ALICE Ch 342

“Flores will overtake Mio,” Glynda says calmly. “Let’s keep on for pace and then make a decision. We must be patient and wait for an opportunity.” There’s a lot of race to go, and several drivers have shown signs of sloppiness. The rain is looking likelier by the second. Alice’s soft tires will be a problem, but that’s not insurmountable if the field narrows from collisions. There is a mighty hunger in this group for second place in the Constructors’ Cup, and that hunger will cause mistakes to be made in these conditions. Monza is a simple circuit that lulls drivers into complacency. They focus on the straights. “Do not fight Flores,” Glynda orders.

FF1

“Max Verstappen extends his lead! And Alice Wilde is fighting Valeria Flores!”

Erica bites her nails and leans in as the air thickens and the thunder is no longer quite so distant. Things are going to plan up front; Hamilton is showing some life, but Sissy Woodcock is scrappier than anyone expects. Meanwhile, Dunham has gained a position.

As Mio Mido begins to maneuver, it’s Val who finds herself on defense.

Alice dives into the inside of turn 9, and Val doesn’t blink. In an astonishing show of cheek, Alice tries the outside straightaway. Erica gasps.

“They are wheel to wheel! Flores yields!” Croft shouts excitedly.

Erica sits back, sweat shining on her forehead. Val immediately looks for her opening on the straight, but just as in the qualifier, she clearly has no power. Neither does Alice, meaning that their duel allows the rest of the drivers to stack up behind them, scared to approach the maelstrom.

Croft isn’t even paying attention to what’s going on up front. Perhaps nobody is as Val and Alice nearly touch on the way into turn 11. Alice tries the outside, but she gets nowhere.

FF1

FUTA Racing’s comms are buzzing.

“Alice, this is a bad idea,” Glynda says, and her façade of calm patience is flawless.

“We’re losing pace,” Lora warns Mio. “Do not try to help Alice, Mio.”

“Gotta give the people what they want. What’s Mio doing?” Alice asks Glynda.

“She’s trying to help you.”

“Tell her not to. Val will eat her up.”

“Let’s worry about your race. Missy’s going to attack you on the straight.”

“No, she won’t.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“She doesn’t want to die.”

FF1

Apple frowns at the screen, sitting cross-legged on the sofa beside Faye. “Why are they so excited about it raining?”

“The rain makes it harder to drive,” Faye replies, her knee bouncing restlessly as Croft loses his mind. Alice is making another suicidal run at Val. Faye cringes and covers her eyes, but they both make it through the turn. “Why doesn’t Mio attack Fernando? What’s she doing?”

“I thought we didn’t like Mio.”

“We don’t. And this is why.”

“Why do we care about the rain again?”

“Crashing. Death. Pain.”

“Oh. Is that what happened to you?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure you should watch this? You aren’t enjoying it. Look at the state of you,” Apple says, concerned.

“I have to watch.”

“Why?”

“Because I love her.”

Apple frowns. She peers intently at the screen for a moment, then at her cousin. “Which one again?”

[ Thanks for the feedback on the blog post, everyone. By all means keep going. Interestingly, one of my 4 ideas was martial arts related, so seeing people bring that up makes me think that's a good contender. Noir detective is a great idea that I didn't think of. It lends itself well to episodic stuff, and seedy business/femme fatales is tried and true lewd material. I hear the nostalgia for the multi-branch thing in FSC. I'll do another blog post on that subject soon maybe, but the bottom line is that to do something like that, someone would probably have to commission at least the initial hydra-shaped base story, and then we could maybe carry on the routes one at a time or on rotation, like we did in the old days? In the meantime, I'm toying with some experimental interaction ideas, like instead of binary choices, letting the readers just suggest what they want the POV character to do and choosing the response that seems best, or telling a linear story but allowing readers to in some way choose where splits should occur, then circling back to do the alternate routes, etc etc. This should probably be a blog post. Thanks for listening to my ted talk. ]