Chapter 4 Sneak Peek (contains minor spoilers)

This is the first chapter sneak peek. These write-ups are going to provide basic outlines of the chapters in progress, as well as what might be minor spoilers. Consider these the author's notes or director's commentary I guess. I'll refrain from any actual plot-related spoilers, though these might contain character spoilers.

In this chapter, we meet the Shadow People--alternatively just 'shades' or Brollachan (a rough equivalent in Scottish folklore, though my take deviates from the actual folk stories).

Shadow People have a rough equivalent in a lot of cultures. If you have an interest in the supernatural or paranormal, you've probably read about them. Some people see them as beings of pure evil, some see them as omens of death, others see them as creepy but benign--it really just depends.

In my interpretation, shades act as something of a hive mind or a collective conscious made up of a many "individuals". They actively seek to make "deals" with humans and take advantage of naivete, though to what end no one really knows.

From there, R and MC will have their first "practice" session together and explore a little astral projection. With this we'll get a little bit of a glimpse into R's specific powers and how they interact with the MC's. My intention is to have R fulfill a sort of teacher or mentor role just by virtue of them having a better understanding of MC's powers and how they work.

The above is all I have concretely planned for right now. Further down the road, I might have the first major deviation: where you can choose between R and Z to accompany you in a certain scene. I'm not sure with this, though. There's already a little bit of a time debt to fill with Z as we've had a handful of solo scenes with R already. It's a bit of a challenge to balance the two, as Carter will have significant motivation to keep Z and MC apart. So on one hand I want the ROs to have equal space, but on the other hand there's plot and characterization demands.

In other news: depending on how Chapter 4 unfolds, chapter 5 might finally bring about the Kestrel's introduction.

But I'll provide a further update as I progress and know better which direction I'm going to take.