With this update I finished up my drafts of the remaining characters that debuted in the latest SPDU chapter.

	Auriga
	Lorraine Del Toro
	Wolfgang Galano

These were the trickiest articles of the characters to be introduced in that chapter. Some details feel shaky for Lorraine and Auriga that I'm not entirely confident about, but I think they fit well enough for now. I expect to refine them later. Each of these characters were slated to be introduced during OS★ Version 2, and their backstories are significantly different than what I previously planned.

The details about Wolfgang's backstory aren't entirely finalized either, but I considered that he could've been pressured to resign from Chariots of Colors because of legal issues that he got into of slander and libel when he was the face of the team. This references the codenames of the first PowerMacs and the lawsuit related to one of them, but can also reflect what can happen within a band if a bandmate gets into legal and publicity problems. He's also the first character to be introduced to have a skillset revoked; he was an Educator until his legal problems.

His situation with CC contrast with how his other team, The Defenestrators, are less concerned about bad publicity (and might even embrace it); they think the members CC and some of the other teams are too tied down by always being expected to maintain good publicity.

This project is still active, though I've recently been juggling another. When I do that, I try to leave off at a point that's easy to return to.

Is it a new year thing or me finally deciding to make this change I was thinking about despite the tedious process involved? In January I started sketching modifications to characters' designs so that the ones that don't have animal features have hardware headpieces instead; these might look like hair clips, robot antennae for ears, or like headbands depending on the character.

Which one I choose for them usually depends on: if I want them to be able to wear earrings and an option that'd be easily visible with their hairstyle.

I started with some of the PDP-based characters since their headpieces are easily based off of the hardware and I tried drawing two styles at different angles to show how they’d look.

Many times before this, I thought back and forth about implementing this redesign and decided against it since I'd have to update several illustrations when I was so focused on just moving forward. I'm probably going to have to do that anyways. Still, I'd rather be moving forward, but I feel strongly enough I was missing an opportunity to give characters a more cybernetic look to fit the theme of the setting that I'd be willing to go back and update the illustrations. I plan to do this while still moving forward with more stories and characters.

Since Version 2, I also went back and forth on whether the characters having white pupils is just part of a stylistic choice inspired by 1980's anime, or reflect the characters having glowing cybernetic eyes and went back to the latter because I think it's cool.

This gives each of the characters at least two immediately visible traits with their appearances that distinguish them from humans. Adding things because they're cool can be tricky and I learned that the hard way before. With adding features, I'll simplify some characters' outfits a bit to keep the overall complexity of their designs the same and to avoid repeating my past mistake of making designs that are difficult for me to draw consistently.

Multiplicia's redesign changes her bow into a hardware-based headpiece. Hers even has glowing lines on the bow and a power light in the middle. Some more sketches will be coming for more characters.

I also resumed drafting chapter 15 of I Was a Software Developer... since it's been so long since I published the latest chapter. The front page updates from before December have been moved to the Archive page. Since that page is getting long, I'll need to think about splitting it off before it gets out of hand.

I've been on a roll with writing for the past month or so despite some very busy times with other things, and it's culminated in the publishing of Same Place, Different Universe chapter 9, more articles for the wiki and drafts for more.

📄 The Defenestrators

📄 Early OS Hobbyist Movements

The Defenestrators is the team that was featured in SPDU chapter 9. I published articles for three of its members and have drafts for three more. Two of those drafts are close to being finished. Among my next updates will also be the first articles for organizations in the Fragments Reloaded continuity since I have enough information for them.

Since their team article has been published, I'll also need to update Chariots of Colors' with information about their relation to The Defenestrators, and have more to add to my drafts of some other team articles.

The article of the Early OS Hobbyist Movements is of movements and events based on the 1970's Microcomputer Revolution, but it also references early kit computers from before then.

I had a half-written draft of it for quite a while that I finished up to clear another item on my to-do list. Characters representing early microcomputers are mentioned in this article. Alastriona, Diana and Trish were mentioned by name since they had a webnovel appearance. Most of the information in the article is based on what has already been shown or mentioned in story chapters. It'll continue to be updated with more story appearances, and when more names characters that were involved appear.

Capucine is still the name I have planned for a CP/M character. General ideas I had for her may carry over from Version 2, but I expect that some specific details will change when she's written into a story.

