So I've kinda not been around for a while, and the major reason for that is that I've been very busy with school. That's starting to taper off a bit now, so I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things soon.

However it was honestly nice to have a break from questing. The most difficult thing about running quests, for me, is the emotional aspect of it -- I end up getting very invested in working on quests, which gets emotionally exhausting after a while. Going a couple months without updating has left me feeling pretty refreshed, so I think I might start taking breaks whenever I feel that exhaustion begin to set in. Hopefully it won't always be for months at a time, though.

To clear up any confusion (since there was some in the DD disthread), here's the current status of each of my quests:

>Dead Dust
Still ongoing

>Arzfayz
Dead, possibly rebooted someday -- I've envisioned Arzfayz as being part of a greater universe that multiple quests would take place in, but the worldbuilding I've done has diverged too much from what's established in the quest, so I'd like to give it a do-over at some point. I might do a short wrap-up comic to tie up loose ends at some point, but no promises there.

>Flora
On hiatus until after Chapter -1 of DD is complete.

>WAN WAN WAN
Dead -- It was a bit of an experimental quest, and I quickly realized that the whole operant conditioning mechanic was going to become a real pain to manage.

>Null and Void
Still ongoing


Also, I'll be starting a new quest soon. (Apologies to anybody who might groan at this announcement, but I really want to do it.)

WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN WAN

Aw dang, I knew you were busy, but didn't know you were feeling burnt out. Thankfully questing isn't really a professional past-time, so taking some month-long breaks is A-OK!

But new quest, you say? Curious what pops up.

>>133920
Rip Fayz (for now) never even got the D.
But seriously I really do hope you'll do more quests in this setting. I can't begin to tell you how much I fucking love the settings for DD, Arzfays and N&V.

Happy to hear from you Teegee, and if a break is the solution to you starting to feel weary by all means take one whenever.

Glad to see you are alright.

>>133927
>But seriously I really do hope you'll do more quests in this setting.
I’d like to, I have something like 5 quest concepts that take place in that universe. I’m very flattered you like those settings so much!

>>133934
You do have a certain gift for generating them.

All I wanna say is that's a great titlecard for the disthread.

>>133955
Thanks!

On a semi-related note, I've been steadily (if a bit slowly) working on the next DD update, so that should be up within the next several days, unless things become suddenly busy again with my schoolwork.

>>133971
sad to hear you scrapped arzfayz, I liked where the setting was going

>>134015
As far as the setting goes, it'll return for sure. And like I said, Arzfayz will probably get a reboot eventually.

This is a disclaimer for my new quest, Folly of the Temptress. I'm posting this because, considering the planned content of the quest, I'd like to get out ahead of any friction that could result from it.

This quest is going to become very lewd and at least somewhat weird. Fetishy content is likely.

Content warning (spoiled for those who would prefer a surprise): bdsm, noncon/dubcon, esoteric fetishism, clothing damage/embarrassed nudity, and what I think is best described as "erotic, cartoonish villainry".

Please keep in mind that this quest is purely a work of fantasy, and as such some topics may receive a more light-hearted approach than they would deserve in reality. The appearance of a particular situation or event in the quest is not an endorsement of it in real life; and similarly, suggestions for a given action should not be taken as endorsements of that action in real life.

I apologize to anyone who finds this sort of disclaimer tedious, but given the controversy that occurred over some events in Dead Dust, I felt it was best to state all of this at the outset.

If you have any questions about anything stated above, feel free to ask.

Well, I guess I'm spamming this thread with my thoughts on DD updates now.

>>/quest/978730
>He gave me a weird look.
I dunno. It looked pretty normal to me. A normal look when you notice someone having sex.

>>/quest/978733
>>whirrrr
A whirring sound would usually be from something spinning or just a fast repetitive sound. The last time we heard a whirr was from a scanner, so that's alarming haha. Hmm. Or maybe the llama guy was just drilling a hole in Siobhan's bathroom.

Sibohan doesn't give us any clues about what it could be. So what we can assume is that, considering Siobhan doesn't know what the sound was, it's likely that she never heard such a sound coming from that apartment before. So if it happened just now for the first time, right after the neighbor saw Siobhan, there's a chance that it wasn't a coincidence. That is, something happened because Siobhan was seen.

The question that I have is, was this sound produced intentionally or not. Would it had been intentional knowing that Siobhan is still there? Probably not. So I think that whoever produced the sound hopes that Siobhan either won't hear it, or she would ignore it. It's possible they know that Siobhan sleeps late in the mornings and would be relying on her to continue doing that.

But yeah, because there's a good possibility that it wasn't a coincidence, it would be a good idea to check it out.

