FortySixtyFour
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RE: Trailer Trash 63, 63 pt 3
🕑 Added 2025-05-21 17:40:51 +0000 UTC“Don’t scratch!” Mrs. Macintire chided in a teasing tone. “Goodness, you’re gonna give yourself a rash, or somethin.’”
“I-I wasn’t scratching!” Tabitha protested with a giddy smile. “I was rubbing.”
They had checked in at Springton General Hospital’s front desk twenty minutes ago and were still seated in the waiting area. Once again Mrs. Macintire had grabbed them both magazines to leaf through, but now Tabitha was too distracted by her new hand to bring much attention to the pages. Which of course was a source of amusement to Mrs. Macintire, who kept looking up from her coffee and folded-over magazine at the girl with looks of exasperation.
“Well, don’t rub too much,” Mrs. Macintire grinned. “We’re in public, and you’re embarrassing me!”
“Aaaaghhh—” Tabitha groaned, plucking and pinching at her hand as she wiggled and stretched long-dormant fingers back to their full range of movement. “It just feels really good!”
Cradling the limb in front of her, she traced the fingernails of her good hand from the inside of a pale elbow all the way up to the inside of her wrist, practically shivering at how great that sensation was. Then, she closed her hand into a fist and rubbed her knuckles back along it the other way—she opened again and grasped the whole way around her arm, appreciating the sheer simplicity of being able to access her own hand without touch being blocked off by that wretched cast.
“Oh, so it’s okay to just rub yourself in public if it feels good, huh?” Mrs. Macintire said in a dry voice. “Sheesh, kiddo—are we really gonna have to have the talk?”
Tabitha let out a squawk of indignation, but both of them were smiling. Groping and grabbing at her own wrist, palm, and fingers in the hour or so after getting the cast off wasn’t a sexual kind of pleasure, but it was incredibly satisfying, and she told herself that she wanted to get it all out of her system before she was dropped off at school. Even more embarrassing was the fact that if she brought her freshly uncasked wrist up to her nose and breathed deep, she could still detect a weird sort of scent, even after all of the scrubbing.
“Would you stop that?!” Mrs. Macintire giggled. “Getting high off your own stink, ew. Ew!”
“I was just checking!” Tabitha laughed, feeling a little mortified as she sniffed at her palm again. “I think that um, that I might want to put lotion on, or something? I swear I can still smell it. Do we have lotion?”
“We’ll give it a couple days to air out, at least,” Sandra chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll be back to normal in a week, or so. Guess I should count my blessings that you can’t be rubbing and scratching and pawing at your skull fracture, huh?”
“I’m very glad they don’t put casts on skulls!” Tabitha rolled her eyes. “Can’t even imagine. I did have a bandage wrap thing, for a bit. Wait—have you never broken a bone?”
“Had my foot in a cast when I was, uhhh—” Mrs. Macintire screwed up her face as she tried to remember. “Twenty-something? Around then? Skiing accident. Had to wobble around with crutches jabbed the whole way up my armpits for ages. That was no picnic. You? Pssh, you got off lucky, don’t have to deal with all that nonsense.”
“Me, lucky?” Tabitha couldn’t help but stare at the woman. “I’m hospitalized with a new injury like, every other month! Let alone all the constant family issues and, and problems and stuff that make me feel like I’m on the verge of a mental breakdown!”
“You’re a teenager,” Mrs. Macintire laughed. “It’s supposed to be like that.”
“It is not!”
“When I was right around your age…” Mrs. Macintire mused. “Listen, I had been kinda-sorta dating this real sweet guy, but we hadn’t made things, um, official, just yet? Turns out, the guy had been kinda-sorta also dating one of my friends, at the same time? And, yeah I guess I found out about it in the worst possible way. I saw red. I, uh, well I all but dragged her off of this table the next time I saw her, screaming and clawing at her, and um, well it wasn’t pretty. I did get a fistful of her hair! Wish I’d kept it. We didn’t talk again for four, five years? And, we were never close ever again.”
“Wow,” Tabitha blinked. “But—”
“Right around that same time, my brother got into drugs,” Mrs. Macintire continued. “My older brother, he’d just gone off to Ohio State College. He was tall, good-looking, popular. Enough so that around school, everyone knew me first as his little sister, and as my own person second, or not at all. Was always just Chad’s little sister to everyone. He was into theater and chorus and all that, loved being up on stage, the stupid smarmy prick. I know your mother was headed towards Hollywood, well I think Chad only had eyes for Broadway musicals. Cats, Chicago. Rent. Grease. All of those.”
