The Allure of Control

Foreword: Chapter 1 is basically the prologue, setting up the story and a few characters. With Chapter 2, the branching points will come and with it a lot of spicy time, of course.

John Doe was an unremarkable name for an unremarkable young man. At twenty years old, he was a junior at the local university. Drifting through classes that felt increasingly pointless, clinging to the vague promise that something, eventually, will click. So far, it hasn’t.

There was a quiet uncertainty about him, something in the way he carried himself that suggested he was still figuring out who he was supposed to be and what he wanted to do with his life. He wasn’t popular, but he wasn’t invisible either. He moved easily between groups, welcome enough to stay, never essential enough to be missed. Always present, never central - blending in while nursing the persistent feeling that he was meant for something more, even if he had no idea what that something was...