There really is not nearly enough time in the day to accomplish all that we desire to accomplish here at the Calamity. Nay, unfortunately it is all to often the case that the timer runs out well before we have completed even the most modicum of tasks selected for the day. As we continue to evolve the infrastructure of the Calamity, working to raise our ability in developing attractions for your enjoyment, we must work to find the balance between this and the actual development of attractions! This is none too easy. And yet, here we are with another issue!
First off, you will notice the lack of an update from the Groundskeeper. There is no Gazette this week! We have made the difficult decision to withdraw the Gazette from production until there is more to share from the Necropolis. If you booked an event there, please be assured all events are happening as scheduled. We just won’t be posting about them for some time.
In place of the Gazette, we are sharing the latest installment of House! If you are on Social Media, particularly Threads for this, you will find the chapters being published there every Sunday. We are providing links here for your convenience.
Elsewhere, everything else remains the same! The latest chapter of A Vampire’s Vengeance is available, The Place of Madness by Merlin Moore Taylor continues our excursion through themes of confidence and fear, and of course, your cinematic weekend awaits you in this week’s Letterboxd List.
Let’s get into it →
What attractions were in active development this week? Only the usual, I’m afraid: House, A Vampire’s Vengeance, and Bus Driver. Structurally, our in-house team of mechanics (me) is busy scaffolding a system by which all the various production departments and their communications can be unified. Simply put, I’m building a fucking plugin to make all my Obsidian Vaults talk to one another so workflows adopted in one vault can be integrated into all the others. It is no small feat.
Hence the point above regarding evolving infrastructure. We (me) are constantly building and refining systems to harness the chaos happening across all the many projects in process. The end goal is to automate much of the record-keeping and backing up workflows and standardize the attraction development process, so when a new story arises, the infrastructure is in place so I can spend at least 90% of my work time writing and designing.
So please, I do genuinely hope you enjoy keeping up with A Vampire’s Vengeance, Bus Driver, and now House, as it may be some time before other attractions are completed and ready for your attention.
Have you started reading House? You’re not that far behind! Here’s the latest chapter on Threads, with all the others linked in the replies:
The youngling speaks! Our elder vampire is no longer alone, though it remains to be seen if the youngling will be an asset or a liability to the coming journey. Read the latest chapter of A Vampire’s Vengeance here:
We continue with our theme of fear and confidence in The Place of Madness, by Merlin Moore Taylor. We hope you enjoy this short yet interesting presentation.
This week in cinema, we present to you … more found footage! Hooray! In all seriousness—well, as serious as backstage at a carnival can be—we enjoyed this series of films so much, we couldn’t help ourselves in sharing! It is our desire you appreciate the terror as much as we did.
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A traveling merchant finds himself in quite the predicament when he manages to win a duel, leading him down a dark path. A tale from the Odds ‘n’ Endings Boutique.
When last we rode with the bus driver, they had faced off with a wanderer … er, sort of. You can catch up with Part VI here. Now they’re on the highway and things are looking bleak from an existential standpoint. How is the bus driver handling this? Let’s find out.
They were only in the lane for a short period before the next highway arrived on which they would travel. The merge lane was clearly marked in rudimentary fashion: someone had blacked out all the freeway signs but one, indicating where the lane would be found among the rubble. The bus driver slowed just enough to take a slight turn into the lane, and then brought the bus back up to its coasting speed. The onramp to the highway they were merging onto was a giant bridge that soared over the intersection of both highways. He didn't need to slow down, as the trajectory accommodated the bus, its speed and its mass, just fine. As he came off the bridge, he saw once again the far left lane was cleared, and so moved all the way over, fitting neatly into the lane next to the concrete divider. They were now heading north.
The litter of vehicles scattered over the remaining lanes did little to obscure the view of the once bustling city below. Emptied and hollowed out buildings lay squat against the ground with only a few rising to heights well above the highway. Makeshift communications hubs were installed at the top levels of some of these buildings. Other floors were taken by survivors and urbanites who declined life within the compound or other settlements. The bus driver still didn't understand the difference between survivors and urbanites, but he figured it really didn't matter. They were out there and he was in the bus driving away from them. Bandits were spread out in some of the lower clusters of buildings. There was once a popular mall in the area; it was now gutted and repurposed to serve as a bandit base camp, a compound to rival the one at the airfield.
Rivals, generally. The two fought over supplies in the area; scavenging teams on both sides contended with one another against the slim pickings while others worked to bring agriculture and commerce back to levels able to support the remainder of humanity. That rivalry had been tenuously set aside, however, for the sake of this excursion. With the rush of overcoming the wanderer long past, responsibility came to weigh heavily over the bus driver. While those in the passenger cabin joked and laughed, the seriousness of the venture left the bus driver feeling hollow, much like many of the buildings they passed. If this little trip succeeded, the rivalry between the airfield and the mall might come to a close, with the bandits recognizing a profitable future in working together. If he failed, however ...
He tried turning his thoughts to other things, but the incomplete thought of the rivalry nagged at him. If he failed, the tenuous alliance the bandits held with his people would be abandoned, and the bandits would likely begin raiding the airfield. As if putting his own life on the line wasn't enough. He knew in theory what he signed up for, but out here on the road, the reality of his choices were settling in. He was slow to realize there was no turning back. All his little hopes of finding the way blocked and having to return were nothing but silly little immature longings. There was too much at stake, and he was coming to terms with this reality. If the way was blocked, they would have to find a way around. If there was a swarm, they would have to cut through it. If gangs or bandits attacked, they would have to fight back. There was no scenario in which giving up and going back was acceptable. Someone would find fault somewhere, and the livelihoods of many would be put at risk.
The bus driver took a deep breath and let of the weight of the responsibility soak down into his shoulders, letting it spread out through his entire body. If he was going to see this venture through, he was going to have own everything tied to it.
Such heavy responsibility! What weight to carry! Imagine being informed of all of this and more, accepting the job anyway thinking you can handle the pressure, only to come to terms with it once there is no turning back? Absolutely soul crushing. And yet, here is our bus driver, doing the damn thing anyway, carry on because he must. What a fuckin’ hero. I don’t know about you, but we here at the Calamity are rooting for his success. Now, it’s a long road to their first stop at the waystation in the wilds. What happens next? Only one way to find out. Come back next week!
Thank you one million times over for your visit backstage with us! We appreciate your patronage and hope you are enjoying the attractions you see being build before you. House a somewhat isolated from the rest of the backstage experience, but we hope you make it out to see its progress as well
Please take a moment to bring us your thoughts on the attractions thus far. You can reply to this email, leave a comment on this post on the backstage site, or you can select any of the survey buttons below. We look forward to hearing from you!
Cordially,
Mad Alex
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