Well, hello there wanderer, My name is Garrick Cline, the Overseer of this little project… Although, honestly, “Overseer” sounds a little too corporate for what I’m actually doing here. You can just call me Garrick, cool?

I’m a 54-year-old Army veteran, husband, father of seven, and grandfather to four. I work a full-time labor intensive job. Time is not something I have too much of… so, I thought I’d build this in the moments I did have.

Here’s why, the best I can describe anyways…Fallout saved me.

Not dramatically, and not all at once. But on the nights when my brain wouldn’t quiet down, when the weight of everything got too heavy, and I needed an escape, Fallout was there. I could fire up the Xbox and step into the Commonwealth… and just exist somewhere else for a while. My wife loves to read and she escapes into books. I escape into video games like Fallout and Skyrim because those worlds are just so large and detailed, you can always find something new.

Warning – Heavy subject ahead:

I need this escape from time to time… You see, I struggle with mental health. Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder specifically. I’m not telling you that for sympathy or as some bullshit marketing ploy… I’m telling you because I’ve lost friends who lost their own battles and I made a decision a long time ago to be honest about my own struggles. If this show gives someone else even a brief moment to escape the darkness they’re facing, well… Sugar, that’s  worth more than I can put a number on.

I want you to feel like you belong here. In Dusty’s world… and in your own.

Ok.. Enough heaviness.

The real origin story of The Dusty Signal wasn’t a business plan. It was simply a question that wouldn’t leave me alone. From the first time I played Fallout 4, something bothered me, in the best possible way. The Sole Survivor starts the game as a veteran, married, with a family… with a life. Then the bombs fall, and he wakes up 210 years later with everything and everybody gone. His wife is dead. His son is missing. The entire world he knew is just gone.

And he just… goes on, keeps moving.

No real breakdown. No moment where the weight of it stops him cold. Within hours he’s modifying weapons, clearing buildings, making tactical decisions like a man who hasn’t just lost everything. I understood why Bethesda made that choice, it’s a game, you need to play it. But I couldn’t stop asking the question underneath it.

How does a man actually survive that?

I am a veteran. I am a husband. I am a father… I know what it costs to keep moving when you don’t want to. I know what it looks like when someone is holding it together on the outside and coming apart on the inside. Bethesda gave us a character… I’m trying  to give him a soul.

So every time I played Fallout 4, I added a little more to my own head canon. I had to start writing it down just to keep track. The story wouldn’t stop growing and evolving. Eventually, I had to share it.

That’s where The Dusty Signal came from. 

But, I had a problem… I didn’t have a creative team, voice actors, or a budget. So, I made a choice.

I use AI tools in this production. 

ElevenLabs provides the voices for both Nate and Dusty using their Text to Speech model, as well as Dusty’s song, “Vaulted Hearts.” AI helps me keep my ideas in order as well as helping me keep track of inventory and story arcs. But, I write every word, edit every script, make every character decision, every piece of this project is me. This project is assisted by AI, not created by AI.

I wrestle with this choice… I genuinely do. There are real human voice actors who could bring these characters to life in a way that AI simply cannot.  I am also aware that every AI voice is a job that didn’t go to a real person. I’m actively looking for ways to bring human voices into this project. Right now I don’t have the budget. This is a completely free, non-commercial fan fiction production and it ALWAYS will be. I am not a professional director, sound engineer, script writer, or voice actor. I’ve also already tried my hand at recording Nate’s part and I simply could not make it sound less like a robot than Nate’s TTS voice already does.

What I have is a story that needs to be told, so I’m telling it the best way I know how, with the tools available to me, and I will always be honest about that. I know that the use of AI can and probably will lead to less followers… I respect your choice if that’s you.

Classic Me Studio is a one-man operation. The whole team is me, myself, and I and we’re all a little tired, but just getting started. It is my sincere hope that one day I will find voice actors and can pivot from AI.

If you made it this far, thank you. Genuinely, thank you.

Stay close to the signal.

Garrick