Sad news for Ciem: Inferno: The Grand Tour

One would think that history would be kind to The Gerosha Chronicles. In some ways, yes. In other ways, not so much. But while the alternate history world had to struggle with the tie-in tour A Very Anarteq Tour of the Soo coping with the fact that AirBnB wasn't in possession of 1011 Wellington St. in real life in 2015, requiring a retcon to make it so, and further had to deal with the fact that the HD Sports Grill in 2015 had since become a Montana's, these were minor setbacks to one being able to live inside the world of Anarteq: Guardian of the Soo.

Yet, the timelines for Ciem: Inferno and Sodality: Instigation were done both an ironic service and disservice in September of 2022. So, what happened?

According to this article from The Warrick County Standard, the Posey's Market so critical to Earth-G7 Ciem mythos got shut down, just two years after its ceasing normal store operations in the Earth-G7 timeline. Only, it wasn't repurposing as a gateway to Imaki's catacombs to hide the Exodus Agenda from Halal Affadidah's patrols that led to the shutdown.

Instead, Posey's fell prey to something else: poor management. More specifically, health code violations up the gazoo.

Pummeled by the economic brutality of the Scamdemic, and draconian lockdowns that failed to protect anyone from disease, the business had to start cutting corners just to stay in business. The building was old and decrepit. Its infrastructure, in bad shape. And that was on top of other acts of mismanagement leading to lots and lots and lots of spoiled food!

It wasn't just spoiled meat that was an issue, however. All that rotten vegetation that went unadressed had led to a fly population growing out of control. Customers could look forward to being assaulted by horseflies while trying to by canned garbanzo beans. Store shelves in an "out of order" freezer unit tried frantically to get shipping companies to accept recalled products that they failed to pick up from recalls from 20 years prior! The logs were never honored by the companies back in 2002, and were ignored all through 2012. But after 2020, records about it all...went missing.

With credits to be earned from overdue returns, Posey's didn't want to eat the cost to simply have that way-expired product go in the dumpster. Speaking of which, no one was maintaining the dumpsters to deal with the maggot problem. Probaby because the insane city hall had made most practical "cowboy" methods of dealing with the problem illegal, resulting in having to wait for services that the Scamdemic destroyed in order to (never actually) deal with the problem that Posey's was no longer able to deal with itself!

Rather than come to the store's rescue, when it was begging for help, that's not the Indiana way. Instead, the store got kicked while it was down. The health department's sign notices didn't even bother to give anyone an explanation as to why the store had been suddenly closed down. The only thing anyone knew, was that what used to be a mainstay of shopping local in the area, and supporting local store owners, had fallen prey to government red tape. Only an article published later by the local paper finally explained what the rationale behind this closing was.

Who could benefit from letting a store like that die? For one, Big Box. Wal-Mart, which has had its share of issues with meat, and the War on Flies, is big and powerful enough to survive getting slapped with occasional fines by the health department. And was all too eager to eat up the business that Posey's lost. Little guys, like Posey's? Defenseless! And given how tied their hands had been for years, it seemed the problems with that aging store were only destined to get worse. The inevitable finally happened: the store became unsafe to do business in.

What does this mean for Dozerfleet fans? It means, barring a massive internal overhaul and new management, Posey's will likely never again be open to the public. At least, not under that identity. So if you are fans of Ciem: Inferno, and you would love to revisit the locations mentioned in Ciem: Inferno: The Grand Tour as part of your Boonville-visiting experience, just take note that shopping at the grocery store whose parking lot was the setting for Candi Flippo's arrest in Ciem: Inferno is no longer an option.

This is unfortunate, as the cashiers were very friendly. Alas, you can't stay in business in an old building when Big Box wants you gone - especially if you can't control your inventory, and the flies take notice!

Uncovering Lost Wiki Treasures Pt 14 - Candi's evolution across Gerosha timelines

Before the video above was made, and encapsulated most of the points of note regarding the evolution of Candi as Ciem, there was a wiki article that detailed much of it. With Divergency accounting and disambiguation pages becoming the new normal for Dozerfleet characters with multiple variants, much of this old article can now be converted to a blog post.

The article was primarily written before November of 2012, so the variants are focused on Earth-G6 and earlier primarily. However, the above video chronicles G7, G7.2.0, and G7.2.1 variants of Candi, as well as the 12131-F version.

