Crossroads/Borrowed Lives — 2026-02-23 (Patreon)

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The Storylines are the heart of AGI-Stories, and they are found in the Collections section of the site

All characters in this story are fictional characters, their images generated with AI for AGI Stories. They do not represent any real person, nor is their appearance based on any real human.

Movement Four Begins!

It’s time to take this storyline onward! Recent additions to the storyline have created new energy and opened the door to many new possibilities!

And with the beginning of a new movement comes a new name.

What began as “The Chosen” now becomes “Crossroads.”

The new name reflects not only where most of the characters live but also how each character stands at important life junctions as they decide what to do next. Where will they go? For some, it’s a literal question; for others, it’s a metaphor.

Only time will tell, so keep your eyes open for new chapters!

Chapter 01: Airbnb DAY—by Mara Voss

Don’t tell anyone, but Evan and I are in Atlanta. We got here last night and we’ll leave tomorrow morning. Two nights in one location, we think, is the reasonable max, and this is our second time doing it.

This stop was essential. We left New York on the 15th and meandered our way south astride two very nice motorcycles—here’s the relevant detail—each with a backpack and a duffle secured behind the seat. Simplicity was our traveling companion as we followed routes favoring scenery over directness.

But each passing day made more obvious a limitation in the life-on-the-road ideal. Saturday night near Chattanooga, at a forgettable motel, I moved in on Evan for the ritual goodnight kiss—and it was obvious.

“I can still smell campfire smoke in your hoodie,” I whispered into his ear.

He kissed my forehead. “You smell like my grandmother’s laundry room.”

Yesterday morning, I picked the visually cleanest of my three pairs of jeans and wore them with a hoodie I hadn’t worn the night we camped out. I repacked the duffle and backpack, and then joined Evan at the Waffle House.

“We need a laundry day,” Evan said when I sat down.

“I’m tempted to call Mara in Brooklyn (that’s how we refer to the real Shay Ryder) and ask her how she managed life by duffle for so long.”

“I’m inclined to think she stayed at nicer hotels and used their laundry services as she went along.”

I nodded. “We should do that at least every three or four days.”

So we made a plan for a wash-everything day, and this Airbnb is a part of it.

I’m wearing dirty clothes, and everything else I have is in the dryer—along with one of Evan’s outfits. Evan is sequestered in his room wearing his least-used pair of boxer briefs.

When I unload the dryer, I’ll put on clean clothes, pass Evan his, and give him what I’m wearing now. When his load is done, everything we have will be clean.

A celebratory lunch is planned for afterwards.

Chapter 02: DRAGGING A LITTLE by Hannah Madison

Here I am, minding my own business trying to get some caffeine so I can stay awake the rest of the afternoon… Then a voice from nearby says my name.

“Hannah, turn around and smile.”

I fell for it. Merritt took my picture. I protested, so he took another!

“Why are you here?” I asked. “And why are you taking pictures of me? I’m dragging bad!”

“Me, too. Long weekend, right?”

I nodded, then he said, “I’m on my way back to the office and coffee sounded good.”

“For sure.”

Then he texted the two pictures to me. “Use them for a post about what you did in Mississippi.”

Honestly, he seemed so excited by the idea that I went along.

So I’m pretending to be mildly annoyed about Merritt ambushing me with a camera, when really I’m just proud of what I did.

While everyone else was wrestling rafters and scrap metal into the dumpster, I was inside the community center modernizing the control side of the system. We installed four new, modern thermostats—one for each zone. Instead of the entire building fighting over a single temperature setting, each section will now control its own air-handler, all tied into the same central heating and A/C system.

That means better efficiency, better comfort, and less wasted energy. No more overheating one room just to keep another from freezing. It’s smarter infrastructure, not just newer equipment.

This is exactly the kind of work we handle in our division at NYC SysCo—the Re-engineering Division. We don’t just replace old systems. We rethink how they function together.

The hardest part of what I did was pulling new low-voltage wiring from each thermostat location up to the roof, where the new unit will be installed. That meant careful routing, clean runs, and labeling everything so the contractors won’t have to guess what goes where later.

I was successful. All four zones are wired, tested, and ready.

So, basically, when I was done, all they have to do is turn a few screws, and everything will be working.

And according to Merritt, that was worth a surprise photo shoot. Also, I’m making him buy my coffee.

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