The interim is the period in which her dad is absent and she is mostly unaware of where her power comes from. "Discovers cosmic horror" marks the moment she actually visits a cosmic horror place and sees that things are a bit bigger than she supsected, and she finds out her dad is not so dead. I feel like I need a build-up to this moment, though, because with the way I have it planned her whole pseudo-arc with her love interest happens before this.

Perhaps she discovers a previously unknown magical sanctum/sub-dungeon. Or she is pressed by an enemy to increase her power quickly. Have you read the first Jirel story yet?

Yeah, the first Jirel story was in Warlocks and Warriors. I'm actually worried that one of the plot points I had planned hews a bit too closely to what you told me happens to Jirel later, in that I had planned to have my lady kill her love interest and then possibly visit a cosmic horror realm to see about getting him back (which isn't exactly like Jirel, but too close for comfort).

With the first visit to cosmic horror, here's the issue: I planned for my wizards to access their 'patrons' through specific locations where the world brushes up against their worlds more closely, but I can't see why one of these would open up to admit travelers. Unless she or her dad opened it on purpose?

Well, Jirel went to the cosmic horror to kill him and then felt bad, but did nothing. Yours kills him and then feels bad so goes to the cosmic horror (I don't see a good ending for dead guy, here, but whatever). You're mixing it up, which makes sense since you're twirling around the Good/Evil axis.

If it would be weird to have it open and we already know this demesne is weird, wouldn't that make sense?

Yeah, trying to achieve resurrection via cosmic horror seems like a pretty crappy plan.

I suppose a random opening would be perfectly appropriate. If this was a novel, I would say it was too twee, but this isn't really a novel, and I think short stories can run off of coincidences a little better.

Any good ideas for your story? Got your character interaction balanced okay?

What the heck is twee?

Don't coincidences often drive cosmic horror-type stories? S&S in general?

No. All my ideas were on a small piece of paper that may or may not be sitting on a chair in my room. First problem? There are about 400 chairs in my room. What is plot? What are characters? I think I'll just deconstruct everything.

Twee, you know, all cute and neat with a little bow on it.

It's true that old-school S&S lived off coincidences, but that was a literary convention that flew a lot farther back then (it's even worse in the Tarzan books). Nowadays having that many coincidences just seems like lazy writing. I'm writing throwback fiction, not actually going back in time. I'm not sure how much I can get away with.

Ah, the Cutthroat Kitchen approach. Call it 'rustic' and 'deconstructed' and then you can just throw crap in a bowl. Do you want me to help brainstorm a plot? Because I totally will.

We did that before. I don't want to reinvent the wheel. But maybe we have to...

Or maybe I can just poop in a bowl and describe it in 50K words.

Is throwback fiction actually a thing?

If you still don't have a plot, then more effort is needed. And possibly not by random generators this time. But please, describe your poop as thoroughly as possible.

If throwback fiction isn't technically a thing, it should be. I love genres that are extinct or near-extinct, and I love trying to emulate writing patterns that are no longer popular. Next I might write an edisonade or something (probably not, though).

Or less effort. Give up and blow snot bubbles. Perfect the art.

I also. Define edisonade.