After dinner, she went back to installing more software. She almost decided to look through the forums, but she decided not to, not knowing she would lose access soon. The thought brought sudden tears to her eyes, those same tears she’d previously refused to let flow over the last day.
Erin went to the guest bedroom, closed the door behind her, and held her head up with one hand while she hyperventilated a little, hot tears down her face. This was worse than the time the same forum - along with a few others - had asked her to stop webhosting for them. The forums were right to ban her, she was not backdrop anymore. She was whatever people were between Pawns and people. ‘At-Risk’ was the common verbiage, probably the most kindly one. Maybe that was less terrible because she’d neck deep in worrying about Rex Magnum. Maybe she was just now realizing how fucked up it was that the Plot needed to burn down her apartment to get her to move.
She needed to move out tomorrow, before her mom got dragged into this nightmare. Two weeks leeway to still be on the servers was incredibly generous, all told. She was a threat to everyone around her.
Erin grabbed her laptop and moved to play on the computer for the evening from her room. “Don’t stay up too late on the computer, Erin. I know you, missy, and you haven’t changed a bit from high school,” her mom joked.
“I’ve changed a little more than you think, Mom. I’ll probably go to sleep early tonight. I’m tired.”
“I’ll believe it when I see that. I’ll be in the living room watching TV.”
Erin moved into the apartment that next day, taking everything she owned and everything she’d purchased the day previous in one car trip.
Erin signed the paperwork after glancing through the lease agreement, claiming that her apartment was six hundred square feet, and made her deposit through a cashier’s check. She’d bought a small cot and placed it in what could be charitably called the bedroom, also floored with concrete. She set up the kitchen counter with her computer. She checked that the locks on the door worked properly.
She got a call from Janey just as she was about to head out to dinner.
“Hey, Erin, everything okay?”
“Yeah, Janey.” Erin paused, considering the answer. “Well, not really.”
“Not really? I noticed you hadn’t come in today and yesterday…you not feeling well?”
“I’m fine. My apartment is a little under the weather.” Erin knew that understatement wouldn’t fly. “I came home and it was on fire. I’m fine, so was everyone else at the apartment. I found a new place to live today, so no biggie.”
“A new- hell, Erin, how bad was that fire? You had to find a new place?”
“Bad enough that I couldn’t really live there. They didn’t have any other vacancies. I live further into town, at least.”
“Where did you end up?”
“Slate Apartments, down off Harrelson and Parkway.”
“Jeez, Erin, that’s not a great area… You didn’t lose too much in the fire, did you?”
Erin considered this. “I mean, I’m okay. I didn’t lose anything important. I’d be more upset if something happened to my bike, all things considered.”
“Oh, Erin… does that mean you really did lose everything? Why didn’t you tell me? You could have crashed at my place.”
“I stayed with mom. I didn’t say anything because you had work and there wasn’t much to be done, really. I appreciate it though. How’s work?”
Janey gave a small dismissive noise, as if she didn’t buy Erin’s attempt to change the topic. For a moment, Erin swore she could hear the old Janette in that small noise. “Work. Work was fine. We lost another programmer today. Half the reason I called was to ask if you’d be in on Monday. I know you don’t like government work, but I was told today that you got cleared to work on this dying project. You’d be under a different manager, but we could use the help all the same.”
Erin didn’t respond. She was suddenly nostalgic from when the world wasn’t trying to eat her will to keep going.
“Erin?”
“Hm? Oh sorry. Thanks. I appreciate it. After this weekend, I’ll be glad to get back to work. Shopping for stuff is exhausting.”
“I’m sure. You get all moved in okay?”
“Oh yeah. I’m good. Still gotta get some chairs though. Do you know if those mail shipped mattresses are any good?”
“Erin!” Janey sounded as serious as she ever got. “You don’t even have chairs!?”
Janey extracted a promise out of Erin to go shopping together tomorrow, which was convenient, because Janey had an SUV. It was inconvenient in that Erin didn’t really want to hang out with anyone else, let alone more Plot related people. Erin really did keep a bad crowd. At least she fit her new neighborhood.
---
“I really don’t need a couch,” Erin explained again, wishing she’d just ordered the mattress online.
Tyson shook his head. “I can’t even imagine that being true. I love my couch. How do you watch T.V.?” He was admiring a very comfortable looking leather love seat that would be a struggle to fit through Erin’s door and through Erin’s shrinking budget.
In spite of herself, Erin smiled at Tyson’s completely honest tone. “I don’t watch TV. I watch the news on my computer. I really need a computer desk, honestly.”
Tyson’s bemusement deepened, asking, “Didn’t you say that you only had a two room apartment, practically? Where would you put it?”
“In the living room?”
“Erin, you are a total computer nerd. You can’t just replace your living room with a computer room.”
