AAAARRRGGHH! When I started reading this afternoon I was hoping you'd finished your story! On the plus side, I can pass the time until the rest of the book daydreaming about punching the temple tyrant and Cende's fiance the way God intended. I just hope they're psychic, so they can see my fist is an inseperable part of their future, like Mother Mayhem did.
I saw Samuraiko's Heart Divided video, and like everyone else wondered who Cende was and when we'd find out more about her. In TCoSR II we learn she's Star Patrol, but curiously she isn't listed at Star Patrol.net.
I don't like Statesman, I want that clear from the start. The comics give him a bossy leadership style that really grates, and the game's emphasis on his alternate universe versions is just too much. Yours is different. He spends a lot of time dwelling on the past and dreading the future, it takes his relationship with Cende to bring him back to the present. I really like Marcus, and hope to read more about him.
I love Cende's sister and the crab! They need their own sitcom, now. "He's a bionic killing machine, she's a deranged assassin!" He walks onscreen to the set of Married, With Children and I can hear the audience applause, or the laugh-track when she says something to test his patience. When she hugs him and tells him she loves him, the canned "Awww" echoes in my head. For her birthday, he cooks her breakfast in bed, with a frying pan in one leg and spatula in another while his real arms are whipping up batter in a bowl....
As a way to waste time you could spend writing, have you considered using the character creator to recreate portraits of some of these characters?
I'd be happy to help with politics or timelines. I'm not an expert on canon, but I can read Paragonwiki with the best of them, and the nature of my job leaves plenty of time for brainstorming.
