It boggles my mind how Ridley could have had no place in the original draft of this project and suddenly, he’s stepped up big-time. He’s offered me a major opportunity, however, through his relationship with Julia, to explain the Institute, what they do, how awful they really are. It also means Ky isn’t trying to sugarcoat things as much as she would if she was simply explaining matters to Reece (or foisting it off on Matthew, which was also a distinct possibility).
Ridley is amazingly protective at this stage, mostly of Julia, but also of himself. It’ll be interesting to see how he works everything out, and if he works everything out enough to be helpful to Ky in her fight. I have a feeling he will be, since that’s where it feels like it’s heading. But we’ll see. I never know when it comes to these things.
Brandon helped me through a quandry this morning regarding a later issue in the draft. It was a question of who gets rescued when. I think we’ve sorted it out. Either way, Ky’ll be gut-punched. I decided that gut-punched and functional was preferable to gut-punched and a mess, and that it would probably be better if Matthew was functional for at least a dozen chapters before I snap him in half.
Folks who have read the original draft know exactly what snaps Matthew Thatcher in half.
And now it’s off to work for me. Six hours of bleh. My father doesn’t seem to think we’ll be busy on account of the weather. I think he’s crazy. Last day for Real Women Dollars = bloody well insane at the store tonight.