Nip it in the bud
I say ‘Froze you’
Nothin’ I can do
Can’t give it in
You lock me out
Nip it in the bud
I don’t know
Give it a shove
Head ’em up
Move ’em out
I’m no fool!
Ain’t got no place to go
I don’t know, I don’t care
If you just go on and get me there
Oh, I don’t want to ruffle your feathers
I don’t care if you don’t go
I’ll just go do and beware
Say, come take me away
Nip it in the bud
I wanted Destination Unknown to move quickly, and after 53 Miles West of Venus (Chapter 16), there’s no time for background information on characters and Asperger’s. The background finally landed in the first half of Gray Rock. I attempted to deliver information with a humorous tone, and yeah, Nip It in the Bud is a love letter to the kids who were on my team, but cut me some slack.
Almost all of Nip It in the Bud was originally located in Destination Unknown. Phinizy’s team was actually seven terrific people, but that would be far too many characters. Isabel and Summer were materially involved in the story, but I think the world of Phinizy and everyone who was on his team.
The events described from Stop It (Chapter 8) through Nip It in the Bud were all happening simultaneously in late 2017-early 2018, as evidenced by the flashback scenes in Planet Claire. Claire didn’t come onto the scene until sometime after the conclusion of Crazy (Chapter 9), but the Dagmar episode occurred even before Stop It, and the Hard Reset occurred after Briar Patch and before the Night of the Long Knives episode. Clear as mud, right?! The time period was a muddled mishmash for me, as were the initial drafts of this part of the story.
By late 2017, I had come to understand the person with whom I was dealing, but hadn’t settled or learned what I should do about it, while under the pressure of possibly being fired on any given day. And on the other hand, I was dealing the dissonance of everything coming together very well with my team and Phinizy’s team substantively in the “actual work we are accomplishing for the brokers” portion of my job. Telling the story chronologically wouldn’t work here – I pulled out the “actual work” parts of my experience out of Destination Unknown and started anew.
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