Sorry for the very long hiatus ( although you all probably went on to different stories, which this place has much of.)
My dog of 8 years had to be put to rest because he had a tumor in his nose that was keeping him from breathing. Then thanksgiving, after which I now have two puppies who are both a little hyper and lastly college finals which ended this week so here I am again.
I'm thinking of abandoning the whole plot adjacent nature of my story, at least for the main story, and phantom liberty is where it's gonna get wild. The "writing as I play through" strategy wasn't really working. Sure it preserved the core identity of some of the characters, but thinking back on it I feel my best/most natural writing was when I had V and Jackie interacting with the Aldecaldos which was completely removed from canon.
Post the next chapter soon
Happy holidays.