Burn The Rain

CAST

JENNIFER BURNS (16)

A scrappy, hot-headed punk rocker and teenage runaway, Ryley engages in frequent mischief and heavy substance abuse fueled by anger, fear, self-loathing and an essentialist reactionary worldview spawned from her traumatic childhood.

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WADE KIRKLAND (18)

Ryley's girlfriend, Alex is a local political organizer still recovering from the overnight thrust into fame as a result of becoming a best-selling queer author just under a year ago. Intellectually-minded, her external aura of serenity and strong assertive nature is betrayed by her endless internal turmoil: crippling anxiety, depression and overwhelmingly self-destructive behaviors.

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KELLY MCKINTOSH (15)

A free spirited vegan "flower child", Dawn is the oldest and seemingly the most "put together" of the household. Acting as a communal well of wisdom and emotional support, her carefree temperment has unintended consequences for herself and her housemates.

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BOB RUSSO (17)

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ANDREA HALEY (15)

DEVAN NORVILLE (?)

ANGELICA ROBINSON (17)

SECONDARY CHARACTERS

Anthony DiMartino:
Timothy O'Neil:
Monique Sylvia:
Max Tyler:
Max Tyler:
Angela Li:
Trent Lane:
Alison Kirkland:
Axl Kirkland:
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DEVELOPMENT

The earliest seeds of Burn The Rain began in the autumn of 2017, where after a marathon of the series, author ThePatchedVest noted that the character of "Burnout Girl" hadn't yet received a defining depiction in fanon the same way other backgrounders (such as Andrea and Scarlett) had. Not long after, a conceptual poster for a project entitled Burnout was uploaded to the "r/Daria" subreddit.

Vest admitted that the project was something of a labor-of-love that he would work on at his own pace, in-between writing his own trilogy of original novels, rather than being fully committed to the project full-time. He also cited Roentgen's The Hallowed Halls of Fielding, TAG's Scarlett and Kara Wild's Driven Wild universe as being inspirations for the fic, as well as noting that the fic would take a notably different route than previous Burnout Girl-centric fics, which often deviated from the narrative of the show by introducing the character as a new friend or romance to Daria, Jane or Quinn. By contrast, Burnout would tell its own self-contained 'Daria-lite' story, occurring concurrently in the background of the show's events.

During pre-production, Vest underwent what they entitled "Burnspotting": screenshotting every appearance of the Burnout Girl character throughout the show's run of sixty-five episodes and two films, whilst taking notes on the context of aforementioned scenes, then finding interesting and abstract ways that the events of said scenes could influence or interact within the overall original narrative.

In March 2024, after repeated delays, ThePatchedVest announced that although he had a decent portion of the story plotted out, he was suffering burnout from writing (as a result of the time spent on his original works). Not wanting to shelf the project or release it in a subpar state, he decided to refocus his efforts in transforming the work into an interactive visual novel instead, a format he'd been experimenting with for several years and hoping to break into full time. As although this transition would require a much greater workload, it would aid in limiting writer's block, while allowing him to focus on other elements such as coding and creating art assets instead of being entirely unproductive for long periods.