Chapter 7 of Same Place, Different Universe has been published, and there's a lot of commentary to go with it! I spent quite a bit of time writing this and making a few last-minute additions to the chapter before I was ready to publish it.

This one mostly takes a turn for the serious for what the recordings mention, and the disagreements between the two characters listening to them. One was over whether this research as a detached observer was necessary or it's callous. Another was whether Marcia continues to infiltrate her team's other universe counterpart alone to avoid endangering anyone else, or for others to go with her since the team's counterpart is highly militaristic.

In the recordings, I intended to portray the character that made them as a very conflicted person that struggles with her loyalty to POMME vs. her discontent that led her to nearly leave vs. her resentment towards Concordia vs. wanting her approval. There's also a conflict over POMME being a close-knit organization for so long and that it is in the process of being undone as more of its older members have left. Concordia is supposed to be a divisive character through how she’s been mentioned. I’d like to get to a chapter where she appears, and there might be a chance for that.

I usually try to avoid mood whiplash within the same chapter, but it happened when I added the silly scene with Mi-ho and Clarkia. That scene with them was meant to lighten tone of the chapter a bit so it wasn't all serious.

This chapter reveals that most of the older POMME members left for Scrap Heap, which is the main vintage computing-based organization.

Scrap Heap is very helpful, but tends to be looked down on by the more powerful organizations for its scrappy, thrifty image that's a far cry from that of the big corporate-based organizations (i.e: POMME, Ministry of Panes). It's come a long way from how it started in membership, resources and popularity, which reflects how retrocomputing grew a lot and gained a lot more resources during the 2010's, but still struggles with having an image that deters some OSes from joining who wanted to join it and would benefitted.

The character who made the recordings is one of those OSes. She acknowledges that her older relatives that left for it might be happier there, but can't bring herself to join them because of their image. This could also show that pridefulness as a flaw, since she thinks she'll lose her self-respect, though this is brought about by the stigmas that joining Scrap Heap has.

In Fragments Reloaded, POMME and MoP are influenced more heavily by contemporary Apple and Microsoft respectively and the attitude of "latest is greatest" that obsolete members are pressured to keep up with, and rely heavily on the popularity they can keep.

This contrasts with the Operating Superstars continuity, which has shown several earlier Chariots of Colors members still happily being active members (as of 2017 when Same Place, Different Universe takes place). I haven't really shown much of Defending Waits for Nobody yet, but several of its earlier members are also still happily active members of it. In this setting, these teams and their communities have larger influences from the vintage Mac and Windows users. That's not to say there's no conflict within these teams nor struggles with OSes that are no longer current keeping fans, but that this is considerably less bleak than in the FR continuity.

As of Operating Superstars Version 3, there are a few dedicated retrocomputing-based clubs. Many of the earlier CC and DWN members are dual members of their teams at least one of them which may be based around nostalgia, research, demonstrations of retro art and retro technology.

The narration also revealed another worldbuilding detail; POMME had a time in its history when its members nearly lost everything and had to regain it back: "We've been through so much. We had rivalries we put aside, we lost a lot together, we more than regained it together."

That's in reference to the "OS Wars" of the 90's when Apple nearly met its demise, but rebuilt afterwards and made a comeback. The narration mentions that Chariots of Colors also had a time when its future was uncertain, but that they also made comeback. However, I intentionally keep specific details about the conflicts during that timeframe vague in Operating Superstars Version 3, whether the hostilities that erupted involved combat or didn't. Admittedly, I’ve been indecisive about this for Version 3 since the start.

If they didn't (and I’m leaning towards it not, since I'm still leaning towards Fragments Reloaded covering the "OS Wars as a war" angle), then CC still struggled a lot with an uncertain future and could’ve come close to disbanding from a loss of morale and other losses from strategies that backfired. With that angle, I was thinking about how Apple's and the Mac's near demise wasn't just because of Windows 95 being so successful, but there were several issues within Apple's strategies failing.

A WIP was added for chapter 7 of Same Place, Different Universe. As of when this was posted, the draft for that chapter is mostly finished and I vectored the illustrations. The shading, line art tweaks and any effects in the last step are all that need to be done.

While I was working on Same Place, Different Universe, I didn't forget about these characters or two more I drafted articles for the project wiki, but since I'm back to working on I Was a Software Developer... for now, it felt easier to finish these:

	Piritta Olson
	Olympia Lincoln

Piritta (PDP-6, PDP-10 series and TOPS-10) and Olympia (PDP-12).

