Life, the Universe, and Everything has taken me away from this longer than I realized. Glad to get back into this series. I’m apparently 27 episodes behind, that’s a lot. I’d better try to avoid breaks for a bit.
The Ballad of Bonaduke—
Episode 33: Player 2
DETAILS: Series: The Ballad of Bonaduke, #33 Format: Kindle Vella Story Read Date: September 14, 2023
“You gave an NPC your magic, and now we’re in the game.”
I nodded pretending to know what the hell she was talking about, trying to temper my anger. ‘Ah yes, I see, that makes sense.” I said putting as much dripping sarcasm I could into each word.
The Story So Far…
A drunken Michael Bonaduke decides to use a grift (with maybe some sort of magic/magic-like “help”) to win on a scratch-off lottery ticket so he has money to buy more to drink. He pulls off whatever he did, gets his money and some booze and stumbles off into the darkness to drink himself into oblivion so he can start again the next day. He’s hit by dark memories (probably what’s driving him to the drinking) of fire, pleading, and screaming. There’s going to be a price to pay for his grift, and he’s trying to be ready.
He’s abducted by some representatives of a mysterious group who subject him to a test—if he passes, everything will be explained to him (and hopefully the reader, too). He passes—and is brought somewhere for answers, or maybe training, or maybe another test. Time will tell (or things are going to get really annoying). Answers aren’t quick to come—but the mysteries and questions keep piling up.
Things get hairy and Bonaduke leaves and finds himself back in the neighborhood he started from. He takes refuge in a homeless encampment shortly before a police raid. He’s apprehended and finds himself an interrogation room and shortly escapes after using his grift (but with results he didn’t quite intend). He finds himself by a group of squatters who seem to have strapped a woman to a chair for reasons that can’t be good. He attempts to rescue her before he even realizes what he’s doing, and seems to have succeeded—well, the two of them got away from the group anyway—breathing but bruised. They make their way to a fast-food taco joint and Bonaduke really needs to refuel to keep going. He tries, but fails to get food because he keeps passing out. Thankfully, the clerk is the same guy from the liquor store and he both recognizes him and gives him first aid. The woman (Zero) wakes up and shows some abilities of her on as she helps them escape from her captors who’ve tracked her down.
What’s Player 2 About?
As Episode 32: Suspect number 1 wrapped up, Bonaduke tried something wreckless—even by his standards. This episode is about the results of that move.
So, Zero’s power involved tying reality into a video game, which helped her accomplish things that were impossible. As a result of Bonaduke’s meddling, they’re now in that video game—and they have a limited opportunity to get back out of it. And yeah, that sounds strange. But what do you want for this series?
So, what did I think about Player 2?
When I talked about the last episode, I said I wasn’t sure what Bonaduke was trying to do there—and honestly, I’m still not sure. But I enjoyed the fallout from his dumb move (not that he realized it was that dumb when he made it). I wonder how long Slaywood is going to stick with this arc within an arc, but I think it’s going to be fun.
Despite Zero’s attitude (and comments) about Eric, I wonder if he’s going to play a bigger role in this story than I’d anticipated. I think that’d be good. The more this series has Bonaduke with people rather than just bouncing around from event to event/location to location by himself, the better it is. You get Zero and Eric with him for a prolonged time and I think it’ll only improve. Especially if they all start understanding each other.
And if that doesn’t happen and we just get Zero for a bit? I’m okay with that, too, she’s one cool character. (and I mean “cool” in a number of ways)
This was a fun episode and the next episode or two that it sets up should be as good.
Grab a book, any book.
Twenty Palaces—the prequel to the whole thing 