“Tyson, if I had the option, I’d turn the living room into a garage for my bike and make my bedroom a computer room with a fold out bed, but they don’t approve of motorcycles down the hallways.”
“Hey,” Janey said over Tyson’s utterance of ‘madness’, “they have some solid looking desks over here. Also,” Janey smiled lovingly up at her beau, “Tyson, don’t call Erin crazy. I know about your obsession with blacksmithing. You looked to see what your apartment lease restricted to see what you could get away.” Tyson’s embarrassment was more or less hidden by his dark skin but Janey finished, “Did you ever make time to look up how complicated it was to add a roommate, like we talked about?”
Tyson opened and closed his mouth, looking almost as awkward as Erin felt, not really wanting to be here for this. The tone and the looks shared between the two told Erin more than enough that this was more than she wanted to handle.
Janey was obviously a little annoyed, saying, “You’d brought it up, I just wondered if you were serious. Come on, let's look at desks.”
Erin followed. “Didn’t you call me crazy for not having chairs for my apartment?” Erin asked Janey, lightly. Erin wanted nothing to do with that conversation between Janey and Tyson.
“I didn’t say you were crazy. I just implied you were crazy for moving in without chairs. I hadn’t realized how much was really lost in the fire.”
Erin would have preferred to go shopping without the couple, but Tyson had a truck, which was hard to turn down. One incredible advantage that Erin would have never considered - but that she was grateful for - is that no one would dare approach Erin in the furniture store when Tyson and Janey were with her. The normally vulturous sales folk would rather eat their own shoes than approach Tyson. Erin saw a few of them skulking just out of sight where they could. As long as the Plot didn’t feel Tyson needed to be interrupted, Erin was safe to shop in freedom.
Eventually she did get a desk that she’d have to assemble, one nice enough not to have sharp edges where she’d rest her arms at the edge of the table. She also got a desk chair and a small three-chair table with matching seats. She was pretty sure she could put it in the corner of the computer/living room, in case she had visitors.
She was mostly sure it would be covered with mail and discards from the day’s pockets by the end of the week.
“Since we got you the bare minimum, regarding your actual living room, and you have a mattress and frame already, you up for dinner?” Janey asked, looking at her phone as Tyson helped Erin lever the desk box into the back of the truck.
She was pretty certain that Tyson could have done it alone given the advantages his suit gave him, even unsummoned, which meant Erin more or less helped guide the box while Tyson bore most of the weight.
“Uh…sure. What did you guys have in mind?” The awkwardness between Janey and Tyson seemed to have faded since the short exchange earlier. Else, Erin would have definitely said no.
“Well, Nathan’s not too far away. He’s recommending a BBQ place just a ways south of here.”
Erin wasn’t sure she was all that interested in being gawked at further as a victim, but Nathan didn’t come off as much of a gawker. If it had been Misty, no doubt there’d be lawyer talk and Erin just wanted to let the fire insurance people have time to process the claim. If the Plot wanted there to be drama in Erin’s claim, then it wouldn’t help to invite Misty before the Plot was ready.
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Rough first 1/3rd of Binding Agent (Vol 2) Votes: 3 42.9%
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Queer Kobold Handholding the Naive Trans Isekai Votes: 4 57.1%
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Domme Golem Making a Mess of Small Town Supernatural Heirarchy Votes: 3 42.9%
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Christine Meets Snow Crash (Murder Car Road Trip Heist) Votes: 1 14.3%
This probably comes too late, but I think this chapter is good to leave feedback on.
I really like the setting; plot compulsion is interesting and the special partial workaround Erin seems to have is cool. There were arcs showing how dangerous and scary protagonists are which was important for the story development. But then for the last 10 or so chapters the story got stuck. There are just more lunch dates, more exclusion from backdrop society, more compulsion anxiety, but nothing new. It turned from sci-fi into slice of life (which is a valid genre, just not the one I enjoy or expected).
There were some interesting developments, Doppelganger being a protagonist villain and willing to talk to her as plainly as the Plot/Filter allows. Meeting them and learning more about the other side of the screen(?) would have been the natural progression. Instead Erin declined, we got more dinners and ... a "Queer Kobold Handholding the Naive Trans Isekai"? It wasn't posted on April first.
