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Liam / Liza's "origin story" begins...

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Doctor Stepford

Great chapter as usual , looking forward to SEE Liza and Hannah stories

Gemma

So well written Emory. You have captured so well the enormity of the scary, frightening nightmare experience Liam/ Liza has been through. It is no wonder he/ she is so angry and bitter. Imagining the confusion Liam/Liza encountered trying to make sense of what is happening and the arrogance of the repulsive Bear. Liam/Liza does not is yet to know about the wide scale nature of what is happening and about second dawn. At this point Liam/Lisa is also is unaware of the full extent of the of decisions that have been made about his/her future. What Liam/Lisa is beginning to learn is that he/she is no longer considered to be a person and is now just seen as a possession. Existing now only as a product, part of a competition to inflate the egos of other rich like minded narcissists with God like complex. Knowing more about Liam/Liza’s journey has shifted and softened some of the previous judgements and opinions I had formed in relation to Liam/Liza’s belligerence, bitterness and acting out behaviour. Another great episode.

Kris Greg

Good chapter. I was worried about the cat.

Crewchick

Yes Emory, another great chapter! So much background, character development, and insight into Liam. Yet still so much more to be learned, and then we still have to explore Hanna's background. Is there even perhaps more we need to know about Adele and Josie? I have a feeling we may not be getting back to those waffles and yogurt until the fall. 😉 Perhaps I should take the last several chapters along with the next couple or so yet ahead dealing with Liam's story and re-read them on a Sunday morning over a breakfast of waffles and sekt to better appreciate Liam's perspective? 😉 😂

Crewchick

Will you be giving us any additional background on the "villains", the obscenely rich narcissistic sociopaths doing this? Feel like at the "party", or at the competition back at Clinic 12 when we return, there should perhaps be an obnoxious, loud mouth, self centered American real estate mogul millionaire in his late 70's who has recently gotten involved in American politics and has been using his political power to enhance his own and his family's wealth, protect his friends and shut down investigations into any of the grossly morally reprehensible activities he has secretly been engaged in, when rumors, scandals and conspiracy theories start to rise. You know, like the one of him jetting off with Effrey Jepstein and a host of other celebrities and super rich to another secret island for perverse sexual pleasure!?! 💰 🤔 😉 😂

Tomoa

Amazing chapter as always. Origin stories are always my favorite. The Bear must have REALLY wanted Liam for him to personally perform the abduction and risk exposure.

Jade Diaz

Starting a morning with Sekt is never a bad idea

Jade Diaz

Yeah I think we all are tbh

Jade Diaz

I have the uncomfortable impression that Pixel is going to be a lot more compliant with the Bear’s plans than Liam ever was. But Anka at least answers one question I had which was “how did Liam not get sexually assaulted by his guards?”

Amber Caledonia

Lesson learned: Don't get your pictures taken ever Seems a bit of a waste, Liza could have a Brooke sort of situation, but I'm guessing not even the master plan kidnappers have Xu's eye for things

Emory Ahlberg

Thanks, Amber! ♥️ Yeah, most of Second Dawn’s “Platinum Star” members only have delusions of sophistication. Mostly they’re just extremely wealthy and this is a taboo “hobby” they can engage in…

Crewchick

Any resemblance between any characters described in this post and any person living or deceased is purely coincidental. 🤔😉🤣🤪

Crewchick

Maybe Emory needs a credits disclaimer like in the movies; "no animals were harmed in the making and telling of this story". 😹

Gemma

Well obscured mentions, I for one don’t know who you could be talking about?

Gemma

Apologies - just undertook so much editing just now of quickly written previous comments. Hopefully they make a little more sense now!

Crewchick

But for the fact she is Baron's mother, this spin could certainly cast Melania (or whatever the name is of the wife/consort/concubine of this hypothetical millionaire) in a whole different light. 🤔🤯

Kris Greg

Diana O'Neil LOL!!!

Pelicanboss

"The Tesla"?, really? Come on E! We can do much better than that idiot Musk crap car. 😉

Vanya

Come on Emory. Are we ever, EVER, going to advance the story to include the competition? I mean several episodes ago Davis went crazy with hate. What happened to Holly? To Xu?, Is it really advancing the story to learn the back stories of all the contestants at this late stage? What's happening to Jill? To her dad? The story is incredible so far, but it seems that episodes have gone from week to week, to day to day, and now almost minute to minute. What's the point? If there is one, perhaps I'm missing it. Anxiously awaiting to see where we're going in the incredible journey of Jill.

