[ THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON MY MAIN ACCOUNT. THIS IS ONLY HERE FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ]

Looking back at what I've written, I noticed a bunch of plot holes, confusion plot points, and caveats with what's even happening. I've got barely enough time to think this through, and trying to connect everything is too much effort.

So I'm gonna retcon stuff.

SPOILERS AHEAD (if you even cared about the story)

[ 1 ] Rocco is a fucking borderline Mary Sue

Does this constitute a retcon? Personally, it's hard to say. The upcoming chapter that'll focus on Rocco will definitely make him have more flaws. Does it fix his entire character? Not really. In retrospect, i think i got what i wanted to happen with the whole amnesia aspect, but at the same time, he's also some sniper prodigy that manages to out outclass several former soldiers.

My fix is to keep his amnesia and diminish his sniper skills, but his amnesia isn't a total wipe of his family history. He'll be aware that he once had a father, mother, and "brother," and I'll change him from a prodigy to just someone with natural talent that they refined during is time with the Regiacts

It's not a solid fix. But whatever

[ 2 ] What does Spindle actually do to something synthetic

To those who've used my Everett bot, you might've deduced the fact that he's a robot, and that he has a hijacked version of Spindle integrated in his chassis.

This one isn't a major issue, since it's one of the things I can just let you guys interpret for yourself. But I wanna add some additional information just so I don't have a plot hole: Everett's fighting the same battle the Asbestos lost, except he's got computational advantages corpses don't. Does this explain shit? Umm... maybe? You guys decide.

[ 3 ] Yes, Rocco, has Spindle. But when and how?

For a frame of reference, Vaughn implanted Spindle in Rocco after the disaster to erase his memories. Rocco's 22 now, disaster was 6 years ago, so he was 16 when Vaughn did this. To expand onto this (since I never previously did), Vaughn kept Rocco isolated during the initial outbreak, then implanted a modified version afterward specifically for memory erasure. The modification wiped his memory, but unlike Everett's immunity to Asbestos targeting, Rocco is still vulnerable to being hunted by the Asbestos.

[ 4 ] There's a 150-year timeskip, but is that reasonable? And what happened in between?

I had to do a bunch of research on what's the approximate date it would take for civilization in this universe to rebuild itself to a cyberpunk world. Frankly, I think it could be a lot more, but I'm keeping this one. There's already high-tech equipment and smartass people in this post-apocalyptic world. But at the same time, there's so many factors to this that having an approximate number is hard.

And as for how rebuilding actually occurred? It's a topic that I would expand upon... but I still need time to think about it. I haven't put much thought to this part because it hasn't been relevant so far for what I'm writing with my bots

[ 5 ] "You've got 72 hours to fix Spindle and resuscitate my wife"

Yeah, umm, this is the sole reason I wanted to retcon some stuff.

First of all, 72 hours is way too short. Urgency without justification makes this feel manufactured.

Second, Vaughn literally sees proof that purifying Spindle is possible. Why limit Ralphie's chance of success when he should be helping him?

Thirdly, it sets up my next bot VERY poorly. Like, abysmal dogshit levels of transitioning

But having a time limit isn't entirely bad. What I will do instead is remove 72 hours entirely. Since 150 years have gone by without proper purification, the consciousness fragments are on the brink of total degradation. Moreover, there may or may not be someone else who is also hunting these fragments. This'll give both Ralphie and Stasis motivation to actually pick up the pace without restraining them to a mere 3 days.

That's all I wanted to talk about for now. Stay tuned for my next Asbestos-shredding bot

(also the tier list for the thumbnail isn't 100% accurate)