Well, I had assumed it were permanently settled in the immediate context of this story. Those return tickets presumably don't have an expiration date.

>>All of this. God damn, do I want to see Azula and Ty Lee tool around
>>the galaxy being awesome girlfriends together[, etc.]
>
>I can't make any specific warranty about any particular bit of your
>wish list there,

Hence my relying on the power of my imagination, yes. :)

>>And I like how it is established that Katara is just going to be
>>wierdsies about Azula for awhile. I know you'll likely resent the
>>comparison, but it makes sense in context of both her treatment of
>>Zuko prior to The Southern Raiders
>
>I don't think I'd have a lot of latitude to resent that part, since my
>picture of Katara and the parts of her psyche relevant to what's going
>on in this scene is largely informed by her attitude toward
>Zuko before, during, and after that episode (and the way she conducted
>herself generally in the course of the incident).

Well, I meant more the comparison to The Search. Everyone who has a brain in their informs a large part of their understanding of Katara and/or her relationship to Zuko based on the Western Air Temple to Southern Raiders run.

Although, lord above, you should have been there when that episode first aired. There were some violent rows between "she should have fucking cut him open and watched him bleed out on that road, I don't understand, when did Katara become such a pussy" and "Zuko is corrupting her, he's evil and should fall down a hole and die HOW DARE HE."

>This is a little ironic, given that the main reason this bit is
>here is because of the thought process you put in motion* by
>saying you didn't think Tyrants gave Katara's internal mental
>state and motivations enough play.

You know, I thought about that before I put pixels to screen, but ultimately decided to go with the most honest assessment I could give, despite the irony.

>(Also, three paragraphs, one of them a single sentence, is a "long
>digression"? Tough room. :)

You smile, but you know, that's a fair dig on me.

I worded that inartfully. It was a long digression, I felt, in the context of the scene and in how it broke up the story flow. It wasn't long in a standard, objective sense. I mean, I've read people who could have made that scene go on for pages and pages.

>>I don't think it's quite up to the standard
>>of demonstrating a persons internal conflict, nature, and evolution we
>>saw most recently in just about everything involve Azana and Karana.
>
>Well... that's probably true. I prefer to see it as evidence of A
>Bride Too Far's unusual strength rather than any particular
>weakness in Armistice Day, though. The former was a real
>lightning-in-a-bottle moment, one of those rare and crackly times when
>the thing basically writes itself. This piece, well, I'm happy with
>it and (if I do say) I think it has some great moments and nicely
>turned phrases in it.

I don't think you've written anything since Symphony started that didn't have some nicely turned phrases in it. Probably your greatest strength as a writer, honestly.

>>Still, a good time was had by all.
>
>Well, that's good.

Oh yeah. I mean, I didn't dislike this piece. Quite the opposite, really.

It just... please don't take this as an impugnment on Armistice in any way, but you ever read something and go "you know, there's nothing really wrong with this in any real way, in fact it represents the standards of its originator to an above-average degree, but it just isn't doing much for me and I have no clue, either intellectually or emotionally, as to why."

That's where I'm at, kind of. And it's neither the stories or the authors fault. I dunno. I could just be tired, or stressed.

>As an aside, a similar background thought process came to fruition
>yesterday, in regard to another gap in Desolation Angel
>I've been mulling over since you pointed it out.

The gap between Agreement and Nothing?

I'm both grateful and humble I contribute to your mind-gears spinning in hopefully semi-productive ways.

>The result of
>that one will probably be coming to a board near you sometime
>this evening. It's a bit of an experiment, but then I'm feeling a bit
>experimental.

Oh, dang.

Fair warning; I may not see it right away or get to it anytime soon. My job is taking me to Denver on a 4 AM flight for a full week tommorrow, and I'm at least going to try to get to bed early. Since I'm without either a functional laptop or smartphone (yes, yes, trapped in the 20th century, I know, life has happened to me) it may be a bit.

And that makes me sad, because I goddamn love it when you get experimental and push the envelope, like you did at the start of Nothing, which may be the strongest single part of Desolation Angel.

-Merc
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