Before I jump in, some content warnings. The following entries will touch on the topics of isolation, gaslighting, abuse, animated Victorian dolls, “but I’m a nice guy,” and related areas. There will also be spoilers here for any short story which comes out of this process.
Spoiler Space:
I’ve got bits and pieces. Now how do I put all this together? Well, first, I needed characters. I needed to know who was involved and their motivations, good or ill.
First, was the protagonist. She went through a few names, but I settled on Robin cause Robin’s Restorations sounded just right, and also hinted at other restorations in the story. I imagined her living outside of Hershey, PA. Her family were dairy farmers supplying the chocolate company for multiple generations. But, getting old, they decided to retire to Florida. They sold their herds and rented out their pasturage & barn to other farmers nearby and gave the actual house, workshop shed, and a few surrounding acres to their daughter.
Robin went to Penn State, up at the main campus in college park. She was learning agriculture and business management, to help her parents farm, but while growing up and working at Sheri’s antique store, picked up woodworking and crafting skills. She started adding a lot of art and industrial art courses as a side option. Her parents didn’t mind – they encouraged it, especially as she helped clean up and build out a workshop by the family home. But it became apparent Robin wasn’t meant to be a farmer. She loved restoration work too much. She loved building toys and repairing furniture and selling them on-line.
But she stayed with the family, giving up a lot to help keep them in business until her Dad needed to head to warmer climes for his health. The property was the family’s way of supporting her dreams.
Luckily, Hershey was well kitted with broadband and wifi. It allowed her to begin her own on-line business, begin streaming and filming restorations, taking orders from other places for work, and helping support Sheri’s antique store (As seen on Robin’s Restorations). Soon, she had original and restored pieces in every Bed & Breakfast between Hershey and Lebanon. Restaurants featured her work, as did local photographers.
Unfortunately, this brought her a lot of negative attention. For every friend she made in the on-line restoration and crafting community, she found two people trying to tear her down. Which made her vulnerable for our antagonist.
The antagonist came next, but I’m holding him for another entry.
While I wanted Robin to be isolated in some ways, I needed to give her a sounding board. That’s how Sheri came into being. I saw her as Robin’s mentor figure – someone who now feels responsible to help her and watch over her but can’t really intervene. She’s essentially the favorite aunt – the one who was in a ‘Boston marriage’ before anyone in the town realized what it was, who ran the antique shop where Robin first got her taste for woodworking and restoration and crafts.
She is the Cassandra of the story – she knows what’s going to happen, but Robin doesn’t want to believe it. She doesn’t want to believe she could have made such a mistake. She doesn’t want to believe she’s stuck where she is. And she doesn’t want to admit how dangers things are getting. Especially with the snow coming in early…
I named Sheri after Sherilynn Fenn and can see her playing the character now.
Well, if this is the protagonist, who is the antagonist?
Biomechanoid Blues 