Hurrah! Storytimes start! I am rediscovering the joy of pantsing the characterization! It results in things like huge chunks that I have to rewrite, because I realized that the only reason I was in this situation in the first place was because someone did something that was pretty OOC. Like Eiji waking up before noon, without someone having stepped on him. Asceticism is not a trait valued by his monastic order.

( not bad, not bad ... not good, but not bad )

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

I like the last try a lot better. It's getting longer than I expected, although I feel like I have a lot better handle on Kephri, Chatma, and Eiji now. I suspect this is what Chaucer felt like after writing the first few Canterbury tales, and realizing that he still had 197 to go ...

WORK IN PROGRESS. Saving said progress in this format, because it's more efficient than having a billion sub-categorized folders on my computer. This is a lot of fun to write, but also pretty depressing. I don't think that I'm adequately portraying how depressing it is, but I feel it, trust me. I don't want to jinx this by saying that it's something I'm going to go back and revise (definitely expand, a lot), but I'd like to finish it. I think it's interesting because I'm actually learning about the characters; I'm not writing what I know.

Also, I like apocalyptic stories. So much pathos to be had. I'm especially enjoying the role that language plays, and the added difficulty of, as Willow notes, having your house full of refugees when you yourself are shortly about to become a refugee, and more importantly, you cannot communicate efficiently with them.

Čhatma can understand and write English all right, but he can't for the life of him pronounce anything. I got the idea from a Japanese tutor my class had - she's nearly fluent in English, but because she has such a heavy accent, I didn't know that until I saw something she had written that was in perfect English. So that's what he's based on - the sounds  and cadence in Samicze are so different that it's hard to understand him when he speaks.

☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠

( In Which the Apocalypse Comes And 99% of the Rift World Dies )

At this point, I run out of steam. Or, rather, I run out of exciting apocalyptic scenes. Oh well. That can change. Yes, also, that is Nyali that Kephri is talking to at the end, and the black woman is Reed Henry.