8FOLD: Mancers # 2, "Company Man"

[Drew Perron]

On 8/23/2018 10:46 AM, Tom Russell wrote:
> On Tuesday, August 21, 2018 at 2:04:04 AM UTC-4, Drew Perron wrote:
>> On 7/16/2018 9:46 AM, Tom Russell wrote:
> 
>>> MAILE AKAKA, age 19. Aeromancer.
>>> The Company's top field agent and assassin, her memory has been wiped,
>>
>> Yay, full names and-- wait, she became the top field agent and assassin at
>> *nineteen*? :o I hope we find out how *that* happened!
> 
> Won't be finding out in this arc. But it mostly has to do with her having 
> a special aptitude for the work, both in terms of effectiveness and enthusiasm.

Wow, "enthusiasm"... paints a picture o3o One that's even more at odds with Good 
Maile, so that's fascinating. :D

>>> He had
>>> started a few books, books which were perfectly good on their own
>>> merits, but only ever gave each of them a few pages or chapters before
>>> losing interest. He'd come back to them later, he knew, and would fall
>>> deeply in love with them.
>>
>> Interesting. Is this pulled from personal experience?
> 
> Not really. I tend to finish most books that I read, though these days I'm more 
> likely to read non-fiction than fiction.

Fair. It's quite visceral! <3

>>>      "Well, I think I told you on Tuesday or Wednesday about how they're
>>> supposed to be merging Q and A across the board. Maybe they're giving
>>> the London crew the boot."
>>
>> This is disturbingly corporate for this kind of organization. Good job!
> 
> Yes, The Company is the "evil corporation" trope writ large, and a lot of the  > fun I'm having with it is marrying the end-of-the-world villain stuff to the
> language and forms of office work.

Where the lack of mercy and the crushing desolation fit perfectly, of course! <3

>>>      "I know you do," says David. "And I wouldn't have met you, and you
>>> wouldn't have met me, if not for us both working for The Company.
>>> Confidentially, I got the better end of that deal." He smiles, like
>>> it's a joke, but he knows it's true; they both know it's true; he's
>>> seen it in her eyes when she thinks he isn't looking.
>>
>> Aw sweetie. I wonder how much that's true and how much that's David's own anxieties.
> 
> With David being the viewpoint character, it's kinda hard to tell. But it's also > kinda hard to imagine the confident, takes-no-crap Trinity Tran we met in 
JOLT CITY
> choosing a partner like David or choosing to work for a place like The Company. This
> is very much not the life that she wanted or worked toward, and even someone who is 
> as... uh, "non-observant"... as David is likely to pick up on that, and to feel
> slighted.

Uff. Yeah, that's fair. @.@

>> There's a lot of really intense power dynamics in this series, and it feels
>> almost like it's running on the emotions that fuel BDSM, though I'm sure that's
>> just subtex--
> 
> Early drafts of this scene were a lot more explicit - not quite as bad as some 
 > of the sex scenes in JOLT CITY, but they weren't shy - but I toned it down
 > quite a bit when trying to make the series less explicitly ACRA. I mean, I
 > wouldn't want kids reading this stuff regardless... but I definitely wanted to
 > keep it relatively clean.

Hmmmmm. *nods* I feel like this level of it worked well for this story, at least 
for my level of comfort. Not that I'm uncomfortable with kink (I mean, have you 
seen WBW?), but as I said on #3, the way power dynamics and intimacy are 
situated within these tense and not exactly healthy relationships is intense and 
uncomfortable. (And I'm guessing that's the intended effect. o3o I feel like I'm 
not exactly the targeted audience here? X3 Nevertheless, I'm impressed.)

Drew "it's a Lot!" Perron