It’s finally over.
The story idea that had been haunting me for so long is finally done.
Notes:
Notes related to the Railway Trip
-
Included in this chapter is a “mini-chapter” of Mikhail taking a trip on the trans-siberian railway. This chapter is technically its own story. If I ever revisit the story (if ever) I might remove the mini-chapter, and do an entirely new chapter detailing Mikhail’s journey on the Trans-Siberian railway.
-
the interviews are based off the interviews done by the 1420 channel
-
after pulling out of Russia, McDonalds was bought by an oligarch and was rebranded to Вку́сно – и то́чка which translates to “Tasty, Period”. It’s reception has not been particularly good.
Thanks goes to @Mr_Owl for helping come up with an appropriate name for the replacement in this universe -
thanks goes to @anon9416460 for suggesting the name of the final game Mikhail plays
-
the experience itself was based off Earthbound. Or more specifically, AVGN’s own epic review of said game. For the final boss, I was inspiroed by @Pinkyfluffy 's recent 99 balloons piece
-
The depiction of Fyodor Devushkin’s Laika is based off @Booperino 's emulation of Shaferarak’s style. I am grateful to Booberino for letting him use his picture as the illustration for this story.
-
the description of Fyodor Devushkin’s childhood Laika playing-pretending at cosmonauts is based off this piece by @artist-kun
-
in this setting, the Soviets actually landed on the moon with the LK Lander, which only had space for one cosmonaut. In the real world, the Soviet moon landing never happened because the N1 launcher rockets used only used kerosene
-
Laika is based off the famous Laika. However, I also patterned the dendy Laika more after the chimpanzees used in spaceflight.
-
Mikhail’s parents, Onegin and Tatyana, are named after the main couple of Alexander Pushkin’s opera Eugene Onegin
-
Tatyana’s speech is adapted from the monologue given by the wife of the Stalker from the movie Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky
Spoilers related to the Epilogue
-
the death of Barbara’s father is based off the recent assassinations of many oligarchs close to Putin as well as their families
-
one of the final images of the story uses my own re-imagining of @jberg360 's characters of Blueball and Zander, as well as the famous Quesada, as member of Ukraine’s anti-bomb squad, as a callback to the story “Be The One”. Even though that story is set in its owns etting (namely Fluffspeak Nation), I imagine that a similar version of that story happened in this universe
- said scene is also based off the recent reopening of McDonalds in Ukraine:
