Jarad and JJ:

Jarad, I just noticed you had updated 17 days ago. I never got the email notification in my mailbox thus failed to notice it. My bad, dude.

General update:
I feel I’m floundering a bit here. The long stretches between posts, some of them my own fault, kill the momentum of the story, which is detrimental.

I’d like to use this moment to do a reality check and reset. Please tell me:

• Are you still interested in playing PbP?
• Are you still available to do at least one post a day or 3 posts a week?
• Holidays are coming. What do you foresee in terms of travel, family, etc?
• Where are you with your character and where do you want to be next? State for me the goal you want to achieve in the immediate game time future.

My turn:

• yes, very much interested in continuing to play by post.
• I can do 3 posts/week at the very least.
• I will be traveling over several weeks for work, but I don’t think that will impact the 3x/week posts. I will do a little traveling with family, but don’t see it as a major impact.
• I’m not as concerned with leveling as I was at the start, but, if it makes it easier for you, Daniel, I’m all for it. I feel my image of Toru is in flux due mostly to the frequency of my posts CID like to get to know him better. He is still driven to find Samuk and reunite with Bellara, but have no idea how to get back Makado.

Dan:

No problem. I’ve been swimming in student papers, so I was content with the hiatus.

That said…

• Are you still interested in playing PbP?

Yes. This has been fun. No reason we can’t start the fun back up after a break.

• Are you still available to do at least one post a day or 3 posts a week?

One post a day might, at times, prove problematic as I get closer to the lovely festival of grading and general pain that concludes each semester, but I could definitely manage 3 posts a week.

• Holidays are coming. What do you foresee in terms of travel, family, etc?

I intend to travel as little as possible. The plan is to hang out with my kids, play video games, and read stuff for my diss. I should be able to post more frequently in December than November.

• Where are you with your character and where do you want to be next? State for me the goal you want to achieve in the immediate game time future.

I want actionable intelligence on how to kill this damn dragon. That could involve tactical knowledge of a weakness (e.g. there’s a patch under its left breast as bare as a snail out of its shell, with apologies to Mr. Baggins), a vision from Marduk (e.g. Enusat is enacting an ancient and eternal divine conflict, and by ritualistically imitating Marduk’s confrontation with Tiamat in some way, his quest comes to mean more than simple revenge), or additional allies and tools (e.g. Toru is the key to the dragon’s defeat, or there’s a special MacGuffin that Toru can help Enusat get to kill the dragon).

JJ:

I know how you feel, man. I get that way at times too. Drop me a line if you want to talk about it. Things are hectic, but I always have time for friends.

How about we continue with the main thread? We can consider Enusat’s Tale to be a series of flashbacks.

Cool. Works for me, thanks.