Kenneth is the name I have planned for a Kenbak-1 character. His role might be similar to what I had planned during Version 2, but I also expect that specific details might change. I expect that Alastriona's characterization may change for Version 3, but what was shown from her appearance in I Was a Software Developer... chapters 5 and 6 still hold up.

During the development of Version 2, this and the 1980's were the time periods I was the most focused on. Although I want to introduce (or re-introduce) characters through stories now, I should finish IWASD and/or Same Place, Different Universe first but I say that while I still have notes for more story ideas that came to my mind 🙃

The first versions of articles for three of The Defenestrators members have been published:

	Arke Economou
	Marilyn Dawson-Economou
	Priscilla C. Dawson

Priscilla's design remains nearly unchanged from her Version 2 introduction, though Marilyn's has been updated with 2000's fashion. There was a change with Priscilla's characterization; during Version 2, I thought over whether she would've been a reluctant member of The Defenestrators who only tagged along because of Marilyn founding it but eventually made the best of it, or if she went all-in with being a member that also appeared on stage.

I decided on the latter in Version 3 since I thought that'd be more fun for me to portray, and I like the contrast with the image she usually has compared to her more expressive self that appears on stage.

The trivia section in Arke's article mentions she may have previously been a Developer that knew Marilyn. That's not finalized but I’m leaning towards it because I like the idea of Arke going from having a mentor role to Marilyn in the past to Marilyn becoming her mentor after becoming an OS. However I also like the idea of Arke being an ascended fangirl of the The Defenestrators that got to join them 😭

If not her, then at least one or a few other characters could have being an ascended fan joining that team as part of their backstories.

When I was drafting Marilyn's article, I considered including details about the incidents that led to her leaving DISKTEAM, or if I should write a short story (and try to keep it a short story!) that shows what happened first and then cite it in the article 🤔

Her article was fairly easy to write this time with the approach I've been taking. During Version 2 and the approach I used for writing character pages then, hers was one of the most difficult 😩

Chapter 9 of Same Place, Different Universe is published as the first major update of the year! The Defenestrators are featured in this chapter through a TV appearance, and with it some characters that previously only had cameo appearances now appear! Their appearance points to the next location that'll be featured in the story, which will lead to a carnival hosted by the Misfired Circuits Troupe. A few characters from that team were featured before in Version 2, with plans to be re-introduced. I still haven't forgotten about the plot point of SPDU; there's just a bit of a detour introducing characters from other teams.

📄 Title: Will You Be Going to the Carnival?

During the writing of this chapter, I needed to make a decision on whether to make separate characters for OS/2's successors (eComStation and ArcaOS) or whether Marilyn would also represent them. I thought this over through a lot of reading and note taking.

My process for thinking this over had a lot of reading and note taking. I looked again at OS/2's, eComStation's and ArcaOS's histories and features; my deciding factor on making a separate ArcaOS character was some quotes from the official ArcaOS website:

"This isn't your grandfather's OS/2." "ArcaOS is more compatible with modern hardware, makes more efficient use of memory and system resources, and installs more easily than any other OS/2 distribution... ever. Really."

I immediately had the idea that Arke is very resourceful, adaptable and eager to help and that she'd have a futuristic-style outfit. She may have previously been a Developer that worked with Marilyn and admires her, but is also snarky about things she thinks are outdated, which includes Marilyn's style. They have a rivalry with each other, but it's in jest and they'd be vitriolic best friends. When Arke debuted, she became the new lead singer. Marilyn stepped down since she initiated Arke as her successor for that role, but remains an active member on stage and behind the scenes.

Marilyn also represents eComStation since I wanted to reference eCS' role as OS/2's first successor but I didn't quite have enough ideas for a separate character that'd have a significant role and not seem redundant to Arke. Whenever possible, I try to avoid designing characters that don't have many ideas for. I also saw this as a chance to show Marilyn trying to keep up with the times more without giving up what her dedicated supporters liked about her. This is reflected in her updated design for Version 3, which is based off of 2000's fashion.

Had I started this project before ArcaOS was released, I would've had a separate eComStation character that would've had Arke's role. She might've also represented ArcaOS after it was released to continue that role.

I also had to make some final decisions for Auriga, Lorraine and Wolfgang.

