Motif · Book 8, A Parade of Horribles

Waking the NPCs

What the dungeon's people know about themselves: Mordecai's distinction between naturals, whose memories cannot be altered unless they sign away their rights, and the printed and imprinted rest, and the question, whenever an NPC seems to know more than it should, of what waking would mean.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 38 — Akuma's account: Herot, Menerva and the Pineapple Cabaret
• Chapter 73 — The Garden of Deliverance; the ducts
• Chapter 78 — Damien's announcement; under a thousand
• Chapter 86 — Mimics; the Big Six

Progression

The bugbears describe waking — 'there was a click, and I just knew' — the cold in between, and a real place to live (ch. 4); the AI uses awakened NPCs because it helps the story (ch. 5); Chiyome talks alliance (ch. 12). Akuma: the reserves are depleted, the mobs know their nature, 'The whole thing is poisoned' (ch. 38). Jamal sticks to the ceiling (ch. 44); Quemada is broken by the shop conversation (ch. 41, ch. 42); 'They are all the main characters in their own story' (ch. 54); Dong: 'It’s like they don’t think we’re real' (ch. 60); the Wall Rats (ch. 86); 'Primals. All of them. All the way down' (ch. 93).