1. May 27 Update: Letters to Peter

    Friends, for too long we’ve had to deal with the frustration of alluding to this mysterious Peter figure without ever actually explaining anything about him. Chapter 31 was the first time you ever learned anything concrete about him, which is just way too late in the going. We recognize this was Bad Writing, and that it failed to generate a whole lot of curiosity from you the readership. Perhaps you understand the difficulty here - a past no one knows about, which the protagonist refuses to even really think about, even when he’s on his own. Well, finally we have stumbled on what will hopefully be a solution to the dilemma.

    Here is a batch of letters that Herr Inspektor has been writing to Peter throughout the story. This is arguably a retcon, but you could also think of them as deleted scenes. We have not altered the main text of the story in any way, and these additions stand more or less on their own. They are all pretty short - some extremely short. You can read them all together in this bundle, or you can go back through the archives and reread them along with the main story to see how they affect the overall flow. The choice is yours.

    Or, proceed to the Story Archive.

    PLEASE NOTE: In the case of Letter 4 and Chapter 12, the letter is being written in the midst of the action, necessitating a split of the chapter itself. It is now in two parts, with the letter in between. We realize this is slightly cumbersome, but that’s just the price one pays when putting an unconventionally structured novel on the internet, particularly on Tumblr.

    Some questions you may have! Are these letters being sent? Is Peter receiving them? Does he reply? Have/will there been/be more of them? For those questions, we would like to offer you a beloved panel of a comic by the always brilliant Kate Beaton:

    We hope you enjoy these, and would be very grateful for any and all feedback. We’re very curious to know how these go over and whether they improve your appreciation of our sad hero and his mysterious past.

    There will be ONE MORE UPDATE before we go on a hiatus, which, we promise you, makes us very sad. But Emily just moved to a new city and is working on this whole “job” thing, and we’re gonna need some rest time to find our feet and get some stuff backlogged so we don’t fall miserably behind.

    NEXT UPDATE (JUNE 10th): Back to the main story. As you might have guessed after reading these letters, Herr Inspektor is pretty much at the end of his rope. Chapter 36 contains some consequences.

     
  2. Here’s a list of interesting things that have been said about this city of ours (well, our story’s). The Karl Scheffler line (Berlin is a city condemned forever to becoming and never to being) referenced in Wie Oben, So Unten may be found here. We stumbled upon it in a book and knew immediately that we had to use it, but the translation was quite different and not as good as this Wikipedia page gives it, so thanks to Wikipedia once again.

    Karl Scheffler himself is a dude who wrote a lot of stuff about Germany. I would be more specific, but his page is in German and while I have in the past gone ahead and fumbled out a Google-translated understanding anyway, I am at the moment pressed for time. I recommend exploring for yourself if you are really interested in the history of Berlin (and why wouldn’t you be)

    Our EXCITING SURPRISE UPDATE with NEW MATERIAL that will REINFORCE CERTAIN STORY THREADS is coming this weekend. It may be a little on the late side, but it’ll be here, you can all rest assured.

    Über und aus!

    …Which is the literal translation of “over and out” but maybe that doesn’t mean the same thing in German.

     
  3. image: Download

    Feral-Kid.com
     
  4. image: Download

    (Source: dreamydummy)

     
  5. 11:45 22nd May 2012

    Notes: 2145

    Reblogged from mnemophylax

    Tags: Runephotos

     
  6. image: Download

    vintagegal:

Metropolis (1927)

    vintagegal:

    Metropolis (1927)

     
  7. The Robot Maria by Aenne Willkomm, costume designer for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, 1927

    The Robot Maria by Aenne Willkomm, costume designer for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, 1927

     
  8. An interlude about Maria, Rainer, Rune, and the Underworld.

    Our next update (05/27) will be a very special one. We’re adding some new supplemental material that will fit into the story as far back as the very early chapters, sort of a retcon, almost. Don’t worry, it won’t necessitate rereading everything (unless of course you want to)! But we’re very excited about it. It was an idea that came to us just recently, and we think/hope it will resolve a major issue the story currently has. We look forward to unveiling this exciting surprise. Stay tuned.

    (proceed to Story Archive)

     
  9. image: Download

    Rupert Graves & Kristin Scott Thomas in A Handful of Dust
OH MY GOD YOU GUYS IT’S RAINER AND MARIA

    Rupert Graves & Kristin Scott Thomas in A Handful of Dust

    OH MY GOD YOU GUYS IT’S RAINER AND MARIA

     
  10. Plays: 11

    [Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

    Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | Night of the Lotus Eaters

    This song’s atmosphere is more or less what Rainer and Maria are going for at all times.