Commission: "Rejection - A Tale of Losers" (Patreon)

This one has been a while in the making, but it's finally here. The commissioner had this idea cooking for a good long while before they won the drawing, and then it took me months to get the words down. And this is just the first installment! I don't always go for commissions of this scope, but if I'm having fun with it, I figure, why not, right?

So we have another story set in the Losers universe. It's pretty true to the original style and tone, so if that appealed to you, hopefully this will, too. If you didn't read the original Losers, for one, you could do so! If you'd rather not, the tl;dr of it is that, a while back, massive calamity came about, brought on by overpopulation colliding with severe climate change inflicting drought and famine on a previously unforeseen scale. One of the solutions adopted to help solve the problem was the Lottery, in which all children are sterilized, and once a year, 18-year-old girls are bid on by 18-year-old boys. The boys get some tickets (in this story locale, 5 per boy), and they can choose which girl's "pot" to put them in, along with a description of what new personality the boy (the "winner") wishes to imprint upon the girl (the "loser"). Some sci-fi-esque physical augmentation is also possible, including rendering the couple capable of bearing offspring. In the US, where this story is set, each girl's pot has a single ticket drawn the Friday before spring break on Drawing Day. The girls go to school as themselves, and go home losers.

This story focuses around an ultra-wealthy family, the Kountzes, and plays with how, as ever, the rich manage to game the system. (Or do they...?!) It's got more sad and sexy and sad-sexy asides, more lore, and of course, it's got more losers. This is a pretty big one, lots of exposition, so if you're here for the steam, be ready to skim a bit, but it's there. A work of this scope takes some time, of course, but when part 2 comes out, we'll be in the thick of it already.

I've got a Toy's Toy chapter 6 already started and on its way soon, so that ought to be fun, and I've been on a freaking tear with The RA volume 2. Better yet, I think it's coming out really good, too. I knew (and forewarned!) that volume 1 was a slow burn, introducing our cast and setting and watching the embers start to smolder, but volume 2 is catching fire, big time. I may even get it done in time before my holiday travels, but if not, expect that will come out very early 2023.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everybody! More to come.