How much can the Windmark / Beaker gardeners get away with in Specter Yard?
Can Colony Don Lothario or Bella Goth / Jane Doe salvage their UFO problems?
At Dr Prometheus Hyde’s house, Bianca Monty braces herself for Kent Capp’s confession, but was the heaviest anvil really dropped by Vidcund Curious in the previous episode, STM 2.08(B)?
This episode is deliberately kept short because it contains multiple (!!) major cliffhangers.
“Last Lap”: This is a full episode in the main STM universe, available only in screenshot story form (no video), because the author only has time for screenshots these days.
Specter Yard / 13 Dead End Lane
The Windmark / Beaker gardeners are working.
Susan gets her first baby bump.
James Windmark / Loki Beaker : Wow, that’s fast.
Susan Windmark / Circe Beaker: Oh fringe! Does prolonged exposure to the toxin cause the side effect of accelerated pregnancy? I wonder how long we can hide this. I’m so worried about how the baby will look like.
James: Let’s try to finish up quickly. Pack up and leave StrangeTown once the second baby bump comes.
Susan nods. The Windmarks go on working.
Inside the house, Nick Grimm (formerly Nervous Subject) and Ophelia Nigmos are eating, and smiling. By this stage, the plants are emitting a scent that gives them suspiciously strong Happy moodlets.
Susan gets her second baby bump.
Susan: I’d never thought I’d say this… but this yard may be enchanted. Do you think the old witch… knows?
James: I’ll take you home. But first, let me tell Nick Grimm.
As James starts walking towards the house, Nick suddenly comes out.
James: Sorry, Mr Grimm. My wife is ill, so I need to take her home. I’ll continue the job first thing tomorrow.
Nick: Oh, you’re pregnant, Mrs Windmark! How come I never noticed?
Susan: Mr Grimm…
James: My wife is ill. She needs to rest at home.
Nick: Shouldn’t she be at the hospital at this size?
James: See you tomorrow, Mr Grimm.
James and Susan walk off.
Nick shrugs and goes back into the house.
When Nick is inside, a loud female scream is heard.
At the edge of the Specter lot, Susan Windmark goes into labor.
UFO, unknown time and coordinates
Colony Don Lothario: Look at what you’ve done, woman. The controls are jammed, the backup systems aren’t functioning, and the communication systems are broken! There’s no telling how far we’ve travelled in space and time, or both!!
Jane Doe / Bella Goth: Then you are lousy, you little green man. Just what were they thinking when they gave you your spaceship license?
Bella: Who are you anyway, you son of a boolprop? You look familiar…
Don: Shut up! Don’t make me hit you, Bel.. I mean, woman. Say your prayers. I think we’re gonna crash!
(thinking) Dina… take care of baby Raul for me.
Bella: Oh, I remember now! Don, you son of a boolprop!
(Don slaps her) Ow! My face! Argh! Where are you… Morty???!!
A loud crash is heard. The world goes black.
Prometheus Hyde’s house in StrangeTown:
HYDE DYNAMIC RM RESIDENCE
Bianca Monty: Such a large table.
Prometheus Hyde: Minimum size for Racing Man gatherings.
Antonio Monty: Bianca was saying this isn’t the main Hyde Dynamic facility.
Hyde: This is my personal lab and home. The main work headquarters is less than a mile from here.
Bianca: Not everyone gets to come in here, Antonio…
Kent Capp: Which is why I need to tell my story here.
Bianca: Yes, Kent. I’ve been waiting long enough.
Kent: Bianca, I haven’t been feeling quite right since I lost you in the Veronaville Disaster. But I went through something quite different from you…
Bianca: YOU lost ME? I thought it’s the other way round? Didn’t you spend two years in a hellish afterlife? (^)
Kent: I’m sorry, Bianca. I’ve not been completely truthful with you. I’ve NEVER been to the afterlife, nor have I EVER been dead.
Bianca: What do you mean? Didn’t Hyde resurrect you at the Veronaville Disaster Memorial? Dr Hyde?
Hyde: I did not perform a resurrection that night. I facilitated a…
…universe crossing.
If you did not see this coming, please rewatch STM 1.10 and 1.11, and pay careful attention to the dialogue.
(^) Kent Capp’s cover story in STM 2.01.
How will the Windmark / Beaker baby look like?
Where did the UFO land, and who survived the crash?
What are the implications of these relatively unexpected aspects of Kent’s confession?
Find out in the next episode (coming soon)…
STM 2.09 – 2.12 Video Announcement
(Aug 8, 2018 – upon the release of 2.09)
Kent coming from another universe makes sense, although I admit I overlooked that being a explanation as for why Kent and Bianca’s memories of the swing incident had differed. I was guessing that there were some faults with the resurrection process to refer to the fact that most pre-made sims will have no memories when resurrected.
I’m glad it wasn’t THAT predictable 😉 Surely most people, including Antonio Monty in 2.03, suspected something was likely to have gone wrong during the resurrection process.
Besides the swing incidents, there’s also the ending of 2.07(A) and the start of 2.08(A), where Kent remembers his Secret Project colleagues differently from how they’re like in the main universe. These are some of the many details that made STM fun to write 😛
Will it be great and how long will the second season last?
In the announcement video, I mentioned that STM 2.09 – 2.12 would appear in screenshot form over the next few months 😉
I suspect Nervous has something to do with the accelerated pregnancy. Did he already suspect that Susan and James Windmark are actually his former tortures? Is Thanatos involved too? We know what happened with Gen Grunt when he last visited Specter Yard…
And I didn’t see that plot twist coming at all! :O
I’m wondering how many (unmentioned) universes there are. Because we already know about the football universe, but from where is this Kent? Nice job Aldo, you really got me on the edge of my seat this chapter. It was really fun to read the first blog post I didn’t get to read beforehand, it really makes it so much more fun and exciting and I can’t wait for the next one. 😀
Maybe Olive communicated with Nick again, like in chapter 2.02? :O
At the start of 2.06(A), Nick did have a gut feeling that the gardeners he just hired reminded him of Loki and Circe, but he dismissed it.
In this short scene, Circe tried to make sense of her problem with BOTH scientific and magical explanations. She fears that Olive Specter’s influence on the yard still lingers on, and it’s too late for her to undo anything.
You’re right that Gen Grunt’s “punishment” for his earlier meddling does not bode well for the Beakers/Windmarks.
In 1.10, there are many other universes on Hyde Dynamic TV, and none of them are the PVCS football universe 😉 So this Kent can be from anywhere.
You may also have noticed that this Colony Don also had a baby with Dina Caliente, but is named Raul instead of Juan (in PVCS 2035). How much of a trend would this be for other potential newborns in STM, especially the impending Beaker/Windmark spawn? 😮
Ooh, twist! A good twist too – the kind that you didn’t see coming but seems obvious in hindsight! XD I’m intrigued to see what happened in the timeline that this Kent came from – perhaps an alternate Veronaville disaster where Bianca did die.
Glad you enjoyed this twist! 🙂 Everyone was waiting for Kent to “come out”, but few expected THIS to be his story 😮 Vidcund Curious must be very disappointed that his expose wasn’t the heaviest anvil 😛
Now we know why there are so many side tales of STM alternate universes, and many others of which we only see glimpses. So Kent’s tale in the subsequent episodes would be more… multi-dimensional… than we expected 😉