Stonewarren News Digest

I spent 6 years at the Institute for Communication Studies and Journalism. I... may have emerged slightly damaged from that experience, but it did leave me with a surprising skill of being able to create somewhat convincing fake newspaper clippings.

This whole thing started as me creating just a few background elements for various SF pages, but during the rework, I realized I can actually harness this skill much more effectively than in having throwaway jokes here and there – every major story will start with these. It will allow me to use a vacat page, introduce some expanded lore for the interested and initiated, drop slight foreshadowing here and there and add a lot more exposition than natural dialogue would allow.

1. Sioux City Journal is an existing newspaper that I'll likely use quite a lot throughout the series, as it would serve as Rupert's first source of domestic news. This frontpage is way back from 2016 or so where I used it as a background prop in one of the comic pages as a set up for readers to get an idea of when and where the story unfolds without having to state it directly. While the articles are both fabricated, the whole "forgery" has a pretty strong basis in reality – SCJ really did celebrate its 150th year with a tagline in 2014 and published an article on orthorexia on September 12. Scottish referendum on independence took place 6 days later, so an article on the matter is very plausible, 2014 brought a stronger hurricane season after two years of calm, and while Sioux Gateway Airport didn't catch fire that year, it really did go through the mentioned reconstruction project between 2006 and 2011.

(Also in case the name Wolfowitz rings a bell... it should. This is the dad, an ATC.)

2. Lawrence North Dies I... hate you, Lawrence North. This is also an old one, as the veterans among you will surely know (as it was published here before). It was to be another piece of background fluff to provide some reference to the house Jonas & Quinn "borrow" their armband from in episode 2, but it... grew. I do not wish to spoil more than that, but the name of Lawrence North, despite the old coot biting the dust before the story even starts, will become a familiar one, very soon.

3. Cracked Stela of Leeds is absolutely intentionally not meant to be taken seriously, so please, if there's any historians in your midsts, put your pitchforks and shivs away, and if there's any impressionable cubs among you, please, don't quote this at a history exam. This article is based of a particular branch of sensationalist conspiracy tabloids – we have a prime example in this country called Enigma and it is absolutely priceless. It has everything from UFOs to "absolutely guaranteed" paranormal sightings to historical conspiracies, all of that coming out monthly, somehow. It was the hardest forgery to make though, because simulating a style of writing that meanders without a point and its narrative goes full madlibs with historical trivia is extremely difficult when you spent 6 years of your life being taught that The Point is what you need to start with when newswriting. Doubly so when you need to hide in some pertinent storytelling inbetween this drunken dadaist poetry.

I was somewhat confused to discover that the western media market lacks its Enigma, so I will likely create my very own in-universe mutation of it, as this is definitely not the last time I am using its "services" and, unlike Sioux City Journal, it would feel wrong to use the name of something existing when I'm... lets face it, openly mocking it.

4. Barong Ket Dancer Mask oh gods no never again I swear I will be a good little boy and update every month just don't ever make me draw anything like this again my wrist hurts and I will see the golden filligree in my nightmares how do the people of Bali make these absolutely gorgeous things from wood where do they get the patience aaaaaaaargh

... ahem. Making this one sure was a journey. The next journey will likely lead me a to a chiropractor.

That is it for today, but definitely not for the month. I hope these little in-universe snippets were interesting to read. Thank you for your kind support.

Special thanks to Squeemu for being my editor and making reasonably sure I do not make an absolute tit of myself.

Until the next one, stay safe.