Yomprin County, California.

You've never heard of it. That's a shame, because you've seen a lot of pictures.

It was named after the famed "yompin' bears" that terrorized early settlers and didn't go extinct without a fight. Or possibly after John Yomprin, intrepid pioneer who was renowned for his vertical leap and was also a bear (or maybe a Sasquatch).

For the record, Emmet denies any and all responsibility for historical discrepancies concerning the county's founding. First of all, time travel doesn't exist. Secondly, even if it did the past was already uncertain when he got here. You'll have to look for somebody else leering out from the background of old photographs who isn't supposed to be there. (Hint: it's the Sasquatch.)

Who is supposed to be here? Well, as you might have guessed, Yomprin County is kind of in the middle of nowhere. But it's a specific kind of nowhere that requires some explanation.

It is not located within a convenient driving distance of any major cities or centers of industry. In other words it's remote, but not remote enough to be the sort of place where people go to "get away from it all." There are no noteworthy landmarks or tourist attractions. There is nothing remotely interesting going on. Officially.

There are good schools, I suppose. There's a small university (where Jeremy's dad works). The towns are the sort of places where every structure that was erected more than 60 years ago is described as "historic". Outside of that it's pretty unremarkable. There's a yearly county fair. Lots of technically illegal fireworks on the 4th of July. Snow in winter is rare but it has happened.

Really, the two types of Yomprin County residents are (1) people who were born here and (2) people who were brought here by very specific, itemizable business. Folks in the second category usually pack up and move on immediately when they're done, but a few throw up their hands and say "eh, I guess it's good enough."

Jeremy's in category one. His parents moved here because it seemed like a safe and wholesome place to start a family and because his dad could get a teaching job. Jeremy, as we've established, isn't a terribly ambitious kid so it's likely he'll be sticking around.

Sully's a little bit different. He was born in northern Arkansas and he had no plans to wind up here, only to get as far away from home as he could. With little money and few marketable skills, this is where his journey happened to peter out.

Until he met Emmet, of course. Emmet dug his burrow here because it was exactly the right type of "nowhere" for him. Nobody comes looking for people in Yomprin County. He's technically a category two, but he'll never admit that it's become "good enough"—only that a life's work takes a lifetime.

Oh, and the fishing's good if you know the right spots.

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 a-kitsune was working on this for a while. I had this description ready to go for when it was done, but the roots of it (Sully's otter boyfriend taught him how to fish) go all the way back to the beginning.

Sully's the main character, you know.