This is something that we were hoping to start last year but unfortunately the world had other plans. It’s not like that ended up changing in 2026 but I think the both of us got to a point where we looked at each other and decided we can either keep putting things off or we can just say fuck it and go for it. Especially when it comes for Dre – this is something that’s been put on the back burner for a very long time and with how unpredictable and honestly pretty scary everything has been, it just seems like in order to be a bit more at peace with ourselves at the very least, the best thing we can do is just Dive In and see where things lead.
If you’re reading this – Hi and welcome. I’m E. I help Dre run Rage Quit Ink so that she can have a bit more peace of mind in handling everything and to make it easier for her to focus on getting everything going. We technically already started everything but this is more of our official introduction on the website since we realized that we’ve been posting literally anywhere but here.
This website will mostly just be used to provide announcements because we’ve taken the time to set up a Behind The Scenes Developmental Blog where we’ll be sharing updates far more regularly as we work on projects in order to provide better transparency for anyone interested in what we’ve been doing.
Because honestly? We get it.
There are a lot of people making a ton of empty promises. A lot of projects that are constantly giving an announcement for when they’ll be released and then years later, they still have nothing to show other than a bunch of doodles that will hopefully keep you hooked or barely finished work that they’re trying to convince you was intentional and complete.
We want to make sure that we aren’t doing that. Especially considering the life that Dre has lived, she knows damn well how fragile trust can be and she has no interest in pursuing anything that she isn’t actually dedicated to seeing through because she understands it’s value.
That blog also has information on how you can even be involved in what we’re doing by taking part in Play Tests for our TTRPG or joining in on Test Screenings for a number of small projects that Dre has been working on.
Live right now are a number of things for you to dive into including multiple short stories for our TTRPG that will give you insight into the world and a preview at the adventure that we’re writing for our first run of play tests, as well as a preview of the latest graphic novel project that she has in development – Catalyst Overdrive.
The blog is appropriately called Tinkering and as an added bonus, she’s also taken the time to set up a Tumblr where you can read free previews of stories that she’s working on at the moment – including a novella that she completed that she’s not turning into a graphic novel. You can check that out here.
I’ll be the one who will primarily be handling a lot of announcements, but since this is starting everything, here are a few words from Dre to really give this new beginning her blessings:
Sometimes when I’m at a loss for words, I’ll just put my music library on shuffle to see if something ends up resonating. The song that happened to come on was Are We The Waiting / St. Jimmy by Green Day and I don’t really know if there could have been a more appropriate track to start playing in this moment. I feel like so much of my life has been spent in this weird restriction around my self-expression while everyone around me runs wild doing whatever to whoever in whatever way they so choose without consequence. It’s something that definitely caused me to be a very angry person for a lot of my life because there was just nothing stopping anyone from doing the horrible travesties that I was either experiencing or continually witnessing.
At some point in time, I tried to be someone who would make that stop but all that did was leave me in more vulnerable positions where I was just left perpetually fighting and screaming. At some points, I nearly lost my mind to the point of having to decide whether it would be better to commit myself to a mental institute to hopefully have some sense of stability and structure in a world that was completely lacking in reasoning.
Doing this feels incredibly bittersweet. Taking the time to set up the Tinkering blog made me realize just how much my creativity wasn’t just a life raft helping me get through life, it was usually the last bastion in what I was forced to accept as my existence where I was able to see me in any capacity. I think for a very long time, I was hoping that pursuing what I wanted to pursue creatively would feel far more lighthearted and celebratory but in reality, this just feels heavy. I don’t think there’s any part of me that can say I’m not doing this because I need an actual outlet, so none of this is being made for any other reason other than I just need an actual space to start dealing with and processing everything.
Whether it’s my way of dealing with the world at large or just a somber meditation on the harsh lessons I’ve learned in life, I have to accept that this is just my way of coping and by god do I need to start doing a lot of coping.
I’m a big believer in embracing healthy self-expression for many reasons. I think it’s a great way to get a deeper understanding and look into your inner psyche – a way to better understand you, what you’ve been through and how you relate to the world without relying on other people to verify that for you. That can certainly become a trap of constant self-gratification – a harbor to keep you safe from harsh criticisms and a tool to use to guard your ego but I’m not really a big believer in doing that because I also know the price of what it means to let yourself become so detached from reality that you lose sight of what’s really happening.
Everything I do is geared towards sincerity and honesty. I don’t write stories about perfect people, nor do I write stories where things are constantly happy. I write stories that fall in line with what I believe to be reality: The world sucks, people are fucked and if we want to make the world a better place then we need to first start looking at how we suck so we can make better decisions for things to start improving. That does mean that my idea of coping is not what people are usually thinking.
My idea of coping is making sure I go through the process of sobering myself against the illusions that people insist I should be buying.
This does mean that what I do isn’t for everyone. It’s labeled as being for people who are at least 18 years of age but the honest answer is that this probably won’t really click with you unless you’ve been forced to deal with the reality of true adulting: Accepting that you can and have at times been the villain – even if it’s to yourself – and you are not really absolved from anything.
The ironic part is that all the stories do have a happy ending and a positive resolution. I guess in spite of how somber I might seem emotionally and creatively, I do believe that a brighter future is ahead and achievable. It just doesn’t matter whether it’s a brighter future that we end up seeing.
It’s still a brighter future worth making a reality for somebody so they don’t have to be forced to go through the torment that we keep manifesting.
Anyway, this is getting long enough. I do believe my work should speak for itself so I guess you’ll only know if I’m serious if you can feel the weight in what I’m doing which means there’s a lot of work that I should get back to doing.
Cheers
~ Dre
To close things off, Dre took the time to put together a very quick playlist for songs that she’s used as inspiration for Rage Quit Ink and how things will be running from here on out:
We hope you enjoy what you see and look forward to sharing more with you as things keep happening. Take care.