“Springton High is doing The Wiz,” Tabitha murmured. “I just found out.”
“Good Lord,” Sandra shook her head with a wry smile. “That one, too, I’m sure. Well, our Chad could do no wrong, and after that first time my parents were convinced somehow that it was some kind of one-time-thing. Just a silly, embarrassing mistake—because he was Chad, and of course he should know better. They assumed he had learned his lesson, and when next he called and said he’d run into this or that little hiccup and needed some money, they trusted him and sent it.”
“...Oh, no,” Tabitha’s brows furrowed.
“So, it happened again,” Mrs. Macintire said. “And, again. And again. Heroin, crack-cocaine, pills of some kind. Uppers? I don’t even know. My parents could not understand. Refused to understand. Each time, they thought it would be the last, and that he’d finally uh, gotten all of that out of his system, and moved on. Grown up. Until the last time—we got the call that he could not be resuscitated. He was just… gone.”
“I’m so sorry,” Tabitha said.
“It’s okay,” Sandra said, putting on a strained smile. “At the time, I was just so much more angry than I was sad. Always will be, maybe? At him, at them—at everyone. This was right around the time I was, uh, fighting with my friends, going through this difficult time, and of course it meant that when it was my turn to go off to college, my parents are like—absolutely not. No way. You’re not leaving our sight. What if you get into drugs?!”
“Sheesh,” Tabitha said.
“Yeah,” Mrs. Macintire said. “Too little, too late, wrong child to be fussing at. Well, at that age that just made me angrier at everything, and I already had a temper, so yeah. I probably wasn’t a joy to be around for a few years. Certainly not when I had to be on crutches, on top of that! It was a… yeah, a very difficult time. I think we all go through it.”
“That… helps put things into perspective, some,” Tabitha admitted. “Thank you. I guess because of everything—the shooting, the uh, the nonsense at school. Then, Halloween…”
“I mean, that is a lot of nonsense,” Mrs. Macintire smiled. “To be fair.”
“But, it was starting to put me into, uh,” Tabitha floundered for the right word. “Main character syndrome, I guess? Where I start to actually believe that since all of these things are happening to me, then yes surely I must be the protagonist. Because, everything’s happening to me.”
“No, I get it,” Mrs. Macintire said. “I’m right there with ya. I was one hundred percent the protagonist of my life story, right up until the moment I had Hannah.”
“Then, she took center stage?” Tabitha guessed.
“Yep,” Mrs. Macintire sighed. “How could she not? She’s such a little diva! I think she does share that stage with you, now—you’re a lead character in her story, for sure. We’ll get you top billing. But yeah, mostly everyone thinks of themselves as the protagonist in their own story.”
“I didn’t, not for a long time,” Tabitha shrugged. “I was just… there. In the background.”
“Well,” Mrs. Macintire sighed. “S’not always easy and fun. It does start to wear at you, doesn’t it? Center stage.”
“It’s exhausting!” Tabitha groaned. “I hate it. And, I love it. I, um, I kind of decided to myself that I want to be popular, or at least try to, at least once in my life. Be uh, be part of the in crowd, have attention, and so many friends, and make so many memories, and be cool in high school. But then also—I don’t know. It’s also just so horrible, it shows me sides of myself I don’t like to discover, it, well…”
“Yep,” Mrs. Macintire nodded. “In my own head, I was always like, I’m such a good person. I’m the nicest person I know. I would never do this or that. Had myself convinced. Then, push comes to shove and I’ve uh, tackled one of my ‘friends’ in the lunch room and I’m having this insane catfight—I got suspended—and, yeah. Wasn’t fun to learn all that about myself. That I have a temper, that when things get past a certain point, I don’t control that temper at all. Don’t have control. It was scary.”
“Yeah,” Tabitha frowned. “Yeah. Just this past week I’ve caught myself, um, saying things I never would have thought I would say to people. The words just—come out of my mouth. And I’m like, huh. I guess I’m not the person I thought I was. It’s so… disappointing.”
“It’s part of growing up,” Mrs. Macintire assured her. “Completely natural. And, hey—life has thrown a lot of bullshit at you all at once. When it rains, it pours? You’ve definitely had a rough time of things, Tabitha. I mean, not as rough as I had it, not by half, of course. I had to have crutches. Pssh, girl you got off easy. My armpits were aching, my boobs were hurting, everyone’s like—well, you must be using them wrong, and I’m like, YOU try using them to get around everywhere, stupid friggin—”
“You couldn’t just get a wheelchair?!” Tabitha giggled. “I really don’t think you had it worse than me. Not that it’s a competition.”