Auriga:

Deciding which team she was still in as of SPDU's timeframe would've impacted how she'd appear in it. There are several possibilities that each would've worked, but could've affected a few other characters. Throughout the time she's been an OS, she's been a member of The Awks, Chariots of Colors, The Defenestrators and Highway to Shell. Her times with The Awks and Highway to Shell didn't work out for her that she's surprised that any later members of CC are interested in working with them!

• I toyed around with the angle that she joined the Misfired Circuits Troupe either relatively recently, or in the mid-90's after she left The Defenestrators. If she left that early, she could've been one of the Troupe's co-founders. The latter decision would've impacted Edna's role (the former CC member that co-founded the Troupe) and might've led her to be dropped out of the Version 3 continuity since Auriga would've replaced her for that role. If that happened, Edna's character and Misa's might've been merged to avoid redundancy.
• She could've stayed solely with CC afterwards, and I thought about what she would've tried to do. One possibility is that she went back to work in The Orchard's space program.
• I ultimately decided that she returned to The Defenestrators. My decision was influenced by me wanting to balance out their line-up more by having 2 former(?) CC members instead of just one. Story-wise, it's also to show that this team successfully made amends with at least one of its members that previously left it on not so good terms, but not all of them.

Lorraine and Wolfgang:

• Finalizing both of their designs. I decided on the themes of their outfits, but struggled with the specifics for so long. Lorraine's was one of the most difficult for me to decide on, and I made several preliminary sketches before an idea clicked.
• Since Version 1, I wanted for Wolfgang to have an outfit that blends 18th century menswear with punk fashion, but couldn't decide if that'd be his normal outfit. I decided on his normal outfit being influenced by 90's punk, and his performance outfit with The Defenestrators being more based on my Version 1 concept.

With these decisions and the time spent on these illustrations, something had to not make the cut. I had plans for an illustration at the start of the chapter, but skipped it due to time 😔 It would've shown Mi-ho and Clarkia teaming up, with spray bottles in hand as they wipe down a room in a theatrical fashion. I see Mi-ho as the type who'd try to make mundane things awesome and I would've liked to illustrate that.

The wiki will soon be updated with information from this chapter and articles for the characters that were introduced in this chapter are being drafted.

Same Place, Different Universe Chapter 9 WIP 3

The illustrations for this chapter are mostly finished, if I leave out the one or two others that I had planned at the start. I might leave them out and sketch them later since the illustrations I've been working on featuring The Defenestrators members are so ambitious.

This WIP is part of the illustration of Lorraine and Wolfgang in their performance outfits; Lorraine was edited to be a silhouette here to give only a teaser of what her outfit and hairstyle will look like since her normal design appeared in the previous WIP. Wolfgang’s normal design will be shown after the chapter is published.

His outfit is based on 18th century formal menswear fused with punk. I had this general idea for his design in Version 1, but never got to drawing him in this until now.

The updates before November were moved to the Archives page.

Just in time for the end of the year, the post about my progress for OS through 2025 has been published!

📄 Development in review: 2025

It's been a wild ride this year with many struggles and breakthroughs; the excitement I started with to continue Version 3 started to give way to frustration in February and March until I launched the wiki. When I looked through the updates from this year, I saw how I started with a lot of difficulty drawing and worked my way back up to most of what I could previously do. 2025 is when I shifted towards being a webnovel writer and illustrator. It's still bittersweet to me since I used to be able to draw more frequently, but my shift towards writing helps me get ideas through stories out more quickly than I could before. Through drawing a few illustrations for most chapters, I can still draw for the stories I want to tell.

This update is also mirrored on the blog which links to several posts. The version on the site doesn't have links yet since I'll be mirroring the posts on a new page on the site, and it's going to take a while. So many paragraphs that I'll have to manually format like what I do for each webnovel chapter, but at least 10-fold 🙃

The first major update of 2026 will be finishing and publishing SPDU chapter 9. After that I'll focus on finishing that pages of mirrored update posts, and clearing out more of my remaining to-do list that piled up since November:

• Continue illustrations for SPDU chapter 9 and finish the draft of the chapter
• Draft articles for some of the Fragments Reloaded organizations that have been mentioned or featured in SPDU
• Continue draft of IWASD chapter 15 and start illustrations
• Finish the article draft about my old setting from 2019
• Finish drafting the article about the differences between the OS and FR continuities
• Finish the article draft about the counterculture and movement based on the Microcomputer Revolution; based on details that have been shown in stories so far

I was focusing on finishing the illustrations for chapter 9 of Same Place, Different Universe, but a couple of days ago I had the impromptu idea to write a post about my progress and review of work on the Operating Superstars project for this year. Since I worked on it so much throughout, I could draft sections for each of the months.

