#pfffs

This is the timeframe that Chapter 24 takes place over, with all the fic-relevant info censored- and the place on the wiki that I trust isn't made up because of the cite note I never actually cross-checked with Journal 3.

Thing is, somehow I had it in my head that the portal activation at the end of Gideon Rises and the portal activation at the beginning of Scary-Oke were not the same event but two separate events happening before and after the "prep time" for the Mystery Shack's reopening, since the family has only just reclaimed the Shack prior to the former and are ready to reopen it directly after the latter. Looking back on it, this was a very weird thing to think given the way they were actually framed in the show (but how did they manage to fix the building that fast? Or did Gideon fix it during his takeover? Or is it just a funny cartoon show and not the pinnacle of grounded realism? Someone help me here.)

The timeline, as I understand it now, implies something like this:

Dreamscaperers happens on day 1 and the Shack building is damaged. (This day, as you can see in the timeline, is the same day on which Sarah and Rob steal their tape player from the electronics store in the fic.)

The night of day 1, the family sleeps over at Soos' place.

Day 2, Gideonland is announced. The same day, the plan is cancelled and the shack is reclaimed, and that night, Stan activates the portal.

Day 3, the shack reopens??

You can see where I pulled two extra days out of the aether. Two days that, one, don't actually seem to exist in the show, and, two, are required for the events of the Rob and Sarah plot to properly pan out. I have several ideas for handling this:

I could just bite the bullet, add the two rebuilding days, not mention the discrepancy, and hope nobody notices or gets confused.

I could have some sort of interference in the plot by the mysterious new characters I mentioned, or by Van Guy, that postpones the grand reopening and somehow also postpones the arrival of Powers and Trigger? (I'll need to think about the nature of this interference).

I could compress the Sarah/Rob subplot into two days (half a day, full day, half a day) and ignore the major problem that causes, which is that binging the entire series apparently takes a little over 48 hours straight (and as currently written, they're not staying up the whole time).

Alternatively, I could insert the missing time somewhere else, like maybe add a day in between Dreamscaperers and Gideon Rises (so they stay with Soos for two nights instead of one). I technically only need 3 days for them to plausibly finish the series if I make them a bit more sleep-deprived.

I could move up the timeline so that Ch. 23 takes place two days before Dreamscaperers instead of on the same day. This would mess with a scene I like that's currently at the start of Ch. 24, though.

I don't know. But it's coming along. Check out this "spoilers for Ch. 24 without context" image I made. Make your predictions now! Or not. I might post a more complete version of this image when the chapter nears release.