Chapter 63 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Chapter 63 — The doggie door

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: The Bedlam · Previous: Chapter 62 — Where the Sidewalk Ends · Next: Chapter 64 — Spunky Jefferson · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

<Note added by crawler Milk, 6th Edition>

Summary

Milk: never use Sheol fire on a demon — it makes it exponentially stronger. Ikicha: 'Gods, I am so lonely.' — Wolf-sized white-dot slugs eating a ram cleric outside the church, two of them copulating on the gore ('We need to have a conversation about quality versus quantity, Carl'); Ines has sent no more demons; her grip on Amayon slipping by the minute. 'We're coming to you.' Blue dots: Imani, Katia, Bautista, Louis, Britney, Tran, Li Jun, Li Na, Zhang, Chris, Elle, Meadowlark and others, over twenty — Samantha hits Louis like a football, Mongo nearly bowls Britney over. 'I always wanted to go to Cuba […] A little more run down.' 'Surprise.' 'The look on his face makes this suicide mission all worth it.' Li Jun with two new skulls: the Battle of Beijing — Lucia Mar never collected cards, discarded her way to an empty hand to use her real magic, killed everything at the Soho building, set a teleport trap that caught Fang's team, killed him and his wife for the key, then waited at the stairwell, hiding her presence, 'really friendly, too, which was unsettling': Florin had messaged her to help, and she dropped five Tier 3 Doggie Door modules and left — an upgrade that should not exist before the ninth floor (Mordecai thinks she stole them on a show): the personal-space door exits through any door previously used on the floor, a fast-travel system shared with party and guests, installed already in Imani's room, twenty-five million to give to the whole guild; four more in hand. The barracks upgrade bought by pooled money. 'You should've beaten him to death with his own arm.' 'That's what I said!' 'You all have keys. You shouldn't be here.' 'That's not how this works, Carl […] It's all or nothing.' 'People have bones for a reason, Carl.' Privately, Li Jun: Lucia turned mean again at the last — she is saving something special, a score to settle with Donut; she will kill her and her dinosaur on the next floor. Donut on Tran's flying chair, showing off Hover; Tran and Britney smiling — Britney's first smile Carl has ever seen. The layer of darkness since the Masquerade named at last: 'It was loneliness. It had always been loneliness.' Ren; his mother drowned in sorrow; the stepmother; the river so loud it was all he could hear. 'It was isolation that would break us. We couldn't let it happen.' Lucia, the most isolated crawler, holding the thing that brings them together. Katia and the flower: 'We have to find another way.' Elle, showering ice: 'Okay, warlord. This is your shitshow. What do we gotta do?'

Characters

• Carl — Surprised by twenty friends; names the darkness loneliness.
• Elle McGibbons — 'This is your shitshow.'
• Imani — 'People have bones for a reason, Carl.'
• Lucia Mar — The Battle of Beijing; five doggie doors; a promise to kill Donut and Mongo.
• Li Jun and Zhang — Two skulls; delivers Lucia's gift and threat.
• Katia Grim — A flower in her inventory; another way needed.
• Britney Proskurina — Smiles under a dinosaur.
• Tran — A flying chair, a cat, a smile.
• Louis and Firas — Five skulls; 'this place really sucks.'
• Florin — Asked Lucia to help before he went down.
• Princess Donut — Hover for an audience.
• Samantha — A football to Louis's chest.

Locations

• Iglesia de Jesús de Miramar — A grass square, a church, a Club Vanquisher outbuilding, slugs at the door.

Motifs

• Loneliness — The veil named and torn: isolation is what breaks them.
• The doggie door — Fast travel from a ninth-floor upgrade held by the loneliest crawler.
• Found family — 'It's all or nothing.'
• The bone key — Refused on Carl's behalf.
• The Sluggalos — Slugs breeding on a cleric.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Milk on Sheol fire; Ikicha's loneliness.