On the Verge: the Arrow of Time, six

The cover for this chapter of the book features one of my favourite techie things that I included in the story: the weird goggles that Lucas puts on. And because they’re one of my favourites, why not put ’em on the cover!

Here’s the chapter and click on a thumbnail image to read.

This chapter serves two main purposes:

1. I needed to quickly provide information about the Incidents that have occurred. We’ve kind of touched on them a bit but this is where we really start digging into what’s going on.
2. And I also really started to explain just who la Fleur is and her reasons for wanting the technology. Up until now she’s kind of appeared and hasn’t explained herself.

There’s a lot in this chapter and going back and re-reading it, I can’t believe how much I sort of slipped in. The intent was to focus mainly on the two Incidents that have happened and continue to develop Hannah’s relationship with Lucas. But I also managed to slip in:

• Hannah’s a workaholic! She’s been doing this since Agnosto put her on it.
• That Hannah is actually pretty smart and on the ball. She figures out that the two events are connected. (I mean I knew this already, but it was good to show).
• Hannah’s reactions to the Incidents. Lucas just kind of takes it in stride, but it was fun to show what the “weird science” actually did and her reaction to it.
• The evidence that they’ve collected – not that it does too much for them.
• Lucas is pretty smart as well and he knows things from his experience.
• They’re still pursuing the Shadow Gang and the bank robberies. Even though we (the reader) know what’s going on, these guys are still trying to figure it out.
• Jeremy’s journal! This will come in handy in a little bit but we’re finally introduced to “the Arrow of Time”!
• La Fleur isn’t exactly what she seemed and she may be a little bit crazy.
• The Professor isn’t exactly ok with everything. La Fleur is forcing his hand a bit.
• The Professor reached out to la Fleur… because he wanted to finish developing this technology.
• La Fleur funds the protesters and the Watchtower!
• La Fleur will do anything to get the Arrow of Time working – including using Jeremy and Hannah however she sees fit.

The one thing that I really love about the Professor in his scene is how uncomfortable he is. I liked playing with the panel layouts on those pages so that he’s looking at Mackenzie and Jacob in different panels, not at la Fleur.

And then finally, the chapter wraps up with a completely different look at la Fleur. Just like in the last chapter, we get a backstory, but we also get an bias that is completely different from what we’ve just seen on the previous pages. Which one is correct?

As you can see, we’re halfway through and really starting to cover some ground. Next week, things start to get interesting! Thanks for reading.

Source: On the Verge