Gerosha Prime (2005)

Genetics and appearance

This was the first attempt ever at the character, being a quick-fix way of trying to put good use to the multiple children that Sims 2 base game Stan and Shalia had in 2005. The other purpose behind Candi's inception was to show how a superhero Sims comic could work, to illustrate a point to users of Mod the Sims Social that not every story had to revolve around teen pregnancy drama exclusively.

Due to the way game genetics work, Candi looked very much white like Stan and bore none of Shalia's skintone attributes. She was also blue-eyed like Stan, since Sim genetics randomly decide which trait is dominant. Had the Dozerfleet founder known how to use SimPE back then, Candi's genetic issues would've been resolved much sooner.

In this timeline, the adult version of Erin was murdered offscreen, and never once depicted. After the opening chapter, no word was ever spoken of concerning her death ever again; only it is to suffice that she gives Candi reason to move away and marry. One other major theme that would continue after this was that Candi had an affinity for dyeing her hair red, though her natural color is black.

Family

In 2005, Denny marries Candi due to her having led to his conversion, as his family is still atheist. We know almost nothing else about Denny; and Donte does not surface in Candi's life until much later on. "L1 the Llama" was originally Jeraime in a high school llama mascot suit, as that was easily pulled from the game's Sports career path. His catchphrase of "DIIIIEEEEE!!!!" was in here, but was downplayed considerably. Jeraime's catchphrase didn't reach exaggerated levels until a reboot attempt in 2006.

In Earth-G3.1, Denny is killed by Capp Aard rather than Jeraime, after being brainwashed into "Dr. Leone" and assigned to make monsters. Candi's pregnancy is less of a big deal in this version; but she does lose Angie shortly after Angie's birth. Jeraime is blinded in this version, and Milp was introduced. This version also established that Candi would have Dana in the future, and that Arfaas wants Candi's head as a trophy.

Donte's half-brother Khumar is introduced in this version as Khumar Emeraldo, recycling the old masculine form name that was going to be assigned to Esmeralda in Stationery Voyagers before that character was made feminine. Likewise, Donte wasn't known as Emeraldon in this version. He was known as "Captain Emerald." Lindsay was still Khumar's wife, but she was at one point attached to an AI backvisor and put in a Janette the Bunny suit to become S2 the Bunny. Dolly was forced into being S1 the Bunny. All such "Bunny Units" were using the game's Social Bunny NPC outfits.

With exception of Miriam and sometimes Marina, it was implied that Candi did not have a healthy relationship with most of her family. Reily ignored her, Erin was a surrogate mother to her when she didn't stay with the McAuleys, Jason and Tanya ignored here, Mike and Jeff outright held her in contempt, and Vince had vanished to some place that nobody knew. (In actuality, he was somehow exported as a Townie and the game all but forgot about him afterward.)

Power losses and nature of enemies

Arfaas' sister Harga attempted to reform and become a human woman named Hannah. By Classic Gerosha, Harga became an impenitent Hebbleskin Gang member. By Comprehensive Gerosha, she was written out entirely.

Candi's power losses in the original cut of Ciem 2 were brought on by feelings of guilt that by developing an interest in Donte, she was somehow cheating on Denny and that Denny was still alive somewhere and somehow. In the 2009 version, being pregnant with Frank became the basis for her developing a vulnerability to a strain of influenza that interfered with her powers. Later iterations of Centhuen Prototype physiology mythos remove most of these plot devices, instead merely stating that pregnancy hormones interfere with focus, making Candi less effective at using her powers while pregnant. Therefore, Candi has to also avoid most pill forms of birth control.

By extension, Earth-G7's retcon regarding why Candi getting pregnant interferes with her being effective at being Ciem also applies to Michelle and Dana's hesitation with the thought of ever wanting to get pregnant.

By contrast, Zize Choi simply grows to believe that she may have been sterilized by the Chinese government without her foreknowledge or consent, explaining why she has a difficult time conceiving a child. Since Zize got her powers via Phex-1 injection, rather than being a proper Phexo Centhuen Prototype, and she never developed proper centilegs, Zize isn't considered a proper Chilopod Crusader. Likewise, she doesn't ever gain Zeran tech to aid with clothing quantum storage nor with teleportation.

Rather, Zize's primary means of combat is still to utilize weapons and military drop tactics on par with her training as an MSS agent. Her rapid healing, high jumping, and other enhanced senses and skill potential make her slightly more than "peak human," but her overall methodology is still standard. As such, the effects of pregnancy hormones on her powers are much less substantial at influencing her performance in the field. Although, if Zize ever did get pregnant, she'd try to avoid conflict for the child's sake. She has no guarantee that her infant child would be able to endure abuse to the extent that she can.