“Wheelchair, for just a couple months? Hah, nah,” Mrs. Macintire shrugged. “We didn’t have one handy, and my parents weren't about to drop a couple hundred on one. Around that time I think my friends that coulda pushed me around in a wheelchair woulda rather pushed me off a cliff? Plus, this was in the eighties—wheelchair accessibility hadn’t quite swept the whole way around, yet. Honestly didn’t even know what to do with the crutches after I was done with them—took them with me, but I think they’re still shoved in a corner of the garage, somewhere? Hell, probably stacked up right alongside those same damn skis, don’t think I’ve ever used them since then, either.”
“Hmm,” Tabitha mused. “What size are they? Where can you even go skiing, around here?”
“That was from all the way back in Ohio,” Mrs. Macintire said. “Here in Kentucky? Yeah, good luck. We’ve got the mountains, but we just don’t get the snowfall you’d need. Only one around here I knew of was General Butler State Resort, and they just shuttered for good last year. Or, year before last? Remember hearing the Williams talk about it, I think they did trips? Nothing to do with me—I learned my lesson. You want to go skiing?”
“Maybe once, just to try it?” Tabitha paused to think about it. “Can you use the skis you have but for water-skiing, like in the summer? Getting pulled behind a motorboat? The Ohio river—”
“Pfft, I wish,” Mrs. Macintire said. “Snow skis and their big stupid boots aren’t made to float, and they won’t come off your feet and letcha swim once you start floundering. Good way to drown yourself. You want to try water-skiing?”
“I don’t know!” Tabitha giggled. “I’ve never done… well, much of anything. Until just recently, I’d never even considered trying a lot of things. I didn’t actually even learn to ride a bike until I was—until I was uh. Until just a few years ago. I’ve never been camping, I’ve never gone sledding. I’ve been to a roller rink now, but still never skated, I’ve—”
“Good lord,” Sandra sighed. “Well, we’ll have to make sure to start taking you and Hannah out and about, then. I know hubby dearest has all sorts of stuff for hunting and camping and all that, already. Hannah has her little Disney princess sleeping bag, that she’s only ever even used for that one absolute nightmare of a slumber party we tried to—you know what, don’t even ask.”
“Was she… not on her best behavior?” Tabitha guessed.
“I can handle one little girl throwing tantrums!” Mrs. Macintire said in a wry voice, taking a long sip from her coffee. “But, when it’s four or five brats, all at once? Not sharing and not making nice and all yelling and screaming and then crying at each other and everything? Good lord—just put me out of my misery.”
“That bad, huh?” Tabitha shook her head.
“You haven’t really seen it,” Mrs. Macintire explained. “You see, you’ve got this elegant and refined Mary Poppins kind of Victorian governess little act you put on, when you’re with Hannah? And then, she tries to copy that and act like you. It’s cute—it’s adorable. But, when she’s amongst her own kind? Six and seven-year-old creatures? Whew lord, they really do bring out the worst in each other. Screaming and squealing and losing their minds over everything.”
“I do not act like a Victorian duchess, or governess, or anything like that!” Tabitha giggled. “Just because sometimes I—”
“Yeah, well I’ve seen how you are instead around teens your age, and it’s a whole different Tabitha,” Mrs. Macintire heckled her. “A normal Tabitha, for once. It was—no, stop, I don’t mean it like that. Listen, it was refreshing. It was like kind of a relief, to see you more… normal?”
“I’m not abnormal!” Tabitha groaned. “You’re—”
“Okay, Abby!” Sandra scoffed. “Abby Normal.”
“I think you just like to bully me!” Tabitha said. “If you—”
“True!” Mrs. Macintire admitted. “Too true.”
“If you’re around Karen, you don’t bully me so relentlessly like this,” Tabitha complained with a small smile.
“Also true,” Mrs. Macintire took another sip. “Because, then she’d gang up on me! I have to mess with you only whenever I can get away with it. You see? You’re already learning. Look at all these valuable life lessons you’re getting today!”
( Previous, 63 pt 2 | RE: Trailer Trash | Next, 63 pt 4 )
/// Will update links and guide pages later.
Had a meeting with Bri from Mango Media yesterday, and man. I've just been too stressed lately trying to juggle the AnimeCon book 4 edit along with writing for book 5 there, work on RE: Trailer Trash, and the near constant meetings with artists about art orders for the game.
