Yesterday felt like a very pedestrian, chop-your-way-through-the-wordage day (being interrupted by a power outage and some other stuff) but today I can see what it was preparing for...the surprise.
The surprise sets up a number of story-branches...the question being, which one is "live?" In this story universe, it could be more than one.
1120 words so far this morning, and now it's afternoon. I need lunch, though.