Afterword - Book 5 - Chapter 10 (Patreon)

Chapter 10: Beans & Brawling

Sunny. I want to talk about Sunny.

She wasn't a planned character for this book. I had one (1) joke I wanted to make, and needed to write some interactions between Ranthia with an elf to get to get to the joke. All she was supposed to be was a playful gal with morbid tastes.

And I fell in love while writing her first interactions with Ranthia. There was no way that she wasn't going to return.

Sunny isn't main character material, but she's one of my favorite parts of book 5 already—not that I'm done with it just yet. I adore her sense of humor and just how... pure of character she is. Not in any weird puritanical sense, but rather in that she's 100% unapologetically herself at all times. And yet somehow, in spite of that, she's kind of charming and legitimately witty?

Like, how did even I write a character like that?

Uh, I mean, I know exactly what I'm doing. -cough-

Anyhow, I know she won't land as well for everyone, but I've had a couple of people become fans of her and this brings me joy. ...Pretty much like any other form of engagement with my work, admittedly.

Moving on, this chapter had a few embarrassing mistakes. Like I knew (and managed to forget while writing) that coffee wasn't technically a bean (seeds from the pit of a cherry-looking fruit). So I was planning to strip the (unstated) reference to coffee out of this chapter before the RR release. Then another beta reader came in later and hit me with something I don't think I ever knew: cocoa beans aren't beans either.

Sigh. So I added the bit to the Bean about it also using products with "bean energy," that somehow overlaps at least partially with things we mistakenly label beans!

Oh, to translate the menu into familiar terms:

1) thirty-two bean salad - Self explanatory, just a salad using beans instead of lettuce

2) hot bean pulp, scrambled - Extra soft tofu, scrambled like eggs

3) bean patty sandwich with bean-milk cheese - Tofu mimicking the texture of beef, with soymilk based cheese

4) bean pulp hot pot - Tofu hot pot

5) bean stew - Exactly what it sounds like.

6) sticky fermented beans - Anko (fermented sweet red beans). Nattō's also on the menu, but it isn't sweet.

7) Hot Bean Juice #1 - Coffee (with soymilk)

8) Hot Bean Juice #2 - Hot Chocolate (with soymilk)

9) Bean smoothies - Either soymilk- or anko-based thickened beverages, chilled.

I actually like tofu a lot, personally. And I have a slow-cooked bean and pork stew that I absolutely love to make when I can source the ingredients. But the Bean is specifically inspired from a restaurant I visited with some friends once. Not saying which one, though I'm sure there's several out there that would fit a similar vibe and cuisine!

Moving on to the final part of the chapter, there's not as much to say. I didn't plan for Ranthia's awkward crush on the woman, but I think I mentioned that previously? -scrolls up- I did not, huh. Bad past me, no cookie.

Yeah, I never expected or planned for Ranthia to have a thing for the Lodge's owner. Instead, Ranthia took one look at her and discovered new things about herself. Which is a lot of how I write, I never quite know how Ranthia will react to things until I do. But I'll have more to say on that with an upcoming chapter.

It was never in my mind when I wrote this scene, but every time I read it, I can't help but to be reminded of Ranthia's first "duel" with Night while the other Sentinels watched, after she completed her first round as a Ranger. The parallels are strong for a total accident. Ranthia goes all out against an opponent she can never hope to match and... doesn't make a great showing of it.

I do like the effect, and I'm curious if anyone else had a similar thought when they read it.

But unlike her match with Night, Ranthia walks away from this one with a firm answer. And a butter knife that needs washing.