I have safely made it home from California! For some reason, whenever I see or hear the word “California” I think of that kid from The Wizard. And that just sent me down a rabbit hole of looking into the cast of that movie. I didn’t realize that girl was the one from Troop Beverly Hills. Neat. 

Anyway — being as I was away, I obviously don’t have a whole lot to report. I couldn’t get much work done on the game itself, being as my notes were back in Baltimore and rendering on my laptop would be impossible. I did write out some conversations that I knew had to happen, so I can stick them into their scenes. I also put together the skeleton of the next Tales From Mythos story: “The Ascent of Hatshepsut”. That story is going to be very different, in that it won’t feature any characters currently seen in the games, stories, or even preview renders. Why write the story, then? Because it establishes the lore around a very central, important concept to the entire Mythos universe. I also wanted to write something in a totally ancient time period. 

Other than those little bits of things, there wasn’t much going on as far as Mythos goes. As such, if you only care about the game, you can stop reading here. The rest is just going to be some Nine ramblings. The last bit is going to be sad, too.

Meeting my niece and nephew for the first time was a fun adventure. I’m an only child, so this is a completely new concept to me. I decided to take on the role of “cool aunt that teaches some awful habits to the kids before flying back across the country to not deal with it.” My nephew (6) really loved playing with Legos with me, and I taught my niece (4) to point at people and shout “YOUUUUU!” in a menacing voice. Well… as menacing as she could be. It was actually just cute, but she did it incessantly by the time I left (at which point it stopped being my problem). I probably won’t get to see them very often at all, since traveling across the country is expensive and mentally taxing, but I’m glad I could have some effect on their development. Whether that effect was positive or negative is largely subjective, of course. 

We flew back home overnight on Monday, getting back to Baltimore on Tuesday morning. I was exhausted (I couldn’t sleep on the plane), and after being back home for a few hours, it finally hit me: my grandmother is gone. I didn’t have the stress of the trip or the company of family to distract me from it, so the revelation crashed down on me pretty hard. I had planned to get a flurry of work done, but I instead became a bit of a mess. It really does feel like every month of 2022 has given me some new horrible ordeal. I think I’ve come to terms with it now, and so I want to use this three day weekend to get caught up on working on the game.

I know I’m not a professional dev or anything; I’m just a hobbyist that wants people to read my stories. But I still feel obliged to provide for the Mythos fans out there, and I feel like I’ve been repeatedly dropping the ball on that. I’m trying to do better — let’s just hope no more awful shit happens this year.

Keep the legends alive!

– Nine