Miriam Flippo, Marina Baret, and Tanya Woven are also interesting case studies on this subject. Miriam and Marina are considered honorary Chilopod Crusaders, since the sequence is inside them to become like Candi. However, they haven't successfully activated it. Without its activation, they have no clear way to ever manifest their centilegs nor control them. They lack the means to be truly superhuman. As a consequence, becoming pregnant wouldn't interfere with their talents any more than it would most ordinary women.

Tanya in Earth-G7, however, isn't a true Chilopod Crusader at all. Propped up with Padua Network tech and Imaki Izuki tech, she's an elaborate imposter of a Chilopod Crusader. However, she knows that if her tech fails, and she's pregnant, failure to escape from enemies in the event of her tech's destruction means being responsible for two lives being placed in danger. This becomes her impetus to retire from being the Ciem of Seattle. Even before Tanya was expecting Yong's child, she had her doubts about continuing as Ciem. Not having Candi's powers, in her mind, made the job suicide.

Despair Gerosha (2006)

This was a primitive attempt to take seriously the continuity started in 2005 via reboot. Awkward though this failed universe was, it established several firsts that have carried on as canon ever since.

Erin's death and Candi's enemies

One of these established facts is that Erin Flippo was murdered by Gunner and Skellig Soorfelt. Her killers were never made explicit until 2006. Despair Gerosha is also the last time that Ciem's archnemesis early-on was named "L1 the Llama." Musaran in Classic Gerosha was a '''BrassTex Mecha''' suit from Mod the Sims repainted to look shrew-like. L1 in this version was a repainted Storm Trooper and a repainted llama mascot helmet. This was still an improvement over the 2005 version, where L1 used the Sims' in-game llama mascot unchanged as his suit.

This was also the first version where Candi saves Denny from a Meethlite's assassination attempt late at night. Candi's attempt to save Denny also leads to the Meethlite's death. However, Classic Gerosha states that Gunner makes the attempt right outside Candi's house. Comprehensive Gerosha has it happen outside the home Candi is renting from Heather, and has Gunner fall on his own knife after a quick and vicious battle with Candi. Classic Gerosha's explosion death for Gunner is also covered in this version.

Relationship with Denny

Another change to occur in this version is that Denny was attending church with Candi well before they got married, and that this version shows them getting married because of their common enemies. That trend carried over into G5 and G6. In 2005, Denny marries Candi due to her having led to his conversion, as his family is still atheist.

Major differences between the first battle for Denny's life in Despair Gerosha and Classic Gerosha are location. Despair Gerosha had the affair happen in a city park. Unlike later Geroshas, where Candi and Denny decide to get married later the same week or following week, the two of them decide to consummate their relationship immediately in this version. They get engaged, but don't marry until after Candi learns she is pregnant.

Other major changes include the fact that Despair Gerosha is the first time that Donte was in Candi's life before Denny. Donte and Denny both meet Candi in this version around the same time. It is discovering herself pregnant that convinces Candi to choose Denny; but Donte remains a best friend. Denny's tragic and sudden death becomes the grand opportunity for Donte to win Candi's heart for good. However, he does get captured; leading to Candi having to rescue him.

Earth-G7 and beyond replaces Denny Levens with Danny Loffin, who in spite having some outdoors and survivalist training, is otherwise just some very friendly teenage boy that Candi falls for when he's proven to have a better heart than most of her other male peers at school. Also unlike Denny, Candi and Danny never actually succeed at getting married, before Danny falls prey to the Hebbleskins' schemes. Candi and Danny conceive a child together; but that ends in a miscarriage.

Earth-G7 and beyond also make the change that Ciem and Emeraldon don't actually meet until some time after Candi loses both Danny Loffin and Tyrone Menster as fiances, with the latter dead due to Halal Affadidah's goons. In fact, Ciem: Ash Cloud goes to some Sleepless in Seattle lengths to keep Candi and Donte from meeting, even though the logic of their circumstances makes it seem highly likely that they'd meet.

Candi's biology

In 2005, Candi had visible pores where her centilegs were hiding inside her. Denny has to strap her up to a device to allow her to hide the openings. This never becomes an issue in later versions. However, 2006 Candi also had half the centilegs at half the length of her 2005 counterpart. In Prime, Candi had 64 centilegs around 16 feet in length total each. These were reduced to only 32 centilegs at 8 feet in length each. By 2007, she'd have only 16 and they'd be about 5 feet in length each. Finally, the 2010 version has only 10; and they are only called "legs" by a technicality of term. In truth, their small size and length of only a few inches makes them more adequately described as stingers.