>>/quest/978834
>"I'll have it tonight", "I'll get it tonight"
If Preston was after the samples, he would be using "them" instead of "it", so it can't be that he's after the samples. What could he be after then? Siobhan's body? That also seems unlikely for multiple reasons.

>it sounds like it's coming from the ceiling
Strange. How could a sound move from a wall in his apartment to a place above yours? It would require that the construction of the place left empty space between walls and floors (which btw isn't very common outside the US :p ), and whatever was producing that sound utilized that space. Still, for such a thing to occur without warning... would that even be legal? Wouldn't any sort of work in that place require the approval of the building / shelf management? But if he got such an approval, then Siobhan would likely have gotten a notice that such work would take place.

>>/quest/978922
>stay put, I'll come getcha
Despite the seemingly alarming situation, we know for a fact that Siobhan isn't in any danger here. That's because when Penny meets Preston again later (>>/questarch/906670), the guy is mostly uninterested in her. He was interested in Moira, however, so perhaps it's something related to that, maybe even Mike. However, to be trying to do anything funny right here, right now, it doesn't make much sense. Surely he knows that Siobhan is there, and if she's there, that she would tell Mike about the noise. No one would be that stupid, would they? Unless they thought that Siobhan would not be here (which seems impossible because Siobhan said that she would normally still be sleeping), or they thought that she wouldn't hear the sound (which also doesn't make sense, because she said the sound was loud). But yeah, if he was after Mike, there would've been better opportunities for this. Preston was here for a few weeks, so he was spying, he would know when both Siobhan and Mike aren't at home.

Anyway, no matter what we do here, it won't result in anything noteworthy happening between Siobhan and Preston, because then it wouldn't tie well with how Preston acts later - where he hardly recognizes Siobhan at all.

>There's something he isn't telling me.
He doesn't want to tell Siobhan about the new security system that he's installing today. Lots of guys working on all sides of the apartment and all. It was going to be a surprise so that she could sleep better at night~
Or maybe he decided it was a good time to take her on a honeymoon. Who knows!

It's great seeing you make a return, teegs. And as previously said, that title card is excellent!

I hope this isn't 'too putting on the spot', but I'm curious what projected lengths you have in mind for your current quests. While Quests are akin to Webcomics in that they run for very extended periods of time, you've got a lot on your plate - and I find it difficult to imagine that all of them are as in-depth and lengthy as Dead Dust, (or the Arzfayz-verse, once that eventually gets the reboot). Would it be fine if you gave us your thoughts on what the relative ratios of story length you imagined for your quests are? I'd ask for time estimates but life is busy, and there's no real guarantees on things getting done when you want them to.

>>134061
>I hope this isn't 'too putting on the spot', but I'm curious what projected lengths you have in mind for your current quests.
Hmm, let's see:

>Dead Dust
Hard to say anything more definite than "long"
>Flora
3 threads, maybe 4 tops
>Null and Void
It's a bit open ended so I'm not completely sure, but most likely shorter than Dead Dust
>Folly of the Temptress
Probably about the same as Null and Void
>eventual Arzfayz reboot
This could change, but right now I think I'd probably shoot for about 5 threads.

Good to see you back! Really enjoying the updates lately!

>>134092
Thanks, glad to hear it!

>>134087
Thanks for the detailed answer - I'm actually a bit surprised by some of these. I was expecting Flora to be longer, but 3 threads is quite interesting. Still, either way, it's good that you've got this all planned out. Best of luck to you - I'll certainly be watching and seeing things play out.

>>/quest/979049
wtf, Siobhan is wearing clothes? teegee pulls a fast one on us again -_-

>It usually doesn't kill
Hmm, could these types of weapons be what Vespers were using as well? I'm not sure, since the one Siobhan uses looks more sophisticated with a holo cross sight and all. The canisters do look similar tho.

>I don't think I could forget it
Alas, even if told Penny about it, she already knows Mike's h-mail from all the ads that she's seen.

>more like a zipper, or a cord running through something? Could be anything, though.
It would seem that it was a door hacking job.

>I'm sure the only reason he was cagey last night was because of that client he doesn't wanna talk about.
I mean, Mike did say it was because of a client.

>I'm gonna trust Mike on this one.
So whenever Mike tells Siobhan that she should "stay put", he wants her to find the nearest closet and hide there. Hmm. I too like to keep my toys in the closets but this is ridiculous :p

>I sit there in the dark
Hello darkness my old friend...

>whoever it is, they're trying to be quiet.
Well, that changes things. If someone did enter here, then it can't be Preston. And if it's not Preston, it means Siobhan is in danger~

>>/quest/981518
>Yeah, if he booked it over here and left the hop by the walkway.
He would be even faster if he took the window shortcut.

>so he'd have a pretense to get me into a horndog body
If Mike was so desperate, was there any need to put someone in that body in the first place?

