Dieithryn (rough pronunciation dee-ay-thrin) is a Welsh word meaning outsider or stranger.

This story started with an image from Google street view which I then asked one of the popular AI sites to imagine in a better state. That was when my muse started singing and the idea came to me.

Gareth, a gender dysphoric who has spent all of his nearly fifty years suppressing his inner girl and suffered as a result of it -- failed marriage, failed (or nearly so) career, failed social life -- receives an odd bequest from his godmother, a distant cousin of his mother's who has always taken an interest in his life and wanted to help him improve it. What she asks is unusual, but with little enough to lose, Gareth agrees to give it a try.

The story starts well enough, but may well jump a few sharks in later chapters. Nothing particularly nasty happens, although it nearly does at times. Emergent AI has been on my mind for a while now (see my other story emergence) and it turns up here as well, as does Eastern European organised crime, which is probably where the story starts to make a break from reality. It also becomes a bit waffly at times.

I'm hoping it'll be a good read anyway and have a few things worth making the effort of reading it worthwhile. It's currently approaching 225,000 words and approaching the wind up. I should get there before all the chapters are posted.

Enjoy,

Maeryn