The draft has been fully written, but I just need to format it to HTML before publishing it.

This'll be my last major update of the year and I plan for chapter 9 of SPDU to be the first one of the new year!

Same Place, Different Universe Chapter 9 WIP 2

This WIP features a backdrop that'll be used in some of the illustrations, and showcase a character that'll appear in the chapter! I probably spent way more time than needed on the backdrop, but I still liked how it turned out 🥲

The Defenestrators will appear on TV in the chapter, and some of the illustrations are scenes filmed against this backdrop. I used BlenderKit models and modeled a few buildings from scratch for it. When I exported the render, I added a posterize filter to make the colors flatter and more abstract, and painted a watercolor effect in the sky.

Since it'll still be a while before the drawings for this chapter are all ready, I'm sharing an early preview of one of the characters to be introduced:

Lorraine Del Toro (Commodore-era Amiga) is one of the members of The Defenestrators, as a reference to IBM and Commodore licensing technology from each other to be used in AmigaOS and OS/2 in the 90's. The team sought out for her talents, while Ready Fleet's (her own team's) future was at that point uncertain. The design for her normal outfit is mostly finalized and has what I intended for her; 80's glam punk fashion with industrial elements and somehow incorporates the swallowtail motif in her outfit. I also wanted to add a bow in her hair or add goggles, but I'm not fully decided if I will. The line art hasn't been adjusted yet.

Her performance outfit that'll be in an illustration will be more heavily glam punk and resemble a ball gown. She's one of the characters that I had design ideas for but really struggled to come up with a solid design until something clicked while I tried again sketching out several possible outfit variants. One of the issues I got stuck on was where to put the red and white checkered pattern; I wanted to include it but also keep her outfit easy to draw to avoid the frustration I faced with designing outfits that were difficult to draw consistently.

She's also one of the members of Demoscene Derby due to the Amiga's widely known demoscene productions and that she'd fit in very well with this club's philosophies.

Lorraine is one of the characters that I made breakthroughs for while I was drawing the illustrations for this chapter; I also made them for Wolfgang's design and for another teammate whose characterization I struggled a lot with. This chapter has been difficult, but it helped me reach decisions I needed to make so those characters can appear.

A WIP of chapter 9 of Same Place, Different Universe was added to the sidebar, and it marks Priscilla's and Marilyn's first drawn appearances in Version 3! Previously they had a few cameo appearances.

These are their performance outfits with The Defenestrators, the team they originally co-founded to challenge Defending Waits for Nobody. Although the team didn’t succeed in its original goal, its members still enjoy success through the loyal following of supporters that they have.

Each of the members' performance outfits follow a general theme of punk and incorporating the team colors (blue, orange and black), but there are differences reflecting each of their styles. I tried to go for a nerdcore and punk look with Marilyn’s performance outfit. Priscilla's is modeled after a business suit, and she styled her hair.

Marilyn's and Priscilla's Version 2 designs are included here for comparison:

I have plans to adjust Marilyn's regular outfit to take cues from nerdcore and 2000's fashion; hers will be a bit more modern since she also represents eComStation (OS/2's first successor; it was actively developed through the 2000's). Priscilla's outfit will be the same as before but with a small change or two.

If I'm finalizing Marilyn's hair being purple now, it'll also have teal streaks since I like both equally. It could also be that she originally had teal hair when she became an OS, but later changed it when she tried to re-invent herself during the OS/2 Warp era. 🤔

This'll be a very ambitious chapter; The Defenestrators make an appearance and I'll be making illustrations that feature six of its members in their performance outfits while I also try to finalize their normal outfits for their drawings that’ll be in their articles.

A few updates have also been moved to the Archives page.

These are the articles for two characters that were introduced in chapter 5 of Same Place, Different Universe. Finishing these are part of the catching up to do before I'm ready to continue chapter 9 by clearing more tasks off of my to-do list for the project.