Piritta is a highly influential engineer that is very friendly and polite but has a rebellious side; she contributed to two countercultures which correspond to the Hacker Culture that started in the 1960's, and the Microcomputer Revolution in the 1970's. The latter was through a collaboration due to Altair BASIC being written on a PDP-10. These countercultures challenged what kind of work was acceptable for OSes to do to be accepted in Techlandian society.

This is just for story purposes, but she's a former member of her sector's most formidable Warrior guild before she left it to become an OS and join the Programmable Darling Patrol.

Olympia is admittedly a member of the PrDP that in some ways struggles to stand out, and she is rather reclusive. However, she is liked by many people who worked with her; she is skilled at adapting her style to work with a wide range of students. Adaptability is her strength, though it can also make it more difficult for her to stand out; the PDP-12 had one of the shortest production runs of the PDP line-up, and it can run PDP-8 software, but the PDP-8 was still widely used when the 12 was released.

The next character articles will be for Gerald and Multiplicia. I intended to publish their articles earlier but got caught up in finishing the latest story chapters.

I updated each of the articles for the characters that appeared with information from chapter 14.

In time for Halloween with a little time to spare! Chapter 14 of I Was a Software Developer... is published. I updated the story section above and moved the listing for chapter 13 to the Archives page.

I posted this chapter with only one illustration since it's a larger than usual one to finish it by Halloween, but I still hope to at a later time make a render of the teleporter or of the console the characters used to operate it.

However, the next chapter will continue into this event since I had more ideas that were enough to be split into another.

Many characters appeared in this chapter; it also reveals worldbuilding details about the process of teleporting to the Human World. There'll be a lot of articles to be updated on the wiki with info from this chapter. It was tense for Damien to enter the room with the teleporter that led him to receive the tape that that took him to Techlandia, which led to his life to change forever! The conversation between him and Piroska highlights the similarities and differences in their situations as arrivals from the Human World.

Returning for this party would be bittersweet for them in different ways, but they still hope to have fun there. It may also be a challenge for Juna, due to her limited knowledge of the Human World, but she needs to go with since she's Damien's mentor.

I Was a Software Developer... Chapter 14 WIP 2

Before the Halloween party in the Human World that Damien will be going to, the Programmable Darling Patrol host their own:

Piroska and I readied ourselves to walk into the lobby room where the other OSes were waiting to see our costumes. She stepped in to it first and was dressed in a tattered gray shirt with faded gray-red slacks and scuffed dark gray boots, and had fake metal bolts fixed to the sides of her head and neck. Her hair looked disheveled, but she intentionally styled it this way. She also used a pale green make-up on herself to look paler and deathly, and to draw stitches on her face and arms.

"How does this creation look?" She asked and posed. The other OSes met her costume with applause. "Your turn!" She then said to me.

"Alright!" I said and stepped into the room. I was surprised to see the other OSes dressed in their own costumes; Piper was dressed as a ghostly train conductor, Polyxena was dressed as a vampire with an elegant dress and cape, Etta was dressed as a pirate. Phuong was dressed as a plague doctor with an oversized syringe as a prop, Piritta was dressed as a robot, Olympia was dressed as a fairy with a green and brown dress and leaf-patterned wings, and Valencia was dressed as a mermaid, but she claimed to be a siren that led sailors to their doom.

I dressed in a red suit with a dark red shirt and a black tie with a red hash pattern on it, and held a golden trident. On my head I had red devil horns. I also struck a pose. "Am I cool enough to make a deal with?" I remarked.

Everyone applauded, but I heard Piroska and Piper laughing. "What's so funny?" I asked.

"You forgot to change out of your sneakers!" Piroska said. I looked down and saw that she was right. I briefly felt mortified as I saw that I was still wearing my green and white sneakers, which because of their bright green color and being slightly scuffed, stuck out like a sore thumb to the rest of my costume!

"Damn, I forgot to change out of those!" I said.

"Couldn't you say you're dressed in business casual?" Piper mischievously said.

"Yes. I could! If I can be anything for Halloween, why not be a fashion victim?" I said and chuckled.

Juna walked into the room, dressed as a witch. Her costume also garnered applause from everyone else, and me. However, I was surprised by it a lot. Being dressed as either a witch or wizard was what I thought she'd most likely dress as for a Halloween party, but her costume was fancy.

I added a WIP for chapter 14 of I Was a Software Developer.... Although I was still focused on SPDU, I shifted back to working on IWASD since the next chapter takes place in a Halloween party and I hope I can finish the chapter, or at least the illustration by Halloween.

