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Working on getting these to Publishable Standard.
Taking down for now.
Thanks to all my readers. News should be coming soon, although we know how life goes.
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This story is 27 words long.
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And the plot thickens...
Much confusion this time, I'm sure that all will become clearer next time - well, somewhat clearer anyway :)
It's particularly nice to read something different, I've always been a Sci-Fi lover and when you put a Trans Woman in space - well, what's not to like! Good name too!
Alison
I like Allison
I like Allison, and I like that you're a bit unclear on things. That both Al(l)isons are. Missus Allison Zero is a bit thrown around, and confused by the tumult caused by all the changes. I hope the chapter prior to this one gave some insight into how she could be with a little more stability in her life, just making friends, sort of, kinda flirting with men, and of course writing letters; which is what she's wanted for many Parts of this story; that peace to be herself. It can be hard to establish a personality when someone is going through so much. And I'm leaning a little towards forcing her to make some stands about things in future episodes.
Writing all that it just occurred to me that you often see someone "being true to themselves" but as many of us know being true to yourself is a long process. It's condensed in writing, often you don't see all the sleepless nights, or the pacing, or the drinking and drugs, but seeing people's lives come together, even if it takes work, is an amazing thing.
I said a few chapters ago (Part 12, I think, in the comments) that Allison had turned a significant corner. She knows what her life can be, or at least believes she has it. Her life is really just starting, though. And you don't jump straight to retirement. What's coming next I'm not quite sure of, I have ideas for it (or had) but for a week or ten days or so it's been occurring to me Allison (sorry about the two L's AlisonP) that this is where Allison becomes who she is. She doesn't just jump towards where the whole story had previously — in my mind, at least — been leading to. That's still where she ends up, for now, she just couldn't do it without what's coming next. (A training montage, obviously.)
As sales pitches go . . .
. . . I’m thinking “you’ll have to start lying” is among the worst I’ve heard. Also, among the more honest. So there’s that.
A one is higher than a nine, it seems. At least, judging by Vickie’s reaction. So, lower is higher.
What does that say about Allison Zero?
— Emma
Numbers... Numbers? Where have we seen those before?
As far as I can remember, and I'm fairly sure of this, there's been one mention of Miss Zero referencing the 'Zero' moniker before.
Allison watched him walk to his delivery room and come out holding what looked like a sheet of paper. He took a quick look at the cover, reading something over, then glanced at the other three pages. It was really just one large sheet folded over, with type on it. “What’s that?” Allison asked.
“You’re front page news,” Des said.
“What? News? Don’t people just talk? And why me?”
Des shook his head. “People wouldn’t know what to talk about if they weren’t told. Certainly not voters. Like I said, or implied, they’re usually idiots. Anyway, look...” he said, handing Allison the news-sheet.
On the cover, in big print were the words Allison Zero. She read through the article, unsure of the language used. She understood it but didn’t see the point of it, it was like a drunk person trying to make a boring story interesting, but it was her story. It was what happened to her today. It was already interesting, at least to her.
It wasn’t all the details, they couldn’t know them all, but they knew she was a man, although they put that down to an administrative error in a ‘shocking failure of care for a child!’ They knew she’d been to a hospital floor to see a woman’s doctor, they knew about her being reported to the court, of course, and there was praise for the court’s ‘wisdom.’ And there apparently was a book about what she and Robert got up to in the private room in Rowan’s shoe store.
“There’s a book about me?” Allison asked. “Like, one of those old-style made up things?”
“You should ask a female friend about books, but this isn’t that type of book. It’s gambling. People are taking bets on what you and your new boyfriend got up to.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!”
Allison Zero - Book 1 - Part 5 (where Allison meets Des)
Numbers Indeed
I've just discovered this story and read it through from the beginning, and I think it's great, a really original story with a lot of interesting stuff going on, plot-wise. Thank You, MsWoolly.
And I remember that bit well. But I think there's even more going on with the numbers. Not just the characters One and Nine, but the numbers assigned to every person as part of their identity. As I read it, "Allison Zero" in the newspaper story was referencing this bit from back in Part 2 which presumably would have been included in the newspaper story, part of why Adam thought Allison's identity was fake (or part of what would have been reported publicly, anyway):
Allison held out her conn and the two confirmed identities. Adam was Adam 7111 to Allison. And when Adam said, “No!” she knew she was Allison 3260 to him. “No-one I’ve met has a 0 in their ID. I’ve never even heard of it happening at the end of an ID. This is the worst fake I’ve ever seen.” Adam shook his head. “Why? Why the fuck!? Why would you do this!!?”
Allison Zero - Book 1 - Part 2
Clearly there is some significance to the digits in their ID; it's not merely a way to distinguish people who have the same name, like on Discord. And the final digit has a different kind of significance? But we don't see these numbers for most of the characters. The fact that Adam calls it the worst fake he's ever seen implies he's seen other fakes, or at least seen them reported in the news after being discovered. That there are people here who know how to hack fake identities into the system.
Are One and Nine (and presumably Two through Eight, who have yet to be introduced) not hackers, but the governors? The governors of this remote space station who have set up what a commenter on another part described as "institutionalized misogyny" to use sex to control the masses, but who remove the threat imposed by those able to think outside the box by indeed letting them move outside that box?
I like the way you're thinking about the Numbers
I very much like the way you're thinking about the Numbers. It's the real drive of the story, this plot-based story. However I would like to think there's enough character beneath it all, and of characters discovering things about the station and themselves, to drive the human element. It might not be as front and centre, but I feel the human emotional element is definitely implied by the nods towards how people are feeling, and how they're interacting, even if it's not explicitly called out in the text.
One thing I would say is to look at what the characters know versus what the reader is shown, and ask yourself how different are those things? It's something I'm having to think about as I write. From what we've seen (or from what I believe I've shown) Allison, while Patryk, was quite withdrawn. She/he was a "rat." He didn't have an official apartment, living in squats, more or less, he earned very little money, had no official job only taking ad-hoc, unofficial work, and was mostly "off-grid." On top of all that he didn't really interact with people, not fully. There was Adam, of course, who he got on quite well with, but it's hinted at that Adam has changed his approach to Allison now she is Allison, become a lot more caring of the woman he knows she is now. Angie finally has the friend she wanted, not really knowing what Patryk was; not being able to understand him (for reasons that seem obvious after everything that's happened, including why she was drawn to "him." Allison and Angie are two female friends, and total besties.) Is it a case that no-one knows what's really going on on the station (ultimately, no-one really knows everything. The station is too big for that.) But the question is due to Patryk being isolated (probably because (s)he was trans without understanding what being trans is, having no concept of it) did he just not see what was actually available to him?
And further than that, why would Adam and Angie not be able to tell Patryk what was available to him, even if he never transitioned? Is there a reason these people don't know what's actually "out there?" I feel like there's enough information in the story already to understand how people like the three As are treated, before they get any special treatment.
The question then is whether the motives behind how people are treated are sinister and malicious, whether they're simply what works for the station, or whether there's something yet deeper again happening. A lot of my drive behind the story, at a very foundational level is, "Why are things the way they are?" And I mean that both for the boundaries of this fictional story and also for how our world is now, the one we live in day to day.
Whatever you think, I loved your comment. It absolutely delights me that there are people thinking about the story this way because it's exactly what I intended with the mystery.