RheTt from Aethon contacted me and told me the webtoon version of RE:TT might be getting a print run, and I just felt—honestly disgusted. I can't stand what they've done with it, and I've been told repeatedly there's no way to interfere or pull out of that contract. It makes me just want to stop working on RE: Trailer Trash. I'm finding Goodreads reviews for RE: Trailer Trash now that complain about her perverse relationships with boys and the fire in the trailer park, and I'm like wait what fucking fire?
Signing with Aethon was a mistake, and now that I have zero intentions of submitting a RE:TT book two to them, it makes me want to just put RE:TT on the back burner for a bit so that I can focus on the AnimeCon and Renfaire writing. I've gone through all the fine print time and time again and there's several years still until my contract with Aethon expires and I can sign RE:TT with a different publisher.
I know that's not what any of you want to hear.
I had been trying hard to treat AnimeCon and RE:TT as equally as I could with my writing time, but man. I've just been so angry about it lately that it legit makes me want to derail or sabotage the story, which isn't fair to Tabitha or you guys.
Comments
Tyler J Hebblethwaite
Didn't know that you had not signed off on the way the webtoon had gone. Guess Im glad it's ended then.
Gadfium
Ah, I guess I understand the reason, then, why RE:TT is now gone from Amazon Kindle and RR. While I like AnimeCon as well, there is a special place in my heart for RE:TT because, well, it just has so much heart to it! If you need to pause it for a bit, do so, but please don't give up on it for the long term. I hope you pick it up again when you are in the mind-space to treat it with the love and respect it deserves. Please keep us up-to-date on what's up. Cheers!
Abe Elliott
Fuck, thanks for the chapter, Good luck with it mate Really enjoy your work
W Guest
Boss, I'm so sorry to hear how they're treating you -- so unfair! You do whatever you need to make it right with you, and if that means putting the story in a box for a year... do it. I'd rather read the story you want to write (isn't that what this is about? We're here to support you, and you do your magic.)
benjamin shropshire
FWIW, even if they had done a good job with the webtoon, I wouldn't have read it much if at all.
benjamin shropshire
At a minimum, whenever you don't know which way to go with the new stuff for Re:TT, take a look at the webtoon ... and do something that would be impossible to fit into how they changed things. (IANAL)
Greg King
I hear you. Even though I read each part as you put it out on Patron, I was thrilled to buy the book and read it all at once, just as you had imagined and written. Now they've bastardised your baby. I'm sorry. I probably won't be around to catch the whole tale, but, Man, you gotta be honest with yourself!
Gible Fog
I for one, am willing to wait until the contact expires for my next Re:TT fix. To quote George Carlin, fuck the fucking fuckers.
DCM
Sounds like you have to stand back and move on. “it’s not me, it’s them”. You are not the first or last author to have their work trashed. If the work wasn’t good to begin with, no one would contract with you. Their job is to sell the product, so they are also on the line to do some kind of good with it. I don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t listen to me. Just trying to think this through.
McGddson
This independent author, that I've enjoyed a lot recently, has some words on selling rights that resonate a lot with me. Don't know if it's compatible with your own reflections, Forty. https://x.com/Devon_Eriksen_/status/1926093285069574535
McGddson
Oh man, so sorry to hear about what aethon is doing with your story. I could never consider a hack job like that anything other than a ridiculous distraction, and they're really doing nothing but ruining their own brand. Please do whatever you need to do to stay sane :) Both your stories are inspired masterpieces, and I'd wish for nothing but to see them completed to your creative vision in all formats. I guess it's small consolation that far older and more famous authors than you have had their work summarily *butchered* in adaptations. Hell, it's more the rule than the exception. As the audience, I've been disappointed time after time. I wouldn't mind if you switched your focus to AnimeCon/Renfaire for however long you'd have to in order to keep your sanity. Inspiration and joy can't be forced, and it will come back. Hugs :)
David Smith
The whole situation with Aethon is a mess. I'm not sure what I would do in your place. I can only say I've greatly enjoyed your work, and would love to read more of it if/when you're up for it. I would completely ignore all the people in the comments on Webtoon who went over to Goodreads though. They're all self-righteous idiots. You can tell them why they're wrong or short-sighted, but they rant or ignore, then downvote. That review you mentioned that talks about the fire from the webcomic? It seems like they literally went to the page for *your* book to mostly talk about the comic some more. Just...why? That's the amount of brain cells your Webtoon detractors seem to be working with.
