[Author's note: character chat after-thoughts and plans]

The character chat really started before two, since capriox the keener, was there earlier, and chatty Minis just couldn't hold back from chatting.

We had a bit of a sparse crowd -- capriox, Blue and an uncertain number of other people who lurked -- but the chat continued for almost three hours, which was way longer than we expected. Thanks to all who were present in whatever form.

The affable Ienas Aratin, proprietor of the Puckered Fig, welcomed all and his diligent staff waited upon characters and guests alike. Minis was down on himself, as he is. Sometime around 2:30, Chevenga happened to show up, planning to dine and imbibe at the Fig incognito, and was drawn into the conversation.

Topics ranged from the sack to camping to whether what was recounted in the last post of Eclipse Court actually happened to whether Kyriala likes Minis--cap, Blue and especially Chevenga conversed at length with Minis about this, with Chevenga abjuring Minis to take the Yeoli approach of chiravesa -- imagining himself in her position. Minis's conclusion: she does like him. Is this true? It might take yet another character chat, with Kyriala herself, to find that out. If she deems it sufficiently proper to reveal the truth of her heart, that is -- always the risk, with a respectable Aitzas girl.

There was even some flirting, hard to believe though that is on the Internet. Is Blue in love with Chevenga? She says she may be. The ultimate long-distance romance. By all indications, a good time was had by all. If you want to read it, you can go onto the chat page, sign up onto chatroll through there, click on "The Puckered Fig" and then "Archive."

We welcome any and all thoughts, comments, ideas, wisecracks, beefs, etc., from those who were and were not there -- please comment below. Let us know if you had problems getting on or didn't like something about the chat system (especially if you know of a better one). Certainly more people voted on the poll than attended, and one thought we have is setting character chats at different times so as to serve different time-zones. We chose early/mid-afternoon so as to accommodate readers both in Europe, where it would be evening, and out west, where it would be morning, but that doesn't work for fans in the far east. So we are cogitating upon that. Perhaps the next character chat will be a more long, drawn out and intermittent thing.

Our next plan is to do a solo Chevenga chat (though again, you never know who else might show up) or actually two of them -- one where he's at the point in his life where he is in PA, the other where he is in ak, since capriox pointed out that one would want to ask him two very different sets of questions... and in fact, he is a very different person in those two places. We'll let you know dates and times.




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