The Points Of Interest in every CHAMELEON MOON-verse story in LIFE WITHIN PAROLE, Volume 1! (Not required to enjoy the upcoming Book 3, but recommended!)
- Happy "REGARDS", one month before CM1
Evelyn's birthday. Lots of fun hijinks, everybody trying so hard to make it perfect, and give her one totally happy day in Parole.
Our first introduction to Seven (robot cat), Stefanos (Danae's brother) and Jay (CyborJ, Regan's boyfriend). They're engaged, but not married yet (polyam). Danae is going to design their rings, so they'll likely do Something cool and useful!
Rose has a Venus flytrap named "Serena." And it's semi-intelligent, capable of snakelike movement, and at least throwing strawberries (at Danae), and eating cake.
Stefanos stands out in Parole not because of the cyborg parts, but because he's tan. Nobody in Parole gets enough sun/vitamin D because of the barrier.
Seeing Evelyn living her life in the spotlight and being a heroine gave Stefanos the push he needed to transition in Parole of all places.
Jay gives Evelyn a key-tar that can do a holographic light show. Stefanos gives her a microphone that turns into a grappling hook!
Rose/Danae/Evelyn know that Jay HAS a runtime partner, but not his name/that it's Regan!
Garrett Cole shows up in the middle of the chaos, with a replacement birthday cake. (He seems to know things he shouldn't.) ...And also a birthday card from Liam to Evelyn, that just says. "REGARDS."
Jack shows off the drawing he was working on earlier... which shows Garrett arriving with the cake. He drew the future, and this is the first indication.
- "The Library Ghost" - Same day as Happy REGARDS, one month before CM1
Liam meets Ash! He's trying to get Secret Parole Rebellion Information out of Ash, who stonewalls him effortlessly (and flirtily; they have Tension immediately).
He's heard rumors that this is a resistance center, and that there's a "goat" here. Ash 'corrects' him, that it's a library "ghost," and the place is haunted.
When Liam gets noisy, Zilch emerges, grim-reaper-terrifying, from the stacks, and does a slow, ominous "shhhhhh." Ash claims that they're the 'ghost'.
Ash takes care of SEVERAL dogs here at the library, always taking in strays.
After a lot of banter (gradually warming up past the snark), Ash reveals that he's known all along who Liam is. And that he needs a refuge from his fucked-up house and family, just like everyone else in Parole.
Annie (Ash's god-daughter!) comes in to say that "it's done" - her custom flying motorcycle! And it's ready for a test drive. Ash is beyond excited and they leave together. Liam realizes he's jealous of their happy family vibe; he's never had that in his life.
Hans appears, and reveals that this whole thing has been a plot between him and Liam, trying (unsuccessfully so far) to get in further to find the library's secrets.
Hans noticed the shark tooth chain around Ash's neck, where Liam didn't. Where'd he get something like that in Parole? Hans is onto him (that Ash can leave the city, and has a beef with Sharpe).
Having checked out all the upstairs, Hans is able to ghost-phase into the library's underground. He finds the safe-house they were looking for, lots of refugee people, and follows Zilch further in. He sees that they have a large supply of CHRYSEDRINE, and then sees Rowan (the "library goat"). Rowan gently gives Zilch some repairs. Zilch has one strip of original skin they want to keep no matter what.
Zilch is going to the "Arbor Street Crater," a collapsed area with high SkEye presence.
Zilch and Rowan are in nonsexual, somewhat ambiguous love, and they're both much more romo with Regan. The innermost sanctum of the library's secret underground is a cozy room with Regan asleep in his beanbag chair and blanket nest.
Regan has an uneasy feeling (sensing Hans without knowing why), and had a nightmare about being trapped underwater instead of fire, and big terrible teeth (Sharpe).
Most importantly, Hans sees that this is where Zilch's organs are kept in their individual jars.
Hans spitefully makes himself manifest as much as possible, and sets off a panic attack in Regan with sheer bad vibes. He leaves happy - after evaluating everyone who lives here, he's starting to formulate a plan.
"Group Therapy" - one week before CM1
Rose is leading a group therapy session, and Cairus Maddox (a teenager who lives at the Emerald Bar), who usually never speaks, has something to share.
Unfortunately, Cai is a reluctant psychic/empath, and picks up images and feelings from others without realizing. The story he tells isn't his, but another woman's - Le Tam, Annie's mom. She gets understandably upset and leaves.
Cai asks Rose to help him control his powers better; he doesn't want to hurt anyone. (He already has some hallucinations, but he knows this is not that; he's a mentally ill person who knows his brain well enough to know this is different, new, and a 'superpower'. Not mental illness AS superpowers.)
"RUNTIME" - The Night CM Begins
Regan is out on a run - a covert op - with Jay as his mission control. They've just liberated a huge cache of media (movies, TV shows, stuff from outside Parole!), and Regan also has a top-secret disk of data for Garrett Cole. All Regan needs to do now is get it to the drop point, but a simple job turns a lot more complicated.
He's been Jay's man on the ground for years, his shadow, anonymous while the CyborJ legend grows, and this is exactly how he likes it.
Jay don't know what's on the disk, just that it's a report from outside Parole - from Major Turret.
Jay wants to introduce Regan to all his friends, basically everyone from Books 1 and 2, but Regan is still too shy and anxious. He knows of them, and they know OF him, but that's it.
