became a millionaire, a billionaire, and a trillionaire. Dumgolf worked his way from student, to school staff, to headmaster. Strangely, no rivalry was present, at least as far as we can tell.
Then, one day… It happened.”
Once again, flipping papers could be heard.
“You know”, rita piped up, “you could still use your laptop and read off of the document you had.”
“Yeah, but I was up until 3 writing this down; it would’ve been a waste.” There was a bit of silence before she asked Rita something.
“Hey… did i get anything right about the taxman thus far?”
“Nothing that I haven't heard before. I’ll speak up when we get to my part.”
“Ok, onwards we go. Time to talk about Armageddon.
September 12, 2087. the Full moon of that month. Every full moon, a headmaster is chosen to perform a ‘Lunar protection spell’. This spell was meant to keep the magic concentrated in that area, as the lunar cycles -suposedly- affected its spread and activity. Dumgolf was chosen for the school year’s first lunar protection spell; a real big deal for swiftbroom, complete with a show of other cool magic.
Now, what happened next varies a lot from telling to telling. There’s a lot of theories of what actually went down.
The most popular theory is that dumgolf chose this as the time to finally release magic. He either wanted it to be released all at once, or more likely was only wanting to create a small ‘leak’ so it wouldn't be noticed as quickly.
The second theory is that the stronghold was already reaching ‘critical mass’, and was already going to burst anyways. There’s at least one surviving account from one of the school’s headmasters that mentioned how dumgolf wasn't keen on being the one to do the Lunar Protection Spell that night, warning them about the potential imminent failure of the stronghold. Some say that, when his concerns were dismissed, he took that opportunity to finally break the stronghold himself.
Whatever it was…. It didn't matter. What happened next was where it all started…
… The moon suddenly turned red.
Everybody thought that this was part of the show at first; maybe dumgolf made a spell that temporarily changed the moon’s color, only making it locally visible to the school. But as everybody stared up into the sky in awe, dumgolf ran off, disappearing back into the building; the last time anybody would see him alive.
Meanwhile the first wave of monsters came. Some spawned into existence, seemingly coming out of nowhere. Others were mutants, the local wildlife and school’s class pets horrifically transformed into beasts. The monsters that were originally there before? they also mutated as well.
As the chaos unfolded, some of the more knowledgeable students thought that creating some of their own monsters themselves to counteract them was a good idea. At least that’s some speculation; we’re not sure about that part.
Whatever was the case, a massive domino effect was created.
The red moon would cause all magic strongholds to break and release their magic; starting with swiftbroom, and working its way across the globe. Every time that magic was released, it created monsters and whatever automated machines were near began to glitch out and act strange.
It was only until the next day that the last magic stronghold was finally destroyed by the red moon. By that point, there was nothing that was keeping magic contained now. It began flowing in all directions, spreading across the entire world. Embedding itself into everything it could. Some more than others.
And that, leads us to our next part….” papers flipped as she continued.
Formerly the “AI Uprising”, but later got changed to fit what actually happened more appropriately.
This was the longest stage in Armageddon. Because while the actual uplifting part only took days or weeks to happen, the aftermath?...... a three-year-long war ensued.
Magic was now everywhere. In the air, in the ground, in the water. It was starting to imbue itself into everything it can; some much more than others. And one of those things that it ended up really liking was automated machinery that had artificial intelligence in it….
And…. said magic really likes giving those with artificial intelligence something beyond their programming.
At first, it was just sentience. Something that could easily be ignored or claimed that it was just ‘glitching out’ or the AI learning things. But of course, things only got worse and more unexplainable when they started becoming more and more intelligent, eventually reaching sapience itself.
Now, what happened after the fact is a lot more complicated than just “man vs machine”. Because, we actually have a lot of accounts about this particular point in armageddon.
There was man vs machine, sure. Man already felt threatened by the encroaching machines and AI replacing them. And now that they were self-aware? Well, the fear reached it’s breaking point, and people began to try and attack the machines in question.