	Pearl
	Clarkia Nieves

Pearl (iPhone 6/6s) is the teammate that Kiah works with the most. She is polite and helpful, and skillful at breaking up conflicts. She is an influential fashion designer and interior decorator and started at least one fashion trend within her sector and beyond; this references the rise of Millennial Pink and the popularity of rose gold as a color option for hardware which the iPhone 6s is widely credited for. I included multiple references about that in her article.

Clarkia (macOS Sierra and High Sierra) is Kiah's rival within Chariots of Colors; Kiah is her predecessor and their rivalry is inspired by some archetypes that are popular in shounen anime. In particular I'd say that Asta's and Yuno's rivalry in Black Clover would be an inspiration. Clarkia is prim and proper, but comically serious and has a sense of humor that’s different from what she usually lets on. *hint* It's inspired by High Sierra's announcement in WWDC.

Updates to the wiki with info from chapter 8 have been finished! One of the next updates to it after the newest character articles will be a worldbuilding article about the counterculture that corresponds to the Microcomputer Revolution since some details about it have been mentioned before in IWASD.

A long rambly follow-up to the the update from the 27th: What a great surprise it was when I was reading Introduction to Multics, which I quoted some sections as references in Multi's article. One of those quotes was of Multics' developers acknowledging that developers of other OSes aimed towards different goals or had smaller-scale implementations were all valuable in exploring various complex ideas to work towards the future!

That's an attitude I try to live up to and the quote I read is one of the first times I've seen this attitude put into words so concisely! It also reminds me of a few more things: It reminds me of the tech personification concept itself since it thrives on a variety of approaches to reach its fullest potential, and of how my own approach towards it is complex (yet *again*), but I don't expect all other creators of their own characters and settings based in this concept to try this. Nor do I see simpler or smaller scale projects as lesser.

Definitely not! I want to make all of this clear. There was a false dichotomy I used to believe in within a subset of the community; I supported the option that I thought encouraged more creativity and cooperation as opposed to sticking only with one small "canon", but long since realized that was part of a false dichotomy; there are many ways to encourage more creativity, not just one. It seemed then there were only two options and I forgot the spontaneity that used to exist. I presume that enough people forgot this back then which led to that false dichotomy (a single canon only vs. an expanded universe) existing in the first place.

Tech personification characters were always meant to be a versatile concept. The same references can be interpreted in different ways by creators and fans which reflects many possibilities, and that's a strength. The variety of ideas and approaches are key and not everything needs to be complex nor on a large scale. It's just... I keep gravitating towards doing things in overly complex ways and have wanted to take simpler approaches that accomplish what I want. When I realize there's a simpler one, it's usually while I'm well in the middle of a complex project 🙃

Same Place, Different Universe is an example of this. It was meant to be a short story that gave a glimpse into repurposed older ideas and show the contrast of them. I have no regrets with how it turned out as another introductory story that introduced a lot of worldbuilding and characters I might not have gotten to, but sometimes I wish I can start a project that I intended to be simple and keep it that way! This increased complexity worked out for SPDU, but it doesn't always work out.

Content warning: Talk about burnout. Highlight the text below to read it.

The webtoon I used to work on crashed and burned from its complexity. I worked on it frequently for the past few years until last November, giving it my all every single time. Somehow I did and could keep up my morale for it when a monthly update schedule became the most I could hope for, but by the end of the year, continuing it in that form no longer felt sustainable. It felt like I just couldn't do it anymore and still feel like I can't. I still think about it and incorporating what I already wrote, and have some new ideas to go with them. It's a matter of piecing them together and would want to try again through an illustrated webnovel format like I do for Operating Superstars.

OS★ Version 1 also succumbed to being too complex in that it sprawled everywhere aimlessly while I tried to reference everything I knew about computing history while I kept learning more. Version 2 mostly avoided that pitfall but it was too complex in other ways that frustrated me.

The existence of Fragments Reloaded is another complex project that became me trying to work on two different universes based on the same concept at once since some ideas I wanted to revisit wouldn't fit the tone I intend for OS★. I plan to keep the difficulty and complexity of it and the main universe in check by choosing what I'll portray and what can be left to interpretation, and where to diverge from computing history. Some characters in either are mentioned only in passing, and this all depends on which characters I have the most story ideas for.

With a story idea I suddenly thought up within the past week, I'm trying to intentionally keep it simple. I'm trying to have it introduce more characters and worldbuilding details, but also not be several chapters long and to limit the scope.