[production-notes] Episode 9.1 (Patreon)

Welcome to the new season! WE'RE GOING ON A TRAIN!

Finally! It's well-known how much I love trains. I'm very lucky to live in a country that has such good infrastructure - though I'm very envious of my European friends who have it even better!

From Maddie being on rails in Station 6, to the train tracks she passed outside Frankfurt, you can tell this has been building for a while! I'll tell you more about the train itself after next episode, but GET EXCITED!

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WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE WHITE SEA - BALTIC CANAL.

This is a real thing, built in the 30s, connecting up the lakes between the Baltic Sea  and the White Sea, North of Russia. It's still open, as far as Wikipedia tells me, and while the lock system that raises the canal 100m in total probably won't be working after The Collapse, I think it reasonable to imagine that some rivers will have shifted and the lakes remain connected.

What a thing! Canals are fantastic. 200% chance we'll have a river-based season in the future, I adore river and canal living. There's something quiet and slow about the pace of life there.

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Hope you love the new artwork as much as I do!

While the train doesn't quite look like that, look how far back it extends, it's quite alright for an artistic interpretation. I try to remember that everyone's image of how things look is correct for them. And look at Maddie galloping along next to it! What a treat. You know she's faster than the train? Rails slow you down when they're not perfectly flat, to be fair.

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The discord continues to be the most fun place, I love hanging out and chatting to everyone! @zh's machine-learning-backed chatbot (over in #z60-chat) is a DELIGHT and you should try it out!

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Thank you all so much for your support, talk to you soon!
Tris <3