Okay so anyone who's still following this blog might have seen me replying to that post, and might have noticed that we didn't sign off using "The Author" like we have done previously. You might have also noticed I'm using "we" and not "I" in that sentence. Yeah, about that. Fair warning, this is going to get weird. Turns out, the person who wrote this story doesn't exist like we thought they did. We also, finally, have an explanation for where our motivation to write this went, and where all our ideas went. We have a mental illness called Dissociative Identity Disorder - formerly known as Multiple Personalities. We are what's called a system; a bunch of separate minds with their own memories and experiences, sharing a body, working together to get shit done. We've constantly had lapses in short-term memory and long-term amnesia that we just kind of accepted as normal for us, until the mental barriers between two of us abruptly failed and we became aware of each other. There are nearly forty of us in here, and we've spent the past few months uncovering the effects of more than 30 years of unchecked stress and psychological damage. So what does this mean for the story? Well, turns out whoever was writing The Nucleus Incident stopped doing so because something happened that caused so much stress, they fractured into multiple parts. These parts then went dormant one by one - because if a personality, or "alter" loses the will to live, our brain puts them into a kind of coma. And when the last one fell, we lost all memory of ever writing this. The story basically didn't exist. We might look at the blog in our sidebar and get a flash of recollection, get an ask and make some promises about picking it up again, but our brain would quickly sweep it away from us as if we'd seen something we weren't supposed to. But here's the good news - we think we knew which parts of us wrote this. We can't confirm for sure, but we think they're Mello, Jeremy, and Fox. And given interest in the fandom has revived as of late, I (Terry - the current "host" of the system, the one who co-ordinates our collective efforts) might see if I can get those three together, and see if we can finally give closure to anyone who's still looking. Thanks for listening. I'm aware this is probably THE weirdest "I haven't written this fic for a while because X" explanation most of you will ever read, but reality is sometimes much, much stranger than fiction. - Terry

I'm trying to continue the story, but when I click on chapter two, it just says chapter two. Same for chapter three. Is this some sort of bug with the links? Is there another place I can read the chapters? I can't just skip two chapters of the story

Man it has, been a while since anyone posted on here. I can probably try and look into this, I seem to recall tumblr actually nuked some of the chapters for some reason, but backups of all the "remastered" versions do exist so I'll see if I can get them going? Sorry things have been so quiet. Turns out not being able to continue this was uh... a more complicated situation than expected? I'll probably make a post explaining it. Anyway, watch this space. I'll see what I can do. - Terry

Hey! I just now discovered this fanfic thing and I’m very interested. I’m not sure where I can find chapter one?

https://thenucleusincident.tumblr.com/chapters/ Here you go, this should link to all of them.

I know that this will never be coming back, unless by some miracle, but in case you for some reason see this I wanted you to know that this story has been amazing and I really adore your writing. You don't find much good tf2 story content usually, so thanks. Thanks for writing this and for creating such an awesome idea and bringing it to life.

Thanks. I don’t know how many people are still following this blog, or how many have sent me messages only never to get a reply, but I am still here. Still hanging on. Since starting this story, I’ve fallen in love, moved to another country, discovered a lot about my gender identity/sexuality, had several breakdowns and built myself up all over again. Things have changed. A lot is still changing. It still surprises me that people still somehow find this - I’m not entirely sure how. I’ll probably never finish it - I’m getting too old for this I think, and I’m too self-conscious to finish something like this, that I once wrote without a trace of irony. But one of these days, I’ll probably put something here about how it would have ended. It’s still in my head somewhere, I might just need to refresh my memory. As you can probably see from the dates on the posts, it’s been a long time. I’m glad to see this old project of mine is still making people happy all these years later. If you all can just hold on a little longer, I’ll see what I can do for you. I feel like I at least owe you guys that. Take care. - The Author

Is this project permanently canceled

I’m not sure what’s re-ignited interest the project as of late, but after forgetting about it for a long time, I don’t know. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but I’ve had too many things going on in my life to really do anything for it.Maybe once I finally start therapy and I feel a bit better about my work as a whole I might see about finishing this.

