I just found out Dan Erickson is from my hometown- Olympia WA, And now it all makes sense.

Yesterday I found out Dan Erickson and I are the exact same age, and we both grew up in Olympia, WA. Firstly, I was shocked at how excited I was about that and realized I am a huge dork. Secondly, I felt some unpleasant comparative jealousy. Lastly, I died laughing because BRO. I get it now.

Ricken and his friends are real people that Dan Erickson has met, I'm telling you. There is a Ricken doing readings in every co-op in Olympia every week. There is a Rebek living in my mom's backyard in a trailer turning my old swingset into a chicken coop, and she changes her name twice a year (true story, I will never forget Cheri./Lily. You had to include the [.] after Cheri if you wrote it down, or she couldn't "register it"). Patton is there right now getting a tofu scramble with his dad's platinum card while he rants about demolishing Capitalism (and he doesn't tip, either).

I don't think they're severed, I don't think they're Lumen spies- they might seem completely unrealistic to you but I assure you - they are not. I think they're just Dan Erickson's parent's professor friends from Evergreen College, who came to a food-free dinner at his house when he was 12.

There are a lot of other little aspects to the show that I feel like I understand a little better now, because Olympia is a very unique and weird place (AMA), but realizing I've been watching my hometown weirdos this entire time has made me unreasonably happy.

EDIT: Just had to add, Devon would absolutely be an IT-GIRL in Olympia.