The year 2006 was also the beginning of efforts to make Candi more biologically realistic in terms of appearance. Her eyes were still gray/blue instead of the brown they'd become in 2010, but her skin was getting darker. Sims 2 depictions are limited, since only four default skintones are possible.

Other relationships

Donte's last name in Gerosha Prime was initially stated as Williams, before being changed suggestively to McArthur. That was fixed in G4, with his name having always been McArthur. The change also reflects that McArthur is the name he was assigned by the game when he was auto-generated for the first time by the Tombstone of Life and Death. Donte is a police chief for the last time in G4. Afterward, it was ruled that he was highly unlikely to have obtained that role. Donte also hides his alter-ego from Candi for the last time in this version. He is revealed to her almost immediately from then on.

Milp is an interesting case in this version. Unlike every other version, where she is at least briefly mentioned before her appearance in part 3, Milp is never once mentioned in G4. However, this version does make it explicit that Jeraime, not Simon, was Denny's murderer.

Candi in G3.1 is first arrested when she is mistaken for a streetwalking prostitute. She is never sent to jail for any reason in G4, though later Geroshas have fun with the idea. Candi's first arrest in G5 is for being Denny's widow, and for hacking a library computer to acquire information about Arfaas' raid and Donte's location. This essentially makes her a freedom fighter captured by Afaas' growing police state; one that has somehow still not figured out that she is either Ciem and / or a Flippo. In G6, she is arrested by a lady officer who mistakes her for Miriam. Due to Candi's ability to heal quickly from injuries, she is unable to pin the officer for brutality. Candi is later detained for about a week, as she is in shock after her battle against Don the Psycho, and the police aren't sure what to do about her mental state.

Candi goes into a coma after giving birth to Angie for the first time in G4. Her G3.1 self remained consciousness all throughout the ordeal. Imaki dies of a heart attack in Candi's presence in G3.1, as well as in G5. Although G3.1 and G6 attempt to make Imaki relevant to Candi's life somehow, G4 had Imaki leave behind little more than a video for Candi to watch. As Candi recovered in the hospital in G5, Imaki died in front of her.

Classic Gerosha (2007)

Along the way to developing the distilled and promising Comprehensive Gerosha (G6) continuity, the Classic Gerosha (G5) of Ciem webcomics proved to be an important precursor step.

This version of Candi's life initiated many firsts in the character's mythology. Even more so, her enemies were revolutionized. S1 and S2 the Bunnies were now only alluded to, with no intention of them ever being shown. One universe generation later, and they never existed at all. L1 the Llama was renamed "Musaran," shorthand for "shrew" in Spanish (''musaraña''.) According to Wikipedia, shrews eat certain types of centipedes. This made pitting Candi against a shrew-themed villain only natural. This version of Musaran was not as crude as the failed L1 suits of before, but was still not as well-thought-out as the Comprehensive Musaran promised to be.

The 2007 webcomic was also the last reference ever made to Arfaas' sister Harga Hebbleskin, who more or less doesn't exist in later adaptations. Gunner's brother, Skellig, was consistently identified as Skellig in this version. However, the surname of Soorfelt didn't get made explicit until 2010. This was the first time that Denny's would-be assassin was identified explicitly as Gunner.

Nolle Barret first made an appearance in this version, leading the charge to destroy Candi's reputation at church. Aiding Nolle is Pete the Shouter.

Another major difference that pops up in G5 that is not found in any other version is the existence of Kelsea Linney. This enemy of Denny's was based on a real-life hairstylist who worked at a salon in Big Rapids. However, the G6 universe sought to be profitable, leading to Kelsea becoming a G5 exclusive.

Donte's job as a police chief in G3.1 and G4 was no longer true as of G5. However, exactly how he afforded his house and what he did with his time outside heroics was never explained. G6 sought to cover those grounds in more detail. His capture happening early in the story is established in this continuity, and is explored in more detail in G6. Unlike in earlier versions, Donte established who he was to Candi early on here. Since he was now Emeraldon and not Captain Emerald, Khumar and Lindsay were renamed from the Emeraldos to the Hamiltons. This last name is a recycling of Anyce Hamilton from Replox: Abstract Foundations.

Just like in Despair Gerosha, Classic Imaki does very little for Candi onscreen. This is also the last time that Imaki is pure Japanese, as his backstory grows more developed after this continuity. Much like Gerosha Prime, however, Classic Imaki dies of a heart attack in front of Candi. This becomes established as true for all later versions.

