When I first waded down the middle sea in 2023 with a bowl of not-kitten milk—maybe I didn't realize it at the time, but, I had come across something special. As time and friendship compounded, I came into the realization. Katey, you are a unique and masterful author and artist, and even within just the years I've known you, you've cemented a legacy that one can be proud of. I am proud of you, if that means anything at all.
This is a wonder. I don't know if I can call it a technical wonder, because your expertise in something like this absolutely dwarfs me, but this feels like a technical wonder. When you told me about your idea to implement this technology into a game, I thought "ooh that's cool—" but I had no idea how it would really feel or work implemented. The vision and skill that rendered this recursion whole and operable is beyond admirable. I am thankful for you, if that means anything at all.
I don't even know what to call this. I guess this is a game, and a visual novel—but it's absolutely not. This is multimedia, absolutely. You packed 5 visual novels plus other writing into this recursion, which I guess is the best word to use for it, as I take it from the custom noun. This is a work with the soul of an ARG. This is, if I may invoke the name of something that shouldn't be, a remedy story that invokes its cancer (borrowing Neti's tongue), an anti-Nevermind story that draws that force into its width only to build a bounding box meant to expel it. I am lucky for you, if that means anything at all.
Eileen and Augustina opened Kaschei, provoking a thought like "so what's this going for? a bit campy dialogue—reads intentionally amateurish and blunt—what's this setting up to?" Then, I gained access to a PC—the idea that you told me realized—and then I was taken into acrylic horizon, what feels like the central magnet for all these stories.
The story of acrylic horizon, at first esoteric and obfuscated but accessibility interesting, began unfolding with Foto's wonderful ambience and house-like music. The moody sounds and thoughtful atmosphere accompanied with the radically different visual style, like this really was an in-world VN plucked from the narrative and given to me, made the plunge into the Caretaker's journey (which, upon unlocking more of the story, bitterly revealed why Myra found this VN so appealing) as smooth as aloe on skin. The vibe of the world, which felt like a combination of Haibane Renmei and Gensokyo's incident in TH13 Ten Desires, felt like a cascading mystery on my plate, just as you might lift up a winter blanket and find it's layers of duvet and blanket underneath.
Myra's expression through her untitled work, given the PoLP foundation via twin story, felt bittersweet as she explored this fantastical representation of her ideal self and life. As the tides changed through the underworld (speaking of underworlds, I loved the music here), and twins parted in the womb, the bittersweet fantasy became haunting, like one of Beatrice's outbursts—
—which stems from the all too realistic twin story. What can I even say about that? I think it would be too on the nose or too uncouth to say something directly. Just know that this resonated with me personally, just as the experience of playing Paper-Girl-Chain helped me reach that final puzzle piece that clicked in to say "yeah, you have BPD. that explains it all. think about it again."
Like a permutation to a chessboard, you took the visage of a mirror and shattered it into thousands of pieces... and in all these characters, I see connected shards—these are all the same characters, delved differently at intersections and junctions, all representative of one greater piece of connected glass—one narrative wholeness that maybe can't be repaired.
I could say more, but I think I've said enough to communicate that I think this is truly amazing, you two. Sorry, Foto, I cannot speak for you as much as I can for Katey, but I know you were crucial to the world and experience that was made here and I salute your efforts and skill. "reconciliation b" still shuffles on for me sometimes. To Katey: This is a masterwork. Thank you for this. I love you, if that means anything at all.