Daniel
Such a shame what happened to the adaptation Good chapter anyways
Exilhamburger
Thanks for the chapter! To play devil's advocate: Isn't publishing book 2 of RE:TT the only way to counter the narrative currently being set by the webtoon 'adaptation' (sorry as non native speaker can't get a word between that and atrocity right now)? Would that give Aethon more rights than they have now!? Book 1 had 832 pages here in Patreon in 39 chapters (638 on Kindle), while there are 1137 pages in chapters 40 to 62.
jmundt33a
Ohio State University. Or Ohio State. No one calls it Ohio State College.
Stultus
Ugh, that's foul man. Keep up the good fight. I can of course only speak for myself, but I'm happy to wait for however long it takes for you to put out a good quality product, and I'll continue to support you as long as my finances are able to cope with such a cost. I bought the hardcover book solely to support you, I've already read it after all... but it's very shocking to hear that Aethon have fucked up the story, that's pretty appalling. I hold the original creator's intentions as quite important, so to hear this continuation of your editors fucking with your work is pretty infuriating. Sucks to hear that man. Nothing much to offer beyond my sympathies.
Sean
Legal contracts suck. I didn't know the webtoon was Aethon, the audiobook is amazing and I relisten to it every 6 or so months (Amy Landon is a star). I hope you find a way to come to terms with the situation for no other reason than your own sanity. It's a bit macabre, but having the author of my favorite regression story talk about the regrets they have about publishing is ticking all the right irony boxes in my head. For the Goodreads thing, I genuinely think the only way you get around that is by getting a book 2 out as soon as you can. If you feel like you're making steps to distance your story from the webtoon then it may help you grapple with what it actually is. It's a completely different story at this point, and the people who actually like your story will be able to tell from the first chapter.
Jeanie6754
Thanks for the chapter. You have to do what feels best for you. I'm here for all the content you're willing to share. So if you wanna shelf a story till you can do it justice is fine with me.
Cat Cat
Thanks for the chapter, it was great. I’m sorry to hear about the Webcomic; I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to have your creative control wrested away like that and see the name and stuff stolen (especially on a story that is somewhat personal and stuff). I really love RE:TT and it makes me happy every time I return to the world and see a chapter up. But working on something that makes you angry is cruddy. If you have any backburner projects maybe that can be something to resurrect? Maybe… and I admit this is sorta dumb but like, can you take back your writing from the name? Or does Aethon own the written copy too? Maybe you can re publish the work on RR with minor modifications to distance it so people will stop painting your story with their brush. I dunno probably not a helpful thing for right now given how upsetting this thing all is but could be a way forward longer term? Either way, wishing you the best
Dlandis
Aethon has done horrible things to a well written masterwork. I love this original Tabs. I had to stop with the aethon version because it turned into a pg-7 kinda show instead of an actual slice of true world living; inasmuch as you can be with time travel anyway. That said, thanks for the chapter, and the insights into a shat company.
Jacob Bissey
Mrs. Macintyre is touching on something here that I feel a lot of people seem to miss about anger. Anger and fear are two emotions that override your ability to control yourself, the angrier you are, the less control you have. So much of the language surrounding self-control and anger management is very harmful because it largely misses that very crucial fact. People who have lead a sufficiently privileged life as to have never had enough anger to experience a genuine loss of control often seem to think they have superior self-control. Speaking as someone who does have anger issues, it isn't that I, or people like me, have less self-control, it's that I have *more anger*. The same stimulus that would result in a slight increase in anger in most people, results in a significantly greater increase in anger in me, so I reach that threshold where the anger makes control impossible much faster. The way you learn to deal with and control your anger isn't about learning to control your actions *while* angry, but rather about learning to identify that you are getting to that point earlier in the process and learning how to calm down faster and more easily so you don't *get* to that point in the first place. It is annoyingly common for people who have never had to deal with even minor loss of control due to anger, largely due to having lead a life where they simply don't have to deal with it in the first place, to condemn those of us who do have to struggle with these things for "not being able to control ourselves". It demonstrates a complete and utter lack of self-awareness on their part, and a lack of comprehension of what anger even *is* in the first place. Neurotypical people aren't immune to losing control in the heat of the moment, they just require far more extreme circumstances to get that heated in the first place, and we live in a relatively safe and stable society such that vast swathes of that society are unlikely to ever be in a situation that would cause that much anger in the first place. And