PS Did you look at the weekly challenge I posted today? It's a sequel to Reversal. Might not to be too clear right now; it'll probably be clarified when you've finished reading Reversal.

And, as always, thank you for reading.

I loved writing it and initially it was written with almost no planning at all. I just kind of dived off a cliff every morning. A very odd experience with such a sprawling novel, and I probably won't repeat it, seeing as now I have too much of a universe. Too much planning/interweaving/making sure plots stay consistent! But you know how it is - you've got a big universe of stories, too.

I kept the language light because this was originally posted on Trekunited.com and they have a rather strict profanity filter. There's one point where I wanted to write - "the bed is hard on the left" and the damned thing wouldn't take it! I ended up writing something like "the harder side of the bed is on the left". Pretty funny since I wasn't even writing about anything racy! So, yeah, words like climax, pulse, arousal, etc., those were all to keep in line there.

I definitely use sex as a plot driver, perhaps more than I should, but Doug is absolutely driven by sex (as is the whole MU, far as I'm concerned), so he's going to mainly communicate that way, as do the other MU people. I love to write dialogue and use it for exposition - I dunno if you recall, but when Robert Scorpio interviewed me, he asked who I would want to direct my stuff, and I said Robert Altman. That's all due to his use of layered conversations, where people talk over each other and at cross-purposes sometimes.

I like a sprawling plot, kind of Dickensian in terms of having so many characters. In that topic about OCs, you can see I forget to mention all sorts of people, like Jennifer Crossman (who is obviously both here and in the MU). I also subscribe to the idea of - if you leave a loaded gun on a table in Act One, you'd better fire it in Act Two. Right now, you're at the point in the story where I'm piling up a bunch of guns on the table.

Thank you, thank you, I had had an awful day and your review completely and thoroughly turned my mood around! Hugs across the miles! :)

They are - both of them - renewed by being together. Lili had more or less resigned herself to dried-up spinsterhood, and Doug was written off as the Old Man for a reason; he was getting curmudgeonly and set in his ways. Not any more.

The story is very much a meditation on aging (which is why the Calafans show our signs of aging in reverse). I wrote this a year ago, and I was Lili's age and the actor who is Doug was Doug's age. Now we are both a year older. :)

Ha! I never thought of that. I just liked how it scanned and sounded. The name breaks down (their names all have meanings - it was grand fun to write their language) to Pol (delicate) Lo (the chief goddess) Ria (serving girl), so the name means Delicate Serving Girl of (or dedicated to) Lo.

When I read your story, Three or Four, I thought of these scenes. After all, there's no reason to believe that different species' proportions will be at all compatible. For Doug, there's the testosterone spike, but there's also how things are in the MU - the women are actively choosing these men (with the Y Chromosome Skew) as mates. Both genders are driving evolution and are pushing the skew, which is why it is found in such a large % of their population, and so quickly (it's a random genetic mutation from the time of the Roman Republic - about 400 BC or so).

For Malcolm, he is beginning to see that vulnerability is not just something to protect, but also how you let your guard down. In canon, he's had hookups (both on and off screen, and both before and during the time frame covered by the series), but has never really gotten close to anyone. And he's learning that getting close isn't so terrifying after all, and that it's something that he wants. But doesn't know quite how, yet.

As for Treve, well, he's just doing what they all do. They are psionically gifted and they have active noctural lives.

The blood is definitely a bad omen.

The little discussion, too, about their childhoods - Doug is explaining how much the MU is like Sparta, where parents gave their children over to be cannon fodder for the state.

Calafans - silver for our side, ruddy/copper for the MU - but they didn't start off that way (their evolutionary divergence is explained in the Temper story).

Yes - the plan awaits its execution.

One thing to point out - the barrier - which exists because of how the amplifying dishes are configured - it's supposed to be somewhat similar to the Berlin Wall or the two Koreas. Related people exist on both sides, and want to communicate, but they can't, not really.

The shared dream state works imperfectly in humans because we really aren't wired for it, unlike the Calafans. So, yes, when they both hit REM sleep (and they lay on top of a bit of amplifying material, which is what the coin represents), they join together synchronously and have full control and full knowledge. But when one is in REM and the other is not, they can witness the other's doings but not influence them or communicate. They are just silent, invisible observers.

Doug is desperate, which kind of forces his hand. He has never, ever told anyone that before, not since he said such things to his parents when he was a very small child. But he's never said them romantically.

He definitely feels it. It's that, for nearly five and a half decades, he's been conditioned to believe that sort of confession is a sign of weakness. And he's survived for as long as he has by suppressing all signs of weakness, including the vulnerability that you need to show in order to truly become close to someone.

The proposal that Lili has made turns the Calafan society a little on its head. On our side of things, the High Priestess is more of a figurehead, and doesn't hold legislative power (think of the Queen of England). Whereas, in the MU, that same role is of sole real authority, a kind of last word after anything that the First Minister or the remainder of that government might wish to do.

Yipran is definitely in bad shape. I figure Lili is partly drawn to her and partly that the numbers are a bit like just tick marks.

Things are unraveling, e. g. turning asynchronous.

Polloria is a bad gal, definitely both a homewrecker/power-hungry.

And yes, it's Mirror Jenn in the MU. And Treve is key on both sides of things.

BTW just to quickly point out, dunno if you've picked up on this, but the names are all important. There is a reason she is named Lili O'Day.