If I had a say, the story might go into the direction of discovering a way to secretly enough communicate with a protagonist, learning of the other side and the protagonist learning of the backdrop and the reality warping that threatens them, it turns out Doppelganger is some nerd who just wanted to play their equivalent of Doom and never thought actually hurting anyone was possible in this world. We learn that the outside world is some dystopian sci-fi reality with VR, but with the combined knowledge of Doppelganger and Erin they puzzle together that the backbone of the VR world is having real people in tubes play the backdrop using their brains as computers, which is why nobody can copy the VR company's tech because that's highly illegal. This implies that Erin has a real body in the outside world (throw in some "brain in a jar" angst), but before they can make a plan they are discovered by Plot. Doppelganger gets ejected from the system and Erin has to hide. Also very powerful people have become dependent on the system and are willing to kill a few people to keep it running. It then turns out the electrical feeling is real, the realest thing Erin can feel actually, because it's the machine her real body is in being stimulated from the outside (except hers is a little buggy which is where her Plot resistance comes from). Also she learns that a Puppet being created means a server takes over the brain which makes for a shitty human with some personality and memory loss, but the original brain is still there and will eventually be reused, meaning Janette is still technically alive, they just need to find her before she gets overwritten.
Ok, I'll stop now, you get the idea. And I understand this is not the type of story you wanted to write, but it shows what type of story you signal in the beginning. I would like you to add the slice of life tag because people like me avoid those and people who like slice of life would not give your story a try otherwise.
Anyway, overall it's still a great work. It reminds me a little of Worth the Candle.
Oooh, tough choices.
I'm definitely up for vol 2 of Free Agent. But this first volume feels so nice and tightly edited, wouldn't it be a waste to release it while you're still writing it? (as opposed to releasing it until you've got it all worked out)
Kobold/Isekai is surprisingly the option that stands out to me most of all. It's surprising to me because I'm usually not a great fan of the isekai genre. Far too tropey. In your hands, I'm certain it will work out though. And the native Kobold handholding the naive isekai protagonist already gives me hope. Pushing out some isekai might even give you the larger audience you so deserve.
Golem/Hierarchy speaks to me least of all. Mostly because I can't really imagine what the story might be about based on the description.
Christine/Crash sounds really interesting as well. But murder/mystery/horror/road trip/heist are all things I fear might have even less of an audience on this site than superheroes.
I'd be releasing the second book of Free Agent slowly, if I did, for sure. Since I don't really plan to publish traditionally anywhere, I won't need to make quite as many edits for "marketability" at least. but fair dues. I am not quite as far in as I am with the other ideas.
Kobold Isekai is something I've posted before on Royal Road and took down when I wasn't quite satisfied, and is definitely the closest thing I have to in spirit to Free Agent. Its also probably closest to being in a finished state as well.
Golem Hierarchy is sort of intended to be "this is your supernatural town run by vampire council, with werewolves and fae and what have you underneath them, Just your usual expected paranormal romance scene complete with a new girl in town, except the new girl in town is a six-foot four clay golem with magic. Neither side had any idea the other existed, so shenanigans follow." I intend it as a playful turn on paranormal romance in general, but it also probably is more self-indulgent than really in fitting with Scribble Hub too, ha.
Christine Crash is definitely fun, but yeah, I don't see it snuggling between the other trending stories of the day. It also might be my most marketable story, if I ever go that route.
Thanks for commenting and reading!
@Hadassah whoops, kinda dropped off the face of the earth due to sickness for a bit. A late reply is still better than no reply though.
That just got me interested in Golem Hierarchy. Self-indulgent can work out just fine. All it means to me is that you are having a blast writing it, really. I'm confident that your self-indulgence can be just as solidly plotted and written.
I'm also getting a tiny bit of a vibe that you want to keep that trad-publishing route open with Christine Crash, even if it is merely a far-future thing. In that case, I'd say hold off on putting that one online a little longer. You might just get lucky. It at least sounds more easily marketable than Free Agent.
So, yeah, in conclusion... don't feel pressured to push out the sequel to Free Agent before you're ready for it. Both Kobold Isekai and Golem Hierarchy speak to me and look like something that will garner you an audience.
TYFC …
While this series has been fun and I would love to read more it’s more of a question of what more can you add?
Unless she manages to befriend and convinces some friendly protags to genuinely help stop this madness in a way that the plot don’t get in the way…?
Or if she somehow further develops her “superpower” so that she manages to truly resist and/ or figure out how to manipulate the plot…
I don’t see how else to progress without it starting to become repetitive with the situation constantly becoming more depressing and bad for Erin…
Unless you want to bad end her?
Or maybe having her reach a truly lowest point before help arrives? Maybe in the form of that supervillain? Would be a plot twist… with “her” figuring out what’s going on by herself somehow…
Regardless on how this all will end I have really loved this series so far and I will respect whatever end the author has in mind… it’s their book after all…
Have a good day ……..
I'm definitely not much of a bad end sort of author. I do tend to grind to a new homeostasis, pause for a bit, then let another gear spring free and make the machine spin more rapidly and erratically until it jams up again. Appreciate it. My thought was to post a only one chapter of each story a week once we got to that point, so we will see how well the ending is received then.
Thanks for reading and have a good day!
Queer Kobold Handholding the Naive Trans Isekai
Oh gosh I'm so glad this got the most votes as it would have been my vote too 😱