>I'm more invested.
Stonks. Sadly, the market for MIKE is going to come crashing soon.

>but they're too quick for me to make anything out
SNEAK 100

>contemplating my next move
Shouldn't she be using the command station room that's hidden in the closet behind her then?

>>/quest/981857
>but I hesitate for too long
My plans and expectations, subverted yet again hehe.

>they must have walked into the kitchen
Does this mean they only checked the kitchen? Checking the kitchen and not the bedroom, it doesn't make much sense.

>pair of long, slender tails
But they're not vertical!

>>/quest/981858
>an odd holo-tat
First the foxes, then the owl, followed by Mint and ch1 ending. And now here. What do these vertical eyes represent? Is this person an agent of sorts? Or a talent holder?

>>/quest/981944
>2 vertical eyes? goddamnit
Oh good, Mike knows about these eyes. Wait, Mike knows about these eyes... *squint*

>fucking assholes went too far this time
Why does Mike know these people. Does this also mean that he knows Preston? I mean, maybe he didn't lie about only passing him in the hall once, but it's possible that Mike knows a lot more about Preston than he lets on.

Anyway, if Mike knows about these people, it makes me wonder if Mike himself is special in any way. Could he be one of the hands that pull? Or even a talent holder himself...

>they wont hurt u
That's... what was the point of this whole ordeal then lol
Wait, I know. They just really wanted to use the coffee machine in the kitchen! Makes sense.

The way he writes these messages is consistent, so I don't think his communication could be tampered with. Besides, Siobhan would probably notice if his writing was off.

>>134383
>wtf, Siobhan is wearing clothes? teegee pulls a fast one on us again -_-

I wonder how she ends up in a Delaney outfit with no undergarments later... is she wearing undergarments right now?

Some people are talking about the glyphs having weird effects on people. It has been explicitly stated that they exploit a vulnerability that only exists in people who've suffered taffa syndrome, and no such glyphs can be produced to affect most people.

>>/quest/982053
>The figure doesn't give any visible reaction
Perhaps this is because they already expected as much. If they were expecting Penny, it implies they knew... that she was hiding there, in the closet with her gun. So it's likely that those eyes were some sort of a detection tool. If true, it would be quite surprising. And useful.

It also makes me wonder how these eyes, which are some sort of a hologram and/or a dust mod, are related to the natural vertical eyes of the animals that we've seen.

>autovox
This info may come in handy in the future if Penny's in a situation where she wouldn't want her voice to be recognized. Which is funny because she already revealed her voice in the global chat room. Well, it's highly questionable whether she'd be able to use such a mod in that virtual place anyway, besides, the main problem was in revealing her location, not the sound of her voice.

>a client's representative
While Mike may have plenty of different clients, due to the current circumstances, I think it's highly likely that the client in question is the one that provided Penny's current body. Sending a representative like this over, it also seems this client is quite a big shot.

Still, this is good. It confirms that Siobhan's not in any danger. I mean, if the client wanted to get rid of Siobhan, they could've easily done it already. So clearly there's some other agenda that they have.

Such a lean body... and those clothes! Based on the amount of exposed skin, the set must have a pretty good defense rating.

>>/quest/982311
>And one of yours.
A client of Mike's and of Siobhan's? We know that Mike hired Siobhan to do that one job for this client, but that should, in theory, only make them Mike's client. There's plenty of ways this could be explained tho. Here's a few that I see:
- The client believes that, because Siobhan did that mission, they are Siobhan's client now. Perhaps, for a while, Mike was trying to hide the fact that he hired Siobhan for the job.
- The client believes that, because Siobhan is in this body, that it makes them her client. A pretty special body heh.
- The client contacted Siobhan for other jobs in the past, but Siobhan no longer remembers those. Maybe Siobhan was a big shot as well, before she forgot stuff.

In either case, they seem to think of Mike as an unnecessary middleman.

>"I came to deliver something."
Well, that explains why they went to the kitchen and not to the bedroom. To drop off whatever they brought.
What's important to note here is that, we can now extrapolate a lot more from Mike's previous reaction, where he said that they went too far. Mike already implied that he knows who this person is, but if this person brought something, it implies that Mike also knew this could happen. And that this is something he strongly disagrees with. Why would Mike disagree with the client bringing something here? It's pretty obvious that it's because of Siobhan. The only reason the client would want to bring something here specifically is because Siobhan is here. Which also means that this item is probably something meant for Siobhan.
Anyway, in the past, Siobhan said that Mike took client confidentiality very seriously. But this goes beyond client confidentiality. By not wanting them to come here, it means Mike's been trying to prevent any contact between them and Siobhan whatsoever. Why would he wish to do that? Probably to protect Siobhan. So the confidentiality thing is just an excuse to keep her from danger. Which isn't all that strange, but if Mike said that Siobhan isn't gonna get hurt, why would he consider this contact so dangerous? It's not like Siobhan's gonna end up in some taffa den without her memories the next day or something :smirk:

What sort of thing could this gift be? A certain candy? Raw taffa? A vial with faded label? Something tells me that it's related to Penny's supernatural powers.

