usually I try not to make specific kinds of jokes about things like word count numbers but in this case given what’s implied I think it’s pretty appropriate, actually
happy Echoes anniversary!
This is just a nebulous fluff thing that wouldn't leave me alone the week before until I wrote it, and then when I was done I stared at it and went 'uh, this actually works really well as a 'special' because it doesn't really spoil anything and probably doesn't 100% fit in with the story anyway'.  So it may someday be somewhat AU whenever I get to that part, but isn't as much as, say, A Tad Too Inviting.  Also I'll note I'm sick, keep writing chapters out of order that I'm probably going to have to heavily revise whenever I actually get there, and have been watching The Bourne Identity a lot all because of a) being sick and b) a one-off joke that's going to happen in the next interlude-esque volume?  That being said I actually kinda like this a lot and hope you do too, thanks for sticking with this story!

Reading about Looms for a later part and getting sidetracked reading about the Newblood houses and...yeah, that fits Blake extremely well, so him actually having a second heart before his first regeneration is more meaningful for the plot than just for survival. Yay for awesome coincidence.

( -two- )

“Do you know what you’re doing?”
“If it worked anything like a genie, I’d have asked for wealth.”
blake is the type to make a bargain with janus (actually so is Avon and blake might get caught by servalan and travis alongside a very confused spike)
thank you and hi /waves to new subscriber
 

I thought I’d added in something foreshadowing for a bit in this chapter previously, but I hadn’t. I went back to fix that. That being said this is actually a really good place to start to pull this in.
Thought this note from my first draft might be of interest to readers. (((Desmond share something for once in your life and stop making this so much of a pain thank you no stop no getting super vague and don’t lie about it Desmond seriously)))
This is in fact the Stephen King reference character who’s also his own thing now, because both authors coexist in my version of the world. The plot of Anne is now partially a reference to Joyland though, mostly because it’s one of the Krieg books that doesn’t have even a blurb or excerpt. You can find Krieg listed on Google Books along with covers and such despite the fact that he’s fully fictional. The mentioned blog also exists. I think I mentioned that this game had ARG elements, enough that they had an in-game browser so you could find, say, Danny’s Twitter for answers to in-game missions. (I wonder if he’s moved to Bluesky.)
Also there’s some interesting stuff here now about commonalities between books Desmond’s liked, now that we have two mentioned: at minimum for some inexplicable reason he might like “outsider protagonist” stories.

( twisting reality )

swapped reaction: Being tortured is exhausting to the soul. Blake meets the gaze of his cellmate wearily. “Under the circumstances, why should I do anything else?”

( Chapter 367: Everything is Broken )