Emory Ahlberg

Thanks so much for reading, Digi. I'm really excited to dive into their backstories. With Liza, I wanted to explore a very specific kind of rage. Her whole world was her mind, and now her body is being used as the ultimate insult. Hannah is a different kind of psychological exploration entirely. She represents what happens when the mask of compliance becomes the face. 😬

Emory Ahlberg

Thank you, Gemm! 💕 That belligerence you mentioned is the only armor he has left. For anyone - but especially someone like Liam - being forcibly turned into an object in the Bear’s twisted project is a horrifying violation. His rage is a predictable output in a situation that is anything but and it's his last line of defense against the chaos. The love for Pixel is the tell. It shows that underneath all that fury, he is still a protector, and that is a core part of herself he'll never let them take.

Emory Ahlberg

Mmmhmm. 😽 But, honestly, when I was writing Liam’s story, I knew his breaking point couldn’t be direct physical or psychological torment. He already sees himself as a failure, so attacking him just reinforces his own negative self-image. But Pixel is the one part of his life where he feels competent and needed. She’s his responsibility and his only source of unconditional affection. The Bear is a monster, but he’s an intelligent one. He understood that the fastest way to control Liam wasn't to threaten him directly, but to threaten the one creature he truly loves.

Emory Ahlberg

Thank you for the wonderful comment, Diana. I guess I felt it was important to show how his specific masculinity (rooted in intellect rather than physicality) was targeted. His captors used physical dominance to break his mind (using a very strong woman), and the ultimate leverage wasn't pain, but the safety of his cat, Pixel. Every woman's journey to that breakfast table is different. Hannah's story, in particular, explores a very different kind of submission that I think is uniquely chilling. 😬

Emory Ahlberg

I'm sadly fascinated by the specific flavors of evil that populate this world. So far, I've been fascinated by the quiet, almost philosophical cruelty of men like Mr. Xu. He sees himself as a sculptor, an artist remaking people to fit an ideal. His evil is patient and precise... A loud, brash, political type would be an entirely different monster. He'd want his creations to be living, breathing monuments to his own greatness, probably forcing them to give speeches about how wonderful he is. Hmmm 😉

Emory Ahlberg

Thank you so much, Tomoa. Writing origin stories is how I get to really dig into the WHY of it all. I felt it was important for The Bear to be hands-on from the very beginning. For him, this isn't just about acquiring a new toy. It's a sort of like a personal, artistic endeavor. The abduction itself was the first brushstroke in his "masterpiece." 😬

Emory Ahlberg

Thank you, Jade! The Bear considers himself "patient" so I wanted his cruelty to be more refined than simple brute force. He’s smart enough to know that the most effective leverage isn't always violence against the target himself. Threatening what Liam loves most, Pixel, turns Liam’s own capacity for love into the bars of his cage... With Anka, I wanted the primary enforcer be a woman. That's a total assault on Liam’s identity. Having a woman who can physically dominate him is a hell of a tool for destroying his specific brand of masculinity!

Robertlouis

More like Hutchinson, with his overtly political ambitions for Zach and Nikki…

Emory Ahlberg

LOL I promise my personal automotive tastes run a bit more classic and a lot less... predictable. That Tesla fantasy was 100% Liam. For a guy like him, it was never really about the car itself. It was the ultimate tech-bro status symbol!

Robertlouis

Another terrific chapter, Emory, which goes some way to explaining the source of all that rage burning inside Liam. Yes, he’s angry at Anka and the Bear, but most of all he’s angry at himself for the ease of his capture, his physical weakness against both Anka and the Bear, and most of all, their ability to seize on his weakest and most vulnerable point, which is his love for his cat. It’s by far the best thing about him, but he finds himself hating the person he was and is for it. And he knows that they’re going to test him and goad him again and again over his love for Pixel, and he’s terrified that one day his rage will win against his better self and instincts, and that only makes his rage and frustration even worse. No wonder he drinks.

Gemma

Thanks, it’s important to remember the trauma Liam/Liza and how it affects each individual differently