This'll be part of a larger than usual illustration with full-body drawings to show off the costumes. Someone else will also be with them...

Chapter 6 of Same Place, Different Universe has been published.

Marcia and Antares begin listening to the tape. Before starting to listen to it, there were second thoughts; Marcia worried again about the ethics of her adventures, and if Antares, who is a newcomer to TIMES would be prepared for this.

Several articles on the project wiki will be updated with information from this chapter. The Archives page has been updated with chapter 5.

The renders were straightforward and I didn't have any issues with Blender freezing this time! I was worried since it seemed like my computer I've been using for years became less reliable.

However, there's an issue I haven't been able to resolve on the meeting room render where enabling the "Shadows" option the Render properties tab causes a circular shadow on the table to appear when a light is shining directly above it without anything else in the way. Turning off the "Shadows" option fixed that, but it removed shadows that I wanted, so I spliced two renders together.

Same Place, Different Universe Chapter 6 WIP 2

I'm finished with the draft for this chapter and just need to finish the illustrations. The illustrations are in-progress and I'm continuing the drafts for chapters 8 and 9. Chapter 8 has been tricky with what to include, that I cut out a scene that I started writing for it which would've introduced another character, but I might be able to repurpose it later.

One year ago today, I published the first chapter of Same Place, Different Universe! Before I started this, I wanted to write a short story about someone in Operating Superstars getting a glimpse of another universe based on the predecessor project I had in 2019. This was just going to be a drawing or two with a 1 or 2 chapter story, but it became much more ambitious and complex than I planned.

After it went beyond two chapters, I planned for it to be 5 chapters, but it grew beyond that too; in chapter 3, I started making illustrations for each chapter, featuring more characters and saw this story as a way to introduce more of them.

This is because my approach to introducing characters changed between when I wrote chapters 2 and 3. My approach to introducing characters is consistently through their appearances in stories. In a way it's trickier; there are characters I still want to introduce but I feel that I must wait until I can feature them in a story, but it's also worked more smoothly for me when ironing out details about their characterizations that I might not have otherwise thought of.

Sometimes I feel like stories in this project and the characters write themselves! As I'm writing this, I'm up to chapter 8 drafted and this short story turned into a webnovel.

Same Place, Different Universe Chapter 6 WIP 1

One of the illustrations for this chapter will be a render of this room. This is close to final, but I still need to modify some of these materials to be cel-shaded.

Modeling rooms in this team’s headquarters is challenging, but it can be fun to experiment with different room color schemes. With this color scheme, I intended for it to balance being calm through the purple and beige, with being energizing with yellow as the primary accent color and orange as the secondary accent color.

The Update Log page got long enough that I moved the first few entries to the Archives page.

Chapter 5 of Same Place, Different Universeis published, and along with it, the the Archives page was updated with the announcement from chapter 4.

Several articles on the wiki will be updated with information from this chapter. It's another silly chapter, but leads into a major plot point.

The 3D modeled backgrounds for two of the illustration are ones I'm proud of but also frustrated by; the render of the hallway turned out rougher than usual and I had to manually draw in several lines and it's obvious where I needed to draw them in when I was making the final edits. One of them was that I forgot to add the bottom of the cafeteria windows to both sides; they're in the model of the cafeteria, and I forgot that I didn't add them until after I rendered that hallway which took a few tries 🫠

I spent a lot of time finding the materials that I thought would've been the best fit for parts of Chariots of Colors' headquarters, but when I saw that multicolor tile material that I chose for an accent wall, I immediately thought to include it somewhere in their HQ!

Two characters were introduced in this chapter; Pearl and Clarkia. Pearl (iPhone 6/6s) is a fashion designer and interior decorator. She became influential since the 6s popularized rose gold as a color option, which may have also influenced the popularity of "Millennial Pink" as an interior decor color. Her name indirectly fits the number theme naming that most of the iPhone characters have; Pearl is one of the gemstones for the month of June, and the color options of the 6 and 6s are not unlike the colors that pearls can naturally have.

From Fiore's appearance in this chapter, I now think of her as someone who is often terrified of social interactions and dislikes public speaking, but has a fearless side when flying planes, hang-gliding or being aboard a space station.

Several articles on the wiki will be updated with information from this chapter.

Same Place, Different Universe Chapter 5, WIP 2; From being previously mentioned, to her first story appearance is Clarkia (macOS 10.12 Sierra and 10.13 High Sierra)! She tends to go by her middle name of Sierra. Her first name is named after the clarkia xantiana, one of the flowers native to the Sierra Nevada area.

