Writing, Emotion
... it's kind of gross and emotionally squidgy how easy it is to imagine a setup wherein late-stage capitalism creates the conditions for colonialist neo-feudalism. Leaning into live-in petplay story ideas even a little produces pretty troubling settings with really dark and ugly underbellies that I don't want to endorse but don't feel I can ignore if I want to play at all with the light and fluffy stuff.
That's not "I can't do this." That's "this will take work."
Writing, Emotion
In Bonds, I justified a lot of problematic ideas to myself as "this is clearly a fantasy world; I can ignore some of the grosser implications and people should be able to figure out this is all narrative tropes for sexy-times." In a closer-to-modern-day narrative, there's no such leeway. Much greater care needs to be taken.
The thought is still hot. I just can't pick up a pen and start scribbling willy-nilly. This will take some development.