Regan has been kind of Off all night, because he's seriously contemplating escaping from Parole.
They allude to a job from "last week, that went south," when Regan had the chance to kill Turret, and couldn't do it. And the week before that, Regan "pulled Jay out of a collapsed subway station," who ended up with a broken ankle. It's still in a cast right now.
Regan tells Jay he peeked at what's on the disk meant for Garrett. It's the revelation about Tartarus getting destabilized and growing, which nobody inside Parole knew about until now - and SkEye is BLAMING PAROLE for it. It's made Regan desperate to get out.
Suddenly, Hans appears in Regans head, startling him enough to make him botch a jump and fall.
Jay sees Regan's vitals spike, then can't get a reply from him or any of their friends, so he reaches out to Radio Angel, who gets Zilch on the line and headed to help.
As it turns out, Hans has already made Regan an offer to escape - if he kills Garrett Cole.
Regan refuses, says Hans isn't "throwing him a lifeline if he already has a life. It took a long time to build but I did it." Nothing Hans says works... until he starts to threaten Jay, and specifically prove that he can see him right now.
Right as Regan is freaking out about this, Zilch finds him and brings him home. Jay is completely onto Regan, knows he was talking to someone and is hiding something, and Regan tells him Hans can get everyone out in exchange for killing Garrett. (But won't say how he knows this.)
Jay obvs refuses, because Garrett's death would plunge Parole into chaos, and also he's his brother-in-law! He starts telling Regan all about their family, and Regan gets guiltier with every word. (Regan does NOT tell him the biggest reason he's obeying Hans, that he threatened Jay.)
Regan escapes and Jay frantically calls Zilch... who just says there's nothing they can do. They're sorry. (THEY'RE ALREADY UNDER HANS' THUMB because he has their literal heart!)
He also calls Celeste, telling her Garrett is in danger but not why, and also sends Seven to track, record and monitor Regan. Finally, he takes a closer look at the report on Tartarus' growth, and sees Something very bad.
"Phoenix Down" - Ten minutes before the collapse of Parole
A side story about two ex-Radiance scientists, Rocket (a stormchaser pilot) and Will (seismic stat nerd), monitoring Parole's structural integrity; they're the early-warning system for a collapse, their tiny base hanging far down below, closest to the fire.
They're some of the rare people that Chrysedrine really didn't seem to do much for, two normies in a city of superheroes. They could have left with the rest of Radiance, but decided to stay and help Parole. They're also in love but haven't done much about it yet.
They get some wild readings, numbers that don't make sense, and realize a collapse is imminent. Will helps explain why: the barrier is a huge energy field, and it also traps everyone else's energy - like superpowers - inside. (It's a powder keg, and Finn, at the end of CM, was just the spark.)
They also realize that the barrier keeps all communication signals from escaping, and the reason nobody's come to help Parole in 10 years is that nobody knows they're still alive. And that Turret is likely responsible. Rocket says Parole is becoming its own Bermuda triangle, with bizarre electromagnetic interference... and everyone inside disappearing.
They can't get through to anyone to warn them - so Rocket runs to her small (experimental, UFO-like) aircraft and flies up out of the collapsing city crater and into the barrier-enclosed sky - and slamming into the barrier itself.
It gets the attention of everyone in Parole, including Radio Angel, who starts her emergency broadcast. Rocket ejects and parachutes down just in time!
And in the midst of the chaos, they ask each other to get married, and accept.
"Un-Dead" - the first Halloween (a couple months) after CHAMELEON MOON
Evelyn is overwhelmed keeping the city together post-collapse. Hans has taken over the body of a dead boy named Benjamin Kim (he got bored of Toto-Dandy's body, and pops in and out) and Jenny Strings is putting together a seance - for Garrett Cole.
It soon becomes obvious that Garrett isn't speaking from the dead - this was something Jenny cooked up to keep his secret (that he's alive, which no one is supposed to know), and Evelyn is quite pissed at both of them for trying this nonsense.
But it does end on a hopeful and fond note; she's not alone, Garrett is as always working behind the scenes (somewhere in New Mexico, Hans claims), and Jenny exorcises Hans' disrespectful ghost ass from Benjamin's body, so he can have a proper burial.
Rose has been leaving green spots around the city, 'bread crumbs,' but they've been unable to find each other so far.
And Jenny DOES have the power to telepathically talk to people long-distance, and make them appear as a sort of ghostly hologram. She "pulled the right string."
Evelyn asks her to find Rose, and Regan and Gabriel!
"Come Home Alone" - ????
(A non-canon What If story, in which Finn and Regan meet and escape disaster together. Serves mostly to further dig into Parole's dangerous side, and how these two interact. It's ambiguous whether Regan survives at the end, and that's why it's non-canon!)
There are three rules to surviving in Parole.
First rule - leave no one behind, including yourself.
Second rule: if you can, always follow the first, because you often won’t have a chance to come back for anyone or anything.
Third rule: if you have to break one or two, break them completely, with everything you have. Run so fast you fly. Run until you can’t anymore. Hide so well you disappear completely. Take cover where you can find it; hold very, very still. And the second you get a chance, run again.
Fourth - do not be followed, or lead the enemy home. Come home alone, or not at all.
Regan is terrified of leading the enemy to his friends/family, but Finn refuses to leave him behind. The ending is Ambiguous as to their survival (but yes, they do survive).
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