From: Stephen Tsai [mailto:stsai@netcom.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 1998 10:17 AM

Solid read...and almost entirely in character.

Thanks.  :)

I personally don't think Kazuya is *that* nasty,
but I can see how one could interpret him that way.

Gawds, the way he acted in the manga always made me want to throttle the
little bugger.  He abused his powers excessively, in a way I hate the
most - manipulating those around him without their consent.  And he never
shows any remorse, either.

Plus Akane isn't the most upstanding citizen, either, making me believe
that whole family has a small character flaw.

Kazuya could grow up to be like Akane - sometimes abusing his power to get
the result he wants, but basically nice.  Or he could grow up to be a
complete kneebiter.  I went with the latter possibility.

Since no one knows for certain how ESPer powers
work, your extention of his abilities aren't that
implausible.  It might be interesting to know
if anyone else in the Kasuga clan abilities have
changed over the years as well.

I was considering that as well.  I was wondering if Akane had obtained any
telekinesis, or if Kurumi and Manami had learned to teleport.  For now,
I'm keeping the powers fairly static, with the exception of Kazuya.
Kyosuke did comment once, in one of the novels, that his powers grew as he
got older.

You've made it plain which "side" you have
Akane choosing.  Just FYI, I'm aware of
both arguments, but for the most part, I and KOC
tend to leave it alone because Matsumoto told
me in '94 he planned for her to be "just
going through a phase" and eventually would
have married a guy.

I know, I saw that too.  All I can say is that, throughout the manga, her
preference was consistent.  And "going through a phase" makes me
uncomfortable; it smacks a lot of "homosexuals *choose* to be that way",
an attitude I find extremely distasteful.

I've heard from
many sources that sometimes character-driven
storylines can have characters getting away from
their own creators.

Hehehehe, true.  It's happened to me.

One thing in particular:  Your plot is almost
entirely identical to an upcoming planned KOC
arc involving a new char our ML dubbed "the
evil ESPer".

Interestingly, you're the second person to comment that my plot was
similar to a plot they were developing for a future story.

Stephen Tsai

Thanks for the comments, Stephen.  :)

-Richard