ELSEWHERE

Heartman is examining my blood

The acting in this is fucking phenomenal. This Would Not Work if any of the actors (voice or mocap) put less than their entire ass into the performances. If any of them tried to wink at the camera or be self aware about how ridiculous everything is, it would all fall apart. But they are putting their entire asses into it, they're performing like they really believe and care about everything that's happening. I love it

The apocalypse event also caused some kind of mass loss of information, so now there's no like, records of anything that happened before the stranding

This game hits a lot different almost five years into a pandemic than it did almost two years in

Chronic isolation made everyone Weird, you say? I'm sure I wouldn't know anything about that

"A path you laid down was used by someone else"

Oh god no don't do that, I have no idea where I'm going

It has been theorized that BTs are "mirror images" of ourselves. Were we to exist in the same point in time and space, our "shapes," as it were, would not overlap neatly onto one another, save in reflection. And when our particles meet their opposites, a voidout occurs.
The new form of communication we have devised utilizes Beaches, which are akin to mirrors reflecting this world and the other, hence the term "chiral network."

("voidout" is the explosion I mentioned that happens after a dead body "necrotizes". "chiral network" is the wifi system I'm hooking cities up to)

Chiralium, like dark matter, was born along with our universe, and has existed ever since--just not in a dimension we were able to perceive. Until now. It is the Beach that gives us access to that dimension, and with it knowledge of chiralium's existence. Not just knowledge of it, of course. We have since observed it coalescing into crystalline form, and recorded measurable physical and mental effects on individuals exposed to it. It has reshaped our understanding of reality, and proven instrumental in the formulation of the multiverse theory of Beaches.
Chiral matter is not affected by the passage of time. As far as these particles are concerned, none has elapsed since the Big Bang. Little wonder they escaped our notice for so long, until man and BT first came together in voidout and left nothing but chiralium in their wake...

"Hey seems like connecting areas to the chiral network increases chiralium in that area! I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, though!"

The bridge babies are removed from their mothers at 28 weeks by the way

it is thanks to this thread i now know that “stranding” in the title means “to be apart from one another” and not strand like “a stretch of beach.”

which explains a fair bit about just /how/ confused i was.

also, the pictures of the babies i’ve seen look older than 28 weeks gestation.

I was looking up the size of a 28 wks gestation fetus and I feel like lettuce and eggplant are not the same size

although I guess if they're just removed they may grow more in their uhhhhh whatever egg things I'm coming into this late I don't know what's going on with the time babies