bedlam boundary - 24.15
Chapter lurks in the dungeon vaults, gnawing on dragon bones, slurping down juicy slugs, curling up to sleep in the mummified remains of the lowermost lairs.
https://katalepsis.net/2024/05/17/bedlam-boundary-24-15/
This week's password is: authority
Epub version of the chapter is also attached below!
(This chapter is going up much earlier than usual, due to some sudden and unexpected things I have to go do when I would normally post, so, here you go! Earlier than usual!)
Onward we go, dear readers, deeper and deeper into the tangled lines and scenery of arc 24. Not much else to say this week! Heather is starting to make some real progress here, pulling her squad back together, getting some moves onto the game board, pushing ahead with confidence in a way she rarely has before. We're over halfway now (oh gosh, we have to be! haha!) but perhaps her true enemy is yet to reveal itself.
And right now, she's gotta hide and scurry with the best of 'em. Good luck, Heather. Don't get seen! Don't get ... observed.
Oh! And before I forget, a little note! Some of you may have gotten an unexpected chapter update email back on Thursday, for my other story, Necroepilogos, even if you're only subscribed to the Katalepsis patreon tier; this was a mistake on my part, I managed to click the wrong button (or not click it, rather, since patreon posts send to everybody, by default.) Just wanted to explain what that was about! If you're not a Necroepilogos subscriber and you ended up reading it, well, I hope you enjoyed! Think of it as a free teaser, I guess.
Comments (10)
Raine is SUCH a Raine.
She is elementally herself, no matter how deep in the dream!
I think this arc has been one of my favourites which feels really special as I have a visceral hate for trapped in a dream asylum stories. Having it show how far Heather has come and the relationships she has built really makes me happy. 10/10 arc in a 10/10 series.
Thank you so much! I'm really glad this arc is going as well as I hoped it would. I also have a serious dislike of similar structures and how they're often used in fiction; that's part of why I wanted to write this arc, and why I planned it all the way back at the start of the story - I wanted to try something new with it, clearing out all the stuff I didn't like about the concept. I've tried to keep it grounded in Heather's long-term development, in the importance of her relationships, and avoided things like having her panic that it might actually be real, etc. Really glad you're enjoying it so much, thank you!
Welp, color me surprised on the early chapter. I LOVED it! The entire sequence with them hiding was tense in just the right way, and seeing Sevens make her appearance on the stage was great! It feels sort of strange, in a way, for the Director of the play to appear on stage. It is unnatural, but then again, nothing in this Cygnette is to begin with, am I right? And thent he big fuc*ing reveal: the Eye is a Gilf. Gotta be honest, that whole thing and its line of thought made me laugh for five minutes straight every time I read it. It just sounds so absurd, so stupid, that it does the whole circle and makes complete sense. Gotta be doubly honest, I'm with Raine on the idea that a good lesbian experience could change the Eye (joking). I honestly expect them to somehow change the Eye's mind and give it the ability to comprehend what she sees. I'd never thought about it, but it does make sense: Observation without Comprehension is no Observation at all. And numbers may represent reality, but they do not describe it. Now, onwards to Twil and her twin lovers! I... can't say I'm that excited about that, 'cause I never liked Twil that much (not to say she's a bad character, but compared to the others she just didn't make that many appearances and leave as much of an impression). And afterwards? Who knows. Can't wait for next week!
Early chapter! Hooray! And thank you! I'm really pleased with the hiding sequence, I really wanted to capture that feeling of concealing oneself from authority in close proximity. Whatever's going on with Sevens is indeed very odd, almost as if she's just as trapped as anybody else. She's both a Director, and also an inmate of the prison Eye Gilf! Haha, I knew this moment would probably cause great amusement! This has been planned since the very beginning, though I don't think the Eye would appear in this form in reality, even in a dream. The Eye is only taking this shape because of Heather rewriting reality. She's sort of ... contained, for now.
That’s a very early chapter
It is indeed! I figured it was better to post it early than post it late; back when I first started the story, I used to post every chapter around this time actually.
This is out very early! I was just about to go to bed, welp, sleep can wait.
*Heather rolls to seduce the Eye* - Nat 20 Welcome to the Lesbian Occult Polycule Club, you can find your personally embroidered club jacket over there, and we will throw you a welcome party next Saturday.