On Sat, 3 Feb 2001 09:57:14 +1100 Kathryn Andersen kat@foobox.net writes: Why Avon rather than Blake? And if you say "he

suffers beautifully", that isn't an answer. What makes Avon's suffering more appealing than Blake's?

Well, for actual _physical_ suffering, I'll choose just about anyone rather than Avon, it seems. Whether I like his coping mechanisms or not, I think they're up to it.

Emotional suffering is another story.

I like to have Avon's friends suffer terribly and Avon blame himself, no matter how unreasonably. I'm afraid it's a very bad thing to be a friend of Avon in any story I write and, personally, I would run for my life if I were one.

In order of who suffers and why.

Blake: GP. Bullets

Gan: Earth. Ceiling.

Jenna: Occassional stomping through unpleasant quarries and bad weather. Too likely to spit in torturer's eye, get loose, and do nasty things to the torturer. Sometimes dies in a tragic (but usually heroic) manner before GP.

Vila: Vila tends to be humorous under stress. He can generally only suffer as comedy relief. If I were going to do something nonfunny bad to him, I might let the master thief's hands get permanently broken (but I really doubt I could be that mean to him), taking away one of his few defenses against an unkind universe.

Dayna: Nothing in any way resembling animals. She's perfectly free to start feeling guilty about the body count she's left behind her or intends to start adding to.

Soolin: Survivor's guilt is always good. And I think, given what she's been through, the tough act is partly that - and must be underlined by the fear of meeting up with those who can crush it as effectively as the creeps who killed her family did. She's got to be afraid of powerlessness in a different way than Avon.

Cally: Cally frequently gets stomped on in my stories. THere are lots of reasons, including how guilty Avon feels.

Avon: Avon is convinced of his omniscience whenever it fails. If things go wrong when he's in charge, it's his fault. Hurt the people he doesn't admit are his friends, and he suffers beautifully.

Ellynne ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.