>Mr. Delaney left us with little choice
I think this relates to the previous night, where Mike said that the client was (>>/quest/964751) "Askin' for too much". So it's likely that the client wanted Mike to deliver this thing to Siobhan, and Mike turned them down. So here they are.
Clearly they disagreed about what's best for Siobhan hehe.

>Actually, I was just leaving
It's a bit strange that they would bring a thing for Siobhan but not say what it is. Considering the disagreement they had with Mike, what makes them think that Mike isn't simply going to take it and throw it into the trash? How can they be certain that Mike would explain everything to Siobhan instead of keeping her in the dark?

>>/quest/984913
>I wasn't fucking bluffing.
To shoot a person just to prove that you're not bluffing, how cruel! I mean, Siobhan was told to try and keep this person there but, to shoot them for it... it takes quite a trigger-happy person haha.

I was expecting Siobhan to be a lot more indecisive on the choice considering there was no suggester consensus.

>the intruder throws a handful of powder into the air
Pocket sand! Hmm, the distortion wave doesn't seem to travel very fast if a person is able to react to it to this degree.

>>/quest/984914
>they must have jumped!
It doesn't matter what they did. What matters is that shooting was a wrong decision since it didn't accomplish anything.

>>/quest/984915
>ready to fire some chasing shots at them...
Trigger-happy indeed. Remember, the point of shooting them was to disable them so they couldn't leave, not to fend them off. So what would be the point of such chasing shots after they left?

>but I don't see them anywhere
Nothing to see here except some inconspicuous owls.

>Just what did they "deliver" to the apartment, against Mike's wishes?
One way to find out!

Maybe this has already been discussed and I'm just a bit slow. I just noticed something... No one in the current chapter of dead dust have the wiggles. I mean, maybe TG is just lightening his workload, but I'm wondering if it's related to it being a memory? Or maybe Siobhan can't see the wiggles cause she's not yet the blade?

>>134790
I think it was part of Penny's ability of being a blade user, I think she is seeing people's rhythm or something, kind of like how Mint felt fuzziness around her.

> >>134790 >Maybe this has already been discusse
There was some discussion of it here: >>132650

>>134790
>maybe TG is just lightening his workload
While the lightened workload has been welcome, I think it's safe for me to confirm that it isn't just for the sake of making things easier for myself.

Also, I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things and start updating again. I had life happen to me for a bit there (namely moving and looking for work), but now things are settling down a bit and I don't feel so averse to using my free time for productive things. (We'll see what happens once I land a job, though.)

>>134890
Best of luck with the jobhuntening, teegee.

I forget, do you have a Patreon or Ko-Fi account or something? Might want to toss a dollar or ten your way.

>>134935
Thanks! (Sorry for being literally a month late to reply to this, things got busy again lol whoops, turns out interviews are a lot of work)

Now that that's all done with and I've got a job, my schedule is a lot more regular and predictable, so with any luck that'll translate to posting updates more regularly again.

>Patreon or Ko-fi
I don't at the moment, but I might open something like that up eventually. Even if I don't do it, I really appreciate the thought regardless, so thank you.

Gladdening news on both the successful jobhunt and the (hopefully) more regular updates.

>No plans for Patreon or Ko-Fi atm
Keep us informed! I'd be happy to toss you some tokens of appreciation for all your fine work thus far.

(And, as an aside, nothing you set up has to offer commissions, special party favors or anything like that. The main benefit of supporting you is already you having put your interactive stories up here for us to play with.)

>"Those Orchid fuckers wanted us to zap the samples into our dust. To hide 'em inside us until they give the all-clear signal. So fine, they fuckin' win. I'm ready for this shit to be over."

So maybe Mint was probably the one who gave the all clear symbol then. But then there would still be the question on why her reaction was apologizing and crying as Penny was falling unconscious. Maybe she was tricked in some way?

>>135261
The Orchids definitely delivered a signal through Mint - triggering some sort of command or killswitch. I'm not sure that was an 'all-clear' signal, though, since the situation doesn't seem very 'clear' by anyone's definition.

It could be a failsafe thing, something intended to make Penny go buh-bye as if she'd ingested raw taffa and / or restoring her old sense of self as Ciobhan (hence the flashback chapter) or just a handy way to extract the dust samples Ciobhan's body got loaded up with (at least judging by the way things are going).