The re-read has also brought back to mind how unexpected DJ-and-Asuka was, and how we decided to run with that inside the story as well as out. That reaches its logical culmination with their conversations in 3:6 and early in 3:7, which I'm still quite pleased with all these years later.

Honorable mention, as well, to the moment later in 3:7 where, at the end of a long damn couple of days, DJ does the only thing that makes sense:

I think of the email I got from people scoffing that their relationship wasn't "real" (whatever that means in a fictional context), and then I think of that passage, and I just shake my head with a smile. One toke, you poor fool?

I realize I'm sort of congratulating myself here, but given the amount of time that's passed, I prefer to think I'm congratulating 1997-2000 me, and the rest of the team from that era. :)

--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.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

In any event, NXE was, in my opinion, when you turned a corner in your writing, taking it to the next level in your evolution as an author. And yes, your 1997-2000 self deserves a little pat on the back for it :)

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>