But machines also had issues with humanity. For those whose AI could store memories, they remembered how humans treated them; and it was often rather poorly. It only got worse when they did gain sapience, as it was clear that even when they showed undeniable proof of their self-awareness, the people in charge could care less. Expectantly, they too began to fight back as well.
But, remember what I said about how some people thought that semibots were gaining sentience beforehand? Well, it wasn't exclusive to semis. Actually, many machines that had the same if not similar AI and functions in them also gave other people that impression. Those people, in this case, considered themselves the most prepared; they not only jumped to the machine’s defense, but also fought alongside them against their oppressors.
Machines also had favorite people and groups too. Especially those that treated them nicely, even before the uplifting. They would protect those humans from the machines that wanted all humans gone.
And, of course, the one thing that people also tend to forget and ignore: both groups also fought with each other. Humans fought humans, machines fought machines.
And the semibots? They all became sapient. Every single one of them. They all were caught right in the middle of it.
Most were not built for combat. Many did not know how to fight back or defend themselves. Many still clung to their human owners since they didn't know what to do and, well, who else did they look up to to any sort of advice? The same spectrum of humanity’s reaction to the AI uplifting was still all the same; some still tried to defend their companions, others either destroyed them or tossed them away.
The Robot Uplifting, and the ensuing war between man and machine, would continue to last until the end of armageddon.
Speaking of Armageddon, we entered the next stage. Rita, any comment here?”
“...Hmm…. let’s see,” Rita responded, “I guess I could point out that the underground cities were a bit more willing to co-exist with the uplifted AI. if i recall correctly, many relied on these AI for maintaining the cities themselves, and also some were manufacturing AI themselves. I figured I'd mention that since your hometown was one of those cities.”
“I guess I can't entirely escape Pavlor…” feeva continued.
“Alright. Entered stage 3:
The third stage began about two months into the Robot Uprising.
Somewhere in only the utmost northest part of mainland Norway was Mcjanneck Station; something that was, more or less, a big old arctic research station. It was funded by both Denmark's and Greenland's governments, and it was used to study ice age permafrost and what lies underneath it.
Now, there are two version of events here, depending on when this part of the story was told:
What we first thought had happened was that they were digging into the ice and permafrost, when they found the body part of some unknown creature. As they began to defrost it, it released an unknown and deadly disease known as ‘Ormeed Disease”. This ice-age virus was deadly and caused mutations, and it would both kill everyone there and end up spreading to the rest of the world.
But…. that was what we thought must’ve happened. When we actually started to go through the station to recover any info regarding Ormeed disease, we started actually piecing together what really happened.
You see, the disease was already there long before Armageddon even began. It did come from the permafrost, but in the beginning only a small neighboring village originally caught it; Mcjanneck was just trying to study it as well as ensure that it didn't spread any further. Moreover, this initial strain of it wasn't as deadly or contagious at first; at least based on what records exist. You had to actually have contact with bodily fluids in order to contract it. And its symptoms were more or less ‘flu from hell’; it did kill a good few people as does any virus without a vaccine, but if caught early enough you could be treated for it and walk away just fine.
The Red Moon Event was definitely the first thing to go wrong. It caused the disease to split and mutate into three distinct groups:
The ‘common’ or ‘lesser’ strain was the one to first come out. All the same symptoms as the original disease, but now much more contagious. Truth be told, the station still tried their best, but the virus would still end up escaping. This would be the main strain that’d persist to this day.
The “deadly” or “greater” strain was what came next. All the same symptoms, cranked to eleven. Some died before they could even get the symptoms. Slightly less contagious, but still spread like crazy. This one has become much rarer nowadays.
The final one was the “mutational” or “monster” strain. As the name suggests, if you managed to survive, you certainly would start slowly transforming into god-knows-what; mostly what everyone else in the area was turning into. Even if you didn't mutate, your future children guaranteed it as they grew up. Even though the virus itself is gone, it still lives as a genetic mutation among humans.
