The thing is, on a basic level, yeah, more rules would help a whole ton and exploring the extreme control of that would both be hot and scary as fuck, but in a way Nate isn't super honest with himself and he also is, I guess, more scared of what could happen if he fucks up than anything. He's really in a fear state at the moment :D I know people hate the cowardly protagonist, but hmm.. Maybe I can explore far more rules.

And how things can go terribly wrong with them and also how he might have success asserting dominance. Nate is an archivist, yeah, but it's kinda like many programmers I've known in my life: they don't like people as much as computers because computers (even with their bugs) tend to follow orders and do what they're told. A file in a filing cabinet isn't going to disobey Nate, for example, but Margot certainly will.

And she'll do it in a way that isn't technically disobedience. I really wanna explore Lena thinking she knows how to fix it and then running into issues, but I also wanna see them come up with solutions together. Also, perhaps Lena finds out about his treatment of Margot or she manipulates her and then later starts having conflicts with Nate and getting into fights with him over it? I don't know yet. Good thinking though.

I like that Lena idea. And yeah, Nate having Lena, someone who he at least can trust was kinda my goal with her to counterbalance. Same with Sun-ja too. Oh, I was worried the tonal whiplash from the sudden horror scene would be too much, but I'm glad it wasn't. Thank you very much for all your feedback! It really helped me!