#just described my 'rapid prototyping' method of playing with plot ideas to a friend

[merge-conflict]

Going from the "happy" gorov universe:

“It seems everyone believes you have seduced me, and I am helpless to refuse.” He closed his eyes, just for a moment. “I want the things they believe I have already.” It was far too much to ask. V herself was most at risk from Hanako’s displeasure, just as she now endured the consequences of rumor and gossip. No matter how she claimed it might be an advantage to be underestimated, it infuriated him to hear her reputation sullied by cowards who cared only for their own survival. And yet how else could he protect her, except to stop holding her at arms length? “Little do they know,” she said, a strange smile tugging at the corner of her lips, “that I’m the one helpless to refuse.”

To the very unhappy one:

“You came alone.” It’s a statement of fact, and not a question. Arasaka has few interests in this city, but the owner of this building has debts. Had debts. “I came alone,” she agrees, bitterly. “I came alone and I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. She is busy with other projects.”