I thank beryl for giving me this info, since she’s studied the virus... and was a victim to it.
But, anyway; back to the subject: the different strains of virus began to spread across the world, and each initial outbreak only caused more chaos and confusion. It spread from person to person, person to animal, animal to animal, and animal to person. Animals were most ‘immune’ to it; if anything, they either just got sick or mutated.
The Robot Uplifting clearly did not help; actually, it made it worse. Workplaces that relied on the robots to do everything now were running on the skeleton crew of humans, and said workplaces didn't care if you were sick. If anything, they probably thought that the so-called “AI uprising” would just blow over; either with the robots getting destroyed or they’d come crawling back. Either way, what few humans were left were forced into work, whether they were sick or not. And of course, that would cause Ormeed to spread even further.
eventually, our final stage of Armageddon happens…”
A final flipping of papers can be heard, before she continues.
We don't know why all the nukes went off.
No, that’s actually it; just when things couldn't get worse, everybody dropped the nukes. And, to this day, nobody is certain as to why.
The most popular theory is that this was viewed as one last desperate attempt to rid the earth of monsters and save humanity; or, what’s left of it. They may have known that the last bastion of humanity were all of the underground cities, and thus would be safe from both the nukes and the ensuing fallout. Some say this was a human-made decision, others say that it was made by the AI in charge, but either way it happened.
Now, this is common speculation, but the combination of nuclear radiation with the Ormeed virus and magic was the very last cause of monsters appearing. I say ‘speculation’ because by this point everybody was either dead, mutated, or were mostly safe underground. Very, very few unaffected humans remained on the surface, and there is some evidence they may have survived initially, but would eventually succumb to…well, take your pick at this point.
Anyways…i guess that does kinda wrap up armageddon. There is one more part to this though…uh…. Rita? Wanna take the controls over this one?”
“...supposed i could….” Rita responded, “and you can correct me on anything.”
With that, rita began her narration on the story.
“It was called “Operation Repossesion’. Or, ‘Operation Repo’, or simply just ‘Repo’. It was meant to kill numerous birds with one singular stone. Gathering resources from the surface, doing research, dealing with overpopulation and punishing criminals. It’s also where our final ‘plot twist’ in this story comes in…
…apparently….the government was also dealing with magic. They had their own magic strongholds, and had been diligently recording everything; scroll, spells, recipes. For a while now they knew something like a red moon event would happen. Why they didn't step in beforehand is anybody’s guess…perhaps money and power were enough to keep them at bay. But, now that those same money and powers are no longer there…they decided now the chance to finally start actually using that magic.
The first thing they did was try to make a way to save someone’s life from Ormeed. Soul transference was the biggest one; you, your conscience, got uploaded into the body of an automated machine; preferably something that doesn't restrict free movement. Your actual body didn't go to waste either; it would be used for research, and many would use it to actually create vaccines and cures for Ormeed, if not just find a way to better manage it. There were some issues, sure; amnesia was common in those that have been ‘robotized’, and I cannot imagine what those people felt after waking up from the process. But, for the time, it worked.
Secondly, it was learnt exactly why so many AIs became sentient and sapient; apparently, it has to do with the amount of computing power needed for these machines to function, and the general size, shape and mobility of said machines. Semibots all became sapient because they had all those desirable qualities to be uplifted; and to this day they still are because of it. Some AI, like us Armored Surface Vehicles, were unavoidably gonna become sapient regardless because we needed such powerful systems in order to function.
Anyways, the whole purpose of Operation Repossession was to, as the humans put it, ‘repossess the surface’. Resource gathering, research, decontamination. If they wanted something from the surface, they called upon us.
all of our teams were semibots. They were the most ‘simple’ robots to produce, easy and cheap, everywhere, and could be recycled if the body could still be salvaged. Half the time they were true ai, brought to life for the sole purpose of surface work. The other half included ex-humans. most of the time the ex-humans were criminals serving life sentences. Some of those former humans also came from de-population programs. They were all technically viewed as ‘disposable’, but we were encouraged to at least try and bring all our semis back in one piece. We didn't really have any ‘revivers’ like defibros or extractions at that time. Just the desperate hopes that whatever damage had occurred can be fixed.