Hey, sorry if this sounds like nagging but I was wondering if you have any idea when the next chapter will come out? I just found your story a few weeks ago and am on the last chapter. I absolutely love it! Anyway I hope things are going better for you. :)

Well I’ve finally got my PC back after the power supply died on me, so hopefully soon. I’m working on it as and when I can, anon.

Adorable shenanigans. :D I wish I’d written these myself. Good luck getting over the artist’s block!

drawing is just not working at all for me lately. i get the motivation but i can’t get any ideas, and then even if i do start drawing i give up halfway through. so here’s some sketches from a few weeks back of kid demo from this awesome fic the nucleus incident.

i absolutely adore this fanfic! the way you write soldier makes me laugh and get that warm feeling in my chest that makes me make weird squishy facial expressions and do kicky-feets, the whole nine yards, it's just perfect! everything i love about him is present in your writing, top notch! and aw, lil kid demo is precious, and i especially love how pyro's pronouns keep switching around. good job all round!!

Thanks! Soldier is actually one of my favorite characters to write, his dialogue pretty much writes itself. :D And I checked your blog and I really like your art - I’m following you on my main account now.

D̴i̸ḑ̨͘ ̀͘y̶͠o͜҉u mis̷͝ś͟ ҉̢u͘͟s͟? Artist Credit

will you continue or did the story end?

Well I just got back from a short vacation to find my PC has died of loneliness (the temperamental bastard won’t turn on) and I’m dealing with the emotional fallout of my clan’s TF2 division slowly imploding (5 veteran members have quit in two weeks).I WILL continue, but until life stops kicking me in the fork I’m not exactly able to do so.

Could I ask a favor of you guys?

I love the art that you do, no matter what level of skill, no matter how big or small it is, the fact that something I made has inspired someone to create art is just amazing. But since some recent art has gotten so popular, I’ve seen lots of people in the tags and so on who don’t recognize where it’s from. And thanks to tumblr’s new way of showing links in text, it’s not obvious any more when there’s a link back to this blog. You can see here how subtle the underlined text is. So - in future, if you could put “from the TF2 fanfic The Nucleus Incident” or something similar in your fanart posts that would be a huge help. :D That way even if someone doesn’t notice the link, they’ll still be able to look for this blog if they’re interested in learning more. Thankyou!

Wow, this looks awesome! I love the green/blue color scheme on Engineer. :D

Coloured Kethavel’s sketch.

Imagine that one scene in Frozen where Elsa builds a castle with her ice powers but with Sniper instead.

Well gee I’ve never heard that one before. ( ᐛ )>[NOTE: LINKS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

Hi there, I just found out about TNI but it seems there's some difference in versions, as a completely new reader, where should I start/stop exactly?

If you go to the front page, there’s a link up there ^^^ that says ‘Click here for all the chapters’. That’ll give you the complete collection of TNI from Chapter 1 onwards, and that’s where you should start.The original (1.0) has a few minor plot/characterization differences (as it was written before many of the ‘meet the ___’ shorts and the ongoing comic) but it’s been abandoned by me and has stopped updating. Some people still ask me about it out of personal interest, but to avoid anyone getting confused and accidentally spoiling themselves I’m not hosting it on tumblr.I hope this helps! Also, any posts on this blog that reference any plot points beyond Chapter 2 are tagged ‘TNI Spoilers’!

Coming back and realizing how long it’s been since you updated like

I am so ashamed, I don’t pay attention to this fanfic much.

Remember: there is always tiny one. (Thankyou so much for this, Keth! I’m working on the next chapter now!)

Let’s pretend there is big aquarium behind.

Just a sketch. If only someone could finish my sketches, cuz I can’t X}

This is my… I don’t know which time try to make fanart for TNA.

New rule: I'm not answering NSFW questions.

Having people send me sexual messages out of the blue kind of weirds me out. :| So please, don't do that. I have linked to people's NSFW fanfic/art on the relevant page, but this is a primarily SFW blog. (And yes, I'm still around. Long story that involved an emergency room visit means I haven't been physically able to write.)