Part 1 AfterwordThank you so much for reading!This was a very personal story inspired by a character I’ve had in my head in some form or another since probably 1999.

  Sheam began as an author-insert OC in a fan-fic, long before I knew who I actually was. "What if I invented a girl, and she was just me?"

  Very recently, other creative topics had me looking back and becoming introspective about my old OC, so I decided to write a paragraph or two about what Sheam would be like in a totally original story and setting written by present-day me. That quickly became an entire chapter of a book that didn’t exist, and a week ter here we are.

  If you got this far you may be thinking, but Dana, how dare you say it’s finished! What about [plotline] or [loose end]! I think it’s easy to imagine an intriguing murder-mystery anachropunk thriller based on the characters and world I quickly threw together as a backdrop and pressure-cooker for Sheam’s story of personal growth and transition, but that wasn’t my focus when creating this work.That will be the focus of part 2.I’m having too much fun now to stop.

  - Dana

  Addendum: I would like to give a big thank you and shout-out to two people who directly inspired the actual "getting out of my head and writing it down" aspect of this story.

  This whole thing was kicked off by an art commission idea with Marie Najean (https://linktr.ee/eiramew) who's work you'll soon see as the story's cover art.The overwhelming urge to write and to py with style and format as I did so was inspired by many conversations with E Bambust, who I like a whooole lot, and whose books you should totally buy. (https://ejo.itch.io)