Blood & Chlorophyll Ch. 24 - Reflection

When I first started digging into this series, I always knew I wanted to keep the POV rooted (pun intended) in Alicia and Kat's POV. Early on, I debated giving Tabitha a chapter all to herself, maybe one that explored her history a little bit, but obviously I ended up not doing that.

While I'm happy with this decision, sometimes it means I have to get creative with how the story is told. The biggest hurdle is that, while I normally like to switch between Kat and Alicia every chapter, it's often not realistic to do so because of their conflicting sleep cycles. I think this is the second or third time I've kept to a single POV for consecutive chapters, and it's interesting the way it affects the cadence of the story.

Another problem with limiting the POV comes with how I've limited the characters. Right now, everyone is 100% focused on the Dungeon, and that means it's a little difficult to find time to dig into who Roxy is. Thankfully, I've still found small ways to give her room to breath, but I think this chapter gets the best chance to let her shine.

I think she adds a really fun energy to the group. She's pretty similarly upbeat to Alicia, but I feel her energy comes across as more bubbly than our sweet, lovable Dryad. She also appears to not have a great conversational filter, and is more than happy to ask uncomfortable questions about Kat's race. Unfortunately for Roxy, Kat has a lot of complicated feelings there, and golly it sure was convenient to have a chance to dump a bunch of Vampire lore.

Everything we learn about Vampires in this chapter is stuff I've known for the entirety of the book. In my real life, I know quite a few people who love Vampire: The Masquerade, wear fangs, go to Vampire balls, all of that. I knew that it would be impossible for Vampires to suddenly burst into existence without also heralding the appearance of what amounts to a Vampire kink scene.

However, while I've always known about the presence of that Vampire community, I also wanted Kat to be wrestling with her hunger for the whole book. Thankfully, this chapter was the perfect chance for Kat to dig into her feelings about all of that, and I'm happy with the extra depth it gives her character.

Now, I don't dig into when that community started, or when Kat found it, but I'm happy with that ambiguity. I'm sure there's a chance that people might think she was actively avoiding that scene in favor of hunting for her targets, which might make her seem a little too wracked by guilt, but personally I don't think that's the case. In my head, such a community wouldn't have the chance to form until at least two years after the Change, and by then the Rationing system was already in place.

We then get a chance to pivot the conversation to Roxy! This was another great chance to dig into some Chicago Lore, and I'm happy with how I was able to portray Ashes To Ashes here. I never have nice things to say about them, obviously, but I've always wanted to explore how their presence can warp the climate around them. Personally, I think it goes a long way to adding more depth to why Kat and Alicia didn't trust any Guild to help with the Key Dungeon, despite Ashes being the only one that's famously destructive.

It's then time to delve back into the Dungeon! It's been a bit easier on my end to tell that side of things, now that I'm glossing over some of the minute details, and I'm particularly happy with the surprise at how easily they defeated the floor's mini-boss. I never have quite as much to say about the more mechanically-driven parts of the story, so that's that!

Only two chapters left until we finish Blood & Chlorophyll!

Nyx ♥