Character · from book 7
Menerva
The former crawler who with Herot asked a showrunner to build the seventeenth floor and the Pineapple Cabaret behind it, runs the Backstage Death Maze where NPCs train for hundreds of seasons, and means something to Rosetta that she will not say.
First appears: Book 7 · Seen for what it is: Book 8
Series arc
In hindsight, after book 8
Book 7 opens on her: 'Go, Menerva had screamed. Go. Run.' — a stuck foot at the end of Porthus's tenth floor, a schoolteacher who had dreams about opening 'a club where musicians could perform' (B7 ch. 1), and, in Rosetta's interlude, the missing crawler Porthus is obsessed with finding (B7 ch. 69). Book 8 names a Menerva as the co-builder, with Herot, of the seventeenth floor and the Pineapple Cabaret behind it (B8 ch. 38), in charge of the NPCs training in the Backstage Death Maze (B8 ch. 55); it never says she is Porthus's Menerva, though Rosetta reacts to the name (B8 ch. 39). If she is, the club she dreamed of is a cabaret.
As of book 8. A crawler named Menerva, found in book 8 alive in the dungeon's machinery: the co-builder with Herot of the seventeenth floor and the Pineapple Cabaret, in charge of the NPCs training in the Backstage Death Maze, and a name Rosetta knows and will not explain; whether she is the Menerva Porthus sought, the book does not say. The trace below has the book-7 lines.
Through book 7
The crawler Porthus cannot stop thinking about as the book opens: at the end of his own tenth floor her foot was stuck and she screamed at him to run, and he never learned whether she made it. She had been a schoolteacher about to retire, building a house in the eastern canopy with her husband, with dreams of opening a club where musicians could perform (B7 ch. 1). Rosetta loves him 'despite his unhealthy obsession with finding a missing crawler from his own crawl' (B7 ch. 69).
Through book 8
The former crawler Akuma names, with Herot, as a builder of the seventeenth floor and the Pineapple Cabaret behind it (B8 ch. 38). Rosetta knows the name, asks Carl a dozen questions about it and will not say how she knows it; Tipid does not — 'She might’ve been a season before my time' (B8 ch. 39). Carl later learns she was on the seventeenth floor in charge of the NPCs who built and occupy the Backstage Death Maze, the place the AI plucked Growler Gary from, where NPCs train for the day crawlers might reach them (B8 ch. 55).
Trace
The thread line by line, in reading order: its presence before anyone could see it, and the lines that made it legible. Each line is verbatim from the cited book.
| Where | The line | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Book 7, Ch. 1 | Porthus couldn’t get the last moments of the tenth floor out of his mind. Go, Menerva had screamed. Go. Run. […] Her foot was stuck. She could’ve easily gotten away. | A few lines into book 7's opening interlude: a name the book never explains. |
| Book 7, Ch. 1 | But Menerva? Strong, steady Menerva? She’d been a schoolteacher before all this. […] She had dreams about opening a club where musicians could perform. | Her dream is a club for musicians; what she built with Herot is a cabaret. |
| Book 7, Ch. 69 | She loved him, despite his unhealthy obsession with finding a missing crawler from his own crawl. Menerva. | Rosetta's interlude. In book 8 the name means something to her that she will not say. |
| Book 8, Ch. 38 | It was blowing my mind that this was an NPC. […] I tried to remember if I’d ever heard the name Menerva before. I wished Rosetta had come with us. | Carl does not place the name; the reader of book 7 can. |
| Book 8, Ch. 55 | Menerva was apparently on the seventeenth floor in charge of the NPCs who were building and occupying the Backstage Death Maze. […] It was also why Gary’s level had been so elevated. | Where she is, and what Growler Gary's level was for. |
Where they appear
| Book | Chapters they are in (of the book's) | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 7 — This Inevitable Ruin | 2/89 | Ch. 1, Ch. 69 · the book's own page |
| 8 — A Parade of Horribles | 3/99 | Ch. 38, Ch. 39, Ch. 55 · the book's own page |
By book
Menerva in book 7 — This Inevitable Ruin
The crawler Porthus cannot stop thinking about as the book opens: at the end of his own tenth floor her foot was stuck and she screamed at him to run, and he never learned whether she made it. She had been a schoolteacher about to retire, building a house in the eastern canopy with her husband, with dreams of opening a club where musicians could perform (ch. 1). Rosetta loves him 'despite his unhealthy obsession with finding a missing crawler from his own crawl' (ch. 69).
Menerva in book 8 — A Parade of Horribles
The former crawler Akuma names, with Herot, as a builder of the seventeenth floor and the Pineapple Cabaret behind it (ch. 38). Rosetta knows the name, asks Carl a dozen questions about it and will not say how she knows it; Tipid does not — 'She might’ve been a season before my time' (ch. 39). Carl later learns she was on the seventeenth floor in charge of the NPCs who built and occupy the Backstage Death Maze, the place the AI plucked Growler Gary from, where NPCs train for the day crawlers might reach them (ch. 55).