Blood & Chlorophyll Ch. 03 - Reflection

This Chapter is where the main thrust of my plot really coalesces, at least in my opinion. One fun difference between this book and Suddenly A Succubus is that things get off to a slower start here, and I'm glad I approached it that way. Giving Katrina and Alicia their own introductory chapters was the perfect way to introduce the world, as well as show how different the two girls are. That being said, every method of storytelling has its weaknesses. If you look at Katrina, it's very obvious what her flaws and problems are. She's dealing with a lot of stress, and she's worried about losing control. Alicia, on the other hand, is a little harder to pin down. If you read Chapter 2 and ignore the last scene, she seems pretty content. There aren't any hints of personal struggle, other than the reveal that she's got a mystery dungeon chilling under her neighborhood.

Alicia, in my mind, is one of those characters that doesn't realize what she's missing. Sure, she hasn't seen anyone in 3 years, but it's really easy to fall into a routine and let inertia take its course. She needed something to jostle the status quo, and the appearance of Katrina did exactly that. Granted, if a girl like Katrina sat in my lap and started playing with my hair, I'm sure I'd have some pretty strong feelings two, but probably not the same kind of revelation as Alicia. People often don't know what they don't know, so how are you supposed to be able to diagnose a problem if you don't know there's a problem? It was crucial to see Alicia before and after meeting Katrina, I think that did a lot of work in painting what her life looks and feels like.

I think Alicia's journey also serves as a great showcase of just how transformative the Change was. Not only did it massively restructure society, not only did huge swathes of the population not survive, but the process of becoming a new Race is incredibly disruptive. I often see stories that feature all sorts of different types of sentient creatures, and it's so easy for them all to think and act exactly like humans. Am I guilty of doing that myself? Maybe, but I'm also writing stories specifically designed to bridge the gap between what defines someone as human versus inhuman. With B&C, these are people that were absolutely human until just a few years ago, and I really want to show how deep those changes go. It's not as simple as "Now I eat different food", sometimes the changes can fundamentally affect how someone perceives time, or socialization. The title of this setting is, after all, "Becoming Monsters". It's not "Becoming Cool New Humans with Neat Powers".

I really hope that my characters have felt distinct, not only in terms of personality, but in how they experience the world around them. In fact, were I some sort of bleeding heart, I might even be tempted to say that Alicia and Katrina have been living entirely as monsters the last few years, and that meeting each other might be a way of reconnecting with their humanity.

Anyways, that was quite a long tangent, all to simply say that people are complicated. Who'd have thought?

On the simpler side of things, there's another reason I think this Chapter ties the plot together. I finally get to share my fun little reveal about Dryads and blood! My initial idea for this story was pretty much entirely this concept; Katrina is driven to attack people when she smells blood, and happens across someone who doesn't have any. Sadly, unlike in SaS, I had to wait three chapters before dropping this critical piece of information, but I'm thrilled with how it came together. The idea of pairing a Vampire and a Dryad seems like such a slam dunk, I'm shocked I've never seen it come up in fiction before. (I'm not at all saying I invented this idea, by the way. I simply haven't seen this pairing before, and that is just as easily a reflection on me as it is on Fantasy stories.) People love stories where opposing personalities come together, and these two creatures are literally night and day. Maybe it's because Dryads aren't as popular as Vampires? Who knows. Either way, I hope y'all are as excited as I am about this silly little idea.

I realize I'm kind of talking out of order, but these Reflection pieces tend to be fairly off the cuff. (That's why, if you see typos, it's totally not my fault! It's character work, I promise.) I honestly have less to say about Katrina's half of the chapter. Her introduction did a great job of setting up her conflict, so she didn't need to have the same kind of revelation as Alicia did. With that in mind, I did finally get to have her guitar come up in the story, which is something I regretted not being able to do in the first chapter. This may surprise you, but on occasion, I can be a bit of a music nerd. I'm having a lot of fun pairing chapters with musical tracks, and I hope you've found the songs enjoyable. Even if you haven't I hope it helps add some texture to Katrina as a character, and gives you a hint about what her Bardic abilities might sound like if she ever uses them!

Gosh, I hope this Reflection hasn't felt too rambly. Unless that's a good thing, in which case I hope you're all horribly confused. Either way, I'm so excited to start digging into the meat of the plot in the coming chapters. I'll see you then!

Nyx <3