FB: “Funny story: I only saw THE MATRIX last Friday. This was actually inspired more by Eighties SWAMP THING, with all its talk of hallucinogenic ‘tubers.’ See, I didn’t realize ‘tuber’ was a common name for an edible part of a plant, so… anyway, y’all can start taking off your clothes now, we’ll just stand here and watch.”

Introducing…THE FIVE! Finally, the real protagonists show up fully seen for the first time, as this epic story is 95% complete! We’re breaking records here, people!

Okay, not really. The structure of our story (and its Matrix influence, lampshaded here) did lead some readers to think that the Sepia-World citizens here would emerge as the real stars of the show. As many of you had figured out by now, we were going in another direction. Flo and I weren’t planning to give them speaking roles at all after their mostly-shadowed appearances in Chapter 8. But we needed a scene to show Carol’s state of mind before the big finish, because she had an important role to play in it. Showing her memories of the Five as more than just lava lamps in HR’s side office would evoke her guilt, even as it disguised the scene’s real purpose for a bit.

And besides…we knew y’all were curious about how this part played out and how the Sepia Five would interact. We were, too!