I want to strangle my subconscious.

But on the other hand, when your characters completely obliterate the outline and start acting on their own, that's the mark of a good story. It's also the mark that you're in mythic territory. I haven't done any analysis of the story while I've been writing it, I've just been concentrating on the writing. All that happens during the editing and afterward. But after spending years doing this you can kind of tell when these things are happening.

Well. The commander of the Axis-class cyborgs, A-2, apparently got orders from Bayles to scuttle the explosives set-up, secure the site and the holomorph, and arrest Trouble for desertion, theft of Marine Corp property (the Tithonus cyborg body) and something else I can't remember right now. When I quit writing last night he was ordering his men to get the EMAW Trouble had been carrying and to put him in restraints. With Rage, Rumble and Danger right there, not to mention a bunch of their group from Chronos. Up until that point, A-2 had been a bit of a hard ass but on the whole he'd been fairly nice to Trouble. All of the Axis-classes had, after some initial uncomfortableness. T got complacent, or something. I think he forgot these kids work for Bayles, and they're loyal to Bayles to the nth degree.

Well. I gotta go to work. But... damn...