Blood & Chlorophyll Ch. 18 - Reflection

This is a chapter I've been incredibly eager to get to. It's been sitting in my head for a while, and it's specifically the reason why Tab asked for blank checks all those chapters ago.

I've mentioned this before, but I did significantly less planning ahead with Blood & Chlorophyll than usual. With Suddenly A Succubus, I normally have a detailed outline of the entire book before I start chapter one, and I simply didn't do that here. I had a good idea of where everything was going, but many of the details were left to my whims.

As such, I think it's fascinating seeing the vibes that different parts of the book have taken. The first arc was just a cozy romance, with Kat and Alicia basically never leaving home except to visit the Dungeon Camp once.

We then had some time spent expanding the cast a bit, introducing Tabitha, and spending time with training and exploring Class Features. In my opinion, this arc ended with Tabitha taking them to the strip club, and our delightfully oblivious lesbians finally getting it on.

One big advantage of starting the book so slowly is that each outing feels more substantial, at least in my opinion. Their trip to the city was pretty taxing, and I'm really happy that it felt tense while also being such a quiet, intimate affair.

The trip to the strip club was equally disruptive, though in a different direction. However, no one can argue that it didn't have wonderful results.

This chapter, being almost entirely focused on the Bite Show, fell into a similar vein. It's a big event that has pretty low stakes, realistically speaking, but it feels important because of what it means to the characters, which might as well be the theme of this book.

Key Dungeon? Super easy, barely an inconvenience. But not for our characters.

I'm really happy with how slow the book started, because it sets the stage for every deviation from the norm to feel impactful.

Anyways, with how nervous Kat was about the show, and feeding on Tabitha, I found it interesting how quickly the show came and went. This was mostly on purpose, as after all of Katrina's panic, the show is only an hour long, and performing makes the time fly. Sure, I could have lingered on the stripping, or the kissing, but that didn't really feel right. It all felt like lead up to the Bite, and I wanted us to feel like we were seeing the show from Kat's POV. In my opinion, she was so giddy and nervous that it all kinda flew by for her, so hopefully that came across.

Of course, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have Kat and Alicia sneak in a little fun in Tab's shower. It's so much fun writing the confident, sexy version of these characters, especially since this series hasn't been defined by its sex the way SaS has.

In the end, I think this chapter was a wonderful way to end the middle arc of the story. It ties a neat little bow on the lingering tension that's been sitting between Tab and Kat, which I think needed to happen before they get into the dungeon. In the unlikely event I ever rewrite this book, or possibly publish it, I'd likely put more emphasis on the tense relationship between those two, but as it stands now, I'm still happy with it.

Plus, I've been waiting for Tab to show up in the closing remarks for a while now. I always knew it was going to be this chapter, and I've been itching for a chance to subvert my normally classical guitar recommendations.

Nyx <3