Smokey
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Dear Darling Doctor: Chapter 3
🕑 Added 2025-08-13 09:00:03 +0000 UTCLast commentary, I talked about how Cassandra's personality has shifted over time, and how I opted to write her with a more up-to-date personality in this, and how that led to Marion's creation. This time, I'd like to talk more about the rest of the cast.
Doctor Reginald Sang hasn't changed much since the original story, beyond the addition of the fact that he's really a profoundly boring man. He's about 15-20 years Cassandra's senior, and is the son of a prominent doctor (Doctor Arnold Sang) who made great strides in the science of brainwashing and re-education. He's carrying on his father's work, but isn't a particularly exciting guy to be around. He likes reading rather dry books on nautical history and watching documentaries about submarines. He's also rather forgetful, hence his habit of recording his sessions with patients.
Siobhan, our depressed goth friend, is a deliberate departure from what we expect of a woman in her position. Of course you would have women like Cassandra and Marion who want to escape, and who are trying to find ways of resisting, but you'd also get women like Siobhan, who are simply in (understandable) despair over their ordeal. She doesn't see much of a chance of escaping, but she's terrified of becoming what they want her to become, and as a result she's not having a very easy time at Sunny Skies.
Brad, meanwhile, is actually related to a character we know already! His mother is Dorothy "Dottie" Melman, from the Bet On Black neighborhood of characters. It's been mentioned a small handful of times that she has several adult sons, and Brad here is one of them! I don't know if or when I'll introduce his brothers, but he's a character type I haven't delved much into before, that being a gay man who lives in Stepford.
Lastly, Tattletale~ I enjoyed Cassandra's habit of referring to people by private little nicknames in the first chapter, prior to learning their actual names, and so Tattletale is an extension of that. Someone who is notable enough for her to remember, but whose name she simply hasn't picked up, and she's not really all that interested in learning it either. She's further along in her re-education than the others, and perhaps I'll explain more about her background later on, but we'll see. Considering the fact that Cassandra openly hates her, I doubt she'll want to learn more.
That about covers the primary and secondary cast of the story so far. While we do know what becomes of Cassandra and Marion, thanks to their prior story appearances, there's still the fun of seeing how we get from Point A to Point B, and as for Siobhan, well... We'll have to see what happens to her, now won't we?
Enjoy~
Comments
Smokey
Thank you! Nurse Madaerie is admittedly a reference to another story actually! There's a really solid fantasy harem story on AO3 called Around Her Fingers, and one of the main characters is named Eia Madaerie, and I got permission from the author of that to have essentially an alternate version of her pop up here as a nurse~
vasily26
Great chapter! Love how Cassandra focuses on Dr. Sang when she’s feeling overwhelmed by Stepford drugs…excited to see that continue! Love how detailed your description of her starter dress is, can’t wait for the same detail to be applied to her outfits as they get even more Stepford-y. Also very intrigued by this Nurse Madaerie, you describe her so beautifully, makes me realize there haven’t been enough Native American beauties in Stepford
Smokey
Thank you! Ruining things and refusing to accept any blame is second nature to Cassandra.
Jakitron
Liked this one a lot, especially the self sabotage leading to angry disbelief at the end
