Just read your ROTW fic. Absolutely loved it!
I have a question though: How did Wally and Shaun got out? Did they go through the same as the others?
Hi there! I’m glad you enjoyed it, even after all these years it makes me happy people are still reading it even if my interests have moved on :) that story was a huge project that I still cherish!
When it came to Wally and Shaun, it was a mix of I wasn’t sure how I wanted to fit them in because like a lot of the other minor characters they didn’t have a ton going on so it was hard to figure out where to put them! So I decided to give them a really important “later” role I felt fit their situation: reintegration of the others as guiding Shepards into the real world! They sounded like they were some of the first who might’ve left or gotten fired or something anyways due to their audio logs- at least in Wally’s case because he had the wedding card and such. I threw in Shaun with him because some people had the idea it was them that married haha.
They kind of “got out” in the beginning a long time ago in a sense where the machine spat them both out before they could get fully sucked into the simulation studio- Wally’s funny catch phrase I felt made it appropriate that he would be the escape artist who got out first on technicalities and took a friend with him. If I had to make up a real reason I guess his pure soul and determination made the machine unable to hold him I suppose, but I haven’t entirely considered the details to be quite honest haha. Just picture it this way: when everything went wrong, those two got spat out from the start partially on purpose part on accident and they spent their time figuring out how to be ink people in the real world while also trying to figure out where the others went!
Wally never gave up on trying despite Shaun being quite over it having been quite some time passed after they were freed, but hey Wally’s patience paid off :) hope that gives you something of an answer! It’s been some years since I wrote that story but again I thank you for reading it 💕 take care!