She was previously mentioned in Kiah's article as her rival. I wasn't sure then if I'd get to introducing her in this chapter, but I found a way! Her design combines the color schemes of Sierra's and High Sierra's default wallpapers since it felt too limiting to just use the color scheme of the High Sierra wallpaper.

Sierra contrasts with Kiah by being more talented as a combatant and has a tough but prim personality, but she dislikes being accused of coasting by on her talents so she also takes the rivalry with Kiah seriously. However, she isn’t always as serious as she tries to appear.

This entry covers a couple of the most recent updates. The first version of the article about the mysterious ghost data has been published, which is a detail that was first mentioned in chapter 13 of IWASD:

Ghost Data

The article for Ximena has also been published; Her overworld image shows her design as an OS, which is similar to her Version 2 design. There's a lot I'll still need to finalize as I think over more details as shown by the sheer number of things listed in the "Details Not Finalized" template. I'm confident in the concept of her being a crafter of custom gear, a shop owner that joined The Awks when she became an OS but also founded her own team.

Her decision to form her own team could reflect disagreements that she had with The Awks, yet she might've tried to keep a dual membership (at first...) since Xenix was the most widely sold UNIX version in the 1980's. However, her success reaching the public wouldn't have necessarily made this easier. Dual membership between her teams would be *a lot* to keep up, and more so during the second half of the 80's...

The work that Ximena did when she was active in her original teams was vaguely defined in Version 2. I wish I was more clear then, but in Version 3 it's now more clearly defined and better reflects what I intended for her character.

Ximena Dawson

See also these updates coming together in one illustration:

I published this WIP on the 10th on Mastodon but forgot to also post it here and on the blog.

Same Place, Different Universe Chapter 5 WIP 1

Marcia looked towards Antares while both of them continued walking. "Regina was already in on this, but I should let you in on it too as a new member of TIMES because you guessed correctly. I went to another universe." She began to explain. They carefully looked around to be sure no one else was close enough to hear them.

"How did you do that?" Antares asked, with a noticeable hint of astonishment.

"I'll show you later, but for now, let's take a look at this." Marcia brought out a small clear bag from a pocket in her jacket. A cassette tape was in it. The label on the bag read "Cassette tape. Untested. Contamination risk: low".

"I didn't suffer any ill effects when I picked it up and held it." She put it back in her pocket.

"The risks of suffering that you take for knowledge, for Techlandia..." Antares remarked with concern and a hint of snark.

"Oh, I suffered alright. Mostly from boredom. Most of my recon was from hiding out and not being able to see much."

"Did you get to test the theory about time being relative?"

"I certainly did." Marcia said in an almost agonized tone. "I overheard conversations and took a lot of notes about them. Time felt so quick then, and in the opportunities I had to actually see the people talking. It felt too quick."

"But the time you spent hiding out?"

"So slooooooow!" Marcia groaned. "I had a device with me to disable security cameras from recording in its range to look around, but I spotted someone-- someone loud patrolling the area since there was someone who noticed that the camera was disabled."

They continued exchanging deadpan remarks as they walked through the hall and approached the front door.

Chapter 13 of I Was a Software Developer... is published. I updated the story section above and moved the listing for chapter 12 to the Archives page.

This chapter introduces more worldbuilding details that will be added to the wiki. It was an ambitious chapter with 4 illustrations instead of the 3 that I intended, and this chapter marks the first appearance of an OS from Techlandia before she became an OS. It's also the first chapter to mention a holiday from the Human World; Halloween could've caught on in Techlandia but adapted.

During the timeframe of this story, knowledge about the Human World was still considerably limited since few humans that arrived in Techlandia stayed.

I published a cleaned-up sketch of Olympia which will be used in one of the illustrations for chapter 13 of I Was a Software Developer... and it's been added to the side bar.

Out of the Programmable Darling Patrol members, she hasn’t had as much focus as most of them so far, and her only illustration in the story was from chapter 7 when she was introduced.

She might be reclusive to people outside of her team and whoever else she works with since she’s based on a PDP model that had one of the shortest production runs (from 1969-1972). This would also contrast her with the highly extraverted members of her team (I.e: Piper, Piroska). To the people who get to know her well, she’s very friendly and a helpful teacher.

The draft of this chapter is almost finished, and I started vectoring each of the sketches for it.

