>Also, curious: is Norway original or was she in the source? (Her name
>is both blindingly obvious and subtly clever and if she's original I
>wish to congratulate you, sir.)

Brown Rat and Black Rat are both originals.

>> Brown Rat looked her over with obvious distaste. "Great.
>> A cat of some kind. My day is complete."
>
>Instinctual dislike, or...? Because, I mean, you said that the
>Friends don't actually hunt and eat each other, so...

No, but many of them have instinctive prejudices left over from their wilder days. These can be, and often are, overcome, but they're still there, especially if it's funny. :)

>I mean, not like 'Cthulhuian monstrosities are going to grab all the
>Friends in their tentacles' bad feeling, but more the 'that sounds
>like something lots of folks would cheerfully level this place to get'
>sort of bad feeling.

The funny thing is that it would have been, in 2340, but by the time we're seeing it, that's fairly commonplace technology (albeit usually powered by a ginormous fusion power plant rather than an Energon tesseract).

>I stand corrected. There is nothing crypto, nor even sub, about the
>lesbian text here.

The fun thing about Serval and Kaban's relationship is that they don't have any preconceived baggage about it; they live in a society that doesn't have "norms" as we would understand them IRL. They don't have to think about it, they just are what they are.

>> "We'll have to," Kaban said, nodding. "It's way too
>> heavy for any bird Friends we know to fly it back—even
>> all of them working together. I hope we can find a boat."
>
>If there wasn't at least *discussion* backstage about quoting Monty
>Python here, I shall be very disappointed.

I have to admit I mostly had that joke from the old Yogscast Whale Lords series in my head at that moment. "See if you can find a boat."

Glad you're enjoying it! I have been unexpectedly busy the last couple of days, but the finale is fully plotted and about half-written, and I should have tomorrow mostly clear to work on it.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.