Crewchick

But does any face truly show the essence and soul of a person? You and I have talked a lot about masks in several Half Sisters chats. But it appears to come up in several of your works. And while I am in 100% agreement with you on almost all of it, I think perhaps it is less about a mask in Hannah's case and more about a vessel. A mask is something we put on over our physical face and can take off at some point. With the limited exception of Taylor, almost none of your recent major characters have chosen to to put a mask on. At least not the female mask we see them with when we meet them. And even Taylor's was not a fully free choice as his/her body was betraying her to some degree, and family finances made the scholarship the only way Taylor could reach his full academic and intellectual potential. The human soul is immutable. It is also to some degree genderless as sex and gender are more a construct of our human embodiment and existence. Sex exists for procreation and in heaven there is no further need to procreate. But theologians debate whether sex might exist nonetheless as a gift from God because of all the connectivity role it plays in our human relationships. Or will we evolve at that point into an existence far beyond any human ability to comprehend and describe. All that to say the body or vessel of all these characters may have been changed, in most cases against their will, but their soul and essence remain. They can't simply take off the female mask and return to their former male face. For better or worse that female face IS their new face the public will forever see. The vessel has been irreversibly changed and the challenge is now how to find equilibrium after the resulting emotional free fall and and adjust and learn how to live in the vessel they now have. And not only simply live in that new vessel, but how to allow their essence, who they truly are, to still shine through that reshaped vessel. Xu, Davis, Hutchinson, the Bear, they are all obsessed with the vessel and think victory lays in their ability to manipulate that vessel like clay. They foolishly and ignorantly think changing the vessel changes the essence. I think we are seeing in your characters that true victory is in the essence manipulating and mastering the vessel to allow their true self to shine through no matter how external forces try to alter and control the vessel. That is why I have some difficulty understanding in Homecoming what at times seems like Kris' utter contempt for Chris and desire to break all contact with Chris and his past. They are are one in the same. Kris may not be able to fully go back to Chris, but Kris is still the sum of all Chris' parts plus all the new experiences she has experienced since evolving out of Chris. I would almost expect her to have a "Thank you next" attitude towards Chris. She could not be who she is without Chris even if she feels his weakness allowed this to happen to her. I think that is a very narrow and immature view to take. And it may be further sign of the trauma she is still processing and need for professional counseling to properly process and navigate incomprehensible life change. But regardless of my personal thoughts, I think you have done an excellent job of demonstrating characters like Jill, Nikki, Sandy, Kris, Josie, and so many others adjusting to their vessel and eventually allowing their essence to shine no matter the vessel others have put it in. Egotistical villains like Hutchinson, Xu and the Bear might try and claim that essence shining as their doing and success. But since essence is genderless, they did not free a female essence in a male body. They simply change the obstacles the protagonists faced regardless of gender that they would have to overcome to become their best self. Nick did not need to become Nikki to reconnect with who he was a Nicky. There are countless ways he could have come to the same realization that he did not like whom he had become as QB Nick and found a way to return to who he is at his soul without having to become Nikki. How and when that might have happen, who knows? 25, 55, or 75, maybe? but it was possible. The only thing becoming Nikki does is show the true strength of his/her character and soul. Because not only did Nick have to process a maturing awareness of who he was, who he has become and whom he wants to be, but now having to do so under traumatizing and incomprehensible realities of imposed and irreversible physical change. That Nikki can do this while adapting to and learning to live in the new vessel in a way that is internally genuine and outwardly convincing and acceptable will show a strength and maturity that will make her exceptional by any measure with an internal light that no one will ever be able to dim or extinguish. And likewise with Jill. They are the sum of all their parts and past experiences and so very much more because their soul and essence are a multiplier of infinite degree. Your heroines thrive where most would not survive and simple adaptation and survival would be hailed as victory. And thus ends the gospel of "D", 'so say us all'! 😉

Emory Ahlberg

I get (and appreciate!) the eagerness to see what happens next, especially with so many lives hanging in the balance. But I think to really grasp the stakes for Jill, we need to see the humanity of the women she's competing with and fighting for. Because while Jill is our anchor, this story has never been just about her. I want to show some of the path that brought Liza and Hannah (we already heard from Adele) to that same breakfast table. To me, their backstories are another facet of the trauma Second Dawn inflicts, another stolen future, and another component of the bomb that’s about to go off.

Emory Ahlberg

Thank you, Robert! 💖 Yeah, Liam’s fury is a cage built from his own (mostly perceived) failures. The most tragic part, for me, is that his love for Pixel represents his purest, most gentle self... the part of him that was never “man enough” by the world’s harsh standards. The Bear's cruelty isn’t psychological as well as physical, turning his one selfless virtue into a "lever" to help force compliance.

Tomoa

Oh wow. Definitely another level of twistedness. I hope Liam can eventually escape this situation (with Pixel). But even if he was able to, I’d be worried he’d fall into a life of substance abuse. Maybe he’d listen to Ryan/She-Ryan about a path forward. I could see Liam at least hearing him/her out considering the resistance he/she put up and the fact that Ryan/She-Ryan evacuated two Second Dawn personnel. Either way, looking forward to the next chapter. Cheers.

Vanya

Thanks Emory. Didn't mean to sound like a silly goose, just anxious. I get the point now and thank you. Can't wait till the new episode!! I do love your work, and the story!

stacy C

Oh wow!.....that last pic just screams 'posession' x

Emory Ahlberg

Vanya, your comment was the opposite of silly. 💕 Passionate readers asking smart questions about structure are a gift, so thank you. You were not wrong to feel that the pace was tightening! I really wanted to create an almost claustrophobic sense of time slowing down right before the Coming Out event, to make those final hours before everything ignites feel incredibly tense. To me, showing what brought Liza and Hannah to that table isn't a detour because every person at that breakfast is a mirror showing a different reflection of what this system does to people, and all of those reflections will play a part in what happens when the final game begins. The wait, I promise, is nearly over. ☺️

Emory Ahlberg

To the Bear, that is what Liam is! 😬 Thank you, Stacy.