Comprehensive Gerosha (2010)

Exploring other image formats

This version made significant changes to Candi, but most notably, it changed the size of her centilegs and the strength of her venom. Unique to this version is that a Sims 3 version existed at The Dozerfleet Forum, and was available via DzMD. More work was done with this version to find a template for what she would look like if played by someone real. In addition, this was the first version of Candi to be depicted in 2D using UGO's HeroMachine software.

Also of note, is that she is only portrayed by a Sim in this version for storyboarding, wiki portrayal, lot layout reference, and marketing of her for download. The book cover featured an as-of-yet-to-be-decided version of Candi in a format ''not'' drawn by a game engine. This marked the first time that Candi was primarily marketed outside of game downloads using anything other than Sims software.

Geography more realistic

This was also the first version where Evansville was explicitly called by its real-life name, rather than being dubbed "Dirbine." This change made at least the city where Ciem patroled into a real geographic location, cementing the mythos. Viron kept its name, but was based on Perry Township in Vanderburgh County. This was a departure from traditional Virons, which were entirely fictional towns.

Musaran

Musaran retains his name in this, but a lot of other things changed involving Candi's enemies. She no longer had to worry about Kelsea Linney, Bumphrob, or other villains of that sort. She did, however, have new enemies to replace some of them. Gunner fell on his own knife in this version of his epic showdown with Candi. In past versions, the Meethlite which Candi fights blows himself up. Musaran's slaughter of Viron University students is depicted a little differently here than in the 2007 comic, but that tradition carried over in general.

Allies

G6 also saw a return of Imaki to being more actively involved in Candi's life and in the decisions she made. He dies of a heart attack in her presence, same as in most earlier versions. However, he offers her more actual practical contributions that are more than just referred to. His presence was barely there in 2007's story.

G6 was the first to show much concern for Candi's in-laws: the Levenses. Eric and Patti were only alluded to before, as was Jessie. In G6, they almost got to be shown reacting to Candi and Denny's decision to elope.

In G7, the Levens family is replaced with the Loffins. While they find Candi and Danny's relationship cute, they are surprisingly apathetic about protecting and preserving that union. Roger at one point even gets Danny drunk at a party, then sends Jissika Sundue after him, to get him to forsake Candi, after essentially tricking an also-drunk Jissika into date-raping Danny. However, when the two of them awake and discuss what happened, the ruse is discovered. Neither Danny nor Jissika are amused by Roger getting them drunk and then tricking them into sleeping together, and they part ways after reprimanding Roger. Danny remains loyal to Candi from then on until his dying day.

Lesser enemies

Nolle Barret returned in G6, but her role was toned down significantly. A right-hand man of the church's district president turned out to be manipulating Nolle the whole time. Nobody was ever referred to by name as defaming Candi before G5. In the G6 timeline however, Luke Zahrn is identified as being behind Nolle. Luke is a pudgy, liberal-minded Arfaas sympathizer. He was a replacement for Pete the Shouter, whom Candi handled very differently in the G5 timeline. All of these lesser foes were written out entirely for G7.

In almost every other respect, Earth-G7 pushes Candi in directions that prior variants never explored - especially with regards to her tenuous relationship with the feds, and propensity toward being a political prisoner.

Uncovering lost wiki treasures Pt 13 - Who is Corvin the Caller?

Corvin the Caller was the working name given to a mysterious figure, who knew more than he was letting on, who often called Jessie Morcin and Mindy Liptash from burner phones in the Kozerlen TV series pitch from 2009.

Exactly who he really was and what he really wanted were a mystery to all but himself. At one point in the story, there were plans that he'd be exposed by Jessie after a fight. She'd actually get to compel him to switch sides in her war, supporting her.

Inspired by the Mouth of Sauron character in Return of the King, he would have been a figure dropping taunts and clues randomly, such that even the audience wouldn't know who he was or what is agenda was. This would be achieved by having a character who was never shown above the lower half of his nose. He was, in practice, to be something somewhere between Mouth of Sauron and Watchmen's Rorschach.

When the pitch for Kozerlen was abandoned in favor of Blood Over Water, Corvin was replaced with the character of George Lawence. While George is much more clearly and unambiguously evil and hammy, his voice effects are toned down from Corvin's considerably. Also, much of Corvin's intelligence was toned down when he was adapted as George. Some of that intellect was restored for the comic adaptation, though the miniseries reduced George to a dumb thug.