There have been a number of collaborative writing efforts that have not come under [@Oliver]'s unkind notice. Let's go ahead and address the elephant in the room. 

The collab between Ash and Thana was one that began as being purely professional (and even a touch antisocial) to one that got very personal over the course of a number of hours. I'm not sorry to say that this was absolutely not planned, evolving naturally over the course of the past couple of weeks of writing. Their personalities mesh, and there were a series of unprompted responses that geared the conversation and resulting actions therefrom toward one of mutual affection, based upon the psychology of the characters and their history. Being more blunt, Ash has had one hell of a year, and Thana was the only person that even bothered to ask how [i]he[/i] was feeling. Add to that the common frame of professional reference, the possibility that neither one of them may be alive the next day, the peach moonshine and the firelight, there's no wonder that things are getting awfully personal in Captain Holloway's Love Bungalow.  

But that's really the problem, isn't it? To begin with, it was a series of long collab posts, but those were okay. Or at least not complained about openly, though I have gotten some good feedback from the chat room. The problem, such as it isn't, only occurred when the subject matter got a little too PG for some tastes, prompting an unrelated bash in the OOC. And the issue of post length didn't come out until [i]after[/i] Lady A responded, insisting that the speed with which events progressed in the IC was not unrealistic. Then it became the focus. I call bullshit. 

Now, addressing the issue of character illness, being sick isn't the end-all-be-all of this situation. It's why we developed jobs for each of the characters. Everyone has a primary and secondary job in Newnan. If nothing else, [i]it gives you something to post about[/i]. If you're a Lead, you get some leeway to organize and delegate authority over others. If you're not a Lead, you get with whomever is playing the Lead of your particular area and work something out. If you don't like your jobs, ask for a transfer and cite why. The worst that can happen is they'll say no. 

Considering the mystery illness is likely not some manner of heretofore undiagnosed form of sphincter pox, take the initiative, get Ciel on some Kaopectate, and contribute something to the vast and squishy world in which we've got multiple imaginary people residing. And if it's getting to be a bit too much detail and/or distance with the Ash/Thana collab, I'd love to hear it from someone else. 

[hr]
[@Morose]
Thank you for mentioning The Great Bazhooli as one of the things you occasionally look up, even if it's a "for instance". I feel that he died well before his story could be told. Of course in hindsight, he was too watered down. The TWD Great Bazhooli was Americanized and descended of several Great Bazhoolis who were each forged in interesting times over the generations. The Zombie Apocalypse was supposed to resharpen the bloodline by forcing him to live up to his ancestors' ideals. This is why I'm looking forward to the Soulless Regency Great Bazhooli. He will be so much more ...Bazhooli... than his contemporary descendant.