History of Skylerverse

Back in 1998, 'Shanntarra' was an established player in the online role-playing game "A Call to Duty" (ACTD). She had played Chief Medical Officer Robin Scott on the USS Ganymede and USS Scorpius and had been promoted to Lt. Commander and made Executive Officer of the USS Comanche, with Captain John Sea as her captain.

At the same time, 'Flyboy' had joined the USS Comanche on his first assignment as the Flight Control Officer at the rank of Ensign as Richard Clyde Skyler. Over time the two became friends, and when 'Shanntarra's Robin Scott was promoted to Captain of her own ship, due to all his hard work and a great attitude, 'Flyboy' was made Shanntarra's replacement as Executive Officer. Given that Shanntarra had so much fun on the ship, she decided to make another character to play on the ship. Since she couldn't attend every week, she made her character a Non-Player Character (NPC). That way she could fill in when needed. As the Captain was running a storyline where he and his wife were expecting a set of twins, combined with the fact that Flyboy had a child character NPC on board as well, it made sense to have a Pediatric/ Child Behavior specialist on board. That is where Medical Officer Lt. Junior Grade Lilly Lynn Rose came into being.

The intent was for Lynn to assist with the care of the children on board the ship. One of those children was Richard's baby brother, Jack. The story was that Richard's mother, Janice Skyler, had remarried and had given birth to Jack with her new husband. Jack's father was on a long-term mission and couldn't be reached. Janice had been killed when Jack was a little over a year old. Richard was given guardianship of Jack. It was a little running joke on the ship that Jack was very bright and would often toddle his way down to Stellar Cartography. To keep him out of trouble, Lynn would mind the childcare center with her nurse Julie. As many of the sub-plots of the story were related to keeping Jack out of trouble, naturally Richard and Lynn would interact often. Over time Chris and Jamie created a very sweet side story focused on Jack, their two dogs, and balancing life aboard a ship.

As part of the game requirements, 'logs' that recapped what happened after the weekly missions had to be submitted. It was in those that Skyler Saga began. It was mostly one-page pieces of Jamie recapping what happened that week in the game, with a nice sub-plot story with Jack, Lynn, and the two dogs, Winchester, and Cinder. Those sub-plots blossomed into a very detailed story. It was well liked by all the other players.

The two of them kept up their lengthy stories for roughly five years before the real world swallowed them up. They did do sporadic stories for the next couple of years, but nothing substantial. However, in May of 2021, Flyboy started getting plot bunnies for a "What if..." story that was set 20 years in the future. He contacted Shanntarra, thinking she might like to hear them. They had not talked much for at least 10-15 years but kept in touch. He sent her a simple email saying, "I think I fell down a rabbit hole". What happened next could only be described as an avalanche. Flyboy's one-page teaser morphed into a 16-chapter story in just two months!

Having so much fun the two of them didn't want to end the story and continued writing. In late June of 2021, they had published "Down the Rabbit Hole" and had begun "Through the Looking Glass." A continuation of the story from "Down the Rabbit Hole." It ended up being 18 chapters plus! and they are already working on a THIRD story!

While building this 34-chapter story, Shanntarra and Flyboy had to reach back into their old files and try to find the character's old bios and other details. Sadly, many items were lost to the 3.5" disk history, however, they have shouldered on. Given all the work the two of them have put into the lives of Richard Clyde Skyler, Lilly Lynn Rose, Robin, and Allan Scott they wanted to get it off all the old files and out there in the digital world. They will admit that some details have been lost for ages, but they want to get their stories told. This isn't being done to make money, or get followers, but simply for two people to share creatively with each other. If other people happen to like it, all the better.

\*\*\* Please note that the Skylerverse uses the ACTD standard date notation of three-digit year, two-digit month, dot, day of the month, and time in military hours based on time wherever the characters are located.

Example: Douglas, Illinois, Earth – 12108.03 09:11 hours

If you ever have questions about the story or the characters, feel free to let them know.