PLEASE tell me about plus one ish and the stolen body one (is that another Ascian reference)
Okay so second one first, it's not an Ascian reference (but I see why you thought it might be) - it is (like my last ask answer) about Remember Me, a cyberpunk game from 2013 that I'm a little obsessed with.
It's almost impossible to explain this fic idea without spoiling the twist at the end of the game, but basically, there are two characters that die (a human and a partition of an AI built of the worst human memories), and both are sad deaths...I want to have the AI take the human body and then have the main character have to grapple with that. A very "learning to be human" kind of vibe. (There are also just a lot of unresolved plot threads or things that could be expanded on at the end of that game that I want to dig into, so this would be a good place to do that, too.)
Plus One Ish is basically what happened when my entire brain was taken over by wedding stress just before my wedding in 2019. I had a dream about a resort-type place that had accidentally booked two weddings for the same weekend and did NOT have capacity for both (I wasn't even getting married at a resort! I don't know where that came from!!), and I woke up and went, "that would make a GREAT backdrop for a romance novel". It was three weeks to my wedding and I was in DIRE need of a distraction.
I forgot all about it after my wedding and rediscovered it last year in my Google Drive. I have a whole outline and like four chapters. I read the chapters I'd written and...it's good actually?? I wish I'd written more so I could read it?? It's lighthearted and kinda silly, which tbh is something I like in romance novels, personally.
It's M/F; Mark's sister is getting (gay) married and his VERY RECENT ex is one of the guests, and Sophie is the ex of BOTH members of the other couple, so it's delightfully messy. They agree to be each other's plus ones to their respective weddings, because both of them are feeling embattled for different reasons and didn't bring a date.
Here's a snippet - they're having breakfast after sharing a bed (but not having sex):
“Don’t look now,” she said in a low voice, “but someone’s watching us again.”
“Who is it?” he asked, reining in the impulse to glance around.
“A tall blonde woman across the room — purple ribbon, so she’s one of yours,” she replied, flicking another glance at her. “She doesn’t look happy.” Which probably means...
“Blonde — either my mother or my ex,” Mark said, confirming Sophie’s hunch with a sigh, sitting back in his chair.
“How Oedipal.”
Mark snorted, ruining the mock-stern glare he leveled at her before it had even begun. Sophie shrugged one shoulder, picked up her cooling coffee, and took a delicate sip, giving him her best innocent eyes over the rim of the mug.
“Anyway, definitely too young to be your mother,” she continued, “although she’s got the disappointed stare on lock.”
“You are making it impossible not to turn around,” Mark said. He crossed his forearms and leaned against them on the table in front of him.
“Ahh, but if you did, it would spoil the game,” she said, watching as Kathy’s frown deepened. Sophie looked back at Mark and smiled. “Your ex is quite jealous, my friend.”
“Really?” he asked. He shifted in his seat, clearly itching to turn around.
“Really — and don’t you dare ruin it,” Sophie said, pinning him with a stern glare. He stilled immediately, and Sophie’s heart skipped a beat. “She deserves a little jealousy, so let her feel it.”
“What makes you think she deserves it? You don’t even know how we broke up.”
“Anyone who not only goes to their ex’s sister’s wedding, but also brings a goddamned date, deserves whatever they get in the realm of jealousy,” Sophie said darkly. “She’ll survive.”
I'm probably gonna go back and try to finish it at some point, just to see where it goes.
(Also I think now there's a Will Ferrel and Reese Witherspoon movie that's basically the same premise? But I bet THEY don't have a beach volleyball scene that has BOTH possessiveness and bisexual flirting in the same toxic lil smoothie, so.)
