Nova Projects
06 / 09Building

Ptoos

Arc-by-arc summaries of Daystar Eld's Pokémon: The Origin of Species, with the lessons drawn out and read-aloud audio.
StatusBuilding
Year2026
StackPython, Markdown, Google Cloud Text-to-Speech, AssemblyAI

Overview

Pokémon: The Origin of Species is Daystar Eld’s rationalist Pokémon fanfic: 144 chapters and over a million words so far. Ptoos summarises it arc by arc for someone who has read it before, forgotten the details, and wants to get back in.

The summaries stay inside the story and scale with how much a chapter matters. Where it adds something, a Lessons block pulls out the rationalist and psychology ideas the chapter teaches. Nothing is spoiled beyond the chapter being summarised. All ten arcs, chapters 1 to 144, are done, and you can read them here.

[Why you started it]

How it works

  • A Python script builds a static reading site from the Markdown summaries.
  • Each arc page opens with a recap of the previous arc, so the summaries also work read back to back.
  • The home page marks which arc you’re reading and which you’ve finished.
  • Text-to-speech audio is generated with Google Cloud voices and aligned word by word, so the text can follow along as it plays.

Notes

[What you learned, what’s next]