When I drafted the post about Kiah, it led to me taking more notes about worldbuilding related to what priority combat skills have on OS teams. How much of a priority it is varies by team, and even time period. It can be shaped by the conditions of the team's sector; the teams that place a high priority on combat skills tend to be in sectors with the most frequent malware problems.

The Orchard didn't use to prioritize combat skills so much; it was a low or medium priority but became high with the emergence of the Flashback trojan in 2011 because Mac malware increased since then. This would've also affected Chariots of Colors since its OSes become judged in their sector more for their combat abilities than they used to be in a long time and it was definitely a jarring change to its OSes. It was the most for those that may not have been combatants before.

I thought about this topic because when Kiah debuted, she was widely liked for her charisma, style and presentation skills (Yosemite's design changes were usually well-received), but she wasn't a very good combatant against malware. That hindered her reputation until she got better at it and fueled her rivalry with her next teammate. If she debuted a decade earlier though, she wouldn’t have been judged for that as much.

With this increase in priority comes challenges for OSes in trying to balance these skills along with their non-combat skills along with their free time. At least when OSes fight malware, they don't have to go it alone in this continuity. In Version 1 and 2, they did because the skillset classification didn't exist in them.

In fact, for an OS to fight malware alone might be discouraged as being reckless in Version 3. There's a lot of support that could come from a sector's own combatant guilds, and a team's supporters within them. This is more realistic in trying to retain OSes in a team (so if they leave, it's less likely from despair) and retain morale. It can also justify why there aren't malware threats OSes fight every day even in the highest-risk sectors. I'd also like to focus on the civilian side of the OSes' lives.

I updated some articles on the project wiki with these details:

• Operating Superstar (skillset)
• Teams

The articles for each of the characters that appeared in chapter 4 of Same Place, Different Universe have been updated, and the first version of Kiah's article has been published:

Kiah Nieves-Broderick

The trivia section in her article mentions her rivalry with the character representing Sierra and High Sierra. Based on how Yosemite was reported to have a lot of problems with usability, but El Capitan is much more polished, I see her as an OS that started out as an underdog and one that some of her team's supporters saw as a liability, but she trained hard to gain her reputation for reliability.

Since Sierra didn't have as troubled reputation, the Sierra character would be more talented but be accused of coasting by on her talents when she doesn't. This is inspired by the "Underdog protagonist vs. a more talented rival" dynamic, and would be relevant in the timeframe SPDU takes place. If I don't show this in SPDU, I still want to write or draw something showing this...

The draft for chapter 13 of I Was a Software Developer... is almost finished; here is a WIP about the shop:

Both of them [Piroska and the shopkeeper] were standing around the cash register chatting with each other. The desk they were standing around had a white body and glossy black top with a yellow, blue and purple terrazzo pattern had a display section behind glass and there appeared to be some boxes and items on display. However, I looked more towards the other sections.

The large windows at the front of the store displayed a row of mannequins with outfits and pieces of armor. They stood alongside metal and glass sculptures. There was a sign in front that said "Custom-made gear! Inquire inside." which reminded me of why Piroska recommended this shop.

The cashier desk area was along the right side of the shop. Across the shop on the left side, there was an antique Victorian-style wooden couch with white cushions with an ornate wooden table. They were also in a similar style as the chair behind the cashier desk, which stood out from the simpler designs of the desk, the shelves and cash register but was similar to the table that was to the right of the desk.

I focused my attention among the shelves of merchandise along the left and back walls. Some of the shelves showed off larger pieces; along the back wall I saw a display of pieces of armor, boots and gloves. Along these walls were also racks of shirts, dresses and jackets. Above the rack was a shelf of hats, and below the rack was a shelf with stacks of trousers on top, and rows of boots and bags on the bottom.

Chapter 4 of Same Place, Different Universe has been published! This story overall has content warnings for some heavy subject matter, but this chapter doesn’t have those subject matters and is all silliness! It’s a breather before things will get more serious again.

Mi-ho performs as a stage magician, which is built off of a reference to how the demonstration of the original iPhone was held together with a lot of tricks to make sure it'd go perfectly. Terrell is her volunteer for this performance, but I think because of his personality, he’d often want to be the volunteer! He might be often enough that he and Mi-ho could be a stage magician duo.

Kiah appears in full-color after her introduction to this continuity through the first WIP of the chapter. This update moves chapter 3 off of the front page, but the description for it has been moved to the archives. Several articles on the wiki will be updated including for each of the characters that appeared in the chapter. Since the process of updating each article with the latest refinements is still on-going, those articles will be updated with them.

I also found, or remembered some more sources I thought were interesting and will add them in the updates.