Early Access for Members Only:
Release Schedule
We want to make sure everyone has a chance to catch up with the trio in the Chapters between Chapters.
Here is how you can read this entry:
- Member Preview (Patreon):
Starting Jamary 18th, all Patreon members will have early access to the full text of Chapter 011. If you can’t wait to read it, head over to the Patreon page. - Public Release:
On Febuary 1, the chapter will move to the main site as a permanent addition to our Free Chapters section.
In Labs and Agar Plates, we step outside the core trio for the first time and see them from the edges of everyday life.
Told through the eyes of Greg Thompson, a senior at East Bay High, this Chapter Between Chapters takes place during the quiet overlap of Book 1’s opening chapters, when Anna Ko disappears into the science wing after school to “check on her labs.” What Greg experiences is not heroism, mystery, or revelation, but something subtler and more enduring.
Assigned as Anna’s lab partner, Greg expects another routine school obligation. Instead, he witnesses a way of working that is calm, precise, and quietly demanding. Anna doesn’t lecture. She doesn’t inspire by speech or authority. She simply treats the work as if it counts, and in doing so, raises the standard of everyone around her.
This chapter explores what it means to encounter someone whose influence isn’t loud or intentional, but steady. Someone who doesn’t try to lead, yet changes the way others move, think, and choose.
Labs and Agar Plates is about routine, discipline, and the unseen moments that shape character. It is a story about how the right person, doing ordinary work well, can quietly alter the direction of another life.
This chapter is canon-compatible with Book 1 and designed to fit seamlessly between chapters, offering a grounded Earth-side perspective on the world of Charles Mandrake.
Quick Bullets:
- Earth-side, East Bay High School
- Outsider POV: Greg Thompson
- Quiet intersection with Book 1 Chapters 1–2
- Themes: work, influence, routine, standards
What’s included:
- 5.5″ x 8.5″ Booklet Half Page
- 8.5″ x 11″ Full Page
- Chapter Cover images for both sizes
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