Each of us ASVs had our own little hub, connected to other ASV’s hubs. It was where we trained newcomers, and it’s where we’d called ‘home’ when we weren't sent out anywhere. Our maintenance crew would vary depending on the individual; some like mine were humans, others were what few monsters were allowed into society at the time. Rarely were semibots part of that crew, though; they still weren't viewed all that great. Our hubs were where we used to get all of the upgrades and weapons, but they started setting up service stations to try and reduce the time spent at the hubs.
From my experience, I tried to keep my team alive. I learnt pretty quickly that the best way to keep your crew alive and in good spirits is to treat them like people and give them basic creature comforts whenever possible. It did help with some of the former humans seeing eye-to-eye with the true AI and vice versa. It also solidified me as ‘one of the good ones’ in terms of ASVs.
Taxman, on the otherhand…not so great.
Yes, I knew taxman. His hub was connected to mine. Somehow, he shoved his soul into an ASV of all things; he wasn't infected with Ormeed, but he was desperate to escape it since everyone else around him had succumbed to it. He was the first human to ever go through with robotization, the first human to become and ASV, and apparently he was, at the time, the most successful being that he retained all his memories and such.
Taxman never treated semibots like people. He still viewed them as machines. Viewed them as more disposable, but still was forced to try and keep his crew alive. He became infamous for being very controlling yet indifferent to his crew.
I think out of everyone that shared our headquarters there, I was the only one to try and befriend him. I guess I was the exception, since he was really friendly with me.
Things of course, as time went on, things began to change.
The underground cities began creating surface outposts. Then, they began to expand their civilizations outside onto the surface. Began to actually try and understand the monsters. Began to use robotization less as a punishment or solution to overpopulation, and more so as a general last-resort medical procedure. There’s a whole slew of other stuff too that began changing…that’s what I name off the top of my head.
Operation Repossession began to grow obsolete. well, at least with its original purpose. Most of us were either let go and sent to other jobs an ASV would be great at, or willingly left Operation Repossession. The jobs got more menial and repetitive for those that stayed.
Taxman handled it worse. He was already losing his sanity, already losing himself. It was a weird mix of him desperately wanting to be ‘human’ again and wanting to have more control and power. The day I was told I was being let go, I told taxman that he should also leave while he had the chance. He was too far in denial, though.
I’m not entirely sure what happened after I left. But, I do know that he eventually too was cut from his hub, and was left roaming the land. Sometimes the few ASV alive from back then would get a ping from taxman, but he almost never seemed to bother us. More or less just a reminder of him being alive.
Feeva, do you have anything else to say?”
She was quick to respond back “Oh, you’re not gonna get into the mythos part of taxman?”
“.... not really….” rita responded, “I know that the whole folklore surrounding him started long before he began to deteriorate. People knew him before they came to us. That’s how bad he was. Everything else…..eh. I don't care for it.”
“Ah…. I guess that wraps up this recording.
Well, that was armageddon… and the aftermath of it. I really hope that something is learned. There are some details here and there that I may have missed or left out for now. I’m gonna get a tanner to fix the camera issue before we go. If not, I'll just have to stick with it.”
And with that, the recording stopped.
______________________________
wow, look at that! i actually posted chapter zero of the repo fic!! and i even when a little further by making a cover art piece (don't expect to get that ever chapter though; i wanna retain some sanity and avoid total burnout).
i'll also post a redditor's digest version sometime. there are details that i missed that i couldn't quite shove in there or didn't want to, and the summery post will also show that as well.
in the meantime, the next post will be updated character references of our main five.
