Chapter 5: Page 2

Land of Confusion: Page 2

NOTES FROM JASON

Happy Fourth of July. Have another page of Chapter 5. It’s on us.

This page is a sharp contrast from the prior page as you can see, with quite a bit of talking. The original plan for this chapter’s opening was essentially this, but it just didn’t seem right. Something was missing. Then came the idea of Carnelius standing over the bed, noticing that some of Harker’s blood had stained his book, and wiping it clean, anger and revulsion in his eyes, and the knowledge that as hard as he could wipe, it would never be pure from Harker’s taint. Or something like that. I liked the image, and knew it had to go in. There was a brief moment where I wondered whether it would be best to have the dialogue going along with this moment. This was after writing out the first draft and discovering it was going to be a lot longer than I initially hoped for. I figured it’d be a bit more efficient to do it that way, though I wasn’t entirely sold. After speaking about it with Randy, he said he preferred the silent start, and in so doing dispelled my doubts, and so the scene was left as is. The obvious consequence is that this page is a little packed with dialogue, but hopefully it’s not too much. As you can see, there’s a lot being said here.

Among the highlights are the official confirmation that Harker is comatose. Safe bet to say we won’t be seeing him for the time being. Will he re-emerge? Well, until we officially put a toe tag on him, that’s always a possibility. We also see that the Agency’s use of Colton is clearly not sitting well with the higher ups. Wonder what’ll come of that. And what is this Subject One Project mentioned? Nothing good, I imagine, but we’ll see. There’s also talk of a meeting with the other Ministers, which means we’ll be meeting them for the first time, and seeing Logan again, following his rescue in Chapter 3. Speaking of Logan, seems like there’s some friction brewing between he and Carnelius and Towser. Does it have something to do with his kidnapping? And what exactly does he want, and why does it have Towser and Carnelius so irate? I’m sure we’ll find out.

Needless to say, this chapter’s going to have a lot going on, and this page is laying the groundwork for it. Quite a lot of it is stuff that wasn’t in the initial plans for the story. More on that later. For now, enjoy the holiday and the page, and we’ll see you next week.