Suddenly A Succubus Ch. 29 - Reflection

You guys! I was so excited to finally write this chapter! Chloé has been a part of our cast for so long, but she's always been a pretty minor background character. I've said this before, but Book Three is the first chance I have to really expand the cast, and give other people more time to shine in the narrative. We already got some extra time with Tessa recently, and now I finally get to give Chloé her very own scene.

I'm thrilled with how it turned out. It many ways, writing introduction scenes for characters is a guilty pleasure of mine. I love showing off someone's daily life, letting the audience follow them through a normal day as we discover what's important to them. Chloé, having been in the background for a bit, already has some decent characterization to her, but it's also important to note that we've only seen her in certain contexts. She's pretty almost always been with Amara, or somewhere else in here element, like the charity work scenes.

Here, I get to show a side of Chloé we haven't seen before. I think, because of the previous contexts we've seen her in, it might be a little easy to forget how shy she is, and that's something I really wanted to stress in this chapter. She has trouble speaking up for herself, she can't muster up the strength to ask Sam out, things like that. Everyone seems to think she's an adorable little tiny bean, so clearly my work paid off.

We then hop over to Tessa and Nick! I had a lot of fun writing their section from Chloé's POV earlier, it was a great chance to show that Chloé isn't as great at reading people, but also gave us a good view of Tessa's surprise to hear that Vee was missing. Personally, I'm really happy that this book is pairing up Nick and Tessa. The biggest advantage of Amara being slightly less central is that we get more fun pairings we haven't seen before, and this is the obvious standout. I think they have a really fun chemistry, and it's always fun to spend time in the head of our resident grouch as she tries (and horribly fails) to make a move on Nick.

This is also another chance to show that, for all her bluster, Tessa has more going on than she lets on. I was excited to formally introduce her polycule into the main series, and I always have a blast writing cute couple scenes. It's a shame Amara isn't dating anyone, or I could write those scenes with her...

Speaking of Amara, we get to check in with her as she freaks out about the Purgatory reveal. I saw a lot of people guess that they were in the Dreamscape, which was a good guess, but ultimately not where I wanted to take things. She throws a few more possibly-warranted barbs at Vee, and then the two retire for the night.

In total, this was a shorter chapter, but I think it works really well. These early stages of a Book are where we set the stage for what's coming, and this was the perfect amount of time to quickly check in with most of our girls and see what's happening in their lives. We now have insight, and plot, for our whole cast!

Another thing I'm doing with this Book is tracking the time that passes very closely. Last chapter, I wanted very much to end with the Purgatory reveal, but that also meant there wasn't as much plot that needed to happen before Amara and Vee went to bed. I also can't jump to the next day, and that's going to be Chapter 30. Since Amara isn't able to have sex right now, I'm doing my best to keep a close eye on the time that passes, so we can examine how things change as she goes longer and longer without sex. It's a plot point that had been hovering around in the margins of the plot, in my opinion, and I'm excited to explore it.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this slightly shorter chapter! Next one is going to be a lot of fun, and I promise there's some real good stuff coming up soon.

Nyx <3