Chapter huddles in the bunker's core, wrapped in shells of steel and stone, while sleet and storm and hail howls outside, snuggled up in blanket, alone.
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Arc 5 continues! Are we at the mid-point yet??? Probably not! I think things just got a little longer, once again. But I'll let the chapter itself speak as to the reasons why.
But ohhhh wow, this, uh, this chapter, hooooo. Everything here surprised me, Octavia not least of all. Not that this wasn't planned, of course; I knew that the things here were all going to happen, I just didn't expect them to happen in quite this way, in this order, or with quite this reaction from, well, Octavia herself! Among others, too. Once again, my characters have surprised me at the wheel, wrestled it from my hands, and taken us off in a direction I have mapped in only the most vague shapes thus far.
One of my main creative aims with Maidens (along with never pulling my punches), is to never hold off on certain developments for the sake of 'the plot'; if the characters decide the time is right, then who am I to argue? Though, we've still only scratched the surface of where all this is going!
Without further ado, onward we go, back to magical girls punching the stuffing out of each other. Hope you enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed writing it, dear readers!