if you have never been driven to that point, you simply fundamentally cannot possibly have any idea what you are talking about when discussing anger and self-control. If your control has never been tested, you can't know whether you actually have good control or not, and it is exceptionally rare for someone to *have* good self-control in the first place *without* having developed it as a skill in response to regular and frequent *loss* of control. I have better self-control when angry than probably 99% of humanity, simply from having been in that state of total loss of control for a much more significant amount of time than 99% of humanity. I have avoided getting physically violent in anger since I was 13, and while raising my voice and swearing are still rather common for me, I have reached the point where I only have a significant blow up once every few years instead of once or twice a day like I did as a kid. But people act like I'm unhinged and have worse self-control than normal people, when I actually have superior self-control, I just have that control constantly tested and they don't, the fact that I'm not in prison for assault or worse is a testament to that control. Going back on topic a bit, it is very nice to read a character who had one really bad experience with anger but is otherwise normal actually acknowledge that relationship between anger and control. Anger fundamentally takes your control away, that isn't abnormal, that's just a natural part of how that emotion functions, but most people refuse to acknowledge that. I've had conversations with actual professionals, supposed "experts" on anger management, who have fancy degrees and literally make their living working with people who have these sorts of anger management issues, that fail to comprehend that basic concept, that refuse to acknowledge it even when it's directly articulated to them. So thank you for being able to articulate it so clearly and so accurately in your writing, it really means a lot to see anger described like that in a work like this, because I am so unused to writers actually understanding. Thank you.
Deviant Ranger
Thanks for the chapter, do whatever you have to do for your health man, no judgement. I will continue to support you either way. I really appreciate and enjoy these stories RE:TT and AnimeCon both.
Alexander Krikorian
You could put them in the story with something bad happening to them as a background thing, for spite
Stuart T
I hated the webton aswell. Very little felt like Re:TT They're currently airing an anime adaptation of Beginning after the end. It's awful and I hate it. Then I find out that Dungeon crawler Carl is having a live action TV series written. How badly are they gonna butcher that. I think any adaptation should be as close to the original work as possible.
Morfi Morfiaczny
Forty, don't make any rash moves regarding Re:TT. Try to box the feelings for Aethon in a separate box from Re:TT and just alienate yourself from it. I need my chapter about the gang seeing SW in cinema, watching Willow and Tabitha meeting with Evanescence!
merple
Thanks for the chapter! Sorry to hear about the continuing BS with Aethon :(
Cyan
Damn. That sucks Forty... Unfortunately, all too commonly, the people adapting a story have little to no respect for the original material. I know it's easy to say (and much harder to do) but I'd try to forget the webtoon even exists, considering you can't do anything to interfere. If you feel you have to take a step back from RE:TT for the good of your mental health and/or the story, you should do it! Regardless, I'll be around to support you no matter what you decide to prioritise. RE:TT is one of my all-time favourite stories! As always, thanks for the chapter!
Linkneo5
Protect your IP!
Linkneo5
Honestly id rather you wait and get rid of that publisher because wow they did you dirty. Stay strong and do whatever you need to do to end the contract!
Devin M.
Yea, I get it, I'd honestly treat it as it's own separate beast at this point because they diverged damn near immediately. But I can see how getting reviews about a work you've had no say in for a story you've made would suck.
Devin M.
Make that 2
Too Much Sanity May Be Madness
I wouldn't worry so much about getting the skis off; you could probably tweak the DINs so that even a gentle fall releases them, and even if they don't release and they're underwater, you should be able to kick at the release and get them off. The boots, though... Yeah. Those'd be tricky to remove, and hard to swim in. Not to mention that snow skis steer using their edges, whereas water skis steer using fins on the bottom. All in all, not a good idea. That sucks to hear about the webtoon. I hope you can work something out with them. I can't imagine what it must feel like to have someone alter your creative work without your consent, and then profit off of it.
Adam Gurri
I'm really sorry to hear that about the webtoon. I tried to read it and just a couple chapters in felt the same way about it; they just don't get what you're doing here at all. I do hope it doesn't discourage you too much from continuing. RE:TT is my favorite story I follow online by leaps and bounds. You're doing something very subtle with these characters and this "world" and I really appreciate it. It's rare. Do what you need to do for your own mental health/ability to be productive as a creator sustainably, but know that you've got at least one guy who will eat up any scraps of Re:TT you send us.
James Skinner
Thanks for the chapter, that sucks about the publishing woes.
